PJ Media’s Liz Sheld, Mark Levin, Stuart Varney and Byron York joined WMAL on Monday!

Mornings on the Mall

Monday, May 21, 2019

Hosts: Mary Walter and Vince Coglianese

Executive Producer: Heather Hunter

 

5am – A/B/C Kamala Harris says she will FINE companies which fail to achieve pay equality for women and ban employers for asking about salary history. (Daily Mail) —   Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris unveiled a pay inequity proposal Monday that aims to close the gender pay gap by holding corporations accountable when men are paid more than women. Harris’ plan would require companies to disclose pay policies while applying for a mandatory ‘Equal Pay Certification’ from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Companies that fail to achieve certification would be fined 1% of their profits for every 1% wage gap they allow to persist for work of equal value. The U.S. senator from California says $180 billion would be generated over 10 years, with fines decreasing over time as companies strengthen their equal pay practices. ‘Kamala Harris has a simple message for corporations: Pay women fairly or pay the price,’ her campaign said in announcing the plan Monday, noting that the burden has been on workers to hold corporations accountable for pay discrimination.

5am – D         Uber, Lyft drivers manipulate fares at Reagan National causing artificial price surges. ARLINGTON, Va. (WJLA) — Every night, several times a night, Uber and Lyft drivers at Reagan National Airport simultaneously turn off their ride share apps for a minute or two to trick the app into thinking there are no drivers available—creating a price surge. When the fare goes high enough, the drivers turn their apps back on and lock into the higher fare. It’s happening in the Uber and Lyft parking lot outside Reagan National airport. The lot fills with 120 to 150 drivers sometimes for hours, waiting for the busy evening rush. And nearly all the drivers have one complaint: “Uber doesn’t pay us enough, what the company is doing is defrauding all these people by taking 35-40 percent,” one driver told ABC 7. “They are taking all this money because there’s no system of accountability,” another unidentified driver said.  ABC7’s Sam Sweeney asks: “Do all you guys agree with that?” “Yes, yes, yes, yes!!!!,” the driver says. Drivers say after three years of pay cuts, they now have to fight back. By turning off their apps at certain times, drivers are able to artificially manipulate the Uber and Lyft apps into higher fares. “All the airplanes we know when they land. So five minutes before, we turn all our apps off all of us at the same time. All of us we turn our apps off. They surge, $10, $12, sometimes $19. Then we turn our app on. Everyone will get the surge,” one driver says. This driver explains how they organize it. “Someone is standing by that corner. I stand by this corner and the other one stands at this corner and we say turn the app off and then go online.” ABC7’s cameras roll for the first planned surge of the night. “Waittttt…..waiittttttt” “You gotta wait, you gotta wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait.” A man running the operation , alerts drivers that the time to shutdown is just around the corner. Using another app, he knows the precise moment to have everyone power down, ensuring the largest surge. “Hey! We gotta wait, we gotta wait.”

5am – E         Milkshake Protests Against Brexiteers: McDonalds Told To Not Sell Ice Cream Or Milkshakes Ahead Of Nigel Farage Rally. Police in Scotland told a branch of McDonalds to stop selling ice cream and milkshakes ahead of a Nigel Farage rally. Staff at a branch of McDonalds near a campaign rally for Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party were told to stop selling its milkshakes and ice cream by the police. A printed sign in the Edinburgh restaurant read: “We will not be selling milkshakes or ice creams tonight. This is due to a police request given recent events”. It comes after far-right politicians have been targeted with dairy-based products, with both Tommy Robinson and Carl Benjamin both having food and drink thrown at them during the European election campaign. Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, had a milkshake thrown over his head and shoulders during public campaigning in Warrington, Cheshire – the second time in a week after a similar incident in Greater Manchester. Ukip candidate Carl Benjamin, who is under police investigation for making a ‘jokey’ rape comment about MP Jess Philips, had a milkshake thrown at him on three occasions as he toured Devon and Cornwall. A McDonalds spokesperson said: “At the request of Police Scotland, we temporarily removed our McFlurry and milkshake products from sale in our Chesser avenue yesterday evening.” The Brexit Party had held a rally at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange in the evening, which is around the corner from the branch of McDonalds. Police Scotland have not commented on the ban, but a member of staff described the situation as “ridiculous”. Writing on Twitter, competitor Burger King said that milkshakes would still be on the menu, adding “have fun”.

6am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – LIZ SHELD – Editor-at-large at PJ Media and author of “The Morning Briefing”

• Leader McConnell, Senator Kaine Unveil Bipartisan Bill to Raise Minimum Age to Purchase Tobacco to 21. Tobacco state senators join together and lead effort to provide long-term health benefits throughout the country by helping protect young people from starting tobacco use at an early age. WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced today the bipartisan Tobacco-Free Youth Act, which would raise the nationwide minimum age to buy all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes and vaping devices, from 18 to 21. As senators from two states with a long history of tobacco production and consumption, Senators McConnell and Kaine have seen the negative effects of youth tobacco use and have heard compelling public health stories from concerned constituents throughout their states. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from 2017 to 2018, youth e-cigarette users increased by 1.5 million, with more than 1 in 4 high school students having reported using a tobacco product in the past 30 days. In response, the two Senators introduced the Tobacco-Free Youth Act to help stem the tide of these alarming trends by ensuring that states and the federal government raise the purchasing age for all tobacco products to 21. Their bill makes clear that it would be unlawful for retailers to sell tobacco products to anyone younger than 21 and that states may enact laws with higher minimums if they choose. A report from the Institute of Medicine found that most adult smokers start smoking before age 21 and that increasing the tobacco age to 21 would save lives, improve public health, and reduce tobacco initiation among youth. These young people may not know what chemicals they are putting into their bodies, let alone know the long-term health risks that could negatively impact them as adults.

6am – D         SUBPOENA SHOWDOWNS:

• Former White House Counsel McGahn to defy subpoena on Trump’s orders, threatened with contempt by House Dems. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., says he will hold former White House counsel Donald McGahn in contempt after McGahn said he would not appear at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday. President Trump directed McGahn to skip the hearing, citing a Justice Department opinion that he cannot be compelled to testify about his official duties. The White House has accused Democrats of wanting a “do-over” with countless Trump investigations following the findings of no collusion in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. A frustrated Nadler on CNN accused the White House of “intimidating” McGahn and said it was becoming “more and more difficult” to not consider impeachment against “a lawless president.” And despite her reluctance, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could soon be left with no choice but to embrace calls from some within her party to impeach Trump, one senior Democrat told Fox News on the condition of anonymity.
• Judge orders Trump accounting firm to hand over records to Congress. Washington (CNN) A federal district judge has told the accounting firm Mazars it will need to turn over Donald Trump’s accounting records from before he was President to the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee. In a 41-page opinion, Judge Amit Mehta of the DC District Court dealt a significant blow to the White House as he rejected Trump’s attempt to block the committee’s subpoena, asserting that Congress is well within its authority to investigate the President. Mehta’s writings will likely be more fodder for other judges to consider as Trump and his Cabinet try to hold off Congress from getting the President’s business records, such as through the IRS, banks and in other court fights. Already, the House of Representatives has flagged the ruling to a judge in New York, where another court is considering challenges to House subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capitol One for more Trump records. Congress specifically can probe the President for conflicts of interest and ethical questions, Mehta wrote, reaching into history — citing everything from the presidency of James Buchanan, to the Teapot Dome scandal, to Watergate and Whitewater — to back up his ruling.

6am – E         @UNSUCKDCMETRO OUTED:

• DCist: From Watchdog To Attack Dog: The Story Of Unsuck D.C. Metro. Unsuck D.C. Metro has been a release valve for frustrated riders. They tweet at the account when trains whizz by without stopping, or don’t arrive at all, or have floors covered in mysterious liquid, and Unsuck retweets them. The blog was also at the forefront of noticing that the quality of Metro’s service had worsened, long before the transit agency acknowledged it. And the name has inspired a slew of other, apparently unaffiliated “Unsuck” accounts—Unsuck DCRA, Unsuck D.C. Schools, and Unsuck D.C. Cars, for starters—though none of them come close to rivaling the following of the original.  While the account always maintained the illusion of anonymity, as far back as 2010 there was a photo posted on a public Flickr account that revealed his identity and likeness. “That’s Mr. Unsuckdcmetro, Matt Hilburn,” the caption reads, showing him at a meeting with then-Metro Interim General Manager Richard Sarles at the transit agency’s headquarters with other local bloggers. By 2018, ARLnow was describing him as the “semi-anonymous creator” of the blog for a near-hour-long interview with him on its podcast. His identity is an open secret, a quick Twitter search away for interested parties. Hilburn’s own LinkedIn account says that he is the creator of a “very popular anonymous local news blog” that began in January 2009 (when Unsuck D.C. Metro began publishing) and, within several months, “had broken several news stories and generated mentions in all the major Washington media, including a full profile by the Washington Post.” In addition to his Unsuck work, which he says is unpaid, his LinkedIn profile lists his current employment since 2011 as an online reporter at Voice of America, a U.S.-government funded international news outlet. VOA confirmed that he is still an employee. In a Voice of America video chat in 2015 about citizen journalism, Hilburn says that he used to run a blog and continued to run a Twitter feed and Facebook page on “our public transportation here in Washington, which is lacking in some ways, I think.”

• Chris Barnes @ChrisBarnesInfo 7h7 hours ago: I see the #wmata drama unfolding tonight and remind you all of this: @unsuckdcmetro and others like him arent the problem. WMATA and the media and politicians who protect them and prevent change are now and have forever been the problem. Luckily that can change.

6am – F         Archbishop Gregory to be installed as archbishop of Washington on May 21 at National Shrine. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory will be installed as the seventh archbishop of Washington on May 21 at 2 p.m. during a solemn liturgy at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The Mass of Installation will begin with a procession of participating cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons and others at 1:30 p.m. While the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle is the “mother church” of the Archbishop of Washington, archdiocesan officials decided to hold the installation of Archbishop Gregory at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Roman Catholic Church in North America.

7am – A/B/C INTERVIEW – MARK LEVIN – host of the “Mark Levin Show on WMAL and author of new book “Unfreedom of the Press”

• BOOK SIGNING ON Saturday June 01, 2019 10:00 AM at the Barnes N Noble in Tysons Corner
• Fox News Host Mark Levin’s New Book Dethrones Howard Stern From Amazon Best-Seller List. Fox News host Mark Levin’s new book “Unfreedom of the Press” has become the number one best-selling book on Amazon, dethroning Howard Stern and his new memoir as of Sunday evening. Levin’s book doesn’t officially hit shelves until Tuesday, and the conservative firebrand managed to take the top spot on the strength of pre-order sales alone.
• Mark Levin’s ‘Unfreedom of the Press’ lays bare the true nature of the media. ABOUT THE BOOK: From five-time #1 New York Times bestselling author, FOX News star, and radio host Mark R. Levin comes a groundbreaking and enlightening book that shows how the great tradition of the American free press has degenerated into a standardless profession that has squandered the faith and trust of the American public, not through actions of government officials, but through its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism. Unfreedom of the Press is not just another book about the press. Levin shows how those entrusted with news reporting today are destroying freedom of the press from within: “not government oppression or suppression,” he writes, but self-censorship, group-think, bias by omission, and passing off opinion, propaganda, pseudo-events, and outright lies as news. With the depth of historical background for which his books are renowned, Levin takes the reader on a journey through the early American patriot press, which proudly promoted the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, followed by the early decades of the Republic during which newspapers around the young country were open and transparent about their fierce allegiance to one political party or the other.

7am – D         INTERVIEW – STUART VARNEY – HOST OF ‘VARNEY AND COMPANY’ ON FOX BUSINESS NETWORK

• STUART VARNEY: Hey, Democrats, look what just happened in Australia: Varney | Fox Business
• Australia’s Conservatives Win Surprise Election Victory. Australia’s shock election results are drawing comparisons to Trump’s 2016 win. Scott Morrison, Australia’s conservative prime minister, pulled off a shocking win in Australia’s national election Saturday. The victory defied scores of polls and drew marked similarities to the rise of populist support for fiery conservative candidates across the world.

7am – E         BEAN FIGHT: Dunkin Donuts Exec Throws Shade at Starbucks For Getting Political. (Mediaite) –Sometimes a cup of coffee is just a hot drink. Well actually, if you’re Dunkin’ (formerly Dunkin’ Donuts), it’s just a hot drink every time, whereas, if you’re Starbucks, it’s almost never just that. And on Monday, an executive with the former took an espresso shot at the latter over that fact. At the 141st International Trademark Association Annual Meeting, a Dunkin’ executive made the comment separating their business and brand from that of coffee king Starbucks. “We are not Starbucks, we aren’t political,” the unnamed executive is quoted as saying. “We aren’t gonna put stuff on our cups to start conversations. We don’t want to engage you in political conversation, we want to get you in and out of our store in seconds. It’s donuts & ice cream– just be happy,” reads the quote as tweeted by law professor Alexandra J. Roberts, who writes about the intersection of social media with brands and trademarks.

8am – A         New York may ban texting while walking across the street. (USA Today) – ALBANY, N.Y. – You probably shouldn’t walk across a street and look at your phone at the same time. Now New York might make it illegal. A bill sponsored by Democrats who control the state Legislature would allow police to issue a ticket between $25 to $50 for a first offense of getting caught texting while walking — unless you can prove it was an emergency. The law would be simple enough, the bill states: “No pedestrian shall cross a roadway at any point while using any portable electronic device.” The bill was first introduced last year by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, D-Brooklyn, but it picked up majority support in the Senate earlier this month from Sen. John Liu, D-Queens. “It has been proven that distraction from texting while walking can cause pedestrians to cross roads very unsafely,” the bill said. “Not only can trips and falls occur, but even getting hit is more than just a possibility.”

8am – B         Jeff Daniels says it’s the ‘end of democracy’ if Trump wins again in 2020. (Fox News) — Actor Jeff Daniels declared that it will be the “end of democracy” if President Trump is re-elected in 2020 during his Monday appearance on MSNBC. “I live in Michigan. After the election, I was surprised at some of the people,” Daniels reflected about 2016. “I said, ‘Could you believe this election?’ And they go, ‘Yeah, isn’t it great?’… you didn’t see it coming.” Promoting his Broadway stint as Atticus Finch in the Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Daniels compared his struggles in the current political climate to Finch’s, insisting that they’re “good people” despite the disconnect and that people in the Midwest “don’t care” about things like people who live in the coasts do. “You have to decide whether, like Atticus, that you believe that there’s still compassion, decency, civility, respect for others, do onto others… all of that stuff you guys believe in and you still voted not for Hillary or for Trump, where are you now?” Daniels continued. “Because your kids are looking up at you going, ‘but he lies’ and I think there are a lot of people in the Midwest who are going, ‘sigh’. It might be enough for them. We’re gonna find out, you know, if the big gamble is to go all the way to November 2020, which I agree, and lose. It’s the end of democracy.” Daniels continued to slam Trump and the GOP, saying that he is waiting for someone to emerge and defeat them. “I need people to stand up and be heroic. Who are you because democracy is at stake,” Daniels told the MSNBC panel.

8am – C         Fox News personality asks to leave the priesthood. (CruxNow) –Father Jonathan Morris, a former member of the Legion of Christ who was at one time among the most prominent Catholic priests in America as a contributor to Fox News, has asked to be dismissed from the clerical state, indicating he wants to be free to “marry and have a family” though saying it’s not about an “existing relationship.” In a statement released Friday, Morris writes that the decision has filled him “with newfound joy,” though he says he knows some people won’t understand his decision to leave the priesthood. “After taking some months of sabbatical to be with family and to dedicate more time to prayer and retreat, I have decided to ask the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to release me from the duties and responsibilities of the clerical state,” Morris said in a statement, which he made available to Crux. Morris left the troubled Legion of Christ in 2009, three years after the Vatican suspended its founder, Father Macial Marciel, from his priestly duties, having found Maciel guilty of various forms of sexual abuse and misconduct as well as abuse of power. Morris was incardinated into the Archdiocese of New York with the support of Cardinal Timothy Dolan. He’s appeared on several TV networks and is best known for his role with Fox News, though he was also a theological adviser to Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, and was the program director for “The Catholic Channel,” a project of the Archdiocese of New York, on the Sirius XM radio network for three years. Morris said in his statement that the fear of “disappointing people’s expectations” has held him back from taking the step he’s now taking, something he’s considered “often and at length in years past and discussed with my spiritual guides.”

8am – D         INTERVIEW – BYRON YORK — chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner

• Former White House Counsel McGahn to defy subpoena on Trump’s orders, threatened with contempt by House Dems
• Judge orders Trump accounting firm to hand over records to Congress