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.

wikileaks_reveals_tpp_proposal_allowing_corporations_to_sue_nations

https://wikileaks.org/tpp-investment/WikiLeaks-TPP-Investment-Chapter.pdf

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.

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.

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/

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)

http://www.rav4world.com/forums/96-4-3-general/181625-2011-v6-sport-unintended-acceleration-braking-failure.html

(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)

http://www.rav4world.com/forums/96-4-3-general/181625-2011-v6-sport-unintended-acceleration-braking-failure-4.html

------------------------------------------------

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.

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)

http://www.rav4world.com/forums/96-4-3-general/181625-2011-v6-sport-unintended-acceleration-braking-failure-3.html

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

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?

TPP Leak Confirms Measures To Criminalize Corporate Whistleblowing

A modern chain gang.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141016/07534628847/tpp-leak-confirms-measures-to-criminalize-corporate-whistleblowing.shtml

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.

...

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

Jake Adelstein/中本哲史 ‏@jakeadelstein  2h2 hours ago

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.]

 

Jake Adelstein/中本哲史‏@jakeadelstein

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

Going further back, Jake had a few funny moments about Toyo-duh http://www.japansubculture.com/toyoda-designs-100-driverless-car-haru2001-worlds-safest-vehicle-says-firm/#.UmZYcpSEEDt.twitter

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.

Next, next!

Girl: Next, next, let's go look!

Friend: You want more?

I'm having a simply grand time looking through all these documents again. Next, next, each one is more interesting than the last...

Step right up and place your bets on Skadden's early-morning filing of emergency injunction

Short odds.

Morning is rolling around to California right around now. Lisa must be waking up.

Soo....Ladies and gents, step right up and place your bets that first thing this morning Skadden will file for an emergency injunction against me to try to prevent me from deleting files that the court ordered me to delete.

Timeline of drafting Toyota's prospective lawsuit vs. Betsy.

Draft 1 2012

Draft 2 April, 2013

Draft 3   December, 2013

Draft 4 April, 2014

Draft 5  September, 2014

Draft 6  January, 2015

Court order for 88 docs destruction, and a fascinating read of Toyota's secret SUA documents

Fascinating.

The court wrote its own order insead of choosing Toyota's proposed order or mine.
Court order for destruction of 88 documents

Meanwhile, I continue to try to comply with the court's original order to destroy the 88 documents. When we submitted our proposed order on February 11, we reported to the court that I am deleting files in an effort to comply as soon as possible with the court's original order. It seemed to me that Toyota and I will never come to any agreement on the way the documents are to be deleted, so I might as well delete them. Toyota's attitude is so persistently bullying, I think with an intent that is far more malevolent than simple implementation of the current court order, that I am completely sure that we will never be able to agree on a protocol for deleting these documents. So I may as well do my best to acomplish what the court wants.

I am going forward very simply. Read. Delete. Delete. Delete. Empty Reycle Bin. Wipe Free Space 35 times. Delete some more. It seems plainly obvious that the court's sole intent is that these docs be GONE. OK, no argument. I am disappearing them.

But it is time consuming, I juggle this with my translation work, and I cannot be certain to get every last document. Who knows what might be lurking among temp files, zipped files, recoverable files, and so forth. I am not a geek. So that is why we need a forensics expert--not to delve into every nook and cranny and every bit of metadata, but once I have done the best I can, to simply make sure every last bit and byte of these docs are gone. Duh.

While the Wipe Free Space utility is spinning merrily in the background, I continue to be ever more fascinated with what I am reading in the documents, the ones that are not under the jurisdiction of the court. I had forgotten, after several years, just how much these documents contain. If only some persevering and technically qualified investigator took the time to connect the dots. The admissions! The dates! And the names! Wow. I can't believe all the names. Well, I can believe them. Most especially, the names.  Too bad the US government has not been interested.

Patience, But it is hard to be patient with a disinterested government when, as Hike Heiskell said recently to a reporter, more SUA incidents are happening all the time.

WSJ: Akio Toyoda and Shinzo Abe, a happy couple

The key to happiness.

WSJ abe-and-toyoda-marriage-of-mutual-need

Akio-kun's personal net worth is already over $1 billion, and Toyota is sitting on a cash pile of more than $48 billion and has a market cap of over $200 billion.

Question: How much money does he need to make before his attention shifts to workers' needs and to complying with functional safety standards to keep his global customers truly safe?

PS Does this gift of a car count as a bribe under the FCPA?

Hilliard: Toyota lawyers "desperate" after 60% liability verdict in Koua Fong Lee case

A new level of desperation in Toyota's motion to federal court..

The Toyota Motor Co., which was ordered by a jury to pay $10.9 million as a result of a fatal accident in St. Paul, has asked U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery to make Koua Fong Lee pay more than $4 million of the award because the jury found Lee 40 percent at fault in the crash.

Bob Hilliard, the Texas attorney who represented Lee in the federal trial that ended earlier this month, was informed of the motion by a reporter. Hilliard called the proposal “baseless and desperate.”

Hilliard said that Toyota never filed a counterclaim against Lee, 37, the driver of the 1996 Toyota Camry. “They never brought him in as a third-party defendant,” Hilliard said. “They can’t now seek a contribution from him. It’s ridiculous.”

Star Tribune: Toyota asks court to make Lee pay

Toyota Hilux in Netanyahu campaign ad attacking Israel's left

A not-so-funny campaign ad about a very unfunny topic.

Plot:

 ISIS fighters in Hilux ask which way to Jerusalem.

Guy in car answers "Take a left."

Campaign ad on YouTube 

Going places.

One day later, VICE news picks up the story

"Diamond Fuji" as sun sets over Mt. Fuji on Feb 16

Despite all of its troubles, foibles and faults, Japan is an amazing country, and there is much to admire in the Japanese people. 

Toyota's proposed court order does not include a lobotomy. : )

A lobotomy.

We are now waiting for the court to choose between Toyota's proposed order, or my proposed order, for the framework of complying with the court order to destroy 88 documents.

The court's choice is between Toyota's most expansive vision, where their representative gets to see everything on my computers, or mine, which directly accomplishes what we think the court wants--simply to destroy 88 documents. I think that the court might also be free to mix and match, or order a compromise.

So it may take some time before we hear back from the court. Meanwhile, I am busy trying to delete the documents on my own, and this gives me the ability to advise the computer forensics vendor what to watch out for to make sure they are all destroyed.

Of course, this also gives me another chance to review the documents. I am using my fully functioning brain to review them with gusto. What fun! I also have much more legal knowledge than I had last time I saw them or when when I first translated them. Skadden and my own lawyers are very good teachers. Reporters are also good teachers. So now I can see far more clearly what the documents contain. I suppose that even in light of Skadden's persistent enthusiasm for overbroad interpretations of the court's orders, they will not request the court to order a lobotomy. And no one has said that I cannot re-read them to my heart's content, for now. So whatever is in my memory can stay there.

Senator Markey report: Hackers can get into most "connected cars"

WASHINGTON – Virtually all “connected cars” on the road are vulnerable to hackers who could steal data or gain control of the vehicle, a report from a U.S. senator said Feb. 9.

The report prepared by the staff of Senator Ed Markey said the wireless connectivity and Internet access available on the vehicles opens up security gaps that could be exploited for malicious purposes.

The study found these security weaknesses in “nearly 100 percent of cars on the market” and noted that most automobile manufacturers were unaware of or unable to report on past hacking incidents.

The senator’s staff, which collected data from 16 major auto manufacturers, cited earlier studies on some vehicles which showed how hackers can get into the controls of some popular vehicles, causing them to suddenly accelerate, turn, de-activate brakes, activate the horn, control headlights, and modify the speedometer and gas gauge readings.

...

“These findings reveal that there is a clear lack of appropriate security measures to protect drivers against hackers who may be able to take control of a vehicle or against those who may wish to collect and use personal driver information,” the report said.

The report obtained responses from 16 major global manufacturers: BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo.

hackers-can-get-connected-cars/#.VOAh5vmsW09 

Tacoma owner, 2015: "engine accelerates on its own"

"Something is wrong with the dam thing." Drifterss--you are not alone.  02-13-2015, 07:28 PM   #1 drifterss454 [OP]  Junior Member Name: stephen Joined: Jun 2011, #58029 Location: sydney nova scotia Gender: Male Posts: 16 11 tacoma4x4 sr5 engine accelerates on its own I have a serious problem with my 2011 Tacoma,4 cyl auto,access cab sr5 4x4. it went from an idle to full aceration with my wife pushing the brake pedal to the floor and holding on for dear life,this has happened twice and Toyota says that there is nothing wrong with the truck,has anybody else had this problem with their tacomas,I'd sure love to know. something is wrong with the dam thing,I don't care what Toyota tells me,wife is scared to drive the thing anymore,she was lucky twice,but maybe not a 3rd time if it happens again. please message me if anybody has had the same thing happen to them,thanks http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/4-cylinder/363064-engine-accelerates-its-own.html

"Faithfully encompass the relief indicated the Court's December 17 order [sic]" !?~~~????

Really, Lisa?

Toyota lawyer Lisa must have been in a rush. She failed to see the clear pattern that the court has not accepted her over-reaching demands in the past, so she has gone ahead and made some more. When I dared to offer a more reasonable approach to complying with the court order, she seems to have been miffed, indeed quite miffed, enough miffed that she stayed late at the office just to remind the court with an extra page of argument that Toyota deserves to take a deep look into everything on my computers, and how dare I stand in her way. Lisa, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at your persistently unrealistic demands. So I choose to laugh--at you. Your talents are wasted on such a dishonest client.

My proposal to comply with court order

Toyota's objection to my proposal

Toyota's proposal to comply with court order

As you can read in these filings, Toyota wants to send one of its people to stand and watch as a forensic tech person goes through the entire contents of my two computers--when all the court ordered was to destroy 88 documents.

Let's see what happens. In the end, the court will decide.

Settlement negotiations - Toyota's "Secret Sauce" vs. Betsy's "Let it all hang out"

What's in the secret sauce?

It may look yummy, but secrets are poison by definition.

Now I presume that Kevin Minnick of Toyota's defense firm Skadden, Arps and presumably also his bosses Lisa Gilford and Tom Nolan, and presumably an inside counsel with their client Toyota, have all received my answer and proposed revisions to the revisions that they made to my draft settlement proposal. Round and round we go.

Last week on this blog I promised "more definitive news" about this matter this week, but since all the details are coming to me from my lawyers, dang it, for now I cannot disclose them without risking my privilege. That is the nature of this game. Let me say that I have some amazing lawyers.

Anyway, at a very high level, I suppose that I can disclose this negotiation is like a microcosm of the whole issue of Toyota SUA, where there has been a huge but fluctuating public demand for information, and a nearly total blackout of information coming from Toyota. Its marketing secret sauce is just that, its secrets. They make money, but it is poison.

I looked around for some nice-to-hear music for "let it all hang out," but there's nothing fit for this blog. My son Moses is becoming such a Beatles fan that we are listening to that music all the time now, morning and night. I have to beg off when I cannot manage to concentrate on a heavy-duty contract translation with all that "yeah, yeah, yeah" in the background.

How about this, which fits the situation only in part, and it is directed at Lisa, who keeps trying to come in through the bathroom window when the court has shut the front door on what she wants.

Beatles: She came in through the bathroom window

Toyota settlement negotiations - update

croak.

With my splendid legal team, I am putting the final touches on my response to Toyota's proposed changes to my draft settlement agreement. 

We will be sending the response over to Toyota lawyer Kevin Minnick and his bosses Lisa and Tom within the next day or two, I think, and that will conclude our current round of settlement negotiations. 

I think that they will be displeased with it. But let's see what they come up with.

Car security loophole results: HACKERS STOLE 6,000 CARS IN LONDON LAST YEAR

Vehicle electronics vulnerability results on the streets of London.

In 2014, more than 6,000 cars were stolen in London (an average of 17 a day) by hackers using the inadequately secured OBD port under the steering wheel to download the vehicle’s information onto a blank key. And all it takes is a few seconds.There was an 8% increase in vehicle theft across the U.K. capital in the last year....

While cars are stolen without the keys throughout the day, every day, intelligence suggests that this peaks between 10 pm and 4 am, when it is dark, Sundays to Thursdays. The criminals then drive the vehicles into the home counties, where most are stripped down into their component parts and then shipped abroad. They are sold overseas, particularly in Africa where specific types of vehicles are in high demand.

hackers-stole-6000-cars-in-london-last-year

BMW is a frequent target.

bmw-security-loophole-leads-to-rise-in-car-thefts

Settlement negotiations with Toyota - what this is like

grey scale. continuum.

...it came to my mind that I should consider what I would say to myself if I came to myself for counsel. In fact, I do that all the time, as any rational person does, but there is a tendency, in my thinking, for the opposed sides of a question to cancel each other more or less algebraically--this is true, but on the other hand, so is that, so I discover a kind of equivalency of considerations that is interesting but resolves nothing. If I put my thinking down on paper perhaps I can think more rigorously. Where a resolution is necessary it must also be possible. Not deciding is really one of the two choices that are available to me, so decision must be allowed its moment, too. That is, as behavior, not deciding to act would be identical with deciding not to act. If I were to put deciding not to act at one end of a continuuum of possibility and deciding to act at the other end, the whole intervening space would be given over to not deciding, which would mean not acting. I believe this makes sense.

-- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (pp. 164-5)

For automakers, what goes around has come around

Going around.

After automakers have watched regulators' futile efforts to catch up to their electronics technology,  thus evading accountability for infinite numbers of latent and manifest defects, these selfsame automakers must now try to catch up to hackers. Automaker karma may be coming around.

Autoblog: bmw-hack-cyber-security-warning-feature-video/

A cyber-security hole that left more than two million BMWs vulnerable may be the most serious breach the auto industry has faced in its emerging fight against car hackers.
Security experts are not only concerned that researchers found weaknesses inside the company's Connected Drive remote-services system. They're worried about how the hackers gained entry.
German researchers spoofed a cell-phone station and sent fake messages to a SIM card within a BMW's telematics system. Once inside, they locked and unlocked car doors. Other researchers have demonstrated it's possible to hack into a car and control its critical functions, but what separates this latest exploit from others is that it was conducted remotely.
In an industry that's just coming to grips with the security threats posed by connectivity in cars, the possibility of a remote breach has been an ominous prospect. The fact it has now occurred may mean a landmark threshold has been crossed.
"It's as close as I've seen to a genuine, remote attack on telematics," said Mike Parris, head of the secure car division at SBD, a UK-based automotive technology consulting company. "At this point, the OEMs are trying to play a game of catch up."

Automakers will never catch up.

Bob Marley - Goes Around, Comes Around

Billy Preston - Will it Go Round in Circles

Settlement negotiations with Toyota

A raven.

I am considering Toyota's response to my latest settlement proposal. Look for more definitive news about the situation sometime next week. Meanwhile, enjoy a little riddle. 

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"
[...]
"Have you guessed the riddle yet?" the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
"No, I give it up," Alice replied. "What's the answer?"
"I haven't the slightest idea," said the Hatter.
"Nor I," said the March Hare.
Alice sighed wearily. "I think you might do something better with the time," she said, "than wasting it in asking riddles that have no answers."