Mornings on the Mall
Thursday July 14, 2016
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor
5am – A/B/C
White House: Ginsburg “Didn’t Earn The Nickname ‘The Notorious RBG’ For Nothing”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest laughs off concerns about whether statements made this week by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about the Republican candidate for president might have been inappropriate, saying: “she didn’t earn the nickname ‘The Notorious RBG’ for nothing.”
Earnest was responding to questions about Ginsburg’s statement to the Associated Press that she couldn’t imagine what the country would be like with Trump as president, and that she was jokingly considering moving to New Zealand because of it.
George Washington University Law professor Jonathan Turley criticized Justice Ginsburg last night for criticizing Trump, saying that her comments “undermined the integrity of the Court.”
Later in today’s WH press briefing, Earnest also declined to comment on Donald Trump’s response to Ginsburg’s comments, saying only that he would “not call her competance into question.”
Trump called for the 83-year-old associate justice to resign over the comments on Twitter this morning, saying that they demonstrate that “her mind is shot.”
“I think it’s a disgrace to the court, and I think she should apologize to the court,” Trump also said in an interview with The New York Times. “And I would hope that she would get off the court as soon as possible. I think it’s highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign, frankly.”
5am – D
LeBron And Friends Opened The ESPYs With A Speech You Need To Hear
The 2016 ESPY Awards wasted no time before jumping into what is and hopefully will remain on the minds of millions of Americans: gun violence and the use of force by too many police officers against people of color.
As the broadcast started Wednesday, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James took the stage silently with their hands folded. No posters behind them. No bells and whistles. No nothing. Just four successful, hard-working black men, pleading with their country for some sanity in the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
“The events of the past week have put a spotlight on the injustice, destruction and anger that plague so many of us,” Anthony said. “We cannot ignore the realities of the current state of America.”
“The system is broken,” Anthony added “The problems are not new. The violence is not new. And the racial divide definitely is not new. But the urgency to create change is at an all-time high.”
The decision to open the show was the four close friends’ idea, and comes on the heels of an op-ed in The Guardian by Anthony, in which he asked athletes to use their voice to force change, even suggesting a message of some sort next month at the Olympic Games in Brazil.
Paul paid homage to great athlete-activists of the past, both living and deceased, including Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe and Muhammad Ali. “They set a model for what athletes should stand for,” he said.
Wade, who recently joined the Chicago Bulls, discussed not only violence by police, but by civilians against others, especially in the city of the team he just joined. “The racial profiling has to stop. The shoot-to-kill mentality has to stop. Not seeing the value of black and brown bodies has to stop,” he said. “But also, the retaliation has to stop. The endless gun violence in places like Chicago, Dallas, not to mention Orlando, has to stop. Enough. Enough is enough.”
Finally, the camera moved in on James, who said that even when when Americans feel most frustrated with the system, and more especially then, they should fight to improve it, not give up. “That’s not acceptable,” James said. “It’s time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves what are we doing to create change?”
“Let’s use this moment as a call to action for all professional athletes to educate ourselves, explore these issues, speak up, use our influence, and renounce all violence,” James added. “And most importantly, go back to our communities. Invest our time our resources, help rebuild them, help strengthen them, help change them. We all have to do better.”
5am – E
Swing-state stunner: Trump has edge in key states
Did Donald Trump really just surge past Hillary Clinton in two of the election’s most important battlegrounds?
New swing-state polls released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University show Trump leading Clinton in Florida and Pennsylvania — and tied in the critical battleground state of Ohio. In three of the states that matter most in November, the surveys point to a race much closer than the national polls, which have Clinton pegged to a significant, mid-single-digit advantage over Trump, suggest.
The race is so close that it’s within the margin of error in each of the three states. Trump leads by three points in Florida — the closest state in the 2012 election — 42 percent to 39 percent. In Ohio, the race is tied, 41 percent to 41 percent. And in Pennsylvania — which hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential nominee since 1988 — Trump leads, 43 percent to 41 percent.
Clinton’s campaign responded to the surveys by cautioning that while the swing states were always expected to be close, the urgent stakes of a possible Trump election remain high.”
We know the battlegrounds are going to be close til the end. That’s why we need to keep working so hard,” Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon tweeted Wednesday morning. “Trump is a serious danger, folks.”
Trump, meanwhile, thanked his supporters for the strong showing, tweeting a celebratory series of images featuring Fox News graphics showing the Quinnipiac results. “Thank you!” Trump tweeted, adding “#ImWithYou,” an implicit shot at the Clinton campaign’s initial slogan, “I’m With Her.”
In another blow to Clinton, a McClatchy-Marist poll of registered voters nationwide released on Wednesday showed Clinton’s lead over Trump slip to three points, 42 percent to 39 percent, after leading by six points in a Fox News poll conducted in late June.
But other polls give Clinton an advantage in all three states. Including the new Quinnipiac surveys, POLITICO’s Battleground State polling average — which include the five most-recent polls in each state — gives Clinton a 3.2-point lead in Florida, a 2.8-point edge in Ohio and a larger, 4.6-point advantage in Pennsylvania.
6am – A/B/C
The Downside to Cord-Cutting
Tech Fix
By BRIAN X. CHEN JULY 13, 2016
This year, Michael Gartenberg, a former technology analyst, took the brave step of canceling his cable subscription. After six months of tinkering with alternatives, he went running back.
Mr. Gartenberg had subscribed to PlayStation Vue, Sony’s online video service that offers a slimmer bundle of TV channels than a traditional cable subscription and for about half the price. Yet he kept running into problems: Many of his favorite channels were missing, like CW and CBS. And after a power failure in his home, he got locked out of his Vue account because his internet address was reset and Sony thought he had switched locations.
Mr. Gartenberg eventually wondered whether Vue was worth the money he was saving. “At that point, there had to be better alternatives than this, and it turned out there was,” he said. “It was cable.”
Mr. Gartenberg’s return to cable is antithetical to the accelerating growth of so-called cord-cutters, the people who have parted ways with cable in favor of streaming video services like Netflix and Hulu. Last year, there were 4.9 million cord-cutters in the United States, up 11 percent from the year before, according to the research firm eMarketer. The number of cord-cutting options is also proliferating, with more content providers like HBO, Showtime and Nickelodeon offering apps for streaming their content without a cable account.
Yet the overwhelming majority of Americans — about 100 million homes — still cling to cable.
What could be getting in the way of cutting the cord? To assess this, I tried Sony’s Vue and Dish Network’s similar streaming service, Sling TV, which also offers a slimmer bundle of TV channels than traditional cable. I decided to compare the two TV bundles rather than stand-alone apps like HBO Go, Netflix and Hulu, because Vue and Sling TV were designed to replace traditional cable packages.
After testing the two for a week, I had an answer: Neither streaming service felt like an adequate substitute for a cable package, largely because of content restrictions, broadcast delays and the difficulty of using a game controller with one of the services.
Comparing the Bundles
What do Sony’s Vue and Sling TV actually offer? Vue’s starter bundle has more than 55 channels, including ESPN, NBC and Disney, for $30 a month. The higher-tier bundles have 70 channels a month for $35 a month and 100 channels for $45 a month.
Sling TV’s base bundle of about 25 channels, which includes ESPN, AMC and CNN, starts at $20 a month. From there, you can add mini bundles, like an extra $5 a month for a group of sports channels, or an additional $5 a month for a children’s bundle including Disney Junior and Nick Toons.
Users should be aware that Vue was designed primarily for Sony’s PlayStation 4, which costs about $350. That means the default setup is to use a game controller with the service, though Sony also offers a universal PlayStation 4 remote control that works with Vue for about $30.
Sony also offers Vue apps for iPhones, iPads and Android devices, as well as the Roku, Chromecast and Amazon Fire streaming gadgets.
Sling TV works on more devices, including iPhones, iPads and Android devices, plus Apple TV, the Amazon Fire, Roku, Chromecast and the Microsoft Xbox, among others.
Another difference is that Vue includes DVR, or the ability to record programs to watch later. You can tag your favorite shows and watch episodes for up to 28 days. Sling TV lacks this ability.
The Limitations
For longtime cable subscribers, the limitations on content on Vue and Sling TV may be the toughest to digest. The snags include delays in live broadcasts, the inability to fast-forward through some content, and some missing important channels.
With Sling TV, there were long delays when watching live sports. When streaming the Wimbledon tournament, for example, tennis matches were at least 30 seconds behind the live broadcast of the same match on a cable box. This defeats the purpose of watching live sports — the scores I saw on the screen were behind the scores shown on cable TV or those popping up on Twitter.
Sling TV said a number of factors caused broadcast delays, including the internet connection, type of content and channel. By contrast, there was no noticeable delay when watching live sports on Vue.
Both services also offer some programs for on-demand viewing, or the ability to watch them whenever you want — yet for many shows on both services, the services were forbidden to fast-forward through on-demand content. Sony and Sling said the inability to skip through some recorded content was because of agreements with content partners — in other words, they want you to watch the commercials. The old-school setup of a cable box with TiVo is still more convenient.
There are other restrictions, like some major channels missing from both bundles. Sling TV lacks CBS, CW and Discovery, among others. PlayStation Vue also lacks major channels including CW, BBC America and A&E.
Another limitation on Vue is that your PlayStation needs to stay put — meaning if you activated Vue in your house and then took the PlayStation to your family member’s house, you could not log in to Vue. Sony said that network providers designed this restriction to limit TV viewing to your home.
The Neighbor Test
Watching TV on a big screen is a group experience, so it’s important to be able to hand the remote control to others to let them channel surf. So I invited my neighbors over and asked them to do something simple with Vue and Sling TV: Find something they wanted to watch. They accomplished the tasks fairly quickly on both services, though they struggled with the PlayStation game controller.
One neighbor, who works for a utility company, took about three minutes to figure out how to use the PlayStation controller to load the TV guide and pick something to watch. His wife, a scientist, took about a minute. A third neighbor, a museum worker, fumbled with the controller for about four minutes before finding an episode of “Scandal.” They all found the universal remote control, which Sony sells separately, much more intuitive.
By contrast, the test subjects all immediately knew how to use Sling TV to pick TV shows or sports events they wanted to watch, using a Roku TV remote, largely because its interface was more streamlined than the Vue’s.
The Bottom Line
It’s tough to recommend either Vue or Sling TV as replacements for a majority of cable subscribers. Technologically, both Vue and Sling TV have better-designed software than a traditional cable box from Comcast, Time Warner or Charter. But because there are some missing major channels and annoying restrictions on how content can be watched, most consumers are better off sticking with cable.
Sports fans may enjoy getting access to ESPN and other sports channels on either Vue or Sling TV for less than the cost of a traditional cable subscription. But the broadcast delay on Sling TV is a deal breaker. And if you don’t regularly play video games, buying a PlayStation 4 just for watching sports is costly and impractical. (The Vue apps made for cheaper streaming devices, like Roku and Fire TV, aren’t as powerful as the PlayStation app.)
Roger Lynch, the chief executive of Sling TV, said the service gave people the flexibility to subscribe to bundles based on their preferences. “Everyone has their own reasons for becoming a Sling subscriber,” he said in an interview.
Eric Lempel, a marketing executive for Sony, said, “We wanted to give you all the channels that you want,” without the need to pay for hundreds of unnecessary channels.
For a small set of cable subscribers, both Vue and Sling TV will have all the channels they want, but they will also include unwanted channels, too.
In a perfect world, consumers could pick each channel they want and pay for it, à la carte. But the content providers still hold the cards, and there is no easy way to do that quite yet.
6am – D
Megyn Kelly and D.L. Hughley Battle: ‘The Only Place Racism Doesn’t Exist Is Fox News!’ (Mediaite)
During a segment on The Kelly File tonight, Megyn Kelly and D.L. Hughley went at one another about racism. Kelly told Hughley not to assume race is a factor in situations that few details are known about. Hughley told Kelly that his perspective as a black man has led him to see police, in particular, in a way that is different than how she might.
That sounds civilized typed out like that, but the actual interaction was very different. It all started when Hughley tersely informed Kelly that he hadn’t been aware Fox contributor Mark Fuhrman (of O.J. Simpson trial fame) was going to be speaking prior to his segment. From there, there was plenty of interrupting and at one point, Hughley insulted Fox News, sarcastically saying that the only places racism doesn’t seem to exist are FNC and police departments.
When he aimed at Fox again, laughing at the irony he saw in her telling him not to paint entire groups of people with a broad brush, Kelly abruptly ended the segment.
6am – E
Hillary Clinton makes campaign stop in Springfield (ABC)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Springfield Wednesday morning ahead of the Democratic National Convention later this month.
In the same building Abraham Lincoln made his historic “house divided” speech more than a century ago, Clinton called on Americans to unite.
“There is too much violence and hate in our country,” Clinton said.
After attacks on police in Dallas and the recent killing of two black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, Clinton argued the whole country must work to bridge racial divides.
“We ask too much of police and too little of everyone else,” Clinton said.
Her speech in Springfield focused on what divides Americans, including job opportunity. She said states like Illinois are losing too many jobs as factories and coal mines close down, spreading fear among workers.
“A sense of dislocation, even a sense of pessimism about whether America still holds anything for them,” Clinton said.
Clinton slammed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for sending what she calls an ugly message to America, referring to Trump’s promises to ban Muslims and deport eleven million illegal immigrants.
“Imagine if he did not just have Twitter or cable news to go after his critics and opponents, but also the IRS or the military for that matter,” Clinton said.
Clinton’s comments come as new polling data from Quinnipiac University shows Trump with the lead in key swing states, gaining ground thanks to voters who increasingly view Clinton as untrustworthy.
Clinton’s stop in the Illinois capitol comes just one day after former rival Bernie Sanders endorsed her campaign for president.
7am – A
INTERVIEW: Cliff May, President and Founder, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Obama’s Iran Experiment (Town Hall)
by Cliff May
A hypothetical question: Suppose the Islamic State wanted to buy some American airplanes, and promised not to use them to support terrorists. Would you be OK with that? I’m guessing not.
Now suppose that the Islamic Republic of Iran wanted to buy some American airplanes, and promised not to use them to support terrorists. This question is not hypothetical. This is something Tehran very much wants and President Obama is eager to provide. Are you OK with that?
Mr. Obama might argue that the Islamic State and the Islamic Republic are very different. I’d say, yes and no. For example, the Islamic State is a terrorist entity. The Islamic Republic, as the U.S. government acknowledges, is the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism.
The Islamic State slaughters Christians and Yazidis. The Islamic Republic persecutes Baha’i but tolerates Christians — so long as they accept second-class status. Both the Islamic State and the Islamic Republic execute members of what they don’t call the LGBT community.
Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, has the intention, if not yet the capability, to bring “death” to America and Israel. The same is true of Abu Bakr-al Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State. Supporters of the Islamic State have murdered dozens of Americans in America (while also slitting the throats of several in Syria). Iranian-backed Shia militias have murdered hundreds of Americans in Iraq and Lebanon (though an Iranian attempt to blow up a Washington, D.C. restaurant in 2011 failed).
There are, to be sure, stylistic differences between the Islamic State and the Islamic Republic. Jihadis for the former proudly take selfies while holding bleeding human heads by the hair. Jihadis for the latter probably find that gauche. Take Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, often described in the media as a moderate. He speaks impeccable English and you can bet he knows which fork to use when dining with Secretary of State John Kerry at expensive Viennese restaurants.
But two years ago, he laid a wreath on the Beirut grave of Imad Mugniyeh, the Hezbollah commander responsible for numerous terrorist atrocities, including the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 US Marines.
The current debate over whether to sell aircraft to Iran stems from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – the deal President Obama cut with Iran’s rulers one year ago, on July 14, 2015. He has repeatedly asserted that it prevents Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. In reality, restrictions on Iran’s nuclear weapons program will disappear after eight years – assuming that Iran’s rulers don’t cheat (which they already are as I’ll outline in a moment).
In exchange for Iran mothballing parts of its nuclear weapons program, many of the toughest American and international economic sanctions have been lifted. Iran’s rulers now have access to $100 billion in what had been blocked assets.
As expected, Iran’s economy is recovering. Nevertheless, Ayatollah Khamenei is dissatisfied. He recently charged that Americans were creating “Iranophobia so no one does business with Iran.”
In response, Secretary of State John Kerry has been telling Europeans and anyone else who would listen about all the marvelous investment opportunities available in Iran. Soon after, Boeing announced a $25 billion deal to sell and lease aircraft to government-owned Iran Air.
Iran’s rulers say the aircraft will be used only for civilian transportation. But it’s no secret that they’ve been running an illicit airlift of weapons and fighters to Syria where Hezbollah, their proxy militia, as well as elite units of their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are taking part in the Syrian civil war – a conflict that has claimed as many as 400,000 lives and displaced millions.
Last Thursday a House subcommittee held a hearing on “The Implications of U.S. Aircraft Sales to Iran” (at which my two FDD colleagues, Mark Dubowitz and Eric Lorber, testified). At about the same time, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency revealed in its annual report that Iran’s “clandestine” efforts to illegally procure nuclear technology have continued “at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.” Among other things, Iran has been trying “to buy parts for missiles that could be fitted with nuclear warheads.”
Referencing the report, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the German parliament that recent Iranian missile launches were “in conflict” with a U.N. Security Council resolution. Reuters reported that a confidential report by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also had found Iran’s missile launches inconsistent “with the constructive spirit” of the JCPOA.
Hours later, the House passed, with bipartisan support, two amendments to block the sales of aircraft to Iran. We’ll see if the Senate follows suit.
Meanwhile, revelations about Iran’s behavior keep on coming. Over the weekend, based on “intelligence data and reports from the 16 German states,” my Berlin-based FDD colleague Benjamin Weinthal reported that “Iran’s illicit proliferation activities span eight German states and involve a range of activities to advance its chemical and biological warfare, as well as its nuclear and missile programs.”
Let’s be charitable and consider the JCPOA an experiment. If President Obama showed Iran’s rulers respect, there was a chance they would respond by making an effort to “get right with the world” – toning down their jihadi rhetoric and revolutionary ambitions. Given an opportunity to make their country prosperous, they’d stop pursuing nuclear weapons and supporting terrorism. Feeling less threatened, they’d choose to peacefully coexist with their neighbors and ease repression on their citizens.
But that experiment has now been run. You know the results. Does President Obama? Or does he consider the Iran deal so essential to his legacy that he couldn’t possibly acknowledge its failure? On Friday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said he had “absolutely no indication that Iran has procured any materials in violation of the JCPOA.” Are you OK with that?
7am – B/C
Bear breaks into car in Colo., spends night inside an SUV in Colorado with a bear trapped inside. (CBS DENVER)
Campers are being warned to keep food secure after a curious bear opened the back hatch of an SUV in Colorado and spent the night inside, trying to get out, CBS Denver reported.
“She said ‘Annie, there’s a bear in your car.’ And I thought she meant it had broken a window and I was like ‘Okay, that’s life,'” said Annie Bruecker, who woke up to an unexpected surprise after camping at Chief Hosa Campground Monday night.
It wasn’t the call a pair of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies were expecting around 9 a.m. Tuesday.
“Never inside a car before. I’ve had bears inside a house but usually they’re gone before we get there. … This is the first one he’s still been there when I got there,” said Deputy Josh Tillman.
He and Deputy Brian McLaughlin captured video of the release.
“When we surprised him he batted the rear window at us which scared us both. He had to have opened the door,” said McLaughlin.
Bruecker said all her car windows and doors were closed.
“When the door came open the bear jumped out kind of in my direction. I made a loud yell at him and it startled him and he took off the other direction like we wanted him to,” said Tillman.
The bear was unharmed, but the same can’t be said for Bruecker’s car.
“My whole ceiling was ripped, the plastic from my sunroof cover was ripped out. My steering wheel was chewed, as was every other piece of my car,” she said.
It was towed and is likely a total loss.
“I’m kind of sad, and a little mad,” said Bruecker.
Items inside may not be salvageable.
“The bears don’t smell good, they don’t smell good,” she said.
Bruecker said she had picked up some food within the past day, but it had been removed from the car. The only other thing the bear could have been after was a crushed can of lemonade.
Drones to unleash vaccine-laced M&Ms in bid to save endangered ferrets (The Guardian)
The US government is set to unleash drones that fire vaccine-covered M&Ms in a bid to save the endangered black-footed ferret, a species that is facing a plague epidemic across America’s great plains.
The US Fish and Wildlife (FWS) has developed a plan to bombard ferret habitat in Montana with the vaccine, which will be administered via specially designed drones that will be able to shoot M&Ms in three directions simultaneously.
The vaccines will be targeted at the prairie dog population at the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge in north-eastern Montana. Black footed ferrets – North America’s only native ferret – are completely dependent upon prairie dogs, which are a type of burrowing rodent, for their food and shelter.
Both black-footed ferrets and prairie dogs are susceptible to the sylvatic plague, a flea-borne disease spread from rats that were introduced from ships arriving in California in the 1800s. While individual ferrets can be vaccinated by an injection, wildlife officials have found it difficult to protect prairie dogs over large areas.
Black-footed ferrets feast upon prairie dogs and invade their burrows, meaning that the disappearance of their co-dependent animal would prove disastrous for the species. Prairie dogs are considered a “keystone” species due to their importance to a range of animals, such as eagles, owls and coyotes.
“We dropped the vaccine out of a bag while walking around, but that’s very hard to do over thousands of acres,” said Randy Machett, a FWS biologist. “Spraying burrows with insecticide to kill the fleas is also labor intensive and not a long-term solution. So we are working with private contractors to develop equipment to drop the vaccine uniformly across an area, rather than one hog getting to eat a big pile of them.”
Machett said a “glorified gumball machine” has been devised to dispense the vaccine. This device can be fitted to a drone, which will use its GPS to reliably drop vaccines at 30ft intervals. The drone will also be able to fire out the M&Ms to the left and right, meaning that three vaccines can be dropped at once.
A modified fish bait machine has helped create the vaccine, which will consist of M&Ms smeared in vaccine-laden peanut butter. Machett said lab tests show that prairie dogs find the bait “delicious”, with a dye added to the mix reliably showing up on the animals’ whiskers.
Only 300 black-footed ferrets remain in the US across a handful of isolated sites. The species was briefly thought to be extinct in 1981, only for a number of animals to be brought into captivity for breeding. The current population originates from just seven ferrets that were selectively bred.
Black-footed ferrets and prairie dogs have suffered population crashes due to disease, shooting and habitat loss. Many farmers still consider both species to be a pest, with some voicing their unhappiness at the M&M drone plan.
However, Machett said most submissions during a public comment period were “highly supportive” of the plan and he hopes that it will be operational by 1 September following final FWS approval. Other ferret populations in Arizona and Colorado will also be aided by the drones following the trial in Montana.
“It is the fastest, cheapest way to distribute the vaccine,” Machett said. “We are hopeful this oral vaccine will be used to mitigate plague sites and treat tens of thousands of acres each year.
“This is what the Endangered Species Act is all about – saving species, particularly those affected by human actions.”
7am – D/E
Most drivers admit angry, aggressive behavior or road rage (WDAM)
Nearly 8 of every 10 U.S. drivers admit expressing anger, aggression or road rage at least once in the previous year, according to a survey released Thursday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The behavior could include following too closely, yelling at another driver, cutting them off or making angry gestures.
While that’s dangerous enough, an estimated 8 million drivers engaged in more extreme behavior on streets and roads that might be considered “road rage,” including bumping or ramming a vehicle on purpose or getting out of their cars to confront another driver, the foundation said.
No surprise to sociologists, the most aggressive and aggrieved drivers are young men ages 19 to 39. Male drivers were three times more likely than females to have gotten out of a car to confront another driver or rammed another vehicle on purpose.
“Far too many drivers are losing themselves in the heat of the moment and lashing out in ways that could turn deadly,” Jurek Grabowski, the foundation’s research director, warned.
The foundation’s findings are based on a nationally representative online survey of 2,705 licensed drivers who had driven at least once in the previous 30 days. The survey was conducted in 2014, but its results are just now being released.
Research indicates aggressive driving contributes substantially to fatal crashes and appears to be increasing, the foundation said in a report based on the survey.
Nearly 9 in 10 drivers saw aggressive driving as “a serious threat to their personal safety,” the foundation said. And more than half of drivers perceived road rage as a bigger problem than in a survey three years earlier.
The most common behavior, reported by roughly half of all drivers, was purposely tailgating another vehicle. That translates to about 104 million drivers when spread over the national population of motorists. Nearly half of drivers reported yelling at another driver and honking their horn “to show annoyance or anger.” About a third of drivers indicated they’d made angry gestures at another driver.
Gesturing, honking and yelling at other drivers were significantly more prevalent in the Northeast. For example, Northeastern drivers were 30 percent more likely to say they’d made an angry gesture at another motorist. Other types of aggressive behavior didn’t vary much by region.
About 1 in 4 drivers said they had purposely tried to block another driver from changing lanes, and nearly 12 percent reported they had cut off another vehicle on purpose.
Drivers who reported other unsafe behavior like speeding and running red lights were also more likely to show aggression. For example, drivers who reported speeding on a freeway in the previous month were also four times more likely to have cut off another vehicle in traffic.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that about two-thirds of crash deaths involve aggressive driving. The agency recently reported that traffic deaths surged last year to 35,200 as drivers racked up more miles behind the wheel than ever before.
Jake Nelson, AAA’s director of traffic safety advocacy, urged motorists to “maintain a cool head and focus on reaching your destination safely.”
“Don’t risk escalating a frustrating situation, because you never know what the other driver might do,” he said.
8am – A/B/C
INTERVIEW — REP. DARRELL ISSA — Darrell Edward Issa is the Republican U.S.
Topics:
>>Louie Gohmert and Darrell Issa Renew Push to Designate Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization
>>Close the federal loophole that lets cops go treasure hunting (Los Angeles Times)
>>Rep. Darrell Issa: I Would Subpoena Hillary Clinton for Lying Under Oath to Congress
8am – D/E
INTERVIEW — JAKE TAPPER — CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent.
Topics:
>>RNC Preview
>>Trump’s and Hillary’s VP Pick
