Selasa, 12 Juli 2022

An apology for this morning's email

The Guardian

The Guardian

Dear reader,

This morning you received a copy of First Edition, our daily current affairs newsletter, from Archie Bland. Due to an error in our email system, the newsletter was sent out to people who are not subscribed to it.

It shouldn't have happened, and we're putting steps in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Just to reassure you, you have not been subscribed to the newsletter and you won't receive it again unless you do subscribe. We are sorry for the error.

Best,
Toby Moses
Head of Newsletters

 
 
TheGuardian

 
 
     
   
 
  You are receiving this email from Guardian News & Media.

Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396
 
 

Senin, 11 Juli 2022

The man who exposed Uber | First Edition from The Guardian

How Mark MacGann revealed Uber's secret history

Tuesday briefing: How Mark MacGann revealed the secret history of Uber | The Guardian
12/07/2022
Tuesday briefing:

How Mark MacGann revealed the secret history of Uber

Archie Bland Archie Bland
 

Good morning. On Sunday, the Guardian published the first in a series of reports drawn from more than 124,000 documents that reveal the ruthless playbook that cemented Uber's status as one of the defining tech giants of the era. Last night, in an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the man who leaked the Uber files revealed his identity.

Mark MacGann, a career lobbyist who worked at the company from 2014 to 2016, is uniquely placed to explain how Uber did it: he was a central player in its strategy for breaking into new markets, and resisting regulators and politicians who wanted to stop it.

As the ultimate insider to the nexus of corporate and government interests, you might think he would be the last person who would want to reveal these kinds of details of how the system works. Nonetheless, his face is on the front page of the Guardian this morning, and you can hear him on the Today in Focus podcast – and his story is being told by partner news organisations around the world.

In today's newsletter, the Guardian's head of investigations, Paul Lewis – who first met MacGann at a Geneva hotel six months ago – talks about how the source made this seismic decision. First, here are the headlines.

Five big stories

1

Tory leadership | Britain's new prime minister will be announced on 5 September, it has been announced, as the starting gun was fired on a Tory leadership race that will see the hopefuls whittled down to two by Thursday.

2

Mo Farah | The four-time Olympic champion has revealed that he was illegally trafficked into Britain under the name of another child as a nine-year-old and forced into domestic servitude. He was born as Hussein Abdi Kahin.

3

Crime | A 15-year-old boy has been jailed for the murder of 12-year-old Ava White for a minimum of 13 years. The teenager is one of the UK's youngest convicted murderers.

4

Cost of living | A study tracking more than 6,000 UK households has found that the cost of living crisis has put more people in financial trouble than Covid-19. An estimated 4.4m households are thought to be in "serious financial difficulties".

5

Immigration | A British resident who gave birth in Jamaica last April has been left stranded there after the Home Office told her that her baby cannot enter Britain as he has an "established life" on the island. The mother has lived in the UK for two decades.

In depth: 'You're going to find evidence of my involvement. And I know you have to publish that'

A protest against Uber in Paris in 2016. Mark MacGann faced intensifying threats from taxi drivers during his time with Uber.

"No two whistleblowers are the same," Paul Lewis said, "but Mark is quite unlike most of them."

A lot of the time, the people who come forward to tell a story of dubious governmental or corporate behaviour are outsiders, operating far from the centres of power. MacGann, on the other hand, "had all the characteristics of a skilled networker".

"He has a contact book gleaned over four decades in the higher echelons of government relations and public policy," Paul said. "And he is not someone who was frequently questioning this behaviour when he was at Uber – he was complicit in the wrongdoing he was seeking to expose. That's not unheard of, but it is unusual."

Paul and MacGann first met in January, in a hired conference room at a hotel in the suburbs of Geneva. MacGann had two suitcases full of laptops, hard drives, iPhones and bundles of paper. He seemed nervous initially – "as is always the case at the start of these relationships" – and he had "some anxiety about how much this was going to change his life."

What followed was an intensive initial five-day trawl through the contents of those suitcases – and, for Paul, a deepening sense of the value of the data and the complexity of the source's position.

---

Here's a brief reminder of some of the revelations so far, which range from secret lobbying, to blocking regulators' access to vital data, to a willingness to leverage violence against drivers for political gain.

Uber has said that it "will not make excuses for past behaviour" during the period of the leak but said that it has since been transformed under new leadership. You can read the company's full response here, and a statement here by former CEO Travis Kalanick – who said that Uber's expansion initiatives "were led by over a hundred leaders in dozens of countries around the world and at all times under the direct oversight and with the full approval of Uber's robust legal, policy, and compliance groups".

---

"For us, the principle question is always what is the public interest in the information being shared," Paul said. "Does it reveal wrongdoing? Is this the kind of thing the public deserves to know? We quickly drew the conclusion that this was an extraordinary opportunity to tell the inside story of the tactics that fuelled Uber's global expansion."

MacGann says he was motivated by his view that it was in the public interest for Uber to reckon with this history. "At the same time, he was transparent about his grievances with the company, and it became clear that working there had been a traumatic experience for him." Last night's story reveals that as protests (pictured above) grew, MacGann faced physical threats as a result of his role as a public face of Uber's attempt to disrupt existing taxi businesses – and he only recently reached an out-of-court settlement with the company over his remuneration.

Crucial, too, is a point MacGann acknowledges in the story: "I should have shown more common sense and pushed harder to stop the craziness." Paul remembers taking a walk with him on the shores of Lake Geneva. "We were having a breather from this very intense period. And unprompted, he said: 'I realise that you're going to find evidence of my own involvement in questionable activities. And I know you have to publish that.'"

Complicating though MacGann's involvement was, it also helped to establish his credibility – and, as he says in the story, "there's no statute of limitations on doing the right thing".

The data he made available speaks for itself. "We normally see a freedom of information request that might reveal that a call took place between a minister and a lobbyist," Paul said. "Or there's a declaration in a transparency register. But you never get to see what is actually said in those conversations. To have data that allowed us to effectively be a fly on the wall – that was unique."

Peter Mandelson provided 'extremely pricey' help reaching out to pro-Kremlin billionaires.

Another vital theme to emerge from these stories, of how key Obama aides facilitated access to US ambassadors or Peter Mandelson's "extremely pricey" help reaching out to pro-Kremlin billionaires, is how crucial relationships are to effective lobbying. "It's as simple as – in order to penetrate power, Uber enlisted powerful people," Paul said. "It's fascinating that for all of the money Uber had – and it had an annual global lobbying and communications budget of £90m – it was social capital that it was using to open doors."

Six months after Paul and MacGann's initial meeting, the sheer scale of what was hidden in the data he shared could not be more sharply apparent – and MacGann has acknowledged that he had moments of self-doubt along the way. "What I am doing isn't easy, and I hesitated," he said in last night's story.

To Paul, central to the value of what MacGann disclosed is that it sets out a different narrative of how companies such as Uber operate than the one that emerges from breathless accounts of Silicon Valley. "It's easy for these companies to be seen through an American lens," he said. "But actually, they're global, and small tweaks to the algorithm by an engineer in San Francisco can have transformative effects on the lives of millions of drivers around the world."

After that first five days, it became clear that there was too much for one news organisation to handle on its own – so the Guardian brought in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 40 other outlets around the world. That's not a step that any media organisation takes lightly. "But whereas we don't have a regulatory or governmental infrastructure yet for dealing with these kinds of global corporations, these kinds of collaborations are starting to build a way to report on them."

On Sunday night, after the first stories were published, Paul sat at his computer, scrolling through pictures of front pages from around the world, each running with its own angle on how Uber had sought to expand its reach. "The Washington Post, the Toronto Star, Le Monde, El Pais, Indian Express – it is a global story," he said. That's the story that Mark MacGann began the process of telling – and, whatever his past, it wouldn't have been told without him.

What else we've been reading

  • Financial analysts are stunned by the cryptocurrency market's sharp downward spiral. Sirin Kale talks to the people who put everything into crypto, showing the human devastation behind the numbers. Nimo

  • Owen Jones warns that by choosing dividing lines based on character rather than policy, Keir Starmer has left himself vulnerable to a new opponent. The victor could "reconstruct the Tories' 2019 voter coalition, while Labour fails to win over Tory supporters and disillusions parts of its own support base," he writes. Archie

  • Meanwhile, as the Tory candidates vie to outdo each other on tax cuts, ConservativeHome's Paul Goodman tells party members: "One should always be suspicious of people who tell you want you want to hear." Archie

  • Zayd Ayers Dohrn's childhood sounds as if it was ripped from the pages of a political thriller: he grew up the son of Weather Undeground revolutionaries on the run from the FBI. In a candid article, Dohrn now chronicles the lives and political activities of his parents and their militant leftwing organisation. Nimo

  • From catwalks to red carpets to magazine covers, cis men wearing "gendered" clothing such as dresses is increasingly common. Rhik Samadder decided it was time to take the skirt from high fashion to the high street, and reported back on the reaction from the public. Nimo

Sport

Football | England roared into the quarter-finals of the Euros with an 8-0 demolition of Norway. Beth Mead led the way with a hat-trick while Ellen White scored twice in a stunning performance.

Motor sport | Former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone will be charged with fraud by false representation after an investigation by HMRC allegedly found more than £400m of undeclared assets overseas.

Olympics | A senior figure in the IOC has said that it is unlikely that Russia and Belarus will be allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics in 2024 because of the invasion of Ukraine.

The front pages

Guardian front page, 12 July 2022

The Guardian's Uber files coverage continues today with the whistleblower explaining his motives; it shares the front page with "Tories take fast track to replace PM". The Times leads with "Sunak vows to cut tax as support for Truss grows". The Financial Times has "Sunak to defend tax stance by vowing cuts once inflation tamed". The Mail's splash headline is "Truss: back me or it'll be Rishi" – the paper says Sunak "still won't commit to instant tax cuts". Metro has as its lead "F1 Bernie 'in £400m tax dodge'" while its front page picture is a group of people carrying a large inflatable craft down a French beach with the headline "And still the boats come …". Sir Mo Farah talks poignantly about his true identity from many of the front pages today. "I'm not Mo Farah" says the Sun – "Olympic hero is really Hussein Abdi Kahin". The i has "Sir Mo: I'm not who you think I am" while the Mirror says "Star's secret ordeal – Mo: I was trafficked as a child". And now the weather: "Britain braced for heat health emergency" says the Telegraph which shows Sajid Javid dabbing sweat from his brow. "Heatwave is 'risk to life'" warns the Express.

Today in Focus

The source story

The Uber files: the whistleblower (part 2)

In the second part of a miniseries on Uber, former executive Mark MacGann explains his decision to speak out

Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell

Steve Bell's cartoon.

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad

Derbyshire Caving Club's Ed Coghlan with a bowl found in the mine.

Cavers in Cheshire have found an undisturbed 200-year-old mineshaft in pristine condition. The mine was sealed by the miners around 1810, meaning that almost no oxygen got in since, turning it into something of a time capsule. Archaeologists found clay pipes, a leather shoe and a small bowl. "It is a glimpse," said National Trust archaeologist Jamie Lund, into the environment that these miners, who were extracting cobalt, encountered." A 3D scan of the mine has been made so that anyone can see this extraordinary discovery for themselves.

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

Bored at work?

And finally, the Guardian's crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian's Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.

Get in touch
If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com

You are receiving this email because you are a subscriber to First Edition. Guardian News & Media Limited - a member of Guardian Media Group PLC. Registered Office: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9GU. Registered in England No. 908396

Kamis, 28 Mei 2020

Salisbury News

Salisbury News


Kayleigh McEnany shuts down reporter asking how many dead Americans should be considered a coronavirus success

Posted: 28 May 2020 09:00 PM PDT

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany shut down a reporter pressing her for a number of dead Americans that should be considered a success for the coronavirus response by the Trump administration.

Ryan Lizza of Politico asked the question during Tuesday's media briefing.

"What does the White House view, as having by election day, what does the White House view as the number of dead Americans where you can say that you successfully defeated this pandemic?" asked Lizza. "Is there a number?"

"Yeah, you know, every loss of life counts," responded McEnany.

"We say 100,000, but like the president says, one death is something to be mourned. These 100,000 individuals have a face, the president takes this very seriously, it's why he lowered the flag to half-staff for three days to remember these men and women," she continued.

"I think, you know, Dr. Birx said it best when she said that in their estimates they had anywhere between 1.5 and 2.2 million people in the U.S. succumbing to the virus if we didn't shut down the economy. The president made the very hard choice of shutting down the economy, so we avoided that extraordinary number," McEnany explained.

More

Cop put on leave after wrapping hands around suspect's neck

Posted: 28 May 2020 08:00 PM PDT

A shocking video shows the moment a Mississippi police officer taunts a young man while wrapping his hands around his neck and onlookers desperate try to get him to stop.

In the footage from 4.30pm on Friday, a woman standing nearby is heard pleading with the officer to let go, saying: 'He's not breathing. He's not breathing.'

The Jackson Police Department officer in the clip was placed on administrative leave Monday after the incident circulated on social media. Public information officer Sam Brown said the patrol man's name is Myron Smith, the Jackson Free Press reported.

The video was filmed outside the Beauty Zone and 88 Cent stores on Bailey Road in Jackson.

More

Biden Confuses D-Day With Pearl Harbor

Posted: 28 May 2020 07:00 PM PDT

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden confused D-Day and Pearl Harbor—as well as the date that Delaware declared its independence from neighboring Pennsylvania—at a Wednesday campaign event.

"We declared our independence on December the 7th. It's not just D-Day," Biden said in an online townhall with Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf, referring to Delaware's breakaway from Pennsylvania.

More

Wedding company denies refund after man’s fiancée dies

Posted: 28 May 2020 06:00 PM PDT

Not exactly the picture of kindness.

A wedding photography company refused to refund a Colorado man after his fiancée died in a tragic car crash — then taunted him online, according to reports.

Citing his rare and heartbreaking circumstances, Justin Montney, of Colorado Springs, asked the firm Copper Stallion Media to return a $1,800 deposit after his 22-year-old bride-to-be Alexis Wyatt was killed on Feb. 4, according to KRDO-TV.

"They said they'd extend my service to my next wedding, which was a very insensitive thing to tell me," he told the station. "They should have been able to [refund it] because they didn't render any services."

But the Texas-based photography company denied his request, citing a "legally binding contract" signed in November.

As word of the refusal spread, people left dozens of negative reviews on the company's social media pages, along with the wedding site TheKnot.com, according to Fox 6 Now.

More

Police in Minneapolis withdraw from locations in the city as looters take over during protest

Posted: 28 May 2020 05:00 PM PDT

The police chief says it's too dangerous for his officers

The Minneapolis Police Department has pulled its officers away from several locations in the city after protests over the death of George Floyd erupted in violence, looting, and vandalism on Wednesday night.

What are the details?

As a Target store, a liquor store, and an AutoZone were all overcome by looters, a KARE-TV reporter noted to Police Chief Medaria Arradondo that there was no police presence at the locations during an evening interview. Arradondo explained, "Our main priority for our officers there are the safety of those who are out there."

The chief noted that there were peaceful protesters who were "in the mix of those who are causing destruction" and said the MPD wanted to make sure they had the resources in place to protect the peaceful protesters and to preserve "life and safety."

The KARE reported then asked, while showing footage of the looting at Target, "I want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly. So, what you're saying is it's too dangerous for police to directly confront the looters, so, you've made the decision to maybe let that site go for now and focus on keeping the rest of the neighborhood as safe as possible?"

More

George Floyd protests turn deadly after man shot outside pawn shop

Posted: 28 May 2020 04:00 PM PDT

A man was shot dead outside of a Minneapolis pawn shop Wednesday night as violent protests over thedeath of George Floyd rattled the city, authorities said.

Minneapolis cops are investigating reports that the victim was a looter shot dead by an owner of the business, police department spokesman John Elder said at press briefing early Thursday.

The man was found with a gunshot wound outside of Cadillac Pawn and Jewelry on East Lake Street near Bloomington Avenue at about 9:25 p.m. local time, Elder said.

"That is one of the theories that we're working into," Elder said in response to a reporter questioning if there's any credence to the narrative that the owner shot dead a looter trying to break into his store.

"As I said, the body was found outside. And we have a couple of different scenarios as to what may have happened," Elder told reporters.

More

State Workers: Volunteer or Be Reassigned to Virus Response

Posted: 28 May 2020 03:00 PM PDT

California needs 10,000 workers to act as contact tracers, but it has only trained about 950. Gov. Newsom has said if state workers don't volunteer to be contact tracers, they might be temporarily reassigned to the job.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration expects more state workers to volunteer for contact tracing assignments, and if they don't, the state has the authority to reassign them to the work, according to an administration spokeswoman.

Newsom is recruiting 10,000 contact tracers to call, text and email people who have been in contact with those who tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

So far, California has trained about 950 state and local government employees to be contact tracers. Another 350 are in the pipeline, according to numbers provided by Ali Bay, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Health's COVID-19 Joint Information Center.

"Our expectation is that state employees will continue to volunteer for contact tracing because they understand the critical nature of this effort and recognize that public service involves stepping up for our fellow Californians during an emergency or disaster," Bay said in an email. "During any statewide emergency, and in the case of slowing the spread of COVID-19 to protect public health, state workers can be reassigned as disaster services workers to assist with response and recovery efforts."

The administration has asked state departments to identify 5 percent of employees who could be redirected to contact tracing assignments, Newsom said Tuesday. California employs about 230,000 state workers.

More

Man At The VA

Posted: 28 May 2020 02:00 PM PDT

I talked with a man at the VA the other day - an 80+ year old man. I asked him if there was anything I can get him while this Coronavirus scare was gripping America.

He simply smiled, looked away and said:

"Let me tell you what I need! I need to believe, at some point, this country my generation fought for ... I need to believe this nation that we handed safely to our children and their children ...

I need to know this generation will quit being a bunch of sissies ... that they respect what they've been given ... that they've earned what others sacrificed for."

I wasn't sure where the conversation was going or if it was going anywhere at all. So, I sat there, quietly listening.

"You know, I was a little boy during WWII. Those were scary days. We didn't know if we were going to be speaking English, German or Japanese at the end of the war. There was no certainty, no guarantees like Americans enjoy today.

And no home went without sacrifice or loss. Every house, up and down every street, had someone in harm's way. Maybe their Daddy was a soldier, maybe their son was a sailor, maybe it was an uncle. Sometimes it was the whole damn family ... fathers, sons, uncles ...

Having someone, you love, sent off to war ... it wasn't less frightening than it is today. It was scary as Hell. If anything, it was more frightening. We didn't have battle front news. We didn't have email or cellphones. You sent them away and you hoped ... you prayed. You may not hear from them for months, if ever. Sometimes a mother was getting her son's letters the same day Dad was comforting her over their child's death.

And we sacrificed. You couldn't buy things. Everything was rationed. You were only allowed so much milk per month, only so much bread, toilet paper. EVERYTHING was restricted for the war effort. And what you weren't using, what you didn't need, things you threw away, they were saved and sorted for the war effort. My generation was the original recycling movement in America.

And we had viruses back then ... serious viruses. Things like polio, measles, and such. It was nothing to walk to school and pass a house or two that was quarantined. We didn't shut down our schools. We didn't shut down our cities. We carried on, without masks, without hand sanitizer. And do you know what? We persevered. We overcame. We didn't attack our President, we came together. We rallied around the flag for the war. Thick or thin, we were in it to win. And we would lose more boys in an hour of combat than we lose in entire wars today."

He slowly looked away again. Maybe I saw a small tear in the corner of his eye. Then he continued:

"Today's kids don't know sacrifice. They think a sacrifice is not having coverage on their phone while they freely drive across the country. Today's kids are selfish and spoiled. In my generation, we looked out for our elders. We helped out with single moms whose husbands were either at war or dead from war. Today's kids rush the store, buying everything they can ... no concern for anyone but themselves. It's shameful the way Americans behave these days. None of them deserve the sacrifices their granddads made.

So, no I don't need anything. I appreciate your offer but, I know I've been through worse things than this virus. But maybe I should be asking you, what can I do to help you? Do you have enough pop to get through this, enough steak? Will you be able to survive with 113 channels on your tv?"

I smiled, fighting back a tear of my own ... now humbled by a man in his 80's. All I could do was thank him for the history lesson, leave my number for emergency and leave with my ego firmly tucked in my rear.

I talked to a man today. A real man. An American man from an era long gone and forgotten. Most will never understand the sacrifices. Most will never fully learn their sacrifices. But citizens today should work harder to learn about them ... learn from them ... to respect them.

Kathy Griffin: Stabbing Trump with syringe containing 'nothing but air inside' would 'do the trick'

Posted: 28 May 2020 01:00 PM PDT

Kathy Griffin advocated plunging an air-filled syringe into President Trump.

Reacting to a tweet from CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta that said Trump pondered whether or not he should be given an insulin regimen at a White House diabetes event Tuesday, the comedienne said: "Syringe with nothing but air inside it would do the trick. F--- TRUMP."

In medical procedures, air accidentally injected into the body's bloodstream through syringes or IVs can cause air embolisms, which can be fatal.

Within moments, Twitter users were remarking how Griffin can expect another visit from the Secret Service.

Griffin stirred controversy in 2017 when she held up a bloody prop of Trump's severed head in a photo shoot, a move that disrupted her career and prompted a visit from the Secret Service, according to her lawyers.

"I don't think I will have a career after this," Griffin told reporters in tears after the photo became public. "I'm going to be honest. He broke me."

More

‘Wretched Orange Man’: Twitter Official Overseeing Misinformation Efforts Is Anti-Trump Partisan Who Donated To Planned Parenthood

Posted: 28 May 2020 12:00 PM PDT

The Twitter official overseeing the tech company's efforts to combat misinformation is a left-wing partisan who in the past has derided President Donald Trump as a "wretched orange man" and said he donated to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Yoel Roth, Twitter's head of site security, is the man in charge of the platform's fight against election-related misinformation. Some of Roth's past political comments from 2016 and 2017 began making the rounds in conservative circles Tuesday after Twitter fact-checked a Trump tweet predicting that universal mail-in voting would result in widespread fraud.

More

ATTN. ALL OCEAN CITY BARS/RESTAURANTS!!!!!

Posted: 28 May 2020 11:05 AM PDT





Here's Who Joe Biden Could Pick for the Supreme Court

Posted: 28 May 2020 11:00 AM PDT

Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, has pledged to appoint the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court if he prevails in November.

Biden's promise is a nod to the black voters who revived his once-flailing presidential campaign. His zealous courting of black votes has been awkward in stretches, as when he told radio host Charlamagne tha God that African Americans struggling to choose between himself and President Donald Trump "ain't black."

There are two broad groups Biden might select from, the first including sitting judges on federal and state courts, the second with more academic backgrounds. The leftwing group Demand Justice, which is pressing Biden to release a shortlist of potential nominees, has released its own list, which is heavy on academics and cause lawyers. A Washington Free Beacon analysis found the most likely candidates are U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, and U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, with Stacey Abrams as a possible wildcard pick.

Every president since Ronald Reagan has made at least two appointments to the Supreme Court. Biden's pledge gives him a relatively small pool of candidates with a traditional background for elevation to the High Court. According to biographical data kept by the Federal Judicial Center, there are 17 black female federal judges under the age of 60, the upper limit for Supreme Court nominees in recent decades. Trump's two appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, were 49 and 53 respectively. Only a handful of black women on the federal bench are under 55, meaning Biden will have to cast a wider net for potential picks.

If elected, Biden will have to balance three competing problems when selecting a nominee: mounting pressure from the left to pick a candidate with varied occupational experiences, a possible Republican majority in the Senate, and the prospect of an expansive search.

More

Everyone Should Watch This

Posted: 28 May 2020 10:30 AM PDT

Attorney General Frosh Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Rollback of National Clean Car Standards

Posted: 28 May 2020 10:00 AM PDT

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh today joined a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's final rule rolling back the national Clean Car Standards. The previous standards required appropriate and feasible improvements in fuel economy and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars and light trucks, saving consumers money, reducing harmful emissions, and helping protect public health since they were introduced in 2010. The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles (SAFE) rule stops this progress in its tracks, hurting the economy and public health.

In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the final rule unlawfully violates the Clean Air Act, the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

"Rolling back the Clean Car Standards will endanger the health of countless Americans. It will pollute our air and water, accelerate climate change and be costly for consumers," said Attorney General Frosh. "It's heedless and illegal. It's a gift to the fossil fuel industry at great expense to the American people."

In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), the California Air Resources Board, and car manufacturers established a unified national program harmonizing greenhouse gas emission standards and fuel efficiency standards. Two years later, the agencies extended the national program to model years 2017-2025 vehicles. As part of the program, California and the federal agencies agreed to undertake a midterm evaluation to determine if the greenhouse gas emission standards for model years 2022-2025 vehicles should be maintained or revised. In January 2017, the EPA completed the midterm evaluation and issued a final determination affirming that the existing standards were appropriate and would not be changed.

The following year, the Trump administration took its first step toward dismantling the national Clean Car Standards by reversing the final determination with a new mid-term evaluation that alleged the standards were no longer appropriate or feasible. The administration later made its rollback proposal official, despite the fact that the auto industry was currently on track to meet or exceed the Clean Car Standards.

On March 31, 2020, the final rule rolling back the Clean Car Standards was announced. The rule takes aim at the corporate average fuel efficiency standards, requiring automakers to make only minimal improvements to fuel economy—on the order of 1.5 percent annually instead of the previously anticipated annual increase of approximately 5 percent. The rule also guts the requirements to reduce vehicles' greenhouse gas emissions, allowing hundreds of millions of metric tons of avoidable carbon emissions into our atmosphere over the next decade.

In the lawsuit, the coalition will argue that the rollback of the national Clean Cars Standards is unlawful because, among other things:
The EPA and NHTSA's rollbacks violate the statutory text and congressional mandates they are bound by; and
The EPA and NHTSA improperly and unlawfully relied on an analysis riddled with errors, omissions, and unfounded assumptions in an attempt to justify their desired result.

Attorney General Frosh joins the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The California Air Resources Board; the Cities of Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Denver; and the Counties of San Francisco and Denver also joined the coalition in filing the lawsuit.

17 Diseases Named After Places Or People

Posted: 28 May 2020 09:45 AM PDT

While liberals and woke media elites obsess over calling Republicans racist for using the term "Wuhan virus," the practice of naming a new disease after a population or the site of its first major outbreak is actually pretty common. In fact, pundits used the term widely to identify the origins of the epidemic.

In this case however, it's even more important to identify the new Wuhan coronavirus sweeping the globe with its origin in the Chinese city of Wuhan as China tried to mask the warning signs of a global outbreak and downplay its severity leading to what the World Health Organization has now declared a "global pandemic."

Here are 17 other diseases named after populations or places:

West Nile Virus

Named after the West Nile District of Uganda discovered in 1937.

Guinea Worm

Named by European explorers for the Guinea coast of West Africa in the 1600s.
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Named after the mountain range spreading across western North America first recognized first in 1896 in Idaho.
Lyme Disease

Named after a large outbreak of the disease occurred in Lyme and Old Lyme, Connecticut in the 1970s.
Ross River Fever

Named after a mosquito found to cause the disease in the Ross River of Queensland, Australia by the 1960s. The first major outbreak occurred in 1928.

More

Outside dining now allowed in Ocean City!

Posted: 28 May 2020 09:30 AM PDT

During Governor Hogan's press conference today he announced Maryland can now complete its move to into the first phase of a three step plan to bring Maryland back to full recovery from the coronavirus shutdown. Starting Friday, May 29 at 5pm the following will be open:

Restaurants and social organizations ( American Legions, for example) –  for outside dining.

  • Tables must be appropriately spaced apart
  • No more than 6 people at a table
  • Strict public health measures must be taken
  • Restaurant staff must have daily temp checks and wear masks
  • All tables and chairs must be sanitized between use
  • Paper menus for one time use is encouraged
The Governor also said his team encourages local leaders to be innovative. He gave examples of street closures to allow restaurants to spread out  tables and allow for more outdoor seating than typical.

A Comment Worthy Of A Post: Caribbean Joe's

Posted: 28 May 2020 09:15 AM PDT

I would never go to your establishment because of your undying support of Donald Trump, however as a fellow business owner CONGRATS! and hopefully you have a kickass season - if any place can do outside dining and social distancing in West Ocean City its you!!! Good Luck!!!!

City Of Salisbury Press Conference (Mayor Day Deployment)

Posted: 28 May 2020 09:04 AM PDT

The Things You See On Facebook...

Posted: 28 May 2020 09:00 AM PDT

(Has anyone else heard this?!?)

Italy has allegedly discovered Covid is not a virus, but a bacterium. It clots the blood and reduces the oxygen saturation from dispersing throughout the body. They went against the World Health Organisation's "law" that no bodies be autopsied.

When Italian Ministry of Health ordered many autopsies, they found the blood was clotted in all of the patients veins. They immediately started using aspirin 100mg and a coagulant medication. And have had immense success. 14,000 people were released from the hospital as "healthy" and Covid free.

Italy is demanding Bill Gates and the World Health Organization be held accountable for "crimes against humanity" for misleading, misdirecting, and withholding life saving information from the world, which cost the lives of thousands.

Ventilators and ICU units were not necessary. A mandated vaccine is not necessary. Covid-19 is a bacterium, easily treated with aspirin and anticoagulant. Spread the word! Make this global.

Salisbury Maryland Gannett Daily Times Clearly On Their Last Leg & Desperate

Posted: 28 May 2020 08:30 AM PDT


CDC update: COVID-19 death rate predicted to be LESS THAN ONE PERCENT

Posted: 28 May 2020 08:00 AM PDT

Maryland COVID-19 Data 5-28-2020

Posted: 28 May 2020 07:50 AM PDT

COVID-19 Statistics in Maryland

Number of confirmed cases : 49,709
Number of persons tested negative : 225,149
Total testing volume : 316,797
Percent positive testing, all jurisdictions
Number of confirmed deaths : 2,307
Number of probable deaths : 121
Currently hospitalized : 1,334
Acute care : 823
Intensive care : 511
Ever hospitalized : 8,392
Released from isolation : 3,468
Cases and Deaths Data Breakdown:
Parenthesis = Confirmed death, laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test result 
Asterisk = Probable death, death certificate lists COVID-19 as the cause of death but not yet confirmed by a laboratory test
NH = Non-Hispanic
By County
CountyCasesDeaths
Allegany178(15)
Anne Arundel3,556(154)9*
Baltimore City5,203(232)8*
Baltimore County5,678(308)15*
Calvert320(16)1*
Caroline245

Carroll840(82)3*
Cecil356(22)
Charles1,027(71)1*
Dorchester136(3)
Frederick1,824(97)7*
Garrett10

Harford827(46)3*
Howard1,815(52)4*
Kent165(15)
Montgomery10,752(542)39*
Prince George's14,508(506)24*
Queen Anne's152(12)
St. Mary's417(19)
Somerset73(2)
Talbot87(1)
Washington423(12)
Wicomico919(27)
Worcester198(10)1*
Data not available
(63)6*
By Age Range and Gender
Age/GenderCasesDeaths
0-91,182

10-192,119(1)
20-296,815(13)1*
30-399,214(29)4*
40-498,989(66)3*
50-598,176(155)11*
60-695,867(362)11*
70-793,780(573)16*
80+3,567(1,046)69*
Data not available
(62)6*
Female25,849(1,137)66*
Male23,860(1,170)55*
By Race and Ethnicity
Race/EthnicityCasesDeaths
African-American (NH)14,473(952)38*
Asian (NH)938(88)6*
White (NH)9,762(960)61*
Hispanic12,422(208)7*
Other (NH)2,458(29)
Data not available9,656(70)9*

All Laws Must Comply With the Constitution or They Are Void

Posted: 28 May 2020 07:30 AM PDT

AIM4Truther Mike N. wants all patriots to be aware of this information about the courts and constitution. We have included his entire note to us so that no details are missed:

In today's (3/26/18) "My Bad" video/audio with Thomas, you stated that, "They've taken away all our Constitutional rights in these things [the agreements so vast they know we're not going to read them]."

I don't know if you've looked at the 8-page document I emailed to you a few weeks ago entitled, Non-authority of the Feds, which you said you passed on to the Conclave. So, I've attached another copy of it which I hope you will go through.

I doubt that any lawyers on your teams will agree with what I'm presenting to you, but they're B.A.R. members and would be ostracized for straying from official and accepted doctrine.

First of all, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in several different decisions from the past that Congress has no exclusive jurisdiction over us unless we live in Washington, D.C., federally-owned lands, buildings, forts, etc., and the U.S. territories. FEDERAL STATUTES and REGULATIONS have no lawful applicability and effect on the citizens of the states. In fact, the U.S. Constitution has no effect on us, either, unless we've sworn and subscribed an oath of allegiance to it.

Of course, all those employed in the 3 branches of government have (purportedly) sworn that oath and are bound by it. The ONLY power/authority/jurisdiction that the Constitution gives to the federal government is enumerated in Article 1, Section 8 – the Congress to enact legislation in pursuance of those enumerated responsibilities, the President to execute that legislation, and the judiciary to arbitrate disagreements that arise over those responsibilities.

It's all a ruse. There are no courts of law anymore – merely administrative courts that have no lawful power to prosecute and punish. The U.S. Supreme Court was put in place only to arbitrate disagreements between states and to serve as the ultimate appeals court. Decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court have applicability and effect ONLY upon the two litigants in a case – the plaintiff and the defendant – NOT the whole stinkin' country!

More

Check This Out

Posted: 28 May 2020 11:57 AM PDT

Donald Trump: ‘OBAMAGATE MAKES WATERGATE LOOK LIKE SMALL POTATOES!’

Posted: 28 May 2020 07:00 AM PDT

President Donald Trump continued Wednesday to raise questions about former President Barack Obama spying on his campaign during the 2016 election.

"OBAMAGATE MAKES WATERGATE LOOK LIKE SMALL POTATOES!" he wrote on Twitter in all-caps.

The president previewed new information that proved the Obama administration spied on him, adding to claims he has made publicly before:

"New papers make CLEAR that the Obama Administration SPIED, in an unprecedented manner, on the Trump Campaign and beyond, and even on the United States Senate," he wrote.

Trump spent Tuesday night retweeting news and information on Twitter about the Russia "hoax" investigation as Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grennell spent his last day declassifying new documents about the case.

More

Caribbean Joe's Will Reopen This Saturday At Noon

Posted: 28 May 2020 05:17 AM PDT

The palm trees are all in, the Governor is allowing outside dining and I've got a 2 acre complex to work with so we're going for it. The menu will be limited but ALL the beer will be on ice and Dawn the Bartender couldn't be more excited to get back to work.

So come join us at noon for $1.00 drafts. At 1 PM, $1.50 drafts. 2 PM, $2.00 drafts. 3 PM, $2.50 drafts. 4 PM, $3.00 drafts. 5 PM $3.50 drafts. 6 PM and beyond, $4.00 drafts. We'll have our 80" outdoor flat screen going as well as ALL of our surround sound speakers. Heck, we might even have a band show up this weekend.

Calling Out The Bogus Photos In OC Last Weekend

Posted: 28 May 2020 06:45 AM PDT


China Builds Massive Spying Capacity in Africa

Posted: 28 May 2020 06:30 AM PDT

State-linked firms have built almost 200 government buildings on the continent

The Chinese government has established an unparalleled spying capacity in Africa by encouraging Chinese companies such as Huawei to construct government buildings across the continent, according to a recent report.

The report, published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, found that Chinese firms—many of which are state-owned or linked to the government—have built or renovated 186 government buildings in Africa. Many were constructed in the last two decades. Senior Policy Analyst Joshua Meservey, the report's author, said the buildings are "a likely vector for Chinese spying," given the Chinese government's history of using such buildings to spy on its inhabitants.

"Beijing may have better surveillance access to Africa than anywhere else in the world," the report reads. "The Chinese government could use the information it harvests to advantage its companies competing against American and other firms, glean insights into U.S. security assistance and counterterrorism programs, and recruit or influence senior African government officials."

The report comes at a time of heightened U.S. interest in China's activities in Africa, where the communist regime has undertaken hundreds of infrastructure projects in a bid for influence. The U.S.-China Economy and Security Review Commission—a bipartisan body sanctioned by Congress to research China-related issues—held a full-day hearing earlier this month to evaluate China's strategic aims in Africa.

"The Chinese development model [in Africa] often serves to enrich the PRC and expand its perceived sphere of influence," Christopher Maloney, a senior official at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said during the hearing.

More

OPINIONPublished 8 hours ago Judge Andrew Napolitano: Coronavirus shutdowns ordered by governors and mayors are unconstitutional

Posted: 28 May 2020 06:15 AM PDT

The governors of all 50 states and the mayors of many large cities have assumed unto themselves the powers to restrict private personal choices and lawful public behavior in an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

They have done so not by enforcing previously existing legislation but by crafting their own executive orders, styling those orders as if they were laws, using state and localpolice to enforce those so-called laws and – presumably when life returns to normal and the courts reopen – prosecuting the alleged offenders in court.

It is hard to believe that any judge in America would permit a criminal trial of any person for violating a standard of behavior that has not been enacted into law by a legislature.

More

Maryland SOCIALIST PARTY Bread and Roses Party!!!

Posted: 28 May 2020 06:00 AM PDT


How on God's Green Earth did they SNEAK this under our very noses without anyone knowing about it? Look it up, they're a Socialist Party. This state SUCKS!

Video: How Planned Parenthood Uses Uber to Arrange Secret Abortions

Posted: 28 May 2020 05:30 AM PDT

The abortion mill utilizes the judicial-bypass process to exploit teenagers.

An attorney who helps minors to obtain abortions via the judicial-bypass process has claimed that Planned Parenthood pays for Uber to transport teens for abortion procedures without parental knowledge.

In a video interview with Progressive Massachusetts in April, attorney Christine Bonardi told interviewer Jonathan Cohn that she feels laws requiring parental consent or notification before a minor obtains an abortion is "part of the patriarchal society that we live in that women do not have the ability — no matter how old they are — to make decisions on their own about their own healthcare." Bonardi claims she is usually contacted by Planned Parenthood by text when a minor is seeking an abortion but must wait until the minor contacts her personally before she can assist the minor in obtaining a judicial bypass. A "judicial bypass" is an order from a judge stating that a minor may obtain an abortion for herself without adhering to a state's laws mandating parental involvement.

More/Video

Robin Smith: Pathogens, Pelosi, Policies ... They're Connected

Posted: 28 May 2020 05:00 AM PDT

San Francisco is losing residents because of policies that preceded coronavirus.

News headlines have reflected the movement of citizens out of several cities due to COVID-19 in recent days. The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, and others —including us — have noted the flight of residents to suburbia or other destinations to escape the densely populated areas hardest hit by this pathogen.

But it's not just individuals worried about catching a bug who are leaving large cities.

A few weeks ago, self-described moderate Tesla founder Elon Musk declared to his 34 million Twitter followers, "Take the red pill" — a reference to the movie "The Matrix" and the idea of being freed from a false construct of civilization. Tesla was being forced to close its Fremont, California, manufacturing facilities for a prolonged period, even as other states were reopening their economies following the complete societal shutdown.

More

Posted: 28 May 2020 11:51 AM PDT

Book claims Bill Clinton had an affair with Ghislaine Maxwell

Posted: 28 May 2020 04:00 AM PDT

Bill Clinton had an affair with British-born socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is accused of helping recruit underage victims for notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to a blockbuster new book.

The ex-president — who denies cheating on wife Hillary Clinton with Maxwell — reportedly engaged in the romps during overseas trips on Epstein's private plane, a customized Boeing 727 that's since become known as the "Lolita Express."

The nation's 42nd head of state also repeatedly sneaked out to visit Maxwell at her Upper East Side townhouse, as detailed in this exclusive excerpt.

More

Tracking Mobile Devices Through Ocean City, MD on Memorial Day Weekend

Posted: 28 May 2020 05:53 AM PDT