Friday, March 27, 2015

Wikileaks: Secret TPP "Investment Chapter" proposes tribunal for corporations to sue governments!


Who owns the world?

WikiLeaks Reveals TPP Proposal Allowing Corporations to Sue Nations
   
WikiLeaks has published a leaked chapter of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership — a global trade deal currently being negotiated between the United States and 11 Latin American and Asian countries. The TPP would cover 40 percent of the global economy, but details have been concealed from the public. Now, WikiLeaks has released the "Investment Chapter," which highlights the intent of U.S.-led negotiators to create a tribunal where corporations can sue governments if their laws interfere with a company’s claimed future profits. WikiLeaks warns the plan could "chill the adoption of sane" health and environmental policies.


Question: Let's imagine. How would this play out in real life if adopted, in the context of Toyota and SUA?


Theoretically, a lawsuit could be filed by Skadden on behalf of Toyota, against NHTSA, Congress, and the DOJ, which would then be the defendants!


The lawsuit would claim that the US government has unlawfully interfered with Toyota's basic right to make a profit with whatever cars it cares to sell, no matter how unsafe they may be, and has violated Toyota's free speech rights re its claims of safety in its advertising.




Monday, March 23, 2015

FTI Consulting - Ex-FBI outfit used by Toyota defense counsel, seeks attorney-redactors


FTI Consulting is the outfit used by Toyota defense counsel Skadden, Arp to prepare a protocol for digging into every last bit of my computer's metadata. Thankfully, they don't seem to have gotten the court's OK to do that.

Meanwhile, this intriguing ad showed up in my inbox today courtesy of The Posse List. |FTI now must be tasked for a gargantuan amount of redaction by some Japanese corporate client. Who could that be?  Takata? [UPDATE: The FTI consulting ad was supplemented two days later with ads for similar projects in LA and SanFran. Hmm!]

Redaction is the stock-in-trade of every good defense counsel whose client is in a hot spot.

Question: Who gets to peek behind the redactions to see if they are justified? My guess...no one.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

At Israel's Technion, kids design next gen self driving cars


Where robotics and autonomous cars meet

Self-driving cars appear to be the next big thing in the auto industry, and if Apple or Google are looking for engineers to help develop the driverless vehicles they are working on, they need look no further than the sixth grade in Karnei Shomron, in central Israel. Students there designed a driverless robot car which won first place in the elementary school portion of this year’s RoboTraffic contest, where kids from elementary and high schools get together to develop tech ideas to enhance road safety.
timesofisrael.com/in-technion-contest-kids-design-next-generation-of-self-driving-cars/

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Toyota RAV4 V6 SPORT Owner: "THE BRAKES LOST POWER AND ENGINE QUICKLY REDLINED TO 6000 RPM"



2011 V6 Sport Unintended Acceleration/Braking Failure

TwinCitiesRAV4
03-09-2015, 04:00 PM  Thread Starter  #1
(see posts: #1, #4, #7, #11, #22, #32, #38, #51)
(2011 Toyota RAV4 V6 Sport)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
TwinCitiesRAV4
(Thread Starter)
(page 1, # 1)
Seeking Minnesotans, and especially Twin City residents, to possibly combine our efforts in the court of law. Seeking specifically 5 other individuals who have enxperienced a loss of braking power coupled with unintended redline acceleration.
My NHTSA Report:
Date Complaint Filed: 02/06/2015
Component(s): ELECTRICAL SYSTEM , ENGINE , SERVICE BRAKES
Date of Incident: 02/05/2015
NHTSA ID Number: 10681838
0 Associated Documents
•Crash:No
•Fire:No
•Number of Injuries:0
• Number of Deaths:0
Manufacturer: Toyota Motor Corporation
Vehicle Identification No. (VIN):  2T3RK4DV5BW...
SUMMARY:
 
I WAS DRIVING DOWN SUBURBAN ROAD AT APPROX 20-25 MPH BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO COME TO A COMPLETE STOP AT A RED LIGHT. THE BRAKES LOST POWER AND ENGINE QUICKLY REDLINED TO 6000 RPM. IT WAS ONLY BY IMMEDIATELY SHIFTING INTO NEUTRAL THAT I AVOIDED RUNNING A REDLIGHT AND PLOWING THROUGH AN INTERSECTION. I PLACED IN PARK AND SHUT OFF ENGINE WITHIN 3-5 SECONDS TO AVOID ENGINE DAMAGE. I WAITED ABOUT 10-15 SECONDS STUCK AT A RED LIGHT BEFORE RESTARTING ENGINE AND LIMPING IT BACK HOME LESS THAN HALF A MILE AWAY.
 
This is my 4th Toyota, and I have received ZERO support from U.S. Corporate, despite numerous e-mails and phone calls. Even went so far as send certified typed letters internationally to Japan Corporate, but no response at all. It seems that this formerly illustrious company is more concerned with saving face than lives. Feel free to respond if you have an advice or want to participate. Ironically, I had an 09 Camry V6 that never once had a hiccup, but I guess these symptoms are erratic and hard to duplicate.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
03-17-2015, 02:03 PM  #38  (page 4)
------------------------------------------------
TwinCitiesRAV4
(Thread Starter)
(page 4, #38)
The dealer was adamant that they couldn't access the black box,
and even if they could they wouldn't be able to share with me due
to proprietary concerns.

Monday, March 16, 2015

RAV4 owner: There is a multi-billion dollar problem here that has killed people





2011 V6 Sport Unintended Acceleration/Braking Failure
(page 3, post #22)  (Thread Starter)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TwinCitiesRAV4
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2015
(Thread Starter)
 
03-15-2015, 01:55 PM  Thread Starter  post #22 of 25
Well, all my letter writing got me a scheduled call from a Toyota executive from California HQ on Tuesday. I'll update on what their "solution" might be, but in all honesty, if one of you 7 or 8 forum members who have experienced this are interested in getting an actual resolution, let's come up with something soon.
As far as the size 13 snow boots and stepping on both pedals at the same time...c'mon man. We're talking about coming to a dead stop and having the engine REDLINE at WOT. And as for the sliding floormat argument, again more coulda been corporate culture nonsense. There is a multi-billion dollar problem here that has killed people, it's just not as obvious as GM's 46 people killing debacle with the ignition.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Akio-kun's "nice" and "no"

(Here is written something to make the boss sound cute)


More realistically, the "nice" stamp is for anything that will fill his own pocket and the pockets of his shareholders. The "no" stamp is for workers who ask for raises and for customers who ask for explanations of why their vehicles suddenly accelerate. Atta boy! Akio-kun! When will you start saying "nice" to anyone who will tell the truth about the SUA defects?

Monday, March 2, 2015

TPP Leak Confirms Measures To Criminalize Corporate Whistleblowing

A modern chain gang.



from the no-public-interest-or-free-speech-exemptions deptAs Mike has reported, the core of the newly-leaked TPP chapter is about granting Big Pharma's wish-list, with other worrying stuff for the copyright industry's benefit thrown in for good measure. But hidden away in the chapter's 70+ pages there's something very different -- and very dangerous. Here's how the Australian newspaper The Age explains it:
The draft text provides that TPP countries will introduce criminal penalties for unauthorised access to, misappropriation or disclosure of trade secrets, defined as information that has commercial value because it is secret, by any person using a computer system.
That's clearly an incredibly broad definition of trade secret, and will allow a vast range of materials to enjoy this kind of protection. And by requiring criminal penalties, TPP aims to make that protection very serious indeed:
TPP countries may criminalise all such disclosures or, if they wish, limit criminal penalties to cases that involve "commercial advantage or financial gain"; are directed by or benefit "a foreign economic entity"; or are "detrimental to a [TPP] party's economic interests, international relations, or national defence or national security."
Notice that those are simply options: the default position is to criminalize everything. Moreover, even those "limited" cases could be applied very widely. Particularly troubling is the following aspect of the proposed text:
There are no public interest or free speech exemptions. Criminalisation of disclosure would apply to journalists working for commercial media organisations or wherever the leak was considered harmful to the "economic interests" of any TPP country.
The chilling effect that this would have on investigative reporting is evident. It would also represent yet another powerful reason not to become a corporate whistleblower.
...

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Jake Adelstein quotes Katharine Graham: News is what someone wants suppressed




News is what someone wants suppressed. Everything else is advertising. What we print & what we don't print matter a lot. ~Katherine Graham

********************************************************************************************

[Jake Adelstein is one of Japan's leading experts on yakuza gangsters. He wrote the book Tokyo Vice. He lives under police protection.]

Toyota and The Yamaguchi-gumi Kodo-kai are very similar. Both headquartered in Nagoya and ruled by surly despots with bad eyesight.




Excerpt: CARS &  TIRES magazine editor, Jeff Whiskey, was very impressed with the new model. “It’s pretty cool how the car can pretend to be you. It can totally imitate your voice and be like on the phone and say, ‘Hey, Mom–I brought you some flowers’. Because like my Mom never answers text messages. Then she just has to walk down the steps and get them from the car. It’s these little ‘human touches’ that make it such a revolutionary  product.”

Moon is shining, stars and planets aligning


Waiting at night to see what happens next.