Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
Before we dive into the news…one quick note. I was a recent guest on the Transcend Leadership Podcast, which covers:
why nonprofits are often so infective and frustrating to work for
my biggest regret as a leader
why you’re basically invisible in 2024 if you’re not podcasting.
With that being said…let’s check out what’s going on the world.
[one]
Last week held an immense amount of buzz (or hand wringing, depending on your perspective) of the Presidential immunity case…but a group of fisherman in New England were likely responsible for larger changes to the framework of American government.
Atlantic herringfishermen sued over federal rules requiring them to pay for independent observers to monitor their catch. The fishermen argued that the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act did not authorize officials to create industry-funded monitoring requirements and that the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to follow proper rulemaking procedure.
In two related cases, the fishermen asked the court to overturn the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, which stems from a unanimous Supreme Court case involving the energy giant in a dispute over the Clean Air Act. That ruling said judges should defer to the executive branch when laws passed by Congress are ambiguous.
In that case, the court upheld an action by the Environmental Protection Agency under then-President Ronald Reagan.
In the decades following the ruling, Chevron has been a bedrock of modern administrative law, requiring judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of congressional statutes.
Queue the memes based on the screaming person, because the corporate press is melting down.
A quick check of the headlines about how the entire world is going to end over this particular Supreme Court ruling:
This is right up there with the doomsday-ing over the Net Neutrality ruling, an issue most people (myself included, without some additional research) don’t even understand, and didn’t notice when it went into effect.
To highlight one of the most absurd takes…Mashable claimed the ruling around internet regulations, in 2017, would have the following effects:
“Good Online Content? Bye.” (The article claims Google would restrict Netflix so you would watch YouTube).
“Cheap Online Content? Bye.” (This kinda happened—but because of inflation, not Net Neutrality).
Independent Online Content? Bye. (Keep in mind, The Five is independent online content, which you are currently reading).
Your Favorite Website? Tougher to Find. (I don’t know what your favorite website is…but I highly doubt it’s tougher to find).
Your Speed? Throttled. (Sorry, the internet just keeps getting faster)..see table below)
Your Voice? Hushed. (Again, the fact that you’re reading independent journalism right now seems to disprove that one).
Comparing Chevron Deference to Net Neutrality could be apples to oranges…but I don’t plan to lose any sleep over the changes in regulation this case could lead to.
The gears of democracy grind slow. By the time anything significant comes of the Chevron changes, the corporate press will be fake-crying over something else.
[two]
Before we dive into this next story…keep in mind that the story comes from a right wing media company, but is a simple compilation of official record about President Biden’s increasingly wandering, off base public speaking.
White House staff tasked with preparing transcripts of his “speeches and remarks” cross out Biden’s erroneous words — or insert the words he should have said using brackets. They had to do that a staggering 51 times in May 2024. The rate of errors per words spoken was one of the worst of his presidency, and he was whisked out of the public eye for much of June, speaking only half the number of words in official remarks that he normally does — until, of course, his cognitive difficulties captured the world’s attention at the June 27 debate.
In the animated graphic below, the red bars represent the rate of his speaking errors (per 10,000 words spoken) in the 12 months leading up to that, with the trend increasing steadily upward. As the graphic cycles through each month, it displays the modified language in official transcripts, with some of the most egregious quotes highlighted in larger text at the bottom.
In June 2023, the White House corrected 33 errors, amounting to an error rate of 3.2 per 10,000 words. The 51 errors in May led to a rate of 7.2 for that month, when he spoke 70,000 words.
The corrections have continued. On Friday, in Madison, Wisconsin, Biden addressed the concerns about his age by saying: “They’re trying to push me out of this race. Well, let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m staying in the race. I’ll beat Donald Trump. I will beat him again in 2020.”
Reported, not confirmed: Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Mark Takano (D-California) and Joe Morrelle (D-NY)
If Biden steps out of the race, only Vice President Harris could “inherit” his campaign funds. All other possibilities, like Gavin Newsome of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, would have to start fundraising from scratch.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, seeking to deepen the relationship between the two nuclear powers at a time when NATO leaders gathered in Washington and Russia launched deadly missile attacks in Ukraine that hit a children’s hospital.
“Our relationship is one of a particularly privileged strategic partnership,” Putin told Modi, who made his first trip to Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces in 2022.
Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement. Their partnership has become more complicated, however, as Russia has moved closer to China amid international isolation of Moscow over Ukraine. Modi did not attend last week’s summit in Kazakhstan of a security organization founded by Moscow and Beijing.
I’m not a foreign policy expert…but whatever is happening here feels like it’s significant.
[four]
A new study found that while American consumers actually like EV’s…many are hesitant to make the switch from gas powered vehicles due to the charging stations being “a mess.”
One of the study’s main findings, discovered using customized artificial intelligence (AI) models trained on EV review data, is that charging stations in the U.S. have an average reliability score of only 78%, meaning that about one in five don’t work. They are, on average, less reliable than regular gas stations, Asensio said. “Imagine if you go to a traditional gas station and two out of 10 times the pumps are out of order,” he said. “Consumers would revolt.”
Asensio’s research is timely as U.S. policymakers, entrepreneurs, automakers such as General Motors and Tesla, and others grapple with how to develop the nation’s charging network, who should finance it, and who should maintain it. Because charging influences vehicle sales and the ability to meet emissions targets, it’s a serious question. EV sales have climbed, topping 1 million in 2023, but concerns over batteries and charging could slow that growth.
Today, there are more than 64,000 public EV charging stations in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center. Experts say that the nation needs many times more to make a smooth, sustainable, and equitable transition away from gas-powered vehicles — and to minimize the anxiety surrounding EVs.
“I couldn’t even convince my mother to buy an EV recently,” Asensio said. “Her decision wasn’t about the price. She said charging isn’t convenient enough yet to justify learning an entirely new way of driving.”
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China’s secret spy bases in Cuba signal a new front in Beijing’s global intelligence game by targeting America’s southeastern seaboard.
This month, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report saying that China is likely operating multiple spy facilities in Cuba, judging by satellite imagery and open-source information.
CSIS notes these facilities are strategically positioned to monitor sensitive communications and activities in the US southeastern seaboard, home to numerous military bases and space launch centers.
The report highlights four active sites in Cuba capable of conducting electronic surveillance operations: Bejucal, El Salao, Wajay and Calabazar. The largest is near Bejucal, which is known for its Cold War history.
The report notes that the El Salao site near Santiago de Cuba is under construction and will apparently house a large circularly disposed antenna array (CDAA) for enhanced air and maritime domain awareness.
China recognizes Cuba’s strategic importance due to its location in the Caribbean, a location that allows it to control the maritime approaches to the US, effectively blocking the US without actually enforcing a blockade.
In other words, China wants to know if we’re sending our Navy to defend Taiwan.
