The Evidence Disproving Mail-In Voter Fraud Proves Trump is the Guilty Party

By Gail Fitzer

In his latest baseless attack on mail-in voting, President Donald Trump tweeted on the eve of Tuesday’s presidential election that the counting of mail-in ballots in the key swing state of Pennsylvania would lead to “rampant and unchecked cheating” and “induce violence in the streets.”

Hidden by Twitter and labeled as misleading, the tweet and the same comment posted on Facebook, were just the latest of countless attacks on mail-in ballots by Trump during the most contentious presidential campaign in modern U.S. history, though last night’s attacks crossed yet another line by suggesting violence.

Without providing any evidence, Trump has continuously claimed that mail-in ballots, utilized at record levels due to the coronavirus with nearly 60 million votes cast, are ripe for fraud and manipulation. Now he and his Republican allies have ramped up their attacks, filing lawsuits in several swing states to stop the counting of mail-in ballots, which are expected to heavily favor former Vice President Joe Biden. It now seems evident that Trump’s attempts to discredit mail-in ballots throughout the campaign have been about suppressing and disqualifying the vote for Biden.

But there is a plethora of evidence that election officials, Biden’s legal team and supporters of Democracy and the right of every American to have their vote counted can point to in order to prove that Trump’s allegations have no basis in reality. Here is just some of that evidence:

· In an April 2020 analysis posted on its website entitled, “The False Narrative of Vote-by-Mail Fraud,” the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law noted that mail-in balloting was already “deeply embedded in the American electoral system before the coronavirus hit,” with one out of every four Americans casting a mail-in ballot in the last two federal elections. It noted that in five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington — mail-in ballots have been the main system of voting while in 28 other states, all voters have had the right to vote by mail without having to provide any reason for doing so.

Since 2000 more than 250 million votes have been cast via mail in all 50 states, and in 2018, more than 31 million Americans, or about 25.8 percent of election participants, voted by mail, the Brennan Center analysis said. “Despite this dramatic increase in mail voting over time, fraud rates remain infinitesimally small. None of the five states that hold their elections primarily by mail has had any voter fraud scandals since making that change. Oregon, the pioneer in this area, has sent out more than 100 million mail-in ballots since 2000, and has documented only about a dozen cases of proven fraud. That’s 0.00001 percent of all votes cast,” the Brennan analysis stated. “It is more likely for an American to be struck by lightning than to commit mail voting fraud.Mail ballot fraud is incredibly rare, and legitimate security concerns can be easily addressed.”

· Another report by the Brennan Center entitled “Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth” cited at least 20 studies between 2007–2016 that found “impersonation fraud” by voters “very rarely happens.” Among them was a 2014 study from Brigham Young University that examined impersonation fraud both at the polls and by mail ballot that found zero instances in the jurisdictions studied. The Brennan Center cited four court opinions including Crawford by the Supreme Court as well as nine different government investigations in states around the country that have found no evidence of voter fraud. Both the Courts and government investigations have concluded that “voter fraud is sufficiently rare that it simply could not and does not happen at the rate even approaching that which would be required to rig an election,” the report said. “Electoral integrity is key to our democracy, and politicians who genuinely care about protecting our elections should focus not on phantom fraud concerns, but on those abuses that actually threaten election security.”

· The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington DC, reached similar conclusions on mail-in voting in a June 2020 report, and pointed out that Trump himself established a presidential commission to investigate voter fraud in 2017, but it disbanded without finding any. “There is simply no historical evidence to support the claim that mail-in balloting is inaccurate and fraudulent,” the report stated. Noting that President Trump, in mobilizing the Republican Party to fight mail-in ballots, has alleged that they favor Democrats and make it easier to commit election fraud, the Brookings Institution said that neither accusation by Trump “is supported by the facts.”

Brookings cited a report by The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, that aimed to prove that voter fraud was widespread by looking at all the cases they could find in every state. “We combed through the Heritage data to look specifically at voter fraud related to absentee and mail-in ballots. They looked for fraud over a 36-year period and could only find 1,285 cases out of nearly two billion votes cast. That amounts to a rate of .0000007% … Our conclusion, from Heritage’s data: There is surprisingly little voter fraud and not nearly enough to justify blocking vote-by-mail systems in a pandemic … Republicans would have you believe that vote fraud is widespread enough to affect elections. But the fraud uncovered by the Heritage study in inconsequential,” the Brookings report stated.

· An exhaustive News 21 investigative reporting project, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John S. and the James L. Knight Foundation, found that of all known instances of voter fraud there were only 491 cases of absentee ballot fraud out of billions of votes case from 2000 to 2012.

· With help from the nonprofit Electronic Registration Information Center, a Washington Post analysis of data collected by three vote-by-mail states — Colorado, Oregon and Washington — found that election officials identified just 372 potential cases of double voting or voting on behalf of the deceased out of an estimated 14.6 million votes cast by mail in the 2016 and 2018 general elections, or just 0.0025 percent.

· A New York Times Magazine investigation based on a review of thousands of pages of court records and interviews with more than 100 lawyers, activists and current and former government officials found that the idea of mail-in voter fraud was intentionally planted in the public discourse as part of a decades-long disinformation campaign by the Republican Party and outside actors. “This story did not originate with Trump. It has its roots in Reconstruction-era efforts to suppress the votes of newly freed slaves and came roaring back to life after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. But it is reaching an apex now, as a president who lost the popular vote in 2016 and is currently trailing in the polls harnesses the reality-warping powers of social media and the resources of at least four federal agencies to undermine faith in an election he could very well lose,” wrote investigative journalist Daniel Victor. The New York Times Magazine investigation, published on Sept. 30, found that law enforcement investigations into mail-in voter fraud have “repeatedly failed to find major wrongdoing in cases hyped for political gain, often based on sloppy data analysis.”

· A review by The Washington Post of nearly 90 state and federal voting lawsuits found that judges have been mostly skeptical of Republican claims of mail voter fraud, declining to endorse their arguments or dismissing them. In not one case did a judge support Trump’s claim that fraud is significant enough of a problem to sway the 2020 presidential election, according to the review published in late September. The Post found that judges appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike have doubted Republican arguments that lowering barriers to mail voting could lead to widespread fraud.

· Trump’s own FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Sept. 24th that the agency has not seen evidence of a “coordinated national voter fraud effort.” Wray said any attempt at fraud would have to be widespread and well-coordinated to change the election outcome, which he described as a “major challenge.”

· A Department of Homeland Security intelligence bulletin issued in September warned that Trump’s vote-by-mail fraud claims are almost identical to the disinformation Russia is spreading to undermine confidence in the U.S. presidential election. “Since March 2020, Russian state media and proxy websites have denigrated vote-by-mail processes, alleging they lack transparency and procedural oversight, creating vast opportunities for voter fraud,” the bulletin said.

· Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, a Democrat appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, said in May that there was “simply no basis for the conspiracy theory that voting by mail causes fraud. None.” Weintraub cited a range of reports and news stories in a more than 60-tweet thread to support her argument. She described the president’s claims as “dead wrong, crying wolf, false and a debunked lie” and warned they “may well undermine the American people’s faith in our democracy.”

· Trump has made a false distinction between requested absentee ballots and mail-in ballots sent to all voters in a state and the terms are used interchangeably. “In terms of security, both mail-in and absentee ballots are paper ballots hand-marked by the voter, which the National Conference of State Legislatures considers the ‘gold standard of election security.’ Forty-four states have signature verification protocols for mail ballots,” The New York Times wrote in an article entitled, “Fact-Checking Falsehoods on Mail-In Voting.”

Rather than pointing out any real problem of mail-in voter fraud, election experts agree Trump has actually been the one perpetuating the fraud by trying to manipulate the outcome of the election. That process has already begun with a spate of Republican lawsuits across the country trying to throw out ballots before they are even counted, force election board officials to give Republican election observers more access so they can challenge mail-in ballots, and nullify mail-in votes arriving after election day despite the fact that seemingly intentional mail delays are being blamed on changes imposed by Trump-appointed U.S. Postmaster Louis DeJoy.

As David Litt, a former Obama speechwriter and author of “Democracy In One Book Or Less” wrote so aptly in a Washington Post op-ed, “In truth, the real fraud occurring around the 2020 election is being committed by Trump and his allies … This type of election fraud is not about adding fake voters. Rather, it’s about subtracting real voters by using false claims of voter fraud to bar millions of eligible voters from the polls … False claims of voter fraud like the ones coming from the White House are, sadly, legal. But they are nonetheless a form of election fraud. Unlike voter impersonation or mail-in ballot malfeasance, this kind of fraud is real, it’s common, and it can change the course of our country. We should stop treating these outlandish claims as mere bluster or conspiracy theory and start treating them as the threats to democracy they are.”

Six PR Lessons Learned from Maddow Tax Return & ‘Leak’, Trump-Media Wars

Rachel Maddow’s much-hyped tweet about her Trump tax return ‘scoop’ is just the latest skirmish in an ongoing PR war from which she has emerged badly wounded

The apparent “leak” of President Trump’s 2005 tax return, first reported by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC after she set off a social media frenzy by tweeting about the “scoop”, is just the latest example of the head-spinning PR wars being fought daily between the media, the Trump Administration and the countless behind-the-scenes power players all trying to control the country’s political discourse as well as its future.

While there is no proof of who leaked the tax return by leaving it in the mailbox of investigative financial journalist David Cay Johnston, my bet is on President Trump or someone very close to him who did it under his direction. It certainly fits Trump’s pattern of posting outrageous and provocative tweets, or shifting the timing of presidential announcements, executive orders or Supreme Court nominations to change the headlines and attempt to replace critical news coverage with some positive spin.

Trump also has a history of leaking material about himself when he thinks it’s in his interest and reportedly used to pose as his own spokesman in phone interviews to disseminate flattering information about himself. When I interviewed Trump about “The Apprentice” while working as a journalist at The Hollywood Reporter, he certainly sang his own praises, those of the show and the product placement fees paid by advertisers despite sliding ratings at the time.

Trump, through his obsession with the media, attempts to control what they report, and unrelenting attacks on their credibility, has demonstrated perhaps more than any other president in modern U.S. history how critical PR and managing your public image truly is to achieving success. And this, even in an era when the traditional media have lost an enormous amount of influence and control over the news and information that gets disseminated around the globe to social media, bloggers, countless digital media sites, hackers and unscrupulous producers of actual “fake news” for profit or propaganda purposes.

I’ve heard it said, especially by Trump supporters, that all press is good press, and while negative press did indeed help Trump get elected, it’s clear from his unrelenting efforts to control and discredit the media that positive press is far superior. As a former journalist for Reuters, AP and The Hollywood Reporter and Founder and CEO of AWAKEN PR, I have a deep understanding of both the media’s perspective and our clients’ need to manage their public images with positive publicity.

Having witnessed how the media was manipulated during the campaign and to a lesser extent the Trump presidency (though journalists have gotten much better at challenging and fact-checking Trump and rising to the urgent calling of serving as the fourth estate to protect U.S. democracy), the lessons for the media, the public and every individual, company or organization seeking success are clear.

1) The media, usually due to the nature of the “beast” – the instantaneous deadlines, pressure to produce ratings, clicks and stories that sell from their profit-seeking corporate bosses, and to scoop the competition which now could be almost anyone on the globe with Internet access — are too easily used as pawns by way more powerful people leaking information or trying to spin the story in one direction or another. In a perfect world, journalists would have the time to investigate and verify every piece of information conveyed to them, which they then report to the public. Just imagine if they had taken the time to investigate and dig deeper into the polling numbers they were reporting during the campaign; if they had questioned how pollsters were coming up with the numbers that consistently showed Hillary Clinton in the lead, or had taken the time to investigate Trump’s claims of hidden support in swing states and even traditionally blue states.

2) It seems quite clear that whoever leaked Trump’s alleged 2005 tax return did so to make Trump look good. All the potential conflicts of interest and details we really needed to see were missing from the two pages of the 1040 that Maddow revealed on her show Tuesday night. And apparently due to the pressure to produce ratings and promote her own brand, Maddow seriously over-exaggerated her “scoop” by tweeting, “BREAKING: We’ve got Trump tax returns. Tonight, 9pm ET. MSNBC. (Seriously).”

Even though she subsequently tweeted that the tax return was a 1040 from 2005, Maddow became a mockery all over social media, including among fellow journalists, and the butt of late-night TV jokes, damaging her own credibility as a serious journalist. Even the highly-respected super-intelligent Maddow became a pawn in the PR wars being waged daily by and with the Trump Administration. Even she needed some PR counsel.

3) Going on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and ignoring the social media outcry over her own misleading PR spin was not a smart move nor did it do much to restore her reputation. I would have liked to see her acknowledge the hype and apologize for it. Everyone makes mistakes but rather than owning up to it, Maddow’s decision to continue promoting the PR spin that she had achieved some enormous scoop with those two pages of a 12-year-old 1040 was quite self-serving and short-sighted. Explaining the pressures, circumstances and even caught-up-in-the-moment excitement that led to that tweet would have been the smarter way to go.

Rachel-Maddow-Tonight-Show
In an interview with the AP Thursday, Maddow continued to deny any journalistic faux pas, saying that if people felt let down by her tax return story it was more because of the weight of expectation than anything she did.

While Maddow did achieve that much-coveted ratings coup — more than 4 million viewers watcher her show Tuesday night, making it the biggest audience in her show’s nine years on the air and the second most-watched regular show ever on MSNBC — the damage to her previously stellar journalistic reputation was done. Clearly, Maddow has become the latest casualty in the daily battles of media manipulation, and she needs to admit the defeat to begin restoring her reputation.

4) With a White House led by a president who lies habitually confirming the authenticity of the tax return while calling it “totally illegal to steal and publish”, and Trump at the same time labeling the tax return as “fake news” on Twitter, it’s not even possible to know for certain if this 1040 is really Trump’s. It does seem quite likely that it is, however, especially because it certainly makes him look like he paid his fair share of taxes. That may very well be the reason he or someone close to him orchestrated the release of that one particular year and just those two particular pages of his 1040.

5) It is clear that everyone needs PR including the media themselves to build and manage their public image. In fact, the press needs PR like never before with their credibility at all-time lows and Trump constantly on the attack to discredit them and quash any criticism of his Administration. His Democracy-damaging diatribes against the media, who are working feverishly under constant threats and enormous pressure to serve the public interest, echo those of the world’s worst tyrants and have emboldened dictators around the world.

6) I acknowledge that this blog too is PR because as I said every single business, brand, nonprofit, organization, government agency and individual seeking to promote a positive public image that will translate into success, whether in governing, sales, brand building or social change, needs PR! It is invaluable to have a public relations agency like AWAKEN PR that understands the media, how they think and the pressures and constraints under which they operate. It makes us that much more effective in building and protecting your public image and your brand! Our journalism background also makes us highly qualified and extremely passionate about serving clients dedicated to bringing about positive change in the world through their businesses, organizations, nonprofits, startups, art and entertainment projects and other individual talents. For more information or a free consult, visit awakenpr.com or contact us here.

Six PR Strategies to Turn Oscars Fail into Oscar Gold for PwC

oscarsscrewup

Sorting out the unprecedented Best Picture faux pas at the Oscars 

While this blog is about PR rather than Journalism4Change, I am posting it here because at AWAKEN PR, we utilize these types of PR strategies to help organizations, businesses and individuals effect positive social change.

The humiliating but very human failure of two PwC accountants viewed live by millions of people around the world at the Oscars dealt an enormous blow to PwC’s brand and now it’s time for the accounting and professional services firm to do whatever it can to repair its public image.

Taking full responsibility for the unprecedented snafu and apologizing to ‘Moonlight,’ ‘La La Land,’ Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture was a smart first step. But barring any legal concerns, PwC should be taking more proactive measures to seize the moment, and narrative, and rescue its public image by turning those Oscar “lemons into lemonade.” Instead it seems to be keeping a low profile and hoping the public will forget the massive blunder that has become the fodder for non-stop punch lines in conversations, on social media and late night comedy shows.

In today’s world where human failure is frequently forgiven especially when it’s accompanied by apologies and sincere remorse (think Adele screw-ups at both the 2016 and 2017 Grammy Awards, or minus the apologies and remorse in a class by himself, Donald Trump being forgiven or getting away with so many ethical violations, outright lies and disparaging remarks against the vast majority of Americans that our heads are spinning), PwC can and should take a number of steps to transform the brand-bruising blunder into a brand-building opportunity. Here are six possibilities for PR spin:

1. PwC should use social media and their website to offer up testimonials from their vast array of Fortune 500 clients who can attest to their generally stellar record of accuracy and integrity.

2. PwC should offer the major media interviews with PwC Global chairman Bob Moritz and U.S. Chairman Tim Ryan in which they should sincerely apologize for the blunder again, talk about the steps they’re taking to ensure no such recurrence at the Oscars, and speak generally about procedures they have in place to ensure integrity and accuracy in the much more mundane accounting and consulting work they do for their multinational clients.

3. In major media interviews, op-eds and/or blogs on their website that will get picked up by countless news organizations and drive traffic to their site, Moritz and Ryan should speak about why PwC is standing behind their two partners who screwed up on Oscar night – Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz – even if they will no longer be involved in the Oscars ceremony.

In online searches of the good that PwC does, I discovered a very impressive corporate culture and a PwC foundation that funds many great causes but first and foremost among them lists supporting the people of PwC in times of need in their lives, as well as celebrating with them in times of their remembrance and achievement. Speaking about this PwC culture of loyalty to and concern for its employees can certainly begin to change the narrative to a much more positive one for PwC. The PwC Foundation also supports charities at which its employees volunteer at least 25 hours with donations of $2,500 per person per year and since 2001 has donated $6.7 million to “support the people of PwC,” according to the PwC Foundation site, pwccharitablefoundation.org.

4. Again, on its website, in blogs and in interviews, Moritz and Ryan can speak about the most dramatic examples of employees or partners whose lives have been positively impacted by the PwC Foundation during tough times in their lives, as well as the other great educational, social entrepreneurship, veteran and humanitarian causes the PwC Foundation supports with donations totaling nearly $50 million.

5. In a world in which we are ALL guilty of being distracted by our cell phones, social media, and posting selfies to bolster our own followings and personal brand images, and in which most of us would likely be just as star-struck and tweet-prone at the Oscars, the public is likely to be forgiving and understanding if Culligan steps up and takes responsibility in a self-deprecating manner. I can see him being interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel or Stephen Colbert, and many other late night show comedians, and mocking himself with humor while sincerely apologizing to all those who were hurt by his faux pas.

He could say something like, “I really screwed up. I was star-struck and tweeting a photo of Emma Stone. I thought I could manage this multitasking thing effectively enough but clearly Emma looked so beautiful and I was so star-struck my brain wiring short-circuited. Then when I realized the screw-up I froze. I mean this is LIVE television we’re talking about.” Of course, Culligan could be much funnier than that. But who couldn’t understand messing up like that, if they were in Culligan’s shoes? It could happen to anyone. We’re all human and make mistakes.

6. As part of a late night or major news media interview, Culligan, Moritz or Ryan could squeeze even more lemonade out of those Oscar night lemons by announcing the funding of research studies or nonprofit initiatives that are educating the public about the dangers of driving while using cell phones; or that are researching the damage of cell phone and social media usage to work productivity, or even the ability to stay focused in general, or other repercussions such as addiction, loss of sleep, or the decline in the reading and writing abilities of young people raised in the digital age. Or they could fund initiatives to educate the public about the importance of staying focused on work rather than social media and texting during work hours. They could even create a PSA campaign of their own to bring attention to these issues.

Many of these steps I’ve outlined could not only repair PwC’s brand image, but take advantage of all the negative publicity surrounding the Oscars and turn it into more positive publicity than ever before, boosting its bottom-line profits like never before. After all, Donald Trump turned all his negative publicity into an unprecedented election victory upset to become president of the United States. It’s time to be PR-savvy PwC and spin PwC’s biggest public gaffe ever into its biggest advantage ever. And the time to do it is NOW!

In the Wake of Trump’s Shocking Election, We Must Change How Journalism is Funded

By Gail Fitzer

The shocking failure of the media to report what was truly happening in this historic, unprecedented presidential election despite the enormity of what was at stake must finally be the wake-up call to turn journalism into a nonprofit institution free of the pressures of shrinking advertising dollars, bottom-line profits and the latest internet trends.

With the traditional media, especially newspapers which were once the bastion of investigative journalism, forced to constantly lay off journalists to barely stay afloat and under pressure to give an internet-induced ADD-plagued public more of the meaningless content it seems to crave, it’s no wonder there was such a colossal failure to dig, investigate and report what was actually happening on the ground in this election, especially in the battleground states.

The media just reported the information pollsters fed them, apparently never challenging the data, or digging any deeper into claims by the Trump campaign said they had secret, hidden support the polls weren’t picking up. Perhaps the liberal-leaning media was inclined to ignore the claims as delusions or pure fabrications from a candidate who lied habitually and incessantly about it seemed just about everything.

With newsrooms grossly understaffed and journalists under constant, unrelenting deadline pressure to keep up with breaking news stories emanating from the campaigns, social media, bloggers, Wikileaks, other media outlets, and a seemingly infinite number of online sources, it’s no wonder not one journalist seemed to have the time to dig any deeper into those Trump claims or the national polling data, or investigate the discrepancies between the two, and we were all shocked to our core by the results of Tuesday’s election.

While the pollsters clearly are to blame even more than the media (Of 67 national polls tracking a four-way race since the start of October, only four gave Trump the lead, according to RealClear Politics. Of 61 national polls tracking a two-way race during that period, only six gave Trump the lead), the media clearly dropped the ball as well.

It has historically been the job of the press to be the so-called fourth estate, providing critical checks and balances on our government. The pressure on an ever-dwindling number of journalists to also serve as photographers, videographers, social media posters on an ever increasing number of platforms up to and including Snapchat, self-marketers and promoters of their own content, web developers and graphic designers to create charts and graphics to accompany their stories leaves them no time to second guess polling data or sources, let alone to investigate, research and take the time to serve as the watchdog of politicians and government.

There has never been a more critical time to change the model of journalism and how the media is funded. There has never been a more critical time to rebuild the decimated staff of newspapers around the country, traditionally the epicenter of investigative journalism, and to create nonprofit media organizations dedicated to investigative journalism of a Trump presidency and a Republican monopoly over all three branches of government, especially once Trump starts replacing Supreme Court justices.

With television and digital journalism dedicated to quick soundbites, ratings, opinionated punditry and clickbait, an online audience that can’t be bothered to read or even watch a video for more than a few seconds, and a terrifying president-elect who has repeatedly demonstrated dictatorial tendencies and that he has no regard for the constitution, our democracy or the rule of law, it is time for foundations and the country’s citizens to seriously begin funding journalistic enterprises dedicated to investigative reporting and to truly serving as the fourth estate and the checks and balance on the most morally-challenged, unqualified and impulsive president in U.S. history and a Republican Congress that can not only send this country back to the dark ages but threaten the global economy and world peace and stability.

Gail Fitzer is a former journalist for Reuters, AP and The Hollywood Reporter. She currently serves as Founder and CEO of AWAKEN PR. For more information on donating to or becoming involved in the cause, please email gail@awakenpr.com.

 

Vote for Positive Change with Clinton Not Devastating Change with Trump

On Election Day Make Your Vote Count! The future of the U.S. and the World is at Stake!

By Gail Fitzer

Like so many of my fellow Americans, I am truly devastated by this unprecedented U.S. presidential election, and so worried about the future of this great country and the divisions tearing us apart. I cannot believe how low we have sunk as a nation and how we as Americans can see things so incredibly differently, how nearly half this country can want to vote for a man like Donald Trump.

I try to be open-minded. I know I am open-minded, much more so than many other Democrats or Republicans. I can hear the opinions and positions on both sides of the aisle with an open mind. I was trained to do so as a journalist covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a time when being objective, not voicing your opinion, was the gold standard of journalism.

I have brought that ability to remain objective into the realm of PR, on occasion representing nonprofits or companies that I don’t align with politically or ideologically, which is why a meeting I set up between Rudy Giuliani and wounded Israeli soldiers for the nonprofit Belev Echad appears on the home page of my company’s website, awakenpr.com, though after his off-the-wall comments during this campaign I am very inclined to take it down. It’s also how I recently represented a staunch Trump supporter who attended the Republican National Convention in his bid to publicize his Decision 2016 political trading cards despite my own misgivings about Trump. I interviewed Trump when I was a reporter at The Hollywood Reporter but like most of us, before this campaign I never realized who he was or the depths to which he would sink to win at all costs.

When I watched the Republican convention, there were moments I was impressed, especially when Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. spoke. And there have been rare moments when Donald Trump has actually spoken about the economy that I actually thought he made some sense. But those occasions when he is not insulting others, inciting fear, hatred and intolerance, spewing blatant lies, vitriol and vicious negativity, or trying to undermine our great democracy are so few and far between, I could never hear any real ideas coming from him for more than a few brief moments.

As a former journalist and PR professional who sees her role as HONEST and effective communication on behalf of the public or clients trying to effect positive change in the world, it is truly frightening to witness how Donald Trump can so easily and effectively lie, distort truths and manipulate millions of Americans to believe he is actually going to make America great again when I am so terrified he is going to destroy our great democracy and could easily lead the way to the next world war with irreversible consequences.

I simply don’t understand how nearly half this country doesn’t see what a dangerous man Donald Trump is. His scare tactics, his blatant lies and distortions, his questioning of the legitimacy of this election unless, of course he wins, his threatening to seek Hillary Clinton’s impeachment and to paralyze the government if she does win, his incitement of hatred against so many segments of the population, his blatant disregard for the constitution and the rule of law, his scapegoating tactics and refusal to ever accept responsibility for his own failures, his lack of conscience and truly dictatorial tendencies all remind me way too much of the tactics Adolf Hitler utilized to rise to power, start World War II and commit genocide against millions of innocent people. Do people not learn anything from history? Do Donald Trump supporters not fear history repeating itself?

How so many Orthodox Jews can support Trump because they think he’ll be better for Israel or because he has a Jewish son-in-law and a daughter who converted to Judaism, when his brand of hate-mongering is drawing the support of white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis like no presidential candidate in history and when many of his political tactics recall those of Adolf Hitler is simply beyond my comprehension.

I know Hillary Clinton is truly flawed. I know she is far from perfect. I know she and Bill Clinton have made countless mistakes and lied repeatedly when they have been caught in scandal. The scandals now plaguing Hillary Clinton are sadly too numerous to list or even attempt to defend. Politics is a very dirty business and power definitely corrupts. Hillary is far from innocent but she has spent the better part of her life in public service trying to improve the lives of those less fortunate than herself. She may have made many serious ethical blunders when it came to the Clinton Foundation, but at least the foundation has helped people around the globe with projects ranging from public health to elephant-poaching protection and small-business assistance to child development.

She may have made errors in judgment as first lady and secretary of state but she also has a tremendous record of fighting for the rights of women and children, minorities, the middle class, and the less fortunate from all walks of life in the United States and around the world. When Bill Clinton was president, the world was a much safer place and the economy was booming. There is a track record of public service to engender confidence despite their many failings and human flaws. Did you ever ask yourself honestly if you are certain you would do much better in her shoes to never make the wrong judgment call, to never take money from the wrong donors or cross an ethical line, to never say one thing to a Wall Street audience in order to earn income or raise money for your campaign and another when you’re campaigning for votes, or to lie if you were caught in a scandal? I think we’re all so quick to stand in judgment but I’m not certain we would do better faced with the same ethical dilemmas and enormous political and fundraising pressures.

I’m not saying her scandals are not a huge problem. They are! However, given the choice between Clinton and Trump, there is no alternative but to vote for Hillary Clinton, which is why so many leading Republicans have said they are voting for Clinton and have not supported Trump’s candidacy. If Clinton wound up impeached in the worst case scenario, the United States and the world would be far better off with Tim Kaine stepping in as president than we ever would be with Donald Trump at the helm.

I truly wish Hillary Clinton would have actually made a brief comment about being cleared by FBI Director James Comey in her latest infamous email scandal. I think it would have gone a long way in engendering confidence and helping her overcome her reputation for secrecy. It’s like the elephant in the room and just ignoring it without saying, “Yes, I’ve been vindicated AGAIN as I knew I would be. Now let’s move on to bringing the country together and addressing the issues,” was not the smartest move in my opinion.

In contrast to Hillary Clinton, Trump’s lies and scandals, which are also numerous and damning, center around his greed, his sexual assaults on women, his failure to release his taxes, his belittling of nearly every segment of the population other than white males, and his desire to win at all costs no matter who gets trampled on in the process. And while he berates Hillary Clinton relentlessly and incites his supporters to scream “lock her up” for the email server scandal that has plagued her throughout this campaign, he simply ignored the allegations of connections between Russia, which has been publicly accused by the U.S. government of being behind the hacks on Clinton campaign and DNC emails, and his campaign advisers or backers. And fails to condemn Russia for interfering in a U.S. election.

And while they are both embroiled in scandal, it has been proven that while Hillary lies when she is caught in scandal, Trump lies all the time, often for no reason at all, and the only possible explanation seems to be that he is a pathological liar who doesn’t even care or comprehend that he is lying.

According to Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, who makes a list of every Trump falsehood every day, “We have a candidate who lies strategically and pointlessly about most things big and small but most of all lies frequently.” He told CNN Trump states more than 20 falsehoods a day, up to 37 on some days. In the three presidential debates, Clinton stated four, five and four false things respectively by Dale’s count. Donald Trump in comparison uttered 33, 34 and 37 falsehoods. “So there is a massive imbalance in the frequency of dishonesty.”

Worse than even the lying, Trump has proven he has no regard for U.S. democracy, the rule of law or our constitution. He has incited unfounded fears of rigged elections to such an extent that I wonder if this is what it feels like to live in a third world dictatorship where power is stolen in elections vs. our amazing democracy that has been a true beacon to the rest of the world since our country’s founding. By blaming the media for rigging the election at every turn, and irresponsibly calling out journalists by name, he could easily be inciting violent crimes by his supporters, many of whom have proven they are willing to turn to violence.

The system is rigged only when it works against him. The FBI is part of that rigged system only when it decides not to prosecute Hillary Clinton. The elections are rigged only when he loses.

Donald Trump is not a leader. He is a dangerous, power-hungry pathological liar who has already led this country into the gutter, if not the cesspool, and given the chance could lead us into world war and decimate the U.S. economy and our democracy.

In contrast, when Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential primary, she was graceful in defeat; she didn’t suggest the elections were rigged or insanely say she would only accept the outcome of the elections if she won. And when she ran against Bernie Sanders in the primary, she ran a campaign based on issues not mud-slinging, and rose to the ethical issues-based campaign standards set by Bernie Sanders. In contrast, Donald Trump ran the same kind of mud-slinging, vicious, do-anything-it-takes and destroy all who get in your way or dare insult you campaign in the Republican primary. It was Donald Trump who forced her hand; who forced her and this entire presidential campaign to sink to such depths, making all of us sick to our stomachs.

I am terrified at what Donald Trump and his supporters could do when he loses. He is clearly an incredibly sore loser.  It is up to the Republican Party and its leaders to step up to safeguard our democracy and safety and concede defeat as soon as the media declares a winner! And not allow Trump to question the legitimacy of the elections for even a moment.

Politicians and their communications teams are complete masters at PR spin. Fortunately, Trump refused to listen to the advice of his communications team and showed his true colors throughout this campaign. But there is no spinning who Donald Trump is, his lack of conscience, his pathological lying, his Hitler-like tactics, his megalomania, his belief that he must win no matter what it takes, even if it means challeging American democracy or inciting violence. He poses a threat like no other presidential candidate in history. Do not be fooled America. Do not take this threat to U.S. democracy and the future of the world lightly. With ISIS, Iran, North Korea and Russia’s Vladimir Putin posing enormous threats to the United States and the world, and a completely unhinged and impulsive Donald Trump potentially having access to our nuclear codes, the world has never been more dangerous.

Today on election day, when the future of our great country stands in the balance, the choice between Trump and Clinton couldn’t be more clear.

I implore you to vote for Hillary Clinton and world stability. Donald Trump claims he is about change, but the risk that his type of change could threaten our democracy and the world is way too real to ignore. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote for the most unstable world in our lifetimes and even our parents’ and grandparents’ lifetimes. I implore you to vote for Hillary Clinton and a sane, albeit very imperfect world!

Gail Fitzer is founder and CEO of AWAKEN PR and a former reporter for Reuters, AP and The Hollywood Reporter.

NYC Parents Express Outrage at Gov. Cuomo for Cutting Funding for Homes and Services for Disabled

idd town hall III.jpgNEW YORK, N.Y. – Over 100 parents of developmentally disabled children attended a public hearing with New York State Sen. Bill Perkins and State Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez last week to express their outrage with Gov. Andrew Cuomo for drastically cutting funding to build residential homes and provide critical services for their special needs children.

“I am 58, almost 59 and I have never ever seen in my life the disabled community as disrespected as this government is doing right now,” Tony Philip, who is developmentally disabled himself, told the gathering. “Why can’t he (the governor) do what his father did?, he asked, referring to late Gov. Mario Cuomo.”

Perkins, Rodriguez (both Democrats from Harlem) and parents resolved to take action to pressure the governor to reverse his damaging decision to cease building new residential homes for adults with disabilities, to ensure there is more money in the state budget to provide critical services and to pay workers caring for the disabled living wages to compensate them fairly for what is often extremely challenging work and to reduce extremely high turnover rates among staff.

Idd town hall II.jpg “Parents are aging, and there are those who still have their children at home,” said Elly Rufer, co-founder of NYC FAIR: Family Advocacy Information Resource which sponsored the public hearing #Keeping the Promise. “The New York State legislature must understand that for them the idea of residential placement is now a mirage; it is virtually non-existent…At present the only avenue to residential placement is a crisis. We moms, dads and siblings are worried and very frightened. We fear for their lives. We are that worried about the future of our children.”

Marilyn Jaffe-Ruiz, whose late brother had lived at home with their widowed mother until two weeks before she died of breast cancer, implored the state legislators to do whatever was necessary to increase funding to build residential homes.

“I am here to not just ask, or even politely demand, but to BEG you to increase and enhance funding for the development of residential homes for those with intellectual and other developmental disabilities. Without these safe, secure, loving homes you are rupturing families, leaving them in despair, depriving them of home and a sense of security that their loved ones will be safely cared for when the family is no longer able to. I am asking you to make funding for residential services including facilities for those who are aging and frail, and salary and appropriate levels for staff, the very highest priority as you make budget decisions. We cannot and will not go back to the days of Willowbrook with mass institutionalization and inferior care.”

Parents expressed exasperation over the infuriating bureaucracy involved in the government’s new self-directed care program in which funding is provided for parents or high functioning adults with disabilities to pay for their own services including rent or mortgage payments rather than providing residential placement and other services directly from nonprofit agencies funded by the government.  Parents also expressed outrage that the funding allotted for rent or mortgage payments are way below what is needed to live in New York City.

“Self-direction for our family seemed to be the answer to what we need for our son – we did not want a traditional day program and residential placement – well we know that is just not available now,” said Jackie Ceonzo. “From the minute we started the process it became apparent all was not what it seemed. (My son) Joe’s budget was cut by $20,000 from the initial assessment to the day of the launch – literally from one month to the next as all budgets were just cut across the board … So I ask you would you trust this program as the alternative it has been touted? … Parents are angry. Things have been promised and not delivered all throughout the system.”

Parents complained that countless letters and phone calls to the governor’s office seeking a change in policy went unanswered. The governor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

The parents signed a petition Perkins and Rodriguez were planning to present to Gov. Cuomo along with their testimonies. “Everyone in this room tonight has signed this petition asking that you join them in their commitment to ensuring that OPWDD (Office for People with Developmental Disabilities) works toward housing everyone who has a need, providing intense care for those who depend on it, empowers families who care for their loves ones at home, fully funds our not-for-profit agencies who oversee their care, and gives a substantial raise, professionalization and career opportunities to our dedicated direct support professionals,” Perkins said, reading from the petition.

After leading the group in chanting, “Fight for Your Rights,” Perkins told the parents he and Rodriguez were going to make sure whatever petitions they had would be delivered to Gov. Cuomo or Mayor Bill de Blasio and the leaders of the legislature and the New York City Council.

“We’re in a desperation situation … We want to make sure that we do our due diligence in informing our colleagues of the concerns that have been brought to our attention,” Perkins said. “We … have a responsibility to inform them of the efforts that you have so diligently and effectively made to communicate what is happening that should be fixed and that should be improved for the sake of this particular community,” said Perkins.

To view the full hearing click here

 

 

 

 

 

Giuliani Tells Wounded Israeli Soldiers He Hopes Congress Stops Iran Nuclear Deal

GiulianiSoldiers1 NEW YORK, NY, May 12, 2015 – Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani met Tuesday with 10 Israeli soldiers who were wounded in Operation Protective Edge last summer and told them that he hopes Congress stops President Obama’s nuclear pact with Iran, a country he said was led by a man who “appears to be insane and wants to destroy the state of Israel.”

Mayor Giuliani also told the soldiers on their last day of a 10-day visit to New York City arranged by the Chabad Israel Center of the Upper East Side nonprofit Belev Echad (With One Heart) that the United States and Israel are fighting a common enemy in Hamas and Islamic extremist terrorists.

“I would not make a deal with Iran,” he said. “I don’t believe in making a deal with a government that’s run by a person who appears to be insane. He has continually all throughout our negotiations said he wants to destroy the state of Israel so what’s the point of making peace? What’s the point of making a deal on nuclear capacity with a country that’s run by a man who wants to destroy the state of Israel? There’s something about that I don’t get and it’s deeply disturbing and I hope the United States Congress who I know have tremendous doubts about what the President is doing … is able to stop it.”

At the end of his meeting with the soldiers, including Ohad Ben-Ishay, one of the most seriously wounded in the Israel-Gaza conflict,Giuliani took a photo with the soldiers and texted it to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.  Then with a little assistance from Belev Echad Founder Rabbi Uriel Vigler, who runs the nonprofit with his wife Shevy, he texted “With #belevechad wounded IDF soldiers. (Lubavitcher) Rebbe called them Metsuyanei Tzahal (special IDF soldiers).”

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Giuliani repeatedly told the soldiers how much Americans admire and appreciate their service to their country, one of America’s “greatest allies,” which he said helps defend the United States against terrorism as well. “We’re both fighting, America and Israel, the same terrorists, the same ideas about Jihad and because of Israel I think the United States gets a lot of help and a lot of support. We learn a lot about security … Hamas is an enemy of the United States also. Thank you very, very much for what you’re doing because by defending Israel you’re also defending America,” he said at a breakfast meeting at a midtown Manhattan kosher restaurant.

“I loved meeting Mayor Giuliani,” said injured soldier Roei Amir, 21. “For me he symbolizes the fight on terror. He was the mayor on 9/11 and he knows what it means to fight terror. I loved the trip to New York and I loved meeting people here.”

 During the 10-day visit, the soldiers also toured the Ground Zero Museum & Memorial, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, saw a Broadway show and visited many other famous city sites. They also enjoyed a surprise visit to Washington DC after a Belev Echad supporter generously donated a plane for the day. On Monday night, back in New York City, conservative political commentator, talk radio personality and author Monica Crowley and award-winning investigative journalist Richard Behar expressed gratitude and appreciation for the soldiers’ sacrifices at an Evening of Recognition attended by some 200 supporters.

“Thank you for your many selfless sacrifices to fight for freedom, for justice, for what is right,” said Crowley. “Thank you for risking your lives so that freedom will triumph over tyranny and terror.”

Belev Echad also orchestrated an emotional surprise reunion for Ben-Ishay with his army captain Rani Azulay at the event, bringing many to tears. It was the first time Azulay had seen Ben-Ishay since shortly after he was critically wounded on the second day of the fighting last July. Ben-Ishay was in a coma for two months and doctors didn’t know if he would survive after shrapnel lodged in his brain. He is now paralyzed on his right side, can’t speak, read, write or walk, but does understand a great deal and made clear he was thrilled about the reunion.

Behar, who has written for Forbes, Time and Fortune, told the gathering that he and fellow investigative reporter Gary Weiss have launched a nonprofit venture “which will be multimedia, multilingual, multinational – and will tell the truth about Gaza, the PA (Palestinian Authority), Iran, anti-Semitism, the growing Islamist threat and terrorism financing.  We’ve been doing it already in investigative pieces exposing the leaders of the academic BDS movement, as well as exposing the journalists – by name, we expose them by name … who are lazy, sloppy, superficial and biased in their reporting about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

He also said the injured Israeli soldiers were a testament to a statement from retired British Col. Richard Kemp, who had served as commander of British forces in Afghanistan, that the ‘IDF has taken greater steps than any other army in the history of warfare to minimize harm to civilians in a combat zone.’”

Founded in New York City in 2009, Belev Echad established a global initiative to honor wounded Israeli veterans who have risked their lives and limbs to protect the Jewish people and ensure the security of Israel through a system of love, support and education. Through programs for wounded soldiers, career counseling, scholarship funds and social and educational events, Belev Echad makes a small, but meaningful contribution toward repaying the soldiers for their service.

Hundreds of Protesters in NY Demand End to Russian Military Action in Ukraine, Tougher US Response

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On my way to a street fair on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Sunday, I ran into a protest by hundreds of Ukrainian Americans demanding Russian President Vladimir Putin “keep his hands off Ukraine” and the Obama Administration take action to respond to “Russian aggression.”

It’s time Americans and the world joined together in making the same demands of Putin, who as former CIA Director James Woolsey put it (see blog entry below), “is behaving very much, except for there’s no Holocaust as far as we know … the way Hitler did between 1933 and 1939. He’s grabbing Europe a bit at a time and that’s exactly what the Nazis did.”

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It’s also time to demand action from the U.S. government. Organizers of the protest handed out fliers asking for help in reaching out to Senators and Members of Congress. “To date, the U.S. government has not done much to respond to Russian aggression and we need to clearly ask them to help Ukraine — the more of us (that) do it, the more were are likely to succeed.” The flier urged protesters and passersby to go to Razom for Ukraine on Facebook and search for the event “Outreach to U.S. Senators this week.”

Former CIA Director Woosley Accuses Obama of Acting “Chamberlin-esque” in Face of ISIS Threat

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In a recent interview with Al Jazeera America, former CIA Director James Woolsey warns that the United States needs to realize it’s at war with “theocratic, totalitarian, genocidal imperialists” in ISIS and accuses President Obama of behaving “positively Chamberlin-esque,” much like the Europeans did in failing to stand up to Hitler in the years leading up to World War II.

Have to admit I agree and I was thinking the very same thing! ISIS is an extraordinarly dangerous enemy that knows no boundaries and its declared goal is turning the entire world into an Islamic caliphate and barbarically murdering anyone who doesn’t immediately convert to Islam. There can be no appeasing such an enemy and the world must join together to defeat ISIS before it’s too late!!!

Woolsey also accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin of acting much like the Nazis did in the 1930s in its military aggression against Ukraine.  In an except not featured in this clip posted on the Al Jazeera website, Woolsey says, “I think we have to begin to think of Russia  much the way we thought of them during the Cold War. Putin is behaving very much, except for there’s no Holocaust as far as we know, very much the way Hitler did between 1933 and 1939; he’s grabbing Europe a bit at a time and that’s exactly what the Nazis did.”

On the issue of ISIS, Woolsey says,  “This is a group not of just thugs or robbers; these are theocratic, totalitarian genocidal imperialists. They are establishing an empire, a caliphate and anybody who is part of it or lives within its borders and does not convert to their view of religion, they kill and sometimes horribly by burying families alive or by crucifixion and so I think that the first thing we have to do is acknowledge and understand that we’re at war. We’ve been attacked by a totalitarian regime and we have to deal with them accordingly.”

The United States has to take the threat of ISIS “as seriously as we eventually took our major wars,” he says. “So far  I think the President and the U.S. as a whole basically have been behaving somewhat like the Europeans in the 1930s, between 1933 and 1939, just before World War II. We’re being positively Chamerblin-esque in our conduct.” Woolsey was interviewed prior to President Obama’s Sept. 10 address to the nation on his strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS.

He says among the steps the U.S. needs to take is helping the Kurds with military capability, taking a very tough stance with Qatar to prevent wealthy Qataris from continuing to send weapons and money to ISIS, and figuring out how to pull the Sunni tribes “together into a coherent group the way we did back in ’07, ’08 when we put the surge together. I think we need to all this without putting big American units in but a few CIA people, a few special forces people to help the people who are with us get organized, I think we can do that.”

Asked whether fighting against ISIS would wind up helping brutal Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hold onto power, Woolsey says, “It’s a very big dilemma and you rightly point to it. We had a similar kind of dilemma in the beginning of World War II and we eventually decided to ally with Stalin against Hitler and it’s a good thing that we did because as awful as Stalin was, we were still only able to pull out a victory in World War II because we had worked together with him even for a time. I’m not saying we ought to try to work together with Assad but if we happen to be going against the same people and some of the same groups such as ISIS or others then I think that’s just the way the dice falls in that particular play.”

NY ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SAYS UP TO HALF OF $120 MILLION CUT TO SERVICES FOR DISABLED RESTORED

sheldonsilverAssembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said Thursday that a combination of federal and state funds have allowed for up to $60 million of a proposed $120 million cut in services for the developmentally disabled to be restored.

“We’re restoring some of the state money, which will have a Medicaid match as well,” Silver said. “The cut will not be 6 percent. The cut will be less than that. There will be a $60 million restoration as a result.”

Senate Majority Co-Leader Jeff Klein said the legislature was still doing everything it could do reverse the cuts and Co-Leader Dean Skelos said the issue of the budget cuts to the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) was still “not closed.”

Gov. Cuomo proposed $120 million cut to OPWDD but the Assembly and Senate passed budgets that restored those cuts. The issue is one of several still unresolved despite Gov. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature announcing last night that they had reached a budget agreement in concept.