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**Ralph Nader Radio Hour**

Ralph Nader talks about what’s happening in America, what’s happening around the world, and most importantly what’s happening underneath it all.

www.ralphnaderradiohour.com

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Cabinet of Curiosities Nov 16, 2024

First on today's show, Ralph welcomes author, statistician, and professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb to discuss the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and give us his take on the election results. Then, Ralph and journalist Ryan Grim speak about President-Elect Trump's cabinet appointments and what we can expect from the upcoming Trump Administration. Finally, we're joined by constitutional law expert Bruce Fein for a post-election Donald Trump legal roundup.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent twenty-one years as a derivatives trader before changing careers to become a scholar, mathematical researcher and philosophical essayist. Mr. Taleb’s works focus on mathematical, philosophical, and practical problems with risk and probability, as well as on the properties of systems that can handle disorder. He is the author of many essays and books about risk and uncertainty including theNew York TimesbestsellingThe Black Swanand his latest Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life.

The supporters of Israel are getting smaller in relative economic and financial size—and of course, in technological size as well. So it's getting smaller while at the same time, Israel relies more and more on their support. So that's not a robust situation. In other words, the strategy of Israel being continuously confrontational has led to more and more confrontation, and the strategy of relying on the West is not going to pay off.

Nassim Nicholas Talib

Israel has been behaving like a child with a strong personality and been capable of winning concessions from her or his parents continuously. So that's what has been happening. But the problem is— not finding any resistance, they kept going, they kept going, and one day they realized that, ah, they went too far but it was too late. So you can rely on AIPAC to do a bunch of things, but at some point, the strategy is not going to work.

Nassim Nicholas Talib

Ryan Grim is co-founder of Drop Site News, host of the podcast Deconstructed, and co-host of the show Counter Points. He was previously D.C. Bureau Chief for The Intercept and the Washington bureau chief for HuffPost, and he has been a staff reporter for Politico and the Washington City Paper. He is the author of the books This Is Your Country on Drugs, We’ve Got People, and The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.

[The incoming administration of Trump and his Trumpsters] are very aggressive. They think they're above the law. They are greedy. They want to turn the U .S. government into a honeypot for their commercial paymasters—which include their own businesses, by the way, like Elon Musk. And when that happens—when you have greed and almost total power with the Supreme Court on your side, with the Congress under Republican control—you're inevitably going to get serious examples of corruption. You're inevitably going to get blatant corruption.

Ralph Nader

So far, to a lot of people's great disappointment, Democrats have been pretty terrible at [going after corruption]. So on the one hand, they angered the entire support base for Donald Trump and whipped them up into a frenzy accusing Democrats of prosecuting their enemies, while at the same time not actually prosecuting them for any corruption…Now, because the Trump movement has been able to argue to its base that it feels persecuted, they are probably going to spend a significant amount of their energy going after those who they see as their persecutors.

Ryan Grim

Time is one of [Donald Trump’s] restraints and incompetence is another. He's up against those two elements—and in-fighting. There are a number of competing factions for his attention and for his agenda and they are going to relentlessly work to undermine each other. So that factor will restrain him.

Ryan Grim

Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.

I do think there's a remedy here, and that is I think that any of the decisions made by the people who are appointed through illegal or unconstitutional recess appointments, when they take any action, you wouldn't have to comply with their actions. You can say the decisions, their orders are null and void because they weren't appointed properly.

Bruce Fein

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 11/13/24

1. Following Kamala Harris’ disastrous defeat at the hands of Donald Trump last week – which saw the Vice President lose the electoral college by a greater margin than Hillary Clinton and swept Republicans to power in all three branches of government – the Democratic Party blame game is in full swing. Perhaps the most prominent critical voice has come from Bernie Sanders, who issued a blistering statement in which he writes “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned the working class would find that the working class has abandoned them.” DNC Chair Jamie Harrison has dismissed this criticism, calling it “straight up BS,” but in this moment Democrats are finding it harder to wave this critique away. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, for example, echoed Bernie’s warning, writing “when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base.”

2. Meanwhile, Donald Trump appears to be setting the stage for Elon Musk to take on a prominent position in the incoming administration. Axios reports Trump had a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Wednesday, and was joined by Musk. Details of the call remain murky, but Trump reportedly said he “will support Ukraine” and Musk said he will continue to aid Ukraine with his Starlink satellites. Bloomberg further reports that Musk joined Trump on a call with Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, and may meet with Trump and Argentinian President Javier Milei at Mar-a-Lago.

3. Filling out the incoming administration, CNN reports Trump has offered New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik the role of Ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik entered Congress as a moderate Republican, but has grown closer and closer to the Trump wing of the party. More recently, she rose to national prominence for her role as ringleader of the McCarthyist hearings on supposed antisemitic protests on college campuses; in actuality of course, these protests were merely demanding recognition of human rights for Palestinians. Because of her staunch Zionist bona fides, Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt celebrated her selection. Stefanik has previously boosted the antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, per the Washington Post, but apparently the ADL is happy to look past that so long as she blindly backs the State of Israel.

4. Another Trump administration staffing decision which has drawn scrutiny is the supposed appointment of Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Tiffany Trump, as “US point man for Lebanon,” per the Times of Israel. Boulos, a Lebanese-American billionaire, told the Lebanese network MTV “People see that Biden and Harris failed to end the wars and failed to even return the American hostages from Gaza…Lebanese Americans are migrating to [the] Republican Party and to Trump because they feel that Trump is their only hope to end this war, and end all the wars… so we can start talking about rebuilding Lebanon and Gaza.” However, this dovish tone is at odds with Trump’s promises to Right-wing Zionists, meaning one faction or the other is in for a rude awakening.

5. In more Middle East News, a potential political earthquake is unfolding in Israel. According to the Times of Israel, the chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allegedly been accused of using security camera footage from the Prime Minister’s Office to blackmail an IDF official into “changing protocols of government meetings related to the October 7 Hamas attack…the attempts to alter the meeting minutes centered on how much knowledge Netanyahu had of the potential for a Hamas attack immediately before October 7.” Specifically, this report insinuates that Israeli intelligence was aware of “activation by terror operatives of dozens of SIM cards.” A curious detail of this scandal is that U.S. media has largely failed to report it at all. As of now, the most high-profile American journalist to cover it is none other than legendary investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh.

6. Back on the home-front, the Democrats are failing to safeguard the National Labor Relations Board. Trump has already made it abundantly clear that he will do everything he can to rollback the Biden-era gains for unions and their workers. Bloomberg reports that in addition to “defang[ing]” the NLRB and dismissing the Board’s crusading General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, “business advocates are…urging Trump to make the questionably legal move of firing all the Democrats on the labor board, so that he can more quickly unwind the union-friendly rulings of the Biden years.” Per JacksonLewis, the NLRB currently has “a 2-1 Democratic majority. In June 2024, Biden renominated current Board Chair Lauren McFerran (whose term expires on Dec. 16, 2024) to a third term and nominated Joseph L. Ditelberg to fill the Board’s vacant Republican seat. The Senate, however, has not yet confirmed these nominations. If McFerran is confirmed for a third term, the Board will maintain a Democratic majority until at least August 2026, when Member David Prouty’s term expires. This extended majority could lead to the continuation and expansion of pro-labor policies and decisions. But if the nominees are not confirmed by the Senate prior to Trump taking office, they will likely be filled by Trump appointees and the Board will return to a Republican majority.” In a word, if the Senate acts fast they could shore up the NLRB until late 2026 – but if they fail to act in the lame-duck session, Trump will be able to stack that Board like he has so many other institutions, up to and including the Supreme Court.

7. In more NLRB news, Matt Bruenig, via his Substack NLRB Edge, reports that a major unfair labor practice charge he filed against Bloomberg LP successfully forced the firm to change their standard employment agreement. The charge alleged that Bloomberg LP was “maintaining illegal confidentiality, coworker non-solicitation, and customer non-solicitation rules…[which] violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act.” Bruenig argued that “a reasonable employee would read them as prohibiting …publicizing working conditions, soliciting coworkers to leave for a competitor as part of a broader course of protected activity, and soliciting customers to engage in a solidaristic consumer boycott of the company.” Beyond the wonkish improvements to Bloomberg employment agreements however, Bruenig emphasizes that he was “able to get these changes…without ever revealing the identity of the person [he] was working for,” a loophole rarely used by lawyers. He notes the obvious value in doing so, writing “if an employer does not know which of their employees is behind the charge, they cannot retaliate against them. Thus, it is possible to get your employer to comply with the NLRA without incurring any personal risk.”

8. Another major story from NLRB Edge concerns the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama. Put simply, Amazon was accused of interfering with the 2022 rerun union election at the facility via “Unlawful Confiscation of Union Materials…Surveillance and Coercion…[and] Disparate Enforcement of Rules.” The Administrative Law Judge overseeing this case agreed Amazon had violated Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA, among other findings, and therefore ordered a second rerun election. He also issued a cease and desist order demanding Amazon “stop unlawfully removing union literature and engaging in surveillance of employees' protected activities.” While there is no guarantee a third election will yield different results, it is encouraging to see the NLRB stand up to corporate titans like Amazon.

9. Our final two stories today concern education. First, in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reports that since 2023, “The state’s average SAT score dropped to 948 out of 1600, an 18-point decline.” This is now the third year in a row that Florida’s SAT scores declined. In addition to the overall SAT scores, “Florida’s SAT math score dropped eight points to 455 - among the lowest for the ten states that, like Florida, test more than 90% of their graduating seniors.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has made “anti-woke” education reform a centerpiece of his administration, leading many to attribute this decline to his leadership. The Sentinel reports “The Florida Department of Education did not respond to requests for comment.”

10. Finally, to end on a positive note, Sacramento State University has “announced the creation of Sacramento State Native American College, the first of its kind in California, offering students an inclusive, Native-based education that fosters connections to community and tribal government.” This college will reportedly “offer a diverse range of programs that integrate academic excellence with tribal values, traditions and community engagement,” and while “All students will minor in Native American Studies, with an emphasis on Native American Leadership, [they] can pursue any major the University offers.” Per California law the college is “open to students of all races and backgrounds who are interested in learning about Native life, history, and culture,” and the University notes that “Sac State also is home to the nation’s first Black Honors College, which offers a comprehensive curriculum focused on the Black and African American experience.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The Mourning After Nov 09, 2024

Ralph and the team invite cofounder of RootsAction, Norman Solomon, to autopsy the carcass of the Democratic Party after Donald Trump’s decisive defeat of Kamala Harris in the presidential election. They dissect what happened on November 5th and report what needs to be done about it.

Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of War Made Easy, Made Love, Got War, and his newest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.

The Democrats couldn't even get their base vote out that they got out in 2020. And what are they looking at? Are they looking at themselves in the mirror for introspection? Are they cleaning house? Do they have any plan whatsoever— other than collect more and more money from corporate PACS? This is a spectacular decline.

Ralph Nader

We kept being told that party loyalty über alles, we had to stay in line with Biden. And…that lost precious months, even a year or a year and a half, when there could have been a sorting out in vigorous primaries. We were told that, "Oh, it would be terrible to have an inside-the-party primary system." Well, in 2020, there were 17 candidates, so there wasn't space on one stage on one night to hold them all—the debates would have to be in half. Well, it didn't really debilitate the party. Debate is a good thing. But what happened was this party loyalty, this obsequious kissing-the-presidential-feet dynamic allowed Biden to amble along until it became incontrovertible that he wasn't capable.

Norman Solomon

A lot of people on that committee—and of course, running the DNC—they and their pals had this pass-through of literally millions of dollars of consultant fees. Win, lose, or draw. It's like General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, they never lose a war. And so, these corporate donors, they never lose a presidential race. They didn't lose what happened with Harris and Trump. They cashed in, they made out like the corporate bandits that they are.

Norman Solomon

One reality as an activist that I've come to the conclusion on in the last couple of decades is that progressives tend to be way too nice to Democrats in Congress, especially those that they consider to be allies. Because they like what some of the Democrats do…and so they give too many benefits of the doubt. It's like grading them on a curve. We can't afford to grade them on a curve.

Norman Solomon

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 11/6/24

1. As of now, Donald Trump is projected to win the 2024 presidential election by a greater margin than 2016. In addition to winning back Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona, Trump also appears to have flipped Nevada – which went for both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Most shocking of all, Trump has won the national popular vote, something he failed to do in 2016 and 2020 and which no Republican has done in 20 years. Democrats also faced a bloodbath in the Senate elections, with Republicans on track to win a 54 seat majority in the upper chamber.

2. Bucking tremendous party pressure, Representative Rashida Tlaib declined to endorse Kamala Harris at a United Autoworkers rally in Michigan just days before the election, POLITICO reports. Tlaib urged attendees to turn out but “kept her speech focused on down-ballot races.” Tlaib is the only member of “the Squad” to withhold her support for Harris and the only Palestinian member of Congress. She has been a staunch critic of the Biden Administration’s blind support for Israel’s campaign of genocide in Palestine and voted Uncommitted in the Michigan Democratic primary.

3. Along similar lines, the Uncommitted Movement issued a fiery statement on the eve of the election. According to the group, “Middle East Eye ran a story…[which] contains unfounded and absurd claims, suggesting that Uncommitted made a secret agreement with the Democratic Party to not endorse a third-party candidate.” The statement goes on to say that “this baseless story…is misguided at best and a dishonest malicious attack at worst.” Uncommitted maintains that “leaders and delegates are voting in different ways, yet remain untied in their mission to stop the endless flow of American weapons fueling Israel’s militarism.” In September, Uncommitted publicly stated that they would not endorse Kamala Harris, citing her continued support for the Biden Administration policy toward Israel, but urged supporters to vote against Donald Trump.

4. Progressive International reports that over 50 sovereign nations have called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel, calling it “a legal, humanitarian and moral imperative to put an end to grave human suffering.” This letter cites the “staggering toll of civilian casualties, the majority of them children and women, due to ongoing breaches of international law by Israel, the occupying Power,” and warns of “regional destabilization that risks the outbreak of an all-out war in the region.” Signatories on this letter include Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Norway, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, and China among many others.

5. Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush have sent a letter to President Biden accusing him of illegally involving the American armed forces in Israel’s war without proper Congressional authorization. Per the accompanying statement, “The Biden administration has deepened U.S. involvement in the Israeli government’s devastating regional war through comprehensive intelligence sharing and operational coordination, and now even the direct deployment of U.S. servicemembers to Israel. Not only do these actions encourage further escalation and violence, but they are unauthorized by Congress, in violation of Article I of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.” The letter concludes “The Executive Branch cannot continue to ignore the law…In the absence of an immediate ceasefire and end of hostilities, Congress retains the right and ability to exercise its Constitutional authority to direct the removal of any and all unauthorized Armed Forces from the region pursuant to Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution.” This letter was endorsed by an array of groups ranging from the Quincy Institute to Jewish Voice for Peace to the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, and signed by other pro-Palestine members of Congress including Ilhan Omar, Summer Lee, and André Carson – though notably not AOC.

6. In a story that touches on both the election and labor issues, the New York Times Tech Guild voted to go on strike Monday morning. The Times Tech Guild, which represents “workers like software developers and data analysts,” at the Times negotiated until late Sunday night, particularly regarding “whether the workers could get a ‘just cause’ provision in their contract…pay increases and pay equity; and return-to-office policies,” per the New York Times. The Guardian reports “The Tech Guild’s roughly 600 members are in charge of operating the back-end systems that power the paper’s…[coverage of] the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – but also the hundreds of House and dozens of Senate races across the US that will determine who will secure control of Washington in 2025.” Kathy Zhang, the guild’s unit chair, said in a statement “[The Times] have left us no choice but to demonstrate the power of our labor on the picket line…we stand ready to bargain and get this contract across the finish line.”

7. In more labor news, AP reports the striking Boeing machinists have “voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production.” The deal reportedly includes “a 38% wage increase over four years, [as well as] ratification and productivity bonuses.” That said, Boeing apparently “refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.” According to a Bank of America analysis, Boeing was losing approximately $50 million per day during the strike, a startling number by any measure. The union’s District 751 President Jon Holden told members “You stood strong and you stood tall and you won,” yet calibration specialist Eep Bolaño said the outcome was “most certainly not a victory…We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and us as one of the biggest unions in the country couldn’t even extract two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating.”

8. Huffington Post Labor Reporter Dave Jamieson reports “The [National Labor Relations Board] has filed a complaint against Grindr alleging the dating app used a new return-to-office policy to fire dozens of workers who were organizing.” He further reports that NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is seeking a “Cemex order” which would “force the company to bargain with the [Communications Workers of America].” In a statement, CWA wrote “We hope this NLRB filing sends a clear message to Grindr that…we are committed to negotiating fair working conditions in good faith. As we continue to build and expand worker power at Grindr, this win…is a positive step toward ensuring that Grindr remains a safe, inclusive, and thriving place for users and workers alike.”

9. In further positive news from federal regulators, NBC’s Today reports “On Oct. 25, the United States Copyright Office granted a copyright exemption that gives restaurants like McDonald's the “right to repair” broken machines by circumventing digital locks that prevent them from being fixed by anyone other than its manufacturer.” As this piece explains, all of McDonald’s ice cream machines – which have become a punchline for how frequently they are out of service – are owned and operated by the Taylor Company since 1956. Moreover “The…company holds a copyright on its machines…[meaning] if one broke, only [Taylor Company] repair people were legally allowed to fix it…due to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…a 1998 law that criminalizes making or using technology, devices or services that circumvent the control access of copyrighted works.” This move from the Copyright Office reflects a larger pattern of regulators recognizing the issues with giving companies like Taylor monopolistic free reign over sectors of the economy and blocking consumers – in this case fast food franchisees – from repairing machines themselves. With backing from public interest groups like U.S. PIRG, the Right to Repair movement continues to pick up steam. We hope Congress will realize that this is a political slam dunk.

10. Finally, in an astounding story of vindication, Michael and Robert Meeropol – sons of Ethel Rosenberg, who was convicted of and executed for passing secrets to the Soviet Union – claim that long-sought records have definitively cleared their mother’s name. Per Bloomberg, “A few months ago, the National Security Agency sent the Meeropols a box of records the spy agency declassified…Inside was a seven-page handwritten memo…The relevant passage…is just eight words: ‘she did not engage in the work herself.’” Put simply, Rosenberg was wrongfully convicted and put to death for a crime she did not commit. The article paints the picture of the men uncovering this key piece of evidence. “After he read it, Robert said his eyes welled up. “Michael and I looked at it and our reaction was, ‘We did it.’”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Delivering the Election Nov 02, 2024

Ralph welcomes Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. They'll discuss the crucial role that the Postal Service plays in our democratic process, and how organized labor is impacting this year's elections. Then, Ralph is joined by journalist James Bamford to talk about his latest article in The Nation: "Israel Is Killing Whole Families in Gaza—With Weapons Made in America." Plus, how candidates' positions on Israel may win or lose them voters on Election Day.

Mark Dimondstein is the President of the American Postal Workers Union. Since 2013 when Mr. Dimondstein was elected, he has turned the APWU into a fighting activist organization. Mr. Dimondstein advocates for the rights of postal workers as well as the right of the American people to a vibrant public Postal Service. The American Postal Workers Union supports Medicare for All and belongs to the Labor Campaign for Single Payer. The APWU believes in paying a living wage and providing benefits to all workers.

We have about 200,000 members. And we definitely represent people throughout the entire political spectrum and throughout the whole country. So we represent people from right to left, left to right, everybody in between, and we represent people from the most rural outpost in the country to the urban centers. So first, the way we handle it is we don't try to tell people how they should think and how they should vote. We're all adults, we vote for what we think is in our best interest as workers, as family members, as community members, as citizens and so on. So we don't try to dictate to our members how to vote, but we do have a responsibility to lead…So I think leadership has a responsibility to educate our members, to activate our members, and to get our members to be involved in the political electoral process.

Mark Dimondstein

I'm a proud Jewish American. Jewish Americans should be the first to say “never again” when it comes to genocide, when it comes to ethnic cleansing, and when it comes to war crime. And we're not going to solve all the problems of the Middle East and the complicated history of the Middle East on this radio show. But let's at least be clear that the crimes committed against the Jewish people should never be allowed to be committed against anybody else—no matter who's doing it.

Mark Dimondstein

Kamala Harris sent her two closest advisors to Wall Street about a month ago to get advice on her economic and tax policies and not connecting with the Citizens for Tax Justice, which has a progressive proposal. She doesn't connect with citizen groups. She goes around campaigning with Liz Cheney…It's quite amazing that the most popular incumbent elected politician in America today is Bernie Sanders…And she's ignoring Bernie Sanders and going into one state after another with people like Liz Cheney.

Ralph Nader

Whatever happens next Tuesday, our work isn't done. The divisions that have been created by white supremacy, by this anti-immigrant fervor out here—these things aren't going away. Issues that divide workers instead of unite workers—the growing bigotry, the attack on women's rights to reproductive freedom and health, the attacks on voting rights—these are issues that are going to be here with whoever wins the election. So the working people and the trade union movement have a lot of work to do, whatever the outcome.

Mark Dimondstein

James Bamford is a best-selling author, Emmy-nominated filmmaker for PBS, award-winning investigative producer for ABC News, and winner of the National Magazine Award for Reporting for his writing in Rolling Stone on the war in Iraq. He is the author of several books, including Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America's Counterintelligence.

The reason I wrote [my article] was because people read about the bombs blowing up schools and refugee camps and hospitals and killing scores and scores, hundreds, thousands of people… But few people realized that it's middle America, largely, that’s building the bombs, sending the bombs, and the American taxpayers are paying for the bombs. All the Israelis are doing is dropping the bombs.

James Bamford

I think the only way is international pressure. I wrote about this in my last book, that the only thing that you can ever do to affect Israel is to have an international boycott sanction. We have to treat it like the worst country on earth. That's what happened with South Africa. That's what stopped apartheid—once they couldn't buy anything.

James Bamford

RECOGNIZING TIME-PRESSURED HEADLINE WRITERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO READERS

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 10/30/24

1. A crisis is unfolding at the Washington Post following billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to block the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. In a statement signed by 21 opinion columnists at the Post, they write “The…decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake.” Signatories include Karen Attiah, E.J. Dionne, and Dana Milbank among many others. Since the publication of that statement, two opinion writers have resigned: David Hoffman, who has written for the Post since 1982 and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize just last week, as well as technology columnist Molly Roberts. Editor-at-large Robert Kagan also resigned his position at the paper. This from Semafor. Responding to the outcry, Bezos himself published an op-ed in the paper arguing that Americans see the news media as too politicized already and an official endorsement would merely make matters worse. As of October 29th, over 200,000 Washington Post readers, nearly 10% of the total readership, have canceled their subscriptions, per NPR.

2. Like the Washington Post, the LA Times also opted not to endorse Kamala Harris. Similar backlash followed, with the New York Times reporting “Thousands of readers canceled subscriptions. Three members of the editorial board resigned. Nearly 200 staff members signed an open letter to management demanding an explanation, complaining that the decision this close to the election had undermined the news organization’s trust with readers.” Nika Soon-Shiong, the activist daughter of LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, publicly stated “Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process…As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.” Per Vanity Fair however, her father disputes this narrative, saying “Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion…She does not have any role at The L.A. Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times.” The murkiness of these circumstances has left readers with many questions that likely will not be answered until well after the election.

3. According to Slate, “Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [last] Saturday…According to Trump, the Israeli leader said he disregarded President Joe Biden’s warning to keep troops out of Rafah in southern Gaza.” In other words, Trump is conducting foreign policy independent of the sitting president, a flagrant violation of the Logan Act and the Constitution itself. This collusion between Trump and Netanyahu is reminiscent of the Nixon campaign’s collusion with the South Vietnamese to prolong the Vietnam War and thereby undermine the Hubert Humphrey campaign and similarly, the Reagan campaign’s collusion with Iran to prolong the hostage crisis. Yet again however, it seems unlikely that there will be any consequences to this open criminal activity.

4. Reuters reports that on Monday, Israel formally banned the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency from operating inside Israel. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since this campaign of slaughter began is quoted saying “If UNRWA is unable to operate, it'll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza…So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.” Reuters reports “over 13,300 children whose identities have been confirmed have been killed” in Gaza, while “Many more are believed to have died from diseases due to a collapsing medical system and food and water shortages.”

5. The Muslim Mirror reports “In a landmark diplomatic move, Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected President of Mexico and the country’s first Jewish head of state, officially recognized the State of Palestine.” Sheinbaum is quoted saying “Today, Mexico reaffirms its commitment to human rights and justice for all. Recognizing Palestine is a step toward peace and a signal to the international community that the Palestinian people deserve dignity, statehood, and the right to self-determination.” Neither the United States nor Canada recognize the State of Palestine.

6. Over 20,000 workers have lost their lives working on Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030 project, per the Hindustan Times. These workers, almost exclusively migrants, say they feel like “trapped slaves” and “beggars,” and allege widespread exploitation including “unpaid wages, illegal working hours and human rights abuses.” While rumors of the workers mistreatment has been circulating for years now, a new ITV documentary has brought more attention to the issue in recent days. The deeply suspect NEOM mega-city project alone, which is just one aspect of Saudi Vision 2030, is expected to cost at least $500 billion.

7. BRICS, the loose multi-polar alliance of countries forming an alternative economic bloc to offset the United States, recently concluded their latest summit. Per Democracy Now!, the alliance voted to accept 13 more countries to the bloc, including Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. These were chosen from nearly three-dozen applicants. The outpouring of applications indicates a substantial appetite for an economic alternative to the United States throughout much of the world.

8. On October 22nd, Congressman Ro Khanna re-introduced the Stop Wall Street Landlords Act, intended to curb the trend of private equity gobbling up housing stock across the country. The bill was first introduced in 2022, but the crisis has only grown since then. According to NOTUS, “In the first half of 2024, one in four ‘low-priced’ homes were purchased by investors…In that same time, the percentage of Americans with a ‘high degree of concern’ about housing costs rose to 69%.” If passed, this bill would raise taxes on home acquisitions by private equity firms that hold over $100 million in assets and “bar government-supported lenders from backing new mortgages for such purchases.” Both presidential campaigns have made housing a major issue on the trail, though only the Kamala Harris campaign has offered viable policy to address the crisis.

9. E&E News reports Argus Insight, a conservative research firm is “collecting information that could be used to discredit officials involved in a multibillion-dollar climate lawsuit against fossil fuel companies.” The suit, filed last year in Oregon, accuses “Exxon Mobil, the American Petroleum Institute, McKinsey…and hundreds of other defendants of being responsible for a dayslong heat wave in 2021 that killed 69 people. Multnomah County, home to Portland, is seeking more than $51 billion to pay for damages from the tragedy and to prepare for future disasters.” It is unknown why exactly Argus is seeking this information, but experts speculate that they are “using the same tactics that the tobacco industry deployed against its critics decades ago.” Benjamin Franta, an Oxford professor of climate litigation, is quoted saying “The strategy is to ‘try to figure out who is helping to inform these cases and…discredit them in some way…If someone loses on the facts, they try to shoot the messenger.’”

10. Finally, the Popular Information Substack reports “On October 10…[Attorney General Merrick] Garland held a press conference and announced that TD Bank had illegally laundered over $670 million of drug money.” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo added “Time and again, unlike its peers, TD Bank prioritized growth and profit over complying with the law.” Surely such a clear, textbook case of corporate criminality would result in criminal charges…except Garland and the DOJ brought no charges, instead settling for a Deferred Prosecution Agreement and a fine of $3 billion. Only two low-level employees were hit with criminal charges, despite clear evidence showing the involvement of high-level executives. Senator Elizabeth Warren said of the deal “This settlement lets bad bank executives off the hook for allowing TD Bank to be used as a criminal slush fund.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Medicare (Dis)Advantage, Medical Blind Spots, & Supreme Court Stench Oct 26, 2024

As the Medicare enrollment period gets underway again, we welcome Dr. Adam Gaffney to remind us the ways all those heavily advertised Medicare Advantage programs are ripping you off. Then we receive another house call from Dr. Marty Makary, author of Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health about the effect of medical groupthink on all kinds of accepted treatments from peanut allergies to opioid addiction. Finally, founder of Media Matters, David Brock stops by to discuss his latest book, Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America.

Dr. Adam Gaffney is a physician, writer, public health researcher, and advocate. Dr. Gaffney practices at the Cambridge Health Alliance and is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. A member of the Cambridge Health Justice Lab, his research focuses on healthcare financing, reform, and equity, and disparities in lung health. He writes about the policy, politics, and history of health care, and is the author of To Heal Humankind: The Right to Health in History.

The reality is we don't need Medigap. We could plug those holes with public coverage. There's no reason to have a role for private insurers to cover a slice of our healthcare when all seniors need the same thing—which is comprehensive universal care. There's no need for these private stopgap measures, when what we need is a public system of universal care.

Dr. Adam Gaffney

I do think there’s growing interest among physicians in change. Their bosses are increasingly these for-profit companies whose mission is not really medicine. Their mission is money. And what we need to do is to rethink our healthcare system, so it serves communities, is owned by communities, and it returns us to the underlying reason why we went into this profession—which is to help patients, and not to pad the pockets of shareholders.

Dr. Adam Gaffney

Dr. Marty Makary is a Johns Hopkins professor and member of the National Academy of Medicine. He is the author of two New York Times best-selling books, Unaccountable and The Price We Pay. Dr. Makary has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, and he has published more than 250 scientific research articles. He served in leadership at the W.H.O. and has been a visiting professor at 25 medical schools. His latest book is Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health.

For most of human history, doctors were respected, but maybe like you would respect your hairdresser, or maybe a clergy member in the community. And we didn't have many tools as doctors. We had a lancet, we had a saw to do amputations, we had a couple of drugs that didn't work or were counterproductive like digoxin. And then what happened in 1922 is Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. And by the post-World War II era in the 1940s and '50s, we saw the mass production of antibiotics. That ushered in the white coat era of medicine. Doctors began to wear a white coat. They now had the power to prescribe a magical pill that could cure disease, make childbirth safe, enable surgeons to do procedures safer. And this ushered in this new unquestioned authority. And what happened was, physicians as a class took advantage of this unquestioned authority.

Dr. Marty Makary

David Brock is a Democratic activist and founder of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog group. Following the 2010 elections, Mr. Brock founded the Super PAC American Bridge, which works to elect Democrats. He is a New York Times best-selling author, and his books include the memoir Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, Killing the Messenger: The Right Wing Plot to Hijack Your Government, and his latest book is Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America.

The Federalist Society was originally founded by three rightwing law students. And it was pitched as a debating society. So I don't think in the original incarnation, they had a master plan. But soon enough, they realized that membership in the Federalist Society could confer on people a certain imprimatur for appointments—and that's appointments not only to the federal judiciary, but all through the executive branch.

David Brock

The scheme to overturn Roe has been going on for all these decades. There were setbacks, of course, because there were times when Republican appointees ended up being independent—Sandra Day O 'Connor, for example, David Souter, for example—and the right was defeated in their effort to overturn Roe. So it took a while and it took a lot of steadfast, patient spending of money on their crusade.

David Brock

[This is] a time when the Biden regime is supporting the destruction of the ancient land of Lebanon— whom he's called in prior years an ally. He's letting Netanyahu destroy Lebanon with the same tactics that Netanyahu applied to the genocide in Gaza.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 10/23/24

1. Last week, Israel announced they had killed longtime Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. As NBC put it, the footage of his death released by Israel “showed Sinwar not hiding in a tunnel surrounded by hostages — as Israeli officials often claimed he was — but aboveground and hurling a stick at a drone with his last ounce of strength.” American political leaders, such as Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, are seeking to use Sinwar’s death to argue that Israel has accomplished its mission and should therefore conclude its genocidal campaign in Gaza. Israeli leaders however have made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of pulling out of Gaza, with Benny Gantz – chairman of Israel’s National Unity Party and among Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief political rivals – stating that the Israeli military “will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip for years to come,” per Al Jazeera.

2. According to POLITICO, during an August 29th meeting in Washington Lise Grande, the top U.S. official working on the humanitarian situation in Gaza told the leaders of more than a dozen aid organizations that “the U.S. would not consider withholding weapons from Israel for blocking food and medicine from entering [Gaza].” It is illegal to block the delivery of humanitarian assistance under both American and international human rights law. As the paper notes, Grande’s “candid assessment…raises questions about the seriousness of recent Biden administration threats to [withhold arms].” One attendee told POLITICO “[Grande] was saying that the rules don’t apply to Israel.”

3. Meanwhile, Israel continues its war on the United Nations mission in Lebanon. On October 20th, UNIFIL released a statement saying “Earlier today, an IDF bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin…The IDF has repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged UN positions. Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries…We will continue to undertake our mandated tasks.” UNIFIL added “Yet again, we note that breaching a UN position and damaging UN assets is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701.”

4. In a frankly dystopian story from the United Kingdom, British counterterrorism police “raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley,” despite the fact that Winstanley has not been charged with any offense. Electronic Intifada reports the raid was conducted under sections 1 and 2 of the 2006 “Terrorism Act,” which deal with the “encouragement of terrorism.” Human Rights Watch has previously urged the British government to repeal the repressive provisions of the 2006 act noting that “the definition of the encouragement of terrorism offense is overly broad, raising serious concerns about undue infringement on free speech.” Electronic Intifada further notes “In August, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service issued a warning to the British public to ‘think before you post’ and threatening that it would prosecute anyone it deemed guilty of what it calls ‘online violence.’” Winstanley is the author of Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn and has been interviewed by the Capitol Hill Citizen.

5. According to the Libertarian magazine Reason, Bob Woodward’s new book War includes a passage about a “shockingly blunt conversation,” between President Biden and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham regarding “Biden's attempts to negotiate a ‘megadeal’ between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.” Per Reason “Graham reportedly said that only Biden could secure a U.S.-Saudi defense treaty, because it would ‘take a Democratic president to convince Democrats to vote to go to war for Saudi Arabia’” Biden’s response? “Let's do it.” Furthermore, reports indicate this security pact only fell apart after October 7th, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman seeing a prominent deal with Israel at that time as a major political liability. Reason cites an article from the Atlantic in January wherein Salman reportedly told Secretary of State Antony Blinken “Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don't, but my people do…Half my advisers say that the deal is not worth the risk. I could end up getting killed because of this deal.”

6. In more international news, the Cuban energy grid collapsed on Friday, under strain from Hurricane Oscar. The complete grid collapse left the entire country of 10 million without electricity, per NPR. Reuters reports that over the weekend, the grid failed three more times as authorities sought to restore power. Brasil de Fato, or BdF, a Brazilian socialist news service, reports China, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Russia and Barbados are offering support to Cuba amid the total blackout. BdF further reports “The Alba Movimientos platform, which brings together more than 400 organizations from 25 countries, issued a statement...[saying] ‘No one can attribute this virtual collapse of the Cuban electricity system to a specific measure by the US government – that would be too simplistic…this is’“the result of a long strategy of planned destruction of the material and spiritual living conditions of the Cuban population…with the financial resources denied to Cuba due to the blockade policy, 18 days of accumulated damages equal the annual cost of maintaining the country's electricity system.” According to the UN, the U.S. embargo cost Cuba $13 million US dollars per day between 2022 and 2023 alone.

7. A new scandal has rocked American Higher Education. Inside Higher Ed reports “Last week a lawsuit accused 40 colleges and universities, as well as the nonprofit College Board, of participating in a price-fixing conspiracy to jack up tuition rates” specifically, for children of divorced parents. The scheme itself had to do with consideration of the non-custodial parent’s income, but the larger issue at stake here is the fact that the universities entered into a “cartel” in violation of antitrust laws. As this piece notes this is the “second major price-fixing antitrust lawsuit filed against highly selective universities since 2022, when 17 institutions…were accused of illegally colluding to set common financial aid formulas. So far, 10 of those institutions have settled for a combined $248 million.”

8. Boeing has offered their striking machinists a new deal, which they hope will end their crippling strike. ABC reports “The new offer delivers a 35% raise over the four-year duration of the contract,” which is short of the 40% raise demanded by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers but considerably better than the aerospace titan’s previous offer of 25%. ABC continues “The proposal also hikes Boeing's contribution to a 401(k) plan, but it declines to fulfill workers' call for a reinstatement of the company's defined pension.” As this piece notes, the machinists overwhelmingly rejected Boeing’s previous offer last month; this week they will vote on the new proposal. Whatever the details of the final contract, this episode clearly demonstrates the power of a union, even going up against one of the most powerful corporations in America.

9. A stunning CNN investigation reveals the extent of predatory fundraising by the major parties off of elderly people suffering from dementia or other forms of cognitive decline in their old age. According to “More than 1,000 reports filed with government agencies and consumer advocacy groups… deceptive political fundraisers have victimized hundreds of elderly Americans…into giving away millions of dollars.” These heartbreaking stories concern “Donors…often in their 80s and 90s…[including] retired public workers, house cleaners and veterans, widows living alone, nursing home residents…[with] money…from pensions, Social Security payments and retirement savings accounts meant to last decades.” To cite just one just one shocking example: “[an] 82-year-old woman, who wore pajamas with holes in them because she didn’t want to spend money on new ones, didn’t realize she had given Republicans more than $350,000 while living in a 1,000 square-foot Baltimore condo since 2020.”

10. Finally, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has sent a letter to Rodney McMullen, Chairman and CEO of Kroger, decrying the company’s “decision to roll out surge pricing using facial recognition technology.” Specifically, Tlaib cites concerns about price manipulation based on external factors like supply as well as discrimination based on race, gender, and other criteria determined through facial recognition. Tlaib ends this letter with six key questions, including “Will Kroger use…facial recognition to display targeted advertisements…?…What safeguards will be in pace?…[and] Are there plans to sell data collected in the store?” among others. Grocery prices continue to be a source of everyday economic hardship for working Americans and corporations are increasingly interested in surge pricing for essential goods. There is some comfort in knowing at least one member of Congress is concerned about this dangerous combination.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Cashing in on the War in Gaza Oct 19, 2024

Ralph welcomes back William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. They'll discuss the Cost of War Project's latest reports on US military spending in support of Israel, and the humanitarian costs of the war in Gaza. Then, Ralph is joined by Palestinian writer and analyst Sumaya Awad to discuss the mass civil disobedience at the New York Stock Exchange, which was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace to protest the weapons manufacturers that are making millions off the genocide in Gaza.

William Hartung is an expert on the arms industry and US military budget, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, and the co-editor of Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War.

In all my years of watching the operations of Washington—including the Bush/Cheney criminal invasion of Iraq—I have never seen such a servile position by top officials of an administration to a foreign power. Not even close. They are humiliating the United States of America. They are jeopardizing the United States of America—because as you know, the Department of Defense, CIA, NSA have studies and scenarios of blowback. So this war in the Middle East is gonna come back to the US in terms of reprisal and retaliation. And we are not able to anticipate that because we think, as the ruling empire in the world, that we're invulnerable. But we're not invulnerable.

Ralph Nader

The Biden administration is living in the past. They’ve got this “Israel, right or wrong” ideology. They think it's a political detriment to criticize Israel, and the fact that the younger generation is not locked into that point of view. But I think they’re going to hurt themselves more by enabling the war crimes that Israel is committing than they would by taking a stand. And of course, they keep trying to say that they're pushing for a ceasefire…But as long as they're doing the weapons and the financing, that is laughable.

William Hartung

It's just stunning. Given the record of this century—two failed wars, $8 trillion spent, hundreds of thousands killed—and yet they could say with a straight face, “We need a dominant military.” As if that’s the tool that's gonna solve any of these problems, rather than make them worse.

William Hartung

Sumaya Awad is a Palestinian writer and analyst based in New York City, and she is the spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace’s mass civil disobedience event at the New York Stock Exchange. Ms. Awad directs strategy and communications for the Adalah Justice Project, and she is a cofounder of the Against Canary Mission Project, which defends student activists targeted by blacklists for their Palestinian rights advocacy. She is the co-author of Palestine and Elections and co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.

There were over 200 arrests—the majority of them anti-Zionist Jewish New Yorkers, who want to send a clear message both to the US government and the American people that Israel weaponizes their identity in order to justify crimes against humanity and that they are not okay with this. That they refuse for their identity and Jewish people to be weaponized in this way. And that in fact, what Israel is doing and what the US government is funding and politically backing is actively making this country and certainly the rest of the world unsafe not just for Jewish people, but for others.

Sumaya Awad

We are strategizing about how to push back against the role of AIPAC and the grip of AIPAC. I think the reality is that there are many people in Congress that are actually benefiting financially from what is happening in Gaza. We know that at least 50 members of Congress have links to the military-industrial complex—whether that's through stocks or other things. And so it's about unraveling this network, these connections between our government, the way it's profiting from the genocide and then what that means in terms of these elections across the country.

Sumaya Awad

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 10/16/24

1. The Israeli government is finally dropping the facade that the genocide in Gaza is about ‘returning the hostages.’ Haaretz reports “According to senior defense officials, the Israeli government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.” Not only that, apparently “Israel's political leaders have not held any discussions with the various security branches about the condition of the hostages.” In other words, Israel clearly does not care about the hostages at all and are simply using them as political props to prolong their campaign of terror. In addition, the AP reports “Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza,” and if Palestinians are unable or unwilling to leave their homes, they “would be considered combatants — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them.” Last weekend, Israel launched an offensive against the Jabaliya refugee camp, resulting in gruesome footage of Palestinians burnt alive while still connected to IV tubes in field hospital tents.

2. Responding to a report by NBC, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), is sounding the alarm that “US officials have discussed joining Israel in offensive strikes against Iran, and passing them off as ‘defensive’ after the fact.” As Just Foreign Policy notes, this would not only violate the War Powers Resolution, but “Unnamed US officials” are seeking to circumvent the debate and Congressional vote required for such an act under the Constitution. Now the question becomes whether the American empire will allow itself to be drawn into a rapidly escalating regional war based on Israel’s aggression.

3. On October 10th, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported “This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.” Beyond this attack, UNIFIL also reports that the IDF fired on the UN positions in Labbouneh and Ras Naqoura, ending by writing “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701.”

4. On October 8th, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal released a statement decrying the lack of action by the organs of U.S. foreign policy regarding the killing of American citizen Aysenur Eygi in the West Bank. Jayapal writes “It has been 32 days…and we have seen no movement toward an independent investigation by the U.S. government and no additional information on changes in the practices of the…IDF…units that are using live ammunition on those who are peacefully protesting…I am frankly appalled…If the Israeli government is unwilling or unable to follow our own domestic laws as well as international humanitarian laws…we must initiate our own investigation into Eygi’s killing.”

5. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn and the parliamentary Independent Alliance have sent a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressing their “disgust over the government’s complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our lifetime.” This letter goes on to explain how “the government could have...opposed the genocide in Gaza. It could have ended military, economic and diplomatic support...[and] defended the equal application of international law. Instead, the failure to bring Israel to justice emboldened it to kill thousands of people in Lebanon and now, wage war on the UN.” The letter then asks a series of questions to the British government, including “what red lines, if any, does Israel have to cross for the government to end its diplomatic and political support?” and “does the UK government oppose genocide?”

6. In a humiliation for Elon Musk, Forbes reports that Tesla stock slid by nearly $70 billion following the “sour” reaction to the company’s unveiling of their absurd new products including a “robotaxi” and “Optimus” humanoid robots. In fact, disappointment in Tesla’s “cybercab” was so acute that Uber shares spiked by 11% and Lyft’s by 10%. Another story signaling that Tesla is vastly overvalued comes from the Orange County Register, which reports the Irvine Police Department spent over $150,000 on the first ever police Cybertruck. What is the department planning to use this eye-wateringly expensive boondoggle for? According to this report “the department does not plan to use the truck for patrols. The Cybertruck will…principally be driven by DARE officers to schools.”

7. According to USA Today, “A study from the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that a California state law [which] raised the minimum wage for fast food workers did not lead to large job loses or price hikes.” The law in question, AB 1228 established a “$20 per hour minimum wage for those working at fast food restaurants with less than 60 locations nationwide and restaurants located inside airports, stadiums and convention centers. The law further gave employees stronger protections and the ability to bargain as a sector.” The study found that this law effectively raised average pay of these non-managerial employees by almost 18%, a truly remarkable margin, while prices went up only about 15 cents per $4 item. Hopefully this study will finally put an end to the old canard that raising wages for fast food workers leads to widespread job loss and price increases.

8. A depressing story from NPR exposes the US Department of Agriculture’s “Wildlife Services” program, described as “a holdover from the 1930s, when Congress gave the federal government broad authority to kill wildlife at the request of private landowners….So long as livestock or human life are threatened.” Employees of this program continue to kill “hundreds of thousands of noninvasive animals a year…Even species considered [endangered]…like grizzly bears.” Yet even within the broad mandate of this program, data shows “employees frequently kill native wild animals without evidence of livestock loss,” including 11,000 in Montana. The USDA and the Bureau of Land Management now face increasing calls to overhaul this outdated program.

9. Politiken, a prominent Danish newspaper, reports local harbormaster John Anker Nielsen encountered US Navy vessels at the scene of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage operation in 2022, per Al Mayadeen. Nielsen, the harbormaster of Christianso, told Politiken that in the days after the explosion he tried to initiate a rescue mission “after noticing ships with their transponders turned off and presuming an emergency.” Yet once they drew near, they discovered the vessels to be US Navy warships. According to Nielsen, “the Naval Command then instructed…[him] to turn back.” This report conforms to the narrative of the Nord Stream sabotage as presented by legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh and directly contradicts the narrative put forward by the U.S. government.

10. Finally, on October 11th the Democratic National Committee released what it claims is “its first-ever ad focused on third-party candidates,” per DNC Chair Jamie Harrison. The ad features Green Party nominee Jill Stein grotesquely morphing into Donald Trump with dialogue arguing that “a vote for Stein is really a vote for Trump.” As many have remarked, the DNC feeling the need to disseminate such an ad is an ill omen for their chances in the coming election, particularly in Michigan where recent polling shows Stein drawing 40% of Muslim voters, compared to 18% for Trump and just 12% for Kamala Harris, per Reuters. Of course, the DNC could instead direct their efforts to improving their standing with Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan – as well as young progressives throughout the country – by taking a stand against the ongoing genocide in Palestine, but then that isn’t really their style.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Bibi Biden & Bibi Blinken Oct 12, 2024

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (retired) joins us once again to give his unvarnished view of the now yearlong ethnic cleansing of Gaza, an assault that has now extended into Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. Plus, our resident constitutional expert, Bruce Fein stops by to give us a quick take on how U.S. material support of the Israeli aggression in Lebanon, an ally of ours, is a clear violation of The Neutrality Act.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volunteer Force Forum.

The Jewish state in the Levant is finished. Now, if it wants to be a liberal democracy— if it wants to become a real democracy, it could possibly remain. But this Jewish state, especially in its current manifestation, which is the ultimate manifestation, has ended. It's through. The rest of the world, if nothing else, will terminate it just as it did the South African apartheid state. And it will happen—and it will happen despite the Empire's (The U.S.) protestations to the contrary. In fact, I predict ultimately when the Empire smells the tea leaves, it will probably join the crowd and tell them they have no choice but to be a liberal democracy—to invite what that means, which is ultimately a Palestinian Arab majority, and to even change their name to Israel-Palestine or Palestine-Israel or whatever. That's the future. The future is not Bibi Netanyahu.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

Netanyahu talks about Joshua who moved on after Moses had given him instructions, and after the leadership had sort of fallen apart, and Joshua takes over. And they go in, and under God's instructions they are to kill everything in sight— leave no human being alive. And that's Netanyahu. Netanyahu thinks he's a latter-day Joshua, and that's what they're doing. They brought a thousand years of history's most rude, most bloodthirsty, most unbelievable procedures in waging war against another state or another people back into vogue again. And we're supporting it.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

The Neutrality Act of 1794 in substance prohibits anyone in the United States from directing or supplying arms or assistance— or otherwise engaging in war—that is against a country with which the United States is formally at peace. The United States at present is at peace with Iran. It's at peace with Lebanon. Indeed, Lebanon's an ally. We already know that President Biden had ordered Navy ships to use their Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense in collaboration with Israel to shoot down Iranian missiles—an act of war. And now they basically said we are combatants with Israel and probably planning covertly to join military forces on the next initiative that Israel takes against Iran. So it's a clear violation of the Neutrality Act.

Bruce Fein

Listeners, you have your Senators and Representatives campaigning, as we speak, in your communities. You ask them to come to your town meetings where they can hear you out, and where you require them to respond. This is their moment of vulnerability before the election.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 10/9/24

1. In These Times reports “U.S. Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists.” This piece, based on interviews with 18 Jewish professionals at 16 different Jewish organizations over several months, yielded descriptions of “being fired, quitting under pressure, or seeing their roles disappear since October 7 for issues surrounding criticism of Israel or support for a permanent cease-fire.” The magazine identifies this trend as part of “a radical rightward turn in mainstream Jewish organizational life over the past year...[where] Support for Israel and its government’s assault on Gaza appear to have become a defining feature of employability.” Shaul Magid, who teaches modern Judaism at Harvard Divinity School is quoted saying “More than an exercise in pro-Israel muscle, this is…an act of desperation. The liberal Zionist center is collapsing.”

2. In a statement, the Hind Rajab Foundation – named for the five year-old girl killed by Israeli forces – has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court accusing 1,000 Israeli soldiers of “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza.” The statement goes on to say “These individuals, all of whom have been identified by name, are accused of participating in systematic attacks against civilians during the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” examples of which include destruction of civilian infrastructure, illegal occupation and looting, and use of inhumane warfare tactics, among others. The Foundation alleges that this complaint is supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence, including “videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation.”

3. In a clash of the fast food titans, the Washington Post reports McDonald’s has filed a lawsuit against Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS and National Beef Packing alleging that the meat packing giants engaged in a “conspiracy…to fix, raise, stabilize and/or maintain the price of beef…at supra-competitive levels — that is, prices artificially higher than beef prices would have been in the absence of their conspiracy.” In this complaint, McDonald’s alleges that “the price per hundred pounds of cattle had historically stayed within $20 to $40 of the average price per hundred pounds of wholesale beef…. [but] By 2021, the difference had ballooned to $156.50.” The meatpackers have been under increasing scrutiny for the past several years. “In 2020, the Justice Department…sent subpoenas to the four meatpackers in an antitrust probe. A year later, nearly 30 members of Congress sent...a letter, suggesting it was time ‘to determine whether the stranglehold large meatpackers have over the beef processing market violate our antitrust laws and principles of fair competition,’” and in 2022, JBS agreed to a $52.5 million settlement with direct purchasers.

4. In the final days before the 2024 election, Republicans are launching a full-scale assault on the regulatory state. The National Review reports House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer is opening an investigation into Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, accusing her of politicizing the agency by appearing at events with progressive lawmakers. These events have centered on policy – an event in Texas with Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar was focused on “corporate power and worker freedom,” while others have dealt with grocery prices, health care, and price gouging, per Punchbowl News – but Comer is alleging that these events were political in nature and thus prohibited by the Hatch Act. Meanwhile Mark Joseph Stern reports “Fourteen Republican attorneys general are suing to block a new [Federal Communications Commission] rule that would prohibit prisons from charging inmates extortionist rates for phone and video calls,” which can cost as much $54 each. It seems unlikely that these attacks on consumer protection rules will deliver political dividends for Republicans come November.

5. In another bizarre GOP misstep, Indiana Senator Mike Braun recently said “the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage in…1967,” and that the decision should have “instead been left to individual states,” FOX59 Indianapolis reports. Braun then tied himself in knots saying that he condemned “racism in any form” but maintained that “We’re better off having states manifest their points of view.” The Indiana Democratic Party condemned Braun’s statements, calling his rhetoric “an endorsement of…dangerous white nationalist views.”

6. Airline Geeks reports “Boeing has cut health care coverage for 33,000 of its workers and their families as [the] machinists union strikes continue to halt production in the Pacific Northwest.” International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers International President Brian Bryant responded to this clear attempt at strikebreaking by saying “Boeing executives cannot make up their mind…One day they say they want to win back the trust of their workforce. The next moment…Boeing executives are…tripping over dollars to get pennies by cutting a benefit that is essential to the lives of children and families, but is nothing compared to the cost of the larger problems Boeing executives have created …over the last ten years. Their missteps are costing not just the workers but our nation.” The Machinists have been on strike since September 13th, and Bryant said “Our members continue to be strong in their resolve and will not settle for anything but a fair contract that recognizes and rewards the critical and dedicated work they perform.”

7. According to Documented NY, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has run a secretive program for years where ICE agents have trained hundreds of civilian volunteers on how to operate multiple types of firearms, conduct investigations and surveillance of immigrants, and use lethal force on human beings.” Documents from this quasi-fascist program, revealed via FOIA request on October 1st, include “detailed images showing where to strike with a baton or a weapon to cause differentiated harms on the body…presentations on how to shoot a gun, point at targets, and stand in positions to fire…[with] One presentation slide suggest[ing] yelling ‘drop the gun’ as a potential cover when employing lethal force against someone.” Ian Head, Open Records project manager at the Center for Constitutional Rights, calls this “a violent and racist program, where people pretending to be violent ICE officers got to hold guns and fire them in role-play situations where agents pretended to be immigrants.”

8. More fascist news comes to us from Canada, where the Ottawa Citizen reports “The Department of Canadian Heritage is being told that more than half of the 550 names on the Memorial to the Victims of Communism should be removed because of potential links to the Nazis or questions about affiliations with fascist groups, according to government records.” Documents show the department had already determined that 50 to 60 of the names or organizations were directly linked to the Nazis. As the article notes, “The memorial was supposed to be unveiled in November 2023 but…was put on hold after members of Parliament honoured Yaroslav Hunka, a Ukrainian soldier with the Waffen-SS Galicia Division, a voluntary unit that was under the command of the Nazis. That incident became an international embarrassment for Canada.”

9. In more positive news from our Southern neighbor, incoming Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has announced a new “Health at Home” program for seniors and persons with disabilities, per Latina Republic. The program, intended to reach 13.6 million people, “will bring healthcare personnel to the homes of all seniors across the country,” starting with a census to collect comprehensive health data to “establish a personalized care plan,” to be performed by over 20,000 new doctors and nurses. This ambitious program of preventative medicine is unimaginable in this country despite boasting a GDP almost 20 times the size of Mexico’s.

10. Finally, in Nebraska, a new poll from the Independent Center finds Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborne leading two-term incumbent Republican Deb Fischer by a remarkable 5 points. Currently the candidates stand at 42% for Fischer, 47% for Osborne, with 10% undecided. Voter registration in Nebraska totals 49% Republican, 26% Democrat, and 25% Independent, meaning Osborne has a path to victory via a Democratic-Independent coalition. If successful, Osborne could provide a model for victory in red states: run as a left-wing populist and jettison the toxic Democratic Party brand.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Destructive Tendencies Oct 05, 2024

First on today's show, Ralph welcomes back Dr. Bandy Lee to discuss her recent conference, "The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership—The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump". Then, Ralph is joined by Professor Ted Postol to talk about the missiles and rockets (and other weapons) being used in the expanding war(s) in the Middle East.

[Nadia Milleron] went down to Springfield, the state capitol, and met with every assembly member, saying—for future wrongful death, you should give people in Illinois the opportunity to file for punitive damages against these corporate defendants, or other similarly-positioned defendants. And she got it through—it was considered impossible to beat Boeing, and she got it through and the governor signed it. That's the determination of a parent who loses a child to corporate crime

Ralph Nader

Dr. Bandy Lee is a medical doctor, a forensic psychiatrist, and a world expert on violence who taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years before joining the Harvard Program in Psychiatry and the Law. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition, an educational organization that assembles mental health experts to collaborate with other disciplines for the betterment of public mental health and public safety. She is the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President and Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul.

Let me clarify that there's a distinction among the evaluations that mental health experts do—one is diagnostic, the other is functional. And the diagnostic exam is the one that mental health professionals have no business doing on a public figure because that's what you do in private therapy sessions, and you diagnose someone in order to outline their course of treatment. But a functional assessment is something you do for the public—and that includes unfitness or dangerousness—and these kinds of comments are not only permitted, they are part of our societal responsibility because we are responsible not just for private individual patients, but for the public, for society.

Dr. Bandy Lee

Donald Trump is not an isolated phenomenon. He is a product of the system that has come before him and he is an accelerator of the dangers that succeed him. I do not believe that a Biden presidency would have been this dangerous without a Trump presidency preceding him.

Dr. Bandy Lee

Ted Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government’s claims about missile defenses.

I do not want to appear like I don't think it matters, but at the same time, it's been provoked to the point that it's amazing that the Iranians have restrained themselves to this point. But the Iranians know that they're going to suffer heavy damage from Israel. They have not wanted to go to war. They have shown great wisdom and restraint in spite of the situation.

Ted Postol

What the Israelis want—this guy Netanyahu in particular, who I think is delusional besides being psychopath—what Netanyahu wants, he wants a decisive victory. Again, let me underscore that—a decisive victory against Iran and also Hezbollah and Gaza, these poor victims of his genocide in Gaza. He can't do that. He's going to kill God knows how many more people in his effort—which is already a crime against humanity that's beginning to look like the Holocaust—but he's not going to defeat Hezbollah in a decisive way.

Ted Postol

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 10/2/24

1. ProPublica reports “The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance [USAID and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration] concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza.” Yet just days later, instead of acting upon this information, Secretary of State Antony Blinken misled Congress telling lawmakers “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance [to Gaza].” In USAID’s report, the agency laid out specific examples of Israeli interference, including “killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.” The State Department Refugee bureau separately concluded that “the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze almost $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.” Yet because Blinken refused to accept these facts and instead opted to lie to Congress, the weapons pipeline to Israel continues to flow unimpeded. Some, including Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have called on Blinken to resign, per the Middle East Monitor.

2. On September 27th, Israel assassinated Hezbollah Secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. According to NBC, the Israelis made this decision “after concluding [Nasrallah] would not accept any diplomatic solution to end the fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border that was not tied to an end to the war in Gaza.” Through this assassination, and the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau chairman Ismail Haniyeh earlier this year, Israel has made clear that they would rather resort to extrajudicial killings than negotiate an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Israel now plans to invade Southern Lebanon, further escalating this conflict into a regional war, with the full backing of the United States.

3. Following the pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon, the office of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib issued a statement decrying that “The Biden-Harris administration continues to allow Netanyahu and the Israeli government to operate with impunity as they carry out war crimes. After facing no red line in Gaza…Netanyahu is now expanding his genocidal campaign to Lebanon…Deploying more U.S. troops and sending more U.S. bombs will only lead to more suffering and carnage. The...administration is capable of stopping the bloodshed. President Biden must implement an immediate arms embargo to end the slaughter and de-escalate the risk of a wider regional war.” Yet, far from de-escalating, the Biden administration has stood by while Netanyahu has escalated further, with increasing signs that the situation will tip over into a full-scale regional war between Israel and Iran. Dark days indeed could be ahead.

4. This week, Hurricane Helene cleaved a “500-mile path of destruction” stretching from Florida to the Southern Appalachians, per CNN. So far, the casualties include at least 128 dead and whole communities wiped off the map. Yet, this devastation is not limited merely to peoples’ homes and communities. In a darkly ironic twist, “Hurricane Helene's severe flooding [in Asheville, North Carolina] knocked offline the top tracker of U.S. and global climate data, including of extreme weather…The National Centers for Environmental Information,” or NCEI. According to the NCEI, “Even those who are physically safe are generally without power, water or connectivity,” per Axios. And just outside Atlanta, Vox reports “Amid the devastation and mass flooding…A chemical fire [at BioLab] released a massive plume of potentially toxic gasses into the air.” Officials issued a shelter-in-place order Sunday evening covering Rockdale County, home to around 90,000 people. EPA testing detected signs of chlorine gas in the air. Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, has reported “a haze and strong chemical smell.”

5. Last week, the International Trade Union Confederation published a report accusing “Some of the world’s largest companies of undermining democracy across the world by financially backing far-right political movements, funding and exacerbating the climate crisis, and violating trade union rights and human rights.” This report specifically names Amazon, Tesla, Meta, ExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard and Glencore. This report cites a litany of damning acts by these corporations – ranging from union busting and environmental degradation to funding of far-right and anti-indigenous movements around the globe – but makes the fundamental point that “This is about power, who has it, and who sets the agenda. …They’re playing the long game, and it’s a game about shifting power away from democracy at every level into one where they’re not concerned about the effects on workers – they’re concerned about maximizing their influence and their extractive power and their profit…Now is the time for international and multi-sectoral strategies, because these are, in many cases, multinational corporations that are more powerful than states, and they have no democratic accountability whatsoever, except for workers organized.” Per the Guardian, “the ITUC includes labor group affiliates from 169 nations…representing 191 million workers…the federation is pushing for an international binding treaty…to hold transnational corporations accountable under international human rights laws.”

6. Yet, although these corporations are being called out for their role in undermining democracy, the Biden administration is granting many of them large sums of money via the newly announced “Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI.” According to the State Department, this partnership will bring together the Department of State, Amazon, Anthropic, Google, IBM, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI to “promote inclusivity, respect for human rights, digital solidarity, and equitable access to the benefits of AI globally.” As the American Prospect’s Luke Goldstein notes, every single one of the companies listed are currently facing lawsuits or are under investigation by either the Department of Justice or the Federal Trade Commission, and two of these corporations were clients of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s during his time as a consultant at WestExec Advisors. And in California, Variety reports Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed SB 1047, a bill that “sought to ward off catastrophic risks of highly advanced [AI] models…[that] could be used to develop chemical or nuclear weapons.” This bill was strongly supported by SAG-AFTRA.

7. A new article in the Atlantic makes the case that “Legalizing Sports Gambling Was a Huge Mistake.” On a previous program we discussed how the “widespread legalization of sports gambling over the past five years has [led to a] roughly 28% increase in bankruptcies and an 8% increase in debt transferred to debt collectors,” along with substantial increases in auto loan delinquencies and use of debt consolidation loans. Beyond the financial damages however, this piece cites a new University of Oregon study that found in places where sports gambling is legalized, a loss by the home NFL team increases intimate partner violence by approximately 10%. As Deseret News put the question, “If, after six years, a law was discovered to be encouraging domestic violence while causing people, especially the poor, to lose what little money they could put toward savings, what would be the correct next step?”

8. On September 24th, the Federal Trade Commission took action against Invitation Homes, the country’s largest landlord of single-family homes, for “an array of unlawful actions against consumers, including deceiving renters about lease costs, charging undisclosed junk fees, failing to inspect homes before residents moved in, and unfairly withholding tenants’ security deposits when they moved out.” The FTC complaint cites a 2019 email from Invitation Homes’ CEO “calling on the senior vice president responsible for overseeing the company’s fee program to ‘juice this hog’” by making additional fees mandatory for renters. This action comes as “Democrats Are Torn Between Donors and Their Base,” over the high-profile FTC Chair Lina Khan, Wired reports. While many billionaire Democratic donors have publicly called for Khan’s ouster, polling shows around “80 percent of Democrats feel that the government should be doing more to take on corporate monopolies, compared to only 3 percent who say it should be doing less...[and] Nearly 90 percent of Democrats…feel that lobbyists and corporate executives hold too much power over the government.” To his credit, powerful House Democrat Jim Clyburn recently defended Khan when asked whether she should be fired, saying “… fired for what? For doing [her] job?…I suspect that people who represent Invitation Homes may want her to be replaced by somebody who would not do their [job],” per the Huffington Post.

9. POLITICO Europe has published a shocking exposé documenting “the atrocities carried out during the summer of 2021 by a [Mozambican] commando unit led by an officer who said his mission was to protect ‘the project of Total.’” The “Total” in question being TotalEnergies, the French energy titan operating an enormous liquid natural gas plant in the Southeast African country. According to this report, “villagers had been caught in the crossfire between the Mozambican army and ISIS-affiliated militants. Having fled their homes, they had gone to seek the protection of government soldiers. Instead…[t]he soldiers accused the villagers of being members of the insurgency. They separated the men — a group of between 180 and 250 — from the women and children. Then they crammed their prisoners into… shipping containers…hitting, kicking and striking them with rifle butts. The soldiers held the men in the containers for three months. They beat, suffocated, starved, tortured and finally killed their detainees. Ultimately, only 26 prisoners survived.” Beyond this horrific massacre, this piece investigates the complex relationship between the Mozambican government, the Islamist insurgency, and French energy interests operating in Mozambique.

10. Finally, on the eve of the inauguration of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s incoming president and the first ever Jewish head of state in North America, tensions are mounting between the country and its northern neighbor, the United States. On his way out, popular left-wing president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, has declared a Yucatán port owned by Alabama-based Vulcan Materials a nature reserve in a move that the company is calling “expropriation.” According to Reuters, the company has quarried limestone in Mexico for over three decades and AMLO has long criticized their activities as environmentally damaging. AMLO also offered offered up to 7 billion pesos or $362 million for the land, but Vulcan rejected the offer. In response to AMLO’s move, Republican Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and John Cornyn of Texas sent a letter “threatening Mexico with ‘crushing consequences’ if the incoming Administration of Claudia Sheinbaum,” doesn’t reverse this decision, per José Díaz Briseño of Reforma. This vague saber rattling raises the question, voiced by decorated journalist Ryan Grim, “Are Senate Republicans threatening some kind of coup”?

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Boobytraps, Bombs & Blowback Sep 28, 2024

Ralph welcomes Middle East expert and executive VP of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Trita Parsi, to fill us in on the consequences of Israel boobytrapping pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon and how those tactics have the potential to blow back on us in the United States. Then we welcome back surgeon and humanitarian, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who has worked in Gaza during the Israeli assault, to update us on his efforts to get the Biden Administration to convince Israel to stop the killing.

Trita Parsi is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and the co-founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East, and has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan, and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly’s Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Iraq. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel— Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States, A Single Roll of the Dice – Obama’s Diplomacy with Iran, and Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy.

We're in a very sad situation in which we have a president who has been sitting on the front lines of American foreign policy for one-fifth of America's history, who thinks that he knows everything best, and clearly doesn't seem to be listening to anyone. And there's plenty of discontent inside the Biden administration itself—and people appear to have just given up and are waiting for the elections—but there's no clear signs yet that there won't necessarily be much of a change even after that.

Trita Parsi

Let's first remember that if any other entity had done this to Israel—or to us—we would not have hesitated for a second. We would have called it an act of terrorism, and we would have called it an act of war.

Trita Parsi

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa is a trauma and critical care surgeon as well as a Northern California Veterans Affairs general surgeon, and he is Associate Professor of Surgery at the California Northstate University College of Medicine. Dr. Sidhwa served at the European Hospital in Khan Younis in March and April of this year, and he has done prior humanitarian work in Haiti, the West Bank, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. Dr. Sidhwa and 45 other American doctors and nurses who have served in Gaza recently sent a letter exhorting President Biden, VP Harris, and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden to effect an immediate ceasefire.

It's hard to appreciate, but really literally everything in Gaza that makes a place a society has been destroyed. I think of it in three levels— at the very base is agriculture, food production, and housing, at the level above that is healthcare, and at the level above that is things that are for a higher level of society, education, arts, industry, whatever. That top level is gone. Literally every university in Gaza has been obliterated, physically destroyed…The hospital system is almost completely useless right now…the functionality of the hospitals is very little more than a four walled space in which people can walk into and ask for a doctor to put bandages on them. And then even the lowest level…something like 85 or 90 % of the water sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

This is just outrageous. I mean, why are we doing this even to ourselves? Is it worth corrupting the entire executive department of the United States so that we can murder more children? Is that what Americans want? I don't think so.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

Let's talk about Lebanon itself, not just Hezbollah. This is war on Lebanon—that has a dysfunctional government, to be sure— but it is a state that the U.S. is allied with in a way, supplying modest weapons to the Lebanese army, and France has had long relations with Lebanon going back to the mandate period. In the U.S., this is a whole new constituency where they're losing relatives and friends.

Ralph Nader

More links to the letter sent by Dr. Sidhwa and his colleagues:

To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada

To Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the UK

How to email the President

How to call the President

Write or Call the White House

In Case You Didn’t Hear with Francesco DeSantis

News 9/25/24

1. On September 11th, Senator Patty Murray and Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal sent a letter to the Biden administration demanding “an immediate, transparent, credible, and thorough independent U.S. investigation…into the killing of [Ayşenur] Eygi,” the American citizen murdered by Israeli forces during a protest in the West Bank. Senator Murray and Representative Jayapal both represent Washington state, where Ms. Eygi attended university. In this letter, Murray and Jayapal also list the numerous American citizens killed by Israeli soldiers even before the current explosion of tensions in the region, ranging from Rachel Corrie in 2003 to Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. Senator Bernie Sanders echoed this call in his own statement on September 13th. Despite this pressure, the administration has not launched an investigation. The government of Turkey however – where Ms. Eygi was born, though she moved the United States when she was less than a year old – will pursue charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, Reuters reports.

2. The Intercept reports that the Uncommitted Movement will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. In their official statement, the Movement leaders write “Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her.” Harris proved unwilling to even meet with the Uncommitted leaders. This cold shoulder could have disastrous consequences, particularly in Michigan where Uncommitted garnered over 100,000 votes in the Democratic primaries.

3. Boeing is again in crisis. On September 20th, the New York Post reported that the chief of the company’s space unit, Ted Colbert, had been ousted after Boeing’s Starliner capsule left astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore stranded on the International Space Station. This comes amid a massive strike by Boeing machinists, 96% of whom voted in favor of the strike per Ryan Simms of KOMO News. The New York Post adds that Boeing’s shares have lost over 40% of their value so far this year.

4. In more union related news, on September 18th, the Congressional Workers Union announced that “staff in the Office of Congressman Mark Pocan and Congresswoman Val Hoyle secured the first-ever Memorandums of Understanding…between congressional staff and their members.” These MOUs include salary increases, back pay, and immediate cost-of-living adjustments. The union will continue to press for the first ever Congressional office collective bargaining agreement.

5. On September 12th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “filed a proposed order against student loan servicer Navient for its years of failures and lawbreaking.” If approved by the court, this order would permanently “remove Navient from a market where it, among other illegal actions, steered numerous student loan borrowers into costly repayment options…illegally deprived student borrowers of opportunities to enroll in more affordable income-driven repayment plans and forced them to pay much more than they should have.” Additionally, Navient would be forced to pay out $100 million to harmed borrowers, on top of a $20 million penalty. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is quoted saying “For years, Navient’s top executives profited handsomely by exploiting students and taxpayers…By banning the notorious student loan giant from federal student loan servicing and ensuring the winddown of these operations, the CFPB will finally put an end to the years of abuse.” Navient, formerly Sallie Mae, is described as “a repeat offender with a long history of regulatory violations,” and when the CFPB first took legal action against the company in 2017, it was the largest student loan servicer in the country.

6. More Perfect Union’s Jordan Zakarin reports the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Starbucks illegally closed all three of its Ithaca, New York locations and that the NLRB “ordered that those stores be re-opened, with the unionized staff re-hired and given 16 months of backpay.” Yet, Zakarin notes that because this was decided by an administrative law judge, Starbucks can and more than likely will appeal this decision. This case starkly exemplifies why the capitalist class feels so threatened by the newly reinvigorated NLRB.

7. A deeply disturbing story sheds light on sexual assault by CIA officers in postings around the world. The AP reports Brian Jeffrey Raymond, a longtime CIA agent, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for drugging, photographing, and sexually assaulting more than two dozen women in postings around the globe. Yet Raymond’s case is just the tip of the iceberg. “[A]nother veteran CIA officer faces…charges in Virginia for allegedly reaching up a co-worker’s skirt and forcibly kissing her during a drunken party in the office…Still another former CIA employee…is scheduled to face a jury trial next month on charges he assaulted a woman…at the agency’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters. That case emboldened some two dozen women to come forward to authorities and Congress with accounts of their own of sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they contend are the CIA’s efforts to silence them.” Tellingly, even Raymond’s own attorneys contended that his “quasi-military” work at the CIA in the years following 9/11 contributed to his “emotional callousness [and] objectification of other people,” that led to his preying upon women. It is well worth remembering that, once set in motion, dehumanization is not easily stopped.

8. Amid an expansive corruption probe in New York City, Gothamist reports just how much the NYPD is receiving in overtime pay in the subway; whereas last year, this slice of overtime pay totaled $4 million in taxpayer money, this year it has ballooned to $155 million, a nearly 4,000% increase. Meanwhile the Mayor continues to slash budgets for essential city services, such as libraries.

9. Rolling Stone reports the Crypto lobby is spending gargantuan sums of money to take out Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown – reportedly $32 million by the end of September, or $800,000 per day. Aware that their cause is unpopular, they are not running pro-Crypto ads, but instead spots that say his opponent will stop “illegal immigrants from taking Ohio’s tax dollars.” As Luke Goldstein of the American Prospect puts it “Dems are getting played like a fiddle by crypto; Schumer caved to their demands to stop the bleeding and then crypto PACs said thanks we’re still dropping $32 mil in OH to knock out your senate majority.”

10. Finally, in a story featuring a dizzying array of the worst things imaginable, Bloomberg reports “The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will invest $1.6 billion to revive it, agreeing to sell all the output to Microsoft…as the tech titan seeks…electricity for data centers to power [AI].” This story notes that “one of the site’s two units permanently closed almost a half-century ago after the worst…nuclear accident” in American history, but Constellation Energy is “planning to reopen the other reactor, which shut in 2019 because it couldn’t compete economically.” In other words, Microsoft is dumping money into a defunct nuclear power plant that has proven to be unsafe for the sole purpose of powering AI that has no proven benefits. Corporate greed caused a catastrophe at Three Mile Island before. Corporate hubris could easily cause another.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Throw Down for Peace/ Start-up Cities Sep 21, 2024

Ralph welcomes back Hassan El-Tayyab, the Legislative Director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation to talk about the FCNL's recent lobbying efforts in support of a ceasefire in Gaza, as well as the recently-introduced bill to restore funding to UNRWA. Then, Ralph is joined by journalist Rachel Corbett to discuss her recent article for the NY Times Magazine "The For-Profit City That Might Come Crashing Down" about Próspera, the private, for-profit city off the coast of Honduras. Finally, our resident international-law expert Bruce Fein stops by to discuss Israel's recent coordinated attacks in Lebanon.

Hassan El-Tayyab is Legislative Director for Middle East policy and Advocacy Organizer at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). Previously, he was co-director of the national advocacy group Just Foreign Policy, where he worked to reassert Congressional war authority and promote human rights in the Middle East and Latin America. He played a major role in the successful passage of the War Powers Resolution to end US military aid to the Saudi-UAE coalition’s war in Yemen.

I've been reading a recent statement that the Friends Committee has put out on the Gaza situation. They just can't seem to keep up with the massive expansion of Israeli state terrorism and the death and destruction that's being wrought on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians, families, children, mothers, fathers, and the civilian infrastructure. [Their] effort on Capitol Hill—which is a longstanding feature of the Friends Committee on Legislation—seems hopelessly overwhelmed by the AIPAC-led Israeli-government-can-do-no-wrong lobby.

Ralph Nader

We try to find common ground. As you know, the Quaker way is to believe that there's a spirit and light in everybody—whether we agree with them or not, we want to engage. And that's just a philosophy that we've had for over 80 years as an organization, and much longer than that as Quakers doing peace advocacy work going back hundreds of years. So we try to engage with everybody. Maybe we don't agree on the weapons shipments, but we can agree on sending US Navy hospital ships to the region.

Hassan El-Tayyab

If we care about peace, we have to throw down for peace. And not just support humanitarian aid, but actually get involved in the political end of this as well. Because we are spiraling. We're spiraling into a dark place if we don't get our act together.

Hassan El-Tayyab

Rachel Corbett is a journalist who has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic, and New York Magazine, among other publications. And she is the author of You Must Change Your Life: The Story of Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin which won the 2016 Marfield Prize, the National Award for Arts Writing.

On the one hand, you could almost laugh at something like this. There's so many silly anecdotes that come out of it. And on the other hand, it seems incredibly serious, like something that may be happening underneath the surface that has actually been intentionally happening underneath the surface. I think there's a concerted effort to keep things quiet while these cities get built and become almost too big to tear down… Although they're not that advanced, the sheer money behind them and the influence of the people behind them is serious, and this tribunal case alone proves it could have really serious effects on the actual world.

Rachel Corbett

There is no way that Israel was able to limit the distribution of the pages to Hezbollah, so they knew that they were taking a very high risk that civilians would be killed or injured—which is a violation of the Geneva Convention prohibition upon resorting to any military endeavor where the risk of harm to civilians is dramatically disproportionate to the military objective at issue.

Bruce Fein

Even with the low bar that many people present before the Biden administration, it is unsettling to see White House spokespeople day after day knowingly lying about Israel “complying with all laws.”

Ralph Nader

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The Power of Where Sep 14, 2024

Ralph welcomes back Jack Dangermond, co-founder of Esri—Environmental Systems Research Institute, the leader in GIS mapping technology to open up his book, “The Power of Where: A Geographic Approach to the World’s Greatest Challenges.” Then John R. MacArthur, journalist, author and publisher of Harper’s returns to discuss a recent study by neuroscientists that concluded that students absorb and retain information better on paper than they do on screens and what this means for the future of education and society as a whole.

Jack Dangermond is President of Esri—Environmental Systems Research Institute—and is recognized as one of the most influential people in the field of geographic information system—GIS—technology. Jack, along with his wife Laura, founded Esri in 1969. He is the author of The Power of Where: A Geographic Approach to the World’s Greatest Challenges.

NatGeo Mapmaker

Geography is everything. It's what happens, when it happens, in some cases why it happens, but most importantly, where it happens.

Jack Dangermond

I believe geography and maps—the language of geography—are a new kind of way to understand the complexity of our world. Our world is complex. All these relationships—the world is hard to fathom. And using these interactive mapping tools, people can learn a lot in a short amount of time. They can see context, as well as all the content that they're learning in their various disciplines.

Jack Dangermond

Years ago, Jack called up and said—help us apply GIS to civic action, civic advocacy…We used GIS techniques, applied federal government data, and in a report we came out with in the 1990s—it was called “Racial Redlining: A Study Of Racial Discrimination By Banks And Mortgage Companies In The United States”—the map showed the worst-case lending pattern as prima facie evidence of unlawful discrimination against low-income areas in mortgage lending. And so, the applications for civic work still need a lot of attention. I don't think the potential has been reached anywhere near what it could be, especially as the field and the technology just explodes with innovation.

Ralph Nader

John R. MacArthur is the president of Harper’s, a journalist, and the author of several books, including Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War

Common sense tells you just instinctively—well, if somebody's looking at a page in a book or in a newspaper, there's less distractions and there's more focus on what you're actually reading, whereas on a screen you have a tendency to get distracted and the lighting is not good and so on and so forth. But now the obvious has been proven. And I get the sense that they're almost ashamed. They just don't want to address it. Or they're in so deep with big tech.

John R. MacArthur

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 9/11/24

1. Zeteo reports “Israeli forces allegedly shot and killed US citizen Ayşenur Eygi…at a demonstration in the West Bank village of Beita…The 26-year-old was there alongside other Americans who have been demonstrating against illegal settlement activity and providing a nonviolent protective presence for Palestinians…Ayşenur…was shot at the same weekly demonstration where American teacher and volunteer Amado Sison was shot last month.” This piece also notes that Eygi was in the West Bank with the International Solidarity Movement, the same group that American activist Rachel Corrie was affiliated with when she was murdered by an IDF bulldozer in 2003. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken decried this incident as “unprovoked and unjustified,” saying “No one…should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for expressing their views,” per CNN. According to Yahoo News, President Biden has not talked to Eygi’s family, and neither he nor Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris have issued a statement on Eygi’s death.

2. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who was recently primaried by an AIPAC-backed challenger after being outspent a by margin of seven-to-one (per CNN), has issued a statement in light of the revelations that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu sabotaged negotiations for a hostage and ceasefire deal in July. This statement reads “Netanyahu has continuously derailed negotiations and added new demands to stall for his own political benefit, with zero regard for the immense death toll and scale of human suffering…His goal is not to bring the hostages home or bring peace and safety to the region…Every life is precious and should be treated as such…My thoughts are with the families of the dead hostages, who have suffered an unimaginable loss, and with the people of Gaza, who are facing the horrors of genocide and being killed indiscriminately every day.”

3. Variety reports a group of prominent Hollywood actors are leading a new initiative to pressure the Biden administration to end illegal arms transfers to Israel. This new push, growing out of the Artists4Ceasefire collective, is led by Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Mahershala Ali, and Ilana Glazer. Ruffalo writes “Our demand is simple — our elected leaders must enforce existing U.S. and international humanitarian laws that prohibit the use of military assistance to commit ‘grave human rights violations.’” Nixon adds “Words without action will not end the unbearable suffering…Enough is enough. The global call for a permanent ceasefire — supported domestically by an overwhelming majority of Americans — must be answered.” Despite overwhelming public support for peace, advocating for Palestinian rights has been a dangerous proposition in Hollywood since October 7th, with “A top movie agent, an Oscar winner, and the star of Scream VII [having] all been demoted or fired for calling out Israel’s bombing of Gaza,” per Rolling Stone.

4. In a chilling story from our Northern neighbor, the Ottawa Citizen reports “The Ukrainian Canadian Congress says it plans to go to court to stop the federal government from making public the names of alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to [Canada].” As this piece explains, “At issue are documents created by a 1986 federal government war-crimes commission…One of the documents is titled ‘Master List of alleged war criminals resident in Canada… [including] names of alleged war criminals as well as Nazi scientists and technicians” who fled to the country. The total number is around 900. These records have been requested under Canada’s equivalent to the Freedom of Information Act. The government must now decide whether or not to disclose these names. According to this article, the Canadian government has consulted with leaders of Canada’s Ukrainian community, but not with Holocaust survivors or scholars.

5. In a major win for the Biden Treasury Department, the IRS announced last week that it has clawed back $1.3 billion from rich tax dodgers since last fall, per AP. Since 2023, the IRS has “launched a series of initiatives aimed at pursuing…taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.” According to officials, approximately 80% of the 1,600 tax delinquent millionaires have now made a payment.

6. More positive news comes to us from the union front. The Orlando Weekly’s McKenna Schueler reports “Florida's anti-union law, SB 256, has forced dozens of public sector unions to ask the state for recertification elections—and so far, they're all crushing it. Out of 26 elections with final results reported, workers in all but 1 have voted to keep their unions alive & intact.” Yet despite the unions’ overwhelming victories in these re-certification elections, “more than 68,000 public employees in Florida have lost their union representation - NOT because they voted to get rid of their unions, but because their union had low membership and didn't petition for a recertification election.”

7. In more red-state union news, Washington Post Labor Reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley reports “Apple retail workers in Oklahoma City secured a tentative union contract, the 2nd store to do so at Apple.” This contract between Apple and the workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America, is said to include “pay increases of up to 11.5% over 3 years, severance & store closure protections [and] worker involvement in scheduling.”

8. Yet not all is well on the union front. According to NJ.com a “civil war” is brewing between the United Autoworkers and the AFL-CIO at Atlantic City casinos over the UAW’s demand to end indoor smoking. According to this piece, many of the dealers at these casinos, represented by the UAW, have contracted emphysema or even cancer despite not smoking themselves due to their constant exposure to secondhand smoke. Meanwhile the state AFL-CIO, led by Charlie Wowkanech, is standing with the casinos against a proposed ban. The UAW’s Daniel Vicente is quoted saying “Dealing with Charlie was like dealing with some lame-ass mafia guy – it felt like a shakedown…We’re planning to go to war with these other unions…We’re coming straight at anyone who stands in the way of our people coming home safe.”

9. Another story of betrayal comes from France. Al Jazeera reports “More than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators…have taken to the streets across France to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint centre-right Michel Barnier as [Prime Minister], with left-wing parties accusing [Macron] of stealing legislative elections.” For the past two months, the French parliament has been hung due to legislative elections that left it divided into three blocs – the largest of which being the left-wing coalition. Yet despite a popular front alliance between Macron and the Left during the elections, Macron has now chosen to elevate a right-winger as PM in order to appease the far-right bloc led by Marine Le Pen. Al Jazeera notes that French pollster Elabe found that 74 percent of French people believed Macron had disregarded the results of the elections and 55 percent believe he has stolen them.

10. Finally, the first debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was held on Tuesday. Shortly before the debate, Harris finally released some concrete policy proposals on her website. These include vague pledges to reduce the cost of healthcare, increase the minimum wage, and protect the civil liberties of marginalized communities. Harris more clearly articulated her more conservative policies, including beefing up border security, increasing funding for law enforcement, challenging China on the world stage, and keeping weapons flowing to Israel. This suite of policies seems designed to correspond with her courtship of anti-Trump Republican voters, which has included touting the endorsement of Liz and Dick Cheney.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Field Team 6 Sep 07, 2024

Ralph welcomes former TV writer turned grass roots organizer, Jason Berlin, who explains how his group, Field Team 6, uses the latest data and analytics to identify and reach out to potential Democratic voters in order to register them to vote and how that could turn the tide in purple, flippable states.

Jason Berlin is a former TV writer and co-founder of Field Team 6, a national voter-registration project that organizes voter drives to register Democrats in the most flippable states across the country.

The fact is you can't get out the vote if those voters don't exist to begin with. It's like no one had a talk with people about where a voter comes from. So we concentrate on that first half of the equation—getting people over that biggest hurdle, getting them registered, generating this river of new Democrats and Independents who can then get into the system and be targeted by the massive get-out-the-vote machinery.

Jason Berlin

The Democratic Party over the years has exhibited serious symptoms of masochism. It’s like they've written off half the country, where they don't even compete.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 9/4/24

1. On August 28th, the Israeli Defense Forces targeted United Nations World Food Programme vehicles with “repeated gunfire,” per CNN. According to the agency, “Despite being clearly marked and receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach, the vehicle was directly struck by gunfire as it was moving toward an…IDF…checkpoint.” Photos show at least ten bullet holes in the vehicle windows. As this piece highlights, “ongoing airstrikes and repeated evacuation orders by Israeli forces have forced many of the agency’s food warehouses and community kitchens to shutter…The IDF-designated ‘humanitarian zone’ in Gaza is also steadily shrinking; in the past month alone, the IDF has reduced this zone by 38%.” This incident is reminiscent of the Israeli strike on World Central Kitchen workers in April, when the IDF killed three Britons, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, an Australian, and a Pole via multiple airstrikes. Two days after the World Food Programme incident, CNN reported that the IDF killed four in a humanitarian aid vehicle affiliated with the American Near East Refugee Aid organization.

2. On Monday, the Israeli labor federation, Histradrut, called a general strike in order to “pressure Netanyahu’s government into changing its approach to cease-fire negotiations,” per NPR. This action was taken in response to the death of six hostages who would have been released had Israel agreed to the ceasefire proposed in early July. According to NPR, “Many schools and government buildings were shut…[and]…Ben Gurion airport…paused flights for several hours.” Yet, Israel’s Labor Court quickly ordered the strike to end and the union obeyed; the action lasted less than one business day. This incident illustrates the deep discontent with the Netanyahu government’s handling of the hostage negotiations, but also the impotence of Israeli civil society to change course.

3. In more positive news related to labor and Israel, Democracy Now! reports Jimmy Williams Jr. president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, says his union is “directing its massive international pension fund to divest from the Gaza genocide.” According to left-wing British outlet Skwakbox, the Painter’s Union receives $330 million dollars in new contributions from union members each year.

4. The Middle East Monitor reports “Ray Youssef, CEO of the Bitcoin marketplace platform, Noonesapp…[alleges that cryptocurrency giant Binance] ‘has seized all funds from all Palestinians as per the request of the IDF. They refuse to return the funds. All appeals denied.’” Responding to this allegation, a Binance spokesperson claimed that this seizure of assets only covers a limited number of accounts linked to “illicut funds,” though “Binance did not specify the extent or value of the ‘illicit funds’ involved.” Boosters of cryptocurrency, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have framed it in terms of “transactional freedom,” per Axios. Not so for the Palestinians, it seems.

5. Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the U.K. Labour Party, has united with four other independent, pro-Gaza MPs to form the Independent Alliance, per the BBC. This new parliamentary bloc will “use their…platform to campaign for scrapping the two-child benefit limit and against arms sales to Israel.” With five MPs in this alliance, it already outnumbers the Green Party and is equal to Reform UK, the far-right party formed by Brexit champion Nigel Farage. In their first move since forming the Independent Alliance, the MPs issued a statement in response to Foreign Minister David Lammy’s announcement that the U.K. will suspend a small number of arms export licenses to Israel. This statement reads “For months, we have called for an immediate and full suspension of arms sales to Israel. The government has finally admitted there is a clear risk of weapons being used to commit violations of international law…This announcement must be the first step in ending all arms…used by the Israeli military to commit genocide in Gaza.”

6. According to the ACLU of Indiana, “[Indiana University] has approved a new policy that prohibits all expressive activity if it takes place between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., even if the activity is not at all disruptive, such as standing silently, holding a sign, wearing a t-shirt with a communicative message, or discussing current events with friends.” This policy, which “carries harsh punishments, including suspension or expulsion for students, and suspension or termination of staff,” was adopted in response to campus pro-Palestine demonstrations last year. The ACLU of Indiana has already filed a lawsuit to overturn this chilling policy. And at New York University, Palestine Legal reports “In a dangerous escalation of repression, [NYU] announced new student conduct policies last week that appear to prohibit criticism of Zionism. If implemented, these policies risk creating a hostile environment for Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish students and severely curtail…free expression.” This statement notes that NYU does not afford protected status to any other political ideology and that this decision “opens the door for other ethno-nationalist ideologies to claim protection from criticism. With Zionism enshrined as a protected class, there’s no reason why Hindu nationalism, Christian nationalism, white nationalism or similar ideologies wouldn’t be afforded the same.” Palestine Legal has vowed that it will “continue to monitor and combat institutional attempts to punish and censor students organizing for Palestinian rights.”

7. In a major escalation of tensions, the United States seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s plane in the Dominican Republic and transferred it to Florida, per the BBC. According to this report, “US officials said the plane was seized for suspected violations of US export control and sanctions laws,” while Venezuelan officials have denounced this move as an act of “piracy,” and “reserves the right to take any legal action to repair this damage to the nation.” Foreign Minister Yván Gil said the US had justified itself “with the coercive measures that they unilaterally and illegally impose around the world.” This is just the latest case of western governments seizing Venezuelan state assets; in 2018, the Bank of England seized nearly $2 billion worth of Venezuelan gold and has refused to return those assets despite urging from the United Nations special rapporteur on sanctions, per Declassified UK.

8. The Miami Herald is out with a stunning new report on the dubious “Havana Syndrome” which finds that patients were “coerced” to join an NIH study on the supposed illness. According to this piece, “An internal review board at the National Institutes of Health…decided to shut down a long-term study of Havana Syndrome patients that found no signs of brain injuries, after several participants complained of mishandled medical data, bias and pressures to join the research. [Jennifer George] A spokeswoman for NIH said the internal review found that ‘informed consent’ policies to join the study ‘were not met due to coercion.” Though George insists the coercion was not on the part of the NIH, she declined to identify who coerced the patients.

9. Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine reports “[Arizona Democratic Senate nominee Ruben] Gallego, fresh off of a police union endorsement, just penned a letter to the US [Department of Justice] asking them to stand down in its investigations against the Phoenix police and its effort to bring the department under a consent decree.” The proposed consent decree in question stems from a DOJ investigation that found “[Phoenix PD] uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force… unlawfully detain, cite, and arrest people experiencing homelessness and unlawfully dispose of their belongings…discriminates against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when enforcing the law…violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech and expression…[and] discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities when dispatching calls for assistance and responding to people in crisis.”

10. Finally, in more positive Senate-related news, a new Split Ticket poll shows populist Independent candidate Dan Osborn running neck-and-neck with incumbent Republican Senator Deb Fischer in Nebraska. While Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris 54 to 37, the same poll shows Senator Fischer leading by only 1 point – 39% to Osborn’s 38%, with 23% undecided. Osborn, a union leader who organized the 2021 Kellogg strike, has been favorably profiled by the American Prospect. There is no Democrat running for this seat.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Dr. Osterholm's Update Aug 31, 2024

Ralph welcomes back Dr. Michael Osterholm for a COVID check-up. They'll discuss the latest vaccines, what we know about long-haul COVID, updated testing guidelines, and some of the key lessons we can take from COVID and apply to future outbreaks. Plus, a call to action from Ralph.

Dr. Michael Osterholm is a professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. In November 2020, Dr. Osterholm was appointed to President-elect Joe Biden's 13-member Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. He is the author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, and he has a weekly podcast called The Osterholm Update which offers discussion and analysis on the latest infectious disease developments.

I think what we're trying to do today is use this vaccine to target those high-risk people in particular to say—you know what, you need to get it at least every four to six months, and that, unlike the flu vaccine, this is not going to be a once-a-year vaccine. If you did that— by just reducing serious illness, hospitalizations, and deaths—it would be a big accomplishment.

Dr. Michael Osterholm

The last time you had me on, Ralph, we actually talked about the need for a panel to actually do a post-pandemic review. Not to point fingers, not to blame people, but—what should we have learned from that pandemic? And what I think is, for me, still a real challenge is we haven't seemed to learn through any of this. But more importantly—we haven't realized what happened with COVID could be child's play compared to what we could see, if this was anything like a “1918-like” pandemic of influenza.

Dr. Michael Osterholm

We are using, today, virtually the same technology to make flu vaccines that we did in 1940. Now, that should wake everyone up.

Dr. Michael Osterholm, on why we need to invest in vaccine development

We have, as a society, a cultural aversion to foreseeing and forestalling omnicides.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 8/28/24

1. Last week, the Uncommitted movement staged a sit-in at the DNC after the Democratic Party barred any Palestinian-American from speaking at the convention. According to Mother Jones, Uncommitted co-leader Abbas Alawieh, a delegate to the DNC, had been requesting a speaking slot for a Palestinian-American for two months in advance, and was only officially denied on the third night of the convention. Alawieh said he was “stunned” by the refusal, and added “We just want our voices to be heard.” As the article notes, “At the DNC, Republican staffers have been offered the chance [to speak]. An Uber lawyer who is high in the campaign got a prime-time slot. But not a single Palestinian has been given even five minutes on that stage.” Uncommitted gave the DNC an extensive list of potential speakers, including a physician just back from Gaza, and a Palestinian elected official from Georgia named Ruwa Romman. Her speech, available at Mother Jones, ended with the lines “To those who doubt us, to the cynics and the naysayers, I say, yes we can—yes we can be a Democratic Party that prioritizes funding our schools and hospitals, not…endless wars. That fights for an America that belongs to all of us—Black, brown, and white, Jews and Palestinians, all of us…together.” This was deemed unacceptable by the power brokers of the Democratic Party.

2. In more bad news from the DNC, the New Republic reports that despite major progress in the party’s foreign policy platform in 2020, “the center of gravity appears to have shifted almost as far—right back to where it had previously been.” Not only does the 2024 foreign policy platform include nothing about ending the sale and shipment of arms to Israel, the Democrats actually removed sections about ending the support for the Saudi war in Yemen, moving away from misguided forever wars, and cutting military spending – as well as criticizing Trump for being too soft on Iran. This article goes on to say “The Democratic platform abandons the progress made in 2020 in more subtle ways, too. The last platform noted that ‘when misused and overused, sanctions not only undermine our interests, they threaten one of the United States’ greatest strategic assets: the importance of the American financial system.’…the new platform does not repeat these concerns…Both platforms call for competition with China, but in 2020 it said that Democrats would do so while avoiding the trap of a ‘new Cold War’—language that does not appear this time around.” In other words, the Democrats are trying desperately to scrub off any progress on foreign policy that pressure from the Bernie Sanders campaigns forced them to adopt into their platform. This is an ominous portend of what foreign policy could look like in a Kamala Harris administration.

3. In yet more bad news from the DNC, the Huffington Post’s Jessica Schulberg reports “The Democrats quietly dropped abolishing the death penalty from their party platform. This is the first time since 2012 the platform doesn't call for abolition and the first time since 2004 there's no mention of the death penalty at all.” Prior to 2012, the Democratic platform called for limiting the practice. This article continues, “Public support for the death penalty has been gradually declining. A Gallup poll last year found that 65% of Democrats oppose the punishment.” Yet despite this super-majority support the Democrats are abandoning this promise and did not even bother responding to her email asking if the party still supports death penalty abolition.

4. On Monday, the Middle East Studies Association sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania “denouncing its collaboration with the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s investigation of faculty members.” This letter expresses the association’s, and its Committee on Academic Freedom’s “grave concern about the apparent cooperation of the University…with the [Republican] witch-hunt…against…faculty, as well as faculty and students at other institutions of higher education.” Specifically, the Association accuses the university of providing the committee with materials – including course syllabi – despite no subpoena being issued. The Association compares this “witch-hunt,” to “the now-disgraced House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the late 1940s and 1950s,” and makes clear that the House committee members are “less concerned with combatting invidious discrimination than with suppressing and punishing pro-Palestine speech.” This letter ends with a demand that the university “immediately desist from any form of cooperation…[and] to affirm [their] commitment to protect the academic freedom of [their] faculty, students and staff, and to vigorously defend them against all forms of governmental harassment and intimidation.”

5. Remember the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station due to Boeing’s incompetence? According to AP, “NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring [them] back to Earth in Boeing’s…capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home…What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.” As AP highlights, this is “a blow to Boeing, adding to the safety concerns plaguing the company on its airplane side. Boeing had counted on Starliner’s first crew trip to revive the troubled spacecraft program after years of delays and ballooning costs. The company had insisted Starliner was safe based on all the recent thruster tests both in space and on the ground.” In other words, whether in the air or in space, Boeing craft are undependable and dangerous. According to Good Jobs First’s Subsidy Tracker, Boeing has received nearly $100 billion in public subsidies, loans or bailouts since 1994.

6. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump, the BBC reports. In a press conference, Kennedy said he would “seek to remove his name from the ballot in 10 battleground states…where his presence would be a ‘spoiler’ to Trump's effort.” That said, election officials in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada said it was too late to take his name off the ballot. In exchange for his endorsement, Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan “entertained the idea that Kennedy could join Trump’s administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,” per AP, a perch that would allow him to carry out his anti-vaccine agenda. Kerry Kennedy, his sister, released a statement saying his support for Trump was a “betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”

7. Last year, the Department of Justice announced an antitrust lawsuit accusing the meat industry of colluding to fix prices with the help of a data company, Agri Stats, that “violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by collecting, integrating, and distributing competitively sensitive information related to price, cost, and output among competing meat processors,” per Common Dreams. Now, More Perfect Union has released a video on the case featuring Errol Schweizer, the former vice president of Whole Foods' grocery division, saying “This is probably one of the top five food scandals of the 21st Century, and we can't underplay it…People f*****g need to go to jail…for this s**t.”

8. Labor Notes’ Luis Feliz Leon reports “Costco turned down a card check agreement with the Teamsters.” In a statement, the Teamsters explain “Costco Teamsters were forced to suspend negotiations for a new National Master Agreement after the wholesale giant, despite its claims of being pro-union, refused to accept a card check agreement that would make it easier for nonunion Costco workers to join the Teamsters…Despite Costco’s public reputation as a ‘worker-friendly’ company, the wholesaler has undergone a troubling shift in its corporate culture and governance. Increasingly…catering to Wall Street shareholders at the expense of workers.” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien is quoted saying “Costco’s so-called ‘pro-worker’ image is now nothing more than a talking point for investors…We are not here for empty rhetoric — we’re here to win an industry-leading contract that stops Costco’s corporate backsliding and guarantees workers the right to organize with a card-check agreement.” This statement also notes that “Costco is ranked as the 11th largest U.S. corporation on the Fortune 500 and reported $242 billion in revenue and $29.7 billion in annual gross profits in 2023.”

9. According to Vox, the 2019 US teacher strikes were “good, actually.” This piece cites “New research [which] finds labor stoppages raised wages without harming student learning.” As this article explains, “Answering…questions [like do these strikes work? Do they deliver gains for workers? Do they help or hurt students academically?] has been challenging…due to a lack of centralized data that scholars could use to analyze the strikes…Now, for the first time…researchers …have compiled a novel data set to answer these questions, providing the first credible estimates of the effect of US teacher strikes.” According to this data, which covers 772 teacher strikes across 610 school districts in 27 states between 2007-2023, “on average, strikes were successful,” delivering average compensation increases of 3 percent one year post-strike and reaching 8 percent five years out. Not only that, the data show strikes related to “improved working conditions, such as lower class sizes or increased spending on school facilities and non-instructional staff like nurses…were also effective…as pupil-teacher ratios fell by 3.2 percent and there was a 7 percent increase in spending dedicated to paying non-instructional staff by the third year after a strike.” Perhaps most critically, “the researchers find no evidence that US teacher strikes…affected reading or math achievement for students in the year of the strike, or in the five years after…In fact…they could not rule out that the…strikes actually boosted student learning over time, given the increased school spending associated with them.” The bottom line is this: teacher strikes get the goods, for teachers, staff, and students alike.

10. Finally, Bloomberg reports China has achieved their renewable power target six years ahead of schedule. According to this report, “The nation added 25 gigawatts of turbines and panels in July, expanding total capacity to 1,206 gigawatts…Xi set a goal in December 2020 for at least 1,200 gigawatts from the clean energy sources by 2030.” As Bloomberg notes, “China by far outspends the rest of the world when it comes to clean energy, and has repeatedly broken wind and solar installation records in recent years. The rapid growth has helped lead to declines in coal power generation this summer and may mean the world’s biggest polluter has already reached peak emissions well before its 2030 target.” Impressive as these achievements are, solar and wind still only account for around 14% of energy generation in China. In order to arrest catastrophic climate change, much much more remains to be done.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Tribute to Phil Donahue Aug 24, 2024

On his show, Phil Donahue never shied away from questioning those in power, be they government officials or corporate CEOs. And there was no more frequent guest on his program than Ralph Nader. Along with guests Joan Claybrook, Michael Jacobson and Jeff Cohen, we pay tribute to a man Ralph calls “the greatest enabler and defender of the First Amendment right of free speech in American history.”

Joan Claybrook is one of the public interest champions of the modern consumer movement, and she is president emeritus of Public Citizen. Prior to becoming president of Public Citizen, Ms. Claybrook was head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the Carter administration from 1977 to 1981. Before serving as NHTSA administrator, she founded and ran Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division and worked for the Public Interest Research Group, the National Traffic Safety Bureau, the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

[Phil Donahue] had the deepest understanding of the First Amendment of anybody I've ever met. And the reason is that not only did he have these voiceless leaders and victims on a show that other media would avoid like the plague—it would upset their advertisers, who would upset their corporate bosses—he would have people on whose views he vehemently disagreed with.

Ralph Nader

Phil [Donahue] knew that it wasn't just important to reach people on his show—that he had to have them accessible to materials that elaborated it in greater detail. And he did that for lots of people. But it all started with his sense of the purpose of the media and a public philosophy of justice for all.

Ralph Nader

Donahue was a great source of help to get information out to the public that they really wanted. And no one else would publicize it.

Joan Claybrook

Michael Jacobson holds a PhD. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he co-founded and then led the Center for Science in the Public Interest for four decades. Dr. Jacobson is the author of Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet. And he is the founder of the National Food Museum.

Phil really was one of a kind— where he studied up on the topic, he knew it thoroughly, he was smart, he was generous, kind, thoughtful, asked good questions. So it was just a wonderful, positive experience for various reasons to be on his terrific daytime TV show.

Dr. Michael Jacobson

Jeff Cohen is Co-Founder and Policy Director at RootsAction. He is a media critic, columnist, documentary filmmaker, and retired journalism professor who founded the media watch group FAIR—Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting— in 1986. For years, he was a regular pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC discussing issues of media and politics, and he is the author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media. He was senior producer of MSNBC's Phil Donahue Show until it was terminated on the eve of the Iraq war.

Management wrecked the show, and then they terminated the show three weeks before the invasion of Iraq. And remember, they terminated us right after the biggest anti-war marches in global history up until that point. And obviously there was a huge audience— if they had allowed Phil Donahue to be Phil Donahue and put on the experts that we wanted to put on. And we would have gotten huge ratings—but they ruined the show, they hurt our ratings. [And] when we were terminated—in spite of all of management's interference—we were still the most-watched program on MSNBC. Management doesn't usually cancel their most-watched television show, but they did it at MSNBC.

Jeff Cohen

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 8/21/24

1. Last week, the Kamala Harris campaign announced their first major policy proposal: “a federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries,” per the New York Times. In a statement to reporters, the campaign said this policy would “[set]…rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,” according to the Washington Post. Reporter Jeff Stein further elaborates that this plan is expected to include “[money] for small firms to compete [and will] Challenge [industry] mergers.” This policy stems from the Federal Trade Commission report published by the New York Times in March, that found “Large Grocers Took Advantage of Pandemic Supply Chain Disruptions …[and] used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices.”

2. This week of course Kamala Harris is in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. Just before the convention, Mother Jones ran a profile of progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, in which he said “What’s happening right now [in Palestine] is not only egregious, it is genocidal.” Chicago is the largest local government in the United States to pass a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Further illustrating the success of pro-Palestine activism, Prem Thakker of the Intercept reports the DNC “will host [its] first ever panel on Palestinian human rights,” featuring Layla Elabed, co-leader of the Uncommitted movement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, former Congressman Andy Levin, and Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, among others. Ms. Elabed and her compatriot Abbas Alawieh said in a statement “Our focus remains on policy change. Vice President Harris has an opportunity to unite the party against Trump…by turning the page toward a human rights policy that saves lives…We will keep pushing for our party’s leadership to break away from its current financing of Israel’s horrific assault on Gaza and military rule over Palestinians.”

3. Yet another sign that pro-Palestine activism is shifting the center of gravity in the Democratic Party, last Friday dozens of congressional Democrats – including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – sent a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken “urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel,” per AP. This letter referred to the Israeli strike on American aid workers with the World Central Kitchen relief group, saying “In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers.” Other signatories include Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Barbara Lee, and AOC. This letter comes on the heels of a series of state polls by IMEU and YouGov showing “A significant share of Democrats and independent voters in pivotal swing states…are more likely to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee…if said nominee pledges support for an arms embargo to Israel,” per Zeteo. In Pennsylvania, 34% said more likely and only 7% less likely; in Georgia 39% said more likely and only 5% less likely, with similar numbers in Arizona. Put simply, it is clear that an arms embargo is both good politics and good policy. Even Pelosi knows it.

4. A scandal is unfolding at the University of Florida, centering on a massive misuse of funds by the University president, former Senator Ben Sasse. The Alligator, the university newspaper, reports “In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.” This piece continues “A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials…[these] contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees.” So much for the party of fiscal responsibility.

5. A new piece in St. Louis magazine recounts the ongoing miscarriage of justice against Yolanda Greene. Ms. Greene was “fired from her job after being arrested—even though the police report that provided the basis of the charges against her is clearly contradicted by bystander video.” This piece continues “The police report says that Greene struck one of the officers ‘several times in the back near his neck, head, and shoulders with what appeared to be a closed fist.’ [and that she] ‘actively assaulte[d]’ a second officer.” Yet the bystander video shows “Greene on the ground and an officer [striking] her several times…A different video, captured by an officer’s body camera, records another officer exclaiming, ‘Don’t throw a strike’—even as the officer atop Greene does just that.” Mark Pedroli, Greene’s lawyer, is quoted saying “I sent the tape over to [Wesley] Bell’s office and said, ‘You’re prosecuting the wrong people. You should be prosecuting the police for lying in these reports,’” yet Bell – who is nearly guaranteed a spot in the next congress after his successful AIPAC-backed primary against Cori Bush – is pressing ahead with these charges.

6. Continuing its series on civil asset forfeiture, libertarian magazine Reason reports “A new class action lawsuit accuses Indiana law enforcement of seizing millions of dollars a year in cash from FedEx packages without ever informing owners of what crime they're suspected of violating.” This piece cites Sam Gedge a senior attorney at the “libertarian public interest law firm,” Institute for Justice, which claims “the Marion County Prosecutor's Office has sued to forfeit $2.5 million in currency from at least 130 FedEx parcels in transit from one non-Indiana state to another over the past two years. This scheme is one of the most predatory we have seen…It's illegal and unconstitutional for Indiana to forfeit in-transit money whose only connection to Indiana is the happenstance of FedEx's shipping practices.”

7. According ProPublica, Arizona’s experiment with school vouchers has failed spectacularly. As the publication explains “In 2022, Arizona pioneered the largest school voucher program in the history of education…any parent in the state…could get a taxpayer-funded voucher worth up to tens of thousands of dollars to spend on private school tuition, extracurricular programs or homeschooling supplies…Yet in a lesson for…other states, Arizona’s…experiment has since precipitated a budget meltdown. The state this year faced a $1.4 billion budget shortfall, much of which was a result of the new voucher spending…Last fiscal year alone, the price tag of universal vouchers in Arizona skyrocketed from an original official estimate of just under $65 million to roughly $332 million…[and] another $429 million in costs is expected this year.” We hope this catastrophic budget implosion gives pause to the prominent Republicans and Democrats boosting the canard of “school choice.”

8. The Federal Trade Commission has announced a new rule that will “combat fake reviews and testimonials by prohibiting their sale or purchase and allow the [FTC] to seek civil penalties against knowing violators.” FTC Chair Lina Khan adds “Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors…By strengthening the FTC’s toolkit to fight deceptive advertising, the final rule will protect Americans from getting cheated, put businesses that unlawfully game the system on notice, and promote markets that are fair, honest, and competitive.” These types of much-needed, commonsense consumer protection rules are exactly why billionaires and corporate America are terrified of Lina Khan and have been mounting a shadowy campaign for her ouster.

9. More Perfect Union reports “Ride share drivers in Massachusetts are now guaranteed a minimum wage of $32.50/hr, plus benefits.” According to the Verge, “The two companies also agreed to pay a combined $175 million, the bulk of which will be paid out to ‘current and former drivers who were underpaid by the companies,’ [Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea] Campbell’s office announced.” Despite these victories, Uber and Lyft drivers will still be classified as independent contractors instead of employees.

10. Finally, per Huffington Post labor reporter Dave Jamieson, “The Culinary Union has reached a tentative agreement on its first contract with longtime Vegas Strip holdouts the Venetian and Palazzo [closing] a long chapter in which previous owner Sheldon Adelson successfully resisted organizing efforts.” In addition to the Culinary Union, the deal with the Venetian and Palazzo’s new owners – private equity firm Apollo Global Management – also includes Bartenders Local 165, Operating Engineers Local 501 and Teamsters Local 986. As the Nevada Independent notes, “Combined, the Venetian and Palazzo have some 8,000 gaming and nongaming workers covering 7,100 hotel rooms, 225,000 square feet of casino space and 2.3 million square feet of convention space. It’s unclear how many members of the workforce could be covered by the union agreements.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

On Strike/ Out-of-Office Aug 17, 2024

On today's program Ralph welcomes Kshama Sawant—teacher, activist, organizer, socialist, and former Seattle City Council Member— to talk about the labor movement, her organization Workers Strike Back, and how she achieved so many victories for Seattle's working people. Then, Ralph welcomes the Washington Post's Marc Fisher to discuss his reporting on the "return to office" issue.

Kshama Sawant is a teacher, activist, organizer, and socialist. Ms. Sawant helped organize demonstrations for marriage equality, participated in the movement to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was a visible presence in the Occupy Movement. She served in Seattle’s City Council from 2014 to 2023— defeating a 16-year incumbent Democrat to become the first socialist elected in a major US city in decades. She has taught at Seattle Central Community College, Seattle University, and the University of Washington Tacoma—and she has been an activist in her union, the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, fighting against budget cuts and tuition hikes. She is co-founder of Workers Strike Back and the host of their news and analysis broadcast On Strike.

It should be extremely energizing for anybody on the Left who wants to aim to provide leadership that we actually have a historic shift going on in American working-class consciousness, where there is a willingness to fight back— a real hunger for strategy. I would say that what's overwhelmingly clear to me as somebody who's been a socialist, a Marxist, and an activist for well over a decade, is that what working people are parched for is real leadership that can actually garner the kind of victories that ordinary people are looking for.

Kshama Sawant

Business unionism is this idea that the role of the labor leader is to negotiate—to make peace between the bosses and the workers. It's completely wrong. It's exactly the opposite. The role of labor leadership is to organize a fight by mobilizing rank-and-file members against the bosses, with the understanding that the interests of the bosses—the greed of the bosses—is diametrically opposed to the needs of workers.

Kshama Sawant

If we as working people want to win Medicare for all, we will need mass action— organized independent of the Democrats and Republicans.

Kshama Sawant

Marc Fisher is an associate editor of the Washington Post, where he writes a column on Washington— the city, its suburbs, and the people— and issues of big-city America. For 37 years, Mr. Fisher worked as a reporter and editor across various news sections at the Post, most recently focusing on Donald Trump and major breaking-news events. He previously created and led the Metro staff's enterprise reporting group, spent a decade as local columnist and blogger, served as the paper's special reports editor, wrote about politics and culture for the Style section, worked as Central Europe bureau chief on the Post’s Foreign staff, and covered D.C. schools and D.C. politics for the Metro section.

Most people who work with their hands are carrying on as they always did. But since COVID, we've seen that offices have emptied out in downtowns across the country. And Washington is particularly hard hit because 15-20% of the workers work for the federal or city governments. So there's been this emptying… out of downtown Washington, which has had an enormous impact on the economy. So this is a multi-level issue and problem. And yet for many— if not most—workers, they don't see it as a problem. They see it as a benefit.

Marc Fisher

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 8/14/24

1. A shocking report from the Libertarian magazine Reason exposes “Operation Rolling Thunder,” an annual “five-day law enforcement blitz,” in which 11 different agencies – ranging from local police departments to the federal Department of Homeland Security – collude to confiscate as much cash as possible on a “20-mile stretch of freeway between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Atlanta, Georgia.” This piece details how officers will fabricate flimsy reasons for pulling drivers over, including “Lighting a cigarette…smelling like cologne, avoiding eye contact, being ‘preoccupied looking for the [car] rental agreement,’ and having a cluttered vehicle that appeared to be ‘lived in.’” In 2022, these agencies seized “$194,000 per day or more than $8,000 per hour,” through civil asset forfeiture during this operation. Many of these drivers are never charged with so much as a traffic citation, yet are unable to recover any of their property stolen by the cops.

2. Last week, Representative Cori Bush was ousted by an AIPAC-backed primary challenger. An article in Slate details how AIPAC rallied to push the Congresswoman, and fellow Black Lives Matter activist Rep. Jamaal Bowman, out of Congress – outspending both by a margin of 4-1. This piece paints their losses as the death knell of the “George Floyd Era…in Congress,” noting also that no major reforms were passed “Despite broad popular support for legislation to curtail police violence…[and] Democrats…controlling both the House and Senate in 2021 and 2022.” In her concession speech, the Hill reports Bush vowed in no uncertain terms, “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!” As for Bowman, rumors are now circulating that he will challenge Rep. Ritchie Torres – the “top recipient of AIPAC cash,” according to Track AIPAC – next cycle. Asked about this idea by journalist Ryan Grim, Minnesota Attorney General and former Congressman Keith Ellison said “That'd be a very good thing…I"ll put it like this, none of us own these seats.”

3. In related news, a new report in the Intercept exposes the “… ‘Zionists for Don Samuels’ WhatsApp Group Raising Big Money to Oust Ilhan Omar.” As this report notes this group contained at least one campaign staffer, Alex Minn – whom the campaign has since severed ties with – and major outside donors despite “Campaign finance laws prohibit[ing] coordination between candidates’ campaigns and outside spending groups like super PACs.” One major donor in this group, wealthy entrepreneur Michael Sinensky, wrote “The bottom line is…we need to be supportive…of the alt right Christian Neo Nazis at the moment (like Ukraine) to fight off the socialist, Marxist, anarchists who are supporting radical Islam… Nazis are better than Islamic terrorists.”

4. Last week, the Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan held a memorial for those killed in the atomic bombing of that city – and opted not to invite the Israeli ambassador “to avoid possible protests over Israel’s war on Gaza,” per Al Jazeera. In response, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel announced he would skip the event because this decision had “politicized” the event. The British ambassador to Japan also announced that she would boycott this event due to Israel’s exclusion. According to the BBC, “In June, [Nagasaki Mayor Shiro] Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza.”

5. Journalist Jessica Burbank reports Palestinian American Actress Sarah Alami has called on SAG-AFTRA to “break their silence on [the] genocide in Gaza.” In a statement, Alami writes “Our union president has helped raise 60 million dollars to fund Israel’s army,” and decries that many actors have “been put on Black lists in Hollywood for speaking out against a foreign government.” Alami also linked to SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire, a group agitating for the Guild to take a principled stand against the genocide.

6. On Monday, the leaders of France, Germany, and the U.K. issued a joint statement “calling for the immediate resumption of [ceasefire] negotiations,” stressing that “there can be no further delay…the fighting must end now...the people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid.” In this statement, President Macron, Chancellor Sholz, and Prime Minister Starmer also expressed that they are “deeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region” and are “united in [their] commitment to de-escalation and regional stability,” ending this statement by writing “No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.

7. Yet despite such strong words from our European allies, the Biden administration has instead taken measures sure to escalate tensions in the region. On August 9th, Zeteo reported that “The State Department…formally notified Congress of a direct sale of 6,500 joint direct action munitions (JDAM) to Israel.” This shipment, valued at $262 million, was “reportedly delayed in May, as it was…under review…[while the] U.S. sought to prevent Israeli forces from pursuing a major ground invasion in Rafah.” Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said “It is hard to comprehend how the Biden administration can justify rewarding Israel with new weapons, despite Israel's persistent defiance of every single plea the Biden administration has made urging a modicum of restraint, and despite the very apparent fact that such sales violate black letter U.S. laws prohibiting weapons to gross abusers like Israel.” The very same day, Reuters reported that “The Biden administration…decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia… reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war.” This move is an unsubtle green-light for the Saudis to recommence their war on the Yemeni Houthis, who have had more success than anticipated in their naval campaign of blockading Israeli ports and attacking American naval vessels in the Red Sea.

8. Much like the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the Biden administration continues to pursue noble goals at home even while participating in human rights atrocities abroad. On Monday, More Perfect Union reported that “Banks, credit card companies, and more will be required to let customers talk to a human by pressing a single button under a new Biden administration proposed rule.” The pro-labor outlet goes on to say that this rule, coming from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “is part of a campaign to crack down on customer service ‘doom loops,’” and simultaneously “[the Federal Trade Commission] is…considering similar requirements for phone, broadband, and cable companies,” while “[The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor] are calling on health plan providers to make it easier to talk to a customer service agent.” Consumer advocates like Ralph Nader have long railed against the increasing difficulty of talking to real person when one calls corporate customer service lines.

9. In more positive news, the UAW reports it has “filed federal labor charges against disgraced billionaires Donald Trump and Elon Musk for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes.” This attempt to threaten and intimidate workers came during a conversation between Trump and Musk on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday. Trump is quoted saying “I mean, I look at what you do…You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.” UAW President Shawn Fain commented “When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean…Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected. Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”

10. Finally, in an almost unbelievable story from the Miami Herald, “[Former President Donald] Trump flew to campaign events on Jeffrey Epstein’s plane last weekend.” Apparently, this plane is now owned by a private plane chartering service, Threshold Aviation Group, and the Trump campaign “confirmed that a decal with the words ‘Trump 2024’ was placed on Epstein’s old plane for the trip.” As the Herald points out “Trump was in the same social circles as Epstein,” and records show he “flew on Epstein’s planes six times from 1993 to 1997.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Homicide: Success on the Street/National Food Museum Aug 10, 2024

So far this year, the city of Boston has recorded a grand total of 8 homicideswhile the similarly populated city of Washington D.C has had 110. Professor Thomas Abt, founding director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction explains what Boston is doing right. Plus, noted nutrition expert, Michael Jacobson reveals his latest project, The National Food Museum, to promote critical thinking about food’s impact on health, the environment, farm animal welfare, social equity, global and domestic hunger, and how the food industry and politics affect what we eat.

Thomas Abt is the founding director of the Center for the Study and Practice of Violence Reduction (VRC) and an associate research professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Professor Abt is the author of "Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences of Urban Violence—and a Bold New Plan for Peace in the Streets" His work is cited in academic journals and featured in major media outlets, both print and video. His TED talk on community violence has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

Here's the important thing to remember. It's not just about police, and it can't just be about police… It's also important to have balance… So, while you're engaging these high-risk individuals, these people who are most likely to shoot or be shot, you need to back up those warnings of enforcement with offers of support and services. And that's something that's happening in Boston.

Thomas Abt

When you look at correlations between the restrictiveness of state laws and about how many guns there are, it's about the access to guns. And when access to guns is particularly easy, that's when you have higher rates of violence. Now, in D.C. they have restrictive gun laws, but they're closer to states that have much more permissive laws, particularly in the South. And no city is an island.

Thomas Abt

While you're hearing a lot of fear mongering out there about violent crime. The truth is that we have erased that massive surge that happened during the pandemic. And that's very good news.

Thomas Abt

Michael Jacobson holds a PhD. in microbiology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he co-founded and then led the Center for Science in the Public Interest for four decades. Dr. Jacobson is the author of “Salt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet.” And he is the founder of the National Food Museum.

Some of the exhibits will focus on how healthier diets could improve our health, how better farming techniques could improve the climate. And there’s that intersection between climate and health. I thought of making a cow a symbol for the museum. Or maybe an anti-symbol, because meat-eating is a major contributor to disease; and it’s a major contributor to climate change and other environmental issues and animal welfare issues, of course. The museum will get into those.

Michael Jacobson

There are so many fascinating issues related to food. You know, I think about the history of the human diet, going back to the Stone Age, say 10 or 12 ,000 years ago, and the future of the human diet. It would be wonderful to have an exhibit, showing how diet has changed and may well change in the next 75 years, when many kids just growing up will still be alive.

Michael Jacobson

And in addition to all the wonderful improvements that you're going to exhibit and inform people about once this museum gets underway, you want people to enjoy it and have fun. That's what you've always been about, Mike.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Franceso DeSantis

News 8/7/24

1. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz who presided over the passage of an impressive list of progressive priorities in Minnesota, arrayed a broad coalition of Democratic leaders behind his bid for the VP slot, including organized labor, Senator Bernie Sanders, and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. His key rival, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, faced increasing scrutiny over his support for anti-public school vouchers, his history of anti-Palestinian racism, and involvement with the shady cover-up in the death of Ellen Greenberg. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler praised the selection of Walz, writing in a statement “By selecting Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris chose a principled fighter and labor champion who will stand up for working people and strengthen this historic ticket.”

2. In the UK, the new Labour government continues sending mixed signals on their Middle East policy. Last Friday, the Daily Mail reported the government had implemented a “secret arms boycott,” of Israel, supposedly “freez[ing] applications for new weapons export licences.” Yet on Monday, the Middle East Eye reported that the government has denied this report and maintains that “there has been ‘no change’ in its approach to export licences.” The Guardian adds “Although [British] military exports to Israel were only estimated at £18.2m last year, an arms embargo is widely perceived as an appropriate and powerful means to register disapproval of Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians.”

3. The Canary, a left-wing British new outlet, reports “During the early hours of the morning of Tuesday 6 August, six Palestine Action activists were arrested after they broke inside and damaged weaponry inside the highly secured Bristol manufacturing hub of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.” According to this report, the group “used a prison van to smash through the outer perimeter and the roller shutters into the building,” and “Once…inside, they began damaging…machinery and Israeli quadcopter drones.” As the Canary notes, “Elbit System…supplies up to 85% of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment.” Palestine Action issued a statement on this protest, writing “As a party to the Genocide Convention, Britain has a responsibility to prevent the occurrence of genocide. When our government fails to abide by their legal and moral obligations, it’s the responsibility of ordinary people to take direct action.”

4. Semafor reports “In January, The Wall Street Journal made an explosive claim: Quoting ‘intelligence reports,’ the paper reported that not only had 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, taken part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but 10% of the relief agency’s 12,000 workers in Gaza had ties to militant groups.” Yet, “months later, the paper’s top editor overseeing standards privately made an admission: The paper didn’t know — and still doesn’t know —whether the allegation, based on Israeli intelligence reports, was true.” As Semafor notes, the fact that this story was “based on information [the paper] could not verify is a startling acknowledgment, and calls into question the validity of the claims.” This unconfirmed story resulted in more than a dozen nations – among them the US, the UK, and Germany – freezing their funding for UNRWA, totaling $450 million.

5. Federal News Network reports “The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved… funding the Defense Department at $852.2 billion, a 3.3% increase over fiscal [year] 2024.” In other words, another year, another $10 billion for the Pentagon. In 2023, the Department of Defense failed its sixth audit in a row, per Reuters.

In more positive news, this has been a banner week for consumer protection action at the federal level.

6. On August 2nd, the FTC reported “On behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice sued video-sharing platform TikTok, its parent company ByteDance, as well as its affiliated companies, with flagrantly violating a children’s privacy law—the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act—and also alleged they infringed an existing FTC 2019 consent order against TikTok for violating COPPA.” Specifically, “The complaint alleges defendants failed to comply with the COPPA requirement to notify and obtain parental consent before collecting and using personal information from children under the age of 13.” FTC Chair Lina Khan is quoted saying “TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country…The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online—especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data.”

7. On August 1st, the Consumer Product Safety Commission ruled that online retail titan Amazon qualifies as a “distributor” and “therefore bears a legal responsibility for recalling dangerous products and informing customers and the public,” per NPR. This report continues to say this decision “stems from a lawsuit filed by the CPSC against Amazon in 2021 over a slew of [unsafe] products offered on the retailer's platform… [including] children's sleepwear that didn't meet federal flammability standards, carbon monoxide detectors that failed to detect carbon monoxide and sound their alarms, and hair dryers that didn't protect against electrocution when immersed in water. Amazon sold more than 418,000 units between 2018 and 2021.” Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at U.S. PIRG is quoted saying “This order is about making sure Amazon is just as accountable as every other company that sells products to consumers who often think that if something is for sale, it must be safe.”

8. AP reports “Coca-Cola…said Friday it will pay $6 billion in back taxes and interest to the Internal Revenue Service while it appeals a final federal tax court decision in a case dating back 17 years.” This lawsuit began in 2015 and centered around how the beverage giant “calculate[s] U.S. income based on profits amounting to more than $9 billion from foreign licensees and affiliates.” The company has been enjoying increased profitability this quarter, reportedly “boosted by product price increases.”

9. “The D.C. attorney general is suing online ticket provider StubHub for allegedly adding surprise fees onto a needlessly long checkout process in violation of local consumer protection laws,” the Washington Post reports. Specifically, this suit alleges “StubHub deceives customers by offering them an incomplete price at first, then making them go through a purchase process that can involve more than 12 pages — with a timer to impart a sense of urgency — and adding extra fees.” The office of Brian Schwalb, the D.C. AG, alleges StubHub has “[extracted] an estimated $118 million in hidden fees,” from District consumers, using “drip pricing” – described by the FTC as “a pricing technique in which firms advertise only part of a product’s price and reveal other charges later as the customer goes through the buying process.” This model is illegal under the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.

10. Finally, “The Justice Department and several dozen state attorneys general won a sweeping victory against Google Monday as a federal judge ruled that the search giant illegally monopolized the online search and advertising markets over the past decade,” per POLITICO. In a lengthy ruling U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google “locked up some 90 percent of the internet search market through a partnership with Apple to be the default search provider in its Safari web browser, alongside similar agreements with handset makers and mobile carriers such Samsung and Verizon. Mehta also found that Google disadvantaged Microsoft in the market for ads displayed next to search results, allowing it to illegally dominate that market as well.” Judge Mehta further stated that “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” Attorney General Merrick Garland commented “This victory against Google is a historic win for the American people…No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Trauma in Gaza Aug 03, 2024

Ralph welcomes Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American trauma surgeon who worked at the European Hospital in Khan Younis. They'll discuss Dr. Sidhwa's experience on the ground in Gaza, as well as his letter (co-signed by 45 other American medical practitioners) to President Biden, VP Harris, and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. Then, Ralph is joined by University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professor Luigi Zingales to look at why business schools are setting capitalism up to fail.

Gaza is definitely unique compared to anywhere else that I've been—the level of violence, the level of displacement, the level of deprivation of normal things that society provides.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

There's so much in this letter, listeners, that you need to know about because it's such heartfelt and professionally documented close observation. This short interview cannot do justice to the horrors that Dr. Sidhwa and others observed—and they were just there for a few weeks.

Ralph Nader

One of the things that we tried to emphasize in the letter is that we don't have anything to say about the politics of the Israel-Palestine conflict…We, as physicians, that's not what we're talking about. We’re talking about our own participation in a massive unprecedented assault on a civilian population. By a military that we fund—we supply, literally every day. We provide the training. We provide all the diplomatic cover. The economic support. Everything is coming from the United States. And in the end, the Israelis have already decided what they're going to do. They have decided to destroy Gaza. If half the people there die, oh well, if all of the people there die, oh well. But we don't have to be involved in it.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

I think the situation in Gaza has reached such a level, the political moment in the U.S. with Biden not running again, has reached a certain level, and then with Netanyahu's bonker address to Congress—when Nancy Pelosi is openly criticizing the Prime Minister of Israel, he's really screwed up.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa

Luigi Zingales is the Robert C. McCormack Distinguished Service Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He co-developed the Financial Trust Index, which is designed to monitor the level of trust that Americans have toward their financial system. He is currently a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research, a research fellow for the Center for Economic Policy Research, a fellow of the European Governance Institute, and the director of Chicago Booth’s Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State. Professor Zingales is the co-host (with Bethany McLean) of the podcast Capitalisn't, and co-author (with Raghuram G. Rajan) of the book Saving Capitalism from Capitalists.

These days, there is a lot of attention in business school about the environment, about so-called social responsibility, about all these aspects…but business schools like to keep separate the social aspects from the business aspects. So, in many places now there are classes on social entrepreneurship—which is something very interesting where people try to use their entrepreneurial skills to promote an initiative that is good for society at large, even if it’s not necessarily profitable. But then if you are not a social enterprise, then you have to be the most capital, profit-maximizing firms on the face of the earth. There is nothing in between.

Professor Luigi Zingales

One year there was a management conference, and I organized a session on corporate fraud. And I expected a lot of people to show up and listen to the panel. In fact, it was a fiasco. Almost nobody showed up, because they don't want to confront their own limitations and problems. They want to see the more glitzy and shiny aspects of success. And that's what attracts them to business school, and that's what we end up selling to them. So I think that we are in part responsible because we cater too much to their own demand.

Professor Luigi Zingales

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 7/31/24

1. On Monday, nine Israeli soldiers were arrested on suspicion of raping a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention facility. In response, the Middle East Eye reports “Dozens of people…including members of parliament and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, gathered outside Sde Teiman and stormed the…facility…[and] Hours later, some 1,200 rioters gathered outside the Beit Lid base, where the nine suspects were taken for questioning.” This piece quotes military chief of staff Herzi Halevi who described the riots as “bordering on anarchy” and said the rioters harmed the military. Yet, “Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the suspects as as ‘heroic warriors’…[and] National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the prisons where Palestinians are detained, called [the suspects] the ‘best heroes’ and described the arrests as ‘shameful’.” One of these soldiers has now been released, according to the Middle East Monitor.

2. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed Congress last week amid mass protests in Washington D.C. During his speech, Axios reports six spectators were arrested for “disrupting” the address. All six of these demonstrators are family members of the Israeli hostages. Capitol Police spokesperson Brianna Burch is quoted saying “demonstrating in the Congressional Buildings is against the law.”

3. In the U.K., the new Labour government is sending mixed messages on their Middle East policy. Late last week, the government announced that they would drop the United Kingdom’s opposition to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu, per CNN. Yet this week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that despite campaign promises, “Labour will…delay recognition [of a Palestinian state] indefinitely, making it conditional on Israel feeling ‘safe and secure,’” as reported by British blog Stats for Lefties. Labour continues to face pressure from independent MPs like Jeremy Corbyn on this issue.

4. This week, President Nicolas Maduro was reelected in Venezuela. Elon Musk was caught spreading misinformation implying that Maduro engaged in election fraud – sharing a video that he claimed showed ballot boxes being stolen, when in fact the ballot boxes in question were actually air conditioning units, per Mediaite. The National Lawyer’s Guild International Committee however, which sent a delegation to monitor the election, “observed a transparent, fair voting process with scrupulous attention to legitimacy, access to the polls and pluralism.” The NLG statement went on to decry “Despite the soundness of the electoral process, the U.S. backed opposition, with support from an anti-Maduro western press has refused to accept the results, undermining the stability of Venezuela’s democracy.”

5. Forbes reports that Disney has reached a deal with the unionized workers at Disneyland, ratifying a three-year contract that includes “a $24 hourly minimum wage…wage increases, seniority increases, more flexible attendance and sick leave policies, and other benefits.” This deal thus averts the first strike at the Anaheim park in four decades. Last week, More Perfect Union reported that the 14,000 unionized Disneyland workers “authorized a strike by 99%.”

6. Jacobin reports “SpaceX [has won] a First Battle in Its Assault on the NLRB.” In this piece, People’s Policy Project founder Matt Bruenig lays out how “SpaceX...[winning] a preliminary injunction in a Texas federal district court against the National Labor Relations Board… moves us closer to a potential Supreme Court decision declaring the NLRB unconstitutional.” This is the latest installment in the corporatist war on administrative law, which has already scored major victories in the SEC v. Jarkesy and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo cases. Bruenig notes that “For now, the district court’s decision simply prevents the NLRB from processing a fairly run-of-the-mill unfair labor practice charge against SpaceX. The real question is going to be what the Supreme Court does once this case makes it to their docket. But in the meantime…it is likely that other companies subject to NLRB proceedings will seek similar injunctions.”

7. A storm is brewing within the Kamala Harris campaign over Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Democracy Now! Reports “some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, are openly pushing Harris to fire…Khan, who has led Biden’s antitrust efforts.” NBC notes that Hoffman is a billionaire megadonor and that other megadonors like Barry Diller are also calling for Khan’s removal, and adds that “Khan’s pro-consumer, pro-worker, anti-monopoly agenda has attracted no small amount of hate from powerful and monied interests.” On the other side, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the Service Employees International Union – a close labor ally of Harris – have defended Khan. This battle illustrates the cross-cutting interests Harris will have to navigate as the Democratic nominee, and possibly, as president. We urge the Vice President to back Khan, not the billionaire donor class.

8. The Washington Post is out with a heartbreaking new report on the increase of homelessness among “Working Americans with decent-paying jobs who simply can’t afford a place to live.” This report cites data showing that homelessness, already at record highs, is only getting worse – growing by 61% in Southeast Texas over the past year, 35% in Rhode Island, and 20% in northeast Tennessee. Throughout the country, rents have risen by over 32% in four years and overall homelessness by 12%.

9. In another disturbing economic trend, a new academic working paper out of UCLA and USC analyzes how the “widespread legalization of sports gambling over the past five years has impacted consumer financial health.” The most-discussed findings of this paper have to do with debt, with a “roughly 28% increase in bankruptcies and an 8% increase in debt transferred to debt collectors,” along with substantial increases in auto loan delinquencies and use of debt consolidation loans. As the researchers put it “these results indicate that the ease of access to sports gambling is harming consumer financial health by increasing their level of debt.”

10. Finally, for some good news, the White House issued a statement Monday celebrating that “As of today, over 600,000 Teamster workers and retirees have pensions protected from devastating cuts,” as part of Biden’s signature American Rescue Plan. This announcement came after the administration acted to protect 70,000 worker pensions in New England, building on similar actions in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. As the Boston Globe explains “The [American Rescue Plan] set up a special financial assistance program that allows struggling multi-employer pension plans to apply for assistance from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal agency that protects the retirement incomes of workers in defined benefit pension plans.” The administration is paying particular attention to the protection of Teamsters, as that union’s leadership has been flirting with an embrace of the GOP. Not one Republican voted for the American Rescue Plan.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Joe Steps Aside/Insurance Shenanigans Jul 27, 2024

Ralph welcomes Jeff Cohen from the activist group “Roots Action,” whose “Step Aside Joe” campaign was years ahead of the curve urging Joe Biden – for many reasons – to keep his promise to be a one-term president. Plus, Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, updates us on how the insurance industry in cahoots with governor Gavin Newsom wants to roll back the immensely successful Prop 103 that over the years has saved Californians billions of dollars in insurance premiums and why this struggle has implications for auto and homeowner insurance premiums across the country.

Now, the challenge is reminiscent of Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Baines Johnson. And when Hubert Humphrey ran for President in 1968—he was LBJ’s Vice President—he had to face the question, is he gonna stay loyal to Johnson’s position on the Vietnam War…or is he going to be faithful to his own personal judgment, which was to find a way to get out of the Vietnam War. He chose the former, to be loyal—he didn’t distance himself—and he lost the election.

Ralph Nader

You have all of these constituencies that want a change in policy…The base of the party is for peace and social justice. Not for continual expansion of the military budget. People forget that the Democratic platform in 2020 called for a reduction in military spending, and Joe Biden has increased military spending every year.

Jeff Cohen

We’ve organized around that point that if we cut the military budget—which has grown year after year under Joe Biden—and we took that money and spent it on healthcare and housing and education, imagine what a society we would have. If we uplifted working-class people. And when I look at what Joe Biden ran in in 2020—and the promises that were made that have been broken—if he had kept even half of these promises the Democrats would be winning in a landslide.

Jeff Cohen

Harvey Rosenfield is one of the nation’s foremost consumer advocates and founder of the advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog. Among many other accomplishments, Mr. Rosenfield authored Proposition 103 that has saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in auto insurance premiums. He has also co-authored groundbreaking initiatives on HMO reform and utility rate deregulation and is the author of the book, Silent Violence, Silent Death: the Hidden Epidemic of Medical Malpractice.

The insurance industry never stopped fighting [Prop 103]. Even though they lost at the ballot box, they constantly tried to relitigate that election. They couldn’t believe that the voters would have the temerity to tell the insurance companies how to conduct business in the state of California.

Harvey Rosenfield

This kind of economic blackmail—boycotting state after state in order to up their profits—has worked in the past for insurance companies and this is what they’re doing now. And it’s easy to predict that as their bottom line improves, as the stock market improves…they’ll start coming back into these states with the promise of far higher rates, and things will calm down. But in the meantime, people will have been soaked for tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide.

Harvey Rosenfield

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will address the United States Congress for an unprecedented fourth time. According to the Wall Street Journal, presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will skip Netanyahu’s address, but will meet with the Prime Minister – who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court – and is expected to tell him that “it is time for the war to end” and to stop the “suffering of Palestinian civilians.” Harris is expected to take a new foreign policy approach, likely doing away with key Biden administration figures like Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin. Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, has stated that Harris has shown “far greater empathy for Palestinians than Biden.”

2. With Harris taking center stage, the Intercept’s Prem Thakker reports that Representative Rashida Tlaib has released a statement saying “I welcome the opportunity to engage Vice President Harris as my team and I work hard to inspire our Democratic base...They want to see a permanent ceasefire and an end to the funding of genocide in Gaza…They want us to fight against corporate greed that wants to eliminate unions and keep our families in the cycle of poverty. I am eager to speak to Vice President Harris about all of these issues and more.” Unlike other prominent progressive lawmakers – such as Bernie Sanders and AOC – Tlaib did not back Biden against the campaign to have him step aside as the Democratic nominee, and crucially, appears to be using whatever leverage she has to demand Harris push vigorously for a ceasefire in Gaza.

3. The New York Times reports several major unions – including the The American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and the National Education Association, the largest union in the U.S. – have sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding they “halt all military aid to Israel.” This letter emphasizes that “it is clear that the Israeli government will continue …until it is forced to stop,” and that “Stopping US military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so.” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement “Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues…Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy.”

4. Reuters reports that in talks hosted in China this week, “Palestinian rivals including Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a unity government.” Al Maydeen reports “The meetings saw the participation of 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” The so-called Beijing Declaration promises to “end the Palestinian national division [and] unify national efforts to confront…[Israeli] aggression and stop the genocide.” Implementation of this agreement will be monitored by Egypt, Algeria, China, and Russia.

5. In the United Kingdom, “Five climate activists who planned a protest to cause gridlock and block traffic over four days on a major highway circling London were sentenced…to as much as five years in prison,” per ABC. Just Stop Oil, the group planning the protest, “called the prison terms ‘an obscene perversion of justice... for nothing more than attending a Zoom call.’” Protesting this decision, many prominent climate activists – ranging from Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn to Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury to musician Brian Eno – have signed a letter calling this “one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history…making a mockery of the right to a fair trial.” This letter also notes that these sentences are “higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault.” This letter also cites the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who called this “a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

6. In more climate related news, in New York City landlords are required to provide heat for tenants in the winter. Yet, there is no equivalent rule for landlords to provide air conditioning for tenants during the increasingly blistering summers. Now, Gothamist reports New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn plans to introduce a bill “requiring [landlords] to ensure tenants can cool their homes to at least 78 degrees when it is 82 degrees or warmer during the summer.” Restler is quoted saying “Heat is the number one climate or weather-related killer – not just nationally, but right here in New York City…We’ve already suffered three awful heat waves this summer. Can you imagine what it’s like to try to manage it without air conditioning or any cooling device in your apartment?” This move comes amid other attempts to legislate heat protections as temperatures continue to rise.

7. In an infuriating example of corporate greed, the Guardian reports that pharmaceutical giant Gilead is charging outrageous prices for a new drug described as “the closest we have ever been to an HIV vaccine.” According to this report, “Lenacapavir, sold as Sunlenca…currently costs $42,250 for the first year…[yet] In a study…experts calculated that the minimum price for mass production of a generic version…allowing for 30% profit, was $40 a year.” This report continues “Given by injection every six months, lenacapavir can prevent infection and suppress HIV in people who are already infected…In a trial, the drug offered 100% protection to more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda.”

8. In a welcome check against corporate greed, the Federal Communications Commission has “voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for

decades.” The new rules will cap the cost of a 15-minute phone call at 90 cents for large jails and $1.35 for small ones. As of now, a 15-minute phone call can cost as much as $11.35 in a large jail and over $12 in a small one. The new rules also bar added fees.

9. In more positive regulatory news, the Federal Trade Commission has “issued orders to eight companies offering surveillance pricing products and services that incorporate data about consumers’ characteristics and behavior. The orders seek information about the potential impact these practices have on privacy, competition, and consumer protection.” The companies in question include Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, and perennial corporate malefactor, McKinsey. Indicating the universality of this move, no more than 3 members of the FTC can be of the same party yet the Commission voted 5-0 to issue these orders.

10. Finally, in some local news, NBC4 Washington reports that “Former President Donald Trump has threatened a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., if he wins a second term in November.” Leaving aside the ever-present bluster and bombast that accompany such Trump pronouncements, NBC4 makes the crucial point that because D.C. lacks statehood “The president can take over the police department and many of the powers the mayor and D.C. Council have.” In light of this credible threat, it is more critical than ever that Congress act on D.C. Statehood and end the unjust status quo of taxation without representation.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Judge Cannon's Fumble, Fairplay's Victory, and Israel's War on Journalism Jul 20, 2024

On today's show, Ralph welcomes back Constitutional Law Expert Bruce Fein to dissect Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida. Then Ralph is joined by Haley Hinkle, Policy Counsel at Fairplay, to discuss their FTC complaint against the messaging app "NGL" and what their victory means for children's safety online. Finally, Ralph speaks with journalist John Nichols about the state of journalism in Gaza, as well as the state of the Democratic Party.

I think that here, a little brief history speaks volumes of logic. The modern special prosecutor Ralph and I experienced directly during Watergate, it stemmed from the coverup of the Watergate burglars’ funding by the Republican National Committee to try to save Richard Nixon. And when the Attorneys General John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst had been convicted of crimes, the vacancy was there, and Richard Nixon nominated his Secretary of Defense Elliot Richardson…[the Senate Judiciary Committee] insisted that they would never confirm Elliot Richardson unless he created the special prosecutor and appointed Archibald Cox. Because they could not trust the executive branch to investigate itself—that's the absence of separation of powers. You can't have the executive branch be a judge in its own case. So the purpose of the special prosecutor was to strengthen separation of powers by ending the absolute control that the President or Attorney General would have over prosecutorial decisions.

Bruce Fein

Haley Hinkle is policy counsel at Fairplay, where she advocates for laws and regulations that protect children and teens’ autonomy and safety online. Ms. Hinkle has also worked on issues at the intersection of government surveillance technology and civil liberties.

What we have seen over the last couple of decades of the Internet with these types of anonymous platforms that encourage either anonymous messaging within your peer group or within a specific geographic area…is that encouraging minors to talk about and to each other anonymously within a limited community always leads to really horrific cyberbullying outcomes. Because anonymity empowers people to say things they wouldn't normally say.

Haley Hinkle

The other piece [of our FTC complaint] is really trying to shift some responsibility onto tech itself for considering specific issues and harms and specific safeguards and tools that will help make kids and teens more safe, and help their parents understand that there are certain default protections in place. And that's why we've really been advocating for the Kids Online Safety Act to try to shift responsibility onto the platforms to consider specific harms in the duty of care…at the point of product design rather than trying to address these things after the fact.

Haley Hinkle

John Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for the Nation, and associate editor of the Capital Times. He has written, co-written, or edited over a dozen books on topics ranging from histories of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyses of US and global media systems. His latest, co-written with Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.

What has taken so long for international media in general to pay attention to the circumstance in Gaza? Not just talking about reporting from on the ground, but to give it the priority, to give it the seriousness that it has long deserved. For generations. And so this is part of a much deeper problem, part of a much deeper challenge.

John Nichols

The last couple of months, I think, have caused media organizations to frankly feel a measure of shame for their failure to cover up to this point, their failure to take it seriously, and frankly their failure to fight to be in a position to give the coverage that's needed. So they're stepping up now. And it took way too long, but it is important. It is absolutely vital that they are saying what they're saying.

John Nichols

Democrats should be thinking very, very seriously about whether they want to have an open convention or a closed convention. And frankly, if they go with a closed convention, if they stage-manage things and don't accept the dialogue—don't accept the discourse that frankly is necessary at this point, not just on the issues, but even on the question of the nomination itself—if they don't do that, I think the dangers are a) obvious and b) potentially profound.

John Nichols

One of the reasons— in addition to his performance on the debate with Trump—so many leading Democrats asked [Biden] to step aside is because they saw the whole ticket crumbling all the way down to the local elections around the country. Not just Congress, but state legislatures, governorships, city councils just collapsing. And that's still a very great concern for them.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 7/16/24

1. Axios reports a bipartisan gang of Senators has reached a deal to ban stock trading by sitting lawmakers. This group, which includes Senators Jon Ossoff, Gary Peters, Jeff Merkley and Josh Hawley have agreed to a deal which would “immediately prohibit members of Congress from buying stocks and selling stocks 90 days after the bill is signed into law…ban member spouses and dependent children from trading stocks starting in March 2027..[and impose] Penalties for violating the law [totaling] either…the monthly salary of a lawmaker or 10% of the value of each asset they buy or sell.” This is the most promising iteration of the stock trading ban thus far. Action on this bill is expected later this month.

2. In Rafah, scenes of carnage abound. NBC reports the major southern Gaza city, once considered a “safe zone,” has become “an empty husk with almost every…building completely leveled.” NBC was given rare access to the city by Israeli forces as ceasefire negotiations ramped up last week; what they found were “Homes destroyed, buildings reduced to rubble and few signs of life other than sporadic gunfire. That's all there is to see now in...the city…that was once home to more than 1 million people.” NBC further reports that Israel is launching new military operations in northern Gaza.

3. In the UK, pro-Gaza independent MP and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, along with the other four pro-Gaza independent MPs recently elected, have penned a letter to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy reminding him of his and his Government’s “obligations under international law,” with regard to the ICJ’s ruling that Israel is engaging in “plausible genocide.” These MPs call on Lammy to “immediately suspend all provision of weapons and weapons systems to the Government Israel...Immediately restore and increase UK funding to UNRWA…Impose sanctions on individuals and entities inciting genocide against Palesinians...[and] Regonise the State of Palestine,” among other demands. Yet quite to the contrary, the Middle East Eye reports Lammy “will not withdraw [Britain's] objection to the…ICC…prosecutor's application for arrest warrants targeting…Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant,” despite campaign promises to do so.

4. POLITICO reports the Department of Justice is “planning to sue RealPage Inc., a software company used by landlords across the country… [accusing] the company of selling software that enables landlords to illegally share confidential pricing information in order to collude on setting rents.” This is the latest in an ongoing effort by the Biden administration to crack down on “rent gouging among corporate landlords.” The Biden administration has also signaled it intends to propose capping rent increases at 5% nationwide, per Axios.

5. Detroit-based journalist Phil Lewis reports “CNN [is] quietly disband[ing] its Race and Equality team.” This team was presented as evidence of a “significant, sustained commitment to ensure race coverage is a permanent part of [CNN’s] journalism,” when it was announced in during the George Floyd protests in July 2020. A CNN spokesperson confirmed “For all intents and purposes, the team is not a team anymore.” This comes amid news that the cable news channel will “lay off 100 employees as it restructures its newsgathering operations.”

6. This week, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican National Convention. He is the first Teamster ever to address the RNC. In this speech, O’Brien sought to praise Republicans whom he believes have stood up for labor and urged the GOP to stand up for American workers. In terms of specific policies, O’Brien called on the Republicans to reject the “economic terrorism” of companies exploiting labor and bankruptcy laws to bilk American workers and stressed the need for “corporate welfare reform,” paid for by individual taxpayers. O’Brien’s speech has drawn much criticism from the Left. It remains to be seen whether it will sway the Republicans toward a more pro-labor agenda.

7. On the other end of the labor spectrum, UAW President Shawn Fain is sounding the alarm about President Biden’s reelection. At the Netroots Nation conference in Baltimore last week, Fain said “We’re speaking truth to those who need to hear it most and that’s the Democrat Party.” He urged the party to not put “our heads in the sand and hide from reality — we tried that in 2016 and it didn’t work,” per Bloomberg. UAW, which endorsed Biden in January, is reportedly weighing their options in light of the pressure on Biden to step aside. CNBC reports Fain met with the union’s executive board last week to discuss next steps.

8. The American Prospect reports the DNC is seeking to do an end-run around a contested convention by having delegates vote early in a virtual roll call beginning as early as July 22nd. While this virtual roll call procedure had already been approved for the convention – on dubious grounds – the early voting is a new tactic the Biden team is deploying to stave off challenges to his nomination. This underhanded campaign is being met with push-back from delegates and House Democrats. The Prospect’s Luke Goldstein reports “One [California] delegate told me: ‘I have the same feeling I did when I was campaigning in Michigan for Hillary in 2016; everyone is acting like we’re winning but it really feels more like we’re losing.’” Punchbowl News has published a letter being circulated among House Democrats expressing “serious concerns” about the early virtual roll call, arguing “It could deeply undermine the morale and unity of Democrats– from delegates, volunteers, grassroots organizers and donors to ordinary voters – at the worst possible time.”

9. In June, the FEC declared that Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is eligible to receive federal matching funds for her campaign. Yet, Stein’s campaign manager Jason Call reports “Congress robbed the fund and Treasury is refusing to pay us $270,000,” the campaign is rightfully owed. Call added “The Green Party takes no corporate money. We are following the rules. And the playground bullies are continuing to rig the system for the war machine and other corporate interests.”

10. Finally, in some positive news, Axios reports “Just 13% of workers in the U.S. are now earning less than $15 an hour; two years ago, that number was 31.9%, per new data from Oxfam.” The data also show “Even accounting for inflation — $15 an hour in 2024 has the same buying power as about $14 in 2022.” Yet even with these encouraging trends, Oxfam warns that wages are still too low. Senator Bernie Sanders has recently introduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $17 per hour by 2028.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

A Doctor in Gaza/Trump Immunity Jul 13, 2024

We hear from Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a Palestinian American doctor who spent time in Gaza trying to administer to a civilian population under relentless siege. Plus, Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, takes apart the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the president of the United States the powers of a king.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad is a Palestinian-American emergency physician who has made numerous relief trips to Gaza. Dr. Ahmad is Assistant Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at Chicago’s Advocate Christ Medical Center. He also serves as the Global Health Director and Medical Ethics Director for the Emergency Department at Advocate Christ. Dr. Ahmad is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a board member for MedGlobal, a medical humanitarian NGO that works at building healthcare capacity and reducing health inequities globally.

I don't think [Palestinian healthcare workers] get enough credit for what they've had to deal with over these last several months… These doctors are also displaced. Their families are displaced. They are living out of tents and they are showing up every day at the hospital to treat the community that's there. They've not been paid—the health ministry collapsed—they have no money. They're totally dependent on the scarce aid that gets in. These doctors are showing up to work when they should be in line at the bakeries that are producing some of the bread—where they should be in line collecting some of the aid that's being distributed. But they're showing up.

Dr. Thaer Ahmad

I work with MedGlobal. They're doing fantastic work on the ground. They're in Gaza—more than 110 physicians and nurses who are Gazans are running medical points throughout the Gaza Strip. They have a malnutrition center that they're also using to help with the starvation that we were talking about. So I think that that's an excellent organization to contribute to—medglobal.org .

Dr. Thaer Ahmad

[On Trump v. United States]: The court gave nothing more than the equivalent of, “We know when it's not immune when we see it, but otherwise you try to guess what that's going to be.”

Bruce Fein

It's a judicial counter-revolution. It's a violation because it basically turns the Constitution into a scrap of paper—it means whatever the Justices want it to mean. It doesn't have to find even a single word in the Constitution to justify the opinion.

Bruce Fein

It's really a judicial coup d'etat that occurred on July 1, 2024. It's hard to fathom the belief that these six judges think they're going to get away with it. There is going to be all kinds of damage to all kinds of people—regardless of their political labels—and there's going to be a big pushback. Do they think they're going to get away with it? These unelected, lifetime-position judges?

Ralph Nader

News 7/10/24

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. Haaretz reports that in the immediate wake of the October 7th attack, the Israeli Defense Forces implemented the ominously named “Hannibal directive” which “directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity.” In other words, the explicit order of the Israeli military was for Israelis to kill Israeli soldiers to prevent them from being taken hostage by Hamas, in order to deny the group leverage in negotiations. As Haaretz reports, this directive also put civilian lives at risk. The Hannibal Directive had been a secretive but official Israeli policy since the 1986 capture of three soldiers by Hezbollah in Lebanon, but was formally revoked in 2016.

2. Lancet, the prestigious British medical journal, has published a study estimating that as many as 186,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a direct or indirect result of the genocidal Israeli military campaign. This casualty count, far higher than the commonly cited figure of under 40,000, supports estimates offered by advocates. If accurate, this would mean Israel has wiped out nearly 8% of the total population of the Gaza Strip.

3. Due to previous legal entanglements, the United Autoworkers union is subject to a consent decree with the federal government. Included within this consent decree is a federal monitor assigned to the union. Yet, the Detroit News reports that this monitor, Neil Barofsky, went far beyond his mandate to pressure the union over its position on the crisis in Gaza. According to this report, following UAW’s official call for ceasefire, Barofsky called UAW president Shawn Fain to share his “concerns” about the union’s position. Later, Barofsky signed off on an email which included an ADL complaint about the union’s call for a ceasefire. Benjamin Dictor, outside counsel for the UAW, wrote to Barofsky saying “Your call to President Fain on an issue so blatantly outside of the Monitor’s jurisdiction was inappropriate…[and] represents a surprising lack of integrity.”

4. More misbehavior from the ADL is on display in a recent expose from the Guardian. According to this report, based on a leaked internal memo from 2020, “the ADL collected information on a Black Indianapolis activist, Tatjana Rebelle, who worked on Deadly Exchange, a national campaign against an ADL-backed program to send US police officials for training with the Israeli military.” Rebelle is quoted in this piece saying “It scared the s**t out of me…It stopped me from moving forward because I don’t want to put people in my life at risk – I work with youth, so it stopped me in my tracks.” The ADL calls itself the “leading anti-hate organization in the world,” with a straight face.

5. AP reports Boeing has taken the deal offered by the Department of Justice, and will “will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people.” The plea deal, which must still be approved by a federal judge, dictates that Boeing must pay an additional $243.6 million fine and submit to independent monitor-ship for three years, among other provisions. Ike Riffel, whose sons Melvin and Bennett died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, is quoted saying “Boeing has paid fines many a time…When people start going to prison, that’s when you are going to see a change.”

6. President Biden shows no intention of stepping aside as the Democratic nominee. This is despite open calls from prominent Democratic lawmakers, such as Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff, as well as a full-blown revolt from major Democratic donors like Abigail Disney. Recent polls show Biden losing most swing states by a substantial margin, including an AARP poll in Wisconsin showing him running 12 points behind Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. Infuriating many of those who wish to avoid a second Trump term, Axios reports “President Biden indicated…[in his interview with George Stephanopolous] that he would be at peace if he lost to former President Trump ‘as long as I gave it my all.’”

7. Hurricane Beryl is ravaging Texas, leaving millions without power, according to CNN. This widespread power outage will only compound an incoming heatwave, with the Houston heat index reaching 100 degrees on Tuesday. Las Vegas hit a record high temperature of 120 degrees the same day, per Fox 5. As many have remarked, this is likely to be the coldest summer for the rest of our lives.

8. The Daily Beast reports the Pope has excommunicated Carlo Maria Vigano, an ultra-conservative archbishop who served as the Vatican’s ecclesiastical diplomat to Washington from 2011 to 2016. A long time opponent of Pope Francis, Vigano has become increasingly unhinged in his criticisms, including accusing the supreme pontiff of being a “servant of Satan.” Other wild claims he has made in recent years include retweeting a Marjorie Taylor Greene post stating that “The Covid vaccines are killing people,” and calling Black Lives Matter protests the machinations of “the children of darkness.” Vigano was accused of schism and found guilty.

9. In the United Kingdom, the New Arab reports five pro-Gaza independent candidates won seats in the House of Commons, including Shockat Adam, who defeated shadow Cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth. Most prominent of these however is Left-wing luminary and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who successfully defended his seat in Islington North after being expelled from the Labour Party over his criticism of Israel. Reuters reports that upon his victory, Corbyn said voters are “looking for a government that on the world stage will search for peace, not war.”

10. Finally, beating all expectations, the French Left emerged victorious from the second round of legislative elections. The New Popular Front lead by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won the most seats, followed by Macron’s centrist bloc, after the two formed a “Republican Front” to defeat the Far-right, led by Marine Le Pen. Now, negotiations are underway to choose the country’s next Prime Minister, according to France24. Mélenchon has campaigned on a very simple platform, stating “I'm not saying we will create a paradise from one day to the next, but we will put an end to hell.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The Plastics We Breathe/ Industrial Hemp Jul 06, 2024

Ralph welcomes Washington Post reporter Shannon Osaka to discuss her new article, “The Plastics We Breathe” and the shocking truth that all of the plastic we’re using isn’t just polluting the environment—it’s polluting our bodies as well. Then, Ralph checks in on the state of the industrial hemp movements with “Hempster” filmmaker and activist Michael Henning.

Shannon Osaka is a climate reporter covering policy, culture, and science for theWashington Post. Before joining the Post, she was a climate reporter at the nonprofit environmental outlet Grist.

Microplastics are not only around us, they're also inside us…This is a really difficult problem, and it's partly because there is no one microplastic. Microplastics are made of a whole bunch of different materials—they're made with different chemical additives. So scientists have found that microplastics can have certain effects in the laboratory—they can cause cell death, they can cause tissue damage, they can cause allergic reactions, they are starting to put the pieces together on the impact on human health.

Shannon Osaka

[“The Plastics We Breathe” by Shannon Osaka and Simon Ducroquet] comes across as a massive global assault—hour by hour, a violent, violent pandemic—when you look at the fact that it's everywhere, it's in the water, it's in the air, it's in human bodies, it's in the animals that are eaten, it's in the pipes, it's being swallowed regularly, it's invisible, it doesn't produce immediate pain, it's in the placenta, the liver, the breast milk.

Ralph Nader

Michael Henning is a filmmaker, public speaker, and longtime proponent of the Industrial Hemp Movement. He is the director of Hempsters: Plant the Seeds, a documentary about the struggle to legalize industrial hemp.

The DEA is the most profitable hemp farmer in the world. They get a million dollars per acre. Here's the irony of all this—they're cutting down feral ditch weed…Well, why the hell are they eradicating cannabis when it's legal to grow in all 50 states? They're taking us to the cleaners with the amount of money that taxpayers pay to support the Cannabis Eradication Program. How can you have a Cannabis Eradication Program when it's legal to grow in all 50 states?

Michael Henning

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 7/3/24

1. Following President Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate, pressure is beginning to build for Biden to step aside as the Democratic nominee against Trump. The Texas Tribune reports Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat representing Austin, Texas is the first to explicitly call for Biden to stand down, writing in a statement, “President Biden...has the opportunity to encourage a new generation of leaders from whom a nominee can be chosen to unite our country though an open, democratic process….I am hopeful that he will make the painful and difficult decision to withdraw. I respectfully call on him to do so.” Other top Democrats have not gone quite so far, but haven’t closed the door completely. Congressman Jim Clyburn, a powerful South Carolina Democrat and co-chair of Biden’s campaign, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell “I will support…[Vice President Kamala Harris if President Joe Biden]…were to step aside,” per NBC’s Gary Grumbach. NBC reports House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said Biden’s mental fitness is a “legitimate question.”

2. Israel’s rabidly right-wing Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir has issued a statement on Twitter responding to claims from Palestinian prisoners that they faced “rape, physical and psychological torture, deprivation of food, medicine and sleep, humiliation and degradation,” in Israeli prisons, per the Middle East Eye. In this statement, Ben Gvir wrote “Everything published about the abominable conditions…was true…I have already proposed a much simpler solution…enacting the death penalty.”

3. +972 Magazine is out with a report on the Sde Teiman detention center in the Negev desert, where Israel has held more than 4,000 Palestinian prisoners since October 7th. The magazine report recounts the countless instances of horrific abuse at the detention center, many perpetrated against Arab-Israeli citizens. The magazine also cites theNew York Times report that “doctors at the facility were instructed not to write their names on official documents or address each other by name in the presence of patients, for fear of being later identified and charged with war crimes at the International Criminal Court.”

4. CNN reports that the Israeli military has “issued new evacuation orders…for areas in southern Gaza, including eastern Khan Younis and Rafah….[forcing] residents, many already displaced, to find new shelter,” in advance of yet another ground invasion. The Gaza European Hospital, one of the last hospitals in Gaza, is located within this evacuation zone. While the IDF has said the evacuation order “does not apply to the patients in the European Hospital or the medical staff working there,” the hospital has already “transferred patients, including those in intensive care and babies in incubators…to other facilities ‘in fear of bloodshed,’ according to the hospital’s deputy director and doctors.” The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported earlier this week that the few remaining hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed by the influx of patients from the European Hospital, as well as other hospitals that have been bombed or evacuated during the Israeli bombing campaign.

5. Axios reports that even pro-Israel Democrats are expressing apprehension about what they describe as AIPAC’s “overkill” in the recent campaign to defeat progressive Congressman Jamaal Bowman. AIPAC, via their United Democracy Project PAC, spent at least $14.5 million on anti-Bowman ads as of June 20th, making this the most expensive primary ever, per POLITICO. One House Democrat, speaking anonymously, expressed concern that “that much money could backfire,” with another noting that “They do that a lot.” Progressive House Democrat Greg Casar said “[Progressives] have to adapt…voters have to know that, if they're seeing a huge barrage of ads, they've got to…find out if those [millions] of dollars are telling [them] the truth."

6. The Department of Justice will formally charge Boeing with fraud over its fatal 2019 crashes, per Reuters. However, the Justice Department will offer the company a plea deal, including “a financial penalty and imposition of an independent monitor to audit the company's safety and compliance practices for three years.” If Boeing does not take the deal and plead guilty, the Justice Department has vowed to take the company to court; if they do plead guilty, it could affect the company’s ability to enter into government contracts. Companies with felony convictions are barred from being awarded such contracts, but can receive waivers. The Department “declined to comment on the families' reaction.”

7. AP reports “Tesla is recalling its…Cybertruck pickup…to fix problems with trim pieces that can come loose and front windshield wipers that can fail.” This is the fourth recall of the Cybertruck since it went on sale late last November. Each recall affects over 11,000 vehicles, each of which cost between $80-100,000.

8. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in Grant’s Pass v. Johnson that a local ordinance banning homeless people from sleeping outdoors – even when there is inadequate shelter space available – does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Within days, lawmakers in Oregon and Los Angeles, among others, began to publicly signal they would utilize this ruling to crack down on unhoused people. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports nearly 600,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness, an increase of six percent since 2017.

9. France is facing a political crisis. In the first round of legislative elections, the far-Right National Rally and its allies claimed first place with just over 33% of the vote, followed by the Leftist New Popular Front with 28%. The centrist allies of President Macron came in a distant third. Going into the second round of voting, uncertainty swirled over whether the Center and the Left could form a so-called “republican front” against the far-Right, specifically whether the centrist candidates would stand down in close run-offs between the Left and far-Right, and vice versa. Macron now seems to have endorsed this position. According to Reuters, “A survey…showed a small majority of those who voted mainstream conservative in the first round would back the left-wing candidate best placed to beat an RN rival in the second round.”

10. Finally, Kenya is being rocked by its own political crisis – one of neoliberalism. In order to meet targets set by the International Monetary Fund, Kenyan President William Ruto pushed a bill that would have imposed new taxes on “bread, vegetable oil…sugar, mobile-money transfers and some imports,” per Reuters. This announcement led to nothing short of a popular uprising in the streets, leading to violent clashes as the police sought to quash these protests. Those clashes left at least two dozen protesters dead. President Ruto has now pulled the bill, but protests continue to rock the country. One protester told Reuters “People are dying in the streets and the only thing he can talk about is money. We are not money. We are people. We are human beings…He needs to care about his people, because if he can't care about his people then we don't need him in that chair."

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

An Undertaker in Gaza Jun 29, 2024

We focus once again on the ongoing genocide in Gaza with Delinda Hanley, executive editor of the “Washington Report on Middle East Affairs” who tells the heartrending story of an undertaker in Gaza who since October 8th personally has had to bury over 17,000 people. Then, Ralph welcomes back retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to widen out the discussion to include the war in Ukraine and contends that “the Pentagon runs America.”

Delinda Hanley is news editor and executive director of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She writes extensively for the magazine on an array of topics and her stories have also been published in the Arab News, Saudi ARAMCO World, The Minaret, Islamic Horizons and other U.S. magazines, including The Jewish Spectator. She has written extensively on Palestine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, the emergence of the Muslim voice in Arab politics, and fairness in the mainstream American media.

During this (Gaza) crisis, it's been a meeting point for people on the sidewalk. We've had fundraisers, people just come and vent because they're so upset about our U.S. foreign policy. Diplomats come in and vent about how they don't get a say anymore—it's just top-down foreign policy decisions. We've had ex-military people, who served in Iraq, vent. Everyone just comes here and starts to feel a little better because they're talking to like-minded people. The only people who don't come here are the media. We've never had a story about the magazine. It's just verboten.

Delinda Hanley

While most publications depend on advertising to last, we don't have much advertising. Only charities dare to advertise with us because if you're a lawyer or insurance salesman, you get phone calls from our adversaries saying, "That's an anti-Semitic magazine. Don't do that. You won't have our business." We have a real problem with advertising. And also, may I say, we are so happy to send free subscriptions to libraries…Libraries are afraid to have us on their shelves sometimes because they get complaints.

Delinda Hanley

Lawrence Wilkersonis a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at theEisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to theQuincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of theAll-Volunteer Force Forum.

AIPAC—the Israeli-government-can-do-no-wrong lobby here—poured over $14 million to defeat Jamaal Bowman, the Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester County just this week in the primary. And it came down to $17,000 an hour they were spending on blanket ads and other media against this super progressive member of Congress who dared a few weeks after October 7th to call for a permanent ceasefire and describe what Netanyahu was doing as genocide.

Ralph Nader

We know, all of us know, that the armed forces of the United States are broken. They are broken from years and years of the all-volunteer force, years and years of war, years and years of stupid idiotic war with no purpose, years and years of wounds, PTSD, suicides just off the charts now. And the armed forces are not doing well.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 6/26/24

1. In a story that could have been written 200 years ago, independence activists in the French territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific have been sent to mainland France for pre-trial detention, per Al Jazeera. According to this report, these seven detainees include Christian Tein, head of the pro-independence group Field Action Coordination Cell, or CCAT. Tein’s lawyer Pierre Ortent said he was “stupefied” that Tein was being being held in France, accusing authorities of “answering to purely political considerations.” A lawyer for another detainee said these actions would only create “martyrs for the independence cause.” Riots broke out in New Caledonia earlier this year when France instituted new rules allowing long-term, non-indigenous residents to participate in independence referenda – which “Indigenous Kanaks feared…would dilute their vote.” France deployed 3,000 soldiers in response. New Caledonia remains on the United Nations list of “non-self-governing territories,” the modern euphemism for imperial colonies.

2. Following a decade-long legal battle, the saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finally coming to a close. Defending Rights and Dissent reports “On Monday, it was announced that Assange had filed a guilty plea in the US District of Northern Mariana Islands. Assange, who faced 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, pled guilty to [a] single count of conspiracy… Assange…will make an appearance in court and be sentenced to time served. He will then return to Australia a free man.” However, Policy Director Chip Gibbons was quick to note “Plea deals…set no legal precedent…the US government’s decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act remains unconstitutional due to the First Amendment’s press freedom guarantees.”

3. In an interview with Declassified UK, reported by Yahoo News, Independent MP Candidate and former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn recounted how he was pressured to give blanket support to military actions by Israel. In the interview, he said “During one extremely hostile meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party Committee they confronted me and said will you give a blanket undertaking that you, as party leader and potentially prime minister, will automatically support any military action Israel undertakes?” Corbyn responded “no, I will give no such undertaking, because the issue of Palestine has to be resolved and Palestinian people do not deserve to live under occupation…” Corbyn is currently fighting to keep his longtime seat in Islington North after being expelled from the Labour Party by it’s reportedly CIA-linked new leader, Keir Starmer.

4. British humanitarian group Save the Children has published a new report which finds “Over 20,000 children [are] estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves,” in Gaza. A Child Protection Specialist with the group, on the ground in Gaza, is quoted saying “Every day we find more unaccompanied children and every day it is harder to support them…there is no safe place in Gaza… Neighbours and extended family members who have taken in lone children are struggling to meet their basic needs, such as shelter, food, and water. Many are with strangers - or completely alone - increasing the risk of violence, abuse exploitation and neglect.” Jeremy Stoner, the group’s regional director for the Middle East, says “Gaza has become a graveyard for children.”

5. On Tuesday, a new citizenship law took effect in Germany, allowing new immigrants to obtain a German passport within five years – but only if they declare that the State of Israel has the right to exist, per the Financial Times. This piece notes that the “[German] government…has…sparked anger by…[cracking] down on…criticism of the Israeli government over its conduct in Gaza, fuelling (sic.) a debate over free speech in Germany, particularly among artists and academics. Sabine Döring, Germany’s junior minister for higher education, was forced to resign earlier this month after her ministry started exploring legal options to defund the research of German academics who had signed a public letter criticising a police crackdown on anti-Israeli student protests.”

6. AP reports Israel’s Supreme Court issued a ruling this week that “the military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service…[putting] an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country’s secular Jewish majority.” The exemption from military service for the ultra-Orthodox Haredim has been a long-term flash-point in Israeli society and the issue has only grown more contentious as the recent campaign in Gaza has dragged on. The Netanyahu regime, which rules in coalition with Haredi parties, fought this ruling tooth and nail, claiming that forcing the Haredim to serve would “tear Israeli society apart.” Many speculate that the ruling will cause the ultra-Orthodox parties to leave Netanyahu’s coalition, which would precipitate the collapse of his government.

7. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, over 20 elder care facilities in the area have closed in just the last few weeks, which this report ascribes to “The long-term mismanagement of nursing homes by private equity firms,” like the Carlyle Group. Specifically, the paper excoriates how “Private equity firms extract money from nursing homes,” using “sale-leaseback[s]…selling the land out from under the facilities for lump payments…[meaning] Nursing homes are suddenly forced to pay rent or ‘management fees’ to occupy facilities they once owned…the same process…that resulted in the bankruptcy of the Red Lobster restaurant chain.” The paper notes that the Biden administration is promulgating a new rule that elder care facilities must disclose their ownership, while acknowledging that “This will hardly solve the problem, but it will allow families to make informed decisions about their loved ones’ care.”

8. Rumblings suggest Congress may raise the corporate tax rate. POLITICO reports “anti-corporate sentiment is running high among increasingly populist-minded Republicans,” and this article quotes Congressman Chip Roy of Texas saying “There’s a bubbling-up concern that we should not be doing the bidding of corporate America.” Roy is reportedly “consider[ing] kicking the corporate rate up to 25 percent, from the current 21 percent, if it means being able to extend breaks for individuals and small businesses.” On the Democratic side, Representative Don Beyer said “Every Democrat thinks the 21 percent corporate rate is far lower than is necessary,” and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden added “Western civilization is not going to end if there’s some increase.”

9. The Guardian reports DC area coffee chain Compass Coffee is “hiring dozens of friends of management, including other local food service executives and an Uber lobbyist, in an effort to defeat a union election.” Compass Coffee United, the union representing these workers, “accused the coffee chain of hiring 124 additional people at cafes that are attempting to unionize…[and] manipulating worker schedules retroactively to try to make the new employees eligible to vote in the union election.” The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on Twitter “Claiming that a lobbyist from Uber & CEOs from other companies are workers in order to rig a union election is totally absurd & disgusting.”

10. Finally, in more labor news, CNN reports Teamsters President Sean O’Brien will speak at the Republican National Convention. Former President Trump wrote on Truth Social “Our GREAT convention will unify Americans and demonstrate to the nation’s working families they come first…When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world.” Trump and O’Brien previously met at Mar-a-Lago in January. According to Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz, “O’Brien’s appearance does not represent an endorsement of Trump,” and “O’Brien has requested the opportunity to also speak at the Democratic National Convention…The DNC has yet to accept that request.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Veterans for Peace/ Freedom of Speech Jun 22, 2024

Ralph welcomes Mike Ferner from Veterans for Peace to discuss their work pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza and mobilizing their members to obstruct the gears of our military-industrial complex. Then, Ralph speaks with criminal defense attorney Leonard Goodman about a major First Amendment case that he's fighting in Florida as well as the Justice Department's tradition of targeting political dissenters.

Mike Ferner served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, and he is former National Director and current Special Projects Coordinator for Veterans for Peace. He is the author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran for Peace Reports from Iraq.

Veterans for Peace, listeners, might provoke you to say—well, why is there another veterans organization needed? Doesn't the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars fit the bill? Well, as other listeners know, those two gigantic groups have been very closely aligned with the Pentagon, they don't seem to ever see a war or an armed incursion that they don't like from the U.S. Empire.

Ralph Nader

Every conflict is going to wind up ending at some point with talks and negotiations. And it's a question of—how many people do you want to kill and wound, and how much suffering do you want to cause, before you say enough and sit down at the table? That happens in every war.

Mike Ferner

It's not like we've got some kind of democracy, and our national policy reflects what people want to do. It's that the people who are running the show from the arms industries and so forth, they're the ones that make the political contributions, they're the ones that make the money. And those are the ones that we hold up as the mad men arsonists who are running around the world setting fires left and right. And we're running around with a bucket brigade trying to stop them. So unfortunately they've got the upper hand, but Veterans for Peace and other parts of the peace movement are doing everything that we can to change that.

Mike Ferner

Leonard Goodman is a Chicago criminal defense lawyer, an adjunct professor of law at DePaul University College of Law, where he teaches Federal Criminal Law, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University College of Law. He also founded the Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting, which provides editorial and financial support to independent journalists pursuing in-depth investigative projects.

[Penny Hess, Omali Yeshitela, and Jesse Nevel’s] homes were raided, and they're now under federal indictment, facing up to 15 years in prison with absolutely no notice, no letter being sent saying, "Hey, we think because you went to Moscow that you need to register." Nothing. So what you talk about is a two-tiered justice system.

Leonard Goodman

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. Reuters reports that the American Defense Department ran a clandestine anti-vaccine campaign during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim of undermining China. Specifically, this program sought to discredit the efficacy of China’s Sinovac vaccine. This operation began under the Trump Administration, but continued until late 2021, well into the Biden Administration. This misinformation campaign targeted Southeast Asia in general and the Philippines in particular, where the virus claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 people by November 2021. A senior military officer involved in the program told Reuters “We weren’t looking at this from a public health perspective…We were looking at how we could drag China through the mud.”

2. In more China news, the Financial Times reports “President Xi Jinping told European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen that Washington was trying to goad Beijing into attacking Taiwan.” President Xi went on to tell von der Leyen that China would not take the bait. If true, it would not be the first time the U.S. has baited a foreign competitor into a proxy war. Jimmy Carter’s former national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski famously gloated that “Drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap...[had been]…an excellent idea.”

3. The Jerusalem Post reports “[The Israeli Defense Forces] knew of Hamas's plan to kidnap 250 [hostages] before [the] October 7 attack.” A recently uncovered document – compiled by the IDF Gaza Division and distributed on September 19th 2023 – “described in detail…exercises conducted by Hamas's elite units…[which] included raiding military posts and kibbutzim…kidnapping soldiers and civilians, and maintaining the hostages once they were in the Gaza Strip.” This bombshell report raises grave questions about what the Israeli military establishment knew and when they knew it, and to what extent they allowed the October 7th attacks to take place.

4. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is scheduled to address both Houses of Congress on June 24th. A growing number of Democrats, however, are planning to boycott this speech. While it is unclear exactly how many Democrats will refuse to attend, approximately 60 boycotted Netanyahu’s previous address in 2015 and many of these members have signaled that they will do the same this time. One major addition to the boycotter’s ranks is Representative Jim Clyburn, an extremely powerful and relatively conservative House Democrat. Axios reports that many Democrats are proposing counter-programming proposals including “a press conference, a vigil, or an event with families of those taken hostage by Hamas, many of whom feel Netanyahu hasn't done enough to free their loved ones.” Clyburn “told Politico he was participating in one counter-programming meeting.” One anonymous House Democrat told the paper “These conversations are happening. And it's not just progressives…More moderate Dems are extremely frustrated that this Netanyahu visit undermines the work of the Biden administration and is disrespectful to Israelis who want Netanyahu out.”

5. A letter from Apple employees to the corporation, recently leaked to the Intercept, demands that the company “promptly investigate and cease matching donations to all organizations that further illegal settlements in occupied territories and support the IDF.” According to this piece, a battle has been raging within Apple – led by 133 self-described “shareholders and current and former employees” which has “previously objected to the disciplining and firing of Apple Store employees who ‘dared to express support of the Palestinian people in the form of kaffiyehs, pins, bracelets, or clothing.’” Apple did not respond to the Intercept’s request for comment.

6. The Federal Trade Commission has filed a federal court complaint against software company Adobe and two of its executives for “deceiving consumers by hiding the early termination fee for its most popular subscription plan and making it difficult for consumers to cancel their subscriptions.” Sam Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said “Adobe trapped customers into year-long subscriptions through hidden early termination fees and numerous cancellation hurdles…Americans are tired of companies hiding the ball during subscription signup and then putting up roadblocks when they try to cancel.”

7. In New Jersey, CNBC reports that powerful Democratic political boss George Norcross has been indicted on racketeering charges. New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s 13-count indictment “accuse[s] George Norcross of leading a ‘criminal enterprise’ in South Jersey.” Platkin went on to say “On full display in this indictment is how a group of unelected, private businessmen used their power and influence to get government to aid their criminal enterprise and further its interests…The alleged conduct of the Norcross Enterprise has caused great harm to individuals, businesses, non-profits, the people of the State of New Jersey, and especially the City of Camden and its residents…That stops today.”

8. A new Iowa poll by the Des Moines Register shows Donald Trump at 50%, Joe Biden at 32%, and RFK Jr. at 9%. As Dave Weigel of Semafor notes, “No Democrat has gotten under 40% in Iowa since 1980. Biden at 32% would be the worst [Democrat] performance there since 1924.” This is yet another omen that Joe Biden is a historically weak candidate and by running him the Democratic Party is giving Donald Trump the best chance he’s got to return to power.

9. Maryland Governor Wes Moore has issued pardons to 175,000 residents of the state for cannabis-related misdemeanor convictions, NPR reports. Moore calls this “the most sweeping state level pardon…in American history.” Yet, despite the pardons these convictions will not actually be automatically expunged. We urge the Maryland House of Delegates to act on this swiftly so that those pardoned for these minor offenses will finally be free of the stigma that in some cases has impeded their lives and careers for years.

10. Finally, the LA Times is out with a report on dangerous chemicals found in marijuana sold in the state of California, and regulators’ failure to protect cannabis consumers. The Times and WeedWeek purchased dozens of cannabis products from retail stores, then tested them at private labs. According to an investigation by the LA Times and WeedWeek, “Out of 42 products tested, 25 had concentrations of pesticides above either state-allowed levels or current federal standards for tobacco.” As this piece notes, “there are 66 pesticides California requires testing for, but it’s an outdated list…There are many more not included on the state’s list that have been linked to liver cancer, reproductive disorders and more.” According to Mary Gaterud, a longtime pot grower in Humboldt County, “The people who are doing it right get crushed…The bad actors are encouraged and rewarded. And the consumers are poisoned while being told they are safe.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Saving Lives On The Road/Ralph Answers Your Questions Jun 15, 2024

Ralph welcomes fellow auto safety advocate, Jackie Gillan, past President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition working together to reduce motor vehicle crashes, save lives and prevent injuries. Then, Ralph outlines the latest issue of the Capitol Hill Citizen and responds to your feedback from recent programs.

Jackie Gillan is past President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition working together to reduce motor vehicle crashes, save lives and prevent injuries through the adoption of federal and state laws, policies and programs. Ms. Gillan has held senior policy positions for three state transportation agencies, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Senate.

Biden talks about peace and humanitarian aid and a two-state solution, but his deeds are to send endless supplies of weapons of mass destruction—including weapons that are used in sheer, total violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law…He appears weak to more and more Americans, and he may well pay that price on November 5th to the horror of a Trump presidency. This is how far he goes in his obeisance to the right wing, violent, genocidal political coalition that has hijacked the Israeli society.

Ralph Nader

Nearly every single safety standard on your car has our fingerprints on it and battle scars for the staff fighting in Congress and in the agencies to try to get those [auto safety] rulemakings finished.

Jackie Gillan

At the time in 1988, there were 47,000 highway deaths and I think everyone was quickly realizing that slick slogans and public education programs were not going to bring down deaths and injuries—so they brought advocates together.

Jackie Gillan

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 6/12/24

1. The New York Times reports that since last year, Israel has been running an “influence campaign” targeting Black lawmakers in the United States. This project, overseen by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, consists of a crude network of fake social media accounts that post “pro-Israel comments…urging [Black Democrats like Senator Raphael Warnock, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Representative Ritchie Torres] to continue funding Israel’s military.” This project was active on Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram, and utilized OpenAI’s ChatGPT, until both companies disrupted the operation earlier this year. The operation is still active on X, formerly Twitter.

2. Mondoweiss reports that Israel has been torturing Palestinian prisoners, aided by the complicity of Israeli physicians. According to the report, “prisoners are being viciously beaten and abused multiple times a day, caged in cells ‘not fit for human life,’ kept blindfolded with their hands bound with plastic ties, isolated from the outside world, stripped of their clothing, collectively punished through starvation, attacked by dogs, sexually assaulted, and psychologically tortured.” As for the doctors, “Israeli physicians collaborate with Shin Bet interrogators [Israel’s equivalent of the FBI] to ‘certify’… that [prisoners]… are ‘fit’ to undergo torture. Throughout the duration of interrogation, a physician provides a ‘green light’ that torture can continue…look for physical and psychological weaknesses to exploit…[and] falsify or refrain from documenting the physical and psychological effects of torture on a detainee’s body and mind.” Meanwhile, for all the talk of Hamas brutality, Israeli news anchor Lama Tatour was fired for commenting that recently released hostage Noa Argamani looked remarkably healthy, saying “Look at her eyebrows, they look better than mine??” per Business Insider.

3. The United Nations Security Council has, for the first time, overwhelmingly passed a Gaza ceasefire resolution, backed by the United States. Reuters reports “senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri…said [Hamas has] accepted the ceasefire resolution and [is] ready to negotiate over the specifics.” Yet, according to CNN, “Israel has vowed to persist with its military operation in Gaza, saying it won’t engage in ‘meaningless’ negotiations with Hamas.” As the CNN piece notes, “The resolution says Israel has accepted the plan, and US officials have repeatedly emphasized Israel had agreed to the proposal – despite other public comments from Netanyahu that suggest otherwise.” If the Israelis ultimately do not accept this ceasefire proposal, this would become yet another major embarrassment for the Biden administration.

4. POLITICO reports “AIPAC [is] the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year…spending millions to boost moderates over progressives who have been critical of Israel.” This piece quotes Eric Levine, a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition who has donated to Rep. Ritchie Torres as saying “Under the William F. Buckley rule of politics, I want to support the most conservative person who can win.” On the other hand, Beth Miller – political director at Jewish Voice for Peace Action – sees this as the lobby showing its true colors, telling the paper “AIPAC can’t actually claim that they represent Democrats and Republicans in the same way. That veneer of bipartisanship is gone.”

5. The NAACP, among the leading African-American Civil Rights group in the country, has called on the Biden administration to “Stop Shipments of Weapons Targeting Civilians to Israel [and] Push for Ceasefire.” In a statement, NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote “The current state of Gaza and the latest bombing of Rafah complicates an already dire humanitarian crisis. Relief workers have also been killed while attempting to administer aid and support to the people of Gaza. The NAACP strongly condemns these actions and calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.” Data from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace shows 68% of Black Americans favor an “immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza” and 59% believe “U.S. military aid to Israel should be conditioned to ensure that Israel uses American weapons for legitimate self-defense and in a way that is consistent with human rights standards.”

6. Yet the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza has not stopped censorship of pro-Palestine speech in the U.S. Democracy Now! reports outspoken progressive commentator and former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray has been fired from the Hill’s morning show, Rising, for supposedly rolling her eyes during an interview with an Israeli guest. As Democracy Now! notes, “Last year, The Hill also fired the political commentator Katie Halper after she called Israel an apartheid state.”

7. Even more outrageous, the University of Minnesota is “pausing its search for director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies — days after it offered the job to Israeli historian Raz Segal,” per the Star Tribune. As this article lays out, “Segal is…[a] professor of Holocaust and genocide studies …at Stockton University in New Jersey,” and a Jewish Israeli. Yet the offer was rescinded for “Among other things…[publishing] an article called ‘A Textbook Case of Genocide,’ which he published in [the Left-wing Jewish publication] Jewish Currents.” That’s right, apparently even being a Jewish Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies is not enough to protect you from charges of antisemitism.

8. A new article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, authored by Doctors Adam Gaffney, Steffie Woolhandler, and David Himmelstein analyzes “The Medicare Advantage Paradox.” This piece argues Medicare Advantage delivers less care to patients at a higher cost. As the authors put it, “[as] enrollment in…private [Medicare Advantage] plans surpassed 30 million…the health insurance industry’s trade group proclaimed [Medicare Advantage] ‘a good deal for members and taxpayers.’…The first part of that claim is debatable, while the second part is false. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission…the nonpartisan agency reporting to Congress, recently estimated that [Medicare Advantage] overpayments added $82 billion to taxpayers’ costs for Medicare in 2023 and $612 billion between 2007 and 2024.”

9. In Britain, the Labour Party has been conducting a purge of its Left flank under the leadership of its cowardly centrist leader Keir Starmer. Included in that purge is former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn has represented the working class district of Islington North for over 40 years. Yet, as the Guardian explains, “[Corbyn] was blocked from standing again for Labour...[and] has been expelled from the Labour party.” The Guardian report continues “Last year, 98% of attenders at a local party monthly general meeting backed a motion thanking Corbyn for his ‘commitment and service to the people’, adding it was members’ ‘democratic right to select our MP’.” Ousted from the Labour Party, Corbyn now intends to stand for the seat as an independent MP. Writing in the district’s local paper, Corbyn stated, “When I was first elected, I made a promise to stand by my constituents no matter what … In Islington North, we keep our promises.”

10. Finally, CNN reports Chiquita Brands International – formerly the United Fruit Company – has been found “liable for financing the Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia,” by a Florida jury. The AUC was a “far-right paramilitary group that was designated a terrorist organization by the US.” Chiquita has been ordered to pay $38.3 million to the families of eight victims. CNN adds, “In 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty to making over 100 payments to the AUC totaling over $1.7 million despite the group being designated a terrorist organization…The company agreed to pay the US government a $25 million fine.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Poor People's Campaign/ Corporate Misbehavior Jun 08, 2024

Ralph welcomes back Bishop William J. Barber to discuss the upcoming Poor People's Campaign March and Assembly in Washington, DC on June 29th, as well as Bishop Barber's new book "WHITE POVERTY: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy." Then Ralph is joined by Phil Mattera from Good Jobs First to discuss their new report on corporate misbehavior, "The High Cost of Misconduct: Corporate Penalties Reach the Trillion-Dollar Mark."

Bishop William Barber is President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, which was established to train communities in moral movement building. He is Co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and Founding Director and Professor at the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. His new book is White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.

I might add, for our listeners, a lot of these social safety measures have been long enacted and are operating in Western Europe, in Canada, even in places like Taiwan and Japan—like full health insurance, and a lot of the labor rights, the absence of voter suppression, higher minimum wages. And in Western Europe, they have abolished poverty—as we know it in the United States.

Ralph Nader

One thing that people are saying why they're interested [in the Poor People’s Campaign] is because this is not just a gathering of a day, and it's not just a gathering for a few high-profile people to speak. The messengers are going to be the impacted people, and many of the people are committing to the larger effort of mobilizing these poor low wealth voters.

Bishop William Barber

It's not just “saving the democracy”, Ralph. It's what kind of democracy do we want to save?

Bishop William Barber

We see the kindredness of issues and oppression— that if these bodies can come together and unite, not by ignoring the issue of race, but by dealing with it and dealing with race and class together and recognizing the power that they have together, there can be some real fundamental change.

Bishop William Barber

Phil Mattera serves as Violation Tracker Project Director and Corporate Research Project Director at Good Jobs First. Mr. Mattera is a licensed private investigator; author of four books on business, labor and economics; and a long-time member of the National Writers Union. His blog on corporate research and corporate misbehavior is the Dirt Diggers Digest, and has written more than 70 critical company profiles for the Corporate Rap Sheets section of the Corporate Research Project website. He is co-author, with Siobhan Standaert, of the new report “The High Cost of Misconduct: Corporate Penalties Reach the Trillion-Dollar Mark”.

This is a big problem with the Justice Department—it has this addiction to leniency agreements and it wants to give companies an opportunity not to have to plead guilty when there actually are criminal cases brought against them. So they offer them these strange deals—non-prosecution and deferred-prosecution agreements. And the theory is that the company is going to be so shaken up by the possibility of a criminal charge that they'll clean up their act, and they'll never do bad things again. But what we've seen over and over again is the companies get the leniency agreement and then they break the rules again. And sometimes the Justice Department responds by giving them another leniency agreement. So it turns the whole process into a farce.

Phil Mattera

We're always interested in more transparency about both the misconduct and about enforcement actions. We feel that there's no justification for agencies to ever keep this information secret…I think there needs to be more pressure on companies, particularly high profile companies that have been involved in these offenses. A lot of companies seem to think that they pay their penalty, they just move on, and it's as if it's as if it never happened.

Phil Mattera

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 6/5/24

1. In Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum has been elected president in a landslide. Sheinbaum is the hand-picked successor of Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, or AMLO, who is termed out but leaves office with an 80% approval rating, per Gallup. Sheinbaum is Mexico’s first woman president; she is also the country’s first Jewish president. In addition to years of service in government, Sheinbaum is an accomplished climate scientist who worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. During her campaign, Sheinbaum published a list of 100 commitments she will pursue as president. Front and center among these are climate-related goals. Sustainability magazine reports “[Sheinbaum] has committed to investing more than…$13 billion in new energy projects by 2030, focusing on wind and solar power generation and modernising hydroelectric facilities.” We urge the U.S. government to follow suit.

2. Stacy Gilbert, a senior civil military adviser for the U.S. State Department, resigned last Tuesday, alleging that “The state department falsified a report…to absolve Israel of responsibility for blocking humanitarian aid flows into Gaza,” per the Guardian. Gilbert claims “that report’s conclusion went against the overwhelming view of state department experts who were consulted.” As the article notes, this report was a high stakes affair. Had the State Department found that the Israeli government had violated international humanitarian law, and linked those violations to U.S.-supplied weapons, there would have been serious consequences regarding the legality of American military support. In addition to Gilbert, “Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development… resigned on Monday…[saying] he was given a choice between resignation and dismissal after preparing a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians.”

3. Per the Jeruslam Post, “South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor affirmed…that the United States would be next if the International Criminal Court (ICC) is allowed to prosecute Israeli leadership.” Pandor “went on to claim that nations and officials who provide military and financial assistance for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza ‘will be liable for prosecution…’ [and]…noted that a group of 140 international lawyers are currently working on a class action suit against non-Israelis, including South Africans, who have been serving in Israel’s military.” International law experts like Bruce Fein have previously warned that the United States’ material support for Israel during this genocidal campaign makes this country a co-belligerent in this war and therefore liable for prosecution by the ICC.

4. Liberal Israeli news outlet Haaretz has published a shocking report related to the recent revelations concerning Mossad’s intimidation campaign against the ICC. According to Haaretz’s report, the paper was “about to publish details of the affair” in 2022, when “security officials thwarted it.” Al Jazeera adds that the Haaretz journalist behind the story, Gur Megiddo was told during his meeting with an Israeli security official, that if he published, he “would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside.” This story highlights how deeply Israel has descended into authoritarianism, seeking to bully and silence not only international watchdogs, but their own domestic journalists.

5. Prem Thakker of the Intercept is out with an outrageous story of censorship at elite law reviews. According to Mr. Thakker, “In November, human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah was set to be the first Palestinian published in the Harvard Law Review. Then his essay was killed. [On June 3rd], he became the first [Palestinian published] in the Columbia Law Review. Then the Board of Directors took the whole site down.” As I write this, the Columbia Law Review website still says it is “under maintenance.”

6. Lauren Kaori Gurley, Labor Reporter at the Washington Post, reports “16 [thousand] academic workers at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine will [go on] strike…according to their union… They will join 15 [thousand] workers already on strike at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Davis over the university's response to pro-Palestine protests on campus.” We commend these academic workers for leveraging their most powerful tool – their labor – on behalf of their fellow students and those suffering in Palestine.

7. More Perfect Union reports “The FBI has raided landlord giant Cortland Management over algorithmic price-fixing collusion. Cortland is allegedly part of a bigger conspiracy coordinated by software firm RealPage to raise rents across the country through price-fixing and keeping apartments empty.” Paired with the recent oil price fixing lawsuit and the announcement from retailers that they are lowering prices on many consumer goods, a new picture of inflation is starting to emerge – one that has less to do with macroeconomic reality and more to do with plain old corporate greed.

8. Vermont has passed a new law making it the first state in the nation to demand that “fossil fuel companies…pay a share of the damage caused by climate change,” per AP. Per this report, “Under the legislation, the Vermont state treasurer, in consultation with the Agency of Natural Resources, would provide a report…on the total cost to Vermonters and the state from the emission of greenhouse gases from Jan. 1, 1995, to Dec. 31, 2024… [looking] at the effects on public health, natural resources, agriculture, economic development, housing and other areas.” Paul Burns of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group said of the law “For too long, giant fossil fuel companies have knowingly lit the match of climate disruption without being required to do a thing to put out the fire…Finally, maybe for the first time anywhere, Vermont is going to hold the companies most responsible for climate-driven floods, fires and heat waves financially accountable for a fair share of the damages they’ve caused.”

9. Following months of pressure and a probe led by Senator Bernie Sanders, Boehringer – one of the largest producers of inhalers – has announced they will cap out of pocket costs for the lifesaving devices at $35, per Common Dreams. Boehringer used to charge as much as $500 for an inhaler in the U.S., while the same product sold in France for just $7. Sanders, continuing this crusade, said "We look forward to AstraZeneca moving in the same direction…in the next few weeks, and to GlaxoSmithKline following suit in the coming months,” and added “We are waiting on word from Teva, the fourth major inhaler manufacturer, as to how they will proceed."

10. Finally, the Justice Department has unsealed an indictment charging Bill Guan, the Chief Financial Officer of the Epoch Times newspaper with “participating in a transnational scheme to launder at least…$67 million of illegally obtained funds.” The Epoch Times is the mouthpiece of a bizarre anti-Communist Chinese cult known as the Falun Gong, famous for their outlandish beliefs such as that proper mastery of qigong can be “used to develop the ability to fly, to move objects by telekinesis and to heal diseases,” per the New York Times. The Falun Gong is also the entity behind the Shen Yun performances and their ubiquitous billboards. In recent years, the Epoch Times has gone all-in on Right-wing propaganda and fake news, with close ties to the Trump White House and campaign, as the Guardian has detailed. We urge the Justice Department to pursue this indictment to the hilt and shut down this rag that has become a cancer within our republic.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The Politics of Dominance Jun 01, 2024

Ralph welcomes professor M. Steven Fish, political scientist and author of “Comeback: Routing Trumpism, Reclaiming the Nation, and Restoring Democracy’s Edge” who argues that winning elections is about more than policy positions, it’s about projecting strength and dominance. And Donald Trump plays that game better than his Democratic rivals. Plus, former Navy Petty Officer, Phil Tourney, who was aboard the USS Liberty when it was attacked and nearly sunk by Israeli fighter planes and torpedo boats during the Six Day War in 1967, tells us why 57 years later, he still fights for accountability.

M. Steven Fish is a comparative political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley who specializes in democracy and authoritarianism, religion and politics, and constitutional systems and national legislatures. He writes and comments extensively on international affairs and the rising challenges to democracy in the United States and around the world, and he has published commentary in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Foreign Policy, among other publications. His latest book is Comeback: Routing Trumpism, Reclaiming the Nation, and Restoring Democracy’s Edge.

Dominance can be used for good or for ill. The Republicans have used it to advance injustice and corruption. And the Democrats need to—as they did in the 20th century, very often—use it in favor of justice.

M. Steven Fish

What’s holding them back? PAC money? Corruption of campaigns? Lack of character? Fear of skeletons in their own closet? What’s holding them back if it’s so obvious?Ralph Nader, on why Democrats aren’t more dominant

The Republican Party historically has been the party of “no”, once the Civil War was over. When they were formed in 1854, they were the party of “no” against slavery. But after that, they're the party of “no” against labor unions, “no” against progressive taxation, “no” against Medicare, “no” against Social Security, “no” against environmental health regulation, “no” against consumer protection, “no” against raising the minimum wage, “no”, “no”, “no”. And the Democrats— in those examples at least—were “yes”, “yes”, “yes”, and they never bragged about it.

Ralph Nader

Phil Tourney served aboard the USS Liberty as a US Navy Petty Officer on June 8th 1967, when the Liberty was attacked by Israeli planes and torpedo boats. He is President of The USS Liberty Veterans Association, which was established to provide support for survivors of the attack. The efforts of the LVA are also focused on ensuring the US government finally conducts the public investigation of the attack on the USS Liberty.

I can't explain the carnage that went on, but that ship— all of us came together. All the spies, all the ship’s company we all came together…we saved that ship, to tell the truth—and we were ordered by Admiral Isaac Kidd never to say anything about it. He boarded our ship and told us to shut up or we’d end up in prison, fined, or worse— we all knew worse meant death. That's what they told us. To shut up. They took away our First Amendment rights and Congress has not done a darn thing in 57 years. The line is, “It was a case of mistaken identity, that's where they left it.

Phil Tourney, President of the USS Liberty Veterans Association

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 5/28/24

1. In Rafah, at least 35 people were killed Sunday night when Israel bombed a “tent camp housing displaced Palestinians in a designated safe zone,” per Al Jazeera. AP reports that at first, Israel’s military claimed it had “carried out a precise airstrike on a Hamas compound,” and only after photographic and video evidence of the horror inflicted on civilians emerged did Prime Minister Netanyahu reverse this position and claim the strike was a “tragic mishap.” Israel’s assault on Rafah continues despite the U.N. International Court of Justice ordering Israel to “immediately halt its military offensive” in the South Gaza city, per the BBC.

2. The Guardian is out with a disturbing report alleging “The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency…threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation.” This expose details how Yossi Cohen, the former Israeli spy chief, threatened ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, reportedly telling her “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.” The paper also hinted at further forthcoming revelations, noting that they are working with +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call to expose “how multiple Israel intelligence agencies ran a covert ‘war’ against the ICC for almost a decade.” This piece notes that “According to legal experts…efforts by the Mossad to threaten or put pressure on Bensouda could amount to offences against the administration of justice under article 70 of the Rome statute.”

3. Investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reports through his newsletter that “The Biden administration has publicly admitted that it is working with tech companies to…suppress pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel sentiment,” under the guise of “limit[ing] Hamas's use of online platforms.” As Klippenstein explains, “Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Facebook have long banned terrorist organizations like Hamas. Now, however, the federal government is pressuring companies to ban ‘Hamas-linked’ accounts and those of pro-Palestinian Americans.” Human Rights Watch raised the alarm about censorship of pro-Palestine content in a report from December 2023, which detailed “Meta’s…‘systemic…censorship’ of speech regarding the…war.”

4. Over Memorial Day weekend, activists assembled in Detroit for the People’s Conference for Palestine. In a surprise address, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib spoke to the crowd, decrying the genocide in Gaza and asking "Where's your red line, President Biden?" the Detroit News reports. Tlaib went on to call Biden an "enabler," who "shields the murderous war criminal Netanyahu." Over 100,000 Michigan residents voted “uncommitted,” in the state’s Democratic primary.

5. Celebrated actor Guy Pearce was recently photographed by the French subsidiary of Vanity Fair during the Cannes film festival. When he posed for the photo, Pearce wore a Palestinian flag pin; yet when the photo was published, the pin had been photoshopped out entirely. The Middle East Eye, which covered this story, reached out to Vanity Fair asking for a comment on why they edited the image, but did not receive a response. Vanity Fair restored the original photo and apologized, claiming it was a mistake, but many are not buying it. As one social media commenter put it, “This is a reminder that the media... will do anything and everything to hide any form of solidarity.”

6. The American Prospect’s David Dayen reports “[The American Prospect] has learned that during [Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco’s recent trip to California to participate in the 2024 RSA Cybersecurity Conference]…[she] had an off-the-record, no-readout briefing with several tech executives.” As Dayen notes, this meeting comes “at a time when the DOJ is suing both Google and Apple,” and as Monaco has spoken of making corporate criminal enforcement a higher priority at Justice. As there is no official record of this meeting it is impossible to know what was discussed, but the cloak-and-dagger nature of this rendezvous raises serious questions about DOJ’s commitment to pursuing the lawsuits against the tech giants. We demand the Deputy Attorney General disclose the content of this meeting at once.

7. The Reform Party, originally founded by Ross Perot, has announced that it “has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.…for President of the United States.” The most significant effect of this nomination, as the party notes, is that it “will hand [Kennedy] our automatic ballot access in the State of Florida as well as our advantages as a qualified party.” According to Kennedy’s campaign website, he is now eligible to be on the ballot in states totaling 229 electoral votes, though Axios has a lower tally. Kennedy now faces a race against the clock to qualify for the upcoming presidential debates, though even if he does qualify his participation is not guaranteed as both the Biden and Trump campaigns have agreed to sidestep the Commission on Presidential Debates.

8. In more Third Party news, the Libertarian Party has chosen Chase Oliver as their 2024 presidential nominee, per POLITICO. Oliver gained national attention for his 2022 campaign for Senate in Georgia, with some claiming his candidacy forced the race to a runoff, ultimately resulting in the reelection of Democrat Raphael Warnock. During that race, Oliver describes himself as “armed and gay.” Both former President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vied for the Libertarian Party nomination. Trump himself addressed the convention in person but was roundly booed. He was ultimately deemed ineligible, while Kennedy received only 19 votes. However, Larry Sharpe, a longtime Libertarian Party member and unsuccessful vice presidential candidate expressed alarm about Kennedy’s potential impact on the party. Sharpe said “We’re gonna lose ballot access in probably 22 states. We’re not gonna make more than half a percent…RFK sucks the money out of the room and he gets the ‘I’m mad at the system votes’ that we used to get because we’re the only other guy on the ballot.”

9. The Teamsters union is turning their presidential endorsement over to their members. Since May 19th, Teamsters locals have been holding polls to determine which candidate the national union will endorse. This is a marked departure from the traditional endorsement structure, which is typically decided in a top-down fashion by the national union leadership. However, this process could result in a Teamsters endorsement of Donald Trump – a real possibility based on the union’s recent flirtation with Trump and the GOP more generally. We urge the union not to endorse Trump, who has an abominable track record on labor issues, clearly documented by the AFL-CIO and the Communications Workers of America.

10. Finally, Bloomberg Labor reporter Josh Eidelson reports the United Autoworkers union is petitioning the National Labor Relations Board, to “discard the results of last week's Mercedes election in Alabama, [and] asking the agency to hold a new vote due to alleged misconduct by the company.” CBS 42 reports this alleged misconduct includes “poll[ing] workers about union support, suggest[ing] voting in the union would be futile, target[ing] union supporters with drug tests and [per UAW] “engag[ing] in conduct which deliberately sought to exacerbate racial feelings by irrelevant and inflammatory appeals to racial prejudice.’” In addition to these complaints, Mercedes is reportedly under investigation by the German government for anti-union activity during this campaign. In a statement, the UAW wrote “All these workers ever wanted was a fair shot at having a voice on the job and a say in their working conditions…Let’s get a vote at Mercedes…where the company isn’t allowed to fire people, isn’t allowed to intimidate people, and isn’t allowed to break the law and their own corporate code, and let the workers decide.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Captains of Conscience May 25, 2024

On today's program, Ralph welcomes two guests who have worked as civic advocates for more than fifty years—chemical engineer and environmentalist Barry Castleman, and solar energy advocate Ken Bossong. How do they maintain their civic stamina over more than five decades? That's what Ralph wants to know. Then, Ralph is joined by our resident international law expert Bruce Fein, to discuss breaking news from the International Criminal Court.

Barry Castleman is a chemical engineer, environmentalist and researcher specializing in health issues. He is the author of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects and has worked with public interest groups around the world over the past 50 years on the control of asbestos and chemical hazards. Mr. Castleman has been involved in rule-making on asbestos by numerous federal agencies as a consultant to the agencies and to environmental groups. He has testified as an expert witness in civil litigation in the US on the history of asbestos as a public health problem, and the reasons for failure to properly control asbestos hazards.

I remember speaking to students at Johns Hopkins about 30 years ago about careers in international public health, and talking to them about how they should try and listen into themselves and think about what it is they'd really like to do, what they're really interested in, and try to follow that. Rather than following the money or auctioning themselves off to the highest bidder when they graduate from Hopkins.

Barry Castleman

You lose your innocence reading these corporate documents. They're unbelievable in terms of showing that all of these decisions about health and safety and environment are business decisions to the people who make them. And the wanton, reckless, willful disregard of public health is clear. So making these documents publicly available is an extraordinary public service.

Barry Castleman

Ken Bossong is the Executive Director of the Sun Day Campaign, a non-profit research and educational organization he founded in 1992 to aggressively promote sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives to nuclear power and fossil fuels. Mr. Bossong has advocated for solar energy and other renewable energy for more than 50 years, and he previously served as Director of the Critical Mass Energy Project at Public Citizen.

Nearly 100% of all the new generating capacity in the United States in the month of March—which is the most recent month for which there are statistics—came from solar alone. There was none from coal. There was only one megawatt from natural gas. There was, I think, three megawatts from oil. And there was zero from nuclear. So the only resource that's growing and scaling up rapidly is solar. Coming in second place is wind. The fossil fuel technologies and nuclear power combined are producing very little.

Ken Bossong

What keeps me going? Basically the bad guys. I am always ginned up by the challenge of confronting people who are doing things which I consider to be socially, environmentally irresponsible. And as you pointed out with the example of the oil companies, there's never been a shortage of people who are trying to do things that I think are damaging.

Ken Bossong

Although it doesn’t really change a whole lot on the legal chessboard, the more countries that recognize a Palestinian statehood, the more pressure there will be on the United States to do something that acknowledges their right…The one other element that comes into play, however, is that there are various tribunals, jurisdictions that can be employed only by a state... So the more that we have international recognition of a Palestinian state, it then would have standing instead of South Africa to go to the International Court of Justice and say—we want a declaration that genocide is being committed against us by Israel. So there are small ways in which I think the greater the recognition, the greater the legal standing Palestine has as in at least some international body.

Bruce Fein

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 5/22/24

1. On May 20th, the International Criminal Court announced it would seek arrest warrants related to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Bucking pressure from western governments, the ICC will pursue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges including “Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare…[and] Extermination…as a crime against humanity.” The Court also announced it would seek arrest warrants for Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for their alleged international offenses. The ICC’s decision was met with indignation by Israel and its western allies, including President Joe Biden, who said “What’s happening is not genocide,” per the Guardian. Mousa Abu Marzouk – the first chief of Hamas’ politburo, and the head of Hamas' international relations – writes in Media Review Network “Hamas stands ready to appear before the ICC with witnesses and live testimony and bear the burden of any judicial finding against it or its members after a full and fair trial with rules of evidence; with examination and cross examination into [what] we have done or not over the many years of our leadership as a national liberation movement. Is Israel?”

2. On May 19th, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed when his helicopter was forced to make a “hard landing” near the Iranian/Azerbaijan border. Many suspect Israeli involvement in this crash, largely due to Israel’s history of assassinating Iranian officials. Israel however denies any involvement. The Middle East Monitor, relaying what Israeli officials told Channel 13, reports “The message Israel is sending to the countries of the world is that Tel Aviv has nothing to do with the incident.”

3. Israeli ambassador Michael Herzog has sent a letter to dozens of congressional Democrats “accus[ing] lawmakers of aiding…Hamas…misrepresenting Israeli policy and…inappropriately trying to influence President…Biden,” per the Huffington Post. This letter – a response to moderate Democrats Jason Crow and Chris Deluzio’s May 3rd letter alleging that Israel is breaking U.S. law – has rankled Democrats in Congress. One staffer told the Huffington Post that multiple parts of the letter “verg[ed] on offensive,” and another said “the tone of this letter is not reflective of the fact that the U.S. is the primary guarantor of Israel’s security. An unaware reader would assume that Israel is the superpower in this relationship and the U.S. the recipient of aid.” Yet another aid put it this way, “Never before have we received such a harsh letter from the Israeli government. But then again, never before have we been so critical of their actions.”

4. Independent investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reports “The National Counterterrorism Center, created in the wake of 9/11 to combat al Qaeda, is now working overtime to find evidence of foreign funding of pro-Palestinian student protesters.” Klippenstein continues “The effort follows repeated calls by Congress for the federal government to investigate university protesters’ purported links to Hamas, and coincides with a push by the FBI and homeland security bureaucracies to link the campus demonstrations to foreign actors. Tempting as it might be to laugh off the specter of foreign powers directing undergraduate protesters, evidence of this would provide the legal basis for the intelligence community to spy on Americans. Absent a foreign connection, the protests are constitutionally-protected speech.” Civil liberties advocates have long warned of the American anti-terrorism apparatus being weaponized against internal dissent. During the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, the Trump administration infamously worked feverishly to cook up some connection between foreign governments and supposed domestic “antifa” leaders. The fact that the Biden administration is seeking to do the same speaks to just how enticing it is for the federal government to use trumped up terrorism accusations to silence legitimate protests.

5. In a chilling new installment of the campus crackdown on pro-Palestine activity, POLITICO reports the California State University system has “placed Sonoma State campus President Mike Lee on leave… after he agreed to protesters’ demands to involve them in university decision-making and pursue divestment from Israel.” In a statement, CSU Chancellor Mildred García derided president Lee for his “insubordination and the consequences it has brought upon the system.” The message is clear: any degree of violence in confronting the student protesters is acceptable, engaging with their demands is not.

6. In more higher education news, the Harvard Graduate Student’s Union – organized under the UAW – has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the university over their response to campus pro-Palestine protests, per Bloomberg labor reporter Josh Eidelson. “[The union is] claiming the school's retaliation violated students' right as employees to protest over workplace issues.” This charge will test the limits of workplace speech protections and we will be watching closely to see where the board lands.

7. Last week, workers at two Alabama Mercedes-Benz plants voted against joining the United Autoworkers by a margin if 2,045 to 2,642, per 1819 News. UAW President Shawn Fain blamed the loss on union busting by the corporation, stating “Mercedes engaged in egregious illegal behavior. The federal government as well as the German government are currently investigating Mercedes for the intimidation and harassment they inflicted on their own workers. We intend to follow that process through…This is a David and Goliath fight. Sometimes Goliath wins a battle. But David wins the war.” Fain went on to say “Justice isn’t about one vote or one campaign. It’s about getting a voice, getting your fair share. And let’s be clear: workers won serious gains in this campaign. They raised their wages, with the 'UAW bump.' They killed wage tiers. They got rid of a CEO who had no interest in improving conditions in the workplace. Mercedes is a better place to work thanks to this campaign, and thanks to these courageous workers.” Finally, Fain noted the similarities between this campaign and the previous attempts to unionize Volkswagen plants, stating “[Mercedes] told the workers to give the new CEO a chance. That’s exactly what Volkswagen told its workers in 2019. And in 2024, Volkswagen workers realized it’s not about a CEO. It’s about a voice on the job, it’s about getting our lives back, and getting our time back. The only path to do that is through a union contract.”

8. CNN reports that on Tuesday May 14th, the Justice Department “notified Boeing that it [had] breached [the] terms of its 2021 [deferred prosecution] agreement in which the company avoided criminal charges for two fatal 737 Max crashes.” This report goes on to say “Families of victims and lawyers representing them met with the Justice Department late last month to persuade the Biden administration to end the agreement in light of multiple safety lapses at Boeing this year and in past years after the 2021 agreement was reached.” Following this meeting, attorney Paul Cassell said the deferred prosecution agreement was “rigged” and “pledged to hold Boeing accountable for its ‘fraud and misconduct.’”

9. On Monday May 20th, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange won the right to appeal his extradition to the United States. Per Democracy Now! “Assange’s lawyers argued before the British High Court that the U.S. government provided ‘blatantly inadequate’ assurances that Assange would have the same free speech protections as an American citizen if extradited from Britain. Assange…faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.” This is a major victory for Assange. Yet, as Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent puts it “[Assange is] not out of Belmarsh [Prison] yet…This could still end in him being sent to the U.S. And the person who can stop this is Joe Biden.”

10. Finally, according to Washington Post labor reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley, “[Over 400] physicians have filed to unionize with SEIU, in what they say would be the first doctor's union in Delaware and the Mid-Atlantic.” These physicians – employed by ChristianaCare, Delaware's largest private employer – have laid out a list of grievances they hope to address by organizing, including “patient safety concerns due to understaffing and inadequate resources…the erosion of the physician-led model of care...[and] the moral injury caused by the pressure to prioritize...profit over patient needs.” Gurley further highlighted that a key priority of this doctor’s union is “combating excessive corporatization,” in healthcare.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The Power of Youth May 18, 2024

We explore how young people have made meaningful careers and lasting change working in the public interest with Sam Simon, editor of “Choosing the Public Interest: Essays From the First Public Interest Research Group” and Lisa Frank, Vice President and D.C. Director at The Public Interest Network and also Executive Director in the Washington Legislative Office at Environment America. Plus, the indomitable Chris Hedges stops by to report on his interviews with college students protesting the genocide in Gaza, which he chronicled in a Substack piece titled “The Nation’s Conscience.”

Sam Simon is an author, playwright, and attorney who co-founded the Public Interest Research Group with Ralph and the other Nader’s Raiders in 1970. He compiled and edited the new book Choosing the Public Interest: Essays From the First Public Interest Research Group.

This is something that every one of these themes have and that this movement has had—that the consumer, the user, the student, the pensioner have equal voice in our systems to help create the systems that are intended to benefit them, and not leave that power in the hands of corporate entities and profit-making enterprises. And that idea needs to continue to exist. And I'm glad that the Public Interest Network and PIRGS still thrive on many campuses.

Sam Simon

What I want to come out of this book is that average kids from average backgrounds ended up doing amazing things with their entire lives, because of the opportunity and the vision that they could do that.

Sam Simon

Lisa Frank is Vice President and D.C. Director at The Public Interest Network. She is also Executive Director in the Washington Legislative Office at Environment America, where she directs strategy and staff for federal campaigns. Ms. Frank has won millions of dollars in investments in walking, biking and transit, and has helped develop strategic campaigns to protect America’s oceans, forests and public lands from drilling, logging and road-building.

The particular types of problems we're focused on at [PIRG] are ones that really have been created in a sense by our success as a country in growing. We’re the wealthiest country the world has ever seen. We figured out how to grow more than enough food than we can eat, we produce more than enough clothing than we can wear, certainly more than enough plastic…And all of this abundance is leading to new types of problems…The problems that have either come about because of the progress we've made as a society and now we've got the ability to tackle them, or problems where—clean energy is an example—where there are problems that we newly have the ability to solve.

Lisa Frank

You have Congress that passed these five laws that are being violated, with the result of huge death and destruction overseas— and not just in Gaza, but places like Iraq and Libya in the past. And they’re talking about students trespassing at their own university, and nonviolent protests? The problem starts in Congress. They’re the funders, the enablers, the surrenderers of their constitutional rights of oversight and war-making powers.

Ralph Nader

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He is the host of The Chris Hedges Report, and he is a prolific author— his latest book is The Greatest Evil Is War.

[Students] understand the nature of settler colonial regimes. The expansion or inclusion of students from wider backgrounds than were traditionally there at places like Princeton…has really added a depth and expanded the understanding within the university. So they see what's happening in Gaza, and they draw—rightly— connections to what we did to Native Americans, what the British did in India, what the British did in Kenya, what the French did in Algeria, and of course, they are correct.

Chris Hedges

[Students] have defied, quite courageously, the administrations of their universities, who are—kind of like the political class—bought and paid for by the Israel lobby, and in particular wealthy donors and the Democratic Party. And that is why these universities have responded to these nonviolent protests the way they have, with such overwhelming and draconian use of force.

Chris Hedges

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 5/15/24

1. The New Republic reports the Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against Scott Sheffield, former CEO of oil and gas giant Pioneer Resources alleging that “voluminous evidence” suggests Sheffield “collaborated with fellow U.S. producers and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in order to keep crude oil prices ‘artificially’ high.” As Matt Stoller explains in his newsletter, “after a bitter price war from 2014-2016, [American oil producers] got tired of competing on price with…the OPEC oil cartel, and at some point from 2017-2021, decided to join the cartel and cut supply to the market. This action had the [e]ffect of raising oil prices, costing oil consumers something on the order of $200 billion a year.” Stoller claims that this price-fixing scheme between the OPEC cartel and the American oil oligopoly caused 27% of all inflation-related price increases in 2021. Progressive lawmakers such as Senator Bernie Sanders who tried to raise the alarm about what he dubbed “greedflation” were dismissed at the time, but like so many times before, have been vindicated by the simple fact that American corporate greed always exceeds expectations.

2. Tal Mitnick and Sofia Orr, the two Israeli teenagers conscientiously objecting to being drafted into Israel’s campaign of terror in Gaza, have sent a letter to President Biden excoriating him for his unconditional support of the Netanyahu regime, per the Intercept. The two heroic peaceniks write “Your unconditional support for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s policy of destruction, since the war began, has brought our society to the normalization of carnage and to the trivialization of human lives…It is American diplomatic and material support that prolonged this war for so long. You are responsible for this, alongside our leaders. But while they’re interested in prolonging the war for political reasons, you have the power to make it stop.” These kids wrote this letter before reporting for their latest round of prison sentences, which have reached unprecedented lengths. As the article notes, “The refuseniks are not alone in their opposition, nor in the treatment they face. Throughout the war, Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to protest the war and Netanyahu’s government. This past week, Israeli police arrested and beat protesters and hostage family members calling for an end to the war, just the latest example of Israelis being punished for voicing dissent or sympathy with the people of Gaza.”

3. Al Jazeera reports yet another Biden Administration official has made public his resignation over the genocide in Gaza. Army Major Harrison Mann, who resigned in November, posted a letter Monday wherein he expressed “incredible shame and guilt” over the United States’ “unqualified support” for Israel’s war. Explaining why he waited so long to come forward with the reasoning behind his resignation, Mann wrote “I was afraid. Afraid of violating our professional norms. Afraid of disappointing officers I respect. Afraid you would feel betrayed. I’m sure some of you will feel that way reading this,” yet he noted “At some point – whatever the justification – you’re either advancing a policy that enables the mass starvation of children, or you’re not.”

4. At long last, Egypt has announced its intention to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, Al Arabiya reports. In a statement, the Egyptian foreign ministry said this decision comes on the heels of the “worsening severity and scope of Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip,” likely referring to the terror bombing campaign in Rafah, which the United States had previously identified as a “Red Line” in terms of material support. Egypt has faced international embarrassment over its soft line towards its militaristic neighbor and alleged mistreatment of Palestinian refugees trying to flee into Egypt. The country has also “called on the UN Security Council and countries of influence to take actions to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and halt military operations in Rafah, according to the statement.”

5. On Wednesday, May 8th, the State Department report on whether Israel has violated U.S. international law was due to Congress. Instead, it was delayed. As POLITICO reported “The State Department has been working for months on the report, which will issue a determination on whether Israel has violated international humanitarian law since the war in Gaza began. If so, the U.S. would be expected to stop sending Israel military assistance.” When the report was finally released, it stated “it is ‘reasonable to assess’ that US weapons have been used by Israeli forces in Gaza in ways that are ‘inconsistent’ with international humanitarian law,” but the report stopped short of officially saying Israel violated the law, per CNN. The report goes on to say that investigations into potential violations are ongoing but the US “‘does not have complete information to verify’ whether the US weapons ‘were specifically used’ in alleged violations of international humanitarian law.” This equivocation in the face of genocide – using American weapons — will leave an ineradicable black mark on the already spotty human rights record of the U.S. State Department.

6. Students for Justice in Palestine at Columbia University reports “Columbia…is under federal investigation for anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment.” According to the group, Palestine Legal is representing four Palestinian students and the group itself. Senior attorney for Palestine Legal Radikah Sainath said in a statement “The law is clear— if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters, they will risk losing federal funding.”

7. On May 8th, the D.C. Metro Police Department cleared the protest encampment at the George Washington University, using pepper spray and brute force. According to the Associated Press, the police arrested 33 protesters. The AP quoted Moataz Salim, a Palestinian student at GW with family in Gaza, who said the authorities merely “destroyed a beautiful community space that was all about love.” He went on to say “Less than 10 hours ago, I was pepper sprayed and assaulted by police…And why? Because we decided to pitch some tents, hold community activities and learn from each other. We built something incredible. We built something game-changing.” The police broke up the encampment in the wee hours of the morning, just before D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was slated to appear before hostile Republican lawmakers in Congress, leading many to believe she acted when and how she did out of sheer cowardice and political expediency. After the encampment was cleared, the hearing was canceled. Undeterred, these courageous students have continued to protest their institution’s support of Israel’s criminal war and per the American University Eagle, have now set up a second encampment. We urge Mayor Bowser not to bow to pressure from bloodthirsty Congressional Republicans a second time.

8. The Seattle Times reports “The FAA has opened an investigation into Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner after the company disclosed that employees in South Carolina falsified inspection records.” As the paper notes, “This is the latest in a long litany of lapses at Boeing that have come to light under the intense scrutiny of the company’s quality oversight since a passenger cabin panel blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.” That is to say nothing of the safety lapses leading to the Lion Air and Ethiopia Airlines crashes in 2019, that resulted in the deaths of all aboard both flights. Incredibly, “This new 787 quality concern is unrelated to the 787 fuselage gaps described as unsafe in an April congressional hearing by Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour.” As these critical safety failures and lies continue to come to light, the only question remaining is when is enough enough?

9. Bloomberg labor reporter Josh Eidelson reports “The US government [has] raised concerns with Germany about alleged union-busting in Alabama by Mercedes, an unusual move that escalates scrutiny on its handling of the high-stakes union vote.” Mercedes is facing a momentous union election at its Alabama plant, led by the United Autoworkers, fresh off of unionizing the first ever foreign-owned auto plant in the country. Eidelson goes on to say that members of the European Commission have raised the matter with Mercedes as well, raising the heat on the company as the election kicks off. Among other union busting tactics, Labor Notes reports Mercedes has tried enlisting a pastor to tell workers via text “Here in Alabama, community is important, and family is everything. We believe it’s important to keep work separate. But there’s no denying, a union would have an impact beyond the walls of our plant.”

10. Finally, the Chicago Sun-Times is out with a story on the success of Illinois’ experiment with ending cash bail for pre-trial detention. As the article puts it, “Despite all the anguish over the Pretrial Fairness Act, [Cook County Judge Charles] Beach says he has been struck by how proceedings have significantly changed for the better in his courtroom. ‘I think we’ve come a very long way in the right direction…Things are working well.’” This piece describes how “Under the old system of cash bail, Beach — a supervising judge in the pretrial division — was often tasked with setting a dollar figure a person would have to post before being released, a decision that could force a family to skip the rent to post a bond. It was a process that could seem arbitrary, depending on the judge, the time of day and where in the state the hearing was held.” Beach himself goes on to say “There’s a sense in the courtroom that taking money out of the equation has leveled the playing field.” The success of this reform should be taken very seriously by other states, particularly New York where Democrats have sought to roll back the state’s attempts at ending cash bail following pressure from conservatives. Turns out, it works.

This has been Francesco DeSantis.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The Hammer May 11, 2024

Ralph welcomes labor journalist Hamilton Nolan to discuss his latest book, "The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor". They'll get into why some of the biggest names in organized labor have gotten so bad at organizing labor, and they'll highlight the labor organizers who are effectively wielding power. Then, Ralph is joined by child advocate and original Nader's Raider Robert Fellmeth to discuss the dangers of online anonymity. Plus, a creative call to action from Ralph!

Hamilton Nolan is a labor journalist who writes regularly for In These Times magazine and The Guardian. He has written about labor, politics, and class war for The New York Times, the Washington Post, Gawker, Splinter, and other publications. He was the longest-serving writer in Gawker’s history, and was a leader in unionizing Gawker Media in 2015. His new book is The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor.

A quality of the labor movement that I think makes the labor movement special and distinct from other movements and other political parties is that the labor movement acts to give people power. The labor movement does not necessarily tell people what to do. The labor movement instills people with power.

Hamilton Nolan

More and more non-unionized workers know that a lot of what they get positively in the workplace is due to the few workers who are unionized. And the companies—wanting to avoid being unionized—up the wages, improve the working conditions, maybe fulfill more of the pension reserve requirements. So the second–order effects of unionism—which has been so long misunderstood, largely due to propaganda— has been sinking in the minds of more and more non-union workers, and the approval of unions and the number of American workers who want to join unions has resurged.

Ralph Nader

You know, it turns out that a half century of rising inequality does in fact piss people off at a certain point. And causes tens of millions of American workers to say that they want something better—that they want what the labor movement has to offer.

Hamilton Nolan

For many, many years, organized labor has had a very unhealthy relationship with electoral politics. You're in a two-party system and the [Republican] Party wants to destroy unions and crush them off the face of the earth. And the Democratic Party's attitude has basically been—we're the only game in town and so give us money, and we won't try to kill you, but we won't really do too much to help you either.

Hamilton Nolan

Another thing unions can do with their money is— instead of sending it to Joe Biden's campaign—use it to organize workers. The choice is not just between Democrats and Republicans. We can take those resources and use it to organize workers, which will increase our political power in its own right.

Hamilton Nolan

Robert Fellmeth is the Price Professor of Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego and the Executive Director of the Center for Public Interest Law. He is also Executive Director of the Children's Advocacy Institute, which authored The Fleecing of Foster Children: How We Confiscate Their Assets and Undermine Their Financial Security.

The First Amendment is not just the right of the speaker to belch whatever…the audience has some rights there. The audience has a right to hear, to listen, to understand, and to know something about the speaker, because the idea behind speech is not simply making noise. It's to advance understanding, to advance knowledge. And therefore there should be a requirement that speakers identify who they are. And that allows the audience who are listening to decide whether they want to listen.

Robert Fellmeth

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Life Or Death Foods May 04, 2024

Ralph welcomes back medical journalist and New York Times bestselling author, Jean Carper, to elaborate on her latest book, “100 LIFE OR DEATH FOODS: A Scientific Guide to Which Foods Prolong Life or Kill You Prematurely.” Plus, the latest news about Boeing and the UAW.

Jean Carper is a medical journalist, and wrote “EatSmart” (a popular weekly column on nutrition, every week for USA Weekend Magazine) from 1994 until 2008; she is still a contributing editor, writing health and nutrition articles. Ms. Carper is also a former CNN medical correspondent and director of the documentary Monster in the Mind. She is the best-selling author of 25 books, mostly on nutrition and health. Her latest book is 100 LIFE OR DEATH FOODS: A Scientific Guide to Which Foods Prolong Life or Kill You Prematurely.

The reason I wrote the book was that I knew there is no other book like this. Nobody has taken a scientific look at all the studies that are being done on specific foods with conclusions as to how they are going to affect longevity. It is a totally new field. It really only started several years ago where scientists are getting interested in this. I thought of all the things that would be the most interesting about a food, and whether or not you wanted to eat it would be, “Oh, how long does it prolong my life? Or on the other hand, is it likely to shorten my life?”

Jean Carper

Less-developed countries with their natural food from over the history of their cultures are very often far superior [in longevity studies] to the so-called corporatized Western diet.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The International Criminal Court at the Hague is preparing to hand down indictments to Israeli officials for committing war crimes. The Guardian reports the indicted are expected to include authoritarian Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, among others. These indictments will likely focus on Netanyahu’s strategy of intentional starvation in Gaza. Yet, lest one think that the United States actually believes in the “rules based international order,” they have touted so frequently, the Biden administration will not allow these indictments to be effectuated, baselessly claiming that the ICC does not have jurisdiction in Israel. Democracy Now! reports State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told the press “Since this president has come into office, we have worked to reset our relationship with the ICC, and we are in contact with the court on a range of issues, including in connection to the court’s important work on Darfur, on Ukraine, on Sudan, as well. But on this investigation, our position is clear: We continue to believe that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the Palestinian situation.” Former Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth – who has faced retribution for his past criticism of Israel – called this “the height of hypocrisy.”

2. Even as the United States shields Israel from international legal consequences for its crimes, an internal state department memo indicates the American diplomatic corps is increasingly skeptical of the pariah state. Reuters reports “senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find ‘credible or reliable’ Israel's assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law.” This memo includes “eight examples of Israeli military actions that the officials said raise "serious questions" about potential violations of international humanitarian law…[including] repeatedly striking protected sites and civilian infrastructure; "unconscionably high levels of civilian harm to military advantage"; taking little action to investigate violations or to hold to account those responsible for significant civilian harm and "killing humanitarian workers and journalists at an unprecedented rate."” The State Department however will only release a “complete assessment of credibility” in its May 8th report to Congress.

3. On Tuesday, the Guardian reports, an army of NYPD officers – including hundreds of armed officers in riot gear and heavy vehicles such as police busses, MRAPs, and “the Bear,” a ladder truck used to breach upper story windows – stormed the campus of Columbia University and carried out mass arrests at the college’s Hamilton Hall – which had been non-violently occupied by students and renamed Hind’s Hall after Hind Rajab, a six-year old Palestinian girl murdered by the IDF. Hamilton Hall was among the buildings occupied by anti-Vietnam War Protesters during the Columbia Uprising of 1968. Mayor Eric Adams used as a pretext for this militarized police action a claim that the student protest had been “co-opted” by “outside agitators”; there has been no evidence presented to support this claim. The NYPD also threatened to arrest student journalists, and the Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb, per Samantha Gross of the Boston Globe, and videos show the cops arresting legal observers and medics. Columbia University President, the Anglo-Egyptian Baroness Minouche Shafik, has requested that the NYPD continue to occupy the Morningside Heights campus until May 17th.

4. At the University of California Los Angeles, the New York Times reports “U.C.L.A. asked for officers after a clash between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and counterprotesters grew heated overnight.” This misleading report fails to clarify that, as Alejandra Caraballo of Harvard Law puts it “the police stood aside and let a pro Israeli lynch mob run wild at UCLA. They did nothing for two hours as violent Zionists assaulted students, launched fireworks into the encampment, and sprayed mace on students.” The accompanying videos must be seen to be believed. This is yet another glaring example of media manipulation on behalf of Zionist aggression against non-violent student protesters.

5. In the nation’s capital, a peaceful pro-Palestine encampment at the George Washington University continues to hold in the face of increasing pressure. The Washington Post reports that the university requested the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to clear the encampment last week, but the cops demurred. The Post article cites an unnamed D.C. official who “said they had flashbacks to June 2020, when images of mostly peaceful protesters being forcefully shoved out of Lafayette Square by U.S. Park Police officers with batons and chemical irritants made national news.” The university has issued temporary suspensions and did attempt to clear the encampment over the weekend, but failed to do so. Now however, congressional Republicans are heaping pressure upon the university and District of Columbia Mayor Bowser. According to the GW Hatchet, “[Representatives] Virginia Foxx and James Comer — who chair the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, respectively — wrote [in letter to Bowser and MPD Chief Pamela Smith] that they were “alarmed” by the Metropolitan Police Department’s reported refusal to clear the encampment.” and threatened to take legislative action. Senator Tom Cotton, infamous for his New York Times op-ed calling for the deployment of the national guard to shut down Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, sent a letter to Bowser on Tuesday, writing “Whether it is due to incompetence or sympathy for the cause of these Hamas supporters, you are failing to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens by letting a terrorist-supporting mob take over a large area of a university…Your actions are a good reminder of why Washington, D.C. must never become a state.” So far, the District’s leadership has exercised a rare and commendable restraint. One can only hope that continues.

6. Looking beyond individual campuses, the Appeal reports over 1,400 students and staff have been arrested at “protest encampments or…sit-ins on more than 70 college campuses across 32 states during the past month.” This piece followed up on these arrests by contacting prosecutors and city attorneys’ offices in every one of these jurisdictions – and found that “only two offices said they would not charge people for peacefully protesting.” These were “ Sam Bregman, the prosecutor for Bernalillo County, New Mexico, [which] includes the University of New Mexico’s Albuquerque campus….[and] Matthew Van Houten, the prosecutor overseeing Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.” Incredibly, this piece was published even before the recent mass arrests at Columbia and the City College of New York, which are estimated at nearly 300, per CNN.

7. Bringing the civil war within the Democratic Party on this issue into full view, the College Democrats of America – the official student outreach arm of the DNC – has issued a statement commending the “heroic actions on the part of students...for an end to the war in Palestine…[and] for an immediate permanent ceasefire.” This statement goes on to say “Arresting, suspending, and evicting students without any due process is not only legally dubious but morally reprehensible,” and excoriates the White House for taking “the mistaken route of a bear hug strategy for Netanyahu and a cold shoulder strategy for its own base,” noting that “Each day that Democrats fail to stand united for a permanent ceasefire…more and more youth find themselves disillusioned with the party.”

8. Moving beyond Palestine, hard as that is, the American Prospect is out with a chilling new story on Boeing. This report documents how the late Boeing whistle-blower John “Swampy” Barnett – who died under deeply mysterious circumstances during his deposition against the aviation titan last month – was ignored, mocked, and harassed by his corporate overlords. When he tried to raise the alarm that Boeing’s practices could be in violation of Section 38 of the United States Criminal code “The whole room…burst out laughing.” When he found planes riddled with defective and nonconforming parts and tried to report it, a supervisor emphatically declared “We’re not going to report anything to the FAA.” Yet even more than Boeing’s rancid corporate culture, this piece takes aim and corporate criminal law – specifically the Y2K era AIR 21 law which “effectively immunizes airplane manufacturers…from suffering any legal repercussions from the testimony of their own workers.” Per this law, “the exclusive legal remedy available to aviation industry whistleblowers who suffer retaliation for reporting safety violations involves filing a complaint within 90 days of the first instance of alleged retaliation with a secret court administered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that lacks subpoena power, takes five years or longer to rule in many cases, and rules against whistleblowers an astounding 97 percent of the time, according to the Government Accountability Project.” No wonder Boeing acts as though they are above the law.

9. The United Auto Workers union continues to rack up victories. On Tuesday, More Perfect Union reported “ Mercedes-Benz has abruptly replaced its U.S. CEO in an effort to undercut the union drive at Mercedes's plant in Alabama…In a video shown to workers…new CEO Federico Kochlowski admits that ‘many of you’ want change and [promised] improvements.” As Jonah Furman, Communications Director for UAW, notes “Mercedes workers have already:

-- killed two-tier wages

-- gotten their UAW pay bump

-- [and] fired their boss

and they haven't even voted yet!

If that's what you get for just *talking* union, imagine what you can win when you *join* the union.”

Moreover, UAW President Shawn Fain issued a statement decrying the mass arrests of anti-war protesters, writing “The UAW will never support the...intimidation of those exercising their right to protest, strike, or speak out against injustice…This war is wrong, and this response against students and academic workers, many of them UAW members, is wrong…if you can’t take the outcry, stop supporting this war.”

10. Finally, the New York Daily News’s Chris Sommerfledt reports “[New York City’s] largest cop union [the Police Benevolent Association] is suing Police Commissioner Ed Caban and Mayor Adams for implementing a new “zero tolerance” policy on NYPD officers using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.” The fact that the PBA is suing this ardently pro-cop mayoral administration is alarming enough, but the fact that enough NYPD officers are using steroids to warrant this policy – and enough for the union to step in on their behalf – raises an even more alarming question: how many roid-rage fueled NYPD cops are terrorizing marginalized people on the streets of New York City? Perhaps this could explain some of the NYPD’s outrageous, disproportionately violent behavior in recent years.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Catastrophic Mismanagement of U.S. Security Policy Apr 27, 2024

Ralph welcomes Professor Theodore Postol, Professor Emeritus of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT. We discuss the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel/ Palestine and breakdown what the weaponry being used in both conflicts tells us about the intentions and capabilities of all parties involved. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!

Theodore Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government’s claims about missile defenses.

We have a very complicated situation. In some ways, there's no right or wrong. There are different groups of people with deep ethnic commitments, and a central government in Kiev that has acted in a way that's completely intolerant of a significant fraction of its own citizens who happen to be of Russian descent. And right from the beginning, there was hostility from the West.

Theodore Postol

There's a long history of the central Ukrainian command not supporting their troops at the battlefront. This is a real problem with the troops. The morale of the troops has been tremendously affected in an adverse way by the sense that their military leadership is not concerned about their life. It's one thing to ask a soldier to go risk their lives or lay down their life for their country and be providing everything you can to protect them and make it possible for them to fight. It's another thing when you're sending them to a certain death just because it looks good.

Theodore Postol

The people in leadership roles are clueless, to a point that it's astonishing. The last situation that I know of historically where the leadership was so clueless was Tsar Nicholas II in 1917.

Theodore Postol

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 4/23/24

1. According to AP, the United States has vetoed Palestine’s latest bid for full membership in the United Nations. The vote in the 15-member U.N. Security Council was 12 in favor, including close U.S. allies like France, Japan, and South Korea, with the U.K. and Switzerland opting to abstain. Only the United States voted against the resolution. If U.S. had not blocked the resolution, the question would have gone to the full U.N. General Assembly, where no country holds veto power. While the U.S. claims this vote “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood,” these words obviously ring empty. Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told the council “The fact that this resolution did not pass will not break our will and it will not defeat our determination…The state of Palestine is inevitable. It is real.” 140 countries recognize Palestine. Palestine currently sits as a non-member observer state at the U.N.

2. Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a prominent Palestinian-American academic, was arrested at her home in Jerusalem last week, Democracy Now! reports. According to this report, Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian “was suspended by Hebrew University last month after saying in an interview Israel was committing genocide in Gaza.” Sarah Ihmoud, a co-founder of the Palestinian Feminist Collective who teaches at College of the Holy Cross is quoted saying “We see this as yet another example of Israel attacking Palestinians wherever they are, whoever they are. It underscores that no Palestinian is safe under Israel’s racist apartheid rule.” Now, Ryan Grim of the Intercept reports that Dr. Shalhoub-Kevorkian is communicating trough family that she is being tortured in Israeli custody. Maddeningly, it appears unlikely that President Biden will hold Israel to account for the possible torture of an American citizen.

3. Left-wing Israeli journalist Nimrod Flaschenberg reports Israeli refusenik Tal Mitnick and Sofia Orr “were both sentenced this week by the Israeli army to prison terms of 45 days+15 days probation. This will bring Sofia to a total of 85 days and Tal to 150. The Israeli army is relentless. But these brave kids are not about to give up.” This is Mr. Mitnick’s 4th term in military prison and Ms. Orr’s third, accoring to Pressenza. The international press agency further reports “probation is unprecedented and aims at deterring the refusers by enabling the military court to extend their next sentence beyond the 45-day limit…[and] In addition to Mitnick and Orr, conscientious objector Ben Arad is serving his first term of 20 days in prison.”

4. Much has been made of the recent pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. Prem Thakker of the Intercept reports, organizers of these protests say over 50 Barnard students and over 30 Columbia students have been suspended, with Barnard students losing access to dining and housing services. Reports on the ground show the universities dumping students belongings in the street. At the protests themselves, organizers emphasize that Jewish and Muslim students shared prayer space, and stress “Columbia wants you to believe we are enemies to protect their genocidal investments, but there is no deeper solidarity."

5. Following SUNY Binghampton’s adoption of a BDS resolution, New York State Legislators sent a letter to SUNY Chancellor John B. King calling for the expulsion of the student leaders behind that campaign. Moreover, this letter calls for “the ouster of any faculty and committee members who played a role in promoting or supporting this resolution.” This letter was signed by both Republican and Democratic state legislators in Albany. As prominent DSA member Aaron Narraph aptly put it, this campaign against the student activists constitutes “our very own mccarthyism.”

6. In more campus news, The Lens, a New Orleans based outlet, is out with a blistering report on LSU’s pay-for-play arrangement with fossil fuel companies. They write “For $5 million dollars, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company help choose which faculty research projects move forward. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with ‘robust’ reviewing powers and access to resulting intellectual property.” This report links to documents that outline LSU’s fundraising pitch to oil and chemical companies, and “Records [which] show that after Shell donated $25 million in 2022 to LSU…the university gave the fossil-fuel corporation license to influence research and coursework for the university’s new concentration in carbon capture, use, and storage.” It is telling that, like pro-Palestine speech, the so-called campus free speech defenders are not standing up to corporate capture of research institutions.

7. Against the backdrop of escalating diplomatic tensions in Latin-America over Ecuador’s raid on the Mexican embassy, Progressive International reports “Ecuador [has voted] NO in the referendum on investor-state arbitration…rejecting President Noboa’s underhanded efforts to override the Constitution to protect foreign investors over labor rights, Indigenous communities, and environmental regulations.” The Investor-State Dispute System – which places international corporations on the same legal footing as sovereign governments and hands over adjudication to the World Trade Organization – has come under heavy fire by left-wing skeptics of so-called ‘free trade’ in recent years, contributing to the ultimate demise of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal engineered in the late Obama era. The ISDS has had a particularly troubling history in Latin-America, with tobacco companies suing Uruguay over anti-smoking legislation to name just one example. At the same time however, Ecuador overwhelmingly passed an anti-gang referendum in a victory for Noboa, per Reuters. Expect to see more about Ecuador in the coming weeks.

8. Techcruch reports “Tesla is recalling all 3,878 Cybertrucks that it has shipped to date, due to a problem where the accelerator pedal can get stuck, putting drivers at risk of a crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.” This article goes on to say “The recall caps a tumultuous week for Tesla. The company laid off more than 10% of its workforce on Monday, and lost two of its highest-ranking executives.” The Guardian now reports that Tesla plans to cut prices on the Cybertrucks, which cost over $100,000 each. We beseech our listeners to be wary of these vehicles and to do thorough research on Tesla’s auto safety record.

9. In more transportation news, transportation blog Second Ave. Sagas reports “The feds are threatening to sue [New York City] if city vehicles [such as NYPD patrol SUVs] do not stop parking on sidewalks and crosswalks in ways that ‘impede the access of people with disabilities to pedestrian pathways.’” According to the Justice Department’s letter, “The City of New York (and, more specifically, the NYPD) has failed to ensure that the pedestrian grid is ‘readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities,’... NYPD vehicles and the personal vehicles of NYPD employees frequently obstruct sidewalks and crosswalks in the vicinity of NYPD precincts…a recent study identified parking behaviors at 91% of the NYPD’s precincts that resulted in obstructions to sidewalks and crosswalks with the potential to render those pathways inaccessible.” We commend the Justice Department for taking action to ensure the ADA is enforced, even against the NYPD which routinely behaves as though it is above the law.

10. Finally, the United Autoworkers have prevailed in their union election at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, winning by an overwhelming 2,628 to 985 margin, per the Guardian. This marks the first time workers have unionized a foreign-owned auto plant in the South and serves as a repudiation of the anti-union campaign backed by Republican Governors such as Tennessee’s own Bill Lee. UAW President Shawn Fain responded to this campaign, saying “They’re liars…These politicians are showing that they’re just puppets for corporate America, and they don’t give a damn about working-class people. They don’t care about the workers being left behind even though the workers are the ones who elect them.” Seizing on the momentum of victory, said “The workers at VW are the first domino to fall. They have shown it is possible…I expect more of the same to come. Workers are fed up.” UAW now plans to target a Mercedes plant in Alabama; according to the union, “A supermajority of Mercedes-Benz workers have filed a petition with the…NLRB…for a vote to join the UAW.” As the Guardian notes, “Mercedes has been considerably more outspoken against the union than VW was, with a top Mercedes official telling workers: ‘I don’t believe the UAW can help us to be better.’” Yet Fain is confident, saying “At the end of the day, I believe that workers at Mercedes definitely want a union…and I believe a big majority there will vote in favor.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Mumia Abu-Jamal: Criminal Injustice Apr 20, 2024

Mumia Abu-Jamal has spent the last forty-two of his seventy years on Earth behind the bars of a Pennsylvania state prison, twenty-nine and a half of those on Death Row based on a dubious and extremely flawed and biased conviction for murder. Today, we explore his story and what it tells us about what Ralph calls our “criminal injustice system.” We speak to Noelle Hanranah, the founder and legal director of Prison Radiofor which Mumia has done thousands of commentaries, and Professor Joy James, political philosopher, academic and author, who has studied America’s carceral state. Plus, we get the rare opportunity to speak to Mumia himself, who answers our questions from prison.

Joy James is Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities at Williams College. Professor James has published numerous articles on: political theory, police, prison and slavery abolition; radicalizing feminisms; diasporic anti-black racism; and US politics. She is the author and editor of several books including The New Abolitionists: (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Imprisoned Intellectuals, Resisting State Violence, and Warfare in the American Homeland.

[Mumia’s] a treasure. And I don't want to make him an isolate. I think there are a number of people who have been incarcerated for decades who study and struggle—that's a phrase people use in terms of books reaching the incarcerated, but also the writings of the incarcerated coming out of prisons. They enable us to be able to learn and study with them. If not physically in the same space, definitely with the same ethics and the same commitments.

Joy James

The way that I see what we're struggling against—which I believe echoes what Mumia has been writing about and talking about—is very complex, overlapping systems of containment and control in which poor- and working-class people are going to be the most negatively affected.

Joy James

Noelle Hanrahan is the founder and legal director of Prison Radio, a multimedia production studio that brings the voices of incarcerated people into the public debate. Since 1992, she has produced over 3,500 multimedia recordings from over 100 prison radio correspondents, including the critically acclaimed work of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

[Mumia Abu-Jamal is] facing a system in Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, which literally does not privilege the U.S. Constitution. It's more interested in finality…So they privilege procedure over merit.

Noelle Hanrahan

Mumia Abu Jamal is an award-winning broadcast journalist, essayist, and author of 12 books. Most recently, he’s completed the historic trilogy Murder Incorporated (Perfecting Tyranny, Dreaming of Empire, and America’s Favorite Pastime.) In the late 1970s, Abu-Jamal worked as a reporter for radio stations throughout the Delaware Valley. In 1981, Abu-Jamal was elected president of the Association of Black Journalists’ Philadelphia chapter. Since 1982, Abu-Jamal has lived in state prison (28 of those years were spent in solitary confinement on death row.) Currently, he’s serving life without parole at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA. Abu-Jamal’s 1982 trial and its resultant first-degree murder conviction have been criticized as unconstitutionally corrupt by legal and activist groups for decades, including by Amnesty International and Nobel Laureates Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, and Desmond Tutu.

I love it when I hear or read about so-called conservatives talking about “two tiers of justice.” Justice if anything is at least three tiers— it's one tier for white people, another tier for black folks, and a third tier for the very rich. Now guess who gets sweetest deals? I mean look, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, right? If you're rich in this country, you can get every break that you can afford. You can get the best justice, the best lawyers, and they will fight wars.

Mumia Abu-Jamal

When prisoners use the phone or go to the commissary—every item you buy, every call you make, it's taxed. So what about taxation without representation, in this so-called democracy, where every voice should be heard, and every person should be allowed the opportunity to vote?

Mumia Abu-Jamal

In prison, the most important thing, the one thing that stops guys from coming back is education. The most important thing is education. I would even say what people need is a de-colonial education, especially in prison.

Mumia Abu-Jamal

I never succumbed to calling our system a criminal justice system—it's a criminal injustice system, because it reflects raceand class bias to an extraordinary degree. The studies have been overwhelming on this. You don't see many corporate criminals in jail these days. You don't see many prosecutions. You don't see many investigations of the corporate crime wave that takes a far greater toll in lives, injuries, and property than street crime does. But then, the system reflects the power structure.

Ralph Nader

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Saving Israel and Palestine Apr 13, 2024

Ralph welcomes Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs to discuss what's motivating anti-Palestinian extremism in Israel, how the U.S. has been complicit in Israel's theft of Palestinian territory and genocide against the Palestinian people, and what the United Nations can do to help achieve a lasting peace. Plus, we share Ralph's recent column: "Israeli Leaders’ Objective All Along Has Been the Expulsion of Occupied Palestinians and Seizure of Their Remaining Land."

Jeffrrey Sachs is the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor (the university’s highest academic rank) and he served as Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. Mr. Sachs has also served in numerous positions at the United Nations, including as President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

The reason that diplomacy is not happening is perfectly obvious. Which is that the core of this government does not want diplomacy, even if it were to deliver security. Their aim is not security through diplomacy. Their aim is “Greater Israel.”

Jeffrey Sachs

I have lived through…watching the U.S. government abandon so many projects, from Southeast Asia through the Americas—these have been terrible projects often—but the U.S. loses interest, it moves on. And Israel needs to actually live in its neighborhood if it's going to survive. And counting on military might to do that is a profound mistake. It's eating away at its own fundamental capacity to act as a society—the idea that you can stand alone in the world community and have no one support you. This is a huge mistake. So I've tried to say to my counterparts in Israel…that this path is not only wrong and immoral, but doomed to fail as well.

Jeffrey Sachs

The Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates—97 % — in the world. Under dire conditions, they have accomplished farmers, physicians, scientists, engineers, poets, musicians, novelists, artists, and a deep entrepreneurial tradition carried on by the Palestinian diaspora around the world. It is no accident that Israeli bombers directly target Palestinian cultural and educational institutions in their recurrent assaults on Gaza. Israeli militarists have to degrade all Palestinians… to expel them from their ancestral lands.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 4/10/24

1. An unsettling story in Business Insider recounts how the Israeli military uses an AI system – chillingly called “Where’s Daddy?” – to track Hamas militants to their homes. As one IDF officer put it, “We[‘re] not interested in killing [Hamas] operatives only when they…[are] engaged in a military activity…On the contrary, the IDF bomb[s] them in homes without hesitation, as a first option. It's much easier to bomb a family's home.” This policy of bombing family homes “as a first option” is a major factor in why so many Palestinian families have lost unimaginable numbers of relatives in Israeli strikes. IDF officers added “human input in the target identification process…[is] essentially [to] ‘rubber stamp’ the machine's picks after little more than ‘20 seconds’ of consideration — which was largely to double-check the target is male.”

2. As we know from the recent polling on the issue, only 22.5% of Democrats now support military aid to Israel, while 83% want a permanent ceasefire. More surprising is that only 41% of Republicans want the U.S. to send military aid to Israel, and 58% want a permanent ceasefire. This poll is now joined by a similar poll from the United Kingdom, showing 56% of the British public – including 74% of Labour Party voters – support their government refusing to sell more weapons to Israel, with only 17% in support of continuing such sales. Pressing on this issue, progressive members of Congress Mark Pocan and Jan Schakowsky have penned a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken “strongly urg[ing them]…to reconsider [their] recent decision to authorize the transfer of a new arms package to Israel and to withhold this and any future offensive arms transfers until a full investigation into the [World Central Kitchen] airstrike is completed…to continue withholding these transfers until those responsible are held accountable [under U.S. or international law and]…to withhold these transfers if Israel fails to sufficiently mitigate harm to innocent civilians in Gaza, including aid workers, and if it fails to facilitate – or arbitrarily denies or restricts – the transport and delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.” This letter was signed by 37 additional Democratic members of Congress – mostly the typical progressives, though with one extremely notable addition: Nancy Pelosi, signifying how mainstream this position has become.

3. In yet another sign of the shifting political winds, Delaware Senator Chris Coons – a consummate moderate and perhaps President Biden’s closest ally in the Senate – has come out in favor of conditioning military aid to Israel, Axios reports. Coons added “I've never said that before, I've never been here before.”

4. Yet even as the Democratic Party shifts., Biden has continued his blind support for Israel – resulting in continued success for the “Uncommitted” electoral protest movement. In Wisconsin, the “uninstructed delegation” option won nearly 50,000 votes statewide – over 8% of the vote – and over 30% of votes in the precincts representing the University of Wisconsin-Madison. And it hasn’t stopped with Wisconsin. In Connecticut, “uncommitted” won over 11%; in New York, blank ballots accounted for 12%; and in Rhode Island, “uncommitted” won a whopping 14.5% of primary voters statewide. John Nichols at the Nation tabulates that as of now, over half a million Democratic primary voters have given Biden a clear message: “Save Gaza!”

5. The controversy surrounding Oscar-winning Zone of Interest Director Jonathan Glazer’s acceptance speech continues to drag on. This week, over 150 major Jewish creatives signed an open letter supporting Glazer, per Variety. These signatories include many household names, such as Joaquin Phoenix, Elliott Gould, Joel Coen, David Cross, Amy Berg, Boots Reilly, Hari Nef, Ilana Glzazer, Wallace Shawn, and many, many more. This letter states “We are Jewish artists, filmmakers, writers and creative professionals who support Jonathan Glazer’s statement from the 2024 Oscars. We were alarmed to see some of our colleagues in the industry mischaracterize and denounce his remarks…Their attacks on Glazer are a dangerous distraction from Israel’s escalating military campaign which has already killed over 32,000 Palestinians in Gaza and brought hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation. We grieve for all those who have been killed in Palestine and Israel over too many decades...We honor the Holocaust by saying: Never again for anyone.”

6. In some positive news, the National Labor Relations Board reports union election petitions are up 35% in the first half of Fiscal Year 2024, with unfair labor practice charges up 7%. The NLRB is quick to note that this increased caseload coincides with a long-term funding crunch that has seen their offices shrink by 50% over the past 20 years. NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo writes “Congress needs to fully fund the NLRB to effectively and efficiently comply with our Congressional mandate when providing quality service to the public in conducting hearings and elections, investigating charges, settling and litigating meritorious cases, and obtaining full and prompt remedies for workers whose rights are violated.”

7. In Ecuador, a diplomatic crisis is unfolding with Mexico after Ecuadorian forces stormed the Mexican embassy to arrest former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas, who had sought – and been granted – asylum at the Mexican embassy. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, decried this as a “flagrant violation of international law and the sovereignty of Mexico.” CNN reports this provocation prompted AMLO to suspend diplomatic relations with Ecuador and pursue a case against Ecuador at the International Court of Justice. For its part, the U.S. State Department issued a statement saying “The United States condemns any violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and takes very seriously the obligation of host countries under international law to respect the inviolability of diplomatic missions.”

8. NBC4 Washington is out with a blockbuster report on gun running within the D.C. Metro police department. Put simply, “For at least seven months in 2020 and 2021, the D.C. area’s largest police department was…the only place D.C. residents could legally get a handgun.” Incredible as that may seem, that much was already public knowledge. Now, federal documents have been uncovered showing that a remarkable number of these guns ended up at crime scenes. In fact, “So many guns [were] recovered at crime scenes, in such a brief period, that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives placed D.C. police into a program designed to give extra scrutiny to dealers with higher levels of so-called crime guns.” In other words, D.C. cops, far from getting guns off the street, were in fact releasing so many guns on to the street that federal firearms regulators had to step in. So much for police improving safety.

9. According to CNBC, “Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes initiated an investigation into tech magnate Elon Musk on Sunday…concern[ing] possible obstruction of justice by Musk, who said over the weekend that he would defy the court’s orders to restrict or suspend some popular accounts on its platform.” This comes as part of a larger investigation into “so-called digital militias, a term applied to people accused of spreading misinformation online to attack democratic institutions in Brazil.” While the list of accounts flagged by the Brazilian government is not public, Wired reports this list includes “the fugitive far-right influencer Allan dos Santos, a supporter of president Jair Bolsonaro. (Dos Santos fled the country in 2020 to avoid investigation for disseminating disinformation.)… [and] right-wing YouTuber Bruno Aiub, known as Monark, who has over 1 million followers on X and has argued that Brazil should recognize the Nazi party, and Brazilian billionaire and Bolsonaro-supporter Luciano Hang.”

10. Finally, you might have heard that Amazon is shutting down the “Just Walk Out” technology at its grocery stores. This technology supposedly relied on an entirely automated system of cameras and sensors to track what people picked up at the stores and charge that to their Amazon accounts. Yet, Gizmodo reports “Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.” This genre of story has become all too common – companies trumpeting ‘automation’ when in fact all they’re doing is outsourcing with extra steps. Just another reminder to remain skeptical of claims by big corporations. Often flashy new tech is just a smokescreen for regular old labor exploitation.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Infectious Generosity Apr 06, 2024

Ralph welcomes Chris Anderson, author of “Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading” where he explains how techniques for tapping into the potential of “the internet to turbocharge generosity” can fund and scale-up bold, audacious projects for the common good.

Chris Anderson is the founder of the Sapling Foundation, and Curator of TED, a nonprofit devoted to sharing valuable ideas, primarily through the medium of 'TED Talks' — short talks that are offered free online to a global audience. He is the author of Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading.

There're actually so many ways to be generous. And in the connected world, just acts of human kindness and sharing stories of human generosity can help transform the culture. We've somehow convinced ourselves that humans are pretty awful and especially “those other humans over there” are really awful and scary, and we don't want anything to do with them. And this is really dangerous because we're taking away what I think is humanity's superpower, which is the ability for very very different people to connect and to negotiate and to agree and to find ways of cooperating.

Chris Anderson

The key mind shift here is to flip from saying what change could I pull off on my own or with someone I know, to saying how can we create a moment of ignition, a moment of bringing people together in a way that they see each other and are persuaded by each other to do something big together.

Chris Anderson

Generosity is way beyond just money. It's time, advice, experience. It's a retired lawyer, a retired doctor, for example, providing counsel to local neighborhood or community groups. Sometimes they make connections, they help networking in these groups. So it's always good, I think, when you ask people for money to ask them for their advice, their time, their networks, the benefits of their experience. And oftentimes that way you can actually raise more money than if you just ask them for money.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 4/3/24

1. In an airstrike, Israel killed six foreign aid workers, including an American citizen, along with their Palestinian driver, Al Jazeera reports. These workers were affiliated with Chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen, which had been doing what it could to fill the gap left by UNRWA after the U.S. and other Israel-allied nations pulled the organization’s funding following dubious claims about UNRWA workers colluding with Hamas. On Twitter, Andres wrote “These are people…angels…They are not faceless…they are not nameless. The Israeli government needs to stop this indiscriminate killing…and stop using food as a weapon.” Israel claims that striking the convoy was unintentional, with PM Netanyahu saying “This happens in wartime,” while smirking in a video message. World Central Kitchen CEO Erin Goran, quoted in the Washington Post, maintains that this strike was “[a] targeted attack” by the IDF and called the strike “unforgivable.”

2. The “uncommitted” electoral protest movement continues to pick up votes in Democratic primaries nationwide. In Missouri, Uncommitted took nearly 12% of the vote statewide and over 20% in the first Congressional district - represented by outspoken ceasefire advocate Cori Bush - per St. Louis Public Radio. In Maine, blank ballots - that state’s version of an uncommitted ballot line - took over 10% of the vote statewide, a tenfold increase from 2020, per political blogger Ettingermentum.

3. More troubling for the Biden campaign are the polls - nationwide and in swing states - that show widespread discontent with his handling of Israel’s murderous rampage. A recent Gallup poll shows that a majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s campaign by a margin of 55% to 36%, the result of an 18% drop among Democrats and Independents, and a 7% drop among Republicans. The same poll shows that only 27% of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the situation in the Middle East. And in Wisconsin, a new poll by Poll Progressive Strategies finds that one in five Wisconsin Democrats say Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza will impact their vote in November. 71% say they strongly support an immediate and permanent ceasefire - including a stunning 100% of voters under the age of 29. In 2020, Biden won Wisconsin by 0.63%.

4. In another sign of how out of step the Biden administration has become with the liberal mainstream, Patrick Gaspard - president of the Center for American Progress, former Executive Director of the DNC, and former Ambassador to South Africa under Obama - has issued a stinging rebuke of the State Department’s claim that Israel is upholding international law in Gaza. In a statement, Gaspard writes “The State Department's shocking assertion that the Netanyahu government is complying with international law in Gaza is a gross disregard of overwhelming evidence and a dangerous precedent in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy…The United States…cannot heedlessly deliver offensive weapons as the Israeli government continues to bombard and starve innocents on a mass scale. These actions have nothing to do with self defense; they are clearly intended as collective punishment and are resulting in the complete devastation of Palestinians as a people.”

5. As Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman continues his unpopular turn to the Right, a wave of resignations has rocked his office. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the Senator’s deputy communications director Nick Gavio resigned last Friday, with his departure coming on the heels of the resignations of Fetterman’s former communications director Joe Calvello and press and digital aide Emma Mustion. Calvello decamped for the office of progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson while Gavio is taking a job with the Working Families Party, per the New Republic.

6. As if escalation in the Middle East were not enough, the United States is now deploying Green Berets to Taiwan, the Asia Times reports. According to this report, “US Special Operations Forces…have been permanently assigned to Taiwan’s frontline islands, preparing elite Taiwanese units for possible island defense and guerilla warfare operations against a Chinese invasion…US troops on Kinmen will be situated just ten kilometers from mainland China.” This outrageous provocation would not be tolerated by the United States of course, but any response by China would surely be labeled as aggression in the western media. This whole exercise is rendered especially preposterous as the U.S. recognizes Taiwan to be part of China under the one China policy, according to the State Department.

7. Morningstar reports so-called Medicare Advantage has been overbilling Medicare by approximately 22%. This figure comes from a report issued by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPac, an independent body set up to advise Congress on Medicare in the 1990s. MedPac’s new report titled "Medicare Payment Policy” reads: "We estimate that Medicare spends approximately 22 percent more for MA enrollees than it would spend if those beneficiaries were enrolled in FFS Medicare, a difference that translates into a projected $83 billion in 2024." As Morningstar puts it: “The private insurers who now run more than half of all Medicare plans are overcharging the taxpayers by a staggering $83 billion a year. They are charging us taxpayers 22% more than it would cost us to provide the same health insurance to seniors directly, if we just cut out the private insurance companies as middlemen…It's a rip-off, pure and simple.”

8. We have previously discussed on this program how President Biden is urging Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, to help stem immigration coming up through Mexico. In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, AMLO laid out his conditions for doing so:

“-The U.S. [must] commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean

- [the U.S. must] Lift sanctions on Venezuela

- [the U.S. must] End the Cuban embargo [and]

- [the U.S. must] Legalize law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S.”

This proposal sounds more than reasonable.

9. A moving story in Atmos Earth details the movement among Polynesian indigenous leaders to extend legal personhood to whales, considered their mythological common ancestor. In addition to legal personhood, these advocates are pushing for “the establishment of rāhui, or customary marine protected areas…to reduce harmful impacts from threats like trawling and ship strikes…[and] Empowering coastal communities as kaitiaki, or guardians.” If enacted, this would be a major shift in the legal landscape that would help preserve the planet’s marine ecology as it comes under greater and greater threat.

10. Finally, in less uplifting animal news, the Iowa Capital Dispatch is out with a report on private equity’s impact on veterinary care. According to veterinarian Melissa Ezell of Huntsville, Alabama, vets are increasingly “feeling pressure from management to make a certain amount of money from every appointment. If a pet owner wasn’t going to spend enough, the message from management was to offer more services. She was urged to pack in more patients outside of normal business hours.” This clinic is “owned by National Veterinary Associates, one of the largest veterinary chains in the nation. In 2020 the company was acquired by JAB Consumer Partners, a global private equity firm based in Luxembourg…Private equity firms such as Shore Capital Partners, KKR, TSG Consumer and JAB Consumer Partners have spent billions over the past few years on veterinary practices, specialty animal hospitals, pet insurance services and pet food companies. Among the companies owned by private equity are PetSmart, PetVet Care Centers, FIGO, Thrive Pet Healthcare and ASPCA Pet Health Insurance.” This story may sound familiar, because it is the private equity playbook they have run on industries ranging “from nursing homes to car washes.” And being the same playbook, we know how this ends - with the philosophy of profit maximization leading to predatory pricing and a reduction in the quality of services. So, if you don’t want companies like JAB Consumer Partners controlling your pet’s health tomorrow, take a stand against private equity today.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Live Taping w/ the Father of Bad Faith Insurance Law Mar 30, 2024

Not a lot of lawyers can say that they helped create a whole new legal field, but William Shernoff can. On this week's episode, Ralph welcomes trailblazing attorney William Shernoff to discuss predatory insurance practices, and how consumers can protect themselves. This special episode was co-presented by The American Museum of Tort Law, and was recorded in front of a live virtual audience.

William Shernoff is the founding partner of Shernoff Bidart Echeverria, a law firm specializing in insurance bad faith litigation. A longtime consumer advocate, he has made a career of representing insurance consumers in their cases against insurance companies. Often called the “father” of bad faith insurance law, in 1979, Mr. Shernoff persuaded the California Supreme Court to establish new case law that permits plaintiffs to sue insurance companies for bad faith seeking both compensatory and punitive damages when they unreasonably handle a policyholder’s claim (Egan v. Mutual of Omaha).

A frequent lecturer and writer, Mr. Shernoff co-authored the legal textbook, Insurance Bad Faith Litigation, which has become the field’s definitive treatise, as well as How to Make Insurance Companies Pay Your Claims . . . . And What To Do If They Don’t, Fight Back and Win – And How To Make Your HMO Pay Up, and Payment Refused.

Under bad faith law in California and in most states, you not only could get the benefits you deserve under the insurance policy—whether it be life insurance or disability insurance or health insurance. But you can also get damages over and above the policy limits, which are emotional distress damages…Not only can you get the emotional distress damages, but any aggravation of your medical condition. And then punitive damages are on top of that. And attorney's fees are on top of that. So all of these damages are coming from insurance bad faith if the insurance bad faith law applies. And punitive damages are designed to punish the insurance company so that they correct their wrongful conduct in the future, and deter them from unfair claims practices.

William Shernoff

Most people, if they get a letter from an insurance company—which they consider to be an authoritative source— and the insurance company says, “Your claim is denied because…” and then they cite all kinds of fine print in the insurance policy, most people accept that and don't do anything. They don't see a lawyer. They just accept what their insurance company told them because it sounded quite official to them.

William Shernoff

Insurance regulation is state-controlled. The federal government has been blocked for decades and the Congress has imposed itself on the federal Federal Trade Commission and said that they can't even investigate the insurance companies without being allowed to by a committee in the House or the Senate that has jurisdiction over such matters. So the privileges of the insurance lobby are quite extraordinary even by comparison with other corporate lobbies.

Ralph Nader

More people should know about bad-faith cases rights—and use them. And not take whatever is dealt to them by insurance companies—denials, rescission of insurance policies, refusing to renew, other delays, or other crazy obstructions. Learn about your rights.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 3/27/24

1. CNN reports the United Nations Security Council has passed a Gaza ceasefire resolution. The resolution itself is imperfect, calling only for a ceasefire during the month of Ramadan, but this watered down language paved the way for the United States to allow the resolution to pass. The U.S. has vetoed every previous ceasefire resolution before the Security Council and disputes the extent to which this resolution is legally binding. For its part, Israel’s Foreign Minister stated unequivocally that Israel “will not cease fire,” per CNN.

2. Following the passage of the Security Council resolution, Prime Minister Netanyahu canceled a planned high-level Israeli delegation visit to Washington, per CNBC. The planned visit, which would have included an address to Congress, was staring down scathing criticism from Congressional Progressives. Axios reports Representative Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of Congress and the most outspoken on the Israeli campaign of terror, said “[Netanyahu] shouldn't come to Congress, he should be sent to the Hague.”

3. In another sign of the rift between the Biden Administration and Netanyahu, Haaretz reports that Congressional Democrats are sending formal warnings to the administration stating that Israel is not in compliance with U.S. laws governing the dispensation of military aid. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, said “Congress and [the] White House need to make clear to Israel that we will enforce US law to protect Palestinian children from starvation in Gaza.”

4. Professor Jana Silverman, co-chair of the Democratic Socialists of America International Committee, reports “After a totally last-minute, ad-hoc, no-budget campaign, 13.2% of voters in the Democrats Abroad primary said no to genocide in Gaza and voted Uncommitted!” This impressive performance signals that the Uncommitted electoral protest movement isn’t going anywhere. The next major test for the movement will be Pennsylvania, where Uncommitted PA is aiming for at least 40,000 votes in the state’s April primary, per Lancaster Online.

5. In an open letter, over 100 prominent American Jews condemned AIPAC. The letter reads “We are Jewish Americans who have…come together to highlight and oppose the unprecedented and damaging role of AIPAC…in U.S. elections, especially within Democratic Party primaries. We recognize the purpose of AIPAC’s interventions in electoral politics is to defeat any critics of Israeli Government policy and to support candidates who vow unwavering loyalty to Israel, thereby ensuring the United States’ continuing support for all that Israel does, regardless of its violence and illegality.” Signatories include the Ralph Nader Radio Hour’s own Alan Minsky, celebrated academic Judith Butler, Postal Workers Union president Mark Dimondstein, Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s, and the actor Wallace Shawn among many others. The full letter is available at USJewsOpposingAipac.org.

6. Oscar winning director Jonathan Glazer continues to be the target of phony outrage by pro-Israel groups like the Anti-Defamation League. Coming to the defense of the filmmaker however are other prominent Jewish organizations, like Jewish Voice for Peace and the Auschwitz Memorial, whose director said “In his Oscar acceptance speech, Jonathan Glazer issued a universal moral warning against dehumanization,” per the Guardian. Decorated Jewish playwright Tony Kushner, a signatory on the anti-AIPAC letter, told Haaretz “There’s been a concerted attempt by right wing American Jews to sort of sell the idea that American college campuses are awash with virulent antisemites – professors and students and so on. And the Jewish students are walking these campuses in terror for their lives. I think this is nonsense. I see no evidence of it.”

7. Both the Gannett and McClatchy newspaper companies have announced they will no longer use AP journalism in their publications, AP reports. This is yet another indication of the dire financial straits the news business finds itself in. The AP notes “Gannett’s workforce shrank 47% between 2020 and 2023 because of layoffs and attrition…The company also hasn’t earned a full-year profit since 2018… Since then, it has lost $1.03 billion.”

8. In Honduras, the Intercept reports “an almost-impossible-to-believe scenario: A group of libertarian investors teamed up with a former Honduran government — which was tied at the hip with narco-traffickers and came to power after a U.S.-backed military coup — in order to implement the world’s most radical libertarian policy, which turned over significant portions of the country to those investors through so-called special economic zones. The Honduran public, in a backlash, ousted the narco-backed regime, and the new government repealed the libertarian legislation. The crypto investors are now using the World Bank to force Honduras to honor the narco-government’s policies.” While this story has certain unique angles – crypto and narco-trafficking chief among them – the key element is actually quite familiar: international ‘free trade’ regimes superseding sovereign governments. We offer Honduras solidarity against these contemporary crypto-filibusters.

9. On March 11th, Congressmen Jimmy Gomez and Joaquin Castro sent a letter to the heads of the CIA and FBI demanding disclosures of surveillance efforts on Latino civil rights leaders during the 1960s and ‘70s, citing the well-documented pattern of surveillance on Black civil rights leaders during that period and the wealth of circumstantial evidence indicating that these organs of national security did the same toward prominent Latino figures such as Cesar Chavez. The following day, in a hearing before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Castro pressed CIA Director Bill Burns on the matter, and Burns committed to working with his office to bring these activities to light. We hope that further transparency will beget further transparency and that some day the complete account of the CIA and FBI’s domestic surveillance programs will be a matter of public record.

10. Finally, in Mississippi, CBS reports that authorities have successfully convicted all six members of a police gang calling themselves the “Goon Squad.” These six white officers plead guilty to “breaking into a home without a warrant and torturing two Black men…The assault involved beatings, the repeated use of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth in a mock execution.” Lawyers representing the criminal cops allege that “their clients became ensnared in a culture of corruption that was not only permitted, but encouraged by leaders within the sheriff's office.” If true, then a federal investigation – and likely more than a few exonerations of individuals victimized by this “Goon Squad” – are in order. Justice demands it.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Apartheid Education/Gas Station Heroin Mar 23, 2024

Legendary public school reform advocate, Jonathan Kozol, joins us to discuss his latest book “An End To Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America.” Then, we do a deep dive into the scourge that is kratom, the dangerous so-called pain relief supplement our guest, lawyer Matt Wetherington, calls “gas station heroin.”

Jonathan Kozol is a leading advocate for equality and racial justice in our nation’s schools, and he travels and lectures about educational inequality and racial injustice. Mr. Kozol is the author of nearly a dozen books about young children and their public schools, including Death at an Early Age (for which he received the National Book Award), Savage Inequalities, and The Shame of the Nation. His latest book isAn End to Inequality: Breaking Down the Walls of Apartheid Education in America.

I still give [Jonathan Kozol’s book Death at an Early Age] out to people to show them what indignant writing backed by irrefutable evidence is like. There's too much cool writing in America today about ghastly situations.

Ralph Nader

The Brown decision is now like the Ghost of Christmas Past. Most school officials have pretty much turned their back on the legacy of Brown and the dream of Dr. King, who was very explicit in his condemnation of segregated schools. I find it particularly heartbreaking that segregation is now at its highest level since the early 1990s. And many of the schools I visit are far more deeply segregated than the one that I described in Death in Early Age.

Jonathan Kozol

We hear a lot about the “school-to-prison pipeline,” but this is a case where the prison is already there. It's right there. They don't have to wait 20 years. Children get a taste of our racist penal system when they're barely out of diapers.

Jonathan Kozol

The excuse, of course, we always hear in the big cities is that finances are scarce— “We would love to make these corrections. We would love to build new buildings. We would love to clean out the lead. But we just don't have enough resources to do this.” I call it the myth of scarcity. It's starvation funding for minority children in one of the richest nations in the world.

Jonathan Kozol

I'm always asked, “Why don't you come up with upbeat suggestions?” I always say I'm not going to be forced into a phony optimism to please my critics. The fact is, right now, we have a racist and autocratic education system teed specifically to the historic victims of American society. And it's not gonna change until teachers can expand their reach politically to the parents of their children, to the surrounding communities, to the unions—not only the teacher unions, but other unions of all sorts—in order to transform the political leadership of this nation.

Jonathan Kozol

Matt Wetherington is a nationally-recognized lawyer focused on high-stakes cases involving personal injury, wrongful death, and class actions. He currently represents plaintiffs in a wrongful death lawsuit against more than a dozen defendants, including manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of Kratom products.

Under the guise of safety, the [American Kratom Association] have tricked legislatures— and now they're trying to do it on the federal level—into making a product that is dangerous, deadly, and has absolutely no proven medicinal purpose, de facto legal.

Matt Wetherington

The kratom industry is trying to put the burden on safety advocates to prove that kratom is unsafe. Rather than going through the normal model that literally every other drug has gone through, which is to prove a medicinal purpose before it can be sold anywhere. They've put the cart ahead of the horse here by saying, until you can prove that it's unsafe, you can get this heroin-like drug at any gas station. So I reject the premise that we have to be the ones that come out and prove that this is unsafe. And the reality is that they have the burden of proving that it has a medicinal purpose.

Matt Wetherington

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 3/19/24

1. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, delivered a watershed speech on the Senate floor last week calling for the United States to use its influence to rein in the Israeli government as it continues to commit genocidal atrocities in Gaza. Listen to Michigan highlighted an excerpt of Senator Schumer’s speech, wherein he said “if Prime Minister Netanyahu...continues to pursue dangerous and inflammatory policies that test existing U.S. standards for assistance, then the United States will have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course.” While a mere baby step, this movement of the Overton Window – allowing even the discussion of conditioning military aid to Israel – is a radical departure from decades of unquestioning U.S. assistance and co-belligerency in Israel’s wars. This is also undeniable evidence that the massive protest movement against U.S. support for Israel’s genocidal campaign, including the “Uncommitted” electoral campaign, has worked. In other words, keep it up, they are feeling the heat.

2. Schumer’s speech comes amid a growing realization from the Biden campaign that this issue is not going away. A raft of media reports suggest that the president has been “incensed to the point of shouting and swearing,” per Business Insider, over his low poll numbers in critical swing states, attributed to his handling of the slaughter in Gaza. And just this week, Palestinian-American as well as other Arab- and Muslim-American leaders refused to meet with senior White House officials in Chicago, instead publishing a letter via CAIR stating “There is no point in more meetings. The White House already knows the position of the aforementioned groups and our allies across the nation…They know because we have made it abundantly clear, including in prior meetings with the White House, but also in press statements, letters to our elected leaders, media interviews, and enormous street action within earshot of the Oval Office.” According to the Huffington Post, “The rejection comes after a string of refusals across the country from Arab and Muslim groups over longstanding frustrations over the war in Gaza…Several members of the Palestinian American community refused to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month in Washington…[and] In Michigan, Arab and Muslim community leaders canceled a listening session in February with…Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez.”

3. More suspicious details have emerged regarding the death of Boeing whistleblower John Barnett. Yahoo Finance reports that Barnett was planning to drive home to Louisiana following his deposition on Friday March, 8th. Boeing lawyers then asked him to stay an extra day to finish his testimony, and Barnett was found dead the morning of March 9th. Additionally, ABC News 4 in Charleston reports that shortly before his death – allegedly by suicide – Barnett told a close family friend “I ain't scared, but if anything happens to me, it's not suicide.’”

4. In more Boeing news, the New York Times reports “The company failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration,” following the Alaska Airlines door plug incident. The Times piece goes on “The F.A.A. said it could not release specifics about the audit because of its active investigation into Boeing in response to the Alaska Airlines episode. In addition to that inquiry, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused the door panel to blow off the plane, and the Justice Department has begun a criminal investigation.”

5. A disturbing NBC story chronicles how the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) – a nationwide group of clinics which effectively helped autistic children to “cope, learn and communicate” – was purchased and deformed by the Blackstone Group, resulting in abuse of the children in their facilities. The founder of CARD is quoted in this article saying “[under Blackstone’s ownership] the company added costly executives, increased CARD’s debt and struck expensive contracts with third-party providers. The new CEO had no experience in autism services…he had run a kidney dialysis company.” This story has a bit of a happy ending – after running CARD into the ground, Blackstone actually sold the company back to the founder who is setting things right. As she says in the piece “You have to watch over the company…It is an entity, not an endless bank account.” This story highlights the human cost of private equity gobbling up the economy while regulators are overwhelmed or asleep at the wheel.

6. In some positive news, Nikkei Asia reports “Japan's largest labor confederation [The 7 million-member Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo] said Friday that its [771] member unions won an average 5.28% increase in wages this year, the biggest raise since 1991.”

7. In more positive labor news, CNN reports that the United Auto Workers (UAW) has filed for a union election for the over 4,000 workers at the Chattanooga, Tennessee Volkswagen facility. This is the first major test of UAW’s campaign to unionize autoworkers at foreign-owned plants in the United States. The union intends to organize workers at BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volvo and Volkswagen as well as the non-union EV companies like Tesla, Rivian and Lucid. UAW has previously said that they would not file for an election until they had won 70% support among the workers, with this filing implying they have reached that threshold. President Biden has publicly come out in support of this campaign, issuing a statement on March 18th reading “I congratulate the Volkswagen autoworkers in Chattanooga who filed for a union election with the UAW. As one of the world’s largest automakers, many Volkswagen plants internationally are unionized…I believe American workers, too, should have a voice at work.”

8. Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill to establish a standard 32-hour workweek. In a press release, Sanders wrote “Today, American workers are over 400 percent more productive than they were in the 1940s. And yet, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages than they were decades ago…The financial gains from the major advancements in artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology must benefit the working class, not just corporate CEOs and wealthy stockholders on Wall Street. It is time to reduce the stress level in our country and allow Americans to enjoy a better quality of life.” This legislation was announced ahead of a HELP Committee hearing on the same topic, featuring Shawn Fain, President of the UAW and Dr. Juliet Schor, Professor of Sociology at Boston College and Lead Researcher for Four Day Week Global Trials.

9. A story in the American Prospect has to do with a study by the Center for Working Class Politics. This study looked at all 966 Democratic candidates who ran in House or Senate primaries in 2022. What did they find? “Candidates who used economic populist rhetoric won higher vote shares in general elections, especially in working-class, rural and small-town districts.” In other words, broad-base, left-wing economic populism. It works.

10. Finally, NBC reports that the DNC is assembling an anti-third party squad in an attempt to force voters into a binary choice between Biden and Trump in November. This team will be led by the infamous political operator Lis Smith, who helped cover up Andrew Cuomo’s serial sexual harassment. Another prominent member is Pat Dennis, president of Democratic opposition research firm American Bridge, who is quoted saying “A lot of people, including me, regret that we didn’t go after [Jill Stein] further,” blaming Stein for costing Hillary Clinton states in the midwest despite numerous missteps by the Clinton campaign – like not visiting Wisconsin in the entire course of the general election. Yet to figures like Smith and Dennis, the Democratic Party cannot fail, it can only be failed.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

America, Stop Trying to Make Nuclear Power Happen. It's Not Going to Happen. Mar 16, 2024

Ralph is joined by Tim Judson from the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (N.I.R.S.) to discuss the growing support for nuclear power in Congress, and the persistent myths that fuel nuclear advocates' false hopes for a nuclear future. Then, Ralph pays tribute to Boeing whistleblower John Barnett, who died unexpectedly this week in the middle of giving his deposition for a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against Boeing. Plus, Ralph answers some of your audience feedback from last week's interview with Barbara McQuade.

Tim Judson is Executive Director of the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (N.I.R.S.). Mr. Judson leads N.I.R.S.’ work on nuclear reactor and climate change issues, and has written a series of reports on nuclear bailouts and sustainable energy. He is Chair of the Board of Citizens Awareness Network, one of the lead organizations in the successful campaign to close the Vermont Yankee reactor, and co-founder of Alliance for a Green Economy in New York.

Listeners should know that this very complex system called the nuclear fuel cycle—that starts with uranium mines out west piling up radioactive tailings, which have exposed people downwind to radioactive hazards…And then they have to enrich the uranium—and that is often done by burning coal, which pollutes the air and contributes to climate disruption. And then they have to fabricate the fuel rods and build the nuclear plants. And then they have to make sure that these nuclear plants are secure against sabotage. And then you have the problem of transporting—by trucks or rail—radioactive waste to some depositories that don't exist. And they have to go through towns, cities, and villages. And what is all this for? It's to boil water.

Ralph Nader

In 2021 and 2022, when the big infrastructure bills— the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Inflation Reduction Act—were being passed by Congress, the utility industry spent $192 million on federal lobbying in those two years. That's more than the oil industry spent in those two years on lobbying. These are the utility companies that are present in every community around the country. And their business is actually less in selling electricity and natural gas, and more in lobbying state and federal governments to get their rates approved…The utility industry (and the nuclear industry as a subset of that) have been lobbying Congress relentlessly for years to protect what they've got.

Tim Judson

Fusion is one of these technologies that's always been 30 years away. Whenever there's an announcement about an advancement in fusion research, it's still “going to be 30 years before we get a reactor going.” Now there's a lot more hype, and these tech investors are putting money into fusion with the promise that they're going to have a reactor online in a few years. But there's no track record to suggest that that's going to happen. It keeps the dream of nuclear alive— “We could have infinite amounts of clean energy for the future.” It sounds too good to be true. It's always proven to be too good to be true.

Tim Judson

One of the lines that they're using to promote theAtomic Energy Advancement Act and all of these investments in nuclear… is that we can't let Russia and China be the ones that are expanding nuclear energy worldwide. It's got to be the US that does it.

Tim Judson

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 3/12/24

1. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, has released a report claiming that “employees released into Gaza from Israeli detention [were] pressured by Israeli authorities into falsely stating that the agency has Hamas links and that staff took part in the October 7 attacks,” per the Times of Israel. These supposed admissions of guilt led to the United States and many European countries cutting off or delaying aid to the agency. The unpublished report alleges that UNRWA staffers were “detained by the Israeli army, and…experienced…severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members.” The report goes on to say “In addition to the alleged abuse endured by UNRWA staff members, Palestinian detainees more broadly described allegations of abuse, including beatings, humiliation, threats, dog attacks, sexual violence, and deaths of detainees denied medical treatment.”

2. Continuing the genocidal assault on Gaza, Israel has been bombing the densely populated city of Rafah in the South. Domestically, this seems to be too far for even Biden’s closest allies, with the AP reporting just before the assault that “[Senator Chris] Coons…of Delaware, called for the U.S. to cut military aid to Israel if Netanyahu goes ahead with a threatened offensive on the southern city of Rafah without significant provisions to protect the more than 1 million civilians sheltering there. [And Senator] Jack Reed, head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, appealed to Biden to deploy the U.S. Navy to get humanitarian aid to Gaza. Biden ally Sen. Tim Kaine challenged the U.S. strikes on the Houthis as unlikely to stop the Red Sea attacks. And the most senior Democrat in the Senate [Patty Murray of Washington] called for Israel to ‘change course.’” Hewing to these voices within his party, President Biden declared that an invasion of Rafah would be a “red line.” Yet POLTICO reports that Israeli PM Netanyahu “says he intends to press ahead with an invasion.” POLTICO now reports that Biden is threatening to condition military aid to Israel in response to Netanyahu’s defiance, but it remains to be seen whether the president will follow through on this threat.

3. POLITICO also reports that CIA Director Bill Burns is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying “The reality is that there are children who are starving…They’re malnourished as a result of the fact that humanitarian assistance can’t get to them. It’s very difficult to distribute humanitarian assistance effectively unless you have a ceasefire.” This is obviously correct, and illustrates how out of touch the Democratic Party is that they are getting outflanked on peace issues by the literal director of the CIA.

4. Whether unwilling – or unable – to change course on Gaza, President Biden is paying the electoral price. In last week’s Super Tuesday primaries, the Nation reports “Uncommitted” won 19 percent of the vote and 11 delegates in Minnesota, 29 percent and seven delegates in Hawaii, and 12.7 percent in North Carolina. This week, the New York Times reports Uncommitted took 7.5% – nearly 50,000 votes – in Washington State. Biden also lost the caucus in American Samoa, making him the first incumbent president since Carter to lose a nominating contest, per Newsweek.

5. In yet another manifestation of opposition to the genocide in Gaza, Jewish director Jonathan Glazer used his Oscar acceptance speech to “[denounce] the bloodshed in the Middle East and [ask] the audience to consider how it could ‘resist…dehumanization,’” per NBC. Glazer’s award winning film “The Zone of Interest” examines how “[a] Nazi commandant…and his family…attempt to build an idyllic life right outside the walls of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland during the Holocaust.” Glazer said “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present — not to say, 'Look what we did then,' rather, 'Look what we do now.' Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst…Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many people." Glazer was the most forthright in his criticism of the Israeli campaign, but NBC notes “Billie Eilish, Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef wore red pins on the Oscars red carpet symbolizing calls for a cease-fire.”

6. Aware that they are losing the public relations battle, pro-Israel lobbying groups like the UJA-Federation and the Jewish Community Relations Council have enlisted Right-wing messaging guru Frank Luntz to help with their Hasbara PR, the Grayzone reports. Leaked talking points from his presentation run the gamut from playing up unsubstantiated claims of systematic sexual violence committed by Hamas to acknowledging that “’The most potent’ tactic in mobilizing opposition to Israel’s assault…‘is the visual destruction of Gaza and the human toll’… [because] ‘It ‘looks like a genocide’.”

7. Turning from Palestine to East Palestine, Ohio Cleveland.com reports that during a recent Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing, National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer L. Homendy told Ohio’s junior Senator JD Vance that “The deliberate burn of rail cars carrying hazardous chemicals after last year’s crash…wasn’t needed to avoid an explosion because the rail cars were cooling off before they were set on fire.” In a statement, Ohio’s senior Senator, progressive Democrat Sherrod Brown, called the testimony “outrageous,” and said “This explosion – which devastated so many – was unnecessary…The people of East Palestine are still living with the consequences of this toxic burn. This is more proof that Norfolk Southern put profits over safety & cannot be trusted.”

8. In positive labor news, Bloomberg reports that “About 600 video game testers at Microsoft…’s Activision Blizzard studios have unionized, more than doubling the size of labor’s foothold at the software giant, according to the Communications Workers of America.” This brings the unionized workforce at Microsoft to approximately 1,000. To the company’s credit, Microsoft has been friendly towards unionization, a marked difference from other technology companies – namely Amazon and Tesla – which have gone to extreme lengths to prevent worker organizing.

9. In not so positive labor news, Matt Bruenig’s NLRB Edge reports “The ACLU Is Trying to Destroy the Biden NLRB.” In a narrow sense, this story is about the ACLU fighting its workers to preserve its internal mandatory arbitration process. More broadly however, Bruenig illustrates how the ACLU is seeking to oust Biden’s NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo – arguing her appointment was unconstitutional – which “could potentially invalidate everything the Biden Board has done.” This is yet another example of the non-profit industrial complex run amok, doing damage to progressive values and opting to possibly inflict economic harm on workers nationwide rather than treat their own workers fairly.

10. Finally, according to the Corporate Crime Reporter, “Boeing whistleblower John Barnett was found dead in his truck at a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina after a break in depositions in a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit.” Barnett’s lawyer Brian Knowles told the paper “They found him in his truck dead from an ‘alleged’ self-inflicted gunshot.” Barnett had gone on record saying “[Boeing] started pressuring us to not document defects, to work outside the procedures, to allow defective material to be installed without being corrected. They started bypassing procedures and not maintaining configurement control of airplanes, not maintaining control of non conforming parts – they just wanted to get the planes pushed out the door and make the cash register ring.” The timing and circumstances of Barnett’s death raise disturbing questions; we hope an exhaustive investigation turns up some answers.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Tribe Over Truth Mar 09, 2024

Ralph speaks to law professor, Barbara McQuade, who specializes in national security issues and has written a book that outlines the very real threat to American democracy, “Attack From Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America.” Also, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson sums up Israeli goals in its war on the Palestinians with three words “eradication, elimination, and expulsion.”

Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at Michigan Law School. Her interests include criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, data privacy, and civil rights. From 2010 to 2017, Professor McQuade served as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. As US attorney, she oversaw cases involving public corruption, terrorism, corporate fraud, theft of trade secrets, civil rights, and health care fraud, among others. She also serves as a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Barbara McQuade is the author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America.

I think people are still bewildered about how to respond to Donald Trump. I think the media is bewildered because we've never seen anything like him—he's an absolute disruptor of how our system works. And so, he's a big bully who runs around and says all kinds of mean things and nobody knows how to deal with it. I think the media still struggles to decide how do you cover someone—when we've been trained to get both sides of an argument which presumes that both sides are engaging in good faith—when instead you have someone who is not engaging in good faith, engaging in lies, making inconsistent statements.

Barbara McQuade

We need to demand truth. We can't allow ourselves to engage in fiction, even if we believe it is to advance our ends. The ends can never justify the means. Our country is built on integrity in the rule of law and we need to demand truth if we are going to have a democracy and effective self-government.

Barbara McQuade

You don't want to go down in the mud with people. But when the national press begins and continues to be [Trump’s] bullhorn, verbatim, repeating it, repeating it, giving no right of reply, there's no way you can simply say, “I don't want to go to his level,” because the press has raised it to a level that is devastating to our democracy.

Ralph Nader

The media is an Israeli agent when they do give some kind of deference to “the other side,” as it were, it's always in words and terminology and short sentences that make you know that “they are balanced.” “They are fair and balanced.” They're about as fair and balanced as my left foot. That's the way it is. The purpose here is eradication, elimination, or expulsion, period. Eradication, elimination, or expulsion.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

We all need to wake up, and we need to start taking actions such as we can locally—whatever's within our purview and power to do. Because we're losing this country. We're losing it to the moneyed oligarchy. We're losing it to the unprecedented amount of money, because of Citizens United, that's pouring into the political coffers of people who have no interest in what you want…These people are basing their decisions on money. Money—not you. They're not the people's representatives… They're the representatives of the deep state, which is the oligarchy.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

It's all these people with these unprecedented amounts of money who can influence anything, anytime they want to with a few telephone calls. That's what's running your country. And the predatory capitalism that they're advancing is running the world into the ground.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 3/6/24

1. Just before the Michigan primary, President Biden implied that a ceasefire in Gaza was imminent. However, many believed at the time that Biden was simply trying to blunt the potency of the “Uncommitted” vote in that contest. The promised ceasefire never materialized, apparently confirming those suspicions. Yet, with “Uncommitted” winning over 100,000 votes in Michigan, the administration has begun using ceasefire language – a major rhetorical shift, but seemingly one without much corresponding action. Phyllis Bennis, writing in Al Jazeera, argues that “Whatever the language of Washington’s proposed UN Security Council resolution and likely the possible temporary truce deal as well, the words of National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby continue to resonate as a better reflection of the Biden administration’s policy: ‘We’re going to continue to support Israel… and we’re going to continue to make sure they have the tools and the capabilities to do that.’”

2. Following the self immolation of Aaron Bushnell, activist Talia Jane has shared a letter from active duty U.S. Military personnel calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. In this letter, the anonymous signatories write “it is undeniably evident that the Israeli Defense Forces are repeatedly and systematically committing war crimes in Gaza. Support for the conduct of the IDF is unacceptable and inconsistent with our values in the US Armed forces.” Talia Jane reports that “over 100 active duty military across Air Force, Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, as well as reservists and National Guard, and their families, have endorsed this open letter.”

3. J Street, the preeminent liberal Zionist group,has finally begun using the word ceasefire – while still only supporting a temporary truce. In a note to their members, J Street wrote "This move is not a change in policy. It is a decision to begin using a word that is fraught with meaning and implications in the context of the Gaza War," Daniel Marans of the Huffington Post reports. J Street has deep ties to the administration, so whether they are taking their cues from the administration in characterizing a temporary truce as a ceasefire – or vice versa – it is significant that this is the new line from mainstream liberal Zionists.

4. Max Tani of Semafor reports that the NewsGuild of New York has sent a letter to the New York Times accusing the ‘Grey Lady’ of racially profiling their staff as they seek to hunt down the source of a leak exposing their shoddy – possibly completely false – reporting on sexual violence committed by Hamas. Per the letter, “Management’s investigators have questioned employees about their involvement in The Times’ internal Middle Eastern and North African Times Employee Resource Group (known as the MENA Collective), ordered them to hand over the names of all of the MENA Collective’s active members involved in group discussions, and demanded copies of personal communications between colleagues about their shared workplace concerns…The Guild intends to vigorously defend our members and their rights, and ensure that all our members are protected in a workplace free from harassment and racial profiling.”

5. According to NBC News, “The biggest labor union in Washington state endorsed voting ‘uncommitted’ in the state’s Democratic presidential primary next month, citing concerns about President Joe Biden’s political strength and his support for Israel’s war in Gaza.” UFCW Local 3000 has over 50,000 members, making it the largest state chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. NBC also reports that “The Stranger, a prominent alt-weekly publication based in Seattle, also endorsed the idea of voting ‘uncommitted,’ expressing disappointment in the options of Trump and Biden, whom it referred to as the ‘two genocidal geriatrics leading the polls.’”

6. Amid humiliatingly low poll numbers, Democratic-turned-Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema has dropped out of the 2024 Arizona Senate race, the Arizona Republic reports. Senator Sinema, you will not be missed.

7. In Manhattan, over two-thirds of houses sold last quarter were purchased in cash, rather than via mortgage, per the Financial Times. In other words, the preponderance of homes were purchased by the very rich. Pamela Liebman, the chief executive of real estate brokerage firm Corcoran, told the paper “High mortgage rates are creating a real void for people who don’t have the strong finances that are required to buy in cash…It’s driving people who would be home buyers in New York into renting.” This piece further notes that “rents rose to an all-time median high of $3,950 [per month].”

8. West Virginia News reports “Kroger union members have voted in favor of authorizing a strike at 38 stores in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.” As this piece notes, this vote gives the bargaining committee authorization to call a strike at any time, but the workers are not currently on strike. In a statement, UFCW Local 400 said “This vote has sent a powerful message to Kroger that they must do better if they expect us to ratify a contract…Now, we are ready to sit down with the company and negotiate an agreement that we can recommend for ratification. If not, we are ready to continue to do whatever it takes to get a fair contract. By sticking together, we will win.”

9. Family Dollar has been hit with a $42 million fine in a food safety case after the company was found to have been “storing food, drugs, and cosmetics in a rodent-infested warehouse in Arkansas,” according to More Perfect Union. An FDA investigation revealed “live rodents, dead and decaying rodents, rodent feces, urine, and odors, and evidence of gnawing and nesting throughout the facility.” Family Dollar had been aware of the infestation since 2020, and continued shipping merchandise – often eaten into by the rodents – to 404 stores throughout the region. This is the largest ever criminal fine in a food safety case.

10. Finally, on February 27th MyHighPlains.com reported that a nuclear weapons factory in Texas was forced to cease operations in light of the state’s massive wildfires. According to Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project of the Federation of American Scientists, “This is America’s main nuclear weapons factory. Nearly 20,000 plutonium cores are stored there [and] full-scale production of B61-12 bomb & W88 Alt370 warheads are underway.” While this critical situation was resolved without injury, it highlights the interrelation between climate change and national security. We urge military and civilian leadership to view this near-miss as a chance to finally take the climate crisis seriously.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Bishop William Barber Mar 02, 2024

Ralph welcomes Bishop William Barber from the Poor People's Campaign to discuss their March 2nd mass moral march on State Assemblies and their efforts to mobilize millions of poor and low-wage voters. Then, Ralph is joined by Washington Post health reporter Dan Diamond to discuss his team's recent report on a $2 billion Medicare fraud scheme.

The biggest mistake people who are not poor can make is [thinking] that helping poor and low-wage people in this country doesn't improve their life. Total nonsense. And we're going to see how a greater turnout of poor and low-wage people in the elections can transform politics in this country at the national, state, and local level.

Ralph Nader

You cannot, in a democracy, let your power sit on the shelf. If folk are not recognizing that, you must force them. And we now have this power— we don't even know what battleground states are. Because if poor and low-wealth people voted at the same percentage rate as middle class and others, it would change all of the political calculations. And it is the fear of the greedy aristocracy. It is time for us to realize their fear.

Bishop William Barber

Bad policy is mean, it is violent, and it is deadly. Because now we live in a reality… [where] poverty is the fourth-leading cause of death in this country. If you are not for ending policies that perpetuate poverty and low wages, then you are an accessory to the crime of human beings' lives being taken

Bishop William Barber

Dan Diamond is a national health reporter for The Washington Post, focused on accountability, federal agencies and public health. He joined the Post in 2021 after covering the Trump administration for Politico, where he won a George Polk award for investigating political interference in the pandemic response.

One would think that somewhere at Medicare, there was the alert that this was a scheme to be looking out for. On the state level, several states began last year to issue warnings—the state of Hawaii, the state of Oklahoma, among others—saying, “Watch out, Medicare beneficiaries, for these catheter-fraud schemes.” So that was nine months ago at this point. Medicare itself—nationally—were not aware of any similar warnings or action, at least publicly. Again, they may have been doing things behind the scenes. They may have been wanting to bait the trap for these potential fraudsters,and maybe that's why they didn't say anything. But still it raises real questions—why they have waited so long to do anything, and why it takes news coverage in February 2024 to put a spotlight on something that's been going on for eighteen months.

Dan Diamond

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 2/28/24

1. The Michigan primary was held on Tuesday. On the Republican side, Donald Trump cruised to victory over Nikki Haley, but on the Democratic side, all eyes were focused not on the candidates themselves but on the “Uncommitted,” ballot line. In recent days, activists and prominent progressive elected officials urged voters to register their opposition to President Biden’s support for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza by voting Uncommitted. The campaign set a goal of 10,000 Uncommitted votes; according to the New York Times they won over 100,000. The success of this protest vote movement in a key swing state should be setting off major alarm bells within the Biden campaign and hopefully will force the president to reckon with dissent to his Gaza policy from within his party.

2. On Sunday, U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell self immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, registering the ultimate protest against the ongoing slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. Just before igniting himself, Mr. Bushnell shouted “Free Palestine,” yet that did not stop mainstream outlets like the New York Times and NPR from obfuscating the motives of his sacrifice, with their coverage featuring lines like “NPR was not able to independently verify the man’s motives.” As Ryan Grim of the Intercept put it, “what more could he have done to make a point NPR would hear.” Rest in Power, Aaron Bushnell.

3. A new Institute for Social Policy and Understanding or ISPU poll, conducted between December 2023 and January 2024, found that majorities of all religious groups favor a ceasefire in Gaza. Support for a ceasefire is strongest among Muslim and Catholic Americans, with both groups reporting over 70% support. Support is weakest among Jewish Americans, yet 50% still favor a ceasefire, with only 34% opposed.In other words, President Biden giving a blank check to Israel is alienating Americans of all religious persuasions, including American Jews.

4. Signaling another troubling omen for Biden, a new poll of Black voters in Michigan, conducted by Howard University, shows the president’s support among African-Americans has dropped from 94% in 2020 to just 49% today. This is coupled with a tripling of support for Donald Trump, who now attracts 26% of Black voters.

5. On February 22nd, Representatives Jerry Nadler, Jamie Raskin, Dan Goldman, and 10 more Jewish members of Congress took the first step toward calling for a ceasefire, sending a letter urging the Biden Administration to “Facilitate [a] ceasefire in Gaza.” Many of these liberal members, including Nadler, Goldman, Raskin, and Becca Balint of Vermont have been the subjects of pressure campaigns by pro-Palestine activists to push them toward support for a ceasefire. Contrary to the headline however, this letter only calls for a temporary pause of hostilities.

6. Democracy Now! reports “Ireland’s senate unanimously voted last week to impose sanctions against Israel, prevent the passage of U.S. weapons to Israel via Irish airspace and advocate for an international arms embargo against Israel.” Ireland has been among the most vocal countries condemning the Israeli campaign of terror in Gaza, particularly in Europe. Irish Senator Frances Black is quoted in this piece saying “I remember one woman…she said that she was…from a human rights organization…And she said, 'Why have the international community abandoned us?' And those words stay with me.”

7. Lauren Kaori Gurley, who covers Labor for the Washington Post, reports that last week baristas at 21 Starbucks stores around the country filed for union elections. This is “the largest single-day filing since the campaign’s launch in 2021.” The location of these stores ranges from Brooklyn and Chicago to Grand Forks, North Dakota and Sulfur, Louisiana – demonstrating the popularity of unions throughout the nation. Starbucks has now agreed to recognize the union and work with their employees to forge a master contract.

8. In more labor news, the United Auto Workers union has announced they are allocating a stunning $40 million for new organizing through 2026. By contrast, the AFL-CIO pledged only $11 million annually for new organizing in 2022. UAW Region 9A leader Brandon Mancilla adds that “The UAW will provide material support to Mexican autoworker organizing and their independent union reform movement. We need to end the international race to the bottom. The Mexican working class is our ally, not our enemy.” And Luis Feliz Leon of Labor Notes reports that “Workers at Mercedes-Benz’s largest plant in the U.S. announced that a majority of their co-workers have signed union cards in support of joining the @UAW. Workers at Mercedes Benz's Alabama plant launched their organizing committee 60 days ago.”

9. In a major loss for local journalism, WAMU – Washington DC’s NPR member station, run out of American University – has shuttered it’s flagship publication, DCist. Per Washingtonian magazine, “DCist was originally owned by the company Gothamist. Joe Ricketts, the billionaire who bought it in 2017, shut down the site that same year after employees voted to unionize…The next year, two anonymous donations allowed WAMU to buy DCist.” The University said in a statement that this move represents “a new strategy to deepen engagement with Washingtonians…centered around audio and live experiences.”

10. Finally, St. Louis Public Radio reports that local Girl Scouts Troop 149 “decided to raise money for the humanitarian nonprofit Palestine Children’s Relief Fund…inspired by other Girl Scouts troops that raised money for war victims in Ukraine.” Yet, instead of backing this effort, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri responded with a legal threat, writing “Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri and Girl Scouts of the United States have no other choice than to engage our legal counsel to help remedy this situation and to protect the intellectual property and other rights of the organization.” Discouraged, the troop leaders opted to disband the troop. The national organization later apologized for their threat of legal action, but the troop leadership intend to remain disaffiliated from the group, and instead function as an independent troop. So far, they have raised over $10,000 for the PCRF.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Practical Radicals Feb 24, 2024

Ralph welcomes Professor Stephanie Luce of the City University of New York, who has co-authored “Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World,” and together they outline the challenges and the strategies that face underdogs trying to change the system. Plus, our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to discuss the death of Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny.

Stephanie Luce is Professor of Labor Studies at the School of Labor and Urban Studies, and Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center at City University of New York. Professor Luce is best known for her research on living wage campaigns and movements. She is the author of Fighting for a Living Wage and co-author of The Living Wage: Building a Fair Economy, and The Measure of Fairness. Her latest book, co-authored with Deepak Bhargava, is Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World.

We find it's actually hard to get people to imagine really liberatory worlds because we're so dominated by corporate culture and consumer culture and undemocratic functioning that it is hard to imagine a world that's different. So even just getting people to dream of a different possibility is a good start, and then we have to think about what kind of power it's going to take to make those changes.

Stephanie Luce

A lot of people critique [collective care as a strategy]. They think it's just about taking care of one another as part of life—that's what we do. We're arguing it can also be strategic because when done well, it enables people to engage in a fight in the long term. You can't go on strike if you don't have someone to watch your children, or if you don't have a strike fund. You can't risk arrest if you don't know if you have bail. So collective care is a way of taking care of one another, doing the things that enable us to take risks and to know people have our back. And that helps us up our militancy and strategy because we can take bigger risks and build the capacity for other kinds of struggle.

Stephanie Luce

There’s such a thing as the civic personality that is a huge Achilles’ heel of the drive to train people civically. You can train people civically… but if they don't have a civic personality, if they don't have fire in their bellies, so to speak, emotional intelligence, if they don't have a framework of a public philosophy, if they don't have a capacity for resilience to learn from their last mistakes, if they haven't controlled their ego so they can give credit to other people in their circle and set an example and motivate, if they're not willing to read and stay up to date with what's going on in their fields and in the area of their opponents, it doesn't matter how many skills they learn from our efforts.

Ralph Nader

[Alexei Navalny] was free. He knew he could have left [Russia]. He probably could have won a Nobel Peace Prize. He returned anyway. And the pride which I can express in such a human being is beyond words.

Bruce Fein

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 2/20/24

1. A diplomatic row is brewing between Israel and Brazil. On Sunday, leftist Brazilian President Lula compared Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza to Hitler’s genocide of the Jews during an address to the African Union. In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared that until he retracts his comments, Lula is “persona non grata in Israel.” Yet Lula does not intend to retract these comments, and has instead recalled the Brazilian ambassador to Israel. The Israeli campaign against Gaza has forced nearly all of its over 2 million inhabitants from their homes. This from Reuters.

2. On Monday, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights issued a report alleging “credible allegations of egregious human rights violations to which Palestinian women and girls continue to be subjected in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” According to this report, “Palestinian women and girls in detention have…been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence…photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.” Experts say “Taken together, these alleged acts may constitute grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, and amount to serious crimes under international criminal law that could be prosecuted under the Rome Statute.”

3. The anti-Biden “uncommitted” protest vote campaign in Michigan continues to pick up steam. On Valentine’s Day, the New York Times reported that Our Revolution – the Bernie Sanders legacy political operation – has endorsed the campaign. Our Revolution joins other prominent new boosters, such as Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and former Representative Andy Levin. In her video endorsing the campaign, Tlaib says “It is important…not only to march against the genocide, not only make sure we’re calling our members of Congress … it is also important to create a voting bloc, something that is a bullhorn to say enough is enough.”

4. On February 15th, the African Methodist Episcopal, or AME Church Council of Bishops issued a statement calling for the “Immediate Withdrawal of Financial Support from Israel.” This major step from a prominent Black faith group is an indication that the genocidal Israeli campaign in Gaza is alienating significant factions of the Democratic Party coalition. The statement reads “Since 1954, Israel has shown a willful disregard for the human dignity of Palestinians. Since October 7, 2023, in retaliation for the brutal murder of 1139 Israeli citizens by Hamas, Israel has murdered over 28,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The United States is supporting this mass genocide. This

must not be allowed to continue.

There must be an immediate and permanent ceasefire between these two communities. We call for a solution to be negotiated by genuine representatives of the people of Israel and Palestine and condemn all violence as a means of resolving this conflict. Surely there is a grassroots solution that affirms the dignity and humanity of all God’s people in Palestine and Israel. The tools of empire, colonialism, and domination will not solve the problems they created. The cycle of violence between historically wounded peoples will not be dissolved by the creation of more wounds or through weapons of war. We remain in solidarity with Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a Palestinian Jew, and the Prince of Peace.

We weep for the suffering being inflicted upon the children of God in the Holy Land and all the earth. We cry for freedom and implore those who say they love God to demonstrate a tangible love for their neighbors. We will travail in prayer and pursue justice until freedom reigns for all.”

5. Semafor reports that Pro-Israel groups are engaging in targeted harassment of mainstream American journalists perceived as too critical of Israel. This story focuses on Washington Post foreign correspondent Lousia Loveluck, and documents how SKDK – a D.C. PR firm close to the Biden administration – has dug into Loveluck’s background, including unrelated protests she attended before becoming a journalist. While the Washington Post defended Loveluck’s reporting, they did not defend her personally – setting a dangerous precedent for intimidation of American journalists by Israel-aligned groups.

6. The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that “An embryo created through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is a child protected by Alabama’s wrongful death act and the Alabama Constitution.” Specifically, the court ruled that the “parents of frozen embryos killed at an IVF clinic when an intruder tampered with an IVF freezer may proceed with a wrongful death lawsuit against the clinic for alleged negligence.” Yet in a broader sense, this means that IVF clinics will be legally liable for the death of embryos fertilized through IVF – likely spelling the end of IVF in the state. This from 1819 News.

7. A stunning report from the Center for Climate Integrity, published in the Guardian, reveals that the plastics industry has deliberately misled the public for years, claiming that their products are continuously and sustainably recyclable – all the while knowing that “recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution [to plastics], as it merely prolongs the time until an item is disposed of”. Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity puts it simply: “The companies lied…It’s time to hold them accountable for the damage they’ve caused.”

8. REI, the company given constant adulation by the liberal press, is union busting. From the REI Union SoHo, “On Feb 15, REI announced it will be withholding annual merit pay increases from our store and all unionized [REI] stores across the Co-op.” Unionized workers walked off the job in protest of this blatant anti-union move.

9. AP reports Amazon has joined SpaceX and Trader Joe’s in arguing that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional. We have discussed this corporate stratagem on this show before and noted that more corporations, particularly those facing unionization efforts, were likely to adopt this legal argument. Seth Goldstein, a lawyer representing the Amazon Labor Union and Trader Joe’s United, said “Since [these companies] can’t defeat successful union organizing, they now want to just destroy the whole process.”

10. Finally, in some positive labor news, Michigan has become the first state in 60 years to overturn its so-called “right to work” law, the Nation reports. Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber is quoted saying “This moment has been decades in the making…By standing up and taking their power back, at the ballot box and in the workplace, workers have made it clear Michigan is and always will be the beating heart of the modern American labor movement.” Beyond overturning right to work, Michigan has also “restored prevailing-wage protections for construction workers, expanded collective bargaining rights for public school employees, and restored organizing rights for graduate student research assistants at the state’s public colleges and universities.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Labor for a Ceasefire/ Trump's Cult of Personality Feb 17, 2024

Ralph is joined by labor activist Gene Bruskin to discuss how labor leaders are joining with Progressive lawmakers to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, and the true meaning of solidarity. Then Ralph welcomes Rick Perlstein— historian, chronicler of American conservativism, and author of Nixonland—to explain Donald Trump's iron grip on the Republican Party.

Gene Bruskin is a veteran of the labor movement as a local union president, organizer, and campaign coordinator for numerous local and national unions. He has done extensive international labor solidarity work, including with Iraqi workers and unions, and is a founder of US Labor Against the War. He is also a member of the National Labor Network for a Ceasefire.

Never in the 140 year history of the labor movement—starting with the A.F.L. formation in 1885—has there been such a broad-scale resistance to U.S. government policy in the middle of a conflict like this. It's just never happened before.

Gene Bruskin

The labor movement has to understand that there's a lot of contradictions in the Democratic Party and we cannot allow the party to define our interests. And on foreign policy, the idea has been long time proposed in the labor movement that our national interests require us to do “this” kind of foreign policy or “this” war… But really what we did in our organization U.S. Labor Against the War during the Iraq War—where we actually built real solidarity with Iraqi workers and brought them all over the country here—was we said the national interest of the corporations is not the same as the national interest of the average worker.

Gene Bruskin

Someday we will see that when unions endorse Democratic presidents, they make demands in return. They should not have simply endorsed Biden—as the U.A.W. did, and others—without demanding a public commitment.

Ralph Nader

Rick Perlstein is a historian and chronicler of American conservativism. He is the author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, and Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980.

These feelings of dispossession, of vulnerability, of weakness really get at the darkest and most easily-manipulated parts of the human mind that are based on the most primal fears. Stuff like fears of snakes, fear of cockroaches, fear of dark things that go bump in the night. And those are there in our brains, they're in the lowest parts of our brains. And what the Republican Party has been doing for decades… is they're exploiting that animal part of the brain in order to aggrandize their own power. And it's really, really scary. And one of the things that makes it, again, so scary is it is precisely not amenable to rational persuasion.

Rick Perlstein

The Democratic Party is not the kind of party that says, “Wow, we can use this and sustain these things that we were able to put in during an emergency to shore up our power forever.” Instead, as soon as they had the chance, they took them away.

Rick Perlstein

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 2/14/24

1. On Monday, the Senate voted through a mammoth $95 billion foreign aid package furnishing American assistance to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan. Beyond arming Israel however, this bill also bans funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, one of the key agencies providing relief to Palestinians in Gaza – even as starvation in Gaza deepens to lethal levels – and removes previous requirements that the president inform Congress of additional weapons transfers to Israel. Voting against the bill, Senator Merkley of Oregon said “The campaign conducted by the Netanyahu government is at odds with our American values & American law…I cannot vote to send more bombs & shells to Israel when they are using them in an indiscriminate manner against Palestinian civilians.” In another speech, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said “Kids in Gaza are now dying from the deliberate withholding of food. In addition to the horror of that news, one other thing is true, that is a war crime. It is a textbook war crime. And that makes those who orchestrate it war criminals.” Yet, despite correctly identifying the Israeli starvation campaign as a war crime, Van Hollen voted in favor of the arms package. The bill now moves to the House, which failed to advance it just last week. House Speaker Mike Johnson has gone on record saying he opposes the package because it does not address immigration at the southern border.

2. In Michigan, a movement is underway to deny Joe Biden the state’s delegates, by encouraging voters to check the box for “uncommitted” in the upcoming Democratic primary. So far, over 30 Democratic elected officials in the state have cosigned this movement, including Mayor Abdullah H. Hammoud of Dearborn and Representative Abraham Aiyash, Majority Leader in the Michigan House. This list is expected to grow as Biden’s untempered support for Israel puts Michigan Democrats on increasingly perilous footing. More information is available at ListentoMichigan.com.

3. If you’re a Hulu subscriber, you may have seen the pro-Israel propaganda the streamer has been running. Put simply, the ad – created by Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate – begins like a tourist ad for Gaza – using AI-generated images – and then shifts to showing the reality on the ground there, ascribing all blame for conditions in Gaza to Hamas, with no mention of the fact that Israel has blockaded Gaza and turned it into what major human rights groups call “the world’s largest open air prison.” With this ad running constantly, locals in Los Angeles have mobilized to protest Hulu’s offices, a rare escalation that the company would be wise not to ignore. This from Vice.

4. Two stunning stories on Boeing: in an LA Times article, Ed Pierson – a former Boeing senior manager – is quoted saying “I would absolutely not fly a Max airplane...I’ve worked in the factory where they were built, and I saw the pressure employees were under to rush the planes out the door. I tried to get them to shut down before the first crash.” Joe Jacobsen, a former engineer at Boeing and the FAA, said “I would tell my family to avoid the Max. I would tell everyone, really.” Meanwhile, the American Prospect reports that the lawyer who exposed Epstein’s sweetheart deal with Alex Acosta has sued the Department of Justice, in an attempt to force disclosure of what is in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement reached by Boeing and the Trump administration following the 737 MAX crashes. We hope this recidivist corporation finally gets its comeuppance.

5. The Federal Communications Commission has issued a rule banning AI-generated voices in robocalls. Specifically, the commission expressed grave concern about the potential for manipulation of voters in the upcoming presidential election. AI-generated voices in these calls would likely be capable of deceiving voters into thinking that public figures had endorsed a particular candidate when they have not.

6. Gothamist reports at least 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority have been arrested on bribery and corruption charges. According to the report, “superintendents, assistant superintendents and other NYCHA officials accepted more than $2 million in kickbacks from contractors in exchange for over $13 million in NYCHA business across at least 100 developments.” These corrupt bureaucrats manipulated no-bid contracts in a “pay-to-play” scheme to grant these contracts to contractors that paid them off. Federal prosecutors are calling this “the largest single-day bribery takedown in the history of the justice department.”

7. According to More Perfect Union, “Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont says his state will purchase $1 billion of residents' medical debt for just $6.5 million. Then he will cancel it all, abolishing medical debt for 250,000 people. This is the first time a state has forgiven medical debt at a massive scale.” This demonstrates what is possible for Democrats at the state and federal level. No excuses.

8. UFCW Local 400 reports that the FRESHFARM workers have ratified their first contract. This marks the culmination of the first-in-the-nation successful farmer’s market unionization effort. Among other provisions, this contract includes “Higher wages…Vacation time…Improved workplace conditions and safety standards…[and] Grievance and arbitration procedures.” Yuval Lev, a market operator who was on the union’s bargaining committee said “We’re proud to codify these hard-fought gains in this historic contract and continue doing the work we love to serve the community.”

9. VOX reports the U.S. has been pressuring Mexican President AMLO to help stem the flow of migrants across their northern border. But, signaling that Mexico will no longer blindly do the bidding of the United States, AMLO has demanded certain conditions from the U.S. if they want his help. These include “suspending the US blockade of Cuba, dropping all sanctions against Venezuela, and giving work permits and protection from deportation to at least 10 million Hispanic people living in the US.” Yet, this eminently reasonable set of demands is considered a non-starter within the Washington foreign policy consensus.

10. Finally, Pope Francis has responded to conservative critics blasting him for allowing the church to bless same-sex marriages. Speaking to Italian newspaper La Stampa, Pope Francis said “No one is scandalized if I give my blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people: and this is a very serious sin. But they get scandalized if I give it to a homosexual….This is hypocrisy!”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Slanted Opinions on Gaza/One Family’s Tragedy Feb 10, 2024

Ralph welcomes Janine Jackson, of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) and producer and host of FAIR’s syndicated weekly radio show “CounterSpin” to give us her take on the corporate media landscape and in particular how the major outlets are opining on the crisis in Gaza. Then, Palestinian American, Dr. Tariq Haddad, cardiologist and member of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights joins us to recount the tragic story ofhow he has lost nearly one hundred family members in the current Israeli bombardment.

Janine Jackson is the program director of FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) and she is the producer and host of FAIR’s syndicated weekly radio show CounterSpin. Ms. Jackson contributes frequently to FAIR’s newsletter Extra!, her articles have appeared in various publications, including In These Times and the UAW’s Solidarity, and in books including Civil Rights Since 1787 and Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism.

What I like to say is: we hear a lot from the people we hear a lot from. The conversation becomes kind of insular, and it's very much a pro-U.S. and whatever the U.S. is doing position, with some criticism around the edges. But the point is, you're not hearing from the people who are recipients/victims of U.S. policy. You're hearing overwhelmingly from the people who make that policy.

Janine Jackson

If you just read the New York Times and the Washington Post, the U.S. is the world. We're the only good country in the world. Anything we do is democracy. Anybody we bomb, we're bombing in service to democracy. And you're just supposed to keep swallowing that. And I feel that elite news media don't understand that people are not buying it. We're not buying it anymore.

Janine Jackson

What [Dr. Tariq Haddad] relates is not going to be easy to take for our listeners, but bear with us, listeners. We have to face up to it because it's your tax dollars, it's your US weapons… and cover—diplomatic and political—that is what Netanyahu wants and gets. The rest is just deceptive rhetoric.

Ralph Nader

Dr. Tariq Haddad is a cardiologist and member of the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights— a broadly based, growing coalition of 19 organizations, with over 10,000 Virginians from diverse backgrounds, who advocate for Palestinian human rights. Dr. Haddad grew up in Gaza.

For the last four months, my routine has been basically every morning finding out who's died, who's survived, who's suffering, who needs help, and it's been a constant daily thing starting from October.

Dr. Tariq Haddad

I couldn't bring myself as a human being—forget as a physician—couldn't bring myself to meet with somebody (Secretary of State, Antony Blinken) for a photo op as a grandstanding opportunity, knowing full well what this administration has done to cause suffering and death in my family. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. And I just—especially given three minutes. How am I, in three minutes, going to describe everything that's happened to my family and all my fellow Palestinians in Gaza?

Dr. Tariq Haddad

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 2/7/24

1. Eminent scholar Professor William Youmans, working with the Arab Center Washington DC, has published a study examining media bias on Gaza in the context of Sunday talk shows – including NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’ Face the Nation, ABC’s This Week and Fox News Sunday. This study found significant “patterns of bias in guest booking, in the range of views expressed by guests, and in the framing of issues,” signifying “an abandonment of the ideal that news media’s purpose is to scrutinize government policies and the actions of those in power and to inform the public so it can forge independent opinions.”

2. A groundbreaking report from the Lever has revealed many of AIPAC’s top donors, including such shady characters as Leonid Ravinsky, the billionaire behind the amateur pornography site OnlyFans, and Leslie Wexner, former CEO of Victoria’s Secret and a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. This information came from a donors-only call that Lever journalists infiltrated. Also on that call was New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who said pro-ceasefire members of Congress are being misled by misinformation from “TikTok and China and Russia and our other adversaries.”

3. 19student activists at Brown University have begun a hunger strike, demanding that the university divest “its endowment from companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza," the Providence Journal reports. The group, called Hunger Strike for Palestine, includes both Jewish and Palestinian students. Brown has invested in weapons manufacturing companies such Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon, among others. In a transparent attempt to suppress this story, the University is blocking media access to the campus.

4. Over 1,000 constituents of Representative Dan Goldman have signed a letter excoriating the Democratic Congressman for aligning himself with Republican efforts to discredit South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, per the Intercept. The letter reads “Despite vehement and overwhelming opposition from your constituents and the alarming and escalating death toll that has now passed 26,000 Palestinians killed, including several thousand children, it is unfathomable that you persist in endorsing the U.S.’s continued support for these atrocities.” Goldman was a top recipient of AIPAC cash last month, receiving $45,400.

5. Following a mammoth general strike against President Javier Milei’s radical capitalist economic policies in Argentina, the country’s courts have “annulled the entire labor chapter of…Milei’s mega-decree, declaring its ‘constitutional invalidity,’” Progressive International reports. Among other controversial provisions, Milei’s labor decree would have retaliated against workers who have engaged in certain forms of political protest.

6. The Intercept’s Ryan Grim has, for some time, been covering the story of Imran Khan – Pakistan’s popular former president who has been the target of political repression and a lightning rod of civil resistance in that country. Just recently, Khan’s party was formally barred from the upcoming Pakistani elections. Interestingly, this is a similar set of facts as in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro has also barred an opposition party from competing in their upcoming election. Yet, as Grim comments, the disparity in the American response is stark: “Pakistan… convict[s] the main opposition leader on totally bogus charges and…ban[s] his party. State Dep[artmen]t calls that an internal matter for Pakistan. Maduro does similar, citing a coup attempt, and State instantly dishes out sanctions.”

7. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a progressive former teacher in Chicago public schools, now publicly supports ending the Board of Education’s $10.3 million contract with the Chicago Police Department, thereby removing cops from the city’s schools. According to research on this topic, “students who attended a high school that had a Chicago officer stationed inside were four times more likely to have the police called on them than kids at high schools that didn’t have in-house cops. And there [is] a stark divide in the rate at which Black students [are] policed compared to their peers.” Additionally “the presence of school officers has also not proven to prevent school shootings.” This from the Chicago Sun-Times.

8. More Perfect Union reports “Mississippi has approved bills to give Amazon a 10-year, 100% corporate tax exemption, plus 30 years of state tax exemptions. Lawmakers also set aside $44 million to help fund Amazon's latest project in the state.” This corporate welfare giveaway is all the more galling because, as More Perfect Union notes, “Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in America.” One can only hope this vote does not kickoff another race to the bottom for Amazon’s crumbs among the other poorest states in the union.

9. Bloomberg reports that the United Auto Workers union has signed up a majority of employees at Volkswagen’s plant in Tennessee. Expansion of the union into plants owned by foreign auto companies has been a top priority for new UAW president Shawn Fain, and a union election at this factory would be key test for the industry and the union. Moreover, the speed at which they have organized majority support will no doubt put other non-union auto companies – namely Elon Musk’s Tesla – on notice.

10. Finally, speaking of Elon Musk, the AP reports a Delaware judge ruled against the billionaire in a recent case, deciding that he is “not entitled to a landmark compensation package awarded by Tesla’s board of directors that is potentially worth more than $55 billion.” Lawyers for the shareholders argued that it was “dictated by Musk and was the product of sham negotiations with [non-independent] directors … [and] approved by shareholders who were given misleading and incomplete disclosures in a proxy statement.” This all begs the question, how crooked do you have to be to lose a corporate case in Delaware?

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Mad as Hell Feb 03, 2024

Ralph welcomes Eva Borgwardt from the grassroots Jewish-American organization IfNotNow to bust the myth that Palestinian rights and Jewish safety are mutually exclusive. Then, Ralph is joined by CPA and corporate accountability advocate Dr. Ralph Estes to discuss his book “Fight the Corpocracy, Take Back Democracy: A Mad As Hell Guide for the 99%."

Eva Borgwardt is the national spokesperson for IfNotNow, a grassroots Jewish-American organization that is dedicated to ending U.S. support for Israel's apartheid system and demanding equality, justice, and a thriving future for all Palestinians and Israelis.

It's terrifying for Jews, for Muslims, for any marginalized community in the US—so many people would be vulnerable and under existential threat under a Trump presidency. And so I'm very clear-eyed about that. And I'm furious with President Biden, who seems to be willing to risk that scenario by insisting on sending unconditional aid and unconditional diplomatic support for this assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza led by Netanyahu's rightwing government.

Eva Borgwardt

There's a key concept that's happening—especially among young people—which is that you can't manufacture consent with a population that has social media and direct access to what Palestinians are experiencing…And the immediacy of that horrific situation is very, very clear for a much wider swath of the American public than has had access to that type of information before.

Eva Borgwardt

Investors do not create corporations, they finance them. All corporations are created by the state. And that's often missed by the public in the description of private enterprise. It's viewed like it's sui generis—someone figures out a thing to produce or a service and goes around raising capital and starts a corporation. And what Ralph Estes is saying is the essence of the corporation—the reason why it's allowed to have limited liability for its shareholders, the reason why it has so many privileges and immunities—is because it was originally supposed to fulfill public purposes.

Ralph Nader

Dr. Ralph Estes is Emeritus professor of business and accounting at American University in Washington, D.C., organizer of the Stakeholder Alliance, co-founder and vice president of The Center for Advancement of Public Policy, and Emeritus Trustee at the Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author of several books, including Tyranny of the Bottom Line: Why Corporations Make Good People Do Bad Things and Fight the Corpocracy, Take Back Democracy: A Mad As Hell Guide for the 99%.

When I was in accounting, I learned one thing…Your goodwill, your persuasion, your humanness—these things, they've all got the lip service for it, they've got the words, but it doesn't cause action. I discovered what causes action is embarrassment. Corporate executives do not want to be embarrassed.

Dr. Ralph Estes

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Grassroots Groups for Gaza Jan 27, 2024

Ralph welcomes leaders from two grassroots groups advocating against the war on Gaza. First, from Tel Aviv, we are joined by Ido Setter of “Standing Together” a movement aimed at mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice. Then, here in America, Stefanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice For Peace, reports on their work taking action in Congress, on the streets, and in the press to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Ido Setter works on Standing Together's digital mobilization team. Standing Together is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice.

For the last two decades, the Israeli government and Israel as a state didn't offer any kind of hope for the Palestinian. There wasn't another serious peace process, no serious talks, and basically the Israeli government said to Palestinians, “Listen, this is how things are going to be. Deal with it.” And when you don't offer any hope, people will go to extreme places. So what happened on October 7th was, of course, a strategic collapse. But it was also an accumulation of the past two decades, where Israel didn't think that moving forward with a peace treaty or some kind of a peace agreement with the Palestinian people was an imperative.

Ido Setter

Nothing stays on one side of the border. Everything that happens on the Palestinian side of the border eventually comes back to the Israeli side of the border… We need to stop right now what's happening at the current moment in Gaza, have compassion, and move in the opposite direction that Benjamin Netanyahu and his hawkish government is trying to lead us.

Ido Setter

Stefanie Fox is Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, which is one of the largest Jewish anti-Zionist organizations in the world.

There is a large and growing community of faith leaders, of rabbis, of synagogues, of many, many Jews who are working to build a Judaism liberated from Zionism. And so there's probably 10 synagogues across the country that are anti- or non-Zionist. There are dozens of independent spiritual communities we call Chavurot that are connected (or not) to Jewish Voice for Peace. There's a burgeoning and growing movement to fight for the soul of Judaism, to fight for the future of our communities. And we have millennia of Jewish tradition—that predate the founding of the state of Israel and the movement of political Zionism—to lean on and to extend into a future where we are not bound up and made complicit in support for a genocidal ethno-state.

Stefanie Fox

The term ‘semite’ comes out of 19th century scientific racism. It's not really something in any moment in history that anybody has actually used to describe themselves. It's only a racist term. And so, the term ‘antisemitism’ does refer to the bigotry and discrimination that emerged out of that racist classification system. And at its root it comes from the same white supremacy in which anti Palestinian racism and erasure and Zionism itself were born… And of course, antisemitism is real. There's real hatred and bigotry and discrimination against Jews. The point is that antisemitism and white supremacy and Zionism emerge from the same root of exclusionary ethno-nationalist racialized state building.

Stefanie Fox

In order for [President Biden and the US Congress] not to ask for a ceasefire, they are engaged in hostilities now—the U.S. that is—against the Houthis in Yemen. They are bombing in Iraq and Syria. It's quite a price the U.S. is paying…because if there were a ceasefire, there'd be no Houthi assailing of shipping in the Red Sea. There would be no missiles with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 1/24/24

1. Just Foreign Policy reports that there is dissent brewing among Obama foreign policy alumni regarding President Biden’s air war on the Yemeni Houthis. Former Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, considered Obama’s foreign policy guru, called the campaign “a dangerous escalation,” and further stated "We have no legal basis to be doing that.” Rhodes, joined by former National Security Council Spokesman Tommy Vietor, are thus aligned with the dozens of groups – including the Friends Committee on National Legislation, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and World BEYOND War, among many others – which signed a letter calling for an end to the campaign. Representative Ro Khanna, writing in the Nation, argues that “President Biden has both the constitutional obligation and a political imperative to seek congressional authorization for proposed hostilities,” but is quick to note that “ it is…not too late to pursue a more effective approach…which happens to be wildly popular with voters—regional diplomacy and statesmanship.” Asked "Are the airstrikes in Yemen working?" President Biden himself replied “are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they gonna continue? Yes," per Just Foreign Policy.

2. Following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement ruling out a two-state solution, more Senate Democrats are warming up to the idea of imposing conditions on military aid to Israel. Yahoo! News reports that 18 Senate Democrats now support “an amendment that would require that any country receiving funding in the supplemental [aid package] use the money in accordance with U.S. law, international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict,” with five Senators – Tina Smith, Tammy Baldwin, Laphonza Butler, Jon Ossoff, and Raphael Warnock – adding their names after Netanyahu’s comments, per Jewish Insider. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been non-committal, with the Times of Israel reporting that he said “the Democratic caucus is still discussing the best way forward, regarding conditioning aid to Israel.”

3. The Huffington Post reports controversial Biden Middle East advisor Brett McGurk may have earned a target on his back from Congressional Progressives. A draft letter from Congressional Democrats to Biden demanding McGurk’s resignation is already circulating, with sources saying frustration with McGurk “has reached a boiling point.” McGurk’s signature Middle East policy has been his attempted marriage of Israel and Saudi Arabia, even going so far as to push “U.S. officials to tie the future of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza to the prospective Saudi-Israel deal.” Other officials, speaking anonymously, called the plan “delusionally optimistic.” However, while Progressives may well claim McGurk’s political scalp, some worry that he could become a scapegoat for administration-wide policy on Palestine.

4. Harvard, caving to attacks from the likes of Larry Summers and billionaire Bill Ackman, has established an “Antisemitism taskforce.” However, this has not stopped the bad-faith attacks on the university, with that same coterie now alleging that the co-chair of the task force – Professor of Jewish History Derek J. Penslar – is insufficiently Zionist, per the Crimson. Penslar has previously signed a letter stating “‘Israel’s long-standing occupation’ of Gaza [has] resulted in a ‘regime of apartheid,’” and rejects the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which includes anti-Zionism. Summers wrote that Penslar is “unsuited” to lead the task force; meanwhile the American Academy for Jewish Research writes “Professor Penslar is a prolific scholar with a stellar international reputation, whose numerous books address the historical development of many of the topics raising rancor at our universities today: antisemitism, Zionism, Jews and the military, and the history of Israel.” Responding to Summers, Professor Steven Levitsky, who is Jewish, said “Larry Summers…is not representative of a majority of Jews at Harvard,” adding “That guy is batshit crazy — and you can quote me on that.”

5. U.S. District Judge William Young has blocked the planned merger of Spirit Airlines and Jetblue Airways, arguing the acquisition would “‘substantially lessen competition’ in violation of the Clayton Act, which ‘was designed to prevent anticompetitive harms for consumers,’” per the Hill. President Biden praised the decision in a statement, saying “Today’s ruling is a victory for consumers everywhere who want lower prices and more choices. My Administration will continue to fight to protect consumers and enforce our antitrust laws.” The Department of Justice has been fighting this merger since March 2023.

6. The New Republic reports “Earlier this month, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released an explosive report documenting that Donald Trump’s businesses pocketed at least $7.8 million in payments from foreign governments during his presidency.” Yet, House Democrats are powerless to subpoena witnesses to further investigate this report because Republicans hold the majority. Ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Jamie Raskin, has been pushing Senate Democrats – who hold the gavels in that chamber – to issue subpoenas. Yet these Senate Democrats have hesitated to do so. We urge these powerful Democratic committee chairs to use their subpoena power. The American people deserve to know if their president profited from foreign dealings at their expense.

7. Public Citizen reports “the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] plans to crack down on banks charging ridiculous overdraft fees. Their proposal would cap overdraft fees at $3 and close the loophole that allows banks to take advantage of Americans who are already struggling.” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is quoted saying “Decades ago, overdraft loans got special treatment to make it easier for banks to cover paper checks that were often sent through the mail…Today, we are proposing rules to close a longstanding loophole that allowed many large banks to transform overdraft into a massive junk fee harvesting machine." According to the CFPB’s statement, “The proposed rule would apply to insured financial institutions with more than $10 billion in assets… The CFPB estimates that this rule may save consumers $3.5 billion or more in fees per year.”

8. California Senate candidate Barbara Lee has picked up the endorsement of the statewide McClatchy editorial board, including major Golden State papers like the Sacramento Bee. In their announcement of the endorsement, the Bee wrote “Barbara Lee stood out from the rest. Her independence, her perseverance in fighting for the underdog and her life experiences set her apart.” Confirming this assessment, just this week Congresswoman Lee was kicked out of a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Cuba for arguing in favor of normalizing diplomatic relations.

9. The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against Trader Joe’s for the company’s attempted union busting. Based on a 2022 unfair labor practice charge, the complaint alleges the company shuttered their New York City wine store in order to avoid impending unionization, in addition to “subject[ing] employees to interrogation, threaten[ing] to cut their benefits and [telling] them deciding to join a union would be ‘futile,’” Grocery Dive reports. The United Food and Commercial Workers union praised the decision, writing “Trader Joe’s shamelessly and illegally engaged in union busting to scare Trader Joe’s workers across the region and stop these workers from having a voice on the job. We applaud the NLRB’s decision …and look forward to holding Trader Joe’s accountable for their egregious anti-worker behavior.” Possible remedies the board could utilize include compelling the company to reopen the store.

10. Finally, he Intercept reports Republicans Glen Grothman and Marco Rubio have put forward a bill to provide pensions to citizens who worked for Air America. But just what was Air America? The generically named airline was in fact a CIA cutout which “has been accused of running weapons and even…drugs in Southeast Asia.” The faux airline also played a key role in the CIA’s operations in Laos and Cambodia, among the darkest chapters in American covert ops history. Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes told the Intercept “The whole point of Air America was to kill Communists.” Ironically, as the piece points out, these are the same Republicans who decry the so-called “deep state.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Conscientious Objector/Israeli Agents Jan 20, 2024

Attribution: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages

Ralph welcomes Josh Paul, the State Department official who resigned in protest over the Biden Administration’s policy of unconditional arms transfers to Israel in the response to the attacks of October 7th. Then, investigative reporter, James Bamford joins us to discuss his deep dive into how the Israeli government has recruited Americans as foreign agents to troll, dox, and blacklist college students and professors who dare to criticize Israeli policies.

Josh Paul served 11 years in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the US Department of State, before his resignation on October 17, 2023. Mr. Paul previously worked on security sector reform in both Iraq and the West Bank, with additional roles in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, US Army Staff, and as a congressional staffer.

I have spoken with a number of members of Congress in the last few months and—even for those who haven't publicly called for a ceasefire—many are willing to acknowledge behind closed doors that yes, actually, they do believe that Israelis are committing war crimes, but they will not say it publicly. And that just seems to me such a moral abdication of the purposes for which you were elected. If you know something to be a fact, if you know the U.S. to be complicit in facilitating war crimes, but are unwilling to say it because you are afraid of how your donors might react or how your next election might go, why are you even in Congress?

Josh Paul

It is interesting that the United States places control of arms transfers and security assistance within the State Department. That is a different model than most of our allies follow… And there is an advantage to putting them in the State Department, so that they can be considered as tools of foreign policy along with other diplomatic tools such as economic assistance, such as of course diplomatic engagement. So there is an advantage there, but of course there is also inherently by doing so a militarization of foreign policy. Particularly when we look at the massive amount of funding that is provided for military assistance. And of course, the way that that providing that assistance then links us to the actions of our partners, whether we want to be complicit in those actions or not.

Josh Paul

It's been said that in the last three months, the pro-Palestinian people in the United States have controlled the streets, but the pro-Netanyahu people in the United States have controlled the suites in Congress and the Executive branch.

Ralph Nader

I think some of these (American) groups should be arrested for being agents of a foreign government. I mean, if you're an American and you're contributing money and support to a clandestine foreign operation or clandestine foreign agency of a foreign government, then that's pretty much the definition of being an agent of a foreign government.

James Bamford

[People] get put on this blacklist—the Canary Mission list—and their job opportunities are extremely limited. Because if anybody goes for a job and their employer looks on the internet, one of the first things they'll see is that their name is on this blacklist where they're called a variety of names basically for doing something that's basically honorable.

James Bamford

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

* On Tuesday, Senator Bernie Sanders forced a vote on Section 502B of the Foreign Assistance Act, which, if passed, could have resulted in the United States cutting off military aid to Israel, the Intercept reports. While this attempt failed by a wide margin - 72-11 – it did win the support of Senators Laphonza Butler of California, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, and Peter Welch of Vermont, along with Rand Paul the lone Republican to back the effort. However, as Andrew O’Neil, policy director for Indivisible, put it “It’s frankly historic that this vote took place at all…The number of senators willing to take a vote like this even weeks ago, on the face of it, would have been zero.”

* 384 leaders from around the globe, led by Representative Ilhan Omar and German politician Sevim Dağdelen, have signed a letter calling for “an immediate, multilateral ceasefire in Israel and Palestine, the release of all the remaining Israeli and international hostages, and the facilitation of humanitarian aid entry into Gaza,” per the Guardian. The letter continues “We further urge our own respective governments and the international community to uphold international law and seek accountability for grave violations of human rights.” Further American signatories include Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, André Carson, Greg Casar, Chuy García, Hank Johnson, Summer Lee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Nydia Velázquez and Bonnie Watson Coleman, who are joined by British progressive icon Jeremy Corbyn and politicians from Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

* Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush have issued a statement of support for South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The representatives write “We unequivocally join world leaders and international human rights organizations in support of South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice alleging Israel violated the Genocide Convention. There must be an end to the violence—and there must be accountability for the blatant human rights abuses and mass atrocities occurring in the region. The historical significance of a post-apartheid state filing this case must not be lost, and the moral weight of their prerogative cannot be dismissed. The United States has a devastating role in the ongoing violence in Gaza, where already over 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, more than 59,000 injured, and millions have been displaced. We must refuse to be silent as the majority of the world is calling for an end to the violence and mass human suffering, and the need for accountability. As one of the countries that has agreed to the Genocide Convention, the U.S. must stop trying to discredit and undermine this case and the international legal system it claims to support. Our commitment to protecting the human rights of all people must be unconditional. The best time to make a conclusive determination on genocide is when there is still time to stop it, not after. We will continue pushing for a lasting ceasefire, full accountability, and a just and lasting peace for everyone.”

* The South African attorney Wikus Van Rensburg has formally delivered a letter to the leadership of the United States outlining that his firm “intend[s] to bring legal proceedings against the U.S. Government based on overwhelming evidence that the [it] has, and is, aiding, abetting and supporting, encouraging or providing material assistance and means to…the Israeli Defense Forces…enabl[ing]...crimes against the Palestinian people.” Legal advocates like Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein have long sounded the alarm that American support for Israel’s actions in Gaza are in breach of international law, but it remains to be seen whether the U.S. will stand trial at the Hague for their support of this genocidal campaign. This from Al-Mayadeen.

* Al-Mayadeen also reports “in a rare show of dissent, US federal employees from nearly 22 agencies are planning a walkout to protest the Biden administration's handling of the war on Gaza.” This report attributes organization of this walkout to a group called “Feds United for Peace” and the walkout is “expected to draw participants from key agencies, including the Executive Office of the President, the National Security Agency, and the Departments of State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Veterans Affairs…[along with the] Food and Drug Administration…the National Park Service, the Federal Aviation Administration…and the Environmental Protection Agency.” Axios reports that Congressional Republicans are planning to retaliate against these workers exercising their free speech rights, with Speaker Johnson, saying “Any government worker who walks off the job to protest U.S. support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers…They deserve to be fired."

* The Intercept published an interview with teenage Israelis who are refusing conscription into the IDF. These young “refuseniks,” almost all part of the group Mesarvot – Hebrew for “we refuse” – have been resisting conscription since the large-scale protests against the Netanyahu government last year, when over 230 of them signed a letter stating “The dictatorship that has existed for decades in the territories is now seeping into Israel and against us…This trend did not start now — it is inherent to the regime of occupation and Jewish supremacy. The masks are simply coming off.” However, these courageous young people are facing an increasingly hostile environment in Israel due to their refusal to serve. We offer them our solidarity.

* In a massive blow to journalism, the Baltimore Sun has been sold to David Smith, the Baltimore Banner reports. Smith serves as executive chairman of Sinclair Inc., which owns more than 200 television stations nationwide and has been criticized for pushing uniform, Right-wing narratives through these channels. In addition to the Sun, Smith purchased its affiliated papers, including “The Capital and Maryland Gazette newspapers in Annapolis, the Carroll County Times, the Howard County Times and the Towson Times.”

* The Lever has dropped a stunning report on “How Boeing Bought Washington,” which lays out the influence network the embattled airline has cultivated in the Beltway. The top-line numbers alone are eye-popping, with Boeing & Spirit AeroSystems spending over $65 million on lobbying and campaign donations over just four years. More insidious however is what they got for this money, namely safety waivers enabling them to keep unsafe planes in the sky. This report also touches on the case of Republican Congressman Ron Estes of Kansas, a top recipient of this campaign cash, who pressured the FAA to reinstate the 737 MAX – and Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, who received nearly $200,000 from the company and then dutifully “pushed through legislation to exempt Boeing’s 737 MAX…from a looming safety deadline that would have required changes in their alerting systems…despite concerns from the families of the passengers who died in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.”

* Josh Eidelson, Labor reporter at Bloomberg, is out with two major updates on the United Auto Workers new campaigns. One, Bloomberg reports the union has “signed up more than 30% of workers at a Mercedes plant in Alabama, after hitting the same milestone last month at Volkswagen in Tennessee,” illustrating the durability and success of their union drives at foreign-owned auto plants in the U.S. And two, Bloomberg reports that “Tesla is boosting pay for all US production associates, the latest bump by a non-union automaker following the UAW’s big Detroit wins.” Taken together, one gets the impression that Auto Workers are organized, on the march, and have momentum behind them.

* In Guatemala, Bernardo Arevalo of the Semilla Party has finally been sworn in as the president of that country, beating back multiple attempts by the corrupt ruling elites to undermine his ascension down to the moment of his inauguration. Reuters reports “Arevalo's inauguration was thrown into disarray after the Supreme Court allowed opposition lawmakers to maintain their leadership of Congress, and forced members of the president's Semilla party to stand as independents… [sparking] wrangling in Congress…[with] supporters of Arevalo threaten[ing] to storm the building as police in riot gear amassed in the streets.” Arevalo managed to weather the storm however, in part because he was aided by other countries’ leadership. USAID Administrator Samantha Power, opposing the power grab, tweeted “There is no question that Bernardo Arevalo is the President of Guatemala. We call on all sides to remain calm — and for the Guatemalan Congress to uphold the will of the people. The world is watching.” Meanwhile, the presidents and foreign ministers present at the inauguration released a statement forcefully avowing “The will of the Guatemalan people must be respected,” Progressive International’s David Adler reports. Renowned investigative journalist Allan Nairn added, “What is clear…is that even if Arévalo succeeds in taking power as president he will be governing under siege”.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Big Gambling Jan 13, 2024

Ralph welcomes Professor John Kindt to discuss his recent article in the Capitol Hill Citizen, "Time to Criminalize Internet Gambling." Then, our resident international law expert Bruce Fein takes us to the International Court of Justice and explains the lawsuit that South Africa has filed against Israel, which alleges genocide. Finally, Ralph has some choice words about Boeing's latest disaster.

John Kindt is Professor Emeritus of Business Administration at the University of Illinois Gies College of Business, where his teaching focuses on—among other topics—the socio-economics of gambling and legal policies. Mr. Kindt has frequently testified as an expert witness before state legislative and congressional committees.

Illinois was one of the first states to get the so-called riverboat casinos. And of course, this was just deployed to bring casinos everywhere to Illinois and to other states. They promise what we call “the E's” — they'll help education, they'll help the environment, they'll help the elderly, they'll help employment. None of that is accurate. They just throw nickels and dimes at this.

John Kindt

I feel very comfortable naming names of these companies. If you just talk about “Big Gambling”, you're nowhere near specific accountability. When you talk about specific names of companies, the next step is the names of the CEOs, the names of the Directors of Marketing and Advertising. You find out whether there are any whistleblowers.

Ralph Nader

To my mind, this perhaps is the strongest case in the history of the Genocide Convention…Literally hundreds of officials from the highest levels of the Netanyahu administration have openly stated, “We are going to lay a siege. No water, no food, no medicine, no shelter, no hospitals.” You can't survive under those conditions… And they've also stated clearly that in their view, Palestinians are animals and will be treated accordingly. Many statements saying, “They need to be driven out of Gaza. They don't deserve to be there.” These are the most flagrant, direct confessions of a genocidal intent that's imaginable.

Bruce Fein

The FAA has inspection offices up in Seattle and they go to the Boeing factories all the time, but they've been rather lax over the years— to put it mildly. They have delegated regulatory authority to Boeing to regulate itself, and then they do the paperwork at the FAA… There’s going to be more and more disclosures, and it will come right back to the lack of regulatory enforcement and prosecution of the culpable executives who have turned a once-proud engineering aerospace company into a speculative tool to increase the stock price on Wall Street.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 1/10/24

1. In response to Israel’s campaign of destruction in Gaza, South Africa has filed a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice alleging that Israel’s actions “‘are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part’ of the Palestinians in Gaza,” per PBS News Hour. Israel – which PBS acknowledges “has a history of ignoring international tribunals,” – intends to send a legal team to the Hague to fight this case.

2. South Africa is joined in this case by a number of states, including the Organization of Islamic Countries, the Plurinational state of Bolivia, Jordan, Turkey, and Malaysia, according to Al Jazeera. Some high-profile individuals have also signed on, most notably Israeli Leftist MK Ofer Cassif, who said “My constitutional duty is to Israeli society and all its residents, not to a government whose members and its coalition are calling for ethnic cleansing and even actual genocide.” Common Dreams reports that in retaliation, Right-wing Israeli MKs are seeking to expel Cassif from the Knesset.

3. Speaking to Democracy Now!, Professor Francis Boyle – the only lawyer to have ever successfully won a Genocide Convention case at the ICJ – said “I believe South Africa will win an order against Israel to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide against the Palestinians.” He added that Israel has historically heeded orders from the U.S. to cease attacks on Palestine, meaning “We here in the United States of America have the power to stop this.”

4. Leaking anonymously to the Guardian, extremism experts at the Anti-Defamation League are expressing outrage at the organization’s attempts to draw “false equivalences,” between anti-Semitism and Left-wing anti-Zionism, emphasizing that such equivocation undermines their mission to stop anti-Semitic hate. One ADL employee went so far as to say “The ADL has a pro-Israel bias and an agenda to suppress pro-Palestinian activism.” Since October 7th, the ADL has “been working with law enforcement to crack down on college campus activism … [developing] a legal strategy to go after branches of Students for Justice in Palestine… [and describing] grassroots calls for protests of Israel’s military campaign as ‘pro-Hamas activism’.”

5. A stunning report in the Intercept reveals that “Whether reporting from the Middle East, the United States, or anywhere else across the globe, every CNN journalist covering Israel and Palestine must submit their work for review by the news organization’s bureau in Jerusalem prior to publication.” While CNN corporate claims this does not significantly impact their coverage of Israel and Palestine issues, a CNN staffer, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisal, disputes this claim – saying “Every single Israel-Palestine-related line for reporting must seek approval from the [Jerusalem] bureau — or, when the bureau is not staffed, from a select few handpicked by the bureau and senior management.” As Jim Naureckas of FAIR puts it, “When you have a protocol that routes all stories through one checkpoint, you’re interested in control, and the question is who is controlling the story?”

6. President Biden is facing a campaign staff revolt related to his policy on Gaza, POLITICO reports. In a letter, 17 current Biden campaign staffers wrote “As your staff, we believe it is both a moral and electoral imperative for you to publicly call for a cessation of violence…Complicity in the death of over 20,000 Palestinians, 8,200 of whom are children, simply cannot be justified.” Beyond the clear moral imperative of this plea, the staffers emphasize that this is a form of “tough love,” intended to help Biden avert electoral catastrophe come November, already ominously portended by “volunteers quit[ting] in droves,” over Gaza.

7. Over 130 constituents of Representative Elise Stefanik, along with groups representing District members and concerned citizens, sent a letter to the Congresswoman this week decrying her conduct in the recent hearings that led to the ouster of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. The letter excoriated Rep. Stefanik for charging the university presidents with anti-Semitism while herself full-throatedly endorsing the ongoing genocide in Gaza, ending with the clear demand “Resign and let us be done with you!”

8. The Federal Trade Commission has won a temporary block of IQVIA’s Acquisition of Propel Media, according to a statement released by the Commission. The FTC sought to block this merger because “the proposed acquisition would give IQVIA a market-leading position in programmatic advertising targeted to doctors and other health care professionals.” Senator Elizabeth Warren congratulated the FTC on social media, writing “This court win is the [FTC’s] fourth merger victory in the health care industry in less than a month. [Lina Khan] continues to fight for more competition and against bad deals that would raise health care prices for consumers.”

9. You may have heard about the recent Boeing 737 MAX 9 crisis, in which a violent explosive decompression event resulted in a door plug blowing out of the plane while in midair. Amid the flurry of information coming out about this story, it is worth highlighting the response by the Association of Flight Attendants, headed by labor icon Sara Nelson: “Our union supports the FAA's quick and decisive action to ground certain 737 MAX 9[s] that do not meet the inspection cycles specified in the Emergency Airworthiness Directive. This is a critical move to ensure the safety of all crew and passengers, as well as confidence in aviation safety. Lives must come first always. Last night’s incident could have been worse, but Flight Attendants and Pilots of Alaska 1282 ensured all passengers and crew arrived safely back on the ground. We commend the entire crew. We are closely monitoring and working with our airlines - Alaska and United - the FAA, and DOT to ensure that aircraft are not returned to service until they are deemed safe for all. AFA is also participating in the NTSB investigation and we support that process for full safety findings and actions. Flight Attendants are aviation’s first responders. We are trained for emergencies, and we work every flight for aviation safety first and foremost. We fly only when it’s safe.”

10. Finally, taking notice of the recent, groundbreaking Senate hearing on Corporate Crime, the Washington Post devoted an entire column to the issue. Focusing on the costs of corporate crime, the paper notes “The size and scope of corporate crime are massive, with an annual price tag exceeding $300 billion, according to FBI data…street crime…by comparison, is a meager $16 billion.” Furthermore, the Post repeated Senator Durbin’s lamentation that the Department of Justice lacks resources “to battle deep-pocketed corporations,” sending a message that “if you’ve got enough money, you can game the system and walk away with…billions when it’s…over.” In his closing remarks, Durbin wondered aloud, “What does it say about the system of justice in America…if the big guys are exempt and the little guys go to jail…?”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

American Hero: Dr. Sidney Wolfe Jan 06, 2024

Few people in American history have saved more lives than Dr. Sidney Wolfe. Dr. Wolfe and his small staff at the Health Research Group of Public Citizen have taken on Big Pharma and the FDA to pull over two dozen dangerous drugs and countless hazardous medical devices off the market, not to mention putting numerous incompetent doctors out of business. Over the course of his storied career, Sid worked relentlessly for workplace safety and with his best-selling book and subsequent newsletter Worst Pills/Best Pills, provided the American people with the most reliable, up-to-date, evidence-based, easy-to-read guide to pharmaceuticals ever compiled. Today we pay tribute to the man who invented the concept of the “public interest doctor.”

Dr. Steffie Woolhandler is a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, which is a non-profit research and education organization that advocates for single-payer national health insurance. Dr. Woolhandler is a practicing primary care physician, distinguished professor of public health and health policy in the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Health, an adjunct professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and lecturer in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Woolhandler has authored more than 150 journal articles, reviews, chapters, and books on health policy.

Dr. David Himmelstein is a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. Dr. Himmelstein is a practicing primary care physician, distinguished professor of public health at the City University of New York, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School, and a His more than 150 peer reviewed studies include widely-cited articles appearing in the New England Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, Health Affairs and the American Journal of Public Health on the excess death rate among the uninsured, medical bankruptcy, health care administrative costs, insurance firms’ misbehaviors, and dangerous medications.

For over 50 years, Dr. Sidney Wolfe—who directed Public Citizen's Health Research Group—has been what I would call the doctor's doctor. Stressing the prevention of trauma and sickness, stressing accountability for gouging and unsafe practices by the drug companies, and pushing for effective regulation by the Food and Drug Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

Ralph Nader

I think that Dr. Sid Wolfe had that emotional intelligence that went with his cognitive intelligence, which makes all the difference in terms of whether someone just knows something and bewails it, or someone just knows something and connects it to action that saves people's lives and prevents injuries.

Ralph Nader

Dr. Sid Wolfe was insistent that those who sell drugs and profit from drugs have to prove that the drug is actually safe, that the harms do not outweigh the benefits. And for many, many drugs on the market in the United States, Sid and others found out that the harms were much greater than the benefits. In identifying literally dozens of drugs that were unsafe, that should not be used, Sid has saved hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of lives of Americans who were threatened by unsafe drugs.

Dr. Steffie Woolhandler

Dr. Sid Wolfe was meticulous about the truth. Sid insisted that you couldn't overstate what you didn't know, that the most important responsibility of doctors was to be honest with the patients, with the public, with the government about what we know and what we don't know—and often what we don't know is critically important. He never stretched the truth. That was important, not just because others were watching and trying to find flaws in what he did, but it was inherent in Sid's character that he cared about telling the truth and about doing what was right.

Dr. David Himmelstein

Robert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the President of Public Citizen, Weissman has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy.

Outrage may have been Sid's catchphrase, because he saw so much outrageousness in the health field. Precisely because he knew that things were being put on the market that shouldn't be, or services were being withheld from people that shouldn't be— not because of any lack of information, but because of the improper influence and political power and economic power of Big Pharma and the for-profit health insurance industry. And he was outraged about that. Because he understood it rightfully as a matter of life and death.

Robert Weissman

Dr. Peter Lurie is President and Executive Director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest—an independent, science-based consumer advocacy organization that advocates for a safer, healthier food system. The CSPI also publishes Nutrition Action, a healthy-living guide for consumers.Dr. Lurie previously worked with the Food and Drug Administration and Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, where he co-authored their Worst Pills, Best Pills consumer guide to medications.’

Dr. Sid Wolfe was the person who really held [the FDA’s] feet to the fire and held us— or even me, when I was there—accountable. He was the person who raised the impertinent questions. He was the person who asked why you couldn't do more, or he was the person who asked why you did what you had done. All of those were appropriate to do. And all of those challenged the agency in ways that I think were healthy, even if not always welcomed by the agency.

Dr. Peter Lurie

I didn't think, personally, that you could actually win in this life. What I thought that I would do was tilt at windmills for the rest of my life, fight the good fight, maybe be an honorable person, maybe my kids would appreciate it. That's all I really thought would happen. But what Dr. Sid Wolfe showed me was that if you picked the right project, if you picked the project that was the right size, that involved a question that was actually being posed to a regulatory agency… If you picked that right-sized project and you brought the right data to bear, you actually could win. You could get that warning on the box. And if you won the first time, that told you that you could win a second and a third and a fourth time. And that is what keeps you going.

Dr. Peter Lurie

To hear Sid Wolfe talk about his career and his work in his own words, click here

For Ralph’s formal written tribute to Sid click here

For Rob Weissman’s formal tribute to Sid, click here

Washington Post obit

New York Times obit

Former CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson remembers Sid

Statement by Joan Claybrook

(Joan Claybrook, Sid Wolfe, and Ralph along with Alan Morrison were co-founders of Public Citizen)

Sid Wolfe invented a new profession: doctors representing citizens on health issues from drug safety, occupational safety, oversight of drug and other companies, evaluation of doctors, publication of detailed health and drug information for citizens to use seeking health care, and more. He boldly challenged drug and other companies directly in technical proceedings before government agencies and Congress. He learned how to frame his messages for TV so he could speak directly to consumers. The sale of his Worst Pills Best Pills publications reached millions and earned many millions of much needed income for Public Citizen. He was rigorous with the facts and despite his high-profile debates, never made a factual mistake over 50 years. He was fierce with his adversaries and gentle and caring with his patients.

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Christian Zionism Dec 30, 2023

Ralph welcomes Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner, National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel—North America, to discuss the ongoing violence in Palestine, the influence that Christian Zionists have on America's Israel policy, and the religious organizations that have refused to collaborate with Israel's modern-day Crusader State. Plus, Ralph answers some listener questions and questions from the RNRH team.

Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner recently retired as the National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel—North America, a nonprofit Christian ecumenical organization seeking justice and peace in the Holy Land through education, advocacy, and nonviolent action. Prior to that position, Rev. Dr. Wagner was a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University (Chicago) where he also directed the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. He has written several books, including Anxious for Armageddon: a Critique of Christian Zionism; Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost-2000; Glory to God in the Lowest: Journeys to an Unholy Land.

I believe Netanyahu's endgame is to force the Palestinians out, kill as many as possible. and then expel them into Gaza. Avi Dichter, who is a cabinet member, said, “We are rolling out the Gaza Nakba”. [The Nakba was the] 1948-49 ethnic cleansing operation. So it's clear what they're doing, and the Biden administration has rehabilitated a criminal in Netanyahu and enabled all this to happen.

Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner

One of the few things that gives me hope after working on this issue for 45 years is the power of the young American Jewish and global Jewish activists. They're not buying the Netanyahu line. They range from being embarrassed to just angry about what Netanyahu, the A.D.L., and A.I.P.A.C have done to Judaism in blending it with Zionism. So these are the prophetic movements that are taking us back to authentic Judaism and the Torah, which is based on justice—tikkun olam [which means] healing of the world.

Rev. Dr. Donald Wagner

Clarence Thomas is really the Donald Trump of the Supreme Court.

Ralph Nader

I think they are reaching a point—the six-justice majority— of getting a huge backlash… I dont call for impeachment of Justices very easily. But when in case after case these Justices come down on the side of artificial entities called corporations—which are never mentioned in the Constitution— against real human beings—whether they’re workers, or victims of different oppressions, or looted consumers… that is a severe ground for collective impeachment proceedings before the U.S. Senate.

Ralph Nader

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Busboys & Bogle Heads Dec 23, 2023

Ralph has a new book out, The Rebellious CEO: 12 Leaders Who Did It Right and in this episode, we profile three of them, Andy Shallal, owner of the restaurant “Busboys and Poets,” John Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, and Robert Townsend, iconoclastic CEO of Avis Rent-a-Car and author of the classic business book “Up The Organization!” Mr. Shallal joins us in person while financial advisor and Boglehead, Rick Ferri, talks to us about the late John Bogle and Robert Townsend Jr. explains the origins of his father’s philosophy. Plus, Ralph gives us an update and a call to action on Gaza.

Click on the link to order your copy of The Rebellious CEO.

Andy Shallal is an activist, artist and social entrepreneur. Mr. Shallal is the founder and proprietor of Busboys and Poets restaurants in the Washington DC area, which feature prominent speakers, poets and authors and provide a venue for social and political activism. He is co-founder of The Peace Cafe, a member of the board of trustees for The Institute for Policy Studies, and a member of the advisory council for the American Museum of Peace.

The whole idea of this book The Rebellious CEO is to show that these CEOs reverse the business model. They didn't just have a vision and say, “We're gonna squeeze workers and consumers and environmental indifference to maximize the profits.” No, they started out saying, “We're gonna treat the workers well. We're gonna treat the consumers well. We're gonna confront the environment. We're gonna speak out against injustice.” And they all made money. Every one of them in the book said they always paid attention to profits because without profits they couldn't do all the things they wanted to do.

Ralph Nader, author of “The Rebellious CEO”

It becomes very personal. And when it's personal, it's hard to separate yourself from the business. So everything that happens in the business, it's not a one -off, it's about me. If the business is treating my employees badly, it means Andy Shallal is treating his people badly. That's a very personal way [of looking at it] and it's a way for I think a lot of these folks that you write about in the book to kind of stay on mission and say, “This is my name. This is my legacy. This is my entire being that is on the line.”

Andy Shallal

Understanding those dynamics and how race plays out in this country and how people interpret and see race is really a very important part of our training— to make sure that people do not fall into the trap of saying, “I don't see race,” because race sees you. And unless you are proactive in how you deal with people as they walk through the door, you're gonna probably make mistakes.

Andy Shallal

Rick Ferri has worked for 35 years as a financial adviser and he is the host of the Bogleheads on Investing podcast. Mr. Ferri was a pioneer in low-fee investment advice and portfolio management using ETFs and index funds, he has authored 7 investment books and hundreds of articles published in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and several professional journals, and he is the former president of the John C Bogle Center for Financial Literacy.

[John Bogle] was very determined. He believed in giving investors a fair shake on Wall Street. He believed that we should get our fair share of market returns. He believed that there was a conflict of interest in the investment industry between the people who owned the investment companies and the investors in those companies—the people who bought the mutual funds. And he said, "You cannot serve two masters."

Rick Ferri

That's our mission—to build a world of well-informed, capable, and empowered investors. And that's what the Bogle Center and the Bogleheads are all about.

Rick Ferri

Robert Townsend, Jr. is the son of Robert Townsend, who was president of Avis Rent A Car from 1962 to 1965 and was the author of the best-selling and iconoclastic business manual Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits.

[Robert Townsend, Sr.] was definitely iconically an iconoclast, but I don't think he saw himself that way. He didn't just believe in partnership. He saw that—and teamwork— were the only things to accomplish. So he found, just through serendipity or synchronicity, partners everywhere he looked.

Robert Townsend, Jr.

[Robert Townsend, Sr.] embarked on a new career of consulting…He would come back from consulting with somebody or other, finding out, “All they wanted was me to tell them they were doing it right. And nothing I said actually made any difference.”

Robert Townsend, Jr.

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. The tide seems to finally be shifting in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. Democracy Now! Reports “British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a ‘sustainable ceasefire’ in a joint article in The Sunday Times. The pair said efforts should be focused on a two-state solution after the assault comes to an end. The U.K. and Germany had previously declined to call for a ceasefire and abstained from voting last week on the U.N. General Assembly’s ceasefire resolution. Also on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna called for an ‘immediate and durable truce’ while meeting with her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Tel Aviv, saying ‘too many civilians are being killed’ in Gaza. This comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Israel earlier today, where he is expected to focus talks on transitioning to a ‘lower intensity’ war.’”

2. Many wonder why these countries are changing their position so abruptly. One explanation could be the efficacy of the Red Sea blockade enforced by the Yemeni Houthis. Thus far, five of the largest shipping firms in the world, including CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk and MSC, along with Evergreen and BP, have “paused or suspended their services in the Red Sea,” due to Houthi attacks, per the Economist. Collectively, these firms represent over 60% of global shipping. In response, the United States has announced its intention to form a naval bloc to combat the Houthis, risking further escalation in the region.

3. Haaretz reports that Al Jazeera is “preparing a legal file to send to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over what it called the ‘assassination’ of one of its cameramen in Gaza.” The ICC complaint focuses on a cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, who was “killed by a drone strike on Friday [December 15th] while reporting on the earlier bombing of a school used as a shelter for displaced people in the southern Gaza Strip,” but will “also encompass recurrent attacks on the Network's crews working and operating in the occupied Palestinian territories and instances of incitement against them." The Committee to Protect Journalists reports at least 64 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7th.

4. On Sunday, Pope Francis decried the murder of two Palestinian Christian women who had taken refuge in a church complex in Gaza, Reuters reports. The Pope mourned that "Unarmed civilians are the objects of bombings and shootings. And this happened even inside the Holy Family parish complex, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick or disabled, nuns…Some would say 'It is war. It is terrorism.' Yes, it is war. It is terrorism."

5. According to NBC Bay Area, “At least hundreds of union members rallied at Oakland City Hall Saturday to call for a ceasefire… The ‘Labor for Palestine’ rally brought out members from 14 unions across the Bay Area [including longshore workers, teachers, electricians, and nurses]. In addition to the call for the cease-fire, a statement put out by organizers said it also wanted the U.S. to stop providing military aid to Israel and ‘an end to Israel’s occupation.’ Organizers also said the rally was the first such labor-led rally in the U.S. this year.”

6. AP reports Tesla is recalling “nearly all vehicles sold in [the] US,” following a two-year investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, regarding “a series of crashes [some deadly] that happened while the Autopilot partially automated driving system was in use.” Dillon Angulo, a driver who suffered brain trauma and broken bones in one such crash, said “This technology is not safe, we have to get it off the road…The government has to do something about it. We can’t be experimenting like this.”

7. Upon taking office, one of President Biden’s stated foreign policy goals was to overturn Trump’s designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terror. Yet, according to the Intercept “in a private briefing last week on Capitol Hill, State Department official Eric Jacobstein stunned members of Congress by telling them that the department has not even begun the review process.” As the article notes, “The terror designation makes it difficult for Cubans to do international business, crushing an already fragile economy. The U.S. hard-line approach to Cuba has coincided with a surge in desperate migration, with Cubans now making up a substantial portion of the migrants arriving at the southern border. Nearly 425,000 Cubans have fled for the United States in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, shattering previous records. Instead of moving to stem the flow by focusing on root causes in Cuba, the Biden White House has been signaling support in recent days for Republican-backed border policies.”

8. In Chile, voters have rejected a far-right proposed new constitution, per PBS. As the article notes, this vote “came more than a year after Chileans resoundingly rejected a proposed constitution written by a left-leaning convention and one that many characterized as one of the world’s most progressive charters.” The new, right-wing draft was characterized as even more conservative than the Pinochet-era constitution it sought to replace as it would have “deepened free-market principles, reduced state intervention and might have limited some women’s rights.” As ex-president Michele Bachelet, who campaigned against the new draft constitution said “I prefer something bad to something worse.”

9. In Argentina, radical right-wing President Javier Milei has announced a crackdown on civil society, “calling on armed forces to break strikes, arrest protesters, ‘protect’ children from families that bring them to demo[nstration]s, and form a new national registry of all agitating organisations,” per Progressive International’s David Adler. While unsurprising, this clearly flies in the face of Milei’s purported ‘anarcho-capitalist’ principles.

10. Finally, did Southwest Airlines cancel or significantly delay your flight during the holiday season last year? If so, you could be entitled to a $75 voucher as part of the Department of Transportation’s record $140 million settlement with the airline, per the Hill. Under the settlement, which the Department of Transportation claims is the largest ever penalty against an airline for violating consumer protection laws, the airline is required to establish a $90 million compensation system to be used for passengers affected by “controllable cancellations and significant delays,” in addition to paying $35 million to the federal government. Last December’s Southwest “meltdown” included “more than 16,900 flights…canceled or delayed…affect[ing] more than 2 million passengers around the holidays.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Is Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism? Dec 16, 2023

Ralph welcomes Allan Brownfeld from the American Council for Judaism to discuss, along with our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, the history of Jewish anti-Zionism and how Judaic principles can conflict with the Zionist project. We also review how university presidents recently responded to questioning from a congressional committee about free speech on campus.

Allan Brownfeld is the Editor of Issues, the publication of the American Council for Judaism (an 80 year-old organization that has opposed Zionism since its inception) and a syndicated columnist who has worked as associate editor of The Lincoln Review and a contributing editor to such publications as Human Events, The St. Croix Review, and The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Mr Brownfeld has served as a staff aide to a U.S. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the U.S. Senate Internal Subcommittee.

Everybody is afraid of this label “antisemite” if they criticize Israel. Israel has succeeded—in fact, it's a tactic used by the Israeli government. The former Education Minister [Shulamit Aloni] said it very clearly—when someone in Europe attacks us in any way, we bring up the Holocaust. In America, if anyone attacks us, we call them antisemitic. That's silencing criticism.

Allan Brownfeld

What has happened in recent years can be compared to idolatry. Just as in the Bible when we have people worshiping the golden calf, we have Jews now worshiping not the universal God, but the state of Israel has become the focus of attention—has become almost the object of worship. And I think that this will change as Israel's behavior continues as it is now, and as Jewish Americans slowly come to realize that the values they hold dear—religious freedom, separation of church and state—are exactly the opposite values that the state of Israel promotes.

Allan Brownfeld

It's good in any criticism to criticize the Netanyahu regime rather than Israel. There's a lot of opposition to Netanyahu in Israel [and he doesn’t represent all Israelis] any more than Trump represents Americans. And we're seeing here—as Allan has pointed out—the most extreme right-wing, militaristic, jingoistic government in the history of Israel, headed by Netanyahu. And he's let the military run riot in Gaza. It’s out of control.

Ralph Nader

What speaks volumes about [the Harvard Board of Overseers] statement is that it pretends that the only thing that has happened is October 7. Suddenly the world stopped. Nothing happened afterwards. It ignores completely what's ongoing in Gaza, which I think speaks volumes about the bias and the prejudice there.

Bruce Fein

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. On Tuesday December 12th, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first congressional hearing on Corporate Crime since 1980. This hearing consisted of two panels, one made up of government witnesses and another featuring civilians, including Professor Brandon Garrett – architect of the Corporate Prosecution Registry. The main focus of the hearing was the decades-long decline in corporate criminal prosecutions at the Department of Justice, and what the Department needs to pursue a more expansive vision of corporate criminal justice. The full hearing is available at the Senate Judiciary Committee website. 2. On December 7th, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, in light of the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza. Article 99 is a rarely used provision of the UN charter which allows the secretary-general to bring to the attention of the Security Council “any matter which…may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security,” per AP. The last time Article 99 was invoked was nearly half a century ago, and was triggered by clashes between India and Pakistan that eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh. 3. However, the United States again vetoed the UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. The United States was the sole member of the council to vote against the resolution, with even close allies like France and Japan voting in favor. The United Kingdom abstained from the vote. According to AP, “Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, told the council that Israel’s objective is ‘the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip’ and ‘the dispossession and forcible displacement of the Palestinian people.’” 4. The Mayor of Burbank, California, Konstantine Anthony has endorsed Representative Barbara Lee for Senate. Anthony had previously endorsed Congressman Adam Schiff – whose Congressional district includes the city of Burbank – but withdrew his endorsement and switched over to Lee because of her principled position in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. In a statement, Mayor Anthony said “We are in a moment of great reflection in this county…Congresswoman Barbara Lee is the progressive choice for our time.” Barbara Lee has been an extremely progressive and consistent voice on foreign policy issues, famously being the only member of Congress that did not vote for the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which she called a “blank check for endless war,” per KTLA. 5. Semafor’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig reports Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown is claiming that Democrats and Republicans are “making progress to expand the child tax credit” in a deal which would “revive R[esearch] &D[evelopment] [tax] deductions + accelerated depreciation for businesses.” This bipartisan gang hopes to push this through by mid-January, so Americans would see the benefit by the next tax season. Brown himself is facing a steep reelection challenge in his state of Ohio next year. 6. Two major unions in Hawaii – UNITE HERE and the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union – are calling on the state of Hawaii to take unprecedented action to ensure locals are able to stay on Maui. In short, they are demanding, via the Honolulu Star Advertiser, that local governments take over vacation homes and convert them into permanent housing for Hawaii residents. The housing shortage in Maui has become particularly acute following the disastrous fires on the island earlier this year. 7. In Guatemala, Bloomberg reports the Public Prosecutor's Office has announced its intention to nullify the 2023 general election results, citing vague “irregularities,” in an escalation of the legal coup the corrupt ruling clique has been attempting to pull off against President-elect Bernardo Arevalo and his Semilla Party. The Electoral Supreme Tribunal has stated that the elections “won't be repeated.” For its part, the United States State Department is opposing attempts to subvert the elections, characterizing these attempts as “anti-democratic actions…constitut[ing] evidence of…clear intent to delegitimize Guatemala’s free and fair elections and prevent the peaceful transfer of power.” The U.S. has also announced that it will impose visa restrictions on the individuals involved in “undermining democracy and the rule of law.” 8. Finally, back in 2021 the National Retail Federation released a report claiming that “‘organized retail crime’ was responsible for half the $94.5B in store merchandise” stolen. This finding was widely reported and served as a bedrock claim for cities increasing their policing budgets and backlash against reform prosecutors after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Now, the Federation is retracting this claim, admitting “organized retail crime” was only responsible for about 5% of stolen merchandise. The Federation further admits that “in most major cities, shoplifting incidents have fallen 7% since 2019,” per the New York Times. In a just world, this would lead to quite a few mea culpas, but I won’t hold my breath.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Democracy Dies in Broad Daylight Dec 09, 2023

Ralph sits down with three guests straight out of the latest edition of the Capitol Hill Citizen. First, world-renowned food politics expert and public health advocate Marion Nestle joins Ralph to discuss America's voracious junk food lobby. Then, Ralph speaks to legal expert Bruce Fein about Congressional staffers and the part they can play in making Congress stronger. Finally, Ralph welcomes Vishal Shankar from the Revolving Door Project to explain why President Biden is letting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy continue wrecking the Post Office.

Marion Nestle is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University. She is the author of a wide range of books about the politics of food, nutrition, health, and the environment, including Eat, Drink Vote: An Illustrated Guide to Food Politics, Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat, and Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics.

If you want to make a profit and grow your profit every 90 days, you have to sell as much food as possible. And what that food does to public health is not your responsibility, because that's the way our system works.

Marion Nestle

We have a law on the books that says that the Federal Trade Commission can do nothing to restrict the marketing of foods to children on television. They're not allowed to do that. So what we're talking about here is a situation in which Congress is so corrupt that it cannot take on anything that will fight the food industry.

Marion Nestle

You really can't make a career anymore of being in the legislative branch as an employee or as an aide. And so everybody leaves after a couple years to go to K Street and become a lobbyist. And so with this rapid turnover, you have a lobotomized Congress. And what this letter was attempting to do was to say, listen, Congress still—when the architecture of the Constitution is honored—is the primary predominant branch among the three branches. It's simply that you're not exercising it.

Bruce Fein

Vishal Shankar is a Senior Researcher at the Revolving Door Project, which scrutinizes executive branch appointees to ensure they use their office to serve the broad public interest, rather than to entrench corporate power or seek personal advancement. He has also worked at Inequality Media, as well as several government offices, nonprofits, and policy research projects. His work has appeared in The American Prospect and Common Dreams, and he has been quoted in The New Republic, The Lever, and the Capitol Hill Citizen.

The crisis [with Louis DeJoy] is not as immediate to Biden, his voters, his supporters, and they very wrongly believe—in my opinion—that they can work with this man who has proven to be untrustworthy, a Republican mega-donor and partisan hack, and most importantly a committed privatizer of the United States Postal Service.

Vishal Shankar

DeJoy has been one of the single biggest impediments to piloting or expanding to creative new ideas that can grow out the Postal Service for decades to come…DeJoy has very stubbornly refused to consider these great potential ideas and is doubling down on service cuts and rate hikes as the only way he thinks he can run the agency.

Vishal Shankar

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. Democracy Now! Reports the United Autoworkers union has called for a ceasefire in Gaza. They are the largest and most mainstream labor union to publicly come out for a ceasefire, joining the American Postal Workers Union, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, the California Nurses Association and the Chicago Teachers Union. UAW Region 9A Director Brandon Mancilla said "UAW International is calling for an immediate, permanent cease-fire in Israel and Palestine so that we can get to the work of building a lasting peace, building social justice, and building a global community of solidarity," per CBS News. At the same time, UAW is “launching simultaneous, public organizing campaigns at more than a dozen automakers including Toyota… Volkswagen…and Tesla…aiming to organize nearly 150,000 employees…which would double the number of autoworkers in the union,” per Bloomberg. In short, UAW is setting a new standard for labor. We hope other unions follow their lead.

2. A new Gallup poll shows the Israeli campaign against Gaza is underwater among key segments of American public opinion. Some top line numbers: 63% of Democrats oppose Israel’s military actions in Gaza, as do 67% of adults under 35, 64% of people of color, and 52% of women. Moreover, this poll was conducted in the first weeks of November, so it is likely these attitudes have hardened since then.

3. Responding to the protests against Israel’s campaign, the House has passed a resolution classifying anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism, even among American Jews. In a surprising move, high ranking Jewish Democrat Jerrold Nadler took to the floor to decry this resolution, saying “the resolution suggests that ALL anti-Zionism is antisemitism. That is either intellectually disingenuous or just factually wrong. And it unfairly implicates many of my orthodox former constituents in Brooklyn, many of whose families rose from the ashes of the Holocaust…the authors, if they were at all familiar with Jewish history and culture, should know about Jewish anti-Zionism that was, and is, expressly NOT antisemitic.”

4. Semafor reports MSNBC has canceled Mehdi Hasan’s news program. This article implies MSNBC canceled the show because it was a “cult favorite” which never “translated to ratings successes,” though it seems likely that Hasan’s willingness to push back on Israeli talking points during this recent conflict played a role as well. Lest we forget this is the network that canceled Phil Donahue’s blockbuster news program for criticizing the Iraq War.

5. Just Foreign Policy’s Aída Chávez reports “Sen[ator] Rand Paul is forcing a vote this week on getting US troops out of Syria. His Syria War Powers Resolution would remove all US troops – approx. 900 [US military personnel] – from Syria in the next 30 days.” Chávez highlights that “US forces have been targeted with dozens of attacks in Syria [in recent days] over US support for war in Gaza.”

6. From OtherWorlds.org: the Pentagon has failed yet another audit. The mammoth Department of Defense has never passed an audit, and only even completed its first in 2018. In this most recent iteration, “the Pentagon was able to account for just half of its $3.8 trillion in assets (including equipment, facilities, etc)…[leaving] $1.9 trillion…unaccounted for — more than the entire budget Congress agreed to for the current fiscal year.” Congress is now set to allocate an additional $840 billion for the agency.

7. The Intercept is out with a story that could have made headlines during the Populist Era of the 1880s and ‘90s. According to the report, Dan Osborn, a military veteran and labor leader who was a key figure in the 2021 strike against Kellogg’s, is running for Senate as an independent – and leading Republican incumbent Senator Deb Fischer in the polls. Osborn told the Intercept “Nebraskans have had it with Washington. We’ve been starving for honest government that isn’t bought and paid for…This poll shows that Nebraska’s independent streak is alive and well.” The article notes Nebraska Democrats have not yet fielded a candidate in this Senate race and are considering backing Osborn. Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said many Nebraska voters tired of one-party control in the state, arguing it “Makes politicians lazy…[and] more beholden to corporate interests since they don’t have to answer to voters.”

8. NBCis out with a bombshell report on carbon monoxide deaths among Airbnb renters. According to the report, “NBC News has identified 19 deaths since 2013 that occurred at Airbnb properties and are alleged to have involved carbon monoxide poisoning, according to interviews with family members of victims and a review of news articles, autopsy reports, police records, and court and government documents. The company is currently facing at least three lawsuits pertaining to carbon monoxide deaths or poisonings.” Perhaps most damningly, following one carbon monoxide related death in 2014, the company made a blog post promising “By the end of 2014, we’ll require all Airbnb hosts to confirm that they have [carbon monoxide detectors] installed in their listing.” The company never made good on that promise, and that post has since been deleted.

9. Tesla has released its long awaited Cybertruck, and along with it, videos of the vehicle’s crash testing. These are distressing to say the least. As the American Prospect notes, “the Cybertruck’s body panels…are made of stainless steel…[which] is much stiffer than…ordinary [automobile body materials], which makes it dangerous. Since the 1950s at least, automakers have understood that stiffer cars are more dangerous to people inside and outside the car, because in a crash they deliver energy to other parties rather than absorbing it. In early crash test experiments with more heavily built cars, collisions often did only minor damage to the car but turned the test dummies into paste. Since then, cars have been designed with progressively more sophisticated crumple zones to absorb impact forces. Musk’s boasts of a Cybertruck “exoskeleton,” if true, are a recipe for gruesome carnage.”

10. Finally, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has died at 100 years old. A Rolling Stone obituary, which ran under the headline “Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America’s Ruling Class, Finally Dies,” argues that while Kissinger deserves to be remembered as one of “history's worst mass murderers,” he instead has been given a place of honor, even in death, among the American elite. One can only hope that his many, many victims will someday see justice served.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

The True Cost of Billionaire Philanthropy Dec 02, 2023

Ralph welcomes back Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune and cofounder of Patriotic Millionaires to discuss his latest report “The True Cost of Billionaire Philanthropy” which asks the question, “Would society be better off if billionaires just kept their money and paid their fair share of taxes?” Plus, we speak briefly about the situation in Gaza with Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and Francesco DeSantis keeps us up to date with the latest news with his segment “In Case You Haven’t Heard.”

Chuck Collins directs the Charity Reform Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he also co-edits Inequality.org. Mr. Collins co-founded the Patriotic Millionaires and United for a Fair Economy, and he is the author of Born on Third Base and The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.

Here's our analysis: for every dollar that Elon Musk or Bill Gates - some of these billionaires - give, the rest of us chip in 74 cents in lost tax revenue. And that's at the federal level... So, these are our tax dollars at work. And yet they're completely unaccountable in terms of where the money goes.

Chuck Collins

The financial industry, the wealth advisors—I call them the wealth defense industry—the tax attorneys and accountants. They have started to capture corners of what we think of as philanthropy with the same kind of worldview—capital preservation, tax minimization, passing on as much wealth to the next generation. So, you see ultra-wealthy people creating family foundations. And the most important thing to realize is this is taxpayer-subsidized private power.

Chuck Collins

We need to change the laws governing philanthropy. The framework that we are living with now is from 1969, which was a zenith of relative equality in the United States. We wouldn't have necessarily known that 50 years later we would be living in an oligarchy where billionaires would use their charity as an extension of their influence and power as aggressively as they are now.

Chuck Collins

[Shareholder resolutions are] a good way to shine some light on the murky, narcissistic, self-enriching practices of these executives who often do so at the expense of their own companies in a conflict of interest. It would be good if this discussion sparked something like that… It's not a structural reform of our political economy, to be sure. But it does alleviate some of the poverty, some of the health care necessities, the housing necessities in the areas where these corporations operate.

Ralph Nader

Lara Friedman is the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. She is a leading authority on the Middle East, with particular expertise on U.S. foreign policy in the region, on Israel/Palestine, and on the way Middle East and Israel/Palestine-related issues play out in Congress and in U.S. domestic politics, Ms. Friedman is a former officer in the U.S. Foreign Service, with diplomatic postings in Jerusalem, Washington, Tunis and Beirut. She also served previously as the Director of Policy and Government Relations at Americans for Peace Now.

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The AP reports Hamas has released a third group of hostages – including 14 Israelis and the first American hostage – as part of a four-day truce with Israel. In return, Israel has released 39 Palestinian prisoners. The Biden administration has expressed that their goal is to extend the ceasefire as long as possible. This about-face in administration policy is a testament to the power of the sustained protest and public pressure campaigns in favor of a ceasefire. However, this truce is scheduled to expire at the end of this week.

2. Going further, Vermont Senator Peter Welch has called for an “indefinite ceasefire,” following the horrific shooting of three Palestinian-American students in Burlington, Vermont. Senator Welch writes “The ceasefire must be extended...to stop the bombing and prevent further loss of civilian life. The United States cannot condone a resumption of the bombing when it causes death and injury to so many civilians.” It is noteworthy that the other Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, still refuses to call for a ceasefire.

3. The Nation has published a piece on the genocide in Gaza that was pulled from the Harvard Law Review at the last moment. The opening lines of this article read “Genocide is a crime. It is a legal framework. It is unfolding in Gaza. And yet, the inertia of legal academia, especially in the United States, has been chilling. Clearly it is much easier to dissect the case law rather than navigate the reality of death. It is much easier to consider genocide in the past tense rather than contend with it in the present. Legal scholars tend to sharpen their pens after the smell of death has dissipated and moral clarity is no longer urgent.”

4. The Intercept's Ryan Grim has shared an excerpt from his new book The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution in which he seeks to explain Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman’s intransigent stance in favor of Israel. Essentially, Grim argues that Fetterman made a deal with AIPAC and the Democratic Majority For Israel, with Fetterman pledging opposition to the BDS movement and support for unconditional military aid to Israel, and in exchange, “DMFI and AIPAC stayed out of his race.”

5. Independent journalist Séamus Malekafzali reports “A member of Germany's ruling coalition from the Greens wants all German media to sign a pledge to support Israel and its ‘right to exist’, similar to how Axel Springer's media organizations (like Politico) do.” To learn more about POLITICO’s new ultra-Zionist German ownership, check out the first issue of the Capitol Hill Citizen.

6. The Prospect is out with a blockbuster article on the first major anti-trust case in 25 years, U.S. v. Google. This piece traces how what was once billed as the “Trial of the Century” became “the Secret Trial,” and stresses the testimony of Al-Amyn Sumar, legal counsel for the New York Times who “listed the factors that separated this case from any other his legal team had seen before… [including] numerous closed-door proceedings, withholding of public evidence, and extensive confidentiality claims by companies (not just Google, but secondary parties to the case like Microsoft and Apple) that were granted all too liberally by the judge. [Sumar noted] Even access to trial transcripts were scant, trickling out weeks after examinations.” Sumar capped this off by saying “this simply can’t be the best way to go about the legal process.”

7. The Prospect also reports the Biden-appointed chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Rostin Behnam, is attempting to implement a Trump-era rule that would “roll back Dodd-Frank protections for swap trades, a major class of derivatives that led directly to the 2008 financial crisis, by relaxing margin requirements for certain categories of investment funds.” Several Democrats are coming out in opposition to this move. A letter from Senator Sherrod Brown decries this as “a step in the wrong direction… [which would] undermine the goals of Dodd-Frank.”

8. A third story from the Prospect focuses on deceptive Medicare Advantage plans, and specifically how they have been able to legally circumvent ACA protections covering pre-existing conditions. Put simply, if one enrolls in a Medicare Advantage program before age 65, then wishes to transition to traditional Medicare, they can be forced to undergo “underwriting” or medical health screening. As of now, only four states – New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Maine – prevent Medigap, the Medicare supplemental insurance that covers the 20 percent of medical expenses not covered by Medicare, from underwriting Medicare Advantage patients attempting to switch back to traditional Medicare. As the article explains “The millions of Americans not living in those states are trapped in Medicare Advantage, because Medigap plans are legally able to deny them insurance coverage.” Yet another instance of the pernicious influence of Medicare Advantage on the health of American seniors.

9. The Tuscon Sentinel has published a story which exemplifies the folly of the so-called school choice movement. Last year, Arizona became the first state to offer all families in the state public dollars to spend at private educational institutions. In response, nearly all private schools raised their tuition rates. As the article notes, “Critics…cite the tuition increases as evidence of what they’ve warned about for years: Universal school choice, rather than giving students living in poverty an opportunity to attend higher-quality schools, would largely serve as a subsidy for the affluent.”

10. Finally, radical and cartoonish right-wing Libertarian Javier Milei has won the presidential election in Argentina. According to the AP, Milei has vowed to implement his signature “Chainsaw Plan” for “wholesale reform of the state to slash public spending, scrap half the government’s ministries, sell state-owned companies and eliminate the central bank.” It remains to be seen how far Milei will go with this program, but signs point to turbulent times ahead in Argentina.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Justifying the Unjustifiable in Palestine Nov 25, 2023

Ralph is joined by author and human rights activist Miko Peled. They discuss the excuses that Israel uses to defend the atrocities they commit against Palestinians, and the truth behind all the propaganda.

Miko Peled is an author, writer, speaker, and human rights activist living in the United States. He is considered by many to be one of the clearest voices calling for justice in Palestine, support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights in all of historic Palestine. Mr. Peled was born and raised in Jerusalem. His grandfather was a signer of the Israeli Declaration of Independence and his father was a general in the 1967 war.

Anybody who is not courageous enough to stand up and speak the truth and stand up for what is right, because they might be called this name or that name—it's cowardice, it's hypocrisy. Being called antisemitic is a small price to pay when you talk about standing for the rights of millions of people who have been living under such terror for so many decades.

Miko Peled

This is pure revenge. What we're seeing is vengeance of a military force and a state that have been humiliated. And just like any bully, any gangster who's been humiliated, they take it out on the weakest people they can find, people who cannot defend themselves… It's revenge for the sake of revenge. It's savagery for the sake of savagery. It's brutality in its purest form. There's no other reason than the brutality itself.

Miko Peled

Palestinians deserve nothing less than the lifting of the siege, release of all prisoners, and the dismantling of the apartheid state. Nothing less than that should be demanded. And all we're seeing people talk about is ceasefires, as though a ceasefire is some great accomplishment. Ceasefire does not provide the possibility of a future where this is not repeated. What needs to be demanded now is a political solution that will ensure the safety and security of Palestinians—and that is never part of the conversation. A ceasefire does not secure the lives or the security of Palestinians, because we know Israel will violate it a week later.

Miko Peled

It's not going to collapse because Israelis agree. It's not going to collapse because Israelis wake up one morning in a good mood. Israel is going to have to be forced on its knees. Just like in South Africa, whites in South Africa were on their knees. We're talking about severe sanctions. We're talking about closing down all diplomatic missions. We're talking about not allowing Israelis to participate in sporting events, cultural events, any events, academic arenas. They need to be shunned. Israeli society and the apartheid state that they created need to be brought on their knees.

Miko Peled

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The Intercept’s Prem Thakker reports 43 members of Congress now support a ceasefire. Some notable additions in recent days include Reps. Becca Balint, Sara Jacobs and Jamie Raskin, the first Jewish members to call for a ceasefire, and Jeff Merkley, the second Senator to call for a ceasefire. Pressure continues to mount on Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, but they still do not support a ceasefire. And the LA Times editorial board has become the first in the nation to call for a ceasefire.

2. According to Time, Reporters Without Borders has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed against Palestinian journalists in Gaza. The complaint cites the "deliberate, total or partial, destruction of the premises of more than 50 media outlets in Gaza." This crisis will likely prove decisive for the legitimacy of the ICC, as several countries including South Africa, have alleged that the court is biased in favor of western-aligned governments.

3. Haaretz reports former Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, who crafted the “Leahy Law” which prohibits U.S. military assistance to foreign security forces that violate human rights, has gone on record saying that the U.S. routinely ignores Israeli human rights abuses. Leahy said “it appears to me that shooting civilians and targeting civilian infrastructure, when you can't prove it is being used by Hamas, would be a violation of human rights…What is being done to apply the Leahy law now? I don’t know. I know past administrations have been too concerned to do it. It should apply to the Israeli Defense Forces, unless the administration, as many have, has waived it."

4. While not calling for a ceasefire, both Bernie Sanders and President Biden have announced plans to reshape military aid to Israel. Senator Sanders has put forth a plan to condition military aid upon multiple criteria including “the right of displaced Gazans to return to their homes” and “an end to settler violence in the West Bank.” Barak Ravid reports President Biden is considering imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers – who have long operated with legal impunity – threatening to ban visas for violent Israeli extremists in the West Bank. Ravid adds this would be the “1st time the U.S. [has] publicly consider[ed] individual sanctions against settlers.”

5. KCRA reports The California Democratic convention was interrupted at multiple points by demonstrators demanding the candidates to fill Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat call for a ceasefire. Rep. Barbara Lee has done so, but not Reps. Katie Porter or Adam Schiff. Barbara Lee won the most votes at the convention, but fell short of the 60% threshold required to get the formal endorsement of the state party.

6. A stunning ceasefire protest in the Bay Area saw activists park their cars on the bay bridge, then throw their keys into the water below – making it impossible for them or the police to move the vehicles, per FOX 8. Another protest at the DNC resulted in a police crackdown leaving 90 protesters injured, per the Guardian. Yet another protest at DC’s Union Station resulted in 3 arrests on vandalism charges for protesters leaving bloody handprints on the inside of the station, per WTOP. Expect these disruption tactics to escalate as political leaders continue to ignore demands for a ceasefire.

7. While many colleges are clamping down on pro-Palestine protests, Ryan Grim reports Occidental has set the model for engagement with student activists. The college announced that, following a student occupation of the administration office, they would pursue a dialogue with the student activists. Both the students and the administration stressed that Barack Obama got his start in activism at Occidental, pressuring the administration to divest from apartheid South Africa.

8. In other news, Bloomberg reports the Public Prosecutor’s office in Guatemala has conducted raids and arrests of Semilla party members. Semilla candidate Bernardo Arevalo was elected earlier this year, successfully, dealing a rare defeat to the openly corrupt political establishment in that country. The Public Prosecutor’s office also announced that they will file charges against Arevalo, his vice-president elect, and several Semilla congressmen. The State Department has decried this move and is seeking to “Impose Additional Visa Restrictions in Response to Anti-Democratic Actions in Guatemala.”

9. Finally, More Perfect Union reports that “For the first time ever, U.S. auto workers have gotten a shuttered factory reopened. Workers at the massive Belvidere [Illinois] Jeep plant were laid off or told to relocate in March. Now the plant is not only reopening — @UAW won three times as many jobs and a $30/hour wage floor.” This stunning victory shows what is possible in terms of revitalizing domestic manufacturing with a renewed labor movement. And that is something we can all be thankful for.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

America Is Not Divided Nov 18, 2023

Contrary to the popular narrative, Americans overwhelmingly agree on a startling range of issues. So why is there such a disconnect between what Americans want and what Americans get? Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen, and co-author of the book “The Corporate Sabotage of America” identifies the culprits and outlines what we, the people, can do about it. Then, Ralph welcomes Ambassador Chas Freeman, who brings his vast diplomatic experience and historical insight to bear on the ongoing collective punishment raining down on the people of Gaza.

Robert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. For 20 years, he edited the Multinational Monitor magazine, and as the President of Public Citizen, Weissman has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy. He is the author, with Joan Claybrook, of The Corporate Sabotage of America’s Future And What We Can Do About It.

More than three in four people want to have CEOs held accountable for the crimes they commit. Eight in ten think the minimum wage is too low. Four in five support paid family leave, and on and on and on. By way of context, those are not regular numbers when you get polls. In fact, if you ask people, “Does the earth revolve around the sun?” only 80% of Americans agree that the earth revolves around the sun. So, when you get numbers in the 90% or 85%, these are extraordinary levels of national agreement.

Robert Weissman

If you step back from the immediate moment, I think the big-picture story is that the bounds of what's considered important—or the policy solutions that are considered acceptable or reasonable—are really constructed by corporations and their lobbyists, and that's the problem we face every day.

Robert Weissman

Ambassador Chas Freeman is a senior fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, ambassador to Saudi Arabia, acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Chargé d'affaires at both Bangkok and Beijing. Ambassador Freeman is the author of several well-received books on statecraft and diplomacy, including The Diplomat’s Dictionary, America’s Misadventures in the Middle East, and America's Continuing Misadventures in the Middle East.

I think one of the great pieces of collateral damage from this (Israeli/Gaza conflict) is the United Nations Charter, international law, and the credibility of these institutions at the UN. But more particularly, I think the next time Americans lecture foreigners about human rights, they're not going to laugh at us—they're going to sneer. Because this is such a tremendous demonstration of hypocrisy on our part.

Ambassador Chas Freeman

It (the bombing of Gaza) is a gross violation of any standard of human rights. And the fact that we support it is discrediting us. We started out claiming that the eyes of the world were upon us, and we should shine like a city on the hill. I think much of the world looks at us now and they see dead babies in rubble, not a shining city on the hill.

Ambassador Chas Freeman

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. On Tuesday, political titans like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries rallied in support of Israel in Washington. While supposedly condemning antisemitism, the speakers were joined by Pastor John Hagee, a rabid Christian Zionist who wrote in his book Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World that Hitler was a "half-breed Jew" he was sent by God, as a "hunter," to persecute Europe's Jews and drive them towards "the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have – Israel." John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement in the 2008 presidential campaign. Meanwhile, the Intercept reports that the ADL plans to add Jewish peace rallies to their map of antisemitic incidents.

2. Axios is out with a report on an “internal State Department dissent memo [which] accuses President Biden of "spreading misinformation" on the Israel-Hamas war and alleges that Israel is committing "war crimes" in Gaza.” Axios continues “The memo — signed by 100 State Department and USAID employees — urges senior U.S. officials to reassess their policy toward Israel and demand a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war.” This memo comes as the State Department is attempting to establish red lines on Israeli aggression, with Secretary of State Blinken stating “The United States believes key elements [for peace] should include no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza. Not now, not after the war…No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends. No attempt to blockade or besiege Gaza. No reduction in the territory of Gaza,” per the Washington Post.

3. Al Mayadeen reports that Colombian President Gustavo Petro will cosponsor Algeria’s war crimes case against Israel at the International Criminal Court. Petro has previously voiced support for ICC action, stating “what is happening in Gaza are crimes against humanity.” TimesLIVE reports South Africa’s Foreign Minister Zane Dangor is also calling for an ICC investigation of Israeli leaders for “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide,” stressing that “Failure to do so will exacerbate the growing cynicism that international law is applied selectively for political purposes.”

4. From the Huffington Post: “Staffers from more than two dozen Democratic [congressional] offices say they are receiving an unprecedented number of calls and emails demanding for members to support a cease-fire…“Let it go to voicemail” was the prevailing guidance in several offices, one staffer said.” Yasmine Taeb of Mpower Change, a Muslim advocacy group lobbying on behalf of the ceasefire resolution, said there have been over 380,000 letters sent to the House alone. Last week, more than 100 staffers staged a walkout calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

5. Journalists have also begun speaking up for Palestine. Over 1,200 journalists have signed a letter “condemn[ing] Israel's killing of journalists in Gaza and urg[ing] integrity in Western media coverage of Israel's atrocities against Palestinians.” The letter names many of the reporters injured or killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza, including Mohammad Abu Hassir, who was killed along with 42 of his family members in a strike on his home. The journalists write “This is our job: to hold power to account. Otherwise we risk becoming accessories to genocide.”

6. Pro-Palestine protesters have also been taking the fight directly to the arms manufacturers. CT Insider reports protesters “blocked entrances at Colt…to protest…the gun manufacturer's sale of arms to Israel.” Protester Mika Zarazvand is quoted saying that Israel is requesting 24,000 guns from the United States, and “we know that two-thirds of them are going to come from Colt.” In Arizona, the Tucson Coalition for Palestine staged a “die-in” blocking the roads to Raytheon’s facilities, according to Arizona Public Media. Meanwhile in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 50 protesters chained themselves to the door of Elbit systems, decrying the company for profiting “from genocide” per NBC 10 Boston.

7. Abed Ayoub, Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, reports that 5 U.S. citizens from Pennsylvania were “seriously injured after their bus out of Gaza was bombed. The family was on the State Department list of evacuees, and followed instructions.” Instead of speaking out for these victims, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has instead been antagonizing pro-Palestine protesters. At a recent veterans protest in favor of ceasefire, Fetterman laughed at veterans being arrested and waved an Israeli flag at them, per progressive veterans group About Face.

9. In other news, details of the SAG-AFTRA deal have been released. In a note to members, the Guild wrote “In a contract valued at over one billion dollars in new wages and benefit plan funding, we have achieved a deal of extraordinary scope that includes "above-pattern" minimum compensation increases, unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI, and for the first time establishing a streaming participation bonus. Our Pension & Health caps have been substantially raised, which will bring much needed value to our plans. In addition, the deal includes numerous improvements for multiple categories including outsize compensation increases for background performers, and critical contract provisions protecting diverse communities.” A full summary of the deal is available at SAG-AFTRA.org.

10. Finally, ProPublica reports that for the first time, the Supreme Court has adopted a code of conduct intended to avoid improper outside influence on the Justices. This code establishes guidelines for acceptance of gifts and recusal standards, both of which have become major points of contention following ProPublica’s reporting on Harlan Crowe’s influence network targeting Justice Thomas. However, the publication is quick to note that this code does not come equipped with any sort of enforcement mechanism. Law Professor Stephen Vladeck is quoted saying “Even the most stringent and aggressive ethics rules don’t mean all that much if there’s no mechanism for enforcing them. And the justices’ unwillingness to even nod toward that difficulty kicks the ball squarely back into Congress’ court.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Corporate Bullsh*t/ Legal Bullsh*t Nov 11, 2023

Ralph welcomes back public interest advocate Donald Cohen to discuss the long history of corporate propaganda covering for corporate greed, and his new book Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America. Then Ralph is joined by founder of the Free Law Project, Michael Lissner, to talk about why the American legal system is so hard to use and the ongoing fight to make it more accessible.

Donald Cohen is the founder and executive director of the research and policy center In the Public Interest. He is the co-author of The Privatization of Everything and his latest book, co-authored with Nick Hanauer and Joan Wals, is Corporate B******t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America.

Every time they say something, our natural instinct is to debunk it, which means we're playing on their playing field. We want to pre-bunk it. We say, “That's bull. You're just playing a game. And listen to how you've done it in the past.” Because many of the quotes in this book are kind of hilarious, actually. We want to make fun of them and we're hoping that this becomes a little bit of a vaccine going forward.

Donald Cohen

This is more than just lies, falsehoods, off-the-wall predictive phoniness. It's more than that. It's deadly. In other words, it's not just rhetoric. It's not just craziness. It leads to the suppression of the society's response to foresee and forestall hazards, ripoffs, and the like, and to engage in preventive activity— regulations, opening it up for lawsuits under tort law—and deterrence. So we're dealing here with not only malicious patterns of rhetoric, we're dealing here with deadly delays.

Ralph Nader

Michael Lissner is Executive Director and Chief Technology Officer of the Free Law Project. The Free Law Project is a nonprofit that uses technology, data, and advocacy to make the legal ecosystem more equitable and competitive. They build open-source tools to make legal information more accessible, and they host major open databases of opinions, federal filings, judges, financial disclosures, and oral arguments.

Open information is really how government works… You can imagine if the Supreme Court didn't publish its opinions. Right now you can go to their website, you can find their latest decisions. But you could imagine a system where people went to the Supreme Court, they decided who was right and who was wrong, and they told those people— and that was it, and they didn't explain themselves. It wouldn't work very well, because we wouldn't know how the laws are being interpreted. And I hate to say so, but when you get a little bit away from the Supreme Court…you realize that's kind of the system we have.

Michael Lissner

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. On Saturday November 4th, the largest ever pro-Palestine demonstration was held in Washington. The Real News Network reports over 100,000 demonstrators gathered in Freedom Plaza and marched on the White House, demanding a ceasefire. CNN reports that another 100,000 protesters gathered in London, along with demonstrations throughout the world, including in Paris and Berlin, where authorities have sought to quash or outright ban pro-Palestine protests. These tremendous shows of solidarity underline how much the politics of this issue have changed in the western world.

2. Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian member of Congress, has been censured by the House of Representatives. Defending herself on the floor of the House, Rep. Tlaib said “I will not be silenced, and I will not let you distort my words…Trying to bully or censure me won’t work because this movement for a cease-fire is much bigger than one person. It is growing every single day. There are millions of people across our country who oppose Netanyahu’s extremism and are done watching our government support collective punishment and the use of white phosphorus bombs that melt flesh to the bone. They are done watching our government…supporting cutting off food, water, electricity, and medical care to millions of people with nowhere to go…they don’t believe the answer to war crimes is more war crimes. The refusal of Congress and the administration to acknowledge Palestinian lives is chipping away at my soul. Over 10,000 Palestinians have been killed. The majority were children…The idea that criticizing the Government of Israel is anti-Semitic sets a very dangerous precedent, and it is being used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our Nation…I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else…Speaking up to save lives…no matter faith, no matter ethnicity, should not be controversial…The cries of Palestinian and Israeli children sound no different to me. What I do not understand is why the cries of Palestinians sound different to you-all…We cannot lose our shared humanity…We will continue to call for a cease-fire…for the immediate delivery of critical humanitarian aid to Gaza, for the release of all hostages and those arbitrarily detained, and for every American to come home. We will continue to work for real, lasting peace that upholds human rights and the dignity of all people and centers peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians, censures no one, and ensures that no person, no child, has to suffer or live in fear of violence.” Despite enormous pressure by the Israel lobby, support for a ceasefire in Congress continues to grow – adding powerful new allies like Rep. Maxine Waters and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, who has, incredibly, taken a bolder stance than longtime progressives like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

3. Two recent stories reveal widespread dissent within the State Department regarding the administration’s policy on Gaza. POLITCO is out with a report on a leaked State Department memo calling for the U.S. to support a ceasefire and allow for criticism of Israel’s military tactics, the gag on which “contributes to regional public perceptions that the United States is a biased and dishonest actor,” further arguing that American “tolerance” for wanton civilian death “engenders doubt in the rules-based international order that we have long championed.” Meanwhile, the Huffington Post reports State Department officials feel sidelined by the administration and unable to steer policy at this vital moment. One unnamed official decried the department for using “hollow moves” which “fail to acknowledge the complicity of our decisions and policy in the relentless suffering of Gazans…igno[ing] the fact that we still aren’t pushing for a cease-fire, still not asking Israel to control itself.”

4. The State Department isn’t the only institution dealing with internal dissent over Gaza. Democracy Now! reports that Jazmine Hughes, an award-winning writer for The New York Times Magazine, “resigned after signing an open letter condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The move constituted a violation of newsroom policy. New York Times contributor Jamie Lauren Keiles, who describes himself as a “religiously observant Jew,” also left the publication after signing on to the letter.”

5. Brandeis University has banned their campus’ chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The group posted on their Instagram that the Student Affairs department at the university “derecognized” the group after they planned a vigil for the dead in Palestine, deeming the demonstration “a genuine threat or harassment.” Brooklyn College Professor Corey Robin wrote “the idea of an institution bearing [the] name [Brandeis], of all names, to investigate student groups exercising their speech rights—in the name of combating alleged danger—is outrageous. "Men feared witches and burnt women," he wrote. Quite.” The ACLU has urged higher education leaders to “Reject calls to investigate, disband, or penalize pro-Palestinian student groups for exercising their free speech rights.”

6. According to the Intercept, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Christine Abizaid is using the October 7th Hamas attack in Israel to argue for reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Section 702 “enables the U.S. government to gather vast amounts of intelligence — including about U.S. citizens — under the broad category of foreign intelligence information, without first seeking a warrant.” This section of the law is set to expire at the end of this year, though lawmakers are likely to renew it in some form. The Brennan Center for Justice recently published a report documenting how the FBI “has used the 702 authority to spy on U.S. representatives, senators, civil liberties organizations, political campaigns, and activists.”

7. CNN reports that South Africa and Chad have recalled their diplomats from Israel. South African officials also “noted the continuing disparaging remarks of the Israeli ambassador to South Africa about those who are opposing the atrocities and the genocide of the Israeli government,” adding that “A genocide under the watch of the international community cannot be tolerated.” South Africa and Chad now join Turkey, Honduras, Colombia, Chile, Jordan and Bahrain, in withdrawing diplomats from Israel, while Bolivia has opted to cut off diplomatic relations with Israel entirely, citing “crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people.”

8. In domestic politics on Israel, Wisconsin Rep. and outspoken progressive Mark Pocan made waves this week for criticizing AIPAC, Israel’s chief lobbying arm in the U.S. In an interview with Slate, Pocan said “I don’t give a f**k about AIPAC—period…I think they’re a cancerous presence on our democracy and politics in general, and if I can be a surgeon, that’s great.” The Slate article goes to say “following Pocan’s lead, a small number of congressional Democrats (and one congressional Republican) have openly accused the organization of spreading falsehoods and misrepresentations in its lobbying efforts.” AIPAC was the top 2022 donor to both Reps. Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries, respectively the Speaker and Minority Leader of the House.

9. Finally, in non-Palestinian news, More Perfect Union reports that “Tens of thousands of garment workers in Bangladesh who make products for brands like Zara, H&M and GAP are on strike. Their minimum wage is $75 a month, and they're demanding it rise to $208. The bosses are only offering $90. They've shut down over 300 factories so far.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Ceasefire Now! Nov 05, 2023

In this exclusive podcast edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, we welcome the President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Lara Friedman, to further inform our listeners about the ongoing state of affairs in Israel/Gaza and the emergency unconditional $14 billion spending bill moving through Congress to aid Israel.

I've been in meetings over the years, and I've had a member of Congress say to me, "Well, you know, land without a people for a people without a land." Or they've quoted back to me something like, "Well, listen, Israel can't make peace so long as the Palestinians hate Jews more than they love their children." That kind of stuff. I mean, it's just this basic language, which at a fundamental level dehumanizes Palestinians in such a way that you don't have to question whether what Israel is doing is right or wrong.

Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace

There are no innocent civilians because they're all somehow in their DNA, virulently, viciously anti-Semitic, and full of hate and full of terrorism. And, once you've established that as a baseline, deep racism, deep dehumanization, it's extremely effective. Because then anything goes.

Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace

We know that there was a period of time when the Israeli military literally calculated the number of calories it needed to allow entry into Gaza to prevent the population from starving. And that was all they were letting in.

Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace

We're in the most bizarre place where we have almost 10,000 Palestinians dead on the ground in Gaza. And the narrative that is being pushed out by the Israeli government and its supporters here, including in the US administration, is that to talk about ceasefire is repugnant. It's just utterly surreal.

Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace

If people still believe that you can defeat an ideology by killing a lot of people and essentially taking a whole generation and killing their parents and injuring them, and they think that's going to defeat an ideology, then they've learned nothing. They've learned nothing from the horrible experiences of the past few decades of the U.S. experience in the war on terror, and they know nothing about human nature.

Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

A Genocide Tax Nov 04, 2023

Ralph welcomes Craig Mokhiber, who just resigned his post as the director in the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the United Nations over the UN response to the bombing of Gaza. Then, we are joined by CODEPINK peace activist, Medea Benjamin, who was recently arrested at a hearing on Capitol Hill, featuring Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for protesting the weapons bill for Israel moving through Congress.

Craig Mokhiber is lawyer and specialist in international human rights law, policy and methodology, and he has served the UN since 1992. Until his recent retirement, Mr. Mokhiber served as Director in the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). He has also served as the UN's Senior Human Rights Advisor in both Palestine and in Afghanistan, led the team of human rights specialists attached to the High Level Mission on Darfur, headed the Rule of Law and Democracy Unit, and served as Chief of the Economic and Social Issues Section, and Chief of the Development and Economic and Social Issues Branch at OHCHR Headquarters.

What was really at the center of my letter was a sense that in the United Nations, international law had been subverted or pushed aside in favor of an approach to political expediency. That, first of all, ignored the norms and standards of human rights and humanitarian law. And secondly, it’s failed miserably to improve the situation in Palestine and Israel.

Craig Mokhiber

Hamas is not just Hamas's armed wing. Hamas is also effectively a local government that provides services. Hamas is not supported by everyone in Gaza by any means. Palestinians who belong to many different parties have many different perspectives from liberal to conservative. And so, I think this continuous focus on Hamas and an effort to depict Hamas as ISIS, with all sorts of fantastical stories, is an intentional distraction away from the reality—which is the 2.3 million interned civilians in Gaza who have no say over what happens in their lives and who are on the receiving end of the Israeli bombs.

Craig Mokhiber

[This $14.5 billion in military aid to Israel] is being called the genocide tax on the American people— who I think if they were polled would say, “Let Israel pay for its own blunders on October 7th.”

Ralph Nader

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. Her most recent book, coauthored with Nicolas J.S. Davies, is War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.

Many of us, for weeks, have been going into their offices, doing sit-ins in their offices, joining in with the constituents in their districts, and trying to get them to come out for a ceasefire— to no avail.

Medea Benjamin

It's incredible the level of insanity of giving more money to Israel that could create a regional war there, continuing to fund (to the tune of $61 billion) the war in Ukraine that could lead to a regional war there, and then tacking on some more money to provoke China.

Medea Benjamin

Congress is behaving like an autocracy. It is blockading itself from the American people. It is putting its own power up for sale. It is ignoring the facts abroad. It's alienating huge portions of the world, and they don't care.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. President Biden is facing a collapse in his 2024 polling related to his blind support for the Israeli military. A Gallup poll shows Biden’s disapproval rating among young people has hit nearly 60%, rivaling the collapse in support for LBJ as the Vietnam war dragged on. According to the same poll, Biden has dropped 11 points with Democrats overall since September. Among Muslim Americans, Time reports only 17% say they now plan to vote for Biden in 2024 – a steep decline from the 59% who voted for him in 2020.

2. Many Democrats are sticking with Biden despite his deeply unpopular position on Gaza, but not Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who is Palestinian and represents a significant Muslim American population in her Michigan district. In a recent video made with Means TV, Tlaib signals “There is no excuse for Joe Biden's support of Israel’s genocidal campaign in Palestine. Don't count on our vote in 2024.”

3. On Monday, October 23rd, the AFL-CIO held a tense meeting of its executive council regarding Gaza. The New York Times reports “Mark Dimondstein, the president of the postal union, argued that Israel and…Palestin[e]…should be combined into a single state [and] called for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. to demand a cease-fire, according to four people familiar with the contents of the meeting.” He also described himself as “[an] anti-Zionist Jew.” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, asserted “Israel’s right to defend itself, [and] said she backed establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel,” Noting “That has been part of the Democratic platform for as long as I can remember.” Mr. Dimondstein, responded that he is “not part of the Democratic Party.”

4. The International Federation of Journalists reports that the West Bank shrine venerating Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh – murdered by an Israeli sniper who was never brought to justice in May 2022 – has been desecrated. IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said “I have visited this site myself and know firsthand how important it had become to those who mourn Shireen’s loss. It is hard to see this destruction as anything other than a cruel act of vengeance, of a kind that can only exacerbate tensions in Palestine. The sooner the ICC gives this case the attention it deserves, the better.”

5. Anti-war sentiment is even taking hold in Israel itself. Israeli journalist Oren Ziv reported on an Israeli anti-war protest on October 28th, highlighting that this was the first such demonstration and that the protesters blocked roads near the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. This comes as the situation within Israel grows increasingly tense, with reports of Palestinian students being trapped in a dorm at Netanya Academic College as an Israeli mob outside changed “death to Arabs,” per the Middle East Eye.

6. Even the Pope has weighed in on the growing violence, joining calls for a ceasefire. The pontiff issued a statement reading “Let the arms cease. Stop, brothers and sisters: war is always a defeat — always, always!”

7. In major domestic news, the United Auto Workers union has triumphed in their strike against the Big Three automakers. On October 30th, UAW and General Motors reached a deal, following similar agreements being reached with Stellantis and Ford. Axios reports that details of these deals include “25% wage hikes over four and a half years…cost-of-living adjustments…[bringing top wages] over $42 an hour by 2028…[and eliminating the] despised two-tiered wage scale for newer hires,” all key demands of the striking workers. These deals also provide “permanent jobs for temp workers and boosts retirement income, including 401(k) contributions,” and protections for EV workers. Reuters quotes UAW President Shawn Fain saying “We wholeheartedly believe our strike squeezed every last dime out of General Motors…They underestimated us. They underestimated you."

8. The Washington Post is out with a blockbuster new report on how payday loan firms have gone to war with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to the report, “Powerful financial firms that offer high-cost, short-term loans to poor Americans have blocked at least five federal investigations into their business practices since the start of last year, part of a broad and aggressive campaign by payday lenders to neuter or eliminate their chief watchdog agency in Washington.” These firms have fought the CFPB tooth and nail in the courts, successfully bringing a case to challenge the existence of the Bureau itself to the Supreme Court. As that case winds its way through the legal system, these firms have “cited the pending Supreme Court decision to slow ongoing CFPB investigations or fight off the agency’s recent punishments.” Lisa Gilbert, the executive vice president of Public Citizen, which filed a briefing with the Supreme Court in defense of the CFPB, noted that “The really big-picture implication is all of the rules of the last 12 years could be called into question.”

9. Finally, the Intercept reports progressive House Democrat Jim McGovern and conservative House Republican Thomas Massie are circulating a letter calling on President Biden to end the judicial persecution of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. This letter emphasizes that “Deep concerns about this case have been repeatedly expressed by international media outlets, human rights and press freedom advocates,” and noted a previous letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland which stressed that “[e]very day that the prosecution of Julian Assange continues is another day that our own government needlessly undermines our own moral authority abroad and rolls back the freedom of the press under the First Amendment at home.” Hopefully this left-right coalition in favor of press freedom will prevail.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

A Strategy of Annihilation Oct 28, 2023

In our ongoing coverage of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, we invite retired U.S. Army Colonel and senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Lawrence Wilkerson, to offer his experienced and unsparing perspective. Then our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, weighs in on how in this conflict the United States violates a number of international laws.

* Here is former director in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs Josh Paul’s op-ed in the Washington Post: “Opinion: This is not the State Department I know. That’s why I left my job.”

Bibi [Netanyahu] is very strategically allied with Hamas. Hamas does not believe in a two-state solution. They are adamantly opposed to a two-state solution. They want a Palestinian state and Israel gone. But Bibi sympathizes with that because he wants an Israeli state and the Palestinians gone. So he's very much willing to work with Hamas— not explicitly, but certainly tacitly and implicitly.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

Netanyahu's goal here is to stay out of jail.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

Biden doesn't seem to distinguish between the subjugators and the subjugated… Factually, it's pretty clear that the difference in military superpower on the side of the Israelis and the U.S., compared to the feeble weaponry of the Palestinians (if they're even able to acquire them) it's probably the greatest gap in modern history between the occupier and the occupied. Why doesn't Biden recognize that? He's supposed to be a foreign policy expert… Why doesn't he recognize those basic facts?

Ralph Nader

* Here is Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein’s October 24, 2023 letter to President Joe Biden on the subject of the Biden Administration’s public response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

You put all [the facts] together and it really is almost laughable to have the President of the United States stand up there and proclaim the fundamental principle of U.S. international foreign policy is making a rule-based international order. As he's violating the order himself.

Bruce Fein

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/25/23

1. High ranking State Department official Josh Paul has resigned from the agency, citing the Biden administration’s hard line on support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza, per the Huffington Post. Paul, who oversaw top-level arms sales at the State Department, said “When I came to this bureau ... I knew it was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt … the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do…I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued – indeed, expanded and expedited – provision of lethal arms to Israel – I have reached the end of that bargain.” In a later interview with PBS NewsHour, Paul stated that human rights abuses by the IDF are tracked, but routinely ignored by the State Department’s senior leadership.

2. Adding to this staff revolt, the Intercept reports sixteen former campaign staffers for Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania sent a letter calling on the Senator to back a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, writing “it is not too late to change your stance and stand on the righteous side of history.” Fetterman has thus far been a hawkish supporter of Israel in this war. This letter follows a similar letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren, wherein 260 of her former presidential campaign staff urged her to call for a ceasefire as well, per POLITICO. The Messenger also reports Representative Ro Khanna’s political director has resigned in protest of Khanna’s opposition to a ceasefire resolution.

2. The United Nations reports that on October 18th, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution, authored by Brazil’s UN delegation, won the support of 12 of the council’s 15 members, but the sole veto of the United States was enough to kill to the measure. The American UN ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, justified the veto by saying “this resolution did not mention Israel’s right of self-defence.” No other delegation voted against the resolution, though the United Kingdom and Russia abstained from voting.

4. USA Today reports that Starbucks and the Starbucks workers union have filed “dueling lawsuits over [a] pro-Palestine social media post.” Starbucks claims the post – which read simply "Solidarity with Palestine!" – “damaged the company's reputation,” with executive vice president Sara Kelly claiming this implies the union’s “support for violence perpetrated by Hamas” On the other hand, the union alleges that this is nothing more than another tactic in Starbucks’ “illegal anti-union campaign” with the company “falsely attacking the union’s reputation with workers and the public.” Since 2021, over 330 unfair labor practice charges have been filed against Starbucks with the National Labor Relations Board.

5. As the United Auto Workers strike continues, the union has already achieved major concessions from the auto companies. These include General Motors, Ford, Stellantis offering a 23% wage increase, Ford agreeing to reduce the progression period to reach peak wages from 8 years to 3 – with Stellantis agreeing to 4 years – and Ford agreeing to reinstate cost of living adjustments, per the Detroit Free Press. Union president Shawn Fain continues to press the companies however, noting forcefully that even as Ford claims to be financially strained, they announced a $600 million dividend to shareholders just this week.

6. The Hill reports that the Senators are “zero[ing] in” on national standards for name, image, and likeness rights for college athletes. Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut said in a recent hearing on the issue “The system of college athletics is in need of reform. The system all too long has been exploitative and abusive, emotionally [and] physically.” Witnesses at the hearing testified that national standards would help avoid major disparities in compensation across state lines, and would ensure protections for student athletes in sports besides football and basketball. The senators assembled largely agreed that national standards are necessary, though some – like Senator Hawley of Missouri – fretted about the possibility of student athletes unionizing.

7. Axios reports that DC lawmakers have proposed an innovative bill that would “allocate $11 million annually to…Residents [who] could use those vouchers to support any local news outlet of their choice.” This proposal was pioneered by the Democracy Policy Network or DPN, co-founded by Pete Davis. DPN volunteer Mark Histed is said of the bill “We believe that markets are not sufficient to provide the level of journalism that we need in a democracy.” If the DC council passes the bill, the district would join New Mexico, California, and New Jersey in providing state funds for local journalism.

8. 33 states have filed a lawsuit against Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, alleging that the tech titan “routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of federal law,” per AP. In addition, nine state attorneys general are filing lawsuits in their states, meaning nearly every single state in the nation – and Washington D.C. – are taking action. New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement, “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted…while lowering their self-esteem.”

9. On October 24th, the California Department of Motor Vehicles issued a statement declaring the immediate suspension of permits issued to the company Cruise, which had allowed them to test and deploy driverless taxicabs in the state. The California DMV wrote “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits,” further noting that there is no set time limit for a suspension, and that the suspension is effective immediately.

10. Finally, the Minnesota Reformer is out with a story on how the Minneapolis police department and local government conspired to run a protection racket targeting small, minority-owned businesses in the city. Put simply, “Some businesses…are required by the city to have security, which until 2020, sometimes had to be off-duty Minneapolis police officers…The city doesn’t keep track of how much officers are working or how much they’re paid, or even have access to the contracts…Some officers are still paid in cash, increasing the risk of tax evasion. And, several business owners and Minneapolis officials said some small business owners — particularly those owned by immigrants — have been led to believe they must hire MPD officers, or risk getting ghosted by police.” One of the officers involved in this racket was none other than Derek Chauvin, later convicted of murdering George Floyd and setting off riots in the city that, in an ironic twist, led to the destruction of one of the businesses he had been been involved in “protecting.”

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard

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Invisible Palestinians Oct 21, 2023

In our continued coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ralph welcomes James Zogby, co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute and author of "Palestinians: The Invisible Victims.” Then, no-nukes activist Harvey Wasserman joins to warn us about the dangerous condition of nuclear reactors across the country, including the threat of “embrittlement” at the California reactor in Diablo Canyon.

James Zogby is co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, and he is featured frequently on national and international media as an expert on Middle East affairs. Since 1992, he has written a weekly column— “Washington Watch” —that is published in 12 countries. He is the author of several books, including Looking at Iran: The Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab Public Opinion, The Tumultuous Decade: Arab, Turkish, and Iranian Public Opinion - 2010-2019, Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters, and Palestinians: The Invisible Victims.

There are two narratives, and we have to understand both. There's Israeli trauma and Jewish trauma, and there's Palestinian and Arab trauma. Both are real because there are two groups of humanity who each have histories. When we adopt one and ignore the other, then we end up creating the kind of torment the Palestinians have been living with.

James Zogby

This does not make Israel more secure. Taking massive amounts of Palestinian lives, evacuating them, forcing them to flee from their homes, murdering them from the air—doesn't make them more secure. At the end of the day, when the dust settles and the tears dry, you're going to have a whole lot more dead people, a whole lot more anger, a whole lot more frustration, and nothing else will change in Gaza or in the West Bank.

James Zogby

Hamas was a tiny religious organization which was fostered into a more powerful organization by the United States and Israel. They thought that if they built up a religious organization, it would undermine the PLO (the Palestine Liberation Organization). And once again, just as in Afghanistan, we create our own adversaries, blundering back and forth.

Ralph Nader

Harvey Wasserman is a journalist, author, democracy activist, and advocate for renewable energy. Mr. Wasserman is the author of Solartopia! Our Green-Powered Earth, and The People’s Spiral Of U.S. History. He has written and researched atomic energy since 1973, and co-authored Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experience With Atomic Energy.

There's only one explanation why they're continuing to operate these two reactors and all the other reactors in the United States. And that's because the commercial reactor industry is now the infrastructure of the nuclear weapons industry. If you like nuclear power, you love nuclear weapons. They are joined at the hip, these two industries.

Harvey Wasserman

These two reactors are upwind of the entire United States. An accident at Diablo Canyon could—within four hours—send an apocalyptic radioactive cloud into Los Angeles, into the Central Valley where we get our fruits and vegetables for the winter, and into the Bay Area. The stakes could not be higher. And again, these are military facilities, masquerading as fighters of global warming, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Harvey Wasserman

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The Huffington Post reports that the State Department has imposed a censorship regime, directing high-level diplomats involved in Middle East affairs to refrain from using the following phrases: “de-escalation/ceasefire, end to violence/bloodshed, and restoring calm.” This mirrors White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s response to a reporter’s question during a recent briefing, when she deemed calls for a ceasefire by progressives in Congress “wrong…repugnant, and…disgraceful.” Rejecting this censorious framework, Rep. Jamaal Bowman tweeted that the “Official statement from [his] office [is] De-escalate. End the violence. Restore calm.”

2. According to Semafor, MSNBC has “quietly” pulled their Muslim anchors from the air, preventing them from covering the rapidly escalating situation in Gaza. “The network did not air a scheduled Thursday night episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show…reversed a plan for Ayman Mohyeldin to fill in this week…for…Joy Reid’s 7 p.m. show… [and] the network also plans to have Alicia Menendez fill in …for Ali Velshi.” This piece goes on to quote from anonymous MSNBC sources who “[feel] all three hosts have some of the deepest knowledge of the conflict.” NBC denies this is an intentional and coordinated move, instead claiming these shifts are merely “coincidental.” Meanwhile, MSNBC did prominently feature New York City Mayor Eric Adams making the extraordinarily dubious claim that “the DSA and others [were] carrying swastikas and calling for the extermination of Jewish people.” DSA members are now mulling a suit against the mayor for defamation, per City and State NY.

3. The Intercept is out with a story about divisions within the liberal Zionist advocacy group, J Street. Per the story, J Street is supporting a congressional resolution that “pledges unconditional support to Israel’s war in Gaza,” which “makes no mention of Palestinian civilians.” In response, over 1,000former J Street staffers and representatives are urging the organization to join calls for a ceasefire. J Street’s position mirrors that of many congressional progressives who have been hesitant to call for a ceasefire even as the civilian death toll continues to mount.

4. Law schools have become another major venue for conflict on this issue. The Jewish Law Students Association of the City University of New York has issued a statement, expressing their “uncompromising solidarity with the Palestinian people in their righteous struggle for self-determination,” and noting that “institutions like the UN have consistently demonstrated an unwillingness and/or inability to hold Israel accountable over its blatant disregard for international law.” Similar statements have come out of Harvard, Columbia, and NYU – leading top law firm Davis Polk to rescind job offers they had extended to students from these institutions, per NBC. Some donors have also cut ties with Harvard over the statement, including the Wexner foundation, founded by former Victoria’s Secret CEO and close Epstein associate Leslie Wexner.

5. The Washington Post reports Venezuela and the United States have reached a breakthrough agreement in which the U.S. will ease sanctions on the country’s oil industry, and in exchange the country will hold “a competitive, internationally monitored presidential election next year.” This agreement represents a win for both nations, with the Biden administration hoping it will ease oil and gas prices, while the Maduro administration will, at long last, have the opportunity to reaffirm its legitimacy following the Trump-backed coup attempt that began in 2019.

6. Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has called on the full Senate to expel Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey following his indictment on corruption charges and allegations by the Department of Justice that he was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Fetterman’s statement reads “Senator Menendez should not be a U.S. Senator. He should have been gone long ago. It is time for every one of my colleagues in the Senate to join me in expelling Senator Menendez…This is not a close call.” This from the Hill.

7. Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have broken down yet again, this time over two specific issues. The first, according to the LA Times, is the actors’ demand for a 2% share of streaming revenue, or alternatively 57 cents per subscriber per year. The studios have called this an “overreach” which would “create an untenable economic burden.” The other major point of contention is AI, with the studios “continuing to demand ‘consent’ on the first day of employment for use of a performer’s digital replica for an entire cinematic universe (or any franchise project),” per Deadline. Meanwhile, the guild has lauded a new Senate bill – the NO FAKES Act – which would “prevent a person from producing or distributing an unauthorized AI-generated replica of an individual to perform in an audiovisual or sound recording without the consent of the individual being replicated.” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said of the bill “A performer’s voice and their appearance are all part of their unique essence, and it’s not ok when those are used without their permission. Consent is key,” per Deadline.

8. Finally, the Guardian reports that Indian officials have approved a trial for sedition against renowned author Arundhati Roy concerning a 2010 speech she made on Kashmir. The article notes Reporters Without Borders has warned that “press freedom is in crisis” in India. Roy herself has been an outspoken critic of the rising tide of Hindu nationalism in India, which has earned her the ire of right-wing authoritarian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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The Punishment of Gaza Oct 14, 2023

Ralph welcomes Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy to discuss recent attacks by Hamas and the Israeli military in Israel and Palestine. Then, international law expert Bruce Fein speaks with Ralph about the recent violence, America's response, and America's historical culpability.

‘Gideon Levy is a Haaretz columnist and a member of the newspaper's editorial board. He is the author of the weekly “Twilight Zone" feature, which covers the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza over the last 25 years, as well as the writer of political editorials for the newspaper. He is the author of the book The Punishment of Gaza.

I think that there was something moving in [President Biden’s] speech because he seemed very sincere. But I was really, really missing the other side, the Palestinians, the siege, the occupation, the apartheid, nothing of this exists in his world. It was really a speech of a Zionist…not of a statesman who sees the siege and sees the agony and the suffering of the Palestinians for the last decades. And doesn't see the connection between this barbaric attack on Israel on Saturday and all those preconditions which are all of them criminal and inhuman.

Gideon Levy

In the international arena, justice is subordinated to power. And that's what we have here. And when President Biden yesterday says, “Oh, we're all in favor of a rule-based international order,” while he's supporting the very definition of genocide? It shows you how incredibly hypocritical and callous these politicians are. I don't want to single out Biden, because I think politicians in general are that way. And I'm not going to exclude some of those who are Palestinians too. It's a universal sociopathology in the political figures. And it's very, very tragic. 'Cause who loses? the peaceful civilians who want nothing more than a better life and opportunity to develop their faculties and have families.

Bruce Fein

Given the current events and the destruction of Gaza, Biden should really demand an immediate ceasefire and negotiate to establish a truce. He's got to try to be an honest broker, and instead he's a dittohead bullhorn for more military activity by Israel. This is the low point in presidential positioning on the Middle East conflict since the end of World War II, and there's nobody in government to call him to account.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. First, I must address the situation in Palestine. There is too much to say and the situation continues to develop rapidly, so instead of getting into specific news items I will instead read the October 8th statement released by progressive Palestinian congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. “I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday, today, and every day. I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace, without fear and with true freedom, equal rights, and human dignity. The path to that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating, dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance. The failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other. As long as our country provides billions in unconditional funding to support the apartheid government, this heartbreaking cycle of violence will continue.”

2. The United Auto Workers strike has notched their first major victory. According to a statement issued by the union on October 6th, “General Motors will include electric vehicle battery production work in the UAW’s national master agreement with the company.” The statement lauded this agreement as a “historic step forward,” which will guarantee “the transition to electric vehicles at GM will be a just transition that brings good union jobs to communities across America.” Another major breakthrough is a whopping proposed 23% pay increase from Ford, with other topics ranging from Cost of Living Increases to profit sharing to retirement security. As union president Shawn Fain remarked “We may be foul-mouthed, but we’re strategic. We may get fired up, but we’re disciplined. We may be rowdy, but we’re organized…We’re not here to start a fight, we’re here to finish one.”

3. Last week, Dr. Cornell West announced that he would drop his bid for the Green Party nomination and instead continue his run as an independent. A statement from his campaign reads “The best way to challenge the entrenched system is by focusing 100 percent on the people, not on the intricacies of internal party dynamics,” per the New York Times. Barring other factors, this will complicate the activist academic’s ability to appear on the ballot in many states. Within the same week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he would drop out of the Democratic Party primary and also run as an independent. Semafor reports that the Trump campaign now plans to target, rather than boost, the RFK Jr. campaign as his independent bid is expected to draw more votes from Trump than Biden in a general election.

4. AP reports the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4-3 in favor of hearing a challenge to the state’s legislative maps, long regarded as lopsidedly gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. Liberal justice Janet Protasiewicz, under massive pressure from Wisconsin Republicans, refused to recuse herself from this case – setting the stage for a power struggle which could see Republican legislators go so far as to impeach her. Liberals took back a majority on the state supreme court following a 15-year run of conservative control.

5. X, formerly Twitter, has “roll[ed] out [a] new ad format that can't be reported [or] blocked,” per Mashable. The article goes on to note that “the new ad format also doesn't disclose who is behind the ad or that it is even an advertisement at all.” This seems to violate FTC guidelines, which demand that disclosures of advertisements be “clear and conspicuous.”

6. An ominous report in the Washington Post finds that if one asks an Amazon Alexa whether fraud was involved in the 2020 election, it will reply that the election was “’stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,’ citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives.” Amazon claims these responses were limited and that the error has been corrected, but this incident foreshadows a much larger issue of disinformation becoming so plentiful that it overwhelms reliable sourcing in terms of sheer volume online. Others have reported similar issues with so-called AI programs, which cull the internet for their answers to specific questions.

7. Politico reports that, following a DNC meeting this past week, the Iowa caucuses will no longer be first on the presidential primary calendar. The state will now vote with many other, larger states on March 5th, also known as Super Tuesday. Iowa delegates have made clear that they plan to “lobby for an earlier nominating contest in 2028.” On the other hand, New Hampshire has signaled that it will not abide by the Committee’s decision to move their primary, and may hold a “rogue” primary on their chosen date. Elaine Kamarck, a DNC member told Politico “We’ve made our decision about the sequence of these early states and we’re going to stick to that sequence.”

8. Finally, El Pais reports that the “Colombian hitmen who killed presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio [have been] murdered in an Ecuadorian prison.” Sources claim the men were hanged in a cellblock. Just days prior, “the United States offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the masterminds behind Villavicencio’s murder.” Outgoing right-wing Ecuadoran president Guillermo Lasso was in New York when the murders occurred, though former leftist president Rafael Correa wrote “If they are the hitmen who killed Villavicencio, it proves that the government was behind the crime.” Ecuador’s contentious presidential election is slated for October 15th.

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Going Into Labor Oct 07, 2023

Our five hundredth episode features long time labor organizer, Chris Townsend, who talks to Ralph about labor law reform, the Biden administration’s attitude toward the labor movement, the UAW strike, the threat of automation, and much more. Plus, Ralph clarifies his position re the Washington Post article where he said he preferred “autocracy over fascism,” and we briefly discuss the chaos in the Republican caucus.

Chris Townsend is a 44-year trade union worker and organizer. He is the retired Political Action Director for the United Electrical Workers Union and was the International Union organizing and field director for the Amalgamated Transit Union.

The workplace in the United States is a dictatorship. And if you're willing to challenge that dictatorship— create a rebellion against it—you might be able to build a union. If you look at the statistics, the number of elections— the number of those campaigns that actually get that far, which is only a small number, most of them are incinerated, liquidated, poison gassed, fired, terminated out of existence before you ever get that election— but if you get that election, the labor movement is winning.

Chris Townsend

When you have a labor leadership that is lazy, unimaginative, unimaginative, rarely challenged, has a very timid view, a very limited worldview, and they see their role more as administrator as opposed to leaders— this is the modern situation that we face. We don't have much of a leadership, sadly. We have an administrator group, and they have administered the decline.

Chris Townsend

Let's be very, very realistic here. I don't think there can be a labor union movement in the United States under present federal laws. There are just too many hurdles, too many delays, too many licenses for these corporations to bust up the situation… And I'm amazed that you can listen to what the AFL puts out, what labor union leaders put out—they almost never mention card checks, they never mention repealing Taft -Hartley. They don't force the Democrats— who get elected in no small part because of union support— to put these labor law reforms in place.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. October 1st marked the first day of Fiscal Year 2024 in Washington DC, and with it, DC’s Cashless Ban finally goes into effect, per Axios. Now, district residents will be able to report businesses that do not accept cash and/or those who post signage saying they will not accept cash. If any listeners out there are based in Washington and wish to report any such businesses, feel free to submit them to me at francesco.desantis@csrl.org. And remember, if you see something, say something.

2. Democracy Now! reports that Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has gone on record saying she plans to restore Net Neutrality rules – which would “bar internet providers from blocking access or throttling customers’ connections based on how much they pay or which websites they visit” – which were repealed under the Trump administration. This follows Democrats finally taking majority control of the commission. Common Cause remarked, “To allow a handful of monopoly-aspiring gate-keepers to control access to the internet is a direct threat to our democracy.”

3. Brazilian President Lula has issued a statement in support of the United Auto Workers strike. Lula, who himself worked as a union organizer at the Brazilian automobile manufacturing facilities of auto giants like Ford, Volkwagon, and Toyota, made this statement after meeting with President Biden and seeing him take to the picketline in support of the striking workers. Lula added “It is crucial that presidents all around the world show concern for labor." More about Lula’s history with automobile labor unions is available at the Multinational Monitor.

4. Despite concerns raised by high-ranking Democrats in Congress, the Biden administration has approved Israel’s entry into the visa waiver program, meaning Israelis can now visit the US for up to 90 days without a visa, and Americans can do the same. However, the Middle East Eye reports that Arab-American Nondiscrimination Committee plans to challenge this decision in court, as Israel may not meet the legal criteria for the program due to their discrimination against Palestinian Americans. Huwaida Arraf, a lawyer representing the ADC, added “This is all so unnecessary, all the US government had to do was maintain the standard it has with every other country in the Visa Waiver Programme. This lawsuit could have been avoided, but the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department resurrected the debunked notion that separate is somehow equal. As these plaintiffs show, that notion is a farce.”

5. The Sacramento Bee reports California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed two major pro-labor bills that emerged late in this session of the state legislature. One would have granted unemployment insurance to striking workers, a push which emerged in the face of the extended entertainment industry strikes. The other would have brought domestic workers under “the umbrella of OSHA protections.” These vetoes were handed down along with Newsom’s decision to appoint LaPhonza Butler, head of EMILY’s List and a Maryland resident, to fill the Senate seat left vacant by Dianne Feinstein’s passing.

6. On October 1st, The State Department issued a statement decrying “Anti-Democratic Actions in Guatemala,” directed at President-elect Bernardo Arevalo and his Semilla Party. The statement expresses that “The United States is gravely concerned with continued efforts to undermine Guatemala’s peaceful transition of power…Most recently, the Guatemalan Public Ministry seiz[ing] electoral materials under the custody of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal,” and goes on to add that “The United States…[is] actively taking steps to impose visa restrictions on individuals who continue to undermine Guatemala’s democracy, including current and former members of Congress, judicial actors, and any others engaging in such behavior…The Guatemalan people have spoken. Their voice must be respected.”

7. PBS reports that during a recent meeting between American officials and Mexican President AMLO, the latter levied scathing criticisms of US foreign policy, including the mammoth aid packages for Ukraine and economic sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, and other Latin American nations. President López Obrador said the United States “should spend some of the money sent to Ukraine on economic development in Latin America…[and]…called for a U.S. program “to remove blockades and stop harassing independent and free countries, an integrated plan for cooperation so the Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Ecuadorans, Guatemalans and Hondurans wouldn’t be forced to emigrate.”

8. The Japan Times reports that “The Japanese government plans to seek a court order to disband the Unification Church…after a monthslong probe into the religious group over allegations of soliciting financially ruinous donations from members and other questionable practices.” The report goes on to say “Scrutiny of the group intensified after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot during an election campaign speech last year over his perceived links to the entity, an incident which also brought to light its connections with many ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers.”

9. Finally, Disney World is being hit with a substantial tort lawsuit. A woman visiting the park for her 30th birthday suffered “serious ‘gynecologic injuries’” while on the “Humunga Kowabunga” ride. I will spare listeners the grisly details, but suffice it to say she experienced “severe and permanent bodily injury,” which required surgery, per Law & Crime. Yet, in typical fashion of corporate media reportage on tortious injury, this story is being presented primarily as nothing more than a “wedgie,” just as the McDonald’s lawsuit was reported as merely being about hot coffee. A deep dive into that case is available at the Tort Museum website.

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Proxy Wars/ America Run Amok Sep 30, 2023

Ralph welcomes award-winning foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer to discuss America's bloody history of proxy wars. They'll also discuss the mainstream media's "shameful" coverage of the war in Ukraine, the warhawks on Capitol Hill, and the catastrophic trickle-down effects of American military meddling.

Stephen Kinzer is an award-winning foreign correspondent who has covered more than 50 countries on five continents. Mr. Kinzer spent more than 20 years working for the New York Times, most of it as a foreign correspondent. After leaving the Times in 2005, Mr. Kinzer taught journalism, political science, and international relations at Northwestern University and Boston University. He is now a Senior Fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University and writes a world affairs column for The Boston Globe.

We attacked Libya in complete violation of international law, but in accordance with the system that we have used as a substitute for international law. And that's what we call the “rules-based international order.” That's our alternative to international law. And the rules-based international order is great for us because we're the ones that make the rules. We decide everything. We decide who's making war, who's not making war, who's good, who's bad, who needs to be punished, who doesn't need to be punished. Under international law, we can't do that because countries are treated more equally. So I think this is the real way we have turned away from both international law and our own domestic law—we've said that they're all superseded by the rules-based international order, which is a nice way of saying everybody has to do what the United States decides.

Stephen Kinzer

A mantra in Congress is “Israel has a right to defend itself.” But no one ever says in Congress “the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves,” and they take casualty counts anywhere from 40 to 100 times greater in terms of innocent civilians, killed or injured. The Iranians apparently have no right to defend themselves… What is this inverted sense that these countries that are legitimately threatened, that have been overthrown… What's this mindset in official Washington that nobody threatened by the US or Israel has a right to defend themselves?

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. On Monday, the Writers’ Guild of America announced that they have reached an interim agreement with the studios. The proposed deal includes minimum writing room sizes, pay increases, a ban on writing by generative AI programs, and disclosures of streaming numbers with residuals to match, to name just a few of the top line wins for the union. The agreement still needs to be formally submitted to the Guild membership for ratification, but this marks the end of the second longest strike in the WGA’s history.

2. AP reports that earlier this week, President Biden joined the United Autoworkers on the picket line. This is the first time ever a sitting president has joined a picket line. “Donning a union ballcap and exchanging fist bumps, Biden told United Auto Workers strikers that ‘you deserve the significant raise you need’” and urged the workers to “stick with it.” Biden made this move in part because former President Donald Trump also addressed autoworkers in a speech this week, though he did so at a non-union plant away from the picket line. UAW president Shawn Fain deemed Trump’s address to non-union workers “pathetic irony,” per FOX 2 Detroit.

3. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is facing a mammoth corruption scandal involving fraudulent halal meat from Egypt and $100,000 worth of gold bars. Per the BBC, Menendez has been forced to resign his chairmanship of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Yet, the powerful New Jersey Senator has not resigned his seat, even as a growing chorus of top Democrats have called on him to do so – including New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and many more. One possible upside to all of this is that Menendez’s departure from his post on the Foreign Relations Committee could pave the way for a more rational American policy towards Cuba.

4. In more Cuba news, NBC reports that on September 24th, the Cuban embassy in Washington was attacked. The assailant hurled two molotov cocktails at the diplomatic mission; fortunately, the diplomatic staff were unharmed. No arrests have been made. This follows a 2020 attack, when a man shot “nearly three dozen rounds” at the embassy from an AK-47.

5. CNN reports that the FTC and the attorneys general of 17 states have filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that “Amazon unfairly promotes its own platform and services at the expense of third-party sellers who rely on the company’s e-commerce marketplace for distribution.” Specific examples of the e-commerce giant’s anticompetitive practices include “requiring sellers on its platform to purchase Amazon’s in-house logistics services in order to secure the best seller benefits, [and forcing] sellers to list their products on Amazon at the lowest prices anywhere on the web, instead of allowing sellers to offer their products at competing marketplaces for a lower price.” Hopefully, this reinvigorated consumer protection regime will serve as a deterrent to other would-be corporate criminals.

6. Kyodo News reports Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki recently addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, and used the opportunity to rail against the proposed US military base in the Japanese-controlled territory. Tamaki noted that the base “was clearly opposed by Okinawan voters in a democratically held referendum" and that the installation of the base would threaten regional peace. Okinawa already hosts most of the American military presence in Japan.

7. Variety reports that Anil Kapoor, an A-list actor in India, has won his legal battle against AI. The court “granted an order…acknowledging [Kapoor’s] personality rights and restraining all offenders from misusing his personality attributes without his permission in any manner…across all modes and media worldwide.” Kapoor also noted that “My intention is not to interfere with anyone’s freedom of expression or to penalize anyone. My intent was to seek protection of my personality rights and prevent any misuse for commercial gains, particularly in the current scenario with rapid changes in technology and tools like artificial intelligence.”

8. Finally, the Orchard reports that On September 22nd, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy addressed the Canadian House of Commons. In attendance was Yaroslav Hunka, a 98 year-old veteran who, according to the CBC “fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians during the Second World War.” Students of history quickly put two and two together, deducing that this “veteran” was in fact a soldier in the 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen SS, otherwise known as the Galician Division. Prime Minister Trudeau also held a private audience with this Nazi. Uproar in Canada proved so great that the Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, Anthony Rota, was forced to resign, per the CBC. Furthermore, Polish officials have now formally requested that Hunka be extradited to Poland to face charges for atrocities committed by the Galician SS Division during WWII.

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Clean(er) Capitalism Sep 23, 2023

Ralph welcomes Toby Heaps, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Canadian magazine “Corporate Knights,” which ranks the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations. And we welcome back Dr. Bandy Lee, psychiatrist and editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” to discuss Donald Trump’s continuing hold on 30% of the American population.

Toby Heaps is the CEO and co-founder of Corporate Knights, and Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Knights magazine. He spearheaded the first global ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations in 2005, and in 2007 coined the term “clean capitalism.” Toby has been published in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Globe and Mail, and is a regular guest speaker on CBC.

You see these stories happening all over the world, whether it’s from the oil companies or the electric power companies, fossil power companies, or food companies, or real estate companies. And the ones who are going all in, investing big in the green economy and the more sustainable economy are, more often than not, the ones who are hitting the biggest numbers financially.

Toby Heaps, Corporate Knights

We don’t want to just be doing a beauty contest or be subject to the latest headline. We’re trying to do something that’s reasonably rooted in evidence, and it can be defensible, and it can be considered fair. And we recognize that none of the big companies that we rank are perfect— they all have major issues, which is kind of the nature of the human condition.

Toby Heaps, Corporate Knights

Dr. Bandy Lee is a medical doctor, a forensic psychiatrist, and a world expert on violence who taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years before transferring recently to Columbia and Harvard. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition, an educational organization that assembles mental health experts to collaborate with other disciplines for the betterment of public mental health and public safety. She is the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President and Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul.

Essentially, [Trump] did not have the capacity to have ideologies or policies. He can’t think at that level. What he can do is to manipulate psychologically those who are vulnerably predisposed and those who have formed emotional bonds with him.

Dr. Bandy Lee

These are the kinds of effects that we expect from having a person with severe mental symptoms holding an influential position and having lots of public exposure. We do have a propagation of symptoms. I’ve been calling this the “Trump Contagion” but what it really is is shared psychosis, which is a psychosocial phenomenon that’s been researched and described since around the mid-19th century.

Dr. Bandy Lee

[Trump voters] are still with him. But they would never support a friend or a neighbor who lied all the time, who had power over them, who described things that weren’t real about what was going on around them or what he did in the past, or who cheated his workers.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The United Autoworkers Union is on strike against the big three automakers. Just before the strike began, the Lever reported that General Motors claimed the union’s demands “would threaten our ability to do what’s right for the long-term benefit of the team.” Yet, for all their crying poverty, the Big Three “have reported $21 billion in profits in just the first six months of 2023,” and “have authorized $5 billion in stock buybacks.” The union’s strategy is also worth touching on, as it is novel for this industry. Instead of all workers going on strike at once, the union plans on “targeting a trio of strategic factories while keeping 90 percent of its members working under expired contracts,” per Axios. However, this story notes the ways industry plans to strike back, notably by utilizing quasi-lockouts at active plants.

2. In a nigh-unprecedented shot across the bow, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has issued a “‘writ of body attachment’, directing the United States Marshals Service to take two corporate officials of Haven Salon + Spa in Muskego, Wisconsin into custody [after they] repeatedly failed and refused to comply with an enforced [National Labor Relations] Board order.” This followed years of opportunities for the corporate officials to settle this dispute and represents the strongest signal so far that the re-energized NLRB will use every weapon in its legal arsenal to protect workers. The Board’s full statement is available at NLRB.gov.

3. The Washington Post reports that since retaking power in Afghanistan, the Taliban has “all but extinguished al-Qaeda.” Yet buried within this story is a much more intriguing tidbit. According to this piece, “The CIA shares counterterrorism information with the Taliban,” per a senior Biden administration official. This official emphasized that this does not include “targeting data or ‘actionable intelligence,’” raising the question of what information exactly the CIA is passing along to the Taliban.

4. In Maine, voters are set to decide on a proposal to “turn the state’s two big private electric companies—Central Maine Power and Versant—into Pine Tree Power, a nonprofit, publicly run utility,” per Bill McKibben in the Nation. McKibben points out that the private utility companies “sent $187 million in profits out of Maine last year—much of it to shareholders in such far-flung places as Qatar, Norway, and Canada.” Moreover, this move could lower rates by “an average of $367 per household per year.” Bernie Sanders has endorsed this effort, declaring “Power belongs in the hands of the people, not greedy corporations.”

5. In an effort to combat food deserts, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has announced the city will explore the possibility of opening a municipally-owned grocery store. The announcement highlighted that “Historic disinvestment has led to inequitable access to food retail across Chicago, [which] have been exacerbated as at least six grocery stores closed on the South and West sides over the past two years.” This project would seek to provide healthy food for South and West side residents, as well as an economic anchor in these communities.

6. From Variety: The California Senate has passed a bill to “grant unemployment benefits to workers who are on strike,” in a major win for the Writers Guild, SAG-AFTRA, and organized labor more generally. If signed, this will go into effect January 1st, 2024. Currently, only New York and New Jersey offer this safety net to striking workers.

7. A story in LA Public Press traces the disturbing rise of so-called “Tenant relocators.” According to the story, “Lawmakers, tenants and tenant groups say that, across Los Angeles, landlords are buying rent-controlled buildings predominantly occupied by immigrants and using illegal tenant harassment to force people out so they can re-rent their units at market rate.” Further, “Organizers...say tenant harassment is so profitable that it has become an industry in its own right, and that the industry has spawned a profession: the tenant relocator, who cajoles or threatens tenants into leaving while their building falls to pieces around them.” This is yet another case showing the stunning lengths the rich will go to in order to acquire yet more wealth.

8. In Atlanta, over 115,000 signatures have been collected and submitted calling for a referendum on the “Cop City,” project. Yet, when these signatures were submitted, the Clerk’s Office refused to accept them, citing obscure deadline rules. Now, Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock is weighing in with a letter to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens urging the City to “err on the side of giving people the ability to express their views,” the Atlanta Voice reports. This contentious project will likely continue to be a political flash-point going forward.

9. Arundhati Roy, the world-famous Indian dissident writer, received a major European essay prize on September 12th. She used this opportunity to deliver an explosive speech warning of the danger posed to the world by “the dismantling of democracy in India.” Roy is explicit in naming “India’s descent…into first majoritarianism and then full-blown fascism,” and goes into gut-churning detail concerning the plight of religious minorities in what used to be called the world’s largest democracy. The full speech is available on YouTube.

10. Finally, Yahoo News reports that back in 2015, “Elon Musk Stormed Into the Tesla Office Furious That Autopilot Tried to Kill Him.” Taken from the new blockbuster biography of the tech magnate, the story goes on to say that the Tesla autopilot, “thrown off by the road's faded lane lines,” steered into and almost hit oncoming traffic. This, the book argues, was due to Musk’s insistence on removing light detection and ranging technology – better known as LiDAR – from his vehicles in an attempt to cut costs. Ultimately, the autopilot was not actually fixed; instead, Musk’s chief of staff Sam Teller got the faded lane lines repainted. That may be a functional solution for the world’s richest man, but personally, I wouldn’t take my chances.

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Reducing Gun Deaths Sep 16, 2023

Professor David Hemenway,the author of “Private Guns, Public Health” joins us to explain how we can reduce gun deaths if we treat the problem more like a public health issue, just like Ralph proved when dealing with the auto industry. Plus, Ralph weighs in on the repeal of the child tax credit, and Francesco DeSantis reports news items that tend to get ignored in the corporate media in our segment “In Case You Haven’t Heard.”

David Hemenway is an economist, Professor of Health Policy at Harvard University, and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center. He is a former Nader’s Raider, and he is the author of Private Guns, Public Health, and While We Were Sleeping: Success Stories in Injury and Violence Prevention.

Just by making it harder for criminals to get those guns, we have fewer criminals using those guns. That’s a fundamental law of economics and of psychology— if you don’t want people to do something, make it harder. If you want them to do it more, make it easier.

David Hemenway

The key about public health is: what we’re trying to do is prevent. Prevent. Prevent. Prevent. And too often, in the United States, what we try to do is blame. And often, blaming, all it does is say “Oh I don’t have to do anything. It’s somebody else’s fault.”

David Hemenway

[Reinstituting the Child Tax Credit] is something so simple, it’s something that helps so many families, it increases consumer demand because most of this money is spent on the necessities of life… and the Republicans are blocking it in Congress and not paying a political price. And that’s the story of the Democratic Party— they don’t make the Republicans, who are as cruel as any Republicans in history, pay a price.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. A Princeton University study, published at the end of August, traces the effects of unconditional cash transfers on homelessness. Focusing on Vancouver, Canada, researchers gave homeless people $7,500 Canadian. Conforming to the results of previous studies, the subjects used this money to get into housing – yet, what was remarkable about this study is it showed this program actually saved taxpayers money overall by relieving $8,277 per subject by removing them from the shelter system.

2. From Axios: 15 Senators have penned a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urging him to stop the planned admission of Israel into the Visa Waiver program. This program allows a country’s citizens to travel within the United States for 90 days without a visa. Built into this program is a provision demanding US citizens in a given country are treated equally – which is not the case for Palestinian Americans living in the West Bank. Israel claims that they are working to achieve compliance with this section of the law; however, this group of Senators argue that “There is no provision in law that provides that a visa waiver country can discriminate against certain groups of U.S. citizens for the first seven months of the program simply because a country claims they will treat all U.S. citizens equally for the last five months."

3. California Democrat Ro Khanna is making his pitch that President Biden should campaign on reelection on an anti-corruption platform, per the Huffington Post. Khanna, who previously chaired the Bernie Sanders campaign in California, has authored a five-point plan, consisting of “banning candidates for federal office from receiving donations from lobbyists or political action committees of any kind, banning members of Congress from trading stocks, limiting Supreme Court appointees to 18-year terms, imposing 12-year term limits on members of Congress, and requiring federal judges and Supreme Court justices to adhere to a new and more robust code of ethics.” Beyond the hard policy though, is a political point – Khanna argues “What we cannot allow to happen is for a former president ― twice impeached and four times indicted ― to position himself as the outsider in the race.”

4. On September 7th, General Motors submitted a proposal to the United Autoworkers in a near last ditch attempt to stave off a strike from the newly re-energized union. In response, UAW president Shawn Fain released the following statement, “After refusing to bargain in good faith for the past six weeks, only after having federal labor board charges filed against them, GM has come to the table with an insulting proposal that doesn’t come close to an equitable agreement for America’s autoworkers. GM either doesn’t care or isn’t listening when we say we need economic justice at GM by 11:59pm on September 14th. The clock is ticking. Stop wasting our members’ time. Tick tock.”

5. On September 10th, Senator Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to the Chair of the Federal Election Commission urging her to crackdown on “telemarketing calls and online scams that prey on [Americans’] goodwill and civic engagement,” noting that a recent charity scam defrauded consumers of over $150 million dollars, while a recent “network of scam…(PACs) took in $140 million.” Many speculate that Senator Blumenthal was spurred to act on this issue following the release of a documentary series on telemarketing scams focusing on the Civic Development Group, which raised vast sums for charities, which only received between 10 and 15% of that money. The Civic Development Group has itself been shut down by the FTC.

6. Labor journalist Michael Sainato reports that last week, the NLRB ruled in favor of the United Mine Workers of America, blocking Warrior Met Coal’s attempt to stage a decertification election at their Brookwood, Alabama facility. UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts is quoted saying the NLRB “based [its] decision on a ruling…that determined Warrior Met Coal...violated the law before the strike began, continue to violate the law today, and intend to keep violating it in the future.” The UMWA strike against Warrior Met is the longest coal strike in Alabama history.

7. The Intercept reports Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican of Tennessee has introduced a new amendment to the NDAA which would bar the Pentagon from providing assistance to Pakistan amid the “ongoing crackdown by the military establishment and its civilian allies.” Pakistan has been experiencing political turmoil since the ouster of popular president Imran Khan on dubious legal grounds. Pakistan is a major recipient of US military assistance and the Biden administration has resisted attempts to reign in the ruling regime since Khan was deposed.

8. A new piece in Insider covers the clash of conservative and liberal populist Senators JD Vance of Ohio and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. The two have been collaborating on rail safety legislation following the East Palestine derailment, and we have covered the degeneration of this legislation on the show before. Now, Vance is turning his attention to banning mask mandates, which Fetterman calls “silly performance art” which is taking time and attention away from the stalled rail safety bill.

9. Finally, a cover story in the Nation chronicles the “Confessions of a McKinsey Whistleblower.” The author was assigned to the McKinsey teams advising ICE and the Rikers Island prison, and he lays out how he tried and failed to resist the brutal and insidious nature of these institutions from inside the firm. The story is worth reading in its entirety to see behind the curtain of a firm which tries to wrap itself in platitudes like “Change the world. Improve lives.”

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The Procrastination Equation Sep 09, 2023

Mark Twain once said, “Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow.”As an antidote to that Ralph welcomes Professor Piers Steel, author of “The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done.” Plus, Ralph urges listeners to sign up for The Capitol Hill Citizen Association, another way to organize citizens to put pressure on the branch of our government where things must get done, the United States Congress.

Dr. Piers Steel is one of the world’s leading researchers and speakers on the science of motivation and procrastination. Dr. Steel is a professor in the Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources area at the University of Calgary, and is the Brookfield Research Chair at the Haskayne School of Business. He is the author of The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done.

The root of procrastination is impulsiveness. Impulsiveness is valuing the now more than the later… We’re designed to value the now. And this was really adaptive for a long time. It’s not a bad trait. It’s just that we’ve designed a world to take advantage of every little flaw that we have in our decision-making system.

Dr. Piers Steel

You have to deal with yourself as an imperfect, flawed creature and deal with the reality of that. We’re not robotic angels of perfection. We have limitations. And when I actually act within my limitations, I get stuff done.

Dr. Piers Steel

We’re superstars of self-control in the animal kingdom. We’re able to hunt and kill most anything because we’re willing to actually put in the delay of gratification. That’s really what makes us great. But we’re still not ready for things that are happening even a year off, much less five or ten.

Dr. Piers Steel

More people will listen to what we just said about becoming part of the Capitol Hill Citizen Association and say to themselves, “I’m going to get around to doing that,” than the actual number of people who do it in a prompt period of time. So it would be very good to listen to Professor Steel’s suggestions and read his book, because we cannot afford procrastinatory citizens. We have a procrastinatory Congress, and the citizens have got to get them to anticipate, to foresee, to forestall so many of the omnicidal urgencies that are coming at our country and other countries around the world.

Ralph Nader

To become a member of the Capitol Hill Citizen Association, click here.

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. On August 28th, 20 groups – ranging from Left-wing anti-war organizations like Veterans for Peace to Right-leaning government transparency groups like R Street Institute – sent a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees demanding they maintain Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s Cost of War amendment in the final National Defense Authorization Act. This provision “requires public disclosure about the cost of the U.S.’ overseas military footprint and gives the American people greater transparency on military spending.” Hopefully, the left-right consensus on this issue is enough to maintain this amendment.

2. In other Pentagon news, the Intercept reports that Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, has introduced an amendment demanding the Pentagon “collect information on trainees who overthrow their governments,” following the recent spate of coups in Africa. Gaetz told the Intercept “The Department of Defense, up until this point, has not kept data regarding the people they train who participate in coups to overthrow democratically elected — or any — governments.” This could become a flashpoint as Congress prepares to consider the 2024 NDAA when it returns from recess in September.

3. As expected, tensions are running high in Guatemala following the upset victory of anti-corruption crusader Bernardo Arevalo. Opponents of Arevalo had urged the country’s electoral tribunal to suspend his Semilla party on dubious legal grounds, which the tribunal resisted hewing to the letter of the law which dictated such actions could not be taken during the electoral process. After the election however, the party was officially suspended. Now, Reuters reports that suspension has been revoked, following a mass mobilization of Arevalo supporters in Guatemala City. It seems unlikely however that Arevalo’s political opponents will accept his victory without a fight.

4. In a dangerous, anti-free speech move, the Attorney General of Georgia has filed RICO indictments against 42 individuals involved with the Stop Cop City protest movement, the Atlanta Community Press Collective reports. This is the latest in a long line of attempts to quash opposition to the project, which has so far included trumped up domestic terrorism charges and arrests for handing out flyers.

5. Bloomberg reports that President Biden and Brazilian President Lula will jointly call for new worker protections at the upcoming General Assembly of the United Nations. While the article notes the two leaders have been “at odds” over China and Russia, they align on the topic of labor unionization. The two presidents have found common ground before, such as on the issue of climate change.

6. Visual Effects workers at Disney have filed for unionization, per the Hollywood Reporter. Approximately 80% of VFX staff have already signed union cards, demanding an NLRB election and representation by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees or IATSE. This comes on the heels of a similar announcement by VFX workers at Marvel, a Disney subsidiary. In recent years. studios have increasingly relied on VFX workers in a rather blatant attempt to cut costs, as VFX workers have generally been non-union.

7. At long last, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced the first ten drugs that will be subject to Mecicare negotiations to bring down prices. These are: Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara and – crucially – several brands of insulin. HHS noted that “These selected drugs accounted for $50.5 billion in total [Medicare] Part D gross covered prescription drug costs, or about 20%, of total Part D gross between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023.”

8. The Washington Post reports Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su has proposed new overtime rules intended to “extend overtime pay to an additional 3.6 million salaried white-collar workers in the United States.” According to current rules, workers are exempt from overtime if they make over $35,568 per year; the new rules would extend to workers making under $55,000 annually. If implemented, this would mean a whole new class of workers would be eligible for time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours per week.

9. Per Republic Report: “The U.S. Department of Education announced…that it is cancelling $72 million in student loan obligations for more than 2,300 former students who attended for-profit Ashford University between 2009 and 2020.” Yet, even now the shady operators behind Ashford may still be able to squeeze money out of the taxpayers via a convoluted buyout by the University of Arizona Global Campus. Still, this marks a significant victory in a legal battle that has raged for over a decade, with Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa calling Ashford a “complete scam” all the way back in 2011.

10. Finally, in more debt related news, the Philadelphia Inquirer has published a piece detailing how the nonprofit RIP Medical Debt was able to purchase – and forgive – over $1.6 million in medical debt. As the piece explains “When hospitals or physician groups have delinquent debts they have little chance of collecting on, they’ll typically go to what’s called the secondary market and sell their portfolios for pennies on the dollar.” It was on this secondary market that RIP Medical Debt was able to buy $1.6 million worth of debt for just $17,000. In celebration, “30 proud, self-described gutter-pagan, mostly queer dirtbags in their early 30s,” gathered for a ritual burning of an oversized medical bill. Someone chanted “debt is hell” and the crowd responded “let it burn.”

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The San Quentin News Sep 02, 2023

Ralph welcomes newspaper publisher, Steve McNamara, to discuss the "San Quentin News," California's largest resident-run newspaper and the birthplace of the San Quentin News Forum— where incarcerated men and visiting police, attorneys, and judges share their perspectives on the criminal justice system. Then Peter Lurie, President of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) joins us to talk about CSPI's work advocating for a safer, healthier food system, as well as their newsletter "NutritionAction." Plus, Ralph questions why the US still hasn't ratified the UN's Convention on the Rights of the Child— everyone else has done it!

Steve McNamara is a newspaper publisher, editor, and reporter. He has previously written for and edited the Winston-Salem Journal, The Miami Herald, Car and Driver magazine, and the San Francisco Examiner. From 1966 to 2004 Steve and his wife, Kay McNamara, published the Pacific Sun—the country’s second-oldest alternative weekly newspaper— and Steve has served as president of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and as founding president of the National Association of Alternative Media. In 2008 he helped revive the San Quentin News— a newspaper written and edited by incarcerated men at San Quentin Prison— and continues to work as a volunteer adviser at the paper.

The recidivism rate among the inmates is zero… And actually, the problem that we have is the turnover is terrific because they keep getting paroled or serving their sentence.

Steve McNamara, San Quentin News

Prisons are little empires and the emperor is the warden, and what he decides goes. And many, if not most of the other wardens in California wanted no part of this damn newspaper. So we had a lot of trouble getting it distributed. But by now it's become very popular with the inmates throughout the state, and with many of the correctional officers as well. Because we've made some intelligent decisions. One was to write the personality profiles of some of the better correctional officers and of the programs that take place in the prison.

Steve McNamara, San Quentin News

Most people in the criminal justice system think that it goes this way: somebody breaks into a house, and then they get caught, and they go before a judge, and they get sentenced, and they disappear. And as far as many, many people in the criminal justice system are concerned, that's the end of it. These people have disappeared. We don't need to worry about them any more. But as everybody should know, 80-90% of them will be back on the streets…So do you want these guys to have the same sort of attitude about life as they did when they went into prison? If not, here's a chance maybe to move things in a better direction.

Steve McNamara, San Quentin News

I've credited the Center for Science in the Public Interest with transforming the nutritional habits of perhaps 40 million people. It generated front page news, it was on the evening television news, Congressional hearings. Recently, and this has happened to a lot of citizen groups, the media has not been covering what we're doing.

Ralph Nader

We at CSPI try to educate consumers on the one hand. And on the other hand, we try to take care of the environment such that consumers in some ways don't even need to be as educated because the environment is different.

Peter Lurie, President of Center for Science in the Public Interest

I think that most people—including in all likelihood the Current Commissioner— understand that the food program within FDA has been the sort of “poor stepchild” of the agency. People have focused more on drugs, they've focused more on medical devices, vaccines, even more recently on tobacco. And so food has been relatively neglected. And I think that we've at times paid the price for that.

Peter Lurie, President of Center for Science in the Public Interest

There’s no issue too trivial for the industry to show up in an obviously self-interested way and advocate on their own behalf.

Peter Lurie, President of Center for Science in the Public Interest

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. Late last week, the National Labor Relations Board issued a decision in the Cemex Construction Materials case, establishing a “new framework” that “when a union requests recognition on the basis that a majority of employees in an appropriate bargaining unit have designated the union as their representative, an employer must either recognize and bargain with the union or promptly file a... petition seeking an election.” Crucially though, this ruling also establishes that “if an employer who seeks an election commits any unfair labor practice that would require setting aside the election, the petition will be dismissed, and—rather than re-running the election—the Board will order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union.” This stunning decision is among the most important revisions to labor rules in decades and will apply retroactively.

2. On a hot streak, Bloomberg Law reports that the NLRB also decided last week that Quickway Transportation “must reopen a terminal in Louisville, [Kentucky], that the company illegally shut down in 2020 after drivers there formed a union.” This sets a powerful new precedent for recourse against companies that have used the tactic of shutting down locations in order to stave off unionization – most notably Starbucks.

3. The American Prospect reports that in Georgia, Governor Brian Kemp has aggressively courted EV manufacturers using Inflation Reduction Act tax incentives. Yet, Governor Kemp has awarded these “lucrative contracts for building out the factories to non-union construction firms.” These firms also happen to be major donors to Georgia Republicans, including Kemp himself, who formerly owned a non-union construction company.

4. Mondoweiss has published a new report on the founding of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. This Institute “aims to support the delinking of the study of Zionism from Jewish Studies, and to reclaim academia and public discourse for the study of Zionism as a political, ideological, and racial and gendered knowledge project, intersecting with Palestine and decolonial studies, critical terrorism studies, settler colonial studies, and related scholarship and activism.”

6. NBC News reports that a group of nearly 90 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden last week calling on him to take further action to address the student debt crisis. These members ended the letter by writing “We urge you to continually find ways to use your authority to bring down student debt, address the rising cost of college, and make postsecondary education affordable for all students who choose that path. Borrowers have already waited nearly a year for the relief you announced in August 2022, and critics of your plan to help 43 million Americans are likely to renew their attacks with regard to your rulemaking announcement. We urge you to reject their bad-faith, partisan attempts to delay relief and carry out your efforts to help borrowers as quickly as possible.”

7. According to the Baltimore Banner, Charm City may soon be facing its own version of the Cop City fight. Per the report, Baltimore officials are planning to construct a “tactical village” which will be used to train police. There are some differences between the projects however: whereas Atlanta’s Cop City is slated to be built upon a razed section of forest, Baltimore’s tactical village is proposed to be built on the campus of Coppin State University, a historically Black institution. Another key difference, while Cop City is estimated to cost $90 million, the tactical village is estimated at a whopping $330 million. The city has proposed a new “public safety income tax” to fund the project.

8. The Washington Post has published a profile of Sarah Feinberg, an employee at the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton who blew the whistle on rampant over-billing of the government by the company. In July, Booz Allen agreed to pay $377 million to settle the case. Perhaps the most shocking portion of her complaint was when “a senior manager…called federal auditors “too stupid” to notice overcharging.”

9. WTOP reports the fast-casual chain Chipotle has agreed to pay over $300,000 in a settlement with the District of Columbia regarding the company’s alleged violations of child labor law. DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office identified more than 800 alleged violations in the District, including “requiring minors to work past 10 p.m., working more than eight hours a day, working more than six consecutive days, or working more than 48 hours in one workweek.” The settlement does not require Chipotle to admit wrongdoing.

10. Finally, AP reports that, during an address to Jesuits in Lisbon, Pope Francis “[said] ‘backward’ U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology.” So remember listeners, now when you say conservatives have replaced faith with ideology, you can cite the Pope.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

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Join or Die Aug 26, 2023

Ralph welcomes civic activist, writer and filmmaker, Pete Davis, to discuss “Join or Die,” a film about why you should join a club—and why the fate of America depends on it. Then Professor Scott Sklar, an expert on sustainable infrastructure joins us to talk about one of the easiest ways we can reduce our energy consumption and slow down the pace of our overheating planet: white roofs. Plus, Ralph has some choice words about the media’s coverage of the Republican presidential campaign and also how we don't truly celebrate Labor Day. And speaking of labor, Steve gives us an update on the Writers’ and Actors’ strike.

Pete Davis is a writer and civic advocate. He is the author of Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in An Age of Infinite Browsing, co-founder of the Democracy Policy Network— a policy organization focused on raising up ideas that deepen democracy— and co-director—with Rebecca Davis— of the film Join or Die.

43% of Americans are part of zero organizations, and another 20% are only part of one organization. So we’re talking about two-thirds of the country that are not part of anything. So they don’t know how to run a meeting. They don’t know how to do an invitation. They don’t know how to deal with tension between neighbors. They don’t know how to plan something together in public.

Pete Davis

The real basic, atomic-level skills that eventually flourish into hardcore political action often start with softer civic organizing.

Pete Davis

Scott Sklar is Energy Director of George Washington University’s Environment & Energy Management Institute and Director of GW’s Solar Institute. Mr. Sklar is an expert on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable infrastructure, and runs The Stella Group, Ltd., a clean energy technology optimization and strategic policy firm.

White [roofing] is preferable, but even the lightest gray or lightest brown reflects out. We need building codes to do this, we need community activists to do this, we need to train roofers and builders to do this, and we need to create a sort of social compact that [recognizes] this is very easy to do. And so with this and things like tree canopy we can reduce the heat on the ground, which will save lives, make people healthier, and use less energy.

Scott Sklar

The obvious 800-lb gorilla in the room is the contradiction, where corporations in energy arenas make more money selling waste (by the overuse of energy) and consumers save money by the efficient use of energy. So there’s a dead-on conflict between the two interests, and guess who has the most power in the country over government and media. So what Scott is saying is, the more you realize what you personally can save—quite apart from what your community and world can save— the more powerful you have to become.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. Capping off a campaign defined by underhanded tricks and legal brute force by the corrupt right-wing establishment, Guatemalan presidential candidate Bernardo Arevalo triumphed on Sunday – winning the presidential election in a landslide, with nearly 60% of the vote. However, even with this victory in hand, the road ahead remains perilous. As renowned investigative journalist Allan Nairn noted just before the election, “Arévalo…won't be due to be sworn in until January 14, 2024, and…members [of the corrupt ruling clique known as El Pacto] have made it clear that they will do what's needed to prevent that.”

2. Ecuador also held elections on Sunday, including the first round of their presidential contest. Moving to the runoff are Luisa Gonzalez, a left-wing leader backed by Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa and Daniel Noboa, a businessman and scion of a powerful family of banana tycoons, per AP. Yet, looming larger than either candidate is the specter of political violence directed at the left. Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated earlier this month, as was a local leftist politician, and a third survived an attempt on his life. One can only hope for a runoff free of bloodshed.

3. In that same election, the Guardian reports Ecuadorans passed a referendum to “halt the development of all new oilwells in the Yasuní national park in the Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet.” The article goes on to state “In a second referendum, citizens in Quito also voted to block gold mining in the Chocó Andino, a sensitive highland biosphere near the capital city.”

4. The Hollywood Reporter has a new story out concerning a federal court ruling that art created by AI is not eligible for copyright protection. This tremendous victory for creative workers puts up a major roadblock for Hollywood studios who have been unsubtly hinting that they will use AI-generated work to bypass writers, actors, and more. Hopefully, this ruling will convince the studios to return to the negotiating table and hammer out a fair deal to end the entertainment industry strikes.

5. A report in The Intercept traces how Norfolk Southern successfully lobbied to weaken a rail regulation bill following the East Palestine disaster. As the author put it in a tweet: “April: Norfolk Southern sends lobbyists to Congress. May: A committee that lobbyists met with weakens the bipartisan rail safety bill. June + July: Norfolk Southern gives thousands to Republican members on that exact committee. Welcome to Washington!”

6. From Truthout: In 2021, activists in New Jersey spearheaded a push to ban ICE contracts with private prisons – and got a bill signed into law. Yet, now the Biden administration is backing a challenge to this law led by private prison megacorporation CoreCivic. Back in 2021, Biden stated unequivocally “There should be no private prisons, period, none, period…They should not exist. And we are working to close all of them.” Another promise broken.

7. Elon Musk has 153 million followers on Twitter – or as he has redubbed it, X – yet, how many of those are real? Mashable’s Matt Binder examined the data and found some startling results. “[over] 42% of Musk's followers have 0 followers on their own account, [more than] 72% have less than 10 followers, [and over] 40 percent of Musk's followers have 0 posts.” While some of these accounts could simply be inactive, this data suggests many of these accounts are bots being used to artificially inflate Musk’s follower count.

8. The Daily Beast reports that Van Jones, the former activist and CNN commentator, has been forced out of his leadership role at the nonprofit Dream.org, two years after the group received a $100 million donation from Jeff Bezos. A subsidiary of Dream.org, Green For All, also received a three year, $10 million grant in 2020. The article quotes “several ex-employees” who allege “The group tore through that money with little to show for it.” This story shines a light on corruption in activist spaces and gives a window into the non-profit industrial complex run amok.

9. Last year, San Francisco voters ousted progressive, reform prosecutor Chesa Boudin, in a recall brought after sustained attacks by conservatives and establishment liberals. Boudin was replaced by more traditional, ‘tough on crime’ prosecutor Brooke Jenkins. Yet, a year on and MSNBC reports that violent crime has actually increased in the Golden City compared to Boudin’s tenure. While this will come as a surprise to some, it is arguably more shocking that anyone could think going back to the old, failed model of law enforcement would yield new results. That is after all the very definition of insanity.

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The False Promise of Small Nuclear Reactors Aug 19, 2023

Ralph is joined by M.V. Ramana, professor at the “School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia,” to lay out the false promise of small nuclear reactors, which still carry the risk of accidents, still produce waste, still produce plutonium for the weapons industry and are still economically noncompetitive with wind and solar. Plus, in an interview recorded before the tragic wildfires in Maui we welcome back citizen activist and organizer, Paul Deslauriers, to break down how his progressive group was able to take over the governance of Maui County and how with a little “Common Sense” you can do the same.

M.V. Ramana is the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security and a professor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia. Professor Ramana is the author of The Power of Promise: Examining Nuclear Energy in India, and is a member of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, the International Nuclear Risk Assessment Group, and the team that produces the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report.

It seems inconceivable to me that anybody who has any sense of history would think about nuclear power— either the fission version or the hypothetical future nuclear fusion version— as an environmentally sustainable source of electricity.

Professor MV Ramana

What we are lacking in climate change today—simply because we’ve been so late in trying to act on it—is the urgency. The IPCC puts out report after report saying how high emissions are, how rapidly it has to be decreased if we have even a fighting chance of meeting a 1.5℃ target. And by putting off this kind of action, those calls are becoming more and more desperate. And I think that desperation is probably what’s driving some of these groups to say, “Well, you know, let’s make friends with everybody, and so on, and so forth.” But the challenge there is that every dollar we spend on nuclear power is a dollar that’s not spent on renewables, on energy efficiency, on other ways of trying to deal with [the climate crisis.]

Professor MV Ramana

As I’ve said on prior programs— nuclear power today is unneeded, unsafe, uninsurable, uncompetitive, irresponsible, very secretive, and not willing to suffer the verdicts of the marketplace.

Ralph Nader

Paul Deslauriers is a grassroots organizer, who has consulted over two hundred organizations involving mergers, restructuring, work process flows, teamwork, management coaching, and asset management. The work involved diverse groups such as the Alaskan Inuit, Icelandic communities. In 2002 Mr. Deslauriers became a full-time activist, coordinating nearly three hundred grassroots groups focused on government system change. He has written a number of guidebooks on organizing includingSeven Steps to Reclaim Democracy: An Empowering Guide For Systemic Change, Reclaim Paradise: RESET for the Common Good, and Common Sense: How we are Reclaiming Democracy and Resetting for the Common Good.

When you have a core team that is really dedicated in trying to bring about systemic change, and you have the foundation that you need, then you can really develop and grow this without a lot of divisiveness.

Paul Deslauriers

When you have volunteers, you have to have the right motivation, the right structure, the right training so that you can work cohesively and collaboratively together. And that’s so crucial for anyone who wants to start a similar group.

Paul Deslauriers

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. National Review reports that Senator Marco Rubio is leading the neo-McCarthyist inquisition against left-wing anti-war groups, most notably CODEPINK. Following a New York Times report supposedly linking the group to Chinese influence networks, Rubio is calling on the Department of Justice to investigate this connection. CODEPINK and their allies have decried this move, calling the article a pack of “lies, distortions, innuendo and hate.” David Swanson of World Beyond War wrote “The news has normalized hating China…Wanting to avoid a war with China so that human life can continue to exist is not a ‘Chinese talking point’ just because China might agree with it.”

2. In a win for consumers, Reuters reports that Live Nation has lost their legal battle to force consumers they ripped off via inflated ticket prices to enter into “mass arbitration.” Warren Postman, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, celebrated this ruling, saying "Ticketmaster tried to force its customers into a group arbitration process that stacked the deck repeatedly in its favor." Now, the plaintiffs can move forward with their lawsuit and possibly even a class-action suit that could result in substantial penalties for the company.

3. A chilling story out of Kansas, where local police and sheriff’s deputies launched an “unprecedented raid,” seizing computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the office of the Marion County Record newspaper, per the Kansas Reflector. The Reflector emphasized “The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, appears to violate federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists. The law requires law enforcement to subpoena materials instead.” Viar did not respond to a request to comment for the Reflector’s story on the “potentially illegal,” raid.

4. The Jerusalem Post reports that Amiram Levin, a former IDF Commander, has publicly come out against the occupation. Levin told an Israeli radio program “For 57 years there has been no democracy [in the West Bank]. There is absolute apartheid there. The IDF against its will has to enforce sovereignty there and is standing by and watching the rampant settlers and is beginning to be complicit in war crimes.” Levin now joins the growing chorus of voices reckoning with the reality of Israeli apartheid.

5. Last week, “Starbucks customers and labor rights advocates across the United States…led a day of action targeting locations of the coffee chain where employees have not yet joined the more than 8,500 workers who have formed unions at over 340 stores,” according to Common Dreams. Groups that participated in this day of action included the New York City Central Labor Council, the Chicago Federation of Labor, the AFL-CIO and Writers Guild of America (WGA), East.

6. The political scene of Ecuador has been rocked by the assassination of anti-corruption presidential candidate and former investigative journalist Fernando Villavicencio. According to NPR, Villavicencio had a real chance of making the runoff following the August 20th first round election. Villavicencio also pointedly refused to wear a bullet-proof vest and often criticized corrupt government officials, whom he accused of turning Ecuador into a “narco state.” With his death, his vice-presidential candidate, Andrea González Náder, will take his place on the ballot-line. Since Villavicencio’s assassination, two more left-wing, anti-corruption political leaders in Ecuador have been murdered.

7. The American Political Science Association is under fire for planning to cross a picket line. Jacobin reports that the APSA is planning to hold its annual conference at a Los Angeles Marriott, which has rejected the proposals of UNITE HERE Local 11. “The union has asked the APSA to cancel or postpone the conference, hold it elsewhere, or run it online… A host of other organizations — [including] the Council of State Governments, the Japanese American Citizens League, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the television show Vanderpump Rules — have done so.” But not the APSA. Most despicably, the APSA has cloaked their union-busting in social justice language, claiming the decision is in “the interests of our membership — especially underrepresented scholars, scholars from the Global South, and non-tenured scholars.” This has created a firestorm within the association that is likely to spur even more union organizing in higher education.

8. In more labor news, Deadline reports that reality TV megastar Bethenny Frankel is suggesting that reality performers go on strike in order to “win residuals for their work and to combat abuses in the workplace.” Frankel went on to list a number of abuses common in this area, ranging from “Deliberate attempts to manufacture mental instability,” to “Covering up acts of sexual violence.” For its part, SAG-AFTRA responded that they would like to “work together toward the protection of the reality performers, [end] the exploitative practices that have developed in this area and…engage in a new path to union coverage.”

9. AP reports that Mexico’s poverty rate fell from 50% to 43.5% between 2018 and 2022. The AP story notes that Mexican president AMLO, who took office in 2018, has “more than doubled the country’s minimum wage,” and “introduced supplementary pension payments for people over 65 and scholarship or apprenticeship programs for youths.” Yet the story also claims that “It was unclear what was behind the reduction in poverty.” Seems pretty abre y cierra to me.

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Financing Co-ops Aug 12, 2023

Ralph welcomes the CEO of the National Cooperative Bank, Casey Fannon to discuss his bank’s work serving cooperatives and other member-owned organizations. The NCB helps finance affordable housing, healthy food, renewable energy, small businesses, community-driven health care, and non-profit organizations and generally advises cooperatives around the country on how to build and grow. Plus, Ralph talks a little more about the Trump indictments and responds to some of your feedback.

Casey Fannon is President and CEO of National Cooperative Bank, a leading financial services company dedicated to providing banking products to cooperatives and socially responsible organizations nationwide.

Access to capital is one of the major stumbling blocks for any small business, but particularly small cooperative and new, young cooperatives.

Casey Fannon

There’s a small tent view of cooperatives and a large tent view of cooperatives. And I think that by focusing on the big tent…allows for a better NCB. I think NCB is better, and I think our consumer cooperatives are better off that we are tied into the cooperative ecosystem in a more fulsome way.

Casey Fannon

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The progressive, Wisconsin-based legal group Law Forward has filed a brief with the Wisconsin Supreme Court alleging that the state’s legislative maps violate the state constitution due to rampant partisan gerrymandering. Not only are the petitioners demanding new legislative maps, they are also calling on the court to cut all existing senate terms short. In practice, this would mean the entire legislature would be up for election in 2024. This could mean a political sea-change in the Badger State.

2. The LA Times reports that AOC, along with ten other progressive members of Congress, are planning to visit Latin American nations led by Leftist governments, in order to “learn from our counterparts in these countries, including how to confront disinformation and violent threats to our democracies.” She went on to add “It’s long past time for a realignment of the United States’ relationship to Latin America…The U.S. needs to publicly acknowledge the harms we’ve committed through interventionist and extractive policies, and chart a new course based on trust and mutual respect.”

3. In a win for workers, the Department of Labor has issued a rule on the Davis-Beacon Act, which “sets a wage floor for construction workers on public-works projects,” per the American Prospect. This law is also known as the “prevailing wage,” law as it sets benchmarks for wages in a given area. This rule could have major positive ramifications for workers as President Biden’s infrastructure package and the CHIPS Act are put into action. This New Deal era labor rule was significantly weakened under the Carter and Reagan administrations, and labor groups have been pushing for its restoration ever since. The article notes however that “the rule…is expected to be immediately challenged,” with the Associated Builders and Contractors trade group poised to file a lawsuit as early as next week.

4. In more labor news, the Washington Post reports that 11,000 Los Angeles city employees joined the writers, actors, and hotel employees in a one day strike to “shut down the city of Los Angeles,” according to David Green, executive director and president of SEIU Local 721. Green added “The message we’re sending is that our workers are just fed up. They’ve reached a breaking point. And we need these folks in the city to come back to the table for the good of the city.”

5. VICE reports that a group of 32 economists have sent a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency in support of rent control. This is the latest tactic in a campaign led by People’s Action. The article notes that “Economists have historically been the strongest critics of rent control,” but, like on the issue of minimum wage “some economists believe the orthodoxy on the topic has been contradicted by research and real-world examples.”

6. The climate focused news site Heatmap reports that the Department of Energy is launching a new procurement program focused on technology to “remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.” Notably, while agencies have “previously granted money to carbon-removal companies, funded R&D, or subsidized their activities, it has never pledged to buy their services directly.” Utilizing the government’s purchasing power to effect changes in society more broadly has been done before, perhaps most famously with automobile airbags, following the advocacy of Ralph Nader.

7. A newreport on90 year-oldSenator Dianne Feinstein in the New York Times covers the legal battle between her daughter and her step-daughters over her late husband’s estate. Buried in this report is a startling fact – Senator Feinstein’s daughter holds power of attorney over her mother’s legal affairs. It is disturbing to think that a person incapable of managing their own legal affairs is one of only two Senators representing 40 million people in the upper house of Congress.

8. DCist reports that the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party is suing to prevent ranked choice voting and open primaries from appearing as ballot measures in next year’s elections. D.C. Democratic Party officials have claimed these reforms would disenfranchise voters, with one opponent even calling ranked choice voting “electoral gentrification.” Implicit in these criticisms is the fact that the overwhelming power of D.C.’s Democratic Party may be challenged somewhat by these reforms, opening electoral space for independents or other parties.

9. The tech website Stackdiary reports that the ubiquitous teleconferencing app Zoom has quietly added sinister new sections to their terms of service. Put simply, sections 10.2 and 10.4 explicitly allow for the company to collect user data and “use this data for machine learning and artificial intelligence, including training and tuning of algorithms and models…effectively allow[ing] Zoom to train its AI on customer content without providing an opt-out option.”

10. The American Prospect reports that a bipartisan group of Senators, led by Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Roger Marshall of Kansas, are championing the Credit Card Competition Act, which aims to crack down on credit card swipe fees by “forc[ing] card issuers…[like] (Visa and Mastercard) to enable competitor networks to manage the processing and routing—the service for which swipe fees are levied.” Panicked by these developments, “shadowy right-wing groups have been issuing mailers and other advertisements claiming the [the bill] is a liberal handout for “woke” big-box retailers like Target. One set of mailers was bankrolled by the Conservative Accountability Foundation, a newly formed organization based in Sen. Marshall’s home state of Kansas but without a listed address or phone number.” In other words, corporations and their political front groups are pushing the culture war button to avoid consumer protection regulation. What else is new.

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Digital Addictions Aug 05, 2023

Ralph welcomes Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and an expert on culture and therapy, mobile technology, social networking, and sociable robotics to talk about our addictions to screens and how to break out of them. Plus, our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, opens the program with everything you need to know about the latest Trump indictment.

I think it’s important for the audience to recognize that 100% of the incriminating evidence was supplied by Trump appointees or supporters. No Democrat made a cameo appearance. There was no incriminating evidence from any opponent of Donald Trump. It’s all his own people. And therefore, when you think about the indictment, the idea that it’s a witch hunt by Trump’s political enemies is facially lunatic.

Bruce Fein

These expressions by Trump were not good-faith belief that there may have been a few blunders someplace or other. And [they demonstrate] that the whole goal was to defraud the American people out of the right to have a peaceful transition of power based upon a free and fair count of the electoral votes.

Bruce Fein

Sherry Turkle is Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. Professor Turkle is a sociologist, a licensed clinical psychologist, and she is an expert on culture and therapy, mobile technology, social networking, and sociable robotics. She is the author of several books, including Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, and The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir.

That’s really what you’re fighting— this ethos that says, “When technology makes a problem, technology will solve that problem. In a friction-free manner. It will not involve changing capitalism, changing the structures of power, or saying that science and engineering need to be dethroned as the moral and cultural arbiters for the society we live in.” So, I think that the resistance movement has to come from politics and really has to come from political organization.

Sherry Turkle

[If I were king in this domain,] you absolutely have legislation that treats generative AI as though it were nuclear energy. In other words, do not say, “Well, there’s kind of an analogy. Maybe there’s an analogy because it’s very powerful.” But to really say, “This is going to disrupt us, it’s a national security threat, and it’s certainly a threat to our elections…” So, it can wreak havoc— unless you’re extremely vigilant and the thing is controlled— with every aspect of our democracy.

Sherry Turkle

There’s always a big-time gap between the damage of new technology and accountability catching up with it, or public awareness.

Ralph Nader

Hi everybody, Steve Skrovan here. This is halfway between a shameless plug and some useful information. As some of you may know, I have my own Substack page called Bits & Pieces. It’s mainly funny stories and essays. I wanted to alert you specifically to the last piece I wrote concerning the Writers’ Guild Strike. It’s funny but also packed with a lot of information for those of you who are interested. Some of you may think writers and actors striking is not a big deal, but our strike is emblematic of what is going on across many industries where the corporations are trying to turn us all into gig workers. On the RNRH, we have talked a lot about AI for instance, especially on the program you just heard. The writers and the actors have a chance to be the first entities to address regulating AI in a meaningful way. We are on the cutting edge of what people are calling the Hot Labor Summer. So, check it out at steveskrovan.substack.com. That’s s-t-e-v-e-s-k-r-o-v-a-n dot substack dot com. We’ll link to it on the RNRH page also. Feel free to subscribe. It's free! Thanks.

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Bobby Scott announced that they have introduced a new bill to raise the minimum wage. To account for the rising cost of living, this new bill would raise the wage not to $15 per hour, but $17. Sanders and Scott note that “If the minimum wage had increased with productivity over the last 50 years, it would be $23 an hour today. If it had increased at the same rate that Wall Street…bonuses have increased, it would be more than $42 an hour.”

2. USA Today reports that the Houston Independent School District in Texas has decided to “eliminate 28 school libraries,” and use at least some of those spaces as “discipline centers.” This article further notes that “The Houston Independent School District is the largest district in Texas and serves more than 189,000 students at its 274 campuses…[and that] The once- independent district was recently taken over by the Texas Education Agency.”

3. The Intercept reports that, amid the strikes roiling Hollywood, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has introduced the Food Secure Strikers Act of 2023. This bill would “repeal a restriction on striking workers receiving SNAP benefits, protect food stamp eligibility for public-sector workers fired for striking, and clarify that any income-eligible household can receive SNAP benefits even if a member of that household is on strike.” This bill would provide a crucial lifeline to striking workers, particularly as the Hollywood bosses have made clear that they are willing to see workers lose their homes before coming back to the negotiating table.

4. A new report in Reuters alleges that employees at Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors “had been instructed to thwart any customers complaining about poor driving range from bringing their vehicles in for service.” The company even went so far as to create a “Diversion Team” with orders to “cancel as many range-related [service] appointments as possible,” in order to stifle consumer complaints that the automobiles range on a single charge was far below advertised. According to the report “some employees celebrated canceling service appointments by putting their phones on mute and striking a metal xylophone, triggering applause from coworkers who sometimes stood on desks.”

5. Bloomberg reports that the Abraham Accords – Trump’s middle east peace plan which rested on inducing Arab states to recognize Israel by offering them money, weapons, or whatever else they desired – seem to be coming apart at the seams. The numbers are stark. While the agreements never enjoyed majority support in any Arab state, support has declined considerably – from 47% initially in the UAE, to just 27%, from 45% to 20% in Bahrain, and 40% to 20% in Saudi Arabia. This last drop is most significant, as the underlying purpose of the agreements were to align Israel and Saudi Arabia against Iran. The Saudis now plan to extract further concessions from the United States.

6. Listeners may recall a story from North Carolina about Tricia Cotham, a Democratic state legislator from a safe blue seat who switched parties, giving Republicans a super-majority in the state House – and cast the deciding vote to override the Democratic Governor’s veto and impose a 12-week abortion ban. Now, a New York Times report sheds light on why she made the switch: “Lacey Williams, a former advocacy director at the Charlotte-based Latin American Coalition who considered Ms. Cotham a friend for years, said Ms. Cotham “felt she did not get the gratitude or spotlight that she felt she deserved,” and added, “she was jealous that other Democrats were getting…adulation from the party.” This report also suggests that she was working hand-in-glove with Republican leadership prior to her election, suggesting that perhaps this was her plan all along.

7. In Julian Assange’s native Australia, political officials are calling on the U.S. to drop their efforts to extradite the publisher to the United States to stand trial under the espionage act. These officials include Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Democracy Now! reports that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has rejected this demand, claiming that the WikiLeaks disclosures “risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave risk.” Australian lawmaker Andrew Wilkie, co-chair of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group, called this “patent nonsense,” and told The Guardian, “Mr. Blinken would be well aware of the inquiries in both the U.S. and Australia which found that the relevant WikiLeaks disclosures did not result in harm to anyone.”

8. Finally, former President Donald Trump has been indicted for the third time, this time on four counts related to trying to overturn the 2020 election. Yet, what is most striking about this indictment is that Trump is being charged under the Enforcement Act of 1870, originally intended to prevent Ku Klux Klan terror to deprive Black voters of their 13th, 14th and 15th amendment rights. Section 241 of this law deems criminal any attempt to “conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” exercising a right protected by the Constitution or federal law,” per the Washington Post. Charging Trump under the Klan act may seem a bit on the nose, but hey, if the hood fits.

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Wonder Drug Jul 29, 2023

Ralph spends the whole hour with Jennifer Vanderbes, author of “Wonder Drug: The Secret History Of Thalidomide In America And Its Hidden Victims.” Thalidomide was never “commercially available” in the U.S., but American doctors handed out samples to patients even though no one could prove the drug was safe. Or could definitively say what the drug did. And by the time thalidomide landed at the FDA for approval, whistleblowers, journalists, doctors, and patients in Germany, Australia, and the UK were sounding the alarm about its shocking side effects.

Jennifer Vanderbes is an award-winning novelist, journalist and screenwriter. Her latest book is Wonder Drug: The Secret History Of Thalidomide In America And Its Hidden Victims.

It did not shock me researching this story that the pharmaceutical firms operated with a focus on profit, and that allowed for cutting corners. What really did shock me in my research was realizing that the doctors uniformly gaslit these patients. And it was stunning to me that you didn’t have any of these physicians who had given the drug to pregnant women who realized.

Jennifer Vanderbes

I was very surprised to be looking through materials that were so at odds with what had been reported. And in many ways this became, to me, a story about what can happen when the media accepts at face value a certain spin on the story. The FDA was very dependent initially on what the drug firms were telling it, and then the press was depending on what the FDA was telling it, and then everybody sort of moved on. It was also a happy story that people wanted to believe: “we were the one wonderful country that had stopped this drug.“

Jennifer Vanderbes

Their number one tactic is to just not even argue the merits of [thalidomide cases], but get them dismissed on the basis that, “All these people should have known.” And I would say six years of my life—and this book— is really an examination of how incredibly reasonable and understandable it is that these individuals did not know. They were not given the information, and the government was quite complicit.

Jennifer Vanderbes

The best investigative reporters in America didn’t uncover this story, until [Jennifer Vanderbes] put it together in a book. Because it took unbelievable energy, curiosity, travel, interviewing the survivors, going to their homes, and the most recent development— which was really incredible that it didn’t get national TV and radio coverage— was the gathering, for the first time, of thalidomide victims in San Diego.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. On July 25th, The Teamsters reported that UPS caved to their demands, narrowly avoiding a massive strike. The wins in the new contract include higher wages, more jobs, ending the two-tier wage system, air conditioning in UPS trucks, part-time Rewards, and drivers getting Martin Luther King Day off. The union has triumphantly declared “We’ve Changed the Game” If these negotiations had fallen through, 340,000 UPS Teamsters would have gone on strike. Other employers, such as the Hollywood AMPTP, should take notes.

2. The Intercept reports that the Sanders-led Senate HELP Committee has passed an amendment to the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act allocating $3 million to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to explore new options to pay for developing pharmaceuticals, specifically through public funding or “innovation prizes.” These drugs would then enter the public domain so they could be sold as generic medications. Sanders has made the cost of prescription drugs a high priority during his chairmanship on the committee, and hopefully this effort will bear fruit.

3. Following months of protest, CNN reports that Israel has rammed through their controversial judicial reform legislation. This law will limit the independence of the Israeli judiciary, which has been a bulwark against the most extreme Right-wing factions in the country. This measure has sparked a new round of scrutiny regarding the $3.8 billion in military aid the US provides to Israel annually.

4. Progressive Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has requested $15 million for a plan to help decarbonize 200 to 350 homes by modernizing heating and insulation for low-income Chicagoans, Gregory Pratt of the Tribune reports. One hopes to see more progressives pushing for these localized and tailored climate change plans.

5. Anchor Brewing, a San Francisco institution, has been on a roller-coaster for several years. The workers organized the plant, then it was sold to Sapporo, and now Sapporo is attempting to sell the company for parts. In response, the union is attempting to raise funds to purchase Anchor Brewing and run it as a worker-owned cooperative. More information is available at Vinepair.com.

6. In other alcohol related news, the American Prospect reports that Total Wine, the company founded by Rep. David Trone of Maryland – who is currently seeking the open Senate seat in that state – is fighting an FTC antitrust investigation. The agency is investigating the chain for “price discrimination and exclusive dealing arrangements in alcohol markets as part of a broader crackdown that’s also charging Pepsi and Coke for similar anti-competitive conduct.” Total Wine has reportedly sought to impede this investigation at every turn, and have succeeded in slowing it down even as the Biden administration seeks to crack down on anti-competitive behavior. It remains to be seen whether this will become an issue in the Senate campaign.

7. Following Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s boycott of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress, Jewish Insider reports that AIPAC – among the most powerful Washington lobbies – is pushing for Westchester County executive George Latimer to run a primary challenge against Bowman. Historically, AIPAC has been instrumental in keeping progressive voices, and their criticism of Israel, out of the halls of Congress.

8. The German news service DW reports that Ukraine has imposed a “ban on Russian-language culture…such as books, music, plays and concerts.” Whatever one’s opinions are on the war in Ukraine, this ban approaches dangerous territory of limiting expression for minority groups in the country and could presage more militarized crackdowns on the Russian minority in Ukraine similar to Japanese-Americans during WWII. All parties must come to the table to negotiate an immediate ceasefire and engage in high-level diplomacy; only that can prevent this war spinning into graver and graver circumstances.

9. Finally, on July 20th a super-majority of workers at Grindr, the LGBTQ dating app, voted to unionize with the Communications Workers of America, per Kim Kelly. This came as a response, in part, to revelations showing Grindr’s new CEO had previously voiced support for anti-LGBTQ politicians on Twitter and via political donations. Bring on “Hot Labor Summer.”

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Stop Ignoring The People! Jul 22, 2023

Ralph and our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, discuss how they compiled letters they sent to various government officials and representatives that have gone unanswered into a book titled “The Incommunicados” and how this unresponsiveness violates our First Amendment right to petition our government for redress of grievances. Then Washington Post opinion columnist, Helaine Olen, highlights the corporate equivalent, how hard it is to reach a human being for customer service and how all of this plays into the free-floating anger and general unrest of an American population that feels unheard.

Today, I couldn’t have gotten through to members of the Senate or House on the auto safety issue. We couldn’t have gotten through for them to even consider (much less pass) the auto safety legislation that they did in 1966. Because I could get on the line and even if I couldn’t get a member, I could call and get the chief of staff or get the legislative director in order to have access. I could go down to Capitol Hill and get the hearings, get the media attention, and get the law to save millions of lives. So, this is serious. It isn’t just a matter of literary courtesy here.

Ralph Nader

What we have in the right to petition for the redress of grievances is an effort to prevent a repeat of the deaf ear that King George was turning to the grievances of the colonists. And the right to petition implies a corollary obligation to respond… That’s the heart of what democratic discourse is about. Part of what holding government officials accountable is about— requiring them to explain their decisions. They don’t have to agree with us, but they can’t just ignore us and treat us as though we’re not human beings.

Bruce Fein

Helaine Olen is an expert on money and society, and an award-winning columnist for the Washington Post. Her work has appeared in Slate, the Nation, the New York Times, the Atlantic, and many other publications, and she serves on the advisory board of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She is co-author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated and the author ofPound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry.

This is part of why Americans are so angry. Is our lives as consumers. In the United States we often confuse our consumer lives with being a citizen. We think if the phone line isn’t working if the airline isn’t working, if we can’t get through to the doctor’s office, there’s something wrong with the state of the country. And every time one of these interactions deteriorates, there’s this sense of ‘things don’t work,’ which I think is pervasive in the United States… and I think it translates into this free-floating anger that then gets turned around and leveled at random people at the government, fill in the blank.”

Helaine Olen

There’s this dominant narrative out there right now that American consumers are becoming greedy and grasping and they’re abusing the help— which happens, I don’t want to say every consumer is a perfect citizen by a long shot— but I think it is partly a response to the fact that people are often treated very very badly. And there’s really no one to complain to that will actually do anything about this.

Helaine Olen

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The Screen Actors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, has joined the Writers Guild in going on strike following the collapse of negotiations with the studios. This new strike covers 160,000 actors and coming as it does amid the writers strike, will effectively shut down Hollywood production for the foreseeable future. In a widely shared video, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher decried the studios for "plead[ing] poverty…[while] giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs."

2. The Intercept reports that AOC has authored an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring “the CIA, Pentagon, and State Department to declassify information related to the U.S. government’s role in the Chilean coup that brought dictator Augusto Pinochet to power.” Much of what the public knows about the Chilean coup came out through the legendary Church Committee hearings, and it is encouraging that someone in Congress is interested in taking up that mantle.

3. In Florida, a joint investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald uncovered the disturbing reality underlying Governor DeSantis’ revamped Florida State Guard. While recruits were initially told they would be trained for a nonmilitary mission – to “help Floridians in times of need or disaster” – they were instead taught how to “rappel with ropes, navigate through the woods and respond to incidents under military command.” Major General John D. Haas, charged with overseeing the program, is quoted saying the State Guard is a “military organization” that will be used not just for emergencies but for “aiding law enforcement with riots and illegal immigration.”

4. Longtime civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate Reverend Jesse Jackson has announced that he is retiring from his role as president of the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition, per The Hill. He had led the group for over 50 years, even after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017. President Biden said of Jackson, “I’ve seen him as history will remember him: a man of God and of the people; determined, strategic, and unafraid of the work to redeem the soul of our nation.”

5. Uruguay, the small South American nation sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil, is experiencing its worst drought in 74 years. The situation has become so dire that authorities are mixing salt water into the public drinking water. Now, the Guardian reports that Uruguayans are protesting a planned Google data center that would consume two million gallons of water per day. In response to this crisis, a new group has cropped up – the Commission to Defend Water and Life, backed by the country’s trade unions – and their slogan has become ubiquitous: “This is not drought, it’s pillage.”

6. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus, got herself into trouble this week by calling Israel a “racist state,” in a speech to the progressive summit Netroots Nation, per CNN. While clumsily worded, Jayapal’s statement actually vastly understates the issue. According to mainstream groups like Amnesty International, Israel is in fact an “apartheid” state.

7. More on Israel, the New York Times reports that “At least 180 senior fighter pilots, elite commandos and cyber-intelligence specialists in the Israeli military reserve have informed their commanders that they will no longer report for volunteer duty if the government proceeds with a plan to limit judicial influence by the end of the month.” While media coverage of the protests against this judicial overhaul has slowed, the protests themselves are very much ongoing and these resignations prove there is significant discontent among secular Israelis. It remains to be seen whether the opposition by mainstream Israeli society to authoritarian creep will substantively address any of the underlying issues, such as the occupation of Palestine.

8. In an update to the Guatemala story from last week, Al Jazeera reports that in a statement, “the public prosecutor’s office denied accusations that its actions were aimed at derailing the [anti-corruption] Seed Movement’s prospects as it competes in the final round of voting.” This prosecutor, Rafael Curruchiche, has “previously targeted anti-corruption campaigners and has been placed on the US Department of State’s Engel List for ‘corrupt and undemocratic actors’.” The decision to ban the party has already been reversed by Guatemala’s Constitutional Court, the highest court in that country. The party’s leader, Bernardo Arevalo, has stated “We are in the electoral race, we are moving forward and we will not be stopped by this corrupt group.”

9. The Houston Chronicle reports that “Officers working for [Texas Governor Greg] Abbott’s border security initiative have been ordered to push children into the Rio Grande, and have been told not to give water to migrants” These abuses were revealed in an email from a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who described the actions as “inhumane.”

10. Finally, Universal Studios appears to have unlawfully trimmed trees on the public sidewalk outside of their building in Los Angeles, a transparent attempt to discourage picketers by denying them shade during the ongoing heatwave. City Controller Kenneth Mejia has announced that his office is launching an investigation. Ironically, this shows Hollywood executives are perfectly capable of cuts at the top.

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Young Swing Voters Jul 15, 2023

Ralph welcomes Maxim Thorne director of the non-partisan Civic Influencers, an organization that trains young people to inspire their peers to vote and therefore swing elections toward issues they care about and also fights “generational gerrymandering,” efforts by certain states to make it harder for 18 to 29-year-olds to vote. Plus, Ralph gives his take on some recent news items, answers your questions, and comments on your recent feedback.

Maxim Thorne is a lawyer, activist, philanthropist, and a Lecturer at Yale. He has worked with the NAACP, Human Rights Campaign, New Jersey Head Start Association, GLAAD, the Executive Committee of the Yale Law School, and the Yale Alumni Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He currently serves as Chief Executive of Civic Influencers, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to inspiring young people to make their voices heard—and their votes count.

When we think about how important young people are to saving our democracy, and voting on pro-democracy candidates, and voting on issues like climate change and abortion rights and LGBTQ rights— what are we giving them? If you are not moving to relieve their student debt, and you are not moving to allow them to organize so they get better paid jobs that allow them to lead a decent life, you’re not giving that most important part of our electorate what they need and what they’re demanding.

Maxim Thorne

We can show [young people] the power of their vote— that’s the marching band, the glee club, the gospel choir, the football team, the cheerleaders alone could swing that election. One dorm could swing that election. That is power.

Maxim Thorne

It’s really amazing how, after the civil rights battles and the civil rights laws in the 1960s and ‘70s, most people thought, “That battle is over, it’s up to you to vote, and no one’s going to obstruct you.” And along come some of these rightwing corporate lawyers for the GOP. And they say, “Hey, we can develop all kinds of ways to harass, delay, expunge, purge, and not count votes!” And that’s what a lot of Republican governors are doing from Florida to Texas.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. For the first time in 20 years, Israel has attacked the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp, the New York Times reports. Less than two weeks earlier, far-right Israeli defense minister Itamar Ben Gvir went on record saying “We have to settle the land of Israel and at the same time need to launch a military campaign, blow up buildings, assassinate terrorists. Not one, or two, but dozens, hundreds, or if needed, thousands.” This brutal attack has reignited international outcry against Israeli apartheid, including from the United Nations, but few expect the Biden administration to impose serious penalties in response.

2. A group of congressional progressives is speaking out in response to the White House’s decision to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine. In a statement, this group wrote “Cluster munitions have been banned by nearly 125 countries…because of the indiscriminate harm they cause, including mass civilian injury and death.” This statement also notes that the administration is circumventing clear directives from Congress restricting the transfer of these weapons. This statement was signed by Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee, and Ilhan Omar, among other progressives.

3. Per Ryan Grim of the Intercept, on the other side of the aisle, Matt Gaetz – the dissident House Republican – has committed to cosponsoring the amendment to bar the transfer of cluster munitions. One hopes this Left-Right coalition can expand and stop this move.

4. The Verge reports that Microsoft has won the first round of its legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the tech giant’s acquisition of the video game conglomerate Activision Blizzard. The ruling follows “five days of grueling testimony.” Despite their victory, Microsoft still faces an antitrust lawsuit.

5. In Guatemala, an electoral crisis is unfolding. Shocking results in the June 25th elections put Bernardo Arevalo – a progressive anti-corruption candidate and son of former left-wing president Juan Jose Arevalo – into the second round, defeating the daughter of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt and setting up a showdown with the former first lady Sandra Torres. However, a coalition of nine right wing parties have filed a lawsuit to suspend the results, citing far-fetched allegations of fraud. The Organization of American States is urging the Guatemalan authorities to reject the lawsuit because "The Mission verified that no serious irregularities were revealed and that no significant changes were registered with respect to the preliminary results of Sunday, June 25." This from Reuters.

6. The sports pages of both the LA Times and New York Times took major hits this week. According to the Sporting Tribune, the LA Times “will no longer have box scores, standings, game stories, TV listings or a daily sports calendar.” These changes were reportedly made to accommodate new 3 p.m. deadlines following the sale of the paper’s printing press. At the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Grey Lady is planning to close its sports desk entirely, and instead rely on The Athletic for their daily sports coverage. This is "part of an effort to further integrate the publication it bought for $550 million last year."

7. A wild story in Variety alleges that Warner Brothers-Discovery CEO David Zaslav made a crooked bargain with GQ’s editor-in-chief Will Welch. The terms? In exchange for burying a GQ story critical of Zaslav, Welch got a plum position as a producer on a WB film. If so, Welch likely violated the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics which states reporters and editors should “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived [and] disclose unavoidable conflicts.”

8. Common Dreams reports that President Biden has nominated Elliott Abrams to the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Abrams, a lifelong neoconservative war hawk, has admitted to covering up information in the Iran-Contra scandal and ignored reports of the massacres in El Salvador in the 1980s. Abrams later called US policy in El Salvador a “fabulous achievement.” Listeners may remember a heated confrontation between Abrams and Rep. Ilhan Omar when he was nominated as a diplomat to Iran and Venezuela under President Trump in 2019.

9. According to the Financial Times, “Elon Musk’s Tesla has joined Chinese automakers in pledging to enhance “core socialist values” and compete fairly in the country’s car market after Beijing directed the industry to rein in a months-long price war.” While Elon Musk, one of the richest men in the world, clearly does not hew to ‘core socialist values’ it is a marked turn from his previous comments on the topic, including tweeting that “Karl Marx was a capitalist.” We recommend he take a break from Twitter, and maybe read a book?

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The American Dream: And Other Fairy Tales Jul 08, 2023

Ralph welcomes Abigail Disney, to discuss her work trying to get her namesake’s company to pay their workers a fair, livable wage as told in her documentary, “The American Dream: And Other Fairy Tales.” Plus, Erica Payne cofounder of The Patriotic Millionaires and co-author of “Tax The Rich!” returns to update us on their latest work educating ordinary Americans about how they can advocate for a fairer tax system.

Abigail Disney is a social activist, philanthropist, and an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker. She is also Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. She also created the nonprofit Peace is Loud, which uses storytelling to advance social movements, and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair, and peaceful New York City. She is Co-Founder of Fork Films, a nonfiction media production company, which produces original documentaries and the podcast All Ears. Her latest film, which she co-directed with Kathleen Hughes, is The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.

Heirs and heiresses have gotten into a lot of trouble down the years trying to impose their will on the world. I think that my job, if I have one, is to impose the will of the world on wealthy people instead of the other way around.

Abigail Disney

We need to reinvigorate the IRS, we need to reinvigorate OSHA, we need to reinvigorate the NLRB and the other referees that have been made anemic by the constant assault of budget cuts.

Abigail Disney

It is amazing to me that, as this far rightwing guy, [Roy Disney] would never have treated his workers in a million years the way that the CEO at the time—Bob Iger, who was toying with running for president as a Democrat—was treating them on the regular. And that was the total capture of the entire American political spectrum by an idea about work and working that was the inverse—in a relatively short period of time— of what my grandfather was doing as a matter of course.

Abigail Disney

Erica Payne is the founder and president of Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of high-net-worth individuals that aims to restructure America’s political economy to suit the needs of all Americans. Their work includes advocating for a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens. She is the co-author, with Morris Pearl, of Tax the Rich: How Lies, Loopholes and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer.

As far as I can tell, the billionaire class bought up the entire Republican Party and a sufficient number of Democrats that they got a stranglehold on this economy. What they basically created is a system that guarantees we become more unequal more quickly over time, they destabilize the entire country, they threaten democratic capitalism around the world…Mathematically, there’s absolutely no direction this country can go in other than more unequal. And we’re looking at a game of economic Jenga, where we’re basically pulling money out of the bottom and the middle and putting it on the top and the whole thing’s in the process of collapsing.

Erica Payne

If they are talking to you about something other than money, they are stealing your money. So the next time someone is talking to you about abortion, or transgender rights, or critical race theory, or any of these other things, you can rest assured that these politicians on the back end are stealing your money.

Erica Payne

I’m glad you mentioned Reagan, because I think liberals and progressives underestimate the gigantic impact this cruel man with a smile had on the culture with his market fundamentalism.

Ralph Nader

The book giveaway for "Tax the Rich!: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer" by Erica Payne and Morris Pearl is now closed. We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who showed interest and participated in this event.

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeStantis1. As the reinvigorated Teamsters union engages in a massive contract renegotiation with UPS, the labor group has announced they scored a major victory – elimination of 22.4, the “two-tier” system, meaning “all drivers currently classified under the 22.4 system would be reclassified immediately to Regular Package Car Drivers, placed in seniority, and have their pay adjusted to the appropriate RPCD rate.” The two-tier system has been a central issue for organized labor in recent years, and a catalyst for the proliferation of a more militant labor movement.

2. For the past six years, the Department of Energy has been attempting to clean up a “highly radioactive” spill near the Columbia River in Washington State. Now, the Tri-City Herald reports that the spill is “both deeper and broader than anticipated.” The Energy Department is already quoted saying “the soil beneath the 324 Building is so radioactively hot that it would be lethal to a worker on direct contact within two minutes.”

3. Amid a slew of reactionary decisions, the Supreme Court somehow made the right call in a major case. In a 5-4 decision, led by Gorsuch, the Court ruled in Mallory v. Norfolk that “Pennsylvania's law establishing personal jurisdiction over a corporation through mandatory registration does NOT violate due process,” Mark Joseph Stern reports. The full opinion is available here.

4. The membership of the Screen Actors Guild have already voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, yet union president Fran Drescher seems to be merely using that vote as leverage to demand concessions from the studios. In response, Rolling Stone reports that over 300 actors – including household names like Meryl Streep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Quinta Brunson – sent a public letter urging against compromise with the studios in the face of major threats like AI. The letter ends by saying “For our union and its future, this is our moment. We hope that, on our behalf, you will meet that moment and not miss it.”

5. A major new report by Good Jobs First found that major corporate polluters in Michigan have been exploiting an anti-pollution subsidy in the state for decades. Just since 2010, corporations like GM, Ford, and Stellantis have cheated the Michigan treasury of $2.2 billion. As the group notes, the first step to addressing this corporate welfare crisis is “A proper accounting of which communities are losing how much money.”

6. The New York Times reports that, as a result of corrupt dealings within the Department of Education, New York City schoolchildren were fed chicken tenders containing pieces of metal and plastic. This serves as a sobering reminder of the real-world impacts of corporate capture and corruption.

7. In Korea, embattled extreme Right-wing president Yoon Suk Yeol – who, among other dangerous proposals has sought to resurrect the country’s nuclear weapons program – is seeking to crackdown on the country’s unions. In response, the Korea Herald reports that the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions will hold two weeks of sustained strikes intended to drive Yoon from office. Between 400,000 and half a million workers are expected to participate.

8. The “Greedflation” theory – which contends the recent spate of inflation is due to corporate profit seeking rather than a tight labor market – has won a major backer: the International Monetary Fund, or IMF. A new report on inflation in Europe published by the international finance agency found that profits account for no less than 45% of price rises since 2022. Import costs accounted for another 40%. This is a stunning finding for a group that typically does everything in its power to aid multinational capital.

9. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has announced some major wins from the recent state legislative sessions, including defending Washington State’s capital gains tax and blocking a regressive package of tax cuts in Kansas. If he were dead, Grover Norquist would be rolling in his grave.

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What’s The Matter With Delaware? Jul 01, 2023

Ralph welcomes journalist and executive director for intellectual capital at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Hal Weitzman, to discuss his book “What’s The Matter With Delaware? How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal—and How It Costs Us All.”

Hal Weitzman is Executive Director for Intellectual Capital at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and editor-in-chief of Chicago Booth Review. A former Financial Times editor and foreign correspondent, he is the author of Latin Lessons: How South America Stopped Listening to the United States and Started Prospering and What’s the Matter with Delaware?: How the First State Has Favored the Rich, Powerful, and Criminal—and How It Costs Us All.

We know that lawyers and investors in corporations hate political uncertainty because it might affect their profit-making process. And in Delaware they’ve perfected that system. They have completely bypassed any political uncertainty, and therefore also bypassed any oversight or regulation.

Hal Weitzman

The state of Delaware, the major law firms, the legislature, and the State Secretary of State over the years have created a very powerful embrace to make sure that Delaware stays #1 in terms of being a haven for these kinds of corporations, and in terms of making sure that the federal government interferes the least.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. The Lever reports that in Delaware, The Company State, in a little town called Seaford, corporations may soon have the right to vote. The town has proposed an amendment to their charter granting LLCs, corporations, trusts or partnerships suffrage in municipal elections. Claire Snyder-Hall, executive director of Common Cause Delaware called this a "shocking...attempt to [give] artificial entities… voting rights," and characterized it as the “flipside [of voter suppression]." This proposal would require the blessing of both houses of the Delaware legislature, and while unlikely to pass, the corporate control of the First State is so powerful that passage cannot be entirely counted out either.

2. Senate HELP Committee Chair Bernie Sanders has launched an investigation into safety at Amazon. Chairman Sanders wrote on Twitter “If Amazon can afford to spend $6 billion on stock buybacks last year, it can afford to make sure its warehouses are safe. If Amazon can afford to pay its CEO $289 million over the past 2 years, it can afford to treat all of its workers with dignity and respect, not contempt.” To further this investigation, the HELP committee has launched an online portal allowing “current or former workers, supervisors, medical staff, or anyone else in Amazon's warehouses,” to submit their stories of mistreatment.

3. A troubling new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) highlights the rise in pedestrian fatalities in recent years. According to the data, over 8,000 pedestrians were killed on US roadways in 2022, more than double the number who were killed in 2010 and higher than any year since 1980. Regulators must take pedestrian safety as seriously as that of automobile drivers.

4. Last Thursday, Indian Prime Minister and Right-wing extremist Narendra Modi addressed Congress, following his meeting with President Biden. A number of progressive Democrats boycotted the event, including Reps. Summer Lee, Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman, Rashida Tlaib, and AOC. In a joint statement issued by Bush and Bowman, the members wrote “by bestowing Prime Minister Modi…the rare honor of a joint address, Congress undermines its ability to be a credible advocate for the rights of religious minorities and journalists around the world.” This from the Hill.

5. People’s Dispatch reports that the New York City Council has passed a resolution calling for the United States to end the blockade on Cuba. New York City now joins Washington, D.C. and Chicago in passing such resolutions. This resolution notes “Every year since 1992, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly has adopted a resolution declaring the embargo a violation of both the Charter of the United Nations and international law”.

6. In the recent Virginia primaries, reform prosecutors swept their respective elections, per Bolts Magazine. Steve Descano, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, and Buta Biberaj, prosecutors in Fairfax, Loudoun, and Arlington each fended off primary challenges from the right, two of whom were endorsed by police unions and a third who was backed by none other than the local Republican Party. The reform prosecutors trounced these regressive opponents by margins of 10 to 13 points. Deghani-Tafti told the magazine “If this election was a referendum on reform, our voters emphatically responded that they will not go backward.”

7. The Reykjavik Grapevine reports that no whaling will occur in Iceland this Summer, following months of protest. Interestingly, the article notes that “Whaling is not a traditional practice in Iceland. Not only is Hvalur hf. the one and only company in Iceland engaging in commercial whaling…it does so at a loss.”

8. Martin Austermuhle of WAMU reports that Republicans in the House are once again seeking to meddle in the sovereign affairs of Washington, DC. Riders in a draft spending bill promulgated by the GOP include banning reproductive rights legislation, reversing the legalization of marijuana, and other conservative priorities that would never get off the ground in the district. The major concern here is that spineless Congressional Democrats will serve up DC on a silver platter in exchange for other Republican concessions. Just another reason DC statehood must be a top priority.

9. A group of House Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen calling on her to ease the sanctions regime imposed on Venezuela, NBC reports. The authors include Reps. Joaquin Castro and Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, along with progressives like Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Barbara Lee of California. The letter described how sanctions "have often been found to be ineffective in achieving their objectives," and "to purposefully continue contributing to economic hardship experienced by an entire population is immoral and unworthy of the United States.” Hopefully Secretary Yellen will heed these words.

10. Finally, how much does a trashcan cost? A new report in Responsible Statecraft highlights price gouging at the Pentagon, including a trashcan sold to the Defense Department for $52,000. Must be one hell of a bin!

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War Made Invisible Jun 24, 2023

Ralph spends the entire hour with co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Norman Solomon, to discuss his latest book, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine,” which examines how our “military-industrial-media-intelligence complex” conspires to suppress the truth about war.

The tacit motto of huge media outlets like the New York Times is: Being pro-war means never having to say you’re sorry. If a journalist or a media outlet is in favor of the US engaging in war, that is couched as “objective.” If a journalist (such as Phil Donahue on MSNBC) in the leadup to the war even raises questions, serious questions critical of an impending invasion or ongoing US war then that's considered “biased.”

Norman Solomon

These wars are treated as though they aren’t wars. That they don’t exist. That “there’s nothing to see here, folks!” Because we say so. We have our own criteria. And part of that is the jingoism and the nationalism and the racism that says if the people at the other end of US firepower don’t look like us, are not in a country aligned with us, then we don’t think there’s really a reason to consider it a major problem. It’s only a problem when Americans are dying.

Norman Solomon

This was a real sociocide—thousands and thousands of bombs and missiles dropped on Iraq. And here’s the New York Times, being fed by one of their reporters Judith Miller total lies about Saddam importing uranium from Niger and Africa and other falsehoods that made page one in the New York Times. What is clearly probably its darkest journalistic chapter… There doesn’t seem to be anything learned today. They could just as well do it today against another country.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. On Wednesday, The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the online retailer “tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions [for Amazon Prime] without their consent, not only frustrating users but also costing them significant money,” according to FTC Chair Lina Khan. Khan added “These manipulative tactics harm consumers and law-abiding businesses alike.” According to internal documents “Amazon named [the cancellation] process ‘Iliad,’…refer[ing] to Homer’s epic about the long, arduous Trojan War.” More about this lawsuit is available at the Washington Post.

2. As the Teamsters continue to negotiate for a better deal with UPS, the membership has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike. This vote – which passed with 97 percent support – gives the union “maximum leverage to win demands at the bargaining table,” according to the union’s statement. The statement goes on to note that the Teamsters represent more than 340,000 UPS package delivery drivers and warehouse logistics workers nationwide. Teamsters president Sean O’Brien added “The strongest leverage our members have is their labor and they are prepared to withhold it to ensure UPS acts accordingly.”

3. For the fist time since 2019, the Democratic-controlled Senate Banking committee will hold a “mark-up” session on a bill – a key step toward enacting any legislation. This bill – sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown, who chairs the committee, and Tim Scott of South Carolina – seeks to claw back excessive compensation from executives at failed banks and penalize them for misconduct. This legislation was almost certainly drafted in response to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. The draft text of this bill is available at Punchbowl News.

4. The American Prospect reports that, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” or FSD has led to at least 736 crashes – causing 17 fatalities – since 2021. Mile for mile, Tesla’s FSD system is “likely…ten times more dangerous at driving than humans.”

5. Leaving aside self-driving, a CBS News report sheds light on new dangers associated with electric vehicles. “Their batteries make the vehicles heavier, offering better protection to the passengers inside, but that extra weight — hundreds to even thousands of pounds — has traffic safety advocates concerned about the potential risk to other drivers.” To give some perspective on how heavy these vehicles are, “GMC's Hummer EV weighs more than 9,000 pounds…more than 3,000 pounds heavier than the GMC's full-size pickup. The Hummer EV's battery alone weighs about the same as a Toyota Corolla.”

6. The Washington Post reports that the strike at Insider magazine, the “longest ever [strike] in digital media,” has ended. The new deal raises the minimum salary for Insider staff and prevents any further layoffs this year, along with an immediate 3.5 percent raise upon ratification of the contract. The strikers got a boost in public support when the editor-in-chief was filmed “tearing down fliers bearing his face with the phrase, “Have you seen this millionaire?”’ Insider, formerly Business Insider, was acquired by German media conglomerate Axel-Springer in 2015; Axel-Springer’s later acquisition of POLITICO was covered in the first edition of the Capitol Hill Citizen.

7. Yahoo Finance reports that, in a major reversal, Shell plans to “[pivot] back to oil to win over investors.” The company will forego its goal to reduce oil outputs by 1-2% each year, and its CEO Wael Sawan emphasized that “shift[ing] to low-carbon businesses cannot come at the expense of profits.” No word yet on whether life on planet Earth can come at the expense of corporate profits.

8. This month, American troops will begin arriving in Peru, where they will be stationed until the end of the year. These troops, invited by the wildly unpopular Peruvian Congress and unelected president Dina Boluarte, are charged with “preparing Peru’s intelligence command for “joint special operations.” The timing of this arrival is notable; while protests against the antidemocratic Peruvian government peaked in February, resulting in 70 deaths, a new rash of protests are planned for July. This from CounterPunch.

9. The Catholic News Agency reports that a restaurant in Sacramento, California “had an individual impersonate a priest to encourage employees to confess their “sins” against their employer,” – the catch? He wasn’t a priest at all. The Department of Labor called this “among the most shameless” of employee intimidation methods they’d ever seen. In addition to the priest fiasco, investigators said the restaurant “denied overtime pay to employees and illegally paid managers from the employee tip pool….[and] threatened employees with retaliation and immigration-related consequences for cooperating with investigators.” The employer has agreed to pay $70,000 in back wages and $70,000 in damages to 35 employees, as well as $5,000 in civil penalties to the Department of Labor.

10. Daniel Ellsberg, the legendary whistleblower who exposed the lies being fed to the American people regarding the Vietnam War via the Pentagon Papers, has passed away. He was 92. Ellsberg, who had been in hospice following a diagnosis of inoperable pancreatic cancer, wrote a final note in March. This note mostly focused on the nuclear peril posed by the war in Ukraine, but the last few lines should be repeated here:

“I’m happy to know that millions of people–including all those friends and comrades to whom I address this message!–have the wisdom, the dedication and the moral courage to carry on with these causes, and to work unceasingly for the survival of our planet and its creatures.

I’m enormously grateful to have had the privilege of knowing and working with such people, past and present. That’s among the most treasured aspects of my very privileged and very lucky life. I want to thank you all for the love and support you have given me in so many ways. Your dedication, courage, and determination to act have inspired and sustained my own efforts.

My wish for you is that at the end of your days you will feel as much joy and gratitude as I do now.

Love, Dan”

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Tribute to Ford, Robinson, and Belafonte Jun 17, 2023

This week we welcome back Professor Randall Kennedy to help us pay tribute to three principled, uncompromising African American activists, Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report, human rights champion, Randall Robinson, and legendary actor, singer, and activist, Harry Belafonte.

Randall Kennedy is Michael R. Klein Professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, criminal law, and the regulation of race relations. He is the author of several books, including Contracts: Happiness and Heartbreak, For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law, and Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture.

You’ve chosen three very interesting people [Randall Robinson, Harry Belafonte, and Glen Ford]. And I think that one thing that the listeners should keep in mind is that the three that you’ve chosen are all progressive; they are very different… Because the tent of progressivism should be a large tent— not everybody’s going to think the same, and indeed there’s going to be some friction between various tendencies among progressives.

Randall Kennedy

I don’t think that progressives pay enough attention to the people who have been in their camp. We don’t pay enough attention to people who have passed away. We don’t pay enough attention to recalling people who have been heroic in our midst. And, again, I say this as a person who is sometimes extremely critical of some of the people that you’ve mentioned.

Randall Kennedy

We need people like Glen Ford to pull in one direction uncompromisingly—because the corporate interests always pull in the other direction uncompromisingly—and then we need people who are in between and sometimes have to face the hard realities you’ve pointed out.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. The Wall Street Journal and the Corporate Crime Reporter have announced that, following decades of citizen pressure, and action last year by Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Senator Richard Blumenthal, and Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, the Department of Justice has finally created a Corporate Crime Database. Under President Biden, the Justice Department has taken a tougher rhetorical stance on corporate crime, but as Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco notes, the department “cannot ignore the data showing overall decline in corporate criminal prosecutions over the last decade...We need to do more and move faster.” Among civic groups, The Center for Study of Responsive Law and Public Citizen lead the charge to create these corporate rap sheets and are already working to expand and strengthen this new resource for corporate crime data.

2. If you live on the East Coast, you have likely experienced dangerous levels of air pollution in the last week due to smoke moving South from Canadian wildfires. Yet, the Lever reports that under current air quality rules, fossil fuel producers will not have to curb their emissions to offset this spike in air pollution because they have successfully lobbied for a loophole protecting themselves in the case of “exceptional events” outside their control. Environmental regulators are currently mulling a new rule to clamp down on this type of air pollution, but face stiff opposition from industry groups.

3. The Washington Post reports that, in an exercise of his leverage in the tightly divided Senate, Bernie Sanders has vowed to oppose all Biden health nominees until the administration produces a “comprehensive” plan to lower prescription drug prices. Sanders’ role as Chair of the Health Education Labor and Pensions committee means these nominees cannot advance without his blessing. This notably includes Biden’s nominee for director of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. Sanders said “Politicians for years have talked about the high cost of prescription drugs, relatively little has been done, and it’s time that we act decisively.”

4. The Progressive International has issued a statement decrying the “soft coup” underway against left-wing President Gustavo Petro in Colombia. Their statement reads “Ever since the election of the country’s first progressive government...Colombia’s traditional powers have been organizing to restore an order marked by extreme inequality, environmental destruction, and state-sponsored violence.” The statement goes on to excoriate officials who have sought to undermine the Petro administration and “former generals, colonels, and members of the Colombian military [who] have not only proclaimed their opposition to President...Petro — but even marched outside Congress to call for a coup d’état against his government.” Signatories to this letter include over 400 political and industrial leaders, including Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn, Jean Luc Mélenchon, and Former Leftist President of Ecuador Rafael Correa.

5. The City, a news site covering New York, reports that food delivery drivers in NYC have won a substantial wage increase. This victory caps off a 3-year long campaign by Los Deliveristas Unidos, and makes New York the “first major U.S. city to establish and implement pay requirements for delivery workers.” These workers currently take home about $11 per hour; this will go up to $17.96 an hour starting July 12th, and will increase to $19.96 per hour by 2025.

6. In a surprise decision last week, the Supreme Court voted five-four in favor of Black voters in Alabama who argued the state had unlawfully diluted their voting power, POLITICO reports. Over a quarter of Alabama residents are Black, but the state crammed most Black Alabamians into a single congressional district following the 2020 census, running afoul of the Voting Rights Act. Many expected the ultra-conservative court to reject the challenge and further hollow out the VRA; instead, this ruling could significantly augment the chances of Democrats retaking the House in 2024.

7. In Afghanistan, the Taliban has instituted a “highly successful” ban on opium. To cite one example, “In Helmand, by far Afghanistan’s largest opium-producing province, the area of poppy cultivation was cut from over 129,000 hectares in 2022 to only 740 as of April 2023.” However, some in the West – including the US Institute for Peace – believe this could have disastrous implications for the Afghan economy. It remains to be seen whether the new government can find a viable economic alternative fast enough to offset these losses. The Taliban had previously banned opium cultivation when they held power in 2000 and 2001, and achieved a 90% reduction at that time.

8. New York Governor Kathy Hochul is again licking her wounds after her nominee for the New York Power Authority was blocked by the State Senate, in a similar fashion as her nominee for the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state. Justin Driscoll, whom Hochul had appointed on an interim basis and was seeking to appoint permanently, raised red flags with New York Senate Democrats due to his ingratiation in conservative politics – Driscoll is a registered Republican who has ties to figures like Chris Christie and John Cornyn. Driscoll also opposed the Build Public Renewables Act and has been embroiled in accusations of racial discrimination during his time as general counsel for the Power Authority. On June 9th, POLITICO reported that Senate Democrats will not schedule a vote for Driscoll.

9. Projectionists at an Alamo Drafthouse movie theater in New York City have filed an NLRB petition to unionize. However, instead of coming to the negotiating table, the theater chain sent out an internal email “notifying staff of the company's intention to do away with the projectionist position and replace it with a more expansive ‘technical engineer’ role.” This reflects how the struggle for labor rights in entertainment goes far beyond Hollywood writers and actors. This from 1010 Wins.

10. Last week, Henry Kissinger – President Nixon’s controversial National Security Advisor and alleged war criminal – celebrated his 100th birthday. The Real News Network reports that this centennial bash was attended by some of the most prominent diplomatic figures in the country, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and head of the international development agency USAID, Samantha Power. Jonathan Guyer of VOX, documented many other attendees as well, including Larry Summers, Robert Kraft, General David Petreaus, CIA Director Bill Burns, and Michael Bloomberg. The gang’s all here!

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Economic False Prophets Jun 10, 2023

Ralph welcomes New York Times reporter, Binyamin Applebaum, author of “The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society” about how Chicago School economists of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s “who believed in the power and the glory of markets… transformed the business of government, the conduct of business, and, as a result, the patterns of everyday life.”

Binyamin Appelbaum is the lead business and economics writer on the Editorial Board of the New York Times. From 2010 to 2019, he was a Washington correspondent for the Times, covering economic policy in the aftermath of the 2008 crisis. He previously worked for the Charlotte Observer, where his reporting on subprime lending won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His latest book isThe Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society.

The central attraction of neoliberalism—of market fundamentalism— is that it tells rich and powerful people that they are right and good. It underscores for them, it affirms them, it tells them that their priorities—their interests— are the right ones. And if society just does what it can to enrich them and empower them, then everyone will be better off. That’s an enormously attractive message.

Binyamin Applebaum

In area after area, we saw economists reaching broad conclusions about theories, about long-term truths, about how the world works on the basis of very limited data. Broad data. Data that aggregated everyone and treated them as if they were a single individual, rather than acknowledging the important differences among actors in the economy. Data that took very brief periods of history and extrapolated out to the unforeseeable future. And on that basis, economists reached conclusions that have proven to be empirically wrong as we’ve learned more about it.

Binyamin Applebaum

Economic analysis tends to exclude things that don’t fit neatly into its formulas— that can’t be easily counted or tabulated, that don’t count as data in the view of the economists… We can have very good real-world experience of the effects of drug regulation regimes or of corporate behavior and monopolistic contexts, and if it doesn’t tally on the data sheet it gets excluded from the analysis. It doesn’t become part of our policy-making conversation.

Binyamin Applebaum

We have a huge societal problem with our conception of spending on corporations as investment and spending on people as spending. When we talk about education, it’s an expense. When we talk about semiconductors, it’s an investment into the future. That’s insane. Spending on education is the most productive investment that we can make.

Binyamin Applebaum

What the market fundamentalist economists fail to take into account is greed and power, connected to one another, are infinite. There’s no discernible boundary. And that leads to a regulation by corporations of the competitive free market. So, monopolies distort markets. Subsidies and bailouts by the government distort market discipline. Political influence of big business over small business distorts market discipline. And consumer fraud, corporate consumer crimes, deceptive advertising distorts market discipline.

Ralph Nader

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License to Loot Jun 03, 2023

A “license to loot” is what our guest, economist William Lazonick, calls stock buybacks. Until the Reagan Revolution, stock buybacks were considered market manipulation and at the very least are an unproductive use of profits used only to pump up the stock price and enrich upper management, while neglecting workers’ wages, capital expansion, and innovation. Ralph and Professor Lazonick break it all down for you.

William Lazonick is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His recent work includes Predatory Value Extraction: How the Looting of the Business Corporation Became the US Norm and How Sustainable Prosperity Can Be Restored, and the forthcoming book Investing in Innovation: Confronting Predatory Value Extraction in the U.S. Corporation.

The ideology that enables buybacks, that makes a lot of people including economists say, “Oh, they’re just fine. The money’s just going to the economy,” is what I call the myth of the market economy—the way in which we get capital formation in the economy is just by money zipping around. But it doesn’t work that way. The money has to stop somewhere.

William Lazonick

It’s not because the United States does not have the capability to do these things— the capability is in the wrong hands. And it’s being wasted and destroyed. So it’s not simply the amount of money that’s making people rich. But those people who are getting rich are actually getting rich by helping to destroy the industrial base of the United States, including the middle class.

William Lazonick

These giant companies— these US companies that grew in the USA on the back of their workers, went to Washington for subsidies or bailouts when they were greedy or in trouble, and had the US Marines defend them around the world— are not only disinvesting on a massive scale in the necessities for a productive economy. But they are engaging in the ironic trend that can be called the corporate destruction of capitalism, whose base, in essence, is investment.

Ralph Nader

While these corporate bosses insist on massive domination of our political economy—from Washington to Wall Street— they’re not delivering. For the economy, for the workers, for the people who are trying to make it through every day and protect their families and their descendants. In behaving this way, they have reached a historic level of conflict of interest with their own companies.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. The automotive news website Jalopnik reports that a whistleblower has turned over 100 gigabtyes of “Tesla Secrets” to German media. These files contain “more than 2,400 self-acceleration complaints and more than 1,500 braking function problems, including 139 cases of unintentional emergency braking and 383 reported phantom stops resulting from false collision warnings. The number of crashes is more than 1000.”

2. While national Democrats dither and cave to outrageous Republican demands on the debt ceiling, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party has delivered on an expansive progressive agenda. In the current session, with only a single-vote majority in the upper house, Common Dreams reports that they have passed bills to mandate 20 weeks of paid family and medical leave, legalized recreational cannabis, and made school meals free for public and charter students. They also passed a bill codifying Roe v. Wade, established legal protections for transgender youth, set a livable minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers, and approved Right to Repair legislation. While not all of these will be signed into law, it is clear that Minnesota is setting the bar for Democratic-controlled state legislatures throughout the country, and putting Congress to shame.

3. A new piece in the Lever covers “The $20 Billion Scam At The Heart Of Medicare Advantage.” The article details how insurers are manipulating the medicare privatization scheme and “milking massive profits from systematic overbilling and kneecapping modest Biden proposals to stop the scheme.” Rep. Ro Khanna, responding to this article, advocated for his “Save Medicare Act,” cosponsored by Reps. Mark Pocan and Jan Schakowsky, to ban private insurers from “profiting off the Medicare brand.”

4. NPR reports that The White House has unveiled its plan to combat rising antisemitism in the United States, and in a major victory for Left-wing anti-zionists, they did not adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which would gag criticism of Israel. In response, Palestine Legal tweeted “After months of Israel advocacy groups calling on the White House to adopt the distorted IHRA definition of antisemitism, today even the staunchly pro-Israel Biden administration declined to do so. Why? Because IHRA is wrong, useless, and clearly unconstitutional.”

5. A leaked document from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, published in the Intercept, expresses frustration that the budget of populist Left-wing Mexican President Lopez Obrador – commonly known as AMLO – prioritizes social spending for the poor in Mexico above US interests in our southern neighbor. The document reads “President Lopez Obrador’s federal budget for 2023 gives priority to social spending and signature infrastructure projects, rather than the investments needed to address bilateral issues with the US such as migration, security, and trade.” In other words, the Military Industrial Complex is not content with monopolizing the budget of this country, and feel that they are more entitled to the tax money of other countries than their own citizens.

6. 60 Minutes reports that Raytheon, a major military contractor, has been scamming the Defense Department via “inflated prices for planes, submarines, [and] missiles.” Shay Assad, a negotiator who has been on both sides of these procurement debates, drew attention to an oil pressure switch that cost $328, but was purchased by the Pentagon for over $10,000. When asked “what accounts for that huge difference,” Assad answered, “Gouging…what else can account for it?”

7. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “A judge dismissed all charges...against a former city police officer [named Darren Kardos] accused of participating in the beating of a 28-year-old mother [Rickia Young]” during the 2020 protests. A key reason why this case was dismissed hinged on the fact that a witness, another police officer, did not appear in court despite being subpoenad – making it “impossible” to try Kardos. Prosecutors “immediately vowed to re-file the case and bring it back to court.”

8. Two high-profile former Democrat representatives have joined the Global Advisory Council at the cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. These are: Tim Ryan, the former Congressman who was defeated by J.D. Vance in his 2022 bid for US Senate in Ohio, and Sean Patrick Maloney, another former Democratic Congressman and head of the DCCC, whom many hold responsible for the Democrats’ slim loss of the House in that election cycle. Coinbase has previously run afoul of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and is likely banking on the political clout of these former members to navigate a possible crackdown on crypto. The revolving door just keeps spinning.

9. In a small but meaningful win for workers, LaborNotes reports that the Biden NLRB has restored “the rights of union representatives to use heated language, including occasional profanity, during arguments with management.” Union officials were barred from using such language by a Trump-era NLRB decision. The article breaks down the three major implications of this ruling: (1) “employers can no longer claim that the law allows them to discipline representatives for ‘lack of civility,’” (2) “Vigorous debate and ‘salty’ language must be tolerated, including allegations that managers are not telling the truth,” and (3) “Picket line rhetoric does not put strikers at risk.” And to that we say, F**K YEAH!

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Predatory Capitalists May 27, 2023

Ralph welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Gretchen Morgenson, co-author of “These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs – And Wrecks – America,” where they name names in this “heads we win, tails you lose” system of predatory capitalism.

Gretchen Morgenson is the senior financial reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. A former stockbroker, she won the Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for her “trenchant and incisive” reporting on Wall Street. Previously at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal,” she and coauthor Joshua Rosner wrote the bestseller Reckless Endangerment: How Outsized Ambition, Greed, and Corruption Led to Economic Armageddon about the mortgage crisis. Their latest book is These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America.

The way corporate criminals get their way is by trying to make things too complex and too abstract for your daily lives. But when Gretchen [Morgenson] talks about these plunderers, and let’s call them “predatory capitalists”, don’t think that you’re not being affected— whether your loved ones are patients in nursing homes, whether you’re workers being laid off, whether you’re consumers being gouged for drug or healthcare prices, whether your community’s going to be hollowed out because the company that was doing okay was taken over by these vultures and closed down after they extracted the wealth.

Ralph Nader

It’s interesting now that David Rubenstein is retired [from the Carlyle Group], he’s a philanthropist. This is what these wealthy people do once they’ve finished their careers and made so much money. They become philanthropists… We’ve all read about David Rubenstein and Steve Schwarzman and Leon Black and Henry Kravis. We read about them constantly. They are always lauded for their brilliance and their billionaire status. What we just don’t hear about are the people on the other side of their transactions.

Gretchen Morgenson, co-author of “These Are The Plunderers.”

The disappointing thing about the Justice Department is that when they bring these cases against the companies that are doing Medicare fraud (like in the Manor Care situation), they don’t move up the corporate ladder to the owner of the company. The Justice Department does the work on the particular company that is owned by private equity, but they don’t go up the ladder. And that has a way of allowing the firms—like Carlyle in the Manor Care case— to escape scrutiny and to escape accountability. So that would be an ideal thing to change.

Gretchen Morgenson co-author of “These Are The Plunderers.”

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. Amid the debt limit fight, progressives are calling for President Biden to invoke the 14th amendment, which they believe would allow Biden to bypass the Republican House and raise the debt limit without concessions like adding further work requirements to public benefits. In a press conference by the Senate progressives, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said "This is the whole reason why the 14th Amendment exists, & we need to be prepared to use it. And, if our unelected Supreme Court Justices try to block the use of the 14th amendment and blow up our economy, that’s on them.” However, POLITICO reports that the administration is privately telling progressives to stand down. Instead, the White House seems more interested in negotiating with Speaker McCarthy, even if that means caving to outrageous Republican demands.2. As the Writers Guild strike grinds on – at a cost of $30 million per day according to Deadline – the Screen Actors Guild is now on the verge of their own strike. Last week, SAG-AFTRA’s National Board voted unanimously to ask members for strike authorization, and the Daily Beast reported that SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher urged members to “make three a charm with an emphatic ‘yes’ for a strike authorization vote!” adding that to do so would be “an unprecedented show of solidarity.” An actor’s strike against the studios has not happened since 1980.3. Last week, Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the Healthy Families Act of 2023, which would guarantee 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. This bill features a companion in the House, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, and carries the support of 122 members of the House and Senate. Sanders is quoted saying “It is time to end this absurdity...It is time Congress passed this legislation to ensure workers receive the basic dignity and benefits that they deserve.” The introduction of this legislation comes on the heels of the reintroduction of a Medicare for All bill in this Congress.4. A damning new report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that “Jeffrey Epstein discovered that Bill Gates had an affair with a Russian bridge player” and later used this knowledge to attempt to threaten the Microsoft co-founder. The report goes on to say that “at the time, Epstein was trying to set up a multibillion-dollar charitable fund with JPMorgan...[which] hinged on securing support from Gates.” When this money was not forthcoming, Epstein resorted to blackmail. This gives the public our clearest idea yet as to the nuts and bolts of the Epstein criminal enterprise.5. POLITICO is reporting on a rumor concerning Senator Dianne Feinstein, Representative Adam Schiff, and the Pelosi family. The former Speaker herself has endorsed Schiff in the upcoming California Senate primary and has long groomed him as a political protege. He currently holds a $15 million advantage over his nearest opponent. Yet, if Feinstein – who has appeared deeply addled in recent public appearances – were to resign, Governor Newsom would have the opportunity to appoint a Senator to the vacant seat, and has pledged to appoint a Black woman. Rep. Barbara Lee, a progressive Black congresswoman representing the Bay Area, is among the candidates to replace Feinstein, and would therefore have a strong chance of being appointed. Per the report, Nancy Corinne Prowda, Pelosi’s eldest child, is a top aide to Senator Feinstien, and a “Pelosi family confidant” insinuated that she is angling to keep Feinstein in her seat, not for the benefit of Californians, but for the benefit of Adam Schiff. 6. The LA Times reports that “Nearly three dozen deputies have been ordered to come in for questioning, show their tattoos and give up the names of any other deputies similarly sporting ink connecting them to…the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s…deputy gangs.” This demand came in a letter from county Inspector General Max Huntsman to 35 deputies suspected of being members of either the Executioners or the Banditos, two of the most notorious among these police gangs. Huntsman is quoted saying “The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department conducted incomplete internal affairs investigations into the Banditos and Executioners, failing to identify all members…California’s new gang law addresses discrimination based on race and gender and gives inspectors general enhanced authority to collect evidence. We’re using that authority to complete the investigations by directing deputies to show their tattoos and tell us who else has them.”7. The Sierra Club is currently in the midst of a labor battle. The New Republic reports that, in an attempt to resolve their budget shortfall, the group has announced “massive layoffs,” the scale of which still remains unclear. This announcement set off a “fractious battle” between the top leadership and the Progressive Workers Union, which has two bargaining units representing nearly 400 Sierra Club employees around the country. Thus far union has filed two unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board; the first “accuses the Club of failing to provide necessary information for bargaining,” and another alleging that “management is violating its collective bargaining agreement and is bargaining in bad faith.”8. Democracy Now! reports that conservative, US-backed Ecuadoran president Guillermo Lasso has “dissolved the opposition-led National Assembly in a move widely seen as an effort to block efforts to impeach him.” Lasso dissolved the assembly as it held its first hearing on corruption and embezzlement allegations against Lasso. Lasso invoked a never-before-used constitutional power allowing him to “rule by decree” until new elections are held.9. In an almost unbelievable story, Live Science is reporting that Orcas have “sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same.” The piece goes on to say that scientists believe the attacks are coordinated, and began following an orca experiencing a "critical moment of agony." Further, they believe “the behavior is spreading among the population through social learning.” This is a stark reminder that we as a species impact our environment and that, sometimes, there are consequences.

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Defeating a Boondoggle May 20, 2023

Auto safety expert, Byron Bloch, joins us to tell the story of how citizens in conjunction with the Sierra Club defeated a highway widening boondoggle in Maryland. Then we welcome microgrids manager at the Green Justice Coalition, Sari Kayyali, to tell us how microgrids in his community have saved money and the environment. Finally, we catch up with the director of Progressive Democrats of America, Alan Minsky, in Washington DC to talk about high speed rail and the post-Bernie progressive movement.

Byron Bloch is an independent consultant and court-qualified expert in Auto Safety Design and Vehicle Crashworthiness. Over the years, he has fought for safer fuel tanks, stronger seats, the need for airbags, better truck underride guards, and has testified on these safety issues at Congressional Hearings, and to NHTSA. He contributed to the Sierra Club’s successful campaign to strongly oppose and stop the proposed widening of the 1-270 and Capital Beltway and the scheme to also add privatized toll lanes.

What we have to do is refocus and say, “We are a people-oriented nation. Not a vehicle-oriented nation.” And if you look at it in those terms—people-oriented nation— then you say, “Well, what are the economics, what are the health and safety issues that affect people?” But instead, it becomes the almighty vehicle-ization of the nation and that means more lanes, more traffic, more lanes, and then more traffic.

Byron Bloch Activist and auto safety expert

The corporate state arrives in different manifestations— the military industrial complex, the Pentagon, and this is what’s going on at the state level. It doesn’t get many national headlines, but it's the merger of corporations with state government. And there’s a lot of secrecy involved, a lot of phony promises, a lot of misleading rhetoric, and the legislators are compromised by the campaign contributions and the pressure from the governor’s office.

Ralph Nader

Sari Kayyali is a mechanical engineer and the Microgrids Manager at Microgrids Chelsea and Chinatown Power.

The technology around clean electric generation—solar panels and battery storage—are experiencing a revolution. Just in the last decade alone, solar panels have dropped to a third of what they used to cost to manufacture. Battery storage has improved dramatically in terms of energy density, cost, and reliability. And so, a lot of places around the country are looking to these as solutions. Microgrids have been around for a while, they don’t necessarily need to use clean technology but specifically clean microgrids are really catching on all around the country, and around the world.

Sari Kayyali Microgrids Manager at the Green Justice Coalition

Alan Minsky is a lifelong activist, and Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America. Alan has worked as a progressive journalist for the past two decades, he was Program Director at KPFK Los Angeles from 2009-2018, and he has coordinated Pacifica Radio’s national coverage of elections. He is the creator and producer of the political podcasts for The Nation and Jacobin, as well as a contributor to Common Dreams and Truthdig.

There’s a whole bunch of elements that the progressive movement hasn’t been that attentive to. Including things like industrial production and the transformation it requires between business and government to transform American society, so that it’s operating on clean energy, so that its industrial manufacturing doesn’t have breaks in supply chains… So I got involved with a lot of projects that aren’t that common for progressives to be involved in.

Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. CNBC reports that the FTC is mulling a proposal to bar Meta (formerly Facebook) from monetizing the data of minors. This follows the agency’s allegation that the company violated a 2020 privacy order. The FTC quoted an independent assessor who found “several gaps and weaknesses in Facebook’s privacy program” that posed “substantial risks to the public.” Hopefully, this action will put other tech companies on notice regarding monetization of children’s data.

2. Dr. Steve Feldman, a Jewish dermatologist, is being penalized by the state of Arkansas for his refusal to sign a loyalty pledge to the state of Israel, the Arkansas Times reports. After giving a lecture to medical students in Little Rock, he was prompted to check a box agreeing not to boycott Israel, which he refused to do. As a result, the state is withholding his payment for the lecture. The Arkansas Times also refused to sign the pledge. Feldman said “What’s nuts is they’re asking a newspaper to say they won’t boycott Israel, they’re asking Americans who have a conscience, who know Israel is keeping Palestinians from their homes.” The ultra-conservative Supreme Court declined to hear the newspaper’s legal challenge to the state law, and therefore it is still in place.

3. In Rochester, New York, Coca-Cola is building a new facility. The company predicts this development will yield 250 new jobs. However, the Rochester Beacon has broken down the corporate welfare the conglomerate stands to receive in exchange: $41 million in state and local subsidies, or about $164,000 for each job created.

4. A stunning expose in the Guardian shines a light on the beef industry, and specifically, their “messaging machine.” “The beef industry has developed a ‘Digital Command Center” that tracks media outlets and social media for more than 200 beef-related topics” Based in Denver, Colorado, the project which “looks like a military operation” is staffed 24/7 with personnel redundancies to “make sure someone’s always watching.”

5. In another law enforcement bombshell, longtime LAPD SWAT officer, Sgt. Timothy Colomey, has blown the whistle on the reality of the elite unit. According to Sgt. Colomey, LAPD SWAT is controlled by a violent inner circle known as the “SWAT Mafia” which has perpetuated itself using “excessive force...insubordination, sabotage and cover-ups.” Colomey has put his allegations into a detailed new deposition, available at the LA Times.

6. The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has officially opened an investigation into charges that the George Washington University discriminated against Palestinian students, according to the GW Hatchet. Palestine Legal, which filed the complaint on behalf of three GW students, responded to the news by writing “This is an important step that shows the Office of Civil Rights is taking anti-Palestinian discrimination seriously.” Radhika Sainath, a senior staff attorney at Palestine Legal added “Even if pro-Israel groups don’t like it and complain, the law is clear – Palestinian students are entitled to the same educational opportunities and services as other students.”

7. In other Palestine news Rep. Rashida Tlaib held an event commemorating the Nakba – literally the catastrophe – of May 15th, 1948 when 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from their homeland. This event was originally slated to be held at the Capitol Visitors Center, but Speaker McCarthy blocked the ceremony, per CNN. Tlaib responded with a statement, saying, “Speaker McCarthy wants to rewrite history and erase the existence and truth of the Palestinian people, but he has failed to do so.” Finally, Bernie Sanders stepped in and facilitated the event in the Senate HELP Committee hearing room.

8. AL.com reports that the Democratic Party of Alabama has abolished the DNC-mandated minority caucuses for youth, LGBTQ, and disabled Democrats. Until now, “those caucuses had the power to nominate at-large members to ensure representation proportionate to Alabama Democratic voters.” State party boss Joe Reed had long opposed theses caucuses, which dilute the influence of the state’s Black caucus on the executive committee. Former Senator Doug Jones, the only Democratic Senator in Alabama since 1997, is quoted saying “What the leadership of the Alabama Democratic Party did — was to essentially say that we don’t represent the Democratic electorate in Alabama anymore.”

9. Kimberly Gardner, St. Louis’s elected prosecutor, is being forced to resign from her position under threat from the Missouri state government, per the Missouri Independent. Gardner, a reformist prosecutor, has drawn ire from conservatives and the police union in St. Louis since her tenure began; this came to a head when the Republican legislature threatened a state takeover of her office. In her resignation letter, Gardner wrote “I can neither enable nor allow the outright disenfranchisement of the people of the City of St. Louis.”

10. The International Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America announced on Twitter that the Washington DC Council has passed a unanimous resolution urging President Biden to “dismantle the US blockade” and remove Cuba from the State Sponsor of Terrorism list.

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Writers Strike!/Occupy the Library! May 13, 2023

We welcome former Writers Guild of America (West) president and current co-chair of the negotiating committee, David Goodman, who also happens to be the head writer for many of your favorite TV shows like “The Family Guy” to tell us why TV and movie writers are on strike. Then, grad students Sandra Oseguera and Jesus Gutierrez stop by to update us on their continuing fight to save the anthropology library at UC Berkeley, a battle that has wider implications for how more and more universities across the country are becoming corporatized. Plus, Ralph highlights some trenchant listener feedback.

David A. Goodman has written for over 20 television series. His best-known work is as head writer and executive producer on Family Guy. He was the president of the Writer’s Guild of America West from 2017 to 2021. In that capacity, Mr. Goodman led the Guild in a campaign to force the Hollywood talent agencies into adopting a new Code of Conduct to better serve the needs of their writers. Today, he serves as co-chair of the WGA negotiating committee in their strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

These companies that we work for are spending billions of dollars, making billions of dollars on the product that we create. And writers currently (many of them) can’t afford to pay their rent. Can’t afford to live in the cities where they’re required to work. Need to take second jobs. Now, that’s a very familiar situation in labor across this country. And what we’re saying is if these companies are profitable… we need to fight.

David Goodman, co-chair of the WGA negotiating committee

The reason that our strike does have power is because America and the world relies on this product that we create. Those stories that we create are a connection, are a way for people to connect. And because of corporatization some people are losing sight of that, and hopefully this strike will bring them back.

David Goodman, co-chair of the WGA negotiating committee

Let our listeners know that a lot of those programs that they watch on TV or listen to on the radio all over the country are written by the people who are on the picket lines and are pretty mercilessly exploited by the corporate titans that rake off the profits.

Ralph Nader

Sandra Oseguera and Jesús Gutiérrez are graduate students in the Anthropology department at the University of California, Berkeley. Earlier this year, campus administration announced their plan to close the Anthropology Library, one of only three dedicated Anthropology libraries in the US. In response, stakeholders including students and faculty have organized to demand that the Anthropology Library be protected and fully supported by the University.

We truly disagree with the vision that the administration has for this university, and we believe that it can be different. That this can truly be a public university for students, underrepresented minorities, but also for the public. The public can come here—especially to our library— and be curious, collect knowledge, and have a refuge where they can find themselves in the shelves.

Sandra Oseguera

It has been really inspiring to see our occupation space make our Anthropology Library into the space of encounter and transformation that it is supposed to be. The administration— and the press, to some degree initially— portrayed us as passively occupying, just sleeping and reading in the space. But the reality on the ground has been that the library has become an organizing space. Those of us who are occupying also gather, and then from there we fan out and make plans to go talk to our fellow students, make plans to go confront these core decision makers and hold them accountable for what they are doing to our education, what they are doing to these essential public resources.

Jesús Gutiérrez

We are not chasing symbolic wins. We want a fully functional library. That is what matters to us. And the overwhelming desire of the department, faculty, and grad students is to keep our library open.

Sandra Oseguera

Dear Ralph Nader & Radio Hour Staff,I Hope that you and your families are all doing well. I look forward weekly to your Radio Hour via KPFA.org Mondays 11am-12pm.

I was excited at the beginning of the hour that you were addressing the topic of sports in the U.S.A. By the end of the hour, I was extremely disappointed at the coverage. I have never been disappointed in the years listening to your radio show and otherwise.Neither the staff, your guest speaker, nor yourself, mentioned the state of affairs for women in sports, their unfair disadvantages, lack of equity in competing for sports funding from cradle to grave, competing for funding in infrastructure building of training centers, stadiums…, unfair medi coverage, and lastly focusing on the today’s show coverage, girls and women’s injuries, physical, psychological, whether she plays recreationally, professionally, or is not able to reach her potential due to discrimination against her gender, race, ethnic composition, language/cultural barrier, disability visible and non-visible. Shocking that you did not address sexual harassment, abuse, and rape of female athletes at all levels by coaches and male peers! As well as sexual abuse of boys and male athletes by male coaches and peers! Specially in the light of the well documented but short-lived media stories, selective amnesia, about the sexual abuse and rape of many Olympic gymnastics athletes by their team doctor!!!Concussions are very serious injuries in many sports including but not limited to: football, soccer, baseball, martial arts, boxing, gymnastics, skiing, skating, cycling, surfing, even running slipping and falling on ones head. Serious injuries in many sports are not exclusive to boys and men players! They are definitely not only prevalent in boys and men’s football and baseball only! But as usual, girls and women are not mentioned even in one of the most progressive radio shows in the U.S!!! Shocking and infuriating!How many more centuries will it take for all of you to acknowledge, research, interview, respect, fund, divulge girl and women’s issues, reality, financial inequity, needs, demands, and listen to Her-Story??!!I urge you to have an entire show on girl’s and women’s sports addressing the above points I wrote about and much more.FYI. I follow the news all day. I read papers and online, listen to the radio and follow it on TV. When the sports news section is on, I listen to the first couple of seconds. Undoubtedly and unfortunately, coverage always starts, ends and with boys and male sports and hardly ever over girls and women sports as if we don’t exist and/or don’t play sports at the same rate and intensity!!! Infuriating! So after a couple of seconds, I turn the medium off as a protest and because I can’t bear not being represented!

I am 67 years old and have been, until recently due to health challenges, a serious athlete and played a variety of sports since I was very young. I was born and grew up in Lebanon of a Palestinian athletic father who was a refugee in Lebanon, and an Argentinian artistic mother. I competed in swim competition in Beirut at the age of 9 and on. Started practicing Taekwondo-Do at age 12at the YMCA in Beirut. Practiced 7 days a week about 3-5 hours daily until age 19. I am the first Arab woman receiving a Black Belt in Martial Arts. I also taught Taekwondo-Do to men, women, and children At the YMCA and the AUB.

At age 17 in Lebanon, I was SCUBA Certified by the Lebanese Gov’t via the American University of Beirut’s Biology Department and Diving Club.

At 19 I had to flee Lebanon due to the deadly and long civil war.In the U.S, among other things, I practiced Taekwondo-Do and Judo. Taught Kickboxing. Did skydiving, swimming, backpacking, camping, spinning, cycling, Tango dancing master classes, practiced and performed Dabkeh Palestinian folkloric dancing, and other sports and activities. When my son turned 10 and I turned 53, him and went on a 278 mile ride across California in 6 days, riding through the most spectacular California scenery, coast, high desert of Anza Borrego, sand dunes, pastures…under the hot sun, sand wind, and rain. The ride of a lifetime!I am writing, briefly, about my life and some of my accomplishments, to bring home to you that this herstory is one of billions that needs to be talked about every day, in all industries, and in all aspects of life and living. My story is different but not unique. Every action, gain, and defeat was earned by working more than double than white men in the U.S. and men in general in other parts of the world. I forge ahead against all odds: Ethnic and gender discrimination, gender and general violence, war, trauma, immigration, poverty, housing and food insecurity, divorce, single motherhood, injuries, chronic and degenerative disease.I urge you to pay attention, and not ignore 52% of the world population. We have the same feelings and get injured at the same rate as men. We are your mothers, grandmothers, sisters, relatives, girlfriends, friends, neighbors, teachers, coaches, doctors, farm workers, nationals including Native Americans, immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, prisoners, governors, and hopefully soon president of an equitable and peaceful U.S.A nationally and internationally.Sincerely,Randa Baramki

Dear Ralph,

I have to take issue with a few things Shanin Spector stated. I'll confine this comment to one: The advice that no lawyer can afford to take a $250,000 medical malpractice case and at least, implicitly, that elderly people are out of luck if they fall victim to medical malpractice (which is probably the largest demographic that are victims).

Lawyers, even well-seasoned ones with profitable practices, can and do take risky malpractice cases for elderly people for a variety of reasons-even in venues where the jurors are instinctively in favor of local doctors. See, E.g., Cooper v. Hanson, 2010 MT 113, 234 P.3d 59. In fact, most trial lawyers--even good ones-- don't have the luxury of Cherry Picking only multi-million dollar cases. We take risks, which is why we are allowed to charge contingency fees.

A medical malpractice case for an elderly person can be done profitably, although the lawyer is not going to get rich. Most jurisdictions have mechanisms to cut costs and streamline some of the proceedings, at least if you have a good judge. Depending on the facts, you could conduct the whole case for less than $100,000 in legal costs and at any rate, costs are the client's obligation if you win and should only be the lawyer's if he or she loses (Although some lawyers regrettably charge either way. Avoid them if that is what they do).

Moreover, a general statement about pain and suffering damage caps on elder cases needs to be qualified for a variety of reasons. Loss of earning capacity may not be the driving generator of damages. It might be the medical costs and rehabilitation costs, which could run into the millions and hence, would generate millions in damages. Moreover, the presence and amount of caps varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Washington, for instance, has no caps.

I will agree that risks have to be considered. One has to make a back of the envelope determination if the firm, given its financial status, can take the risk. An expensive, complicated case of questionable liability probably could not be considered. On the other hand, a relatively straightforward case with relatively clear liability could be.

A big factor is the seriousness the lawyer pays to his or her duty to perform pro bono work. You are supposed to take cases as part of your duty to the community. You don't always take cases--even risky cases-- to make the big bucks. At least, you should not.

There are benefits other than getting paid a lot. An ambitious young lawyer with a limited practice, but good skills, might jump at the opportunity to go to trial (Though sad to say, many who call themselves trial lawyers do everything they can to stay out of the scary courtroom, but there are some serious trial lawyers too.).

One thing, which was not touched upon, is that an elderly person who suffers the injuries of a medical mistake SHOULD NOT HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING FOR A CONSULTATION WITH A CONTINGENCY FEE LAWYER. THAT SERVICE IS FREE IN ALL CASES. As should be clear from the above, whether or not the lawyer can take the case depends on the facts and circumstances and there is no charge for telling the lawyer the facts.

I know Mr. Spector qualified his advice near the end of the podcase, but judging from some of the listeners' questions, they got the impression that if you are old and injured by medical malpractice, you were out of luck. I think that impression needs refinement.

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to present my little dissertation. I mean no disrespect to Mr. Spector, but I felt as if a more nuanced response would help your listeners.

Erik Thueson

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Celebrating Law Day May 06, 2023

In conjunction with the American Museum of Tort Law, we conduct another live Zoom recording where Ralph welcomes legendary trial lawyer Shanin Spector to discuss the constitutional right of wrongfully injured people to have their day in court and the corporate forces that are trying to limit this most basic of American principles. Then, Ralph and Mr. Spector take questions from our live audience.

Shanin Specter is a founding partner of Kline & Specter, one of the leading catastrophic injury firms in the United States. Beyond winning substantial monetary compensation for his clients, many of Shanin’s cases have prompted beneficial societal changes. He has also taught law for many years and this academic year is teaching tort and trial courses at UC Law SF, Drexel Kline and Stanford Law Schools.

Last week, I found myself in Washington DC at the Federalist Society debating the resolution that America should abolish the right of trial by jury, which is being advocated by an otherwise distinguished professor at George Washington University School of Law, Professor [Renée Lettow] Lerner… You don’t have to scratch the surface of her argument very much to see that it is based upon the statistics of the American Tort Reform Association and the like. It’s essentially a Trojan horse for the Fortune 500.

Shanin Specter

Why don’t you describe this assault on the tort system by lobbyists who don’t want to argue their case in court— that’s too open, too full of cross-examination, too fair in terms of the procedures. They want to lobby lawmakers in states all over the country so the lawmakers, in effect, enact laws that tie the hands of juries and judges— the only people who actually see, hear, and evaluate the cases in the courtroom.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. The FTC has issued a statement regarding the proposed merger between CalPortland & Martin Marietta. Chair Lina Khan tweeted that this deal “would’ve resulted in a single firm owning half of all cement plants serving Southern California, enabling the firm to hike prices.” Following an FTC investigation, the firms have abandoned the deal.

2. AP reports that Colorado has become the first state to pass “Right to Repair” legislation, which “compels manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software,” to “ensure farmers can fix their own tractors and combines.” This idea has drawn support from left and right factions including at the national level. In a similar move regarding home repairs, Senator John Fetterman is pushing to expand Pennsylvania’s "Whole Home Repair" program – which “helps Pennsylvanians with needed repairs and eliminate[s] blight” – to the nation.

3. Former U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has been ejected from Colombia after attempting to “gatecrash” a summit on the future of the Bolivarian republic, the Guardian reports. Guaidó has fallen out of favor among Venezuelan dissidents and, while some western nations still recognize him on paper as Venezuela’s president – despite never winning such an election – many have quietly reengaged with the Maduro government to negotiate for oil. The Guardian added that Mr. Guaidó has now relocated to Miami.

4. Slate reports that automakers are finally beginning to backpedal on digital displays in cars. David Zipper writes “The touch screen pullback is the result of consumer backlash, not the enactment of overdue regulations or an awakening of corporate responsibility. Many drivers want buttons, not screens, and they’ve given carmakers an earful about it. Auto executives have long brushed aside safety concerns about their complex displays—and all signs suggest they would have happily kept doing so. But their customers are revolting, which has forced them to pay attention.” Zipper goes on to pin the blame for the proliferation of these expensive and unpopular displays on one culprit: Elon Musk’s Tesla.

5. From the Tampa Bay Times: State legislators in Florida are leading a crusade to shred local tenants rights laws, which set standards regarding rent increases, applications and evictions. The recently-passed HB 1417 and its companion SB 1586 would strip away these protections. Rep. Tiffany Esposito, of Fort Myers, who sponsored the House bill, is quoted saying “This bill protects tenants, this bill protects property owners and this bill protects capitalism.” Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville responded “This bill is designed to help corporate landlords at the expense of tenants, many of which are already struggling to stay in their homes.”

6. Ben & Jerry’s announced that it has reached an agreement with workers at its flagship store in Burlington, Vermont on rules to ensure a fair union election, after workers announced last week that they are seeking to unionize, per the New York Times. “The agreement is likely to pave the way for the store to become the only unionized Ben & Jerry’s location in the United States. All of the nearly 40 workers eligible to join a union at the store have indicated their support for doing so.”

7. The Hill reports that a War Powers Resolution to pull U.S. troops out of Somalia, introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, has been defeated. The resolution garnered the support of 47 Republicans and 56 Democrats but failed by a margin of 103-321.

8. Keeping an eye on out of control cops, the LA Times reports that during a "reverse-buy" sting operation, undercover deputies with the Riverside sheriff sold 60 pounds of meth to a narcotics trafficker. According to the author Noah Goldberg, the dealer then got in a car and fled, resulting in 60 additional pounds of meth being introduced into the community. And in West Virginia, WTRF reports that “42 women, including 10 minors, plan to file lawsuits against West Virginia State Police for [installing] hidden cameras in junior troopers locker rooms…[engaging in] rampant sexual misconduct,” and admitting to destroying evidence in criminal investigations.

9. From Common Dreams: Reps. AOC and Ro Khanna, along with Senator Ed Markey, have reintroduced the Green New Deal. Along with the resolution, which is unlikely to move in the current Congress, the sponsors released “a guide for cities, states, tribes, nonprofits, and individuals about how to help bring the Green New Deal to life."

10. From the Economic Policy Institute: April 28th marked “Workers Memorial Day, the date the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) took effect in 1971. Signed in 1970, the OSH Act has made a tremendous difference, and, after more than 50 years, over 668,000 workers can say their lives have been saved by its passage… [yet] In 2022, 343 workers died each day on average from hazardous working conditions, and last year’s fatality data show especially troubling trends: The rate of death on the job for Black workers rose to its highest number in more than a decade, and fatality rates for Latino workers have increased 13% in the past decade…grim as these…numbers are, the reality is likely far worse. Government Accountability Office…reports show that a majority of employers fail to report workplace injuries due to [OSHA]’s limited resources and procedures. Official statistics also do not include the untold numbers of worker deaths linked to preventable workplace coronavirus exposure. In fact, the pandemic revealed serious limitations of the OSH Act and its enforcement in an era of eroded worker power and vast economic inequality.”

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Sports Talk! Apr 29, 2023

On a relatively lighter note, we welcome national baseball writer for the New York Times, Tyler Kepner, to talk about issues in the sports world in general but more specifically about his latest book “The Grandest Stage: A History Of The World Series.” Also joining the conversation will be friend of the program, Ken Reed, policy director of League of Fans, whose book “How to Save Sports: A Game Plan” has been updated. Plus, Ralph pays tribute to the late activistand entertainer, Harry Belafonte and has some choice words for Bernie Sanders’ early endorsement of Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign.

Tyler Kepner is national baseball writer for the New York Times, where he has covered every World Series Game of the last two decades. He's not just a sports reporter, he's a sports historian. He is the author of K: A History Of Baseball In Ten Pitches, andThe Grandest Stage: A History Of The World Series.

Certainly, it’s the apex of the season— the thing that every fan ultimately looks forward to. The World Series as an event has had some challenges—certainly the Super Bowl has overtaken it in terms of eyeballs. But that’s just one game. The World Series is a weeklong event. It’s always fascinating to me the history behind it, the way it’s managed within the games, the way certain players respond to that spotlight, the way momentum can turn so quickly.

Tyler Kepner, author of "The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series"

Dr. Ken Reed is Sports Policy Director for the League of Fans and the author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan, Ego vs. Soul in Sports: Essays on Sport at Its Best and Worst, and The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place. Ken's writing has been highly praised by legendary sports writers Robert Lipsyte and Frank Deford, and he is a long-time sports marketing consultant, sports studies instructor, sports issues analyst, columnist, and author.

Some people ask me “Why do you hate sports?” or “Why are you so angry about sports?” Ironically, I'm probably one of the most passionate people there are about sports. But I think if you love sports, you have to be angry at some of these issues that we’ve talked about. I always go back to a RFK quote that I love— “The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country.” And I think that applies to me with sports, and that’s why we do what we do at League of Fans.

Ken Reed policy director "League of Fans"

Harry Belafonte was a great entertainer and a great social activist for justice, civil rights, and African Americans. He grew up in the Caribbean, and he never faltered. He never was co-opted. He never put ambition before his candid statements, again and again, on the violations on the civil rights of people who were powerless.

Ralph Nader

I think it was a strategic mistake. [Bernie Sanders] endorsed [Joe Biden] without any conditions. He didn’t get any commitments from Joe Biden for his endorsement. And because of his leadership role among progressive politicians, he’s undermined progressive legislators from holding out and pulling Biden and the corporate Democrats more into progressive territory. I was shocked.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. Who is behind the recent campaign to deregulate child labor? A new Washington Post report finds that a Florida based right-wing think tank called the Foundation for Government Accountability, and its lobbying arm the Opportunity Solutions Project, have been the prime movers behind the laws passed in Arkansas and Iowa, as well as efforts to do the same in Minnesota, Ohio, and Georgia. This campaign goes beyond the pale even for some traditional conservative groups. Randy Zook, president of the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview that his state’s law was “a solution looking for a problem.”

2. From the Intercept: The war in Yemen appears to be winding down, as Saudi Arabia and the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have agreed to a long-term ceasefire brokered by China. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, weighed in, saying “Biden promised to end the war in Yemen. Two years into his presidency, China may have delivered on that promise.” This breakthrough comes amid a broader Saudi-Iranian rapprochement – also driven by China – which has taken on the role of peacemaker both in the Middle East and in Ukraine in the absence of strong peace leadership from the US. Rep. Ro Khanna tweeted “It’s past time for Saudis to end their brutal eight-year war and blockade on Yemen, as I've advocated for years. This will create the opportunity for the Yemeni people to decide their own political future.”

3. Arizona activist Kai Newkirk reports that “By an overwhelming vote, the Arizona Democratic Party...passed a resolution calling on Democrats nationwide — from grassroots activists to party leaders — to pledge to support the winner of the Democratic primary to replace Kyrsten Sinema.” Moreover, Jezebel reports that a new Public Policy Polling survey shows that Ruben Gallego would pull 42 percent of the vote, in a three-way race, with election-denying Republican Kari Lake drawing 35 percent, and Sinema just 14 percent. Sinema also lags behind Gallego in terms of fundraising, bringing in just $2.1 million in the first quarter compared to Gallego’s $3.7 million, with just 0.3 percent of her donations were from small dollar donors, per NBC News.

4. From Reuters: Reinvigorated with new funding from the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS was able to provide live support to 87% of customer calls this tax season, up from just 15% last year. The average time on hold decreased from 27 minutes to just four.

5. A new article in the American Prospect covers the insidious new ways corporations are surveilling and targeting low-income consumers enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP. Since the pandemic, the Department of Agriculture has allowed SNAP recipients to order groceries online, but have not erected sufficient data privacy protections. The Center for Digital Democracy, which has monitored the program, finds that the lack of oversight results in this data being exploited by predatory advertisers hawking junk food and even financial products like payday loans.

6. Socialist Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant announced via Twitter that Seattle has passed her bill to cap late rent fees at $10 per month. The national standard late rent fee is between 5 and 10 percent, meaning this could save renters a considerable chunk of change.

7. From Rolling Stone: The film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, adapted from the book of the same name, is causing quite a stir among law enforcement. At least 23 separate federal and sate entities, including the FBI, have sent out at least 35 warnings about the film, which is a work of fiction. The film also holds a 95 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

8. The Leverreports that on Monday, Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi received an award from the American Hospital Association or AHA, for “her incredible efforts in advancing health care.” The Lever alleges that she received this award for “blocking consideration of Medicare for All or any other major reforms to the insurance-based health care system.” The AHA, a top lobbying group for hospitals, raised $129 million in 2021 and represents large hospital chains like CommonSpirit Health, Ascension, and Tenet Healthcare.

9. The Louisville Courier-Journal reports that Myles Cosgrove, the police officer who killed Breonna Taylor by mistake in a no-knock search, has been rehired by the Carroll County Sheriff's Department, about one hour northeast of Louisville. Cosgrove was fired by the Louisville Metro Police Department in January 2021.

10.The Pentagon has requested an additional $36 million to fund research and treatment for “Havana Syndrome,” per the Intercept. Many doubt the very existence of Havana Syndrome, especially since a US Intelligence assessment in March found that the symptoms were “not caused by [an] energy weapon or foreign adversary,” as had long been alleged.

11. According to the Washington Post, The brand-new Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum announced last month that Nancy Yao will serve as its founding director. Yao currently runs the New York City-based Museum of Chinese in America and has been sued multiple times for wrongful termination, retaliation against whistleblowers, and protecting sexual harassers.

12. Greenpeace USA announced that they have won the Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, or SLAPP case, that they’ve been embroiled in. The suit was brought against Greenpeace by a Canadian logging company, who sued for $100 million dollars Canadian, in an attempt to “silence and bankrupt” the organization. Greenpeace added that they are “now able to turn our attention to what lays ahead in this continued fight: We can’t allow corporate polluters to stand in the way of climate justice by manipulating our legal system and our democracy.”

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Protecting Yourself Apr 22, 2023

Ralph welcomes Samuel Levine who heads the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission to give you tips on how to use this government agency to protect yourself from corporate fraud and abuse. Plus, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, Dr. Michael Carome stops by to give us the latest warnings about harmful medical devices and his take on the safety of the mRNA Covid vaccine.

Samuel Levine serves as Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Before assuming this role, he served as an attorney advisor to Commissioner Rohit Chopra and as a staff attorney in the Midwest Regional Office. Prior to joining the FTC, Mr. Levine worked for the Illinois Attorney General, where he prosecuted predatory for-profit colleges and participated in rulemaking and other policy initiatives to promote affordability and accountability in higher education.

We announced what we call a “click to cancel” rule. And this is a rule about subscription plans. What the proposed rule says is that companies – vendors – should make it no more difficult to cancel a subscription than it is to sign up… It’s very easy for consumers to sign up for these services. We want to make it just as easy for consumers to exit these services.

Samuel Levine Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC

Earlier this year, we announced a market study sending subpoenas to major social media platforms to ask them what they’re doing to stop the huge proliferation of fraudulent ads over social media. We’re also doing a study now on the franchise relationship and the potential power asymmetries between franchisee and franchisers. We’re looking at the cloud computing market. We have a whole host of initiatives right now that are not geared around law enforcement but are geared around shining a light on often opaque industries to help shape public policy and eventually shape FTC law enforcement as well.

Samuel Levine, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the FTC

Dr. Michael Carome is an expert on issues of drug and medical device safety, FDA oversight, and healthcare policy. He is the director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group.

In 2002, Congress passed for the first time what’s called the Medical Device User Fee Act… So, the companies now pay the FDA for the review and oversight of their products. Those user fees fundamentally changed the relationship between the FDA, the regulatory agency, and the medical device companies that are regulated by the agency. And that relationship which should be in part an adversarial relationship now is viewed as a partnership by both the agency and the medical device industry. The agency even in some of their documents refers to these companies as “partners,” as “customers.”… Customer satisfaction is key for the FDA and their customers in their eyes - rather than patients and the public - are the companies.

Dr. Michael Carome, Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group

The FDA in our view had a very rigorous process for requiring the testing of those (Covid 19) vaccines… And we ourselves looked independently at the clinical trial data… We quickly concluded that independent of the FDA and any corporations that these vaccines were highly effective and very safe… Since then, there have been hundreds of millions of doses received by hundreds of millions of people across the world and they really have prevented serious complications and probably prevented millions of deaths with some very limited and rare adverse effects.

Dr. Michael Carome, Director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group

Squishing the federal cop on the corporate crime beat is a prime priority for lobbyists in Congress.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard w/ Francesco DeSantis 1. In Arlington, Amazon has halted construction of their much-vaunted second headquarters – or “HQ2” according to the Washington Post. Some may remember the race to the bottom in terms of corporate tax cuts and subsidies that ensued across much of the country in 2017 and ‘18 when Amazon suggested cities and states could compete for this development. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez famously opposed these giveaways to Amazon and was pilloried for that in the mainstream press. Turns out, she was right on the money. Despite the fact that Amazon is postponing the construction of this facility, they are still poised to reap over $150 million in taxpayer subsidies from the state of Virginia.

2. Harvard University has accepted a $300 million donation from hedge fund manager and right wing billionaire donor Ken Griffin, according to the New York Daily News. In exchange, Harvard will rename their Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

3. In Palestine, trade unions have issued an open letter calling for global solidarity. This letter urged global publics to eliminate procurement from companies complicit in Israeli apartheid and the occupation, divest pension funds from State of Israel Bonds, and specifically called on “port workers and their unions to refrain from loading/offloading Israeli ships, as was done in Oakland, California,” noting that many port workers and unions did the same when combating apartheid in South Africa.

4. The American Prospect reports that in Florida, nursing home interests are dumping money into the campaign coffers of Republican state leadership to grease the wheels for a bill which would immunize themselves from lawsuits related to wrongful death in their facilities. As David Dayen tweeted, “Ron DeSantis's War on Woke masks his actual War on Lawsuits.”

5. NorthJersey.com reports that a new law in New Jersey has gone into effect, guaranteeing workers a week of severance for every year of service when large employers issue mass layoffs. This law was enacted following the Toys R Us bankruptcy, wherein longtime workers were only granted severance after a massive public pressure campaign.

6. Dashcam videos obtained by WIRED show how self-driving cars – currently being recklessly tested in San Francisco – are clogging streets, delaying public transportation, and creating dangerous conditions on the roads. “Autonomous cars in San Francisco made 92 unplanned stops between May and December 2022—88 percent of them on streets with transit service, according to city transportation authorities, who collected the data from social media reports, 911 calls, and other sources, because companies aren’t required to report all the breakdowns.”

7. In a novel approach, CODEPINK is using digital tools to crowdfund an ad in a major newspaper. This ad urges President Biden to play peacemaker and “End the War in Ukraine.” Supporters can view and donate to the ad at CODEPINK.org.

8. A recent article in the climate-focused magazine Grist covers the choices facing the Biden administration regarding the Colorado River. The administration has put forward two bleak plans: “One …would dry up Arizona to preserve California's strong water rights; the other would spread cuts among the states and risk litigation from California.”

9. Ben Jacobs reports that, in a speech to the NRA convention, former President Trump appeared to endorse ending home rule in Washington, DC. In typical Trump prose, he said “I think we have to take it over, take over management of our capital." This is a continuation of the assault on DC’s sovereignty which recently came to a head when President Biden chose to join with Republicans to block DC’s revised criminal code.

10. UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union, grew 18% in 2022, per Bloomberg Law. This stunning growth is second only to the Teamsters, which we covered on this segment last week. As the reinvigorated labor movement continues to expand, we might expect to see this kind of growth among other major unions, such as the United Auto Workers.

11. Checking in on out of control police practices, two stories stand out: In New York, Ars Technica reports that the city has begun rolling out “hulking, 400 lb” police robots after being forced to withdraw the project over civil liberties concerns in 2021. Mayor Eric Adams recently slashed budgets for city services like libraries, yet each of these robots will cost around $75,000. In Memphis, the MPD is facing backlash after unveiling a new unit which will “arrest unaccompanied minors that sell food, play loud music, are 'inappropriately dressed' or dancing in the street in Downtown Memphis" per Commercial Appeal. Cardell Orrin, the executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Stand for Children, compared this to the “Pre-Crime Unit from [the movie] 'Minority Report,'” and added that “targeting minors for a subjective concept like ‘inappropriate clothing’ is a coded criminalization of Black culture and Black youth.”

12. A bombshell new report from the Corporate Research Project at Good Jobs First reveals that since the year 2000, large companies in the United States have paid “$96 billion in fines and settlements to resolve allegations of covert price-fixing and related anti-competitive practices in violation of antitrust laws.” The companies that have been forced to pay the most include Visa Inc. – at a whopping $6.2 billion – along with Deutsche Bank, Barclays, MasterCard and Citigroup, though the report makes clear that price fixing occurs in many sectors ranging from automotive parts to power generation to healthcare services. Philip Mattera, who authored the report, is quoted saying “Large corporations which are supposed to be competing with one another are often secretly conspiring to set prices…In doing so, they cause economic harm to consumers and contribute to inflation.”

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Falls Aren’t Funny Apr 15, 2023

In a live Zoom event in conjunction with the American Museum of Tort Law, Ralph welcomes safety expert, Russell Kendzior, who runs the National Floor Safety Institute to discuss where, why, and how slip-and-falls happen, how to prevent them, the legitimacy of slip-and-fall lawsuits, and the role of the Consumer Product Safety Commission for a phenomenon that for older adults every year causes over 36,000 deaths and $50 billion in medical costs.

Russell Kendzior is the President of Traction Experts, Inc. and founder of the National Floor Safety Institute. Mr. Kendzior is internationally recognized as the leading expert in slip and fall accident prevention and has been retained in more than 1,000 slip, trip, and fall lawsuits. He hosts the podcast The Safety Matters Show, and he is the author of several books, including Falls Aren’t Funny: America’s Multi-Billion Dollar Slip-And-Fall Crisis.

This concept of simply testing to an internationally-recognized consensus standard and labeling the product is really what we’re asking the government to do. We’re not demanding any level of performance, but simply tell the consumer.

Russell Kendzior

You can participate in the public review process— the process whereby commissioners are asking members of the public for comments… It’s important that the people of our country have a voice, and that they be represented, and that the safety of these products that are contributing to six million hospital emergency room visits a year need to be better managed.

Russell Kendzior

We should emphasize that all these situations [involving slips, trips, and falls] in the court of law are under tort law… It's good to talk about them as torts, because people often don’t recognize how important tort law is to protect them, to help compensate them, to disclose to the larger audience the hazards for their own protection, and to engage in prevention.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. In a major blow to Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas House of Representatives voted 86-52 in favor of an amendment to bar state funds from being used for private school vouchers, according to KXAN. This was achieved through a coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans in the Lone Star State, per NBC.

2. The Washington Post reports that greater numbers of assisted-living facilities are rejecting Medicaid and evicting seniors from their homes. One particularly harrowing story involves Shirley Holtz, a 91 year old with mobility issues and dementia who was evicted from her hospice care because the facility decided to refuse Medicaid payments.

3. In a statement responding to the ProPublica report on undisclosed gifts received by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin stressed that “Supreme Court Justices must be held to an enforceable code of conduct, just like every other federal judge. The ProPublica report is a call to action, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act.” However, the Judiciary Committee has been hamstrung by Democratic absences, particularly that of California Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has missed nearly 60 votes since February, according to The San Francisco Chronice.

4. Barak Ravid reports that the U.S. has blocked the release of a planned United Nations Security Council statement decrying the Israeli police raid at the al-Aqsa mosque, one of the holiest sites in Islam, during Ramadan.

5. More Perfect Union has issued a statement saying “Months after 440 Planned Parenthood nurses and staff in five Midwest states voted to unionize, management has fired 2 members of the union’s bargaining team and issued ‘final written warnings’ to all 11 other bargaining team members threatening immediate termination.”

6. From Truthout, Rep. Pramila Jayapal has filed an official constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. A constitutional amendment is currently the only means available for reversing this catastrophic decision.

7. In a video obtained by Gothamist, NYPD officers arresting a man wearing a Black Lives Matter sticker on his bike helmet were recorded bragging about “milking” overtime, referred to a female arrestee a "liberal [c word]," and joked about committing the arrestee to a mental hospital. This comes as Mayor Eric Adams announced that NYPD officers who work for five years will now make approximately $50K more per year than teachers with the same amount of time, an overall increase of $5.5 billion to the most expensive police department in the country, according to CBS.

8. Robert Costa of CBS reports that former Rep. Dennis Kucinich is advising Robert F Kennedy Jr. on his presidential run. Costa went on to say that Kucinich could be the campaign manager or a top political adviser, and that Kucinich has urged Kennedy to focus more on the environment than his signature anti-vaccine message.

9. Kansas Public Media KCUR reports that Republicans in that state overrode the Democratic Governor’s veto and authorized genital inspections on minors in order for children to play sports. Somehow, the party advocating for adults to inspect children’s genitals is calling the other party “groomers” with a straight face.

10. From Deadline: Progressive lawmakers are calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the Warner Brothers merger with Discovery. In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and DOJ antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter, the signatories allege that the merger “appears to have enabled” the company to “adopt potentially anticompetitive practices that reduce consumer choice and harm workers in affected labor markets.” They went on to argue that the merger has led to the “hollowing out” of an “iconic American studio,” and cited the cancellation of projects and the removal of content from the HBO Max platform.

11. Dueling court orders have resulted in uncertainty about universal access to the abortion pill Mifepristone. Regarding the order to suspend the drug, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden issued a statement declaring “I believe the Food and Drug Administration has the authority to ignore this ruling.” The Senate Finance Committee oversees the FDA.

12. The Austin American-Statesman reports that, less than 24 hours after Daniel Perry was convicted of murdering Garrett Foster, a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020, Governor Greg Abbott announced that he would pardon the convicted killer as soon as a request "hits my desk." While the killer claimed that he was acting in self defense, he had mused on social media that he might “kill a few people on my way to work.”

13. From Bloomberg Law: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters reported gaining 206,000 members in 2022, an increase of 20% from the previous year. Many credit this growth to the new leadership in the union, which took power in 2022. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien responded to this news by tweeting “Just getting started.”

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War! What is It Good For? Apr 08, 2023

We continue our indictment of the U.S. war machine by welcoming William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to break down the bloated military budget and what we can do about it. Then Cindy Sheehan, joins us to talk about her journey as the mother of a fallen soldier to become the most prominent anti-war activist of the Bush/Cheney era. Plus, Ralph comes down hard on states that deny their citizens Medicaid.

The Pentagon wants to get rid of some of these weapon system programs, and the Congress says “Oh no, we’re going to continue them because… it’s a jobs program. It creates jobs, or it retains jobs that are already in shipyards or elsewhere.” Of course, you can never get these members of Congress to understand that a billion dollars in civilian infrastructure investment in this country creates far more jobs than a highly capital-intensive billion dollars in another unneeded weapons system.

Ralph Nader

I think there’s three pillars…What are the costs of this—the opportunity costs?...What do we need to defend ourselves?...And then I think people need to feel like they can influence the government. I think a lot of people have given up. They forget that citizens’ movements have had tremendous victories in the past, and they can do so again.

William Hartung

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey A. Sheehan, who was killed in action in Iraq on April 4, 2004. She is an anti-war activist, the founder of Gold Star Families, and an organizer of the 2018 Women’s March on the Pentagon. She is the author of Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox Newsletter on Substack.

I think that as long as you stay in the safe zone of only criticizing Republicans if you're a Democrat, or only criticizing Democrats if you're a Republican, then they give you a platform, they let you use your voice on this national stage. But once I recognized that the Democratic Party were, at that point, enablers of the Bush/Cheney war of terror around the world, and I left the party, then I started to be even more marginalized. And I lost so much support.

Cindy Sheehan

What gave me a little bit of hope was the county DA of New York indicting and arresting Donald Trump— for things I think were far less damaging and far less criminal than what the other living presidents like George Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama did. I think that if the DA can prosecute Donald Trump for something less than mass murder or genocide, then maybe my DA in my county I live in can prosecute George Bush for murdering my son.

Cindy Sheehan

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. CNN reports that seven investigators from the Centers for Disease Control fell ill “while studying the possible health impacts” of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. These investigators experienced sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea, the same symptoms many residents have reported. In testimony before the Senate in March, Alan Shaw, CEO of Norfolk Southern, said “I believe that the air is safe. I believe that the water is safe.”

2. A contingent of left-wing youth at the recent protests in Israel burned their IDF enlistment orders. While this exceedingly courageous act garnered much attention on social media, the sad reality is that the overwhelming majority of Israeli youth are in fact more right-wing than older Israelis and far more right-wing than young people in most every other country. A 2021 poll written up by Haaretz, revealed that “nearly half of ultra-Orthodox and national religious Israeli youth expressed hatred toward Arabs and noted support for stripping them of their citizenship, a sentiment shared by 23 percent of secular youth.”

3. A new poll, published in Forbes, shows the impact of Governor Ron DeSantis’ education policies: “91% of prospective college students disagree with the governor’s policies, 1 in 8 graduating high school students won’t attend college in Florida due to the education policy in the state, [and] 1 in 20 current college students in the state plan to transfer because of those policies.”

4. The Huffington Post reports that Amazon spent $14.2 million on anti-union consultants in 2022, up nearly $10 million from 2021. This is clearly in response to the successful unionization vote at the JFK8 facility under the auspices of the independent Amazon Labor Union last year.

5. In a related story, Bloomberg reports that a federal appeals court has ruled that Elon Musk “must delete his 2018 Twitter post suggesting that Tesla...workers could lose stock options if they formed a union, as it violated labor law.” The panel of 5th circuit judges unanimously opined that “Tesla’s history of labor violations supports the NLRB’s finding that employees would understand Musk’s tweet as a threat to commit another violation by rescinding stock options as retaliation,” for union organizing.

6. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is collecting signatures on an official letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling on him to end the Justice Department’s campaign to have Julian Assange extradited to the U.S., according to the Intercept. So far, other signatories include Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Ilhan Omar, and Cori Bush, with Reps. Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal, and AOC expected to sign on before it is sent.

7. A new report in the Intercept details the increasing size of settlements being paid out to victims of police violence in the 2020 protests, including tear gassing and “kettling” – the police tactic of trapping and surrounding protesters, usually to carry out mass arrests. Due to the legal structures in place, local taxpayers, not police departments, will foot the bill for these settlements.

8. In a historic shift, the Vatican has responded to calls by Indigenous activists and repealed the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” which “legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property laws today.” The Vatican acknowledged that this doctrine “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of Indigenous peoples." This was reported by the indigenous-led news service Indian Country Today.

9. From Reuters: The Biden Administration “plans to send Mexico an "act now or else" message in coming weeks in an attempt to break a stalemate” over Mexico’s decision to nationalize energy and other key resources. Under the rules of the neo-NAFTA trade agreement signed in 2020, the U.S. is entitled to international dispute talks, but has not called for them thus far, instead opting to work with the Canadian government to threaten retaliatory measures against Mexico. U.S. Republicans meanwhile are calling for an invasion of our southern neighbor.

10. Bowing to ranching and mining interests, the Intercept reports President Biden is continuing a Trump-era policy of rounding up wild horses in order to clear more land for cattle grazing and extraction. Once the horses have been corralled, the mares will be dosed with contraceptives. Manda Kalimian, president of the wild horse and environmental advocacy group Cana Foundation, is quoted saying “We feel betrayed, because we thought this was an administration that really believed in wildlife protections.”

11. Mark Joseph Stern of Slate reports that Judge Reed O'Connor struck down a “major provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring insurers to cover a vast amount of preventive care cost-free.” These include contraception, cancer screening, the HIV prevention drug PrEP, and much pregnancy-related care. The ruling applies nationwide.

12. Remember the egg shortage? According to CNN, Cal-Maine Foods – the largest egg producer in the nation – reported that their revenue doubled and profits surged to 718% last quarter as consumers struggled to afford the basic food item. Corporate greed, plain and simple.

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How The Financial Markets Abandoned Us Apr 01, 2023

We are joined for the full hour by geopolitical financial expert and financial historian, Nomi Prins, to discuss her new book, “Permanent Distortion: How Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever,” which highlights the huge gap between the high-flying stock market, versus back down here on earth, where average people struggle to make ends meet.

Nomi Prins is an economist, author, geopolitical financial expert and financial historian. She is the author of several books, including Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World, All the Presidents’ Bankers, Other People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America,and It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. Her latest book is Permanent Distortion: How Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever.

The idea of “Permanent Distortion” is that when the financial system needs it, it gets the money. And lot of it. And in an uncapped way. And in an unregulated way. And in a non-transparent way. When the real economy needs it, it’s years of debate.

Nomi Prins

There’s no such thing as, “This bailout didn’t cost taxpayers money.” Because…money that goes into the banking system does not go into the real economy. Which means there is a shortfall in the real economy. Which means that money cannot be reallocated into the real economy. Whether that is to build bridges, or hospitals, or to enhance our education system, or help workers. Because it’s going somewhere else.

Nomi Prins

There are people that will say, “Well, SVB (the failure of Silicon Valley Bank) has nothing to do with Glass-Steagall,” and that’s just simply wrong. Any over-leverage in the banking system that can take down the rest of the banking system— or that can create that sort of lack of confidence, instability, creation of money to save it that doesn’t go into the real economy— is a part of that problem.

Nomi Prins

There’s a huge propaganda machine. And it’s interesting that the destabilization of the real economy comes so frequently from the speculation of the paper economy.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard

1. In Israel, the planned judicial reform law has sparked nothing less than a popular uprising, with Haaretzreporting that as many as half a million protesters have taken to the streets. Prime Minister Netanyahu is wheeling and dealing like mad to cling to power. Barak Ravid reports that Netanyahu sacked the Minister of Defense after he called for suspending the judicial reform push. Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of perhaps the most extreme party in the right-wing coalition government, has threatened to quit the coalition if the judicial overhaul is delayed – but may have been appeased by a promise from Netanyahu to make the National Guard answerable directly to Ben-Gvir, per the Jerusalem Post. Axios reports that Jewish Democrats in Congress met with the Israeli Ambassador and warned him that if the bill is pushed through, it will be harder for them “to talk about Israel the same way they used to.”

2. A new paper published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review – by David Arkush of Public Citizen and Donald Braman of the George Washington University Law School – posits whether fossil fuel companies should be charged with homicide. The authors argue these corporations “have not simply been lying to the public, they have been killing members of the public at an accelerating rate, and prosecutors should bring that crime to the public’s attention.”

3. In the wake of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation that would bar big bank executives from serving on Federal Reserve Boards. Chairman Sanders said “The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of working people and the middle class.”

4. The Huffington Post reports that Rep. Ilhan Omar has introduced a bill to “Condemn Anti-Muslim Hate.” The bill was crafted to honor the 51 Muslims killed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, and it was introduced on the first day of Ramadan. Omar is quoted saying “We...know that this increase in hate is not isolated to only Muslims. Church bombings, synagogue attacks, and racial hate crimes are also on the rise. In order to confront the evils of religious bigotry and hatred, we must come to understand that all our destinies are linked.”

5. An investigation byMorgan Baskin of DCist found that “local developers are buying rent-controlled apartments, clearing out existing tenants, and marketing to housing choice voucher holders” because the DC Housing Authority engages in routine over-payments. In so doing, these developers are “eroding affordable housing.”

6. In Brazil, Democracy Now! reports that the Lula government has successfully removed “almost all illegal gold mining operations…from Yanomami Indigenous territory.” Lula campaigned on the promise to remove these mining operations, which have “displaced people, devastated the land and food resources, and contaminated rivers with mercury.”

7. Ever have a hard time canceling a subscription or recurring fee online? In a video by More Perfect Union, FTC Chair Lina Khan explained how the agency is taking aim at a pervasive corporate manipulation tactic nicknamed “click to subscribe, call to cancel” in which companies make it easy to sign up for a service, but make it very difficult to cancel it. The new rule – called “click to cancel” – would mandate that (1) it must be as easy to cancel a service as it is to sign up for it and (2) consumers must be able to cancel using the same method they used to sign up.

8. From PBS: In Florida, Governor DeSantis is expanding the “Don’t Say Gay” censorship law to high-schools. Supporters of this bill had previously insisted that it was only intended to curtail discussions of sensitive topics for young children. This expansion clearly undermines that argument.

9. In Chicago, the International Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America hosted Cuban Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera at the 35th Ward - 8th District Office for a meeting with local elected officials and faith leaders. They discussed the harmful U.S. embargo and strengthening goodwill between the people of Cuba and the United States. This meeting was attended by Cook County Commissioner Anthony J. Quezada and Aldermen Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, Byron Sigcho Lopez, and Rossana Rodriguez.

10. From the New York Times: At a chocolate factory in Reading, Pennsylvania, a massive explosion has left at least seven dead and more missing. Activists are calling for a thorough and swift investigation into the factory’s owners, the R.M. Palmer Company.

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Spank the Banks Mar 25, 2023

Ralph welcomes economist, attorney, and investigative journalist, James Henry for his expert take on what is going on in the banking system and what we can do to keep it from blowing up. And Professor and former Nader’s Raider, Alison Dundes Renteln, takes on the commercialization of our universities in her book “The Ethical University: Transforming Higher Education.”

James Henry is a leading economist, attorney, consultant, and investigative journalist, who has written and spoken widely on the problems of tax justice and development finance. He is a lecturer and Global Justice Fellow at Yale University.

The first thing we learn from the history of banking crises in the United States is that banks are really the Achilles heel of capitalism. This keeps happening. And we got used to a period when banking crises— we thought— had been taken care of, that we could just assume that someone in the Fed, or in the US Treasury, or regulators at the global level would understand all this stuff and they would reform the system.

James Henry

Alison Dundes Renteln is a Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at the University of Southern California where she teaches Law and Public Policy with an emphasis on international law and human rights. She is co-editor, with Wanda Teays, of The Ethical University: Transforming Higher Education.

We really should be thinking about how to make universities a place for learning, and the production of knowledge, and making the world a better place. And the book is really an attempt to argue for reimagining universities so we return to the mission of universities, which is not to promote future corporate leaders… but to produce people who will contribute in many different ways in society.

Alison Dundes Renteln

It’s really quite remarkable that in an institution that’s supposed to be devoted to democratic deliberation, intellectual life, justice, opportunity broadly defined, that the decisions are made by the administrators and the board of trustees— largely in secret.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard1. For the first time ever, a new Gallup poll shows that Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians than Israelis, by a margin of 48% to 39%. This represents an 11 point shift in attitudes since just last year. Republicans still sympathize far more with Israelis, by a margin of 78 to 11 per cent.

2. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, sent a letter to the Pentagon last week urging them to cease testing pulse radiation on animals in connection with the “Havana Syndrome” hoax. In 2020, PETA criticized the Army for reversing a previous ban on weapons testing on dogs, cats, marine animals and nonhuman primates and last year accused the Army of hiding such weapons tests after the service rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to the experiments, POLITICO reports.

3. The Texas Education Agency has announced a takeover of the Houston school district. The elected school board will be replaced by state-appointed managers, who will wield tremendous power. Houston Public Media reports that “they can control the budget, school closures, collaborations with charter networks, policies around curriculum and library books, as well as hiring or firing the superintendent.”

4. At a recent town hall, Rep. Pramila Jayapal was asked by an activist from Seattle for Assange whether she thought it was time to free Mr. Assange. She responded with a simple “yes” and invited the activist to continue the conversation. Rep. Jayapal chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

5. A wild story in Creative Loafing Tampa covers “How a Florida city targets unwanted residents using police and code enforcement.” The story follows a Jewish woman who moved to Florida from New York. “Last March, the cops broke into her home when she wasn’t there to inspect alleged code violations, using an illegal search warrant. Body camera video...revealed them making jokes about Anne Frank...Her home security camera system showed the police going through her personal belongings and code enforcement personnel looking through her garbage...[she] faced criminal charges for the alleged violations—an uncommon practice in the state.”

6. Common Dreamsreports that last week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met with Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki, who lobbied her and other US officials to oppose construction of a new US base in Okinawa. He also urged the US to ease tensions with China. Okinawa hosts over 70% of US military presence in Japan. Tamaki stressed that toxic PFAs contamination of soil and water from the bases are “worsening and require immediate studies by the US government.” She told the Okinawa Times that her office will review the contents of the meeting and consider what action is necessary. Governor Tamaki also met with Senator Todd Young of Indiana and Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii, as well as aides of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senator Ed Markey, and the Senate Armed Services Committee.

7. Following the abysmal performance of New York Democrats in the 2022 midterms – and their obstinate refusal to implement any reforms – Slate reports that national Democrats are quietly forming a “shadow party” apparatus in the state. The House Majority PAC has already committed $45 million to New York races in 2024. Further, the PAC is building out “an entire electoral operation, hiring its own staffers...to handle opposition research, rapid response, messaging, and more.” Typically, these functions are handled by the state party.

8. From the LA Times:The Los Angeles School District is in the midst of a massive, three-day long strike by bus drivers, custodians, special education assistants, and cafeteria workers – in short, the lowest paid school employees. These workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 99 and are demanding a 30% salary increase, plus $2 more per hour for the lowest paid employees. This would raise the average salary for these workers to an already meager $36,000 per year. Max Arias, executive director of Local 99 called this strike the “workers’ last resort.”

9. From the Guardian: Rather than submit to a subpoena from Bernie Sanders, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz abruptly quit. This ends his third tenure as CEO of the company.

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Iraq War: Twenty Years Later Mar 18, 2023

In a lively and insightful roundtable discussion, Ralph hosts former Marine company commander, Matthew Hoh, who when not deployed also worked in the Pentagon and the State Department and independent and unembedded Iraq war correspondent, Dahr Jamail. They mark the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and discuss the consequences of that misbegotten and illegal war. Plus, we hear a clip from Ralph’s and Patti Smith’s antiwar concert tour conducted in 2005.

Dahr Jamail is the author of Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq, as well as The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption. He is co-editor (with Stan Rushworth) of We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth.

It’s hard to even articulate the level of suffering (in Iraq). And this is the country that exists today, that I got to leave, the military got to leave— at least for the most part. But the Iraqi people can’t leave. And this is what they have to live with today.

Dahr Jamail

Matthew Hoh is a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy. Mr. Hoh took part in the American occupation of Iraq, first with a State Department reconstruction and governance team and then as a Marine Corps company commander. When not deployed, he worked on Afghanistan and Iraq war policy and operations issues at the Pentagon and State Department. In 2009, he resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war.

This consistent line of violence directed against the Iraqi people to achieve American political aims had been established for decades. And I went into it thinking that somehow we were different… “If I go into this war, I can affect the people around me because I am going to be good and I am going to be moral and I am not going to do bad things.” And that’s a complete fallacy. That’s an incredible mistake.

Matthew Hoh

We have to go into this history because it’s going to happen again and again and again. The warmongers are active again on the Ukraine War now. More and more, we’re moving toward a conflict with Russia...Who knows what will happen, because there’s no break on our government. It’s as if it was a dictatorship when it comes to foreign policy.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard1. From Jewish Currents: Last May, amid rising antisemitic attacks by the far-right, Anti-Defamation League president Jonathan Greenblatt announced that the organization would devote more energy to combating anti-Zionism and described Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) as “extremist” and the “photo inverse of the extreme right.” Within the group, staffers dissented to this rhetoric. Greenblatt called a special meeting over Zoom to address this dissent, ending by stating “[if] you...can’t square the fact that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, then maybe this isn’t the place for you.”

2. The Congressional Workers Union continues along its long road. The union reports 100% of staffers for Senator Ed Markey voted to unionize; once recognized, this will be the first ever unionized Senate office. Additionally, while the Republican majority in the House has sought to arrest unionization efforts, a new report from Demand Progress’ Kevin Mulshine (a former counsel at the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights) contends that they can continue their efforts under the Congressional Accountability Act.

5. In Georgia, judges denied bail to 22 of 23 citizens engaged in peaceful protest against the Cop City project. These protesters are charged with “domestic terrorism,” according to NPR. Many prominent civil liberties organizations signed a letter objecting to this decision, including Amnesty International, the National Lawyers Guild, Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch, Palestine Legal, the American Friends Service Committee, and CODEPINK. Additionally, an independent autopsy published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionsuggests that – contrary to the police’s statement at the time – murdered protester Manuel “Tortuguita” Terán was in a cross-legged, seated position with their hands raised when they were shot to death by Georgia police.

6. From The Hill:Following a two-year battle, Gigi Sohn has requested that President Biden withdraw her nomination for the Federal Communications Commission. This follows three confirmation hearings and a nasty media campaign against Ms. Sohn, who confounded “Public Knowledge” alongside Laurie Racine and David Bollier. The opposition to her nomination came primarily from Republicans, but Democrats caving on this nomination is just another in a long pattern. The FCC is now left with a 2-2 partisan deadlock.

8. Editors for Saturday Night Live will strike if they can’t reach a deal on their contract by the end of the month, the LA Times reports. According to the Motion Picture Editors Guild, editors are “paid far below industry standards.”

10. From the Guardian: In Kingston, New York – a post-industrial town where the median per-capita income hovers around $32,000, and nearly one in five residents live below the federal poverty line – rents have skyrocketed up to 30% in the last three years. Now, using emergency rent control measures a board of tenants is seeking an unprecedented citywide rent reduction. Amid fierce resistance from the landlord lobby, this issue is now winding its way through the courts.

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Indigenous Voices on Turtle Island Mar 11, 2023

In a jam-packed program full of abundant insight, Ralph first welcomes back Dahr Jamail to discuss his work “We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth” about what we can learn from indigenous people who have survived incredible disruptions to the climate to their families and to their way of life. Then Karen Friedman from the Pension Rights Center gives us an update on how they are fighting to save our hard-earned money. And finally, Cal Berkeley grad students, Sandra Oseguera and Jesus Gutierrez explain the university’s “inverted priorities” as it spends millions of dollars on football coaches’ salaries and real estate while shutting down campus libraries.

One of the themes of the book is the difference between the Western settler-colonialist mindset of: What are my rights? I have my rights. Versus a more Indigenous perspective that we came across time and again in the book of: We have two primary obligations that we are born into. One is the obligation to serve and be a good steward of the planet. The other obligation is to serve future generations of all species. So, if I focus on my obligations, it’s very very clear that I have plenty of work to do in service to those. If I focus only on my rights, I’m going to be chronically frustrated.

Dahr Jamail, editor of We Are the Middle of Forever: Indigenous Voices from Turtle Island on the Changing Earth

Karen Friedman is the Executive Director of the Pension Rights Center. She develops solutions and implements strategies to protect and promote the rights of consumers, and for more than 20 years has represented their interests in the media and before congressional committees.

Social Security is the strongest system we have. While opponents of Social Security have tried to undermine confidence in its future, the truth is that Social Security is one of the most universal, efficient, secure, and fair sources of retirement income…It’s not going broke, folks. It's a great system. That’s all propaganda, meant to scare the bejesus out of you.

Karen Friedman

Sandra Oseguera and Jesús Gutierrez are graduate students in the Anthropology department at The University of California, Berkeley. Last month, campus administration announced their plan to close the Anthropology Library, one of only three dedicated Anthropology libraries in the US. In response, stakeholders including students and faculty have organized to demand that the Anthropology Library be protected and fully supported by the University.

[Fighting to save the library] has been a wonderful experience of community and collaboration among many stakeholders. However, we the grad students see ourselves as the keepers and also the main users of [the Anthropology Library’s] collection because all of our research really relies on the resources that are there.

Sandra Oseguera

The library is a really valuable space. It’s not only a space for simply going in and accessing a book. It’s also a space of encounter. The kind of thing that the University is trying to destroy is essentially this possibility for having a happenstance run-in with a book that you may not necessarily have intended to type into the catalog system or with a person who you may not otherwise run into.

Jesús Gutierrez

The situation at Berkeley has become grotesquely inverted, in terms of the University. They have millions for football and other sports and paying coaches huge salaries. They have millions for administrative officials. But they want to shut down one of the great Anthropology libraries in the Western World.

Ralph Nader

In Case You Haven’t Heard1. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that six former Phillies players have died of the same brain cancer. All six played between 1971 and 2003. The paper obtained samples of the astroturf used between 1977 and 1981, and found 16 different types of PFAS, otherwise known as “forever chemicals.” Researchers only discovered that PFAs were present in artificial turf in 2019, so it is unknown whether these chemicals are linked to this cancer cluster.

2. Reps. Barbara Lee and Mark Pocan, both outspoken progressives, have introduced the “People Over Pentagon Act” which would cut $100 billion dollars from the defense budget. The Biden administration requested $813.3 billion in Pentagon funding in 2022. This bill would redirect these funds to healthcare, education, combating the climate crisis, and more. Public Citizen is fighting hard to advance this legislation.

3. The Hill reports a bipartisan group of Senators have introduced a bill to lift the embargo on Cuba. This “gang” is primarily made up of Senators representing states with large agricultural sectors, including Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jerry Moran of Kansas, among others. Senator Moran is quoted saying “the unilateral trade embargo on Cuba blocks our own farmers, ranchers and manufacturers from selling into a market only 90 miles from our shoreline, while foreign competitors benefit at our expense.”

4. Breaking news from the Intercept: Today, Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz is bringing to the floor a War Powers resolution requiring US troops to withdraw from Syria within 180 days. The Congressional Progressive Caucus is urging a “yes” vote on the resolution. This comes on the heels of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announcing that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has reached an agreement to move forward with the repeal of the Iraq War Authorization of the Use of Military Force, or AUMF. It remains to be seen whether the Republican-controlled House will reach a similar agreement.

5. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has opened an investigation into Tesla’s Model Y SUV after receiving complaints of steering wheels flying off while the vehicles were being driven. This probe will cover an estimated 120,000 vehicles from the 2023 model year, via AP.

6. From the Intercept: A new, proposed FDA rule would mandate that foods labeled “healthy” contain a major food group – dairy, fruits, or whole grains – and must be under certain limits on saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. In response, General Mills, Kellogg’s, and Post Consumer Brands – which

collectively produce almost all cereal on the market – are bitterly lobbying against this rule.

7. In Israel, a video shows former Knesset speaker Avrum Burg – who has endorsed full equality for Palestinians – being roughed up by IDF soldiers for protesting against what he calls the “pogrom” in Huwarra. Huwarra has become a flash-point in Israeli politics. The New Arab reports Israeli Finance

Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the village to be “wiped out” before retracting that statement under immense pressure.

8. From the Washington Post: Child labor violations are up 69% since 2018. This surge is driven in part by an increase in children working hazardous jobs like meatpacking.

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Failing (Red)States Mar 04, 2023

Ralph welcomes William Kleinknecht, author of “States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America” about how red state governors and legislatures fight culture wars while starving education and health care, empowering polluters, engaging in voter suppression, and neglecting their citizens’ well-being in the interest of cutting taxes for their wealthy donors. Plus, Oliver Hall, founder of the Center for Competitive Democracy tells us all about how ordinary people can use an extremely underused legal forum, Small Claims Court.

William Kleinknecht is a longtime newspaper reporter who covered politics, government, criminal justice, and the environment for the Detroit Free Press, New York Daily News, and Newark Star-Ledger. He is the author of The Man Who Sold the World: Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America and States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America.

I wrote the book because when national news organizations talk about the red states, the focus is always on hot-button issues like abortion, immigration, election subversion, and even Critical Race Theory. And that’s by the design of the Republicans who run those states— that’s what they want people to be talking about because that fires up their base. What has gotten very little attention is just how damaging Republican leadership in those states has been for a longer period of time and across a much broader range of issues.

William Kleinknecht, author of States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America

I found that when I went to where the poorest people were— and the people who were suffering from environmental degradation or poor healthcare— I think they got it. I think it’s a different segment of their population that is the MAGA Republicans. And I didn't spend as much time around them because I was looking for where the damage was.

William Kleinknecht, author of States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America

Oliver Hall is a public interest attorney in Washington, DC. He is founder of and legal counsel to the Center for Competitive Democracy, which aims to strengthen American democracy by increasing electoral competition.

The fact is, in our increasingly corporatized world where transactions are automated, contracts are one-sided (contracts that corporations create with so much fine print you couldn’t possibly read it all, and ostensibly require you to sign away your rights), I think people get intimidated. Or they assume that they don’t have the right to pursue a claim in small claims court. And the fact is they do have that right. It can be done. And there's no reason more people shouldn’t do it, especially given the level and pervasiveness of corporate abuses, just in terms of everyday normal transactions that we all engage in.

Oliver Hall on Small Claims Court

I’ve been listening to Elon Musk speak out against government subsidies of corporations over the months— and talking about himself as a great capitalist entrepreneur— when, in reality, he takes all kinds of corporate welfare… Anytime he opens up a plant or starts a company like Starlink, he demands all kinds of subsidies, handouts, giveaways, grants, and especially a tax referral or tax holidays or tax breaks.

Ralph Nader on his Twitter exchange with Elon Musk

In Case You Haven’t Heard:

1. Former Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who opposed COVID aid, admitted that he retired due to complications from long COVID. He suggested that many other members of Congress are also struggling with long COVID but have kept that fact hidden from the public.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/republican-senator-opposed-covid-aid-retired-due-long-covid-2023-2

2. The Jewish Federations of North America, which represents nearly 150 Jewish federations, penned a letter calling on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to drop the override clause, which would allow the Knesset to override laws deemed unconstitutional by the Israeli Supreme Court. The Federations warn that “such a dramatic change to the Israeli system of governance will have far-reaching consequences in North America.”

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/2023-02-21/ty-article/.premium/major-u-s-jewish-org-calls-for-negotiations-between-netanyahu-and-lapid/00000186-755e-dcba-a19e-f77fc52e00003. In Florida, legislators are considering a “Dealer Bill” which would block consumers from purchasing electric cars directly from manufacturers like Ford and Honda. If passed, consumers would be forced to deal with notoriously usurious car salesmen to purchase these vehicles. The sponsor of this legislation, state rep. Jason Shoaf received $10,000 from Braman Motors – owned by billionaire car magnate Norman Braman – one week after filing the bill.

Source:

4. On February 21st, over 30 members of CodePink occupied the offices of Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. They held a teach-in and ended by delivering demands for negotiations and peace in Ukraine to the armed services committee. CodePink is also one of the core sponsors of the upcoming March 18th antiwar rally in Washington D.C., along with nearly 80 other organizations including Veterans for Peace, Black Alliance for Peace, and US Labor against Racism and War.

Source for the action:

Source for the rally: https://www.codepink.org/piu20iraq

5. According to NPR CEO John Lansing, the network will lay off at least 100 staff – roughly 10% of its current workforce – and eliminate most vacant positions. Lansing blamed ever-declining ad revenues for precipitating this extreme cost-cutting measure.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/22/1158710498/npr-layoffs-2023?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=nprnews&utm_campaign=npr6. A startling report published in Rolling Stone shows there have been at least seven coups in Africa led by US-trained soldiers since 2021. The recent spate of coups has been a marked shift for the continent, which had seen an average of less than one successful coup per year between 2011 and 2021.

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/west-africa-coup-american-trained-soldier-1234657139/7. The EPA has approved several “green biofuels” which are in fact not biological and are instead made from waste plastic. One of these fuels is so carcinogenic even Chevron estimates that one in four people exposed to the fumes will develop cancer. The EPA claims they are too underfunded to properly evaluate these fuels.

Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/chevron-pascagoula-pollution-future-cancer-risk

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Seymour Hersh on Nordstream Feb 25, 2023

Legendary investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, tells us all about the story he broke that describes in great detail how the U.S. blew up the Nordstream pipelines in a covert “act of war” against Russia. Plus, Mickey Huff, of Project Censored joins us to speak to Ralph about the state of the so-called “free press.”

Seymour Hersh is the pre-eminent investigative journalist of our time. He has won five George Polk Awards, two National Magazine Awards, and more than a dozen other prizes for investigative reporting. In 1970, Mr. Hersh won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War. In 2004, Mr. Hersh exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in a series of pieces in The New Yorker. Among his many books are The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, Chain of Command: The Road From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, The Dark Side of Camelot, The Samson Option, The Killing of Osama Bin Laden, and his latest, a memoir of his storied, decades-long career, entitled simply Reporter.

The pipeline industry all know that Russia didn’t [sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline]. Everybody knows they did not do it. There might have been some vagueness about who. But they were pretty sure all along who. Because who else threatened to do it, but the President and his Under Secretary Victoria Nuland? They’re the two that went public with it— much to the dismay of the people actually doing the covert operation.

Seymour Hersh

We always saw the Russians’ great abundance of gas and the Russian delivery of gas to Europe—from Jack Kennedy in 1962— we saw it as weaponizing gas.

Seymour Hersh

It’s a famous notion that the CIA and all those secret groups, they don’t work for the Constitution. They work for the Crown. They work for the President.

Seymour Hersh

Mickey Huff is the director of Project Censored and the founder and host of The Project Censored Show, a weekly syndicated public affairs program. He is professor of social science, history, and journalism at Diablo Valley College. He has authored and edited several books including United States of Distraction: Media Manipulation in Post-Truth America (and what we can do about it), Let’s Agree to Disagree, The Media and Me: A Guide to Critical Media Literacy for Young People, and Project Censored’s State of the Free Press 2023: The News That Didn’t Make the News—And Why.

[The Norfolk Southern crash] is a bipartisan disaster. It’s a direct example of what happens with regulatory capture. And it shows, once again, the gross failure of the corporate media— they’ll cover balloons, and the Super Bowl, and a bunch of other distractions, instead of things that really matter to working class Americans.

Mickey Huff, co-editor of State of the Free Press 2023: The News That Didn’t Make the News—And Why

You’re not allowed to ask the tough questions, Ralph. And anybody who’s been in the press pool long enough knows that. They don’t have to be told that. The censorship doesn’t have to be directly from the government, or even from the corporate owners. Reporters know that if they ask questions that don’t get answered too often, and get overlooked, they’re going to get yanked. They’re going to get called back to the office. They might end up losing their jobs because they don’t have copy and they don’t have stories.

Mickey Huff, co-editor of State of the Free Press 2023: The News That Didn’t Make the News—And Why

Encourage members of the press not to forget [the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq on March 19th]. That was a massive war crime— over a million innocent Iraqis died, the country destroyed, falling apart to this day— and Bush and Cheney are luxuriating in the US without any accountability whatsoever. There’s a lot of talk now on the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But very little talk about the US and its sociocide destruction of the Iraqi people. And I think that illustrates how important it is to ask questions on subjects that have been taboo or censored.

Ralph Nader

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George W. Bush & His Torturers Feb 18, 2023

Ralph welcomes old friend, Judge Andrew Napolitano, to talk about why the U.S. government offered a plea deal to the supposed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others. He asks, “Why would the government agree to such a plea for the persons it claims are the monsters who murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11?... What does the government fear?” Plus, Ralph gives us his take on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. And then on a lighter note, we talk about the Super Bowl.

Judge Andrew Napolitano is a former Superior Court Judge, a syndicated columnist, and host of the Judging Freedom podcast. Judge Napolitano has taught constitutional law and jurisprudence at Delaware Law School and Seton Hall Law School, and he was Fox News’ Senior Judicial Analyst from 1997 to 2021. He is the author of several books on the U.S. Constitution, the most recent entitled Freedom’s Anchor: An Introduction to Natural Law Jurisprudence in American Constitutional History.

“I would try (Bush & Cheney) for war crimes for which there is no statute of limitations… the war crimes are well-known. The war crimes are leading us into war under false pretenses; intentionally targeting civilians in the Middle East; authorizing torture and purporting to protect it against state law if done in the U.S. and international law. These are all well-known war crimes for which the penalty is life in prison. They can also be execution… There is still an E.U.-wide arrest warrant live out there issued by Spanish authorities for the arrest of George W. Bush, because of the war crimes I have just summarized.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano

“George W. Bush, arguably the worst president in the post-World War II era for bringing us into two totally useless and very costly wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – which cost us in excess of two trillion dollars, which had over 850 thousand people killed – only five thousand were Americans – which destroyed the moral order in that part of the world for a full generation also instituted a regime of torture. I believe, Ralph, as do many of us who follow this – we haven’t seen it in writing – that Bush somehow pardoned or granted immunity to the torturers, because the torture was so vast and so extensive, and no one has been prosecuted for it. Obama and Holder who said loudly that they were against torture had every opportunity to do it. And they knew the names of the torturers, but it just didn’t happen.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano

“I do believe that Rupert Murdoch called up Donald Trump and said to him, to Murdoch’s credit - to his face, although it was on the phone – ‘you are just not institutionally, constitutionally, or temperamentally, or intellectually qualified to be the president of the United States and we will not support you.’”

Judge Andrew Napolitano

This is super Sparta on steroids—the aggressiveness, the lack of diplomacy, the lack of waging peace by the US government. It’s like they’ve mothballed the charter of the State Department, which was diplomacy. They’ve turned it into a bellicose agency, sometimes much worse than the spokespeople for the Defense Department.

Ralph Nader

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What’s Killing Our Health? Feb 11, 2023

Ralph welcomes Dr. Nason Maani, co-editor of “The Commercial Determinants of Health,” to explore the larger forces, forces beyond the power of an individual to control, that shape our environment and therefore our health. Then Chris Hedges stops by to discuss his latest article, “Woke Imperialism” which highlights the tension between class politics and identity politics. Plus, Ralph gives us a short take on President Biden’s State of the Union address.

Dr. Nason Maani is a lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh. He is also the host of Money Power Health, a podcast on how our health is influenced by commercial forces, wealth, and power. He is co-editor of the new book The Commercial Determinants of Health.

These are forces that science should bear witness to. The same way we bear witness to physical forces like gravity, we should be able to bear witness to commercial forces and describe the ways in which they influence the world.

Dr. Nason Maani, co-editor of The Commercial Determinants of Health

These people are selected to essentially provide an appealing face to a system that carries out tremendous cruelty and imparts tremendous suffering on the very people these women or people of color claim to represent. So, they’re not actually serving their communities. They’re serving the system.

Chris Hedges on "Woke Imperialism"

I have a little suggestion for listeners: next time you meet someone, instead of saying, “How are you?” why don’t you ask, “How’s your civic life?”

Ralph Nader

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Workplace Surveillance Feb 04, 2023

Ralph welcomes professor Karen Levy, who talks to us about how regulations aimed at making trucking safer have been turned into a tool of corporate surveillance as chronicled in her book “Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance.” And on the opposite side of the tech spectrum, high school senior, Logan Lane joins to tell us how she and her friends have liberated themselves from their iPhones and social media by forming a group they call “The Luddite Club.”

Karen Levy is an associate professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, associate member of the faculty at Cornell Law School, and field faculty in Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, Media Studies, and Data Science. Her new book is Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance.

I think we’re actually all aligned in our interests. Truckers don’t want to die on the road any more than the rest of us do. So, if safety is really the motivation for the electronic logging device, it feels as though we might all be able to get behind legislation and regulation that helps address the root causes of this fatigue.

Karen Levy, author of Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance

Logan Lane is a high school senior in Brooklyn and the founder of the Luddite Club.

It felt like when I became a Luddite, I started off on this reading journey. We’re all on our individual reading journeys. I saw mine starting with Anaïs Nin’s Collages, and it was amazing, and it was something I didn’t think I could have interacted with so much and been so passionate about if I had been on the phone. And from then onwards I started doing this reading challenge. Every year I would set a goal— so my first year I read 50 books, the second year 95 books… It felt like the friends I’d lost on social media; I’d picked up those friends in the authors I was reading.

Logan Lane

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Confronting Climate Denial Jan 28, 2023

Ralph welcomes James Damico and Mark Baildon, authors of “How to Confront Denial: Literacy, Social Studies, and Climate Change.” They discuss all forms of denial including climate science denial and climate action denial. Then, Ralph, Steve, David, and Hannah discuss three topics in the news, mass shootings, the war in Ukraine, and the outrage of pharmaceutical companies raising the prices of taxpayer funded Covid vaccines.

James Damico is a professor of literacy, culture, and language education at Indiana University Bloomington and a former elementary and middle school teacher from New Jersey. He is co-author of How to Confront Climate Denial: Literacy, Social Studies, and Climate Change.

There tends to be a lot of emphasis on “personal responsibility” for climate change. And I think we need a lot more nuance about how we talk about personal responsibility, but we want to start with an industry lens. Because that’s the kind of inquiry we think will be most productive in social studies and university classrooms.

James Damico

Mark Baildon is an associate professor in foundations of education at the United Arab Emirates University and a former middle and high school social studies teacher in schools around the world (United States, Israel, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan). He is co-author of How to Confront Climate Denial: Literacy, Social Studies, and Climate Change.

Social Studies is a pretty crowded field. But if we use climate as a connecting point, it’s an opportunity to talk about environmental racism, to look at the most vulnerable populations in societies and how they’re being affected by climate change.

Mark Baildon

We should never forget that many of these industries would never be in existence— much less the size they are— without government research and development funds. And that means your taxpayer money. And the industries include the aerospace industry, the biotech industry, the computer industry, the nanotech industry, the containerization industry. You name it, one industry after another was given a huge birth give by the taxpayer from Washington, D.C.

Ralph Nader

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Eyewitness to January 6th Jan 21, 2023

January 6th has become one of those days like September 11th where you need to say no more than the date for people to know what you’re talking about. Ralph welcomes New York Times congressional reporter, Luke Broadwater, who was in the Senate chamber when the rioters breached the building and has not only been covering the January 6th hearings but wrote the introduction to the NY Times version of the final report.

Luke Broadwater is a congressional reporter in the Washington bureau of the New York Times. He played a key role in the paper's coverage of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, for which the Times was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist. His work is featured in the Twelve Books edition of The January 6 Report: Findings from the Select Committee to Investigate the Attack on the U.S. Capitol with Reporting, Analysis and Visuals by The New York Times.

Congress is a place that, for better or worse, prides itself as its own island of niceties. You’re not supposed to criticize another member by name on the floor, and you're supposed to pretend that you’re all colleagues and there’s a level of respect between people. And it was seen on the Hill as very aggressive that they even issued a subpoena.

Luke Broadwater

In the Watergate situation, we had the star witnesses who appeared in person… That was vivid. The American people were riveted. There were no star witnesses who were shown in the January 6th hearings. These were all second- or third-tier people. Even someone like Pat Cipollone was interviewed in private, not in public. And that’s why I think the impact was so much less than in Watergate— you’re never going to get a public to oppose a president based upon paper documents, and not flesh-and-blood where the public can make their own evaluation of credibility.

Bruce Fein

The civic community that used to get a lot of media in the ‘60s and ‘70s and connected with members of Congress and changed the consumer, worker, and environmental framework of legislation in those golden years is no more. And civic community’s shut out like beyond my wildest nightmares.

Ralph Nader

The letter from a listener concerning Apple’s privacy policy that Ralph referred to in the program as a sterling example of constructive correction… of him:

Hello RNRH Team,

I am a loyal listener, active Congress Club member and grateful for the important work you do.

Thank you for all that your team invests in creating your show and, Ralph, for your decades of service and tireless efforts to hold our elected officials accountable so that our government will actually serve the People.

Your work is important, and I am grateful for all you do.

I do my best to keep an open mind when listening and very rarely question any of the perspectives that you and your team share during your show.

Nevertheless, I believe that fairness and accuracy is critical for trusted sources of information like your show.

In the recent Big Tech Spying episode of your Podcast you make this statement:

“That's what Apple and Google are deliberately doing; they’re making it difficult…"

I believe that Google and Apple approach this issue quite differently, but this was not communicated in the episode - instead, the companies were lumped together as though their work in this space is the same or very similar, which I believe was not accurate and, therefore, concerning.

Disclosure: I’ve worked at Apple for 15 years - mostly in our Retail locations though I’ve supported Recruiting for the past 5 years - and I’ve done my best to mitigate my biases as I listened and now drafted this message.

I am not an executive earning ridiculous salary and stock options, so this is not an effort to protect the status quo because I’m living high on the hog.

My wife and I have lived in the same 2 room Studio apartment in San Francisco because it’s rent-controlled and enables us to save so we might purchase a home and move into the next phase of our lives.

Nothing I share here represents Apple in any way, and no-one at Apple knows or would approve of my sending this message since I’m not part of the PR team.

* I’ve anonymized my email address and signature as I could experience repercussions should any details of this message become known to Apple.

I am an individual with opinions and not a spokesperson for the company, and I am also a worker who has contributed much of my salary to participate in Apple’s Employee Stock Purchase Program so that my wife and I might one day purchase a home and find the quality of life we strive for.

I often work 50 - 60 hour weeks and have done so for more than a decade, and I hope that this hard work will provide us financial security.

So, admittedly, my own self-interest influences my perspective and why I am sending this message.

People (myself included) trust what they hear on your show, and the impact on sentiment may affect their choices as consumers - and that ultimately impacts our long-term financial planning along with tens of thousands of other Apple employees who work hard, save all they can and try to plan for their futures.

Apple is not perfect.

I acknowledge that Apple’s business model depends heavily on the % they collect from all Developers and in-App purchases and that stock buy-backs have artificially inflated share prices since Tim Cook assumed the role of CEO after Steve Jobs’ passing.

The dominance of the “Freemium” model in Apps is problematic as many people spend more money than they should for in-App purchases; heck, I’ve been guilty of that myself and know how dangerous this can be.

Though this is not unique to Apple, it troubles me, and I hope that greater regulation is introduced to further protect users who are unable to resist the urge to buy virtual items or otherwise spend beyond their means.

In spite of these imperfections, I do believe that Apple’s commitment to user privacy and safety is vastly superior to Google and other product and software developers, but this was not clear in this particular show.

Apple has introduced many important features and enhancements that are easy to use and truly empower people using their products to control their data and protect their privacy.

2020 iOS 14

With the introduction of iOS 14, Apple actively equipped users of their products with the most powerful tools ever released enabling people to protect their privacy and data.

* Safety Check enabled customers to immediately stop any Apps or individuals from accessing data from Apps in Apple products.

* Apple introduced Privacy “nutrition labels” in the App Store to increase transparency and report how developers use data to provide greater customer control.

* App Tracking Transparency (iOS 14.5) introduced a feature in which Apps are required to ask users’ permission to track their activity, and iOS users receive App Privacy reports showing what Apps requested information and if/ when/ how that information was used.

* Finally (for 2020) Apple enabled users to control any Ad Targeting on their Apple devices.

All of these enhancements enraged notable and rather despicable characters like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which is alone quite satisfying.

2021 iOS 15

Apple further refined privacy features in 2021 with the release of iOS 15

* Users were now empowered to hide mail activity as well as their email address as the OS enabled them to use a randomly generated email address when creating site profiles.

* Instead of pinpoint accuracy for location services, iOS enabled people to share “approximate location” so that they can still benefit from location features without disclosing their precise location.

* Users were now able to deny access to their local network for Apps and also to detect Camera and/ or Microphone access requests from Apps.

* Safari was further refined with warnings about problematic passwords (used multiple times and/ or easily guessable passwords) and also provides a privacy report.

2022 iOS 16

In 2022 Apple continued refining their commitment to protect user privacy.

* A simplified and enhanced interface to Manage Sharing enables people to not only view what information they are sharing with others but also to see in great detail what data Apps have accessed and easy tools to adjust those access levels.

* Several companies are working on “passkeys” to eliminate the risk of passwords, and Apple will undoubtedly release the most effective version of this - though not always the first to release a new product or feature, developers at Apple get it right and optimize these features.

* Finally, Lockdown Mode, is the most extreme protection measure I’ve ever seen in tech, and this is specifically intended for activists, journalists and others concerned about spying or malicious parties trying to access their information.

I hope you find some value in this feedback and the details I’ve provided.

I continue to listen to your show and take the actions you recommend to influence our elected officials and push them to actually work for their constituents and improve conditions for underserved and marginalized Americans.

Devoted supporter and fan from San Francisco.

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The Institutional Insanity (of) “Defense” Jan 14, 2023

Ralph welcomes back retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to talk about American military policy, including the record $816.7 billion Pentagon budget, the war in Ukraine, the insanity of nuclear weapons, potential conflict with China and what the right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives really wants when they say they want to cut military spending. Plus, Ralph reads and responds to your questions and feedback from previous programs.

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. During the course of his military service, Colonel Wilkerson was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Bronze Star among other awards and decorations. At the Department of State, he earned the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award, as well as two Superior Honor Awards.

My position on Ukraine now is: Shut up and start talking. To both sides. I’m convinced, from my contacts in Moscow, that the Russians would do that. If we even seemed to be serious. We’re the impediment.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

Let’s just take a scenario: let’s put ourselves down on the ground in Ukraine. Let’s say we put our army (which is smaller than the army of Bangladesh) on the ground in Ukraine, with the purpose of fighting the Russians. We would have 10,000 casualties a day for the first 30 days… The American people have never had these kinds of casualties. NEVER. Never. Not in any of their lives have they had these kinds of casualties. And they’re going to have them. That’s what it’s all about.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

One person, an otherwise very gifted diplomat, said to me the other day, “We don’t know how to do diplomacy anymore. We don't do diplomacy anymore. Because our diplomacy has been replaced by bombs, bullets, and bayonets.” He’s right. He’s absolutely right. That’s what we’ve done. That’s the kind of insanity I’m talking about. You have no diplomacy.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

We do not have a democracy. We have a deep-state oligarchical corporatocracy. And the American people are on the outside. And the American people— intuitively and, in some cases, intellectually— understand that and go about their business and do what they have to do… but they don’t participate in the government.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerso

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Corporate Personhood Jan 07, 2023

Ralph explains it all for you, the history and the consequences of the legal fiction that is corporate personhood. Then his associate, Francesco DeSantis, from the Center of Study of Responsive law updates us on progress being made to institute a corporate crime data base along the lines of the street crime database in order to track repeat corporate criminal offenders.

Francesco DeSantis is a public interest advocate and Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Study of Responsive Law. He has coordinated with the offices of Representative Mary Gay Scanlon and Senator Dick Durbin to get the Corporate Crime Database issue back on the Congressional agenda, and he’s advocated for it among members of Congress and consumer, labor, and environmental groups.

Once unleashed, [a corporation] doesn’t conform to normal human accountabilities. It doesn’t have the same level of shame or guilt. It can make a lot of mistakes and hurt a lot of people and still be credible.

Ralph Nader

It’s important for all of our listeners to know that corporations are not created by investors. They are created by state authority.

Ralph Nader

Limited liability was the yeast that unfurled the future elaborations of corporate power.

Ralph Nader

The Justice Department has every statutory authority to [create a corporate crime database] on their own. It completely, 100% falls within their purview to monitor crime, to attempt to arrest criminals, to prevent recidivism… So, we are very hopeful that the Justice Department will see the light on this issue.

Francesco DeSantis

If you think about the kind of crimes that corporations engage in, they would be completely beyond the pale for any individual.

Francesco DeSantis

If the American people—journalists, academics, prosecutors, and so on— were able to see that “X Corporation” committed a crime, committed it again, committed it a third time, and each time got basically no serious penalty, I think that that would go a long way towards the political movement to demand more from the corporate criminal enforcement division of the Department of Justice.

Francesco DeSantis

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What M4A Saves You! Dec 31, 2022

It is well documented how much more cost effective a Medicare for All system would be in the aggregate.But do you want to know how much money per year a Medicare for All system would personally save you? Listen to Dr. James Kahn, explain the calculator he developed to help you figure that out. Plus, we invite Dr. Fred Hyde and healthcare consultant, Kip Sullivan, back to answer the feedback you sent us on the topic of Medicare (dis)Advantage.

Dr. James Kahn is an expert in policy modeling in health care, cost-effectiveness analysis, and evidence-based medicine. He is an Emeritus Professor of Health Policy, Epidemiology, and Global Health at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also past president of the California chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. He recently launched the Medicare for All Savings Calculator, which compares what individuals or families currently spend to what they would pay under Improved Medicare for All.

If you compare 70% of our healthcare spending to total healthcare spending in any other wealthy country around the world, we’re already spending more in public money than any other country spends in total. I like to say we’re already paying for universal healthcare, we’re just not getting it.

Dr. James Kahn

Why the American people do not wake up and demand that their members of Congress come to their town meetings back home— run by the people, where they talk all about this health care shenanigans— and send their Senators and Representatives back to Washington with instructions to support the kinds of single-payer that was illustrated in H.R.676 two years ago…HR676 is the gold standard, and it should be reintroduced in the next Congress so that people can rally around it.

Ralph Nader

Dr. Fred Hyde is a consultant to hospitals, medical schools and physicians, as well as to unions, community groups and others interested in the health of hospitals, health care facilities and organizations. Dr. Hyde is also the publisher of a daily health policy newsletter called DCMedical News.

A problem aside from the extraordinary cost of our medical care system is its complexity. I’m not surprised that your listeners have questions. I have questions, and I’ve been in the field fifty years. I teach graduate students in hospital operations and healthcare finance, and, trust me, everyone has questions when it comes to their own coverage… Complexity is itself an issue. And we live in a society where there are a good deal of middlemen who undertake to smooth over the complexity of our society, and make a buck doing so.

Dr. Fred Hyde

Kip Sullivan is a Health Care Advisor with Health Care for All Minnesota, and has written several hundred articles on health policy. He is an active member of Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for universal, comprehensive single-payer national health insurance.

It is impossible to give you a dollars and cents comparison of the costs of Medicare Advantage with either Medicare alone or Medicare with supplemental coverage. And the reason it’s impossible is: you don’t know what you bought from Medicare Advantage until you need it.

Kip Sullivan

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Fighting Online Marketing to Children Dec 24, 2022

In a live Zoom event in conjunction with the American Museum of Tort Law, we welcome back Claire Nader, author of “You Are Your Own Best Teacher” and Susan Linn, author of “Who’s Raising the Kids?” for a lively panel discussion moderated by child advocacy legal expert, Robert Fellmeth, on the ongoing corporatization of childhood. We also hear from audience members but not just old people talking about “kids today.” A thoughtful seventh grader gives us a young person’s perspective.

We have one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in the history of the world, which basically equates corporations with individuals. It equates corporate entities with private citizens. And they’re not the same thing…You cannot have the Citizens United-type case that equates the two and still have a democracy.

Robert Fellmeth

Dr. Susan Linn is an author, psychologist, and award-winning ventriloquist. She was the Founding Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (now known as Fairplay), and she is a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children. Her latest book isWho’s Raising The Kids? Big Tech, Big Business and the Lives of Children.

I think what people don’t understand is that these beloved characters are used to sell things to kids. And that there is really almost no place in media—including public media, today— where children can go, where someone is not trying to sell them something.

Dr. Susan Linn, author of Who’s Raising The Kids? Big Tech, Big Business and the Lives of Children

Claire Nader is a political scientist and author recognized for her work on the impact of science on society. She is an advocate for numerous causes at the local, national and international level. As the first social scientist working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, she joined pioneering initiatives in energy conservation and the multifaceted connections between science, technology and public policy. Her latest book is You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens.

[How children suffer due to corporate predators] scares me to death, as a matter of fact. I want to run away from the lives of children under these conditions. But I can run to a different atmosphere for children—if you will— and that’s what I try to put in my book.

Claire Nader, author of You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens

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Big Tech Spying Dec 17, 2022

Ralph welcomes the Washington Post’s technology columnist, Geoffrey Fowler, to explain all the ways your smart devices are gathering information about you, your garage door, your soap dispenser, your vacuum cleaner and even your toilet.

Geoffrey Fowler is The Washington Post’s technology columnist. Before joining the Post he spent sixteen years with the Wall Street Journal writing about consumer technology, Silicon Valley, national affairs and China.

I’m actually really excited by technology. I love it… What angers me is that we’ve allowed a couple of really big corporations—Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook— to give us (as consumers, as users of this stuff) a false choice. And the false choice is, “You can either live in a world where you have all these great conveniences, you can use this new technology… But if you want that, you have to give us all of this data. You have to allow us to surveille you. You have to allow us to watch everything your kids do so we can market to them.” And the false choice here is: if you don’t want that, you can’t have the future. You just have to go live under a rock.

Geoffrey Fowler

We looked at the 1000 most popular iPhone apps that are likely to be used by children, and found that 2/3rds of them were collecting data about children— personal information, including their location— and sending it off to the advertising industry… By the time a child reaches 13, online advertising companies hold an average of 72 million data points about them. Each kid.

Geoffrey Fowler

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Sports Betting/Trouble in Toyland Dec 10, 2022

Ralph welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times investigative reporter, Eric Lipton, to give us the over/under on how professional sports in the U.S. is now part of a multibillion-dollar corporate gambling enterprise that can now even reach children. And before you buy toys for your loved ones this holiday season you need to hear our interview with Teresa Murray, director of U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Watchdog office, discussing their latest report on dangerous toys, entitled “Trouble in Toyland.”

Eric Lipton is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and an investigative reporter for the New York Times. He traveled to Topeka, Kansas to report on lobbying and sports-betting legislation for the New York Times’ new series that examines how the sports-gambling industry has expanded in the US.

The end goal for the sports betting industry is not sports betting. It’s actually something they call “iGaming”... They’re pushing states that have already adopted sports betting to move on now to iGaming. And we’ll see how successful they are, but already we have witnessed—just since 2018— the largest expansion of legalized gambling in United States history.

Eric Lipton

Yeah, it’s true that many people bet on the side— college basketball or Super Bowl betting— that’s been around for so long. But with the institutionalization and the legalization now it’s become such a part of the enterprise of sports. It has fundamentally transformed the relationship we have with such an important part of our culture.

Eric Lipton

A major-league ballplayer is not going to strike out in a key game in order to collect some hidden gambling bets from their family or friends. But it’s terrible for appearances, and it’s fertile for suspicions— where you’re sitting there, watching, and you know that there are all kinds of endorsements and entanglements, and you say “Ah, he couldn’t have bungled that play! That was deliberate.” And so, there’s a stench that begins arising by people who suspect that this greed does penetrate the games.

Ralph Nader

Teresa Murray is a Consumer Watchdog with the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and she directs US PIRG's Consumer Watchdog office, which looks out for consumers' health, safety and financial security. She is the primary author of “Trouble In Toyland 2022”, the Consumer Watchdog’s annual toy safety report.

We have an increasing number of smart toys. Which, on some levels, can be good— maybe it keeps the kid’s interest, maybe there’s an educational value… The problems are when these toys are invading our children’s privacy, collecting information about them, maybe without the parents’ knowledge. And then in some cases the information can be used to market to the child, which is wrong. Or spy on the child, which is creepy. Or in some cases perhaps even stalk the child.

Teresa Murray

Families should realize and remember that just because a toy is for sale, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily safe. It could be a recalled toy. It could be a counterfeit toy. Or it could be a toy that’s just not appropriate for your child.

Teresa Murray

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Mike Pertschuk Tribute/Inspiring Tweens Dec 03, 2022

Ralph invites longtime colleague, Joan Claybrook, to the program to help him pay tribute to the work of the legendary, Michael Pertschuk, an individual responsible for an enormous amount of landmark, lifesaving consumer legislation. Then Steve and David interview Claire Nader about her book “You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens.” Plus, Ralph once again warns against falling for Medicare (Dis)Advantage.

Joan Claybrook is one of the public interest champions of the modern consumer movement. She is president emeritus of Public Citizen. During the Carter Administration, Ms. Claybrook headed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Ms. Claybrook has testified frequently before congressional committees on many public interest issues, but with a particular focus on auto and highway safety.

There is not anyone in this country who has not benefitted from what [Michael Pertschuk] did.

Ralph Nader

[Michael Pertschuk’s] strategies were brilliant because he figured out how to get people to work with him, as opposed to against him… And he did that beautifully. He was a charming guy. Very sweet, very smart, and he didn’t act like a “tough insider,” but he worked with people.

Joan Claybrook

I think that every staffer and every member of Congress ought to read [When the Senate Worked for Us: The Invisible Role of Staffers in Countering Corporate Lobbies], because it shows how you can achieve a legislative goal and get things to the finish line, as opposed to just having hearings, or introducing bills, or voting on someone else's bill.

Joan Claybrook

[Tweens] will tell you what’s on their mind, and you can’t help but notice that they have no ax to grind. And you’re asking yourself, as an adult “What is my ax?” And what’s the difference if you don’t have an ax to grind? Then you really focus on the problem, not any self-interest.

Claire Nader, author of You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens

AARP comes across in its own promotion as a great consumer advocate for elderly people. But it was commercialized years ago. It’s a nonprofit, and in 2021 it made over $800 million in profits by working with the UnitedHealthcare corporation, selling royalties off the use of its name and trademarks, etc, and it pays its CEO $1.3 million a year.

Ralph Nader

All this is to warn listeners if you know elderly people that are being swarmed over with these deceptive brochures – tens of millions of people have been receiving them for several weeks – tell them not to go into Medicare Advantage. It’s a snare and a delusion. And it’s a cruel surprise when you’re really sick, and you need to get those bills paid.

Ralph Nader

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Ukraine: Senseless Conflict Nov 27, 2022

On this week of Thanksgiving, Ralph welcomes two distinguished anti-war activists and Nobel Peace Prize nominees, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODE Pink to discuss her book “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict” and David Swanson of World Beyond War to not only put the conflict in Ukraine in context but also to reveal the financial incentives that drive endless war.

I remember everybody was talking about the peace dividend: “Hey, the Soviet Union collapsed. Now, we can shrink the military budget. We can disarm more. We can put the money back into communities. We can rebuild and restore America’s public works— our so-called infrastructure.” We didn’t count on the profit motive of the determined, deliberate, limitless greed and power of the military industrial complex.

Ralph Nader

We have a history of the US making coups in countries around the world. And it’s oftentimes decades after those coups that we find out the information about the extent of US involvement. That will be the case in [Ukraine] as well.

Medea Benjamin

We are looking sector by sector about how to mobilize and put pressure on our Congress and directly on the White House. Because I think that it’s the only way that we, in this country, can use our influence. And we must do it.

Medea Benjamin

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, radio host and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. His books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War.

When you see these videos contrasting “all the money going to Ukraine” and the homelessness problem and the poverty problem in the United States, we shouldn’t imagine this money as benefiting the people of Ukraine at the expense of benefiting the people of the United States. It’s exacerbating and prolonging a war that is devastating the people of Ukraine.

David Swanson

They’ve made war something that involves no US lives— or very, very few, and not officially a US war—and they’ve made it all about assisting a “struggling little democracy” against a “brutal authoritarian dictatorship”. And it has been the most phenomenal propaganda success I can recall or have read about in history.

David Swanson

NATO expansion only happened because the Senate ratified the inclusion of all of these new countries in amending the NATO treaty. So, Congress is a partner with the President in flouting the pledges to Gorbachev (at the time) against further NATO expansion east after the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Just another example of congressional dereliction.

Bruce Fein

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Populism! The Good Kind. Nov 19, 2022

Ralph welcomes back old friend and America’s Number One Populist, Jim Hightower to hash out a whole range of topics including what happened with Beto O’Rourke in the recent governor’s race in Texas, the battle between corporate Dems vs. progressive Dems and much, much more. Plus, Ralph warns again about falling for the relentless corporate pitch for Medicare (Dis)Advantage and gives us an update on the ongoing Boeing Max 8 litigation.

Jim Hightower is a syndicated columnist, national radio commentator, and America’s Number One populist. He has written many books includingSwim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow. Mr. Hightower is a board member of Public Citizen. He is also a founding member of Our Revolution, an organization inspired by the issues brought up in the Bernie Sanders campaign. Along with that, he writes a monthly newsletter called the Hightower Lowdown.

Shakespeare said “First, kill all the lawyers,” but I think first, kill all the consultants.

Jim Hightower

[To see what’s gone wrong], you’ve got to go back… to when the Democratic Party didn’t just abandon Texas, they abandoned grassroots politics. They went with the money.

Jim Hightower

If you don’t show up, you’re not gonna win. And we’re not going to win just by going to cities and the inner suburbs. Yes, we have to be strongly active there. Yes, we have to be totally committed to women’s right to control their own bodies. All of that is a given. But you’ve got to have something in addition to that.

Jim Hightower

Republican attorneys general, Republican congressional leaders when they’re in charge, they use power. And they use it to change the structure of the system… And we tend to fumble around with it and say we’ve got to be cautious, we don’t want to offend anybody, and we need to pursue the law carefully. That’s why we have to have grassroots movements that build power at a local level.

Jim Hightower

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Midterm Postmortem Nov 12, 2022

Ralph invites political psychologist Dr. Drew Westen back to the program to give his analysis of what happened in the midterm elections. What the Dems did right and what they still do wrong. And we also welcome back labor journalist, Steve Early, co-author of “Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs.”

Dr. Drew Westen is a clinical, personality, and political psychologist and neuroscientist, and Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University. Dr. Westen is the author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation and is the founder of Westen Strategies, a strategic messaging consulting firm. He has advised a range of candidates and organizations, from presidential and congressional campaigns to major progressive organizations to the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses.

Normally, within the first couple of years of a president’s administration, he’s usually picking up from where the last president left things— which is usually with a bad economy. And voters blame the new president for it, and that’s why you see these historic midterm effects where the party in power usually gets killed. And this time, the Democrats didn’t get killed. Let’s give them that first.

Dr. Drew Westen

Democrats have trouble figuring out that if you just speak honestly as a populist, you can win anywhere… Because people know when they’re getting screwed. And they know when somebody has their back. And they know when someone is speaking honestly to them.

Dr. Drew Westen

All politicians—with very few exceptions— flatter the voters. When do we say, “It’s the voter’s responsibility”? That they have exerted a wave of masochistic voting against their own interest?

Ralph Nader

Steve Early is a lawyer, organizer, union representative, and labor journalist. He is the author of Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City, and co-author, with Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven, of Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs.

One of the great things about the VA is that a third of the VA caregiving workforce is veterans themselves. So you have this unique culture of solidarity and empathy, connection between patients and providers. You don’t find that at Kaiser, or Sutter, or UnitedHealth, or any of the other big for-profit or nonprofit healthcare chains. So this is a real national treasure that needs to be defended.

Steve Early, author of Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs

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The Most Toxic Place in America Nov 05, 2022

Counterpunch’s Joshua Frank joins Ralph to discuss his new book, “Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America” about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State— the Cold War plutonium manufacturing facility that even after a $677 billion taxpayer clean-up bill still leaks radioactivity. And immigration lawyer extraordinaire, Susan Cohen, regales us about her experience representing asylum seekers and refugees as chronicled in her book “Journey From There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions.” Plus, Ralph makes one final pitch before the midterms for “Winning America.”

Joshua Frank is an investigative journalist and the managing editor of the political magazine CounterPunch. He is also an author— his latest book is Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America.”

Everyone would agree that any amount of money should be spent to clean this place up (Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State), but if it’s lining the pockets of private corporations and the job’s not getting done, then something’s wrong.

Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America

That’s their answer (to radioactive waste)—tarps. They don’t have an answer. Because it’s a very technical, very laborious process. And, I would argue, takes more ingenuity in figuring out how to clean this up than it did to produce it in the first place.

Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America

Susan Cohen is an immigration attorney and founding Chair of Mintz Levin’s Immigration Practice. She is president of the board of the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project, and led a team working with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts to obtain a temporary restraining order on Trump’s 2017 Travel Ban. She is the author of Journeys From There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions.

The fact that there are so many authoritarian regimes and corrupt regimes that we have had a hand in supporting over the years—where people can’t get justice when they’ve been egregiously harmed, or where the facts are evident and there’s not a question about what happened— is just another indication of the kinds of intolerable life situations that people face in these countries where they truly have to escape for their very lives.

Susan Cohen, author of Journeys From There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions

The stark choice on November 8th is between a fascist/autocratic party and one that supports a major social safety net for tens of millions of Americans and their children. For anybody who says, “What about third parties?” I say, “Go for it.” But you know what’s going to happen on November 8th— it’s either going to be the Republican or the Democratic candidates for the duopoly. And there's never been a bigger gap in domestic policy— they’re very similar on empire— than at the present time.

Ralph Nader

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Chris Hedges/Mark Green Oct 29, 2022

Ralph invites back award-winning war correspondent and author, Chris Hedges, to discuss his new book “The Greatest Evil is War” in which he points out that war is not only a racket but - no matter what its causes - a moral obscenity. And Mark Green joins us to elaborate on “Winning America” a compendium of rhetorical strategies and concrete policies Democrats should be running on to win the midterm elections. Plus, we plug Tort Law Education Day!

Unchecked militarism is cancerous to a civilization. And it overreaches in the end. So, as it decays— as we have decayed — it engages in more forms of military adventurism in an attempt to reclaim a lost hegemony and a lost glory and a lost power.

Chris Hedges, author of The Greatest Evil Is War

Democratic administrations are wholly in lockstep with the Republicans on militarism. In some cases, even worse, because they provide more cover… So, we have to hold those who prosecute permanent war— Democrat or Republican— accountable. And I think that by surrendering to a Democratic administration in the idea that it's “the least worst,” we weaken our power and our credibility.

Chris Hedges, author of The Greatest Evil Is War

Bloodthirsty military action books sell far more than books that challenge the grizzly evil and crimes of war. It's books of aggression, violence, military prowess that gained the bestseller list

Ralph Nader

Mark Green is a former Nader’s Raider, who ran Public Citizen’s Congress Watch for ten years and was elected New York City’s first Public Advocate. He’s a prolific author, and has collaborated with Ralph Nader on Fake President: Decoding Trump’s Gaslighting, Corruption, and General B******t, and Wrecking America: How Trump's Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All. He is co-founder, with Ralph Nader of Winning America.

To summarize, dangerous extremists are trying to steal our votes and our wallets. [Progressive candidates] have to get in both: “They’re destroying democracy,” and “That economically hurts our families.”

Mark Green, co-founder of Winning America

Trump’s GOP— they want to be lawmakers to break the law, violate the Constitution and crush our democracy, and put the plutocrats in charge. Behind all these Trumpsters is the corporate state… turning the government against its own people.

Ralph Nader

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How the Right Wing Captured the Supreme Court Oct 22, 2022

Ralph and Rhode Island Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, dive into his new book “The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.” And Ralph takes the opportunity with the Senator to pitch his "Winning America" strategy for the Democrats to use in the midterms. In addition, our resident constitutional expert, Bruce Fein, stops by to argue that so many of the books about Trump and other American presidents emphasize personality and ignore the constitutional implications of their decisions. Plus, Ralph urges listeners to sign up for Tort Law Day, Saturday October 29th to celebrate our constitutional right to have our day in court.

Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate. He has served as his state’s United States Attorney and as the state Attorney General, as well as its top business regulator. He is the author of Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy, and the new book The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.

We just had a vote on [the DISCLOSE Act] in the Senate, and every single Republican voted against it. They voted— to a person—to protect dark money. Despite not only 80% of Republican voters feeling opposed and hostile to dark money and all this corporate influence, but really angrily opposed to it. These are people that come in with a very high sense of frustration and fury. It's a very salient and even emotional issue, and yet they all voted— to a person— against it. Because, in my view, they've become as dependent on dark money as a deep-sea diver is on an air hose.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, author of The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court

Imagine blaming Joe Biden for high gas prices when the fossil fuel industry actually sets the gas prices. If they actually let Joe Biden set gas prices when they were high, he could have knocked a dollar per gallon off like that. But of course, you can’t. We’ve got a market economy. But they blame him for it.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, author of The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court

Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.

There's only one oath that all of our members of Congress and the President and the judiciary take— the one oath to hold and support the Constitution of the United States. They don't take an oath to support their political party. They don’t take an oath to get re-elected. They don't take an oath for any other purpose other than to uphold and defend the Constitution.

Bruce Fein

The crux of our Republic is process— following process as prescribed in the Constitution, and if you lose, you go back and you make a better argument, or if you think the Constitution is defective, you propose an amendment…that is what makes us different from other countries. And this preoccupation with personalities is leading us off of a cliff very fast.

Bruce Fein

Your broader point, Bruce, is truly being occluded by people who engage in the public press and Congressional activities. Your broadest point is that we are living in an age of massive serial violations of our Constitution by our elected representatives, and of course, by implication, government officials who are working under these elected representatives in the branches of government. And this breeds a culture of lawlessness all the way down to the corporate crime wave to violations of consumers’ rights, workers’ rights, civil rights, civil liberties.

Ralph Nader

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Consumer Rights Are Civil Rights Oct 15, 2022

Ralph welcomes Marta Tellado, president and CEO of Consumer Reports and author of “Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace.” She and Ralph tackle many consumer related issues including how consumer rights are also civil rights. And previous guest Professor Michael Hudson rejoins us to forcefully rebut a listener comment about his view of the Federal Reserve, quantitative easing, and who runs the US Treasury. Plus, Ralph has some choice words about how we should be thinking about immigration.

Marta Tellado is president and CEO of Consumer Reports, an independent nonprofit that works side-by-side with consumers to create a fair and just marketplace. She is the author of Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace.

I believe that democratic freedoms can coexist and thrive with economic equity. And I wrote the book in part to tell a larger story about how our democracy can only thrive if we really have a marketplace that has opportunity that is fair and just across all populations. And so, it really is a way of engaging a broader audience in this idea that a fair marketplace is absolutely essential to a fair democracy. Economic freedom is a civil right.

Marta Tellado, author of Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace

With each individual [consumer] action, we really talk about some of the big changes we need to see in the marketplace. Particularly now, with the domination, lack of competition, and the concentration of the power that we have. How do we, as a collective force, drive a marketplace that is safer by design? That is private by design? That doesn't put all the burden on consumers?

Marta Tellado, author of Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace

[On harnessing consumer spending] All this money that Apple and Amazon make— all the money they use to lobby, all the money they use to propagandize— it all starts with consumer dollars that are given to them in return for services.

Ralph Nader

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street Financial Analyst, and Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire, …and forgive them their debts – Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year, and Finance Capitalism and its Discontents.

When you realize that the purpose of quantitative easing was to raise real estate and stock market prices, why would they do it, if not to rescue the banks? It didn’t make the economy healthier. It raised the cost of living. It added to the debt deflation… So, by re-inflating the financial markets, this created a whole new business for banks— lending credit.

Michael Hudson

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Who’s Raising The Kids? Oct 08, 2022

Ralph does a deep dive into the commercialization of childhood with Dr. Susan Linn, psychologist, and author of “Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children.” Plus, Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, fills us in on their campaign to end the tenure of Louis DeJoy, the Trump-appointed Post Master, who is trying to dismantle the US Postal Service.

The combination of this incredibly compelling and sophisticated and seductive technology and unregulated capitalism is already terrible for children— and it’s going to get even more terrible. And one of the things that I think it’s important for people to remember is that commercialism, or advertising and marketing— which is what all these devices we love so much were basically made for— that it doesn’t just sell products. It sells values and behaviors. And the values of commercial culture— “me first”, materialism, image is more important than anything else—those values are so harmful to society.

Dr. Susan Linn

It’s enraging — at a time when books are being banned, teachers and librarians are being silenced and can’t talk to kids about important things— that the tech companies are pretty much unregulated and can say basically anything they want to children.

Dr. Susan Linn

Every major religion in the world, thousands of years ago, warned their adherents not to give too much power to the merchant class. Because the commercial motive is relentless and all-encompassing. It will destroy or co-opt other civic values that are far more important for society to sustain.

Ralph Nader

Robert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the President of Public Citizen, Weissman has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy.

You can’t cut [the USPS] down to save it, you have to expand it and make it more robust. Its significance in American history and its future depends on it being a network that connects all of us and does so efficiently. So, the more you reduce it, the less chance it has to be relevant to the lives of Americans.

Robert Weissman

Support for the government and federal agencies is stronger than people realize, among the public. Most of the public supports most of what the federal government does— at least when they do it well. But support for the Postal Service is through the roof. And it’s in significant part, because it may be that a lot of the “elite opinion makers” themselves don’t personally rely on as much on the postal service and the post offices around the country as regular people do.

Robert Weissman

DeJoy is playing the Republican game: You undermine public services as the reason to argue for corporatizing them.

Ralph Nader

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Medicare Advantage is a Scam! Oct 03, 2022

Do not sign-up for Medicare Advantage! We don’t care what Joe Namath tells you. That’s the message of healthcare expert, Kip Sullivan, who returns to remind us why Medicare Advantage is simply a further for-profit corporate takeover of Medicare. Plus, we rifle through the mailbag where Ralph answers your questions and comments on your feedback about past programs.

With the original Medicare you know what you’re buying. The two parts of this scam that we’re talking about is United Healthcare puts out this brochure making it sound like because they’re so efficient that they can offer these extra services. It’s not true. They’re overpaid. We’re wasting money on them. And the other piece of the scam is when you get sick you may very well not get the coverage that is described in the policy.

Kip Sullivan

You can’t overstate the enthusiasm with which the Biden administration is promoting the takeover of Medicare by both Medicare Advantage plans and this new breed of parasite called the Accountable Care Organization, or ACO.

Kip Sullivan

There are multiple reasons to oppose the takeover of Medicare by these corporations. But the Democrats ought to be thinking about their own political future and looking ahead to this so-called crisis in 2028.

Kip Sullivan

We’re underinvesting in the consequences of global warming— the climate disruption, droughts, gigantic wildfires, floods, surges from the sea, hurricanes. But we’re overinvesting in blowing up countries overseas that do not threaten us… This is a sign of the collective insanity of the corporate state.

Ralph Nader

This article by Diane Archer would be very useful for any listeners just turning 65 and trying to figure out whether to enroll in MA or stay in traditional Medicare:

Four things to think about when choosing a plan to fill gaps in Medicare, a “Medigap” or Medicare supplemental insurance plan

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Servants of the Damned Oct 03, 2022

“Everyone is entitled to a defense” contend large law firms when they represent notorious corporate clients, but many of these firms push the ethical envelope. That’s the crux of the discussion Ralph has with David Enrich as outlined in his book, “Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice.” Plus, we welcome Dr. Michael Jacobson, founder, and former director of Science in the Public Interest to tell us how we need to raise taxes on Science in the Public Interest to reduce alcohol-related deaths and mayhem.

David Enrich is the Business Investigations Editor at the New York Times, and the bestselling author of Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction. His latest book is Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice.

There’s a lot of lip service that the leaders of the legal industry pay to being good corporate citizens and being public-spirited officers of the court. And you often scratch a little bit beneath the surface of these giant law firms, and you realize that is just not true.

David Enrich, author of Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice

It was very clear to me the vast power that these law firms were wielding, not only defending their clients in and out of court, but also shaping the public’s perception of how these fights were transpiring— in large part through the media. It’s more or less taboo— in the mainstream media in particular— to really pull back the curtain on the way that those law firms are operating

David Enrich, author of Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice

[Jones Day] is not a monolith, and it’s not a place that I regard as evil. But it’s really a classic example of a place where even well-intentioned lawyers go, and—to make a living or to repay their debts or whatever—and they sometimes end up really pushing the envelope.

David Enrich, author of Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice

When they say “we believe in the position of the clients we represent…” it really isn’t true. They don’t believe in all the positions of their clients. And when you nail them on that issue, they say “Well, we’re required by the professional code of ethics of our profession to zealously represent these clients. It’s not up to us to expose their Achilles heel— that’s what the adversarial system is for.”

Ralph Nader

Michael Jacobson holds a PhD. in microbiology from MIT. He is well-known for his nutrition advocacy that helped eliminate artificial trans-fat from the food supply, expose the enormous calorie counts of movie theater popcorn and many restaurant foods and make Nutrition Facts mandatory on food packages. Dr. Jacobson is the author ofSalt Wars: The Battle Over the Biggest Killer in the American Diet .

There’s no doubt that raising alcohol taxes would raise the price of alcoholic beverages, and consumption would decline. For any kind of imaginable tax increase, alcohol problems and deaths would not go to zero. But there would be a significant decline in proportion to the increase in tax rates.

Dr. Michael Jacobson

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The Federal Reserve and Debt Oct 03, 2022

Ralph does a deep dive into the real purpose of the Federal Reserve and other aspects of the American economy with progressive economist, Michael Hudson. Plus, our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to talk about the elected official from New Mexico,who got removed from office because of his role in the Jan. 6th insurrection and what that possibly could mean for Donald’s Trump eligibility for office. And he also discusses a letter from retired Secretaries of Defense and Joint Chiefs about military leaders rejecting illegal presidential orders.

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street Financial Analyst, and Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire, …and forgive them their debts – Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year, and Finance Capitalism and its Discontents.

The Federal Reserve was created to stop social purpose spending by the government, by essentially cutting the Treasury out of the monetary management process. And that’s true, not only of the Federal Reserve in America, but of central banks all over the world.

Michael Hudson

The economy has never really recovered from Obama’s bailout of the banks in 2008. And government and the Federal Reserve have been keeping the financial markets afloat by quantitative easing, but they really haven’t helped the population at large.

Michael Hudson

If money should be a public utility, just like the dollar bills in your pocket, the credit cards and the electronic payments should be a public utility. But instead, it’s privatized. It’s turned into a monopoly, and it’s a source of monopoly rents for the banks that really is unnecessary.

Michael Hudson

The important thing about gambling is the casino always wins, and the second important thing is that there’s always a loser for every winner. And if you’re gambling on the stock market or on derivatives, the insiders— especially the crooks— always end up the winners. And the honest people… end up the losers.

Michael Hudson

The drive is to get people not to use cash, check, or money order, and to do everything by credit card, debit card, and other multiplying payment systems. It impresses me as being a major controlling process. Once they suck you into the credit card gulag, they can penalize you, overcharge you, ruin your credit score… In effect, they strip you of control over your own money.

Ralph Nader

Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law. Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.

[The decision to disqualify Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin from holding office] demonstrates that when [Trump], if he does try to run for the presidency in 2024, that he will confront a hurdle of having provided material assistance to the insurrection of January 6th— irrespective of whether he’s committed a crime or not.

Bruce Fein

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The Crack Up of the Republican Party Sep 10, 2022

Ralph welcomes Washington Post columnist, Dana Milbank, who draws a direct line from Newt Gingrich’s ascendency to Speaker of the House in 1994 to the January 6^th insurrection in his book “The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party.” Plus, a new Capitol Hill Citizen is out!

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Slaughtering Corporate Hogs Sep 03, 2022

Ralph interviews North Carolina attorney, Mona Lisa Wallace, whose litigation team won more than $500 million in damages for the facility’s North Carolina neighbors against the hog production component of Smithfield Foods along with author Corban Addison who chronicled the gripping John Grisham-like tale in his book: “Wastelands: The True Story Of Farm Country On Trial.”

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Some Justice for Sandy Hook Aug 27, 2022

In a live Zoom recording, Ralph welcomes attorney Josh Koskoff, who tells us how he won a groundbreaking 73 million dollars from Remington and other gun manufacturers on behalf of the families of the Sandy Hook mass school shooting. Ralph and Josh lay out the story then Josh takes questions from our virtual audience.

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Recession or Recovery? Aug 20, 2022

In a packed program, Ralph first speaks to our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, about the latest Trump-anigans from Mar a Lago, then Washington Post business reporter, Allan Sloan, joins to talk about the Federal Reserve and answers the question of whether we are headed for an economic recession or a recovery. And finally, Steve Silberstein of National Popular Vote comes by to update us on their latest efforts to ensure that the candidate for president who wins the popular vote actually wins the election.

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Self-Driving Tesla: “It Will Try To Kill You” Aug 13, 2022

Software hacking expert, Dan O’Dowd, founder of “The Dawn Project” joins us to critique Tesla’s Fully Self-Driving cars where they found they made a critical error every eight minutes. Then Ralph welcomes Steve Hutkins, the founder and editor of “Save the Post Office,” to ask why Trump’s Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, still has a job.

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Drug Lords of America Aug 06, 2022

Ralph welcomes Washington Post investigative reporters, Sari Horowitz and Scott Higham, authors of “American Cartel: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry,” that tells the thrilling David versus Goliath story that goes beyond the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma to expose the many other corporate criminals who aided and abetted the crisis and chronicles the heroes who fought to bring them to justice.

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Investigating Trump Jul 30, 2022

We welcome back our resident Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, who gives us his take on the January 6^th hearings, how they compare to the Watergate, and Iran Contra, why the Democrats seem to be holding back, and what the Department of Justice needs to do to live up to its name with regard to the crimes of Donald Trump.

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The Man Who Broke Capitalism Jul 23, 2022

That man is the late and lionized CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, whose relentless pursuit of quarterly earnings and shareholder value at the exclusion of everything else influenced generations of CEOs and his approach could be the single biggest reason the U.S. finds itself in the precarious economic and political state it is. Ralph speaks with New York Times columnist, David Gelles, who wrote the book on Welch, “The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America — and How to Undo His Legacy.” Plus, Ralph rails against the proposed congressional handout to the microchip industry and the Senate oversight committee’s lack of oversight of the Pentagon budget.

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What If The Fed Bought Out The Oil Industry? Jul 16, 2022

Progressive economist, Robert Pollin, gives us his take on the causes and remedies of the current inflationary spiral, and what both the Fed and the Biden Administration can do about it. Then, Ralph welcomes back, Greg LeRoy, from Good Jobs First, the organization that tracks corporate handouts, to update us on taxpayer giveaways to the EV industry, billionaire sports franchise owners, and how the recent abortion bans may hurt those state’s economies.

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Trump Still Dangerous Jul 09, 2022

We welcome back Dr. Bandy X. Lee, editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President,” to update us on her latest thinking about Trump’s hold on his followers and the conflicts within her own profession over their duty to warn. Plus, Ralph and Steve discuss the January 6^th hearings.

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Vaccine Apartheid/The Voice of Corporate Crime Jul 02, 2022

Ralph welcomes Peter Maybarduk director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program to explain how taxpayer supported research on Covid vaccines has been given over to Big Pharma, who are creating worldwide vaccine apartheid, and Rick Claypool, also of Public Citizen, on the US Chamber of Commerce’s tantrum over government agency efforts to crack down on their members’ criminal activity.
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Trump’s Inside Job Jun 25, 2022

In the midst of finding out how Donald Trump tried to dismantle democracy with the Big Lie, Ralph welcomes Professor Thomas McGarity, who has chronicled how Trump, as president, tried to demolish government from the inside in his book “Demolition Agenda: How Trump Tried to Dismantle American Government, and What Biden Needs to Do to Save It.”

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The News That Didn’t Make The News Jun 18, 2022

Ralph welcomes back Project Censored’s Micky Huff, to give us the rundown on the latest under-reported news stories of the year and gives us his advice on how to consume a more nutritious diet of news. Plus, Ralph expounds upon a unique idea to promote more civic engagement: The Birth Year Legacy.

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Jesus Was A Progressive Jun 11, 2022

Ralph welcomes Reverend Jim Wallis, the Leader of the Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, who calls out Republicans on gun safety and identifies white churches as a threat to democracy. Plus, our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, speculates on why Trump and Pence have not been subpoenaed to appear before the January 6^th committee.

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Bill McKibben Jun 04, 2022

Ralph discusses with environmental champion, Bill McKibben, how to take the fight for the climate to “the next level of intensity,” plus his new book, “The Flag, The Cross, And The Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened.”
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Covid Update/Student Activists May 28, 2022

Infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm, joins Ralph to update us on the very latest in Covid-related transmission rates, hospitalizations, boosters, therapeutics, testing, masks and more. Then, we welcome Dan Xie, the Political Director at Student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups) to tell us about all the great work her young charges are doing on climate issues, the unhoused, student hunger, affordable textbooks and more.

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What’s Really Driving Inflation/War Without Death? May 21, 2022

Ralph is joined by Lindsay Owens, executive director of the progressive economics think tank, the Groundwork Collaborative, who listened in on the earnings calls for some major corporations to hear management brag about using the current inflationary climate as cover for “plain old corporate profiteering.” And anthropologist, Roberto J. Gonzales, explains in his book “War Virtually" how the latest generation of autonomous weapons, robots, and drones are creating the illusion of war without risk and have the potential to boomerang back at us.

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The Spoils of War May 14, 2022

Ralph welcomes back crack investigative journalist, Andrew Cockburn, who in his latest book “The Spoils of War” outlines how the U.S. military budget has never been about “defense” but about profit. The military-industrial- congressional-media complex profits. We pay. Plus, Ralph answers a listener question.

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Ethical Markets w Hazel Henderson May 07, 2022

Ralph spends the entire hour with the indefatigable, Hazel Henderson, the founder of the group, Ethical Markets, whose mission is to advocate for ways to measure prosperity and promoting economic models that emphasize not cut-throat competition and fear of scarcity but are based on principals of cooperation and sharing in our abundance.

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Universal Civic Duty Voting Apr 30, 2022

Political journalist and author, E. J. Dionne, joins us to argue that voting - like jury duty - is a civic duty and should be mandatory in the United States like it is in Australia and as outlined in the new book he co-authored entitled “100% Democracy.” And peace advocate, Colman McCarthy, drops in to pitch his bold idea of how to make peace between Russia and Ukraine.

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Fast Fashion! Apr 23, 2022

Notorious fashionista,Ralph Nader, discusses the effects of “fast fashion” on the environment, the workers, and the consumers with British Vogue editor, Dana Thomas, author of “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes,” and “Fashionopolis Young Readers Edition: The Secrets Behind the Clothes We Wear.”

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Chris Hedges on Ukraine, the Press & Much More! Apr 16, 2022

Ralph welcomes back prolific Pulitzer Prize winning author and esteemed public intellectual, Chris Hedges, to get his thoughts on the hypocrisy of war, corporate control of the press, Julian Assange, unions, grass roots activism, Christian fascists, and his work teaching in prisons. Plus, Ralph comments on the proposed Amazon internal app and the threat to Senate cafeteria workers.

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Vampire Diaries Apr 09, 2022

Ralph speaks to two authors who have written books about how disease has shaped history, first journalist Vidya Krishnan, author of “Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped History,” which features Dracula and Bill Gates, and then John Nichols, author of “Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis?” including Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump and Pfizer.

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There Are No Accidents Apr 02, 2022

In a live Zoom recording of the Radio Hour, Jesse Singer, author of “There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster—Who Profits and Who Pays the Price” joins us to discuss why the record breaking “accidental” death toll in the United States is not really an accident but predictable and preventable. Plus, Ralph and Jesse answer live listener questions.

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Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine? Mar 26, 2022

Ralph welcomes nuclear weapons expert, MIT professor Theodore Postol, to give us his insights into the possibility and the ultimate consequences of Vladimir Putin employing “tactical” nuclear weapons in the Russian conflict with Ukraine. And our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, weighs in on the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Plus, Ralph answers your questions about the latest Boeing crash and money in politics.
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All About Voting Mar 19, 2022

Ralph invites his old friend, “The Black Eagle” activist and radio host Joe Madison, to discuss the hunger strike he endured to advocate for the recent voting rights bill and what the Democrats need to do to finally get the job done. Then, Richard Winger, publisher of “Ballot Access News” updates us on the fight to break the stranglehold the two major parties have on our elections by restricting access to a candidate’s ability to get on a ballot. Plus, Ralph answers a listener question.
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Still Unsafe At Any Altitude Mar 12, 2022

Boeing whistleblower, Ed Pierson, joins us to talk about the report he wrote entitled “Boeing 737 MAX – How Is It Really Going?” that paints a troubling picture of current problems with the notorious plane that includes reports of 43 malfunctions and onboard failures and six flights where U.S. pilots declared emergencies. Plus, constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, stops by to talk about how the NATO Treaty should not override the US Constitution, the misuse of the “state secrets” law, and an ongoing U.S. war crime from the Vietnam era.

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Woke Racism/Ethnic Atlas Mar 05, 2022

Ralph welcomes professor John McWhorter, linguist and author of “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America” and also Father Al Fritch to talk about his long project mapping and celebrating the various ethnic groups that make up the United States.
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How To Take Back Your Power! Feb 26, 2022

Ralph welcomes consumer advocates, Laura Antonini and Harvey Rosenfield, whose latest report is entitled “Reboot Required” about how in the past fifty years the civil justice system in America has fundamentally been weighted toward corporations and how ordinary people can start taking back that power. Plus, Ralph answers a listener question on the Ukraine crisis, and we pay tribute to two progressive champions, Paul Farmer and Joe Tom Easley.
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Twenty Dollars and Change Feb 19, 2022

Ralph welcomes retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to discuss the ongoing dispute over Ukraine. Plus, Professor Clarence Lusane joins the program to enlighten us about the legacy of Harriett Tubman and the campaign to replace Andrew Jackson with her image on our most common paper currency, the twenty-dollar bill.
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Ukraine Crisis/Nuclear Boondoggle Feb 12, 2022

Ralph welcomes the editorial director and publisher of the Nation magazine, Katrina vanden Heuvel, to offer her expert insight into ways the U.S. can peacefully resolve our conflict with Russia over Ukraine. Plus, former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner, Peter Bradford, updates us on the latest rise from the dead of that dangerous zombie technology known as nuclear power.

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Don’t Toss It! Fix It! Feb 05, 2022

Ralph and the boys have a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with Peter Mui, founder of the Fixit Clinic, a worldwide organization that holds "pop up" events where experts teach you how to repair your consumer goods, which not only keeps them out of the landfill but is also a community-based activity that conveys critical thinking skills.

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Corporatism Is The Problem Jan 29, 2022

Ralph welcomes Donald Cohen, the founder and executive director of “In the Public Interest” and co-author of the book “The Privatization of Everything” to discuss the many different ways corporatism has corrupted so many of our public goods. Also, constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to give us his take on the constitutional ramifications of U.S. involvement in the conflict between Russian and Ukraine. Plus, we wish a happy hundredth birthday to legendary journalist, Morton Mintz and say a heartfelt goodbye to the innovative law professor, who created programs to provide legal representation to low-income Americans and devised the concept of Time Banking, Edgar Cahn.

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Apple’s Hollow $3T Valuation Jan 22, 2022

Ralph welcomes econ professor William Lazonick, to let us know how Apple reached its record 3 trillion-dollar valuation and how what they and other large corporations are doing to enrich themselves is killing the middle class. Plus, Ralph answers more of your questions.

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The Corporate Assault on Medicare Jan 15, 2022

In our ongoing campaign against the corporate assault on America’s healthcare system, Ralph welcomes Kip Sullivan of “Healthcare for All Minnesota” to talk about what he terms “the creeping privatization of Medicare,” and tells us the story of how that ongoing corporatization is based on one particularly destructive yet durable myth.

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Beating the Healthcare System Jan 08, 2022

Ralph welcomes investigative journalist, Marshall Allen, author of “Never Pay the First Bill: And Other Ways to Fight the Health Care System and Win,” your "guerrilla" guidebook full of practical ways to keep your costs lower and your satisfaction higher. Plus, Ralph updates the Congress Club.

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Play Democracy! Jan 01, 2022

David and Steve spend the hour reviewing the past year with Ralph and discussing what needs to be done for a better 2022. Topics include a potential military threat to democracy, Joe Manchin, plutocracy, Boeing, and Big Pharma. Plus, Ralph answers more of your questions not covered in our live Zoom from two weeks ago.

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Inspiring Activists! Dec 25, 2021

Ralph welcomes two “doers” to the program, first Devin De Wulf, to tell us about how he and his group of community activists are protecting the food supply in his hometown of New Orleans by outfitting restaurants with solar panels that withstand power outages in a hurricane. Then Nathan Proctor of US PIRG tells us about his organization’s latest victory that gives consumers the Right to Repair their electronics, saving on money, toxic waste, and greenhouse gas emissions.

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Power to the People! Dec 18, 2021

In a special webinar version of the program, Ralph discusses with our guest, Richard Panchyk, author of “Power to the People!: A Young People’s Guide to Fighting for Our Rights as Citizens and Consumers” how one person can make a difference and how only percent of any given group can make important change. And they answer questions from our virtual audience!

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Boeing: Murder Incorporated Dec 11, 2021

Ralph welcomes investigative journalist for Bloomberg, Peter Robison, to do a deep dive into his new book, “Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy And The Fall Of Boeing” and poses the question, “Did Boeing get away with murder?” Plus, Ralph answers more listener questions.
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Did The Sacklers Get Away With It? Dec 04, 2021

Author and addiction advocate, Ryan Hampton, joins us to talk about his experience trying to hold Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family accountable for the horrific opioid plague they helped set in motion as outlined in his book, “Unsettled, How the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Failed the Victims of the American Overdose Crisis.” Plus, Ralph answers a listener question about Medicare (Dis)Advantage.

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Overcoming Corporate Rule: A Success Story Nov 27, 2021

This week Maui resident, Paul Deslauriers, joins us to update us on how he and his merry band of activists were able to transform their local county government from “corporate rule” to “rule by the people” and how this template for change can be used nationwide. Plus, we parody the corporate sponsorship of baseball games.

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Noam Chomsky Nov 20, 2021

Ralph spends the whole hour with the incomparable Noam Chomsky to discuss a whole raft of issues, including the climate crisis, the military budget, healthcare, challenging the corporate structure, reforming both the tax system and our elections, how the Democrats have abandoned the working class, and whether the U.S. will be able to fend off fascism.

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Tom Morello: Still Raging Nov 13, 2021

Tom Morello, activist, and lead guitarist of “Rage Against the Machine,” joins us to discuss the uses of music in protest, his latest album “The Atlas Underground Fire,” and his new gig writing op-eds for The New York Times. Also, child advocate, Robert Fellmeth, stops by to shed light on a situation right out of a Charles Dickens novel: the state stealing social security checks from foster children. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.

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Corporate Crime Pays! Nov 08, 2021

Law professor Mihailis Diamantis joins us for a lively discussion about why corporations get away with murder – or at least manslaughter – and what systemic changes need to be made to bring corporate criminals to justice. Then, Christopher Shaw, author of“First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat” explains how important it is to revive the U.S. Postal Service.

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Another Way to Help Save Life on Earth Oct 30, 2021

Ralph welcomes Miranda Massie, director of the Climate Museum, an institution focused on the intersection of art, climate science, justice, and activism — that aims to make people feel that collective action is both possible and necessary, and the only hope we have of saving the planet. Plus! Ralph answers listener questions.

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Randall Kennedy on Race: “Say It Loud!” Oct 23, 2021

Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law professor and author of a collection of essays entitled “Say It Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture” joins us for the full hour to talk about his views on race, class, corporatism, Clarence Thomas, the “n-word,” racial optimism versus racial pessimism, and much more.

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Two Soldiers’ View of War Oct 16, 2021

Ralph interviews two recent military veterans. First, Erik Edstrom, author of “Un-American: A Soldier’s Reckoning of Our Longest War” tells us about his awakening from West Point Army Ranger to peace advocate. Then, Garett Reppenhagen, a former sniper and now director of Veterans for Peace, tells us how that organization helps veterans put down their weapons and work for peace.

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Humane War? Oct 09, 2021

Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein joins forces with Ralph as we devote the entire radio hour to discussing war powers in the United States with Yale historian, Samuel Moyn, author of “Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War.”

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Strip Mining Democracy Oct 02, 2021

On today’s program, we look at two ways that corporate lobbies and their political allies subvert democracy: “gerrymandering” and “preemption.” First, law professor Herman Schwartz breaks down the scourge of partisan gerrymandering. Then Mark Pertschuk, director of “Grassroots Change,” sheds light on how states and the federal government can “preempt” cities and local communities from for instance raising their own minimum wage, allowing paid sick leave, regulating firearms, banning plastics, or enforcing anti-discrimination laws. Plus, Ralph, David, and Steve discuss the infrastructure package and stock buy backs.

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Mass Torts/Politics & the Media Sep 25, 2021

Ralph welcomes Professor Elizabeth Burch to talk about her work researching how a certain mechanism in the civil justice system called Multi-District Litigation (MDL) is undermining your constitutional right to have your day in court. Then, Professor Jane Hall stops by to discuss the state of the media in her new book, “Politics and the Media: Intersections and New Directions.”
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Dirty Work Sep 18, 2021

Ralph spends the whole hour with Eyal Press, author of “Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and The Hidden Toll of Inequality in America,” where they discuss the large gap separating the people who perform the most thankless, ethically troubling jobs in America from the rest of us, who benefit from their work. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions.
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Why Do We Still Have The Electoral College? Sep 11, 2021

Ralph welcomes Harvard history professor, Alex Keyssar, scholar of voting rights and author of “Why Do We Still Have The Electoral College?” to discuss the battle over the Electoral College and the role white supremacy played in conceiving and perpetuating it. Then, we welcome back Steve Silberstein, board member of “National Popular Vote,” to update us on the progress that movement is making on the interstate compact where states would promise to give their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote.

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Wilkerson on Afghanistan Sep 04, 2021

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, gives us his thoroughly unvarnished take on the history of our twenty-year debacle in Afghanistan. Then, we are joined by Jacob Wilson, cofounder of Congressional Progressive Staff Association an organization devoted to drawing congressional staff from the ranks of civic activists, organizers, faith leaders, and people from the labor movement in order to bring fresh, bold, progressive ideas directly into Congress members’ offices.

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The Remaking of American Liberalism/Nairn on Afghanistan Aug 28, 2021

In a fascinating interview, where the historian gets questioned by one of the main subjects of his history, Ralph welcomes professor Paul Sabin to discuss his history of the public interest movement, “Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism.” Plus, intrepid investigative reporter, Allan Nairn joins us to give us his take on U.S. culpability in the violent history of Afghanistan.

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Feeding Local Economies/Starving the IRS Aug 21, 2021

Ralph welcomes Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance to talk about how enforcing anti-trust laws would lead to more decentralized and productive local economies. And Pro Publica’s Jesse Eisinger joins us to explain how Republican anti-tax groups have starved the IRS budget, which leads to billions of dollars of uncollected taxes from the wealthy. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.
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Eugenics/Wuhan Lab Leak?/Donziger Update Aug 14, 2021

Andrew Kimbrell, director of the International Center for Technology Assessment, joins us to talk about his documentary “A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics, Genetics and the American Dream,” and to give us an update on the Wuhan Lab leak theory. Plus, Ralph welcomes legendary civil rights attorney, Martin Garbus, to update us on new developments in the case of corporate prisoner, Steven Donzinger.

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The Bible of Talk Radio/Ralph on Assange Aug 07, 2021

Ralph has a lively back and forth about the state of talk radio with the publisher and editor of “Talkers” magazine, Michael Harrison. Plus, Ralph answers a listener question about his views on Julian Assange.

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Cancel Student Debt Now! Jul 31, 2021

We discuss the student debt crisis with Anthony Fiorentino, attorney and advocate featured along with Ralph in the documentary series “Scared to Debt: America’s Student Loan Scam.” And Consumer Federation of America’s Robert Hunter joins to remind you that your auto insurance companies probably still owe you money for not driving so much during the Covid quarantine. Plus, Ralph offers up another Congress Club letter, this one aimed at Medicare for All.

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Third Leading Cause of Death Jul 24, 2021

Ralph welcomes Michael Saks and Stephan Landsman, authors of “Closing Death’s Door: Legal Innovations to End the Epidemic of Healthcare Harm” about what can be done about the third leading cause of death in America, medical error. And America’s #1 Populist, Jim Hightower stops by to give us the breaking news on Exxon-Mobil’s attempt to break the union movement.
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The United States of War Jul 17, 2021

Ralph spends a lively hour with David Vine, Professor of Anthropology at American University, discussing his book “The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts from Columbus to the Islamic State.” Plus, Ralph announces that the Congress Club letter writing campaign is ready to kick off.

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Citizen Driven Foreign Policy/Zero Waste Jul 10, 2021

Ralph welcomes Bill Crosier of the Foreign Policy Alliance to discuss how to turn US foreign policy away from intervention and toward diplomacy, law, and cooperation. Then chemist, Paul Palmer, joins us to explain that we need to replace the “corporate scam” of recycling with the concept of “zero waste.” Plus, Ralph answers an important listener question about Medicare for All.

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Medical-Industrial Complex/Whirlwind Wheelchair Jul 03, 2021

Ralph discusses the healthcare crisis and what to do about it with medical expert, Dr. John Geyman, based on his latest book “America’s Mighty Medical-Industrial Complex: Negative Impacts and Positive Solutions.” And disability advocate, Ralf Hotchkiss, joins to update us on the latest work he is doing with the remarkable company he founded, Whirlwind Wheelchair. Plus, Ralph pays tribute to the late Mike Gravel, gives a progress report on the Congress Club, and responds to listener comments about why the Democratic Party has trouble turning its activist energy into electoral and policy victories.

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Outsourcing Activism/Truck Safety Jun 26, 2021

Why do Democrats have so much trouble turning activist energy into electoral success? That’s the question Ralph asks sociology professor Dana Fisher, author of “Activism Inc” and “American Resistance: From the Women’s March to the Blue Wave.” Also truck safety advocate, Jennifer Tierney, tells us about the legislation she is working on to make us all safer on the highway. Plus, Ralph invites you to join his “Congress Club.”

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Dennis Kucinich/Wealth Hoarding/Wind Farm at Standing Rock Jun 19, 2021

In a fast-paced hour, Ralph welcomes progressive champion Dennis Kucinich to talk about his adventures taking on the corporate establishment as the youngest mayor of Cleveland as described in his book “The Division of Light and Power.” Then heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune, Chuck Collins, explains how so many rich people spend millions to hide trillions in his new book, “The Wealth Hoarders.” Plus, member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and General Manager at SAGE Development Authority, Joseph McNeil Jr., joins us to promote the 235-megawatt Anpetu Wi wind farm designed to ensure energy independence, protect the environment, and promote economic growth in the region.

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Be a Smart News Consumer Jun 12, 2021

Ralph welcomes Allan C. Miller, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter and the founder and CEO of the non-partisan News Literacy Project to discuss his work teaching young people how to be more discerning and discriminating consumers of news. Plus, Ralph answers your listener questions.

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Good Corporate Citizen/The Power of Youth Jun 05, 2021

Ralph welcomes good corporate citizen, Gero Leson, to discuss his book “Honor Thy Label: Dr. Bronner’s Unconventional Journey to a Clean, Green and Ethical Supply Chain.” And progressive wunderkind, Calla Walsh, tells us about her own foray into organizing and influencing Massachusetts politics at the ripe old age of… sixteen.
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The Carbohydrate Economy! May 29, 2021

Ralph welcomes old friend, former running mate, and now hemp farmer, Winona LaDuke as well as filmmaker Michael Henning to talk about how industrial hemp can transform the U.S. from a polluting hydrocarbon economy to a healthier carbohydrate economy. And Maryland state senator, Paul Pinsky joins us to promote his bill that will close loopholes and make corporations pay their fair share in state taxes. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.

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Can the Market Save the Planet?/Long Haul Heroes May 22, 2021

Ralph welcomes the Washington Post’s Steven Mufson to point out how some corporations are finally making efforts to achieve carbon neutrality. And author, Pete Davis, joins us to talk about his new book, “Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing” where he argues that the modern mindset of “always keeping your options open” does not necessarily lead to happiness, progress, fulfillment, or justice.
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Fair Taxes/Violence in Gaza May 15, 2021

Ralph welcomes former IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, to tell us what must be done to create a fairer tax system. And Professor Rashid Khalidi joins us to break down the latest violent escalation in Gaza. Plus, Ralph has some choice words about Apple’s latest record earnings.
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Winning and Losing in One-Click America May 08, 2021

Ralph welcomes journalist, Alec MacGillis, author of “Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America” about how Amazon continues to suck the life out of Main Street and what can be done about it. And the director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, Dr. Michael Carome, gives us the latest on our approach to the Covid pandemic. Plus, we answer a listener about how to avoid flying on Boeing’s 737 Max.

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We Need a New Fairness Doctrine May 01, 2021

Ralph welcomes back MIT professor, Nicholas Ashford, who to stem the tide of lies and misinformation amplified by broadcast media, pitches a new Fairness Doctrine for the 21^st Century. And we are also joined by Professor Lonnie T. Brown and documentary filmmaker, Joseph Stillman, who pay tribute to the memory of the late Ramsey Clark.

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The First Amendment vs Cancel Culture Apr 24, 2021

We are joined by journalist and president of Harper’s, John R. “Rick” MacArthur, for a lively and sometimes contentious discussion about the First Amendment and “cancel culture.”

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The War Crimes of George W. Bush Apr 17, 2021

Author,Steven Markoff, joins us to discuss his book “The Case Against George W. Bush,” where he dispassionately lays out the three major war crimes the former president committed by invading Iraq. Plus, David, Ralph, and Steve discuss the Biden infrastructure plan.

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Don’t Mess With Mesh/Evidence-Based Voting Apr 10, 2021

Ralph welcomes investigative journalist, Trudy Lieberman, who warns us to stay away from the synthetic mesh for hernia repair and statistician, Phillip Stark, who explains how we can restore trust in our voting systems. Plus, listener questions!

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Corporatism is Systemic Racism Apr 03, 2021

Professor and MSNBC commentator, Michael Eric Dyson, joins Ralph to discuss racism, corporatism, cancel culture, and how best to take action against all three.

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Corporate Prisoner Mar 27, 2021

Ralph speaks to human rights lawyer, Steven Donziger, who represented the indigenous people of Ecuador and won a multi-billion dollar judgement against Chevron for polluting the Ecuadorian rain forest in what is known as the “Amazon Chernobyl.” So why has he been held under house arrest in New York for nearly years? Tune in to find out.

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Desperately Seeking Subsidies Mar 20, 2021

In a fast-paced show, Ralph welcomes back former Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner, Peter Bradford to update us on the 10^th anniversary of the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. Then Public Citizen’s, Alan Zibel, joins us to tell us how we taxpayers amazingly are still subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. Ralph answers listener questions and debuts a feature on his website called “Reporter’s Alert.”

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Is This Land Really Our Land? Mar 13, 2021

Ralph spends the entire Radio Hour with Simon Winchester, author of “Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World.” Find out that it’s better when Mother Nature makes the boundaries with mountains, rivers, lakes, valleys, and oceans. When humans draw the maps: not as good.

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“It Ain’t So, Joe!” Mar 06, 2021

This week, Ralph welcomes union activist and director of the Nurses Professional Organization, Kay Tillow, who tells us how those ads Joe Namath does shilling for Medicare (dis)Advantage are misleading you. And citizen activist, Evan Weissman, stops by to explain how he and his cohorts in the Denver area have found a way to make civics fun with an approach they call “Warm Cookies of the Revolution.”

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Protecting Your Finances Feb 27, 2021

Ralph welcomes the former head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Richard Cordray, to talk about how this important agency - created in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown and moribund in the Trump years - needs to start protecting consumers again. Plus, Ralph pays tribute to the late great muckraking journalist, James Ridgeway.

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Why So Little Progressive Radio? Feb 20, 2021

We go radio gaga as Ralph welcomes iconic progressive radio host, Thom Hartmann, back to the program to discuss what it will take to hear more progressive voices on talk radio to counter the overwhelming influence of right-wing radio.

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“Tax The Rich” Redux Feb 13, 2021

Ralph welcomes Erica Payne, founder of “Patriotic Millionaires” and co-author of the upcoming book “Tax the Rich” to talk about how wealthy people need to realize that the real price of their numerous tax cuts is more social unrest. Plus, Ralph answers more of your questions.

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Perverted Pardons and Private Prisons Feb 06, 2021

In a show jam-packed with great information and provocative discussion, Ralph welcomes constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, to update us on impeachment, professor and author, Sinan Antoon, to decry the pardons given to American mercenaries convicted of murder in Iraq, and attorney John Dacey, who is campaigning to abolish the private prison industry.

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Killer Air Bags Jan 30, 2021

Ralph welcomes Jerry Cox, author of “Killer Air Bags: The Deadly Secret Automakers Don’t Want You to Know,” his insider account of how the Takata company made airbags that were essentially equipped with pipe bombs of ammonium nitrate. And the former executive director of Greenpeace, Peter Bahouth, comes on to rail against that noisy, polluting scourge of the suburbs: the leaf blower. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.

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Cleaning Up Trump’s Mess Jan 23, 2021

Ralph welcomes back Professor Adolph Reed to talk about whether Biden’s racially and gender diverse cabinet will actually translate into a real shift of power to the people or follow the same old corporatist playbook. And Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, returns to argue for a full impeachment and conviction of Donald Trump no matter how long it takes.

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Crime Stoppers!/Pay Equity Jan 16, 2021

Ralph talks true crime (the corporate variety) and how to stop it with Professor John C. Coffee, author of “Corporate Crime and Punishment: The Crisis of Underenforcement.” Then SF Supervisor, Matt Haney, joins us to talk about the groundbreaking initiative passed in the City by the Bay that will levy a tax on companies that pay their execs more than 100x the median pay of their workers.

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Now That The Dems Control Congress… Jan 09, 2021

We caught up with Connecticut Congressman, John Larson, just moments before he walked to the Capitol for the Electoral College certification that turned into an insurrection. Moments before, Ralph spoke to him about what the Democrats should do about various issues now that they control Congress. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions.

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Power of the Commons/2020 Highlights Jan 02, 2021

Ralph welcomes back former Nader’s Raider, David Bollier to update us on his latest work protecting and appreciating what we possess together as a community, the Commons. Then, we take a look back at highlights from some of our best 2020 interviews, featuring Dr. Bandy Lee, Dr, Michael Olsterholm, Professor Adolph Reed, broadcaster Glen Ford, socialist Nathan Robinson, environmentalist, David Freeman, journalist, David Dayen, and activist Katey Fahey.

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Police Misconduct/OSHA Turns 50! Dec 26, 2020

Ralph welcomes firebrand attorney, Jason Kafoury, who helped pass a referendum in Portland, Oregon to create a commission of civilian volunteers who would have the power to investigate deadly force and other allegations of misconduct by police. Plus, former head of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, Dr. David Michaels, joins us to mark the 50^th anniversary of the agency that has saved countless lives and prevented innumerable injuries to workers on the job.

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How To Save 4.2 Million Lives Dec 19, 2020

On the 55^th anniversary of the publication of Ralph’s landmark auto safety book, we welcome fellow traveler, Joan Claybrook, who has authored a report not only to celebrate the 4.2 million lives that have been saved in that time, but also on what more needs to be done. And Public Banking expert, Ellen Brown, joins us to talk about how public banks would be better than private banks at rescuing Main Street during this depression. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!

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Georgia On My Mind Dec 12, 2020

With the Senate run-off election in Georgia close at hand, Ralph speaks to political psychologist and author of “The Political Brain,” Drew Westen, about how in order to win, the Democratic candidates need to wrap their policy prescriptions in an effective emotional message.

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Do The Right Thing! Dec 05, 2020

Why is it so hard for people to do the right thing? Ralph spends the entire hour with Amherst professor of psychology, Dr. Catherine Sanderson, discussing her book “Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels.”

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Salt Wars/Medicare Scams Nov 28, 2020

Ralph welcomes the author of “Salt Wars,” Dr. Michael Jacobson, who explains how the food industry and a small group of scientists keep fighting government efforts to reduce dangerous levels of sodium in our food. Plus, fraud expert, Elliot Greenblott, tells us how we can protect ourselves from getting conned by Medicare scammers.

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Gerrymandering Victory! Ax the Max! Nov 21, 2020

Young activist, Katie Fahey tells us the inspiring story of how she was able to organize a left/right coalition to end gerrymandering in her home state of Michigan. And Paul Hudson, the head of Flyers’ Rights tells us how and why the FAA has re-approved the faulty Boeing 737 Max.

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Lame Ducks and Musical Whales Nov 14, 2020

Ralph spends a brief time talking about the dangers presented by Donald Trump during this lame duck period. But then we pivot away from the tumult of the election and the pandemic to a more contemplative and soothing topic by playing selections from “earth music” saxophonist and composer, Paul Winter, who tells us the stories behind his musical collaborations with nature.
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Why Was It So Effing Close? Nov 07, 2020

David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, joins Ralph to give us his insights into why the Democrats did not landslide the Republican Party of Donald Trump. And attorney Leonard Goodman of the Chicago Reader reveals why the Democrats did very little to stop the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.

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Traitors to Their Class Oct 31, 2020

Ralph welcomes Morris Pearl, chairman if Patriotic Millionaires, an organization of high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who think the country would be more politically stable and businesses more profitable if they raised their own taxes. And our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, returns to tick off fourteen reasons why Donald Trump is a clear and present danger and should resign immediately.

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Voter Purging/Biden-Trump Ad Wars Oct 24, 2020

Voting rights advocate, Greg Palast, returns to give us the latest on Republican efforts to purge the voter rolls of people of color. And ad guru, Bill Hillsman, comes back to analyze the effectiveness of the late stage TV ads from the Biden and Trump campaigns.

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Appeasement or Revolution? Oct 17, 2020

Historian, Paul Street, joins us to discuss how the Democrats seeded the ground for the rise of Trump in his new book, “Hollow Resistance: Obama, Trump and the Politics of Appeasement.” And Ralph welcomes the chair of Our Revolution, Larry Cohen, to update us on how the progressive movement is faring in the Biden/Harris campaign.

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Re-Targeting Iran/Political Satire Oct 10, 2020

Ralph welcomes Alternative Radio’s, David Barsamian, who presents the perspectives of leading scholars of the Middle East on the ongoing turbulent relationship between the U.S. and Iran in the book “Re-Targeting Iran.” And political cartoonist, Dwayne Booth, AKA “Mr. Fish” joins us for a provocative discussion about the state of political satire. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!

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Rx For Surviving Trump/Avoiding Amazon Oct 03, 2020

Ralph welcomes back psychiatrist, Dr. Bandy Lee, for an update on Donald Trump’s pathology and a prescription for surviving it. And Tarek Milleron joins Steve and David to talk about alternatives to shopping at Amazon. Plus, listener questions!

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Presidential Debates/Reforming the Electoral College Sep 26, 2020

Ralph welcomes George Farah, author of “No Debate,” who tells us how the Commission on Presidential Debates with its secret contracts and secret sponsorships is not the non-partisan organization it appears. And board member of National Popular Vote movement, Stephen Silberstein, updates us on how close we are to reforming the Electoral College.

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How the Right is Shredding the Vote Sep 19, 2020

Populism is the theme whenAmerica’s #1 populist, Jim Hightower, joins Ralph to outline the six ways the right is trying to shred our vote this November. Also, we learn how the Trump Administration’s policies have really affected Iowa’s farming community from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-editor of the Progressive Populist, Art Cullen.

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Race Versus Class Sep 12, 2020

Distinguished professor of political science, Adolph Reed, joins Ralph to talk about the problem with emphasizing race over class in building effective, long-term coalitions.

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Trump Crimes/Industrial Strength Denial Sep 05, 2020

First, Ralph welcomes back David Cay Johnston to give us the latest update on Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal activity. Then, environmental lawyer and author, Barbara Freese, joins us to talk about corporate stonewalling through the ages in her book “Industrial Strength Denial: Eight Stories of Corporations Defending the Indefensible, from the Slave Trade to Climate Change.”
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Positive Peer Pressure/The Covid Testing Solution Aug 29, 2020

Ralph speaks to behavioral economist, Robert H. Frank, about another kind of contagion, the good kind: peer pressure - and the ways peer pressure can help mitigate the climate crisis. Then, we welcome epidemiologist, Dr. Michael Mina, who explains how a program of frequent and rapid Covid testing can have the same effect as a vaccine.

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Why You Should Be A Socialist Aug 22, 2020

Not driving as much? Find out how you can get money back from your auto insurance company as Ralph welcomes Insurance Director of the Consumer Federation, Robert Hunter. Also, we speak to Chuck Collins about how the rich are parking their money in charitable foundations and taxpayers are footing the bill. And finally, the editor of Current Affairs, Nathan Robinson, joins to tell us “Why You Should Be A Socialist.”
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What Happened to the Climate Crisis? Aug 15, 2020

Ralph welcomes the editor and publisher of the Columbia Journalism Review, Kyle Pope, to talk about how the press is covering – and not covering – the climate crisis. Plus, Ralph weighs in on Joe Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his Vice President, tells you how you should get rebates from your auto insurance company, how the Democrats should be responding to Trump’s latest executive orders, how flyers should boycott the Boeing Max 8, and how to deal with “the lesser of two evils.”

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What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains Aug 08, 2020

Ralph welcomes Nicholas Carr, author of “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” who argues that despite it being a vast storehouse of knowledge, the internet could be turning us into superficial thinkers. Also, NY Times opinion writer, Justin Gillis, along with the executive director of the Energy Policy Institute, David Pomerantz report on the scandal of fossil fuel and nuclear companies bribing state politicians.

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Young Activists/Can Trump Steal 2020? Aug 01, 2020

Ralph welcomes civics educator and author, Barbara Lewis, who tells how best to teach kids how to be effective activists in their communities. Then, investigative reporter, Greg Palast, joins us to outline how we can protect our vote this election year, chronicled in his book “How Trump Stole 2020: The Hunt for America’s Vanished Voters.”

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Deconstructing Biden’s Ads Jul 25, 2020

Amidst a general discussion of this year’s presidential race, political ad guru Bill Hillsman deconstructs four Joe Biden ads and one Trump ad for message and effectiveness. Plus, child advocate Robert Fellmeth rejoins us to continue his crusade against anonymity on Facebook.

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Did Covid-19 Come From a Lab? Jul 18, 2020

Ralph welcomes back Andrew Kimbrell, founder of the Center for Food Safety, to discuss the dangers of genetically engineered viruses and the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from a lab. And Dr. Michael Carome, director of the Health Research Group at Public Citizen, tells us about Public Citizen's effort to get President Trump and Vice President Pence to step down and put health experts in charge of the pandemic response.

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Frank Luntz Jul 11, 2020

Ralph, David, and Steve invite Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, coiner of the terms “climate change” and “clean coal,” for a freewheeling conversation about - among other things – why he has changed his mind about the climate crisis.

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How To Fix Our Broken Democracy Jul 04, 2020

Ralph welcomes Daniel Newman, author of the intriguing and accessible non-fiction graphic novel “Unrig: How To Fix Our Broken Democracy,” about how private “wealth hoarders” work to weaken government and what you can do about it. Then, Dr. John Geyman returns to remind us how corporate healthcare rips us all off as evidenced in his new book “Profiteering, Corruption and Fraud in U.S. Health Care.”

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Does Non-Violent Protest Work? Jun 27, 2020

Ralph reflects on the current unrest in the streets with Professor Michael G. Long, author of “We the Resistance: Documenting a History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States.” Then, he welcomes Middle East scholar, Juan Cole, to speak about Netanyahu’s plan to annex 30% of the West Bank for Israel. Plus, Ralph addresses listener objections to his use of the term “Moscow Mitch.”

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The Myth of the Warrior Cop Jun 20, 2020

Ralph welcomes back Glen Ford from Black Agenda Report to discuss the ongoing protests over police brutality and the myth of the “warrior cop.” Then Lisa Gilbert, executive vice-president of Public Citizen, tells us what they are fighting to get into the next stimulus package. Plus, Ralph updates us on the Boeing Max 8 issue.

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What’s Wrong With the Biden’s Election Strategy? Jun 13, 2020

Ralph welcomes “the world’s greatest political adman,” Bill Hillsman, to discuss what Joe Biden and the Democrats need to do to beat Trump. And Susan Clark, author of “All Those In Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community” joins us to talk about the virtues of direct democracy.

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Will We Be Able To Vote? Jun 06, 2020

Ari Berman, author of “Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America” joins Ralph to discuss what needs to happen for Americans to be able to vote this November. Plus, Ralph talks about George Floyd, Boeing, and answers listener questions.

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Aid to Yemen/Trump Above the Law? May 30, 2020

Ralph talks toHassan El-Tayyab, from the Friends Committee on National Legislation, about how the US urgently needs to resume food and medical aid to Yemen in order to avert an even more serious humanitarian tragedy. And James Zirin, author of “Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits” comes back to update us on the status of Trump’s legal issues, and why they are taking so long to resolve.

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The Tax Break Industrial Complex May 23, 2020

Ralph talks about how ending corporate tax giveaways and enacting a stock transfer tax can help the country recover from the recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic with first Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First and then New York State Assemblyman, Phil Steck. Plus, we pay tribute to a number of progressive activists and thinkers we’ve lost recently, including one of our favorite and frequent guests, the Green Cowboy, David Freeman.

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Trump Death Clock/Saving the Post Office May 16, 2020

Award-winning filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki, joins Ralph to talk about the electronic billboard he put up in New York’s Times Square, the “Trump Death Clock.” And Mark Dimondstein, head of the American Postal Workers Union, reminds how the health and safety of postal workers as well as the preservation of the post office is essential for delivering medicines and other vital goods as well as protecting democracy. Plus, listener questions!
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Crooked Prosecutors/AWOL Congress May 09, 2020

Former Governor of Alabama, Don Siegelman, who was convicted on dubious corruption charges and spent five years in prison joins us to talk about his chronicle of those events in his book “Stealing Democracy: How the Political Assassination of a Governor Threatens Our Nation.” And old friend and constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, makes the case that Congress has once again abdicated its responsibility during the Covid-19 crisis.
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Dr. Michael Osterholm on Covid-19 May 02, 2020

Infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm, comes back to update us on the latest in the battle against Covid-19. And Naila Bolus, president and CEO of “Jumpstart,” joins us to talk about how the money spent on early education gives society a tremendous return on investment.

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Earth Day Turns Fifty! Apr 25, 2020

On the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, Ralph welcomes environmental historian, Adam Rome, author of “The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach- In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation.” And the Green Cowboy, S. David Freeman returns to talk about the state of the environment today. Plus, we debut a special song in honor of Earth Day.
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Nurses on the Front Lines/Captain Bligh Apr 18, 2020

Jean Ross, president of the largest nurses’ union in the country, National Nurses United, joins Ralph to talk about how healthcare workers are not being protected from Covid-19. And Yale psychiatrist, Dr. Bandy Lee, comes back to update us on the Donald Trump’s mental pathology.

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Big Tech, Bernie, and Benevolent Landlords Apr 11, 2020

Scholar and Bernie Sanders surrogate, Ramesh Srinivasan, joins us to talk about the need to regulate big tech while also sharing his thoughts about the end of the Sanders campaign. Then prominent Bay Area attorney, Joe Cotchett, explains why during the coronavirus lockdown, he has stopped collecting rent from the tenants in the commercial properties he owns.

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Presidential Election Crisis Apr 04, 2020

Ralph welcomes Constitutional scholar Alan Hirsch to talk about how best - amid a pandemic - we can still conduct a legitimate presidential election. And labor writer, Steven Greenhouse, asks the question: Are our grocery deliveries worth a worker’s life?

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Drugs in a Pandemic Mar 28, 2020

Ralph talks drugs with two experts, first Katherine Eban about how we can expect the coronavirus pandemic to affect the supply chain for every drug we import. And Jamie Love about how the government needs to keep pharmaceutical companies from gouging American taxpayers in a crisis, especially when the research and development of the drugs was done with taxpayer money. Plus, Ralph answers a question from a listener trapped in the credit economy.

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Trump’s Lawsuits/Coronavirus Update Mar 21, 2020

Ralph speaks to James Zirin, former prosecutor and author of “Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3500 Lawsuits,” which chronicles how Trump throughout his life has weaponized the court system to his advantage. Plus, we welcome back the director of the Health Research Group for Public Citizen, Dr. Michael Carome, to give us an update on the coronavirus pandemic.

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The End of Oil/Sanders vs. Biden Mar 14, 2020

Legendary water protector, Winona LaDuke, joins Ralph to talk about her vision for replacing the oil economy. And national correspondent for The Nation magazine, John Nichols, analyzes the latest in the battle between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as they march toward the Democratic convention.

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Voter Suppression Mar 07, 2020

Ralph invites filmmaker, Robert Greenwald, to talk about his new film, “Suppressed: The Fight to Vote,” about all the creative ways Republicans use to discourage people of color from voting. And the University of Redlands’, Shelli Stockton, joins us to promote the “tree plant-a-thon” organized in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. Plus, Ralph talks Super Tuesday!

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Lying About Science Feb 29, 2020

Ralph talks to the former head of OSHA, Dr. David Michaels, about how corporations pay scientists to do studies that deceive the public, chronicled in his book, “The Triumph of Doubt: Dark Money and the Science of Deception.” Plus, David and Steve talk with Ralph about the coronavirus and the Democratic primary.

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The Making of a Predator Feb 22, 2020

Ralph welcomes independent journalist, Monique El-Faizy, to talk about her book “All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator,” which chronicles 43 more women who have come forward with stories of the President’s sexual misconduct. Plus, Ralph, Steve, and David talk Trump’s pardons, Michael Bloomberg, electoral politics, and still have time to knock out some listener questions.

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Maximum Wage/Universal Basic Income Feb 15, 2020

Ralph tackles the topic of income inequality from two angles. First, he talks to veteran labor journalist, Sam Pizzagati, about his book, “The Case for a Maximum Wage,” about a plan to link top wages to bottom wages. Then, Steven Shafarman returns to give us an update on the Universal Basic Income with his new book, “Our Future: The Basic Income Plan for Peace, Justice, Liberty, Democracy, and Personal Dignity.”

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Alan Grayson/Coronavirus Feb 08, 2020

Ralph welcomes progressive firebrand and former congressman, Alan Grayson to discuss his book, “High Crimes: The Impeachment of Donald Trump,” where he argues that it is hard to find an impeachable offense Trump did not commit. Then, infectious disease expert, Dr. Michael Osterholm, returns to give us the latest on the coronavirus pandemic and how to protect yourself."

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All Hell Breaking Loose Feb 01, 2020

It turns out that the American military establishment does not deny the climate crisis, which Ralph talks about with world security expert, Michael Klare, author of “All Hell Breaking Loose: The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change.” Also, Ralph answers listener questions and talks impeachment.

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Making Banking Democratic/The New NAFTA Jan 25, 2020

Ralph talks to historian, Christopher Shaw, about his book "Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic." And global trade expert, Lori Wallach, tells us about the pros and cons of the new NAFTA, the USMCA. Plus, former Fed Governor, Sarah Bloom Raskin, stops by again to talk about what the Fed can do to fight the climate crisis.

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What Good Is The Federal Reserve? Jan 18, 2020

Ralph welcomes former Deputy Secretary of the US Treasury and Federal Reserve governor, Sarah Bloom Raskin, to talk about how we should really measure the health of the economy and how America’s central bank influences that for good and ill. Plus, Ralph pays tribute to the late political and economic reporter, William Greider, the man who among many things, coined the term, “Nader’s Raiders.”

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Iran Crisis Jan 11, 2020

Ralph talks to Constitutional scholar and Senior Fox News Judicial Analyst, Andrew Napolitano, and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, about the legality and consequences of the assassination of Iranian General Qassim Suleimani.
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The King of Everything Jan 04, 2020

The doctors are in! Ralph welcomes Dr. Steffi Woolhandler of Physicians for a National Health Program to give us the latest on the campaign for single-payer health care. And Yale psychiatrist, Dr. Bandy X. Lee, tells us what’s really behind the words Donald Trump is saying.

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The Self-Driving Car: Is It Safe? Dec 28, 2019

Ralph gets the real story about the efficacy of autonomous vehicles from auto safety expert Joan Claybrook. And Harvey Wasserman joins us to talk about his new history book “The People’s Spiral of American History: From Deganawidah to Solartopia,” as well as giving us the key to beating Donald Trump in 2020.

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Reclaiming Democracy! Dec 21, 2019

Ralph welcomes Paul Deslauriers, who with a small dedicated group of fellow activists was able to take over the governing council in his home county of Maui, Hawaii. He’ll take us through that experience and explain how those same techniques can be scaled up to the national level. Plus, Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein and Ralph discuss why Donald Trump’s stonewalling of Congress is an impeachable offense.

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Fake President Dec 14, 2019

Ralph talks to Mark Green about the book they co-authored, entitled “Fake President,” which has been described as “an incisive, witty roadmap into the disinformation and betrayals of President Trump—just in time for the impeachment hearings and the 2020 election.” Plus, Ralph and Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein discuss how Congress has abdicated its duty to set a high bar for presidential conduct.

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The Trial of the Cuban Five Dec 07, 2019

Ralph welcomes legendary trial lawyer, Martin Garbus, who discusses his book “North of Havana: The Untold Story of Dirty Politics, Secret Diplomacy, and the Trial of the Cuban Five.” Plus Ralph answers your questions!

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Summary Dec 02, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Summary

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Thirteen: Violation of the 4th Amendment Dec 01, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Thirteen: Violation of the 4th Amendment

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Twelve: Violation of the Due Process Clause Dec 01, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Twelve: Violation of the Due Process Clause

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What’s Wrong With What We Drink? Nov 30, 2019

Contaminated waterin America is not confined to Flint, Michigan. Ralph welcomes Seth M. Siegel, author of “Troubled Water: What’s Wrong With What We Drink,” who not only outlines the problem with our most precious resource but tells us what we can do to fix it.

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Eleven: Violation of the Declare War Clause Nov 29, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Eleven: Violation of the Declare War Clause

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Ten: Violation of the Treaty Clause Nov 28, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Ten: Violation of the Treaty Clause

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Nine: Freedom of the Press Nov 27, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Nine: Freedom of the Press

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Eight: Violation of the Presentment Clause Nov 26, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Eight: Violation of the Presentment Clause

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Seven: Violation of the Appointments Clause Nov 26, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Seven: Violation of the Appointments Clause

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Six: Dividing the Nation Nov 25, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Six: Dividing the Nation

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Five: Violation of the Appropriations Clause Nov 23, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Five: Violation of the Appropriations Clause

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**Catfish Solution** Nov 23, 2019
Ralph talks to maverick former FCC Commissioner, Nicholas Johnson, about his two new books, the memoir, “Catfish Solution: The Power of Positive Poking” and “Columns of Democracy” and his views on social media and how to repair our democracy.

**Nicholas Johnson** is best known for his controversial term as a **dissenting FCC commissioner in the Johnson/Nixon era**. His most recent work is twofold: a memoir entitled **Catfish Solution: The Power of Positive Poking** and **Columns of Democracy** an examination of the institutions needed to support democracy.

“In the last twenty years or so, [civics] has really kind of faded from the curriculum. Students need training in media literacy. They need training in what a democracy requires of them as a citizen. Until we start that with the young, it’s going to be hard to accomplish anything.”

Nicholas Johnson, Catfish Solution: The Power of Positive Poking

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Four: Violation of the Emoluments Clause Nov 22, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Four: Violation of the Emoluments Clause

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Three: Contempt of Congress Nov 21, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Three: Contempt of Congress

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count Two: Obstruction of Justice Nov 20, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count Two: Obstruction of Justice

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13 Articles of Impeachment of Donald Trump - Count One: Solicitation of Bribery Nov 19, 2019

Welcome to this special edition of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. I’m Steve Skrovan. In this series, Ralph and Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, will lay out the articles of impeachment of President Donald J. Trump.

Count One: Solicitation of Bribery

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**Boeing 787 Dreamliner: “Hundreds of Defective Parts”** Nov 16, 2019
Ralph hears from courageous former Boeing Quality Control Manager, John M. Barnett, who blew the whistle on shoddy production of the 787 Dreamliner, how the FAA has backed off on oversight, and how Boeing “bean counters” have put profits over safety.

John M. Barnett was a Quality Control Manager for Boeing Company for 25 years in its Seattle facility. He transferred in 2011 to manage Boeing’s new plant in South Carolina to build the 787 Dreamliner where he **revealed shoddy production** as reported on the front-page of the **April 20, 2019, New York Times**. He retired under pressure in 2017 and assumed the challenge to inform the flying public. His whistleblower complaint to OSHA is pending.

“I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I would put my name on saying that it’s safe and air-worthy.” **John M. Barnett, former Quality Control Manager on the 787 Dreamliner**

“In aircraft production, and working with Boeing all these years, we have a rule of thumb: that it takes eight to ten years for a defect to become an issue on an airplane. So, if you look at the eight to ten-year time frame before a defect becomes an issue and our first plane was delivered in 2012, we’re starting to get into that eight to ten-year window.” **John M. Barnett, former Quality Control Manager on the 787 Dreamliner**

“Boeing’s number one priority should be the safety of the flying public. And the last six years that I worked with them, that is the last thing on their mind… Because it’s just about kicking airplanes out and making the cash register ring.” **John M. Barnett, former Quality Control Manager on the 787 Dreamliner**

For more information on how to protect yourself, go to Flyers Rights

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 297 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**The CDC’s Culture of Fear** Nov 09, 2019
In our continuing series honoring whistleblowers, Ralph welcomes winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage, Dr. George Luber, former head of the Centers for Disease Control’s Climate Health program, who despite pressure from the newly-minted Trump Administration, blew the whistle after refusing to cancel a convention on how the climate crisis was affecting public health.

George Luber is an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His research interests include the health impacts of environmental change and biodiversity loss, harmful algal blooms, and the health effects of climate change. Dr. Luber headed the CDC’s climate health program until it was eliminated in 2018 by the Trump White House. The nation’s premier health protection agency continues to retaliate against him for speaking out on the climate crisis and its public health effects. He has since filed for whistleblower status with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and has just received the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage.

“The most frightening thing, actually, is that somebody would make a decision like this in anticipating the potential blowback from the [Trump] Administration. That to me is frightening, because it’s the most insidious form of power. And when you can get people to do things for you without even asking them, that I think is the most frightening thing. To get people to act on your behalf in ways that they normally wouldn’t merely out of fear of what you might do.”

**Dr. George Luber,** **winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage**

“I was escorted by armed guards when I needed to get some books out of my office [at the CDC]. I had an armed escort and they asked me to come at 11:00am – the height of the day when everybody is around intending to humiliate me – and marched me through our large ten story office building with a large armed guard behind me that even followed me to the bathroom.”

**Dr. George Luber,** **winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage**

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 296 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud** Nov 02, 2019
Ralph welcomes Tom Mueller, author of “Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowers in an Age of Fraud,” where they discuss the heroic stories of the brave men and women, who at great personal cost, have called to account corruption across government and industry. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.

**Tom Mueller** is a free-lance writer of non-fiction and fiction, whose work has appeared the New Yorker, National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and elsewhere. His first non-fiction book, Extra Virginity, is a New York Times best-selling account of olive oil culture, history, and crime. His latest is **Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud**.

“Bill Binney had the awful irony of having created this structure to surveil foreign targets and winnow out at top speed potential terrorists and seeing his own work… being used against Americans. It was a thing he had sworn every day of his working life not to do… So, he backed away from the agency (NSA) when he felt they were fundamentally violating their mission. And what would Edward Snowden take away from this message? If you follow protocol and you surface your concerns about mass, warrantless surveillance through channels, what happens to you? Well, all he had to do is look at Bill Binney and Tom Drake and see that his only hope of getting the word out was to take another route.”

**Tom Mueller, author of Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud**

“If you look at what Donald Trump is today and his coterie of bandits that he’s put in charge of our government, you can see the price that is paid when you do not pay attention to recidivist white-collar criminality over a generation or more. You get Donald Trump… Donald Trump didn’t come from Mars. He is the logical extension of the corruptions we’ve allowed to creep into our political and social system.”

**Tom Mueller, author of Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud**

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 295 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**The Future of American Labor** Oct 26, 2019
Labor writer, Steven Greenhouse, joins Ralph to discuss his new book “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor.” Then Steve, David, and Ralph have a spirited discussion about how the 99% can wrest power from the 1%.

**Steven Greenhouse** is an award-winning reporter who covered labor and workplace issues for nineteen years at **The New York Times**. He has also served as a business and economics reporter and a diplomatic and foreign correspondent. His latest work is **Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor.**

“I think one of the reasons Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is that workers were too misinformed, and they thought Trump was going to do wonders for them. And if unions did a better job communicating, educating, perhaps a weekly email newsletter about how Trump is hurting workers, how Trump has rolled back all these protections that Obama had provided, extending overtime to millions of more workers. Obama issued this very important rule that doesn’t get enough attention that required Wall Street firms to act in the best interests of workers in handling their 401Ks. And Trump, doing a huge favor for Wall Street and really stabbing workers in back, scrapped that rule. Now, it’s much easier for Wall Street firms to rip off workers.”

**Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past Present and Future of American Labor”**

“In no other industrial nation do corporations fight so hard to beat back and, indeed, quash labor unions. And they threaten to close their plant if they unionize. They threaten to even cut benefits if workers unionize. In 34% of unionization drives – one study found – the companies fire the workers who are leading the unionization drive in order to cripple the unionization drive.”

**Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past Present and Future of American Labor”**

“Tens of millions of workers are making less today than workers were paid in 1968 adjusted for inflation, even though – because of automation etc. – you are twice as productive. One worker in Walmart produces as much as two workers in Walmart in 1968. You’re getting zero benefit. All the productivity gains are going to pay Walmart’s executives and top managers and not to you.”

**Ralph Nader**

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 294 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**Rashida Tlaib** Oct 19, 2019
A member of “The Squad,” Rashida Tlaib, joins Ralph to talk about her aborted trip to the Occupied Territories, Israel and Palestine, poverty in Southern Michigan, and of course, impeachment. Plus, listener questions!

Rashida Tlaib is currently the Congresswoman for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, which includes the city of Detroit and many surrounding communities. Representative Tlaib is a well-known progressive warrior who made history in 2008 by becoming the first Muslim woman to ever serve in the Michigan Legislature. She is beloved by residents for the transformative constituent services she provides, and for successfully fighting the billionaires and corporations that tried to pollute her district.

“We already know that corporations have tainted our democratic process on all levels of the government, not just on the federal level. For us, this (impeachment) is about our way of life… This won’t be the last crooked CEO that runs for President of the United States. So, it is really about putting our democracy first, putting our way of life first… If you really want to show your patriotism, this is the time to do it.”

**Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Michigan)**

“No transformative change has truly happened because of something happening in the United States Congress or out of the White House. It always happens because of grassroots movement work outside of the halls, outside of the Oval Office.”

**Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Michigan)**

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 293 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**Constitutional Crisis** Oct 12, 2019
With a Constitutional crisis afoot, we continue our discussion of impeachment with Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein. And, Ralph welcomes Middle East policy expert, Hassan El-Tayyab, to fill us in on what’s going on with the humanitarian tragedy that is the war in Yemen.

**Bruce Fein** is a Constitutional scholar, who was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan. Mr. Fein has been a visiting Fellow for Constitutional Studies at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct scholar at American Enterprise Institute. He has advised numerous countries on constitutional reform, including South Africa, Hungary and Russia. He is author of **Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy,** and **American Empire: Before the Fall**.

“It’s not just the conservatives who are in my judgment derelict here. I think the entire political class now has conceded that we no longer have a Constitutional dispensation. Both parties, if their guy is in the White House, say ‘do whatever you want to do.’”

**Bruce Fein, attorney and Constitutional scholar**

**Hassan El-Tayyab** is the lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the **Friends Committee on National Legislation**. Previously, he was co-director of the national advocacy group Just Foreign Policy, where he led their lobbying work to advance a more progressive foreign policy in the Middle East and Latin America. He played a major role in the successful passage of the War Powers Resolution to end US military aid to the Saudi-UAE coalition’s war in Yemen.

“As far as what people can do: they need to reach out to their legislators. Their Rep and their two Senators need to hear from you. And let them know that you don’t want the U.S. to be participating in the Yemen War any longer.”

**Hassan El-Tayyab, lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation**.

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 292 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**Impeach Trump!** Oct 05, 2019
Ralph talks to John Bonifaz, of The Impeachment Project, where he argues that the Ukraine scandal is just the last straw in a long line of Donald Trump’s impeachable offenses. And energy expert, David Freeman joins us to talk about the necessary steps the Climate Strike movement needs to take to realize their demands.

John Bonifaz is a public interest lawyer and the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People, which in coalition with Credo Action has initiated The Impeachment Project. Mr. Bonifaz previously served as the Executive Director and then General Counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute and has been at the forefront of key voting rights battles in the country for more than two decades. In 2004, Mr. Bonifaz wrote the book Warrior-King: The Case For Impeaching George W. Bush.

“We are in this urgent moment where Donald Trump almost on a daily basis attacks our Constitution, our democracy, and the rule of law. He’s a direct and serious threat to our republic and he needs to face impeachment proceedings now.” John Bonifaz, of the The Impeachment Project

David Freeman is an engineer, an attorney, and an author, who has been called an “ecopioneer” for his environmentally conscious leadership of both the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. He is also a noted anti-nuclear activist and the author of a number of books on energy policy, including Winning Our Energy Independence and his latest All Electric America.

“The problem is fossil fuels. It’s 70% of the greenhouse gasses being emitted. And the answer is old-fashioned. We need to outlaw the goddamned stuff.” **David Freeman, former director of the Tennessee Valley Authority**

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 291 TRANSCRIPT (RIGHT CLICK TO DOWNLOAD)**

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**Fighting for Water** Sep 28, 2019
Ralph welcomes lawyer and advocate, Ugo Mattei, who tells us how he started a movement that successfully stopped Italy from privatizing its water supply. Plus, listener questions!

Professor Ugo Mattei is Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law at University of California, Hastings and at the University of Turin, Italy. He is a widely published scholar in economic and political aspects of law and his work has been translated into many languages. He masterminded, as lawyer and an activist, the Italian campaign against the privatization of water, which was successfully completed in June 2011 with a national referendum endorsing Professor Mattei’s plan to recognize water as a common. He is the co-author with Laura Nader of Plunder: When the Rule of Law is Illegal, and also authored **The Turning Point in Private Law.**

“People understand how important it is not to leave water in corporate hands. Giving water to corporations is putting ourselves literally and physically at the mercy of those monsters.”

**Ugo Mattei, lawyer and activist who masterminded the** **Italian campaign against the privatization of water**

“People today after ten years of neo-liberalism and social media are not able to understand physical struggles. The social media are against social movements. It’s complete rhetoric and narrative that social media are crucial for the success of these kinds of battles.”

**Ugo Mattei, lawyer and activist who masterminded the** **Italian campaign against the privatization of water**

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 290 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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**Facebook Anonymity/Your Day in Court** Sep 21, 2019
Original Nader’s Raider, Robert Fellmeth, expands upon his open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, demanding that we should know who is talking to us on Facebook. Also, Executive Director of the Museum of Tort Law, Richard Newman, joins us to argue for an ordinary person’s right to have their day in court as he promotes Tort Law Day on October 5^th.

**Robert Fellmeth** has had a long and distinguished career as a public advocate. As a graduate student in the late sixties, he became the original Nader’s Raider, investigating the Federal Trade Commission. He then went on to work as an attorney in Ralph’s office, the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. In 1980, he founded **The Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego Law School** and also founded the Children’s Advocacy Institute, an organization that specializes in reforming the child protection and foster care systems and improving outcomes for youth aging out of foster care.

“We need to know if that message popping up on a device eight inches from our faces is from a Russian bot or the Koch Brothers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or our favorite pizza place.”

Robert Fellmeth in his open letter to Mark Zuckerberg

**Richard Newman** is the **Executive Director of the** **American Museum of Tort Law**. He is a consumer attorney who practices in Connecticut. He has served as the President of the **Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association**.

“Tort Law Day is an innovative new program, and we hope it will be a model for cities and communities all around the country. The idea is that tort law affects directly or indirectly everyone in this country, because of dangerous or defective products, unsafe conduct, malpractice, whatever it might be, people are at risk. And tort law is the mechanism that lets them defend themselves from wrongful injuries.”

Richard Newman, promoting the first annual Tort Law Day, October 5th 2019

**RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 289 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)**

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How The New FBI Damages Democracy Sep 14, 2019

Ralph spends the bulk of the hour with prominent FBI whistleblower, Mike German, whose new book is “Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy.” Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!

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The Curse of Bigness Sep 07, 2019

Ralph welcomes the man who coined the term “net neutrality,” Tim Wu, who talks about how we need to break up concentrated power in Big Tech and other industries. Then, Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored, returns to talk about the state of the media as outlined in his new book “United States of Distraction.”

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Media Consolidation/Plant-Based Diets Aug 31, 2019

John Nichols returns to about the future of newspapers in light of the latest merger between the two largest chains in the country, Gannett and GateHouse. Also, Washington Post reporter and former meat-eater, Courtland Milloy, tells us how much his health improved when he turned to a plant-based diet.
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“Juuling”/Anybody But Trump? Aug 24, 2019

Ralph welcomes Matthew Myers, co-founder of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to talk about the dangers of “Juuling.” Then, using an excerpt of Ralph from the documentary, “An Unreasonable Man, “ Steve, David and Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America, discuss the “Anybody But Trump” mantra in the context of recent history.

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How To Be a Federal Criminal! Aug 17, 2019

In an offbeat and more light-hearted episode,Ralph, Steve, and David talk to criminal defense lawyer, Mike Chase, author of “How To Be A Federal Criminal: An Illustrated Handbook For the Aspiring Offender.” Plus, Ralph answers more of your questions.

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Mike Gravel Aug 10, 2019

Legendary former Senator, Mike Gravel, joins us to talk about his ideas for direct democracy, explains the concept of “Republican Socialism,” and tells us about his role in the Pentagon Papers.

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War With China, Russia, Iran? Aug 03, 2019

Military expert Professor Michael Klare talks military budget, the dangers inherent in our contentious relationship with Iran, and the shift in U.S. military planning away from stateless actors to China, Russia, and Iran.

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Mueller Testimony/Investigating Airline Crashes Jul 27, 2019

Ralph talks with John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation magazine, about Robert Mueller’s testimony, the imperial presidency and Ilhan Omar, and many other aspects of the current political landscape. Then we welcome aviation crash expert, Dr. Alan Diehl, who gives us his take on the situation with Boeing and the problematic 737 MAX 8.

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Thom Hartmann: How To Handle Trump Jul 20, 2019

Ralph talks to progressive broadcaster, Thom Hartmann, about how to respond to a malignant narcissist, who also happens to be the President of the United States.
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Green New Deal! Jul 13, 2019

Ralph welcomes two energy experts who span the far ends of the age spectrum, first 29 year old, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, one of the chief architects of the Green New Deal, and then 93 year old David Freeman, former head of the Tennessee Valley Authority. They both talk about the Green New Deal and the bright future of renewable energy.
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Strength Through Peace/Surveillance Scoring Jul 06, 2019

Ralph welcomes mental health experts Judith Eve Lipton and David Barash to talk about what we can learn from Costa Rica, a country that has survived and thrived after giving up its military. And consumer advocates Harvey Rosenfield and Laura Antonini tell us how they are exposing how companies like Walmart, Home Depot and Airbnb are using your personal data against you.

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The Future of Banking/Sports the Right Way Jun 29, 2019

Ralph welcomes Walt McRee President of Public Banking Associates, who explains how public banks should be the future of banking. And Dr. Ken Reed joins us to discuss how the elimination of phys. ed. classes and intramural sports in schools is contributing to childhood obesity.

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Can American Capitalism Survive? Jun 22, 2019

Ralph welcomes Washington Post business columnist, Steven Pearlstein, who asks the question, “Can American Capitalism Survive?” And economist William Lazonick tells us how Boeing management buying back its own stock contributed to the decisions that led to the crashes of the 737 MAX 8.

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Folk Tales/Generic Drugs Jun 15, 2019

In an eclectic program, Ralph talks first with Rebecca Sheir and Eric Shimelonis, creators of the podcast “Circle Round,” which adapts and updates folk-tales for children. Then, investigative reporter Katherine Eban joins us to talk about her exposé: “Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom.”

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Hemp Victory! Jun 08, 2019

Director of Vote Hemp, Eric Steenstra, recounts how the finally won the battle to legalize industrial hemp farming. And former NRC commissioner, Peter Bradford, rebuts recent op-eds that promote nuclear power.

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Trumpcare Fiasco/Logic For The Left Jun 01, 2019

Medicare For All advocate,Dr. John Geyman, rejoins us to discuss his latest book “Struggling and Dying Under Trumpcare: How We Fix This Fiasco.” And philosophy professor Ben Burgis explains how to “Give Them an Argument: Logic For The Left.” Plus, David Helvarg comes on in the Wrap Up to explain how he’s “Putting The Blue in the Green New Deal.”
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The Military Industrial Virus May 25, 2019

Ralph welcomes acclaimed journalist, Andrew Cockburn, who argues that the more we spend on the armed forces the weaker we actually get. And energy security expert Joel N. Gordes explains how best we can safeguard our vulnerable power grid from a cyber attack.
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Abolishing Prisons?/Chernobyl May 18, 2019

Ralph talks to professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore about abolishing prisons and journalist Adam Higginbotham about his book, “Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster.”

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Can We Limit Greed? May 11, 2019

Greed is the common theme discussed with our two guests. First, Ralph talks to Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskinabout CEO pay, progress on the minimum wage, and the possibility of impeaching Donald Trump. Then, advocate Jamie Love explains how greedy drug companies get away with gouging patients who need life-saving drugs.

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Facebook Must Be Restructured May 04, 2019

Ralph engages in a spirited back and forth with Matt Stoller of the Open Markets Institute about corporate power and how Facebook must be restructured. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions about vaccines, the Boeing Max 8 and has some strong words about Apple buying back 75 billion dollars of its own stock.

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Whistleblowing Engineers/Social Security Apr 27, 2019

Drs.Rania Milleron and Nicholas Sakellariou talk about changing the culture of the engineering profession so that more will step forward when they see bad things happening. And Karen Friedman, from the Pension Rights Center, tells us about preserving your pension and answers the question: “Is Social Security really in trouble?”

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What Netanyahu Wants Apr 20, 2019

Ralph talks tothe founder of Ballot Access News, Richard Winger, about among other things, eliminating the Electoral College and the need for Federal ballot access laws. And Jerome Segal, founder of the Jewish Peace Lobby talks AIPAC and Netanyahu’s plans after his re-election.

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GMOs Decoded Apr 13, 2019

Ralph talks to professor Sheldon Krimsky about the controversy surrounding GMOs and the conflict of interest inherent in corporate funded scientific studies. Plus he talks to Paul Hudson of Flyers Rights about how the FAA dropped the ball and whether the Boeing Max 8 should ever fly again.

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Opioid Moratorium/Black Agenda Report Apr 06, 2019

Dr. Sidney Wolfe explains why Pubic Citizen is calling for a moratorium on FDA approval of any new opioids. And Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report talks with Ralph about a wide range of issues, including right-wing black Democrats, blackface, and the militarization of the police.

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Toxic Avenger Extraordinaire Mar 30, 2019

Toxic Avenger extraordinaire, Walter Hang, joins us to talk about how they outlawed fracking in New York State, why Big Green groups have failed to stop Donald Trump’s anti-environment agenda, and the most effective ways to generate lasting change. Plus, Ralph comments on the Mueller Report and the Boeing Max 8.

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Dancing in the Wonder Mar 23, 2019

Ralph talks to artist Marilee Shapiro Asher about how she maintains a productive life at age 106. And activist Ray Metcalfe explains his plan on how to defang the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision with his campaign The Bribery Stops Here.

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Grounded! Behind Boeing’s 737 Max 8 Mar 16, 2019

Ralph talks to aviation expert, William McGee, about the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and pays tribute to his grandniece, who was one of the fatalities. Plus, Colman McCarthy returns to update us on the progress his Center For Teaching Peace has made in getting the study of peace into the curriculums of America’s schools.

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The End of Ice Mar 09, 2019

Ralph spends the whole hour with independent journalist, Dahr Jamail, author of “The End of Ice,” his first person report on the front lines of the climate crisis.

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Noam Chomsky Mar 02, 2019

In only the third public conversation between these two progressive icons, Ralph talks to Professor Chomsky about - among other things - the media, the Green New Deal, nuclear war, Gaza, and Venezuela.

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Saving Lives! Feb 23, 2019

Ralph welcomes back legendary activist, Lois Gibbs, who updates us on her organization’s latest life-saving grassroots victories to clean up contaminated communities in spite of Trump’s EPA. And Jason Levine, executive director of The Center For Auto Safety, talks about driverless cars, airbag recalls, and The Car Book 2019, your complete guide to buying a safe, reliable, fuel-efficient automobile. Plus listener questions!

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Nukes Are No Answer To Climate Crisis Feb 16, 2019

Ralph spends the entire hour with physicist and former Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Dr. Gregory Jaczko, talking about his book “Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator.”
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Viking Economics/Robocalls Feb 09, 2019

Ralph welcomes activist, George Lakey, to discuss “Viking Economics,” about what the U.S. can learn from the Scandinavian economies and “How To Win” social progress with direct action, non-violent campaigning. Then, Ian Barlow from the Federal Trade Commission, tells us how to stop robo-calls. Plus, Ralph weighs in on Trump’s State of the Union.

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Doctors Opposing Circumcision Feb 02, 2019

Ralph welcomes Dr. George Denniston, founder of Doctors Opposing Circumcision, who argues that male circumcision is unnecessary, unethical, as well as physically and psychologically harmful. Then Public Citizen’s, Rick Claypool, gives us an update on how the Trump Administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy for border crossings and street crime does not extend to his buddies in the corporate world. Plus listener questions!

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The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Jan 26, 2019

Ralph has an absolutely fascinating talk with Harvard Business School professor, Shoshana Zuboff, about how Google, Facebook and other digital companies make money by watching every move you make, and how it can be stopped.

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What The Frack? Jan 19, 2019

Josh Fox, director of the “Gasland” documentaries, joins Ralph to discuss his ongoing battles with the fossil fuel industry as detailed in his one-man show “The Truth Has Changed.” And Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, tells us the important questions the Senate confirmation committee failed to ask Attorney General nominee, William Barr, about executive power.

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Impeaching the President Jan 12, 2019

Ralph engages in a spirited debate with Constitutional scholar Alan Hirsch, author of “Impeaching the President: Past, Present, and Future,” about how the history of impeachment informs the case for possibly impeaching Donald Trump.
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Sports, Politics, and the Lies of History Jan 05, 2019

Ralph talks to Nation magazine sports editor, Dave Zirin, about among other things Lebron James, the heroic gymnasts who brought down Dr. Larry Nasser, and the future of football. And Professor James W. Loewen reveals all the lies your teacher told you in high school about American history.

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Where Have All The Citizens Gone? Dec 29, 2018

Author Ronald R. Fraser (Ph.D.) joins us to discuss the myth of popular sovereignty in his book “America, Democracy, and You: Where Have All The Citizens Gone?” And Ralph gives us a handy ten-point guide to measure if the progressive, Democrats - newly elected to Congress - are for real.

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Medicare Advantage? No Advantage Dec 22, 2018

Ralph welcomes clinical professor and independent health consultant, Dr. Fred Hyde, to give us the lowdown on how the Medicare Advantage program mainly benefits the private insurance companies that participate, not the consumers. Plus Ralph answers more listener questions!

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How To Fix The Future Dec 15, 2018

Andrew Keen,one of the world's best-known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution, proposes his solutions to reforming the digital age with his book “How To Fix The Future.” Plus, we welcome back insurance guru Robert Hunter, to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of one of the nation’s greatest grassroots consumer victories, the passing of Prop 103 in California.

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Global Warming Is Reversible Dec 08, 2018

Ralph debates entrepreneur, author, and activist, Paul Hawken, who makes the case that global warming is reversible in his book “Drawdown.” And conservative constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, does a deep dive into the Mueller investigation.

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Hope From The Heartland/Robot Lawyer Dec 01, 2018

Ralph talks to Pulitzer Prize winning reporter, Art Cullen, about his hometown, Storm Lake, Iowa and how its ethnically diverse community thrives despite being located in Rep. Steve King’s ultra-conservative district. And 21-year old Joshua Browder tells us how you can save a lot of money using his robot lawyer.

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Who Controls the World’s Wealth? Nov 24, 2018

Ralph asks scholar, Richard Falk, about how and why international law seems to not work for peace and security issues. And author, Peter Philips reveals the handful of people who control the world’s wealth.

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Can Music Change The World? Nov 17, 2018

Ralph welcomes former Nader’s Raider, Jim Musselman, who since working with Ralph founded Appleseed Recordings and is promoting “Roots and Branches,” his latest compilation of new and classic folk/roots music. Also, GM engineer and whistleblower, Nicholas Kachman returns to give us an update on General Motors’ Culture of Failure.”

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Midterm Postmortem Nov 10, 2018

Ralph welcomes longtime colleague Mark Green and law professor from Wisconsin, Joel Rogers, to break down what the results of the midterm elections will mean for both the Trump agenda and the direction of the Democratic Party.

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The Elite Charade of Changing the World Nov 03, 2018

Ralph welcomes journalist and author, Anand Giridharadas to talk about his book, “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” which argues that rich “do-gooders” don’t really want to change the system that made them rich.

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All About Elections Oct 27, 2018

Ralph talks to Democratic Congressman, Jamie Raskin, about what issues the Dems have to run on to take over the House. And editor of Ballot Access News, Richard Winger, explains how the two major parties conspire to keep third parties off the ballot. Plus, listener questions!

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Will Democrats Fight for Medicare For All? Oct 20, 2018

Michael Lighty, Policy Director for National Nurses United, makes the case for Medicare For All and points out the gap between the Democratic “base” and its “donors.” Plus Ralph tells us about his new book, “To The Ramparts: How Bush and Obama Paved the Way For the Trump Presidency and How It’s Not Too Late to Change Course.” Plus, listener questions!

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Neo-Fascism/Flyers’ Bill of Rights Oct 13, 2018

Investigative reporter, Allan Nairn, warns of the autocratic drift of the Republican Party under Trump, and how important the midterm elections are in putting the brakes on it. And Paul Hudson of Flyers Rights updates us on the latest on airline travel from the traveler’s point of view.

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Impeach Kavanaugh?/Trumpcare Oct 06, 2018

Ralph and Lisa Graves, former general counsel for judicial nominations under Democrat Patrick Leahy, tick off a long list of reasons why Brett Kavanaugh should not be elevated to the Supreme Court. And Dr. John Geyman returns to discuss his new book “Trumpcare: Lies, Broken Promises, How It Is Failing, and What Should Be Done”.

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How The Rats Reformed The Congress Sep 29, 2018

Steve and David turn the tables and interview Ralph about his latest book, the fable: “How the Rats Re-Formed the Congress,” a creative vision of a citizen revolution. Plus listener questions!

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Phil Donahue Sep 22, 2018

No one in the long history of the “The Phil Donahue Show” appeared more often than Ralph Nader. Today, these two old friends have a wide-ranging and intimate conversation about media, politics, the Catholic Church, Donald Trump, and more.

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Corporations Are Not People, My Friend Sep 15, 2018

Ralph welcomes Jeffrey Clements, founder of “American Promise,” an organization that seeks to write a 28th Amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. He is also author of the book, “Corporations Are Not People: Reclaiming Democracy From Big Money & Global Corporations.” Plus: Listener Questions!
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America Depends on China for Medicine Sep 08, 2018

Health expert, Rosemary Gibson, author of “China RX: Exposing the Risks for America’s Dependence on China for Medicine”gives a startling account of the national security threat we face getting all of our drugs from China. And policy director of League of Fans, Ken Reed, tells us inspiring stories of people, who are trying to reform the world of sports.

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Miscarriage of American Justice Sep 01, 2018

Ralph welcomes back Israeli activist, Miko Peled, who tells us about an incredible miscarriage of American justice chronicled in his book “Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.” And President of Public Citizen, Robert Weissman tells us about two scathing reports they have put out about the Trump Administration’s “light touch” on corporate crime and how Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh has sided with corporations over the public interest 87% of the time.

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Robbing Main Street/Stopping Trump Aug 25, 2018

History professor, Jack Luzkow, explains the many ways the super-rich are robbing the rest of us. And Ralph asks Constitutional law professor, Corey Brettschneider if the Constitution is capable of stopping Donald Trump.
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The Falling of the American Empire Aug 18, 2018

Ralph spends the whole hour with Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Chris Hedges, discussing his book “America: The Farewell Tour.”

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Surprising News About Your Brain! Aug 11, 2018

Journalist, author, and CNN medical contributor, Jean Carper, joins us to talk about her documentary film, “Monster In The Mind,” about the myths surrounding Alzheimer’s disease, how dementia is actually on the decline, and how your genes are not necessarily your destiny. Plus, Ralph takes a big bite out of Apple and their trillion-dollar valuation.

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Dr. Andrew Weil Aug 04, 2018

Ralph talks to world–renowned doctor Andrew Weil about the pharmaceutical industry and the problem of over-medication, outlined in his book “Mind Over Meds.” And Princeton professor Robert Tignor tells us about the petition he wrote calling for the denuclearization of the Middle East that was signed by the likes of Ralph, Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges. Plus, listener questions!

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The Third Leading Cause of Death?! Jul 28, 2018

Ralph speaks to Dr. Michael Daniel, co-author of a study that identifies the third leading cause of death right behind heart disease and cancer. The answer may surprise you. And New York Times tech journalist, David Streitfeld, joins us to talk about why he’s a tech reporter who doesn’t use much tech.

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Poor People’s Campaign/Brett Kavanaugh Jul 21, 2018

Ralph talks to Reverend Graylan Hagler about, among other things, the criminalization of poverty, right wing Christianity, and The Poor People’s Campaign to fight all of that. Then, conservative Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to express his reservations about Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, especially his views on executive power.

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Seymour Hersh Jul 14, 2018

The investigative reporter who broke the story of the My Lai Massacre and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Seymour Hersh talks to Ralph about his life and career, chronicled in his memoir, “Reporter.”
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Nuclear Weapons Free Zones Jul 07, 2018

Ralph greets Princeton classmate and nuclear non-proliferation expert, Ambassador Thomas Graham, a former senior U.S. diplomat, who was involved in the negotiation of every single international arms control and non-proliferation agreement from 1970 to 1997. Also, the original Nader’s Raider, Robert Fellmeth rejoins us to talk about the campaign to protect children on Facebook.

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Google is God Jun 30, 2018

Marketing professor and entrepreneur, Scott Galloway, explains how Google is God, Facebook is Love, Amazon is Consumption, Apple is Sex, and their collective market dominance needs to be broken up for the sake of democracy… and innovation. Plus, Ralph talks to Michael Merhige about the political philosophy he developed while working as a CIA operative and in the military.

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Good News From the Heartland Jun 23, 2018

Ralph talks to Atlantic magazine writer and former protégé, James Fallows, about the trip he took with his wife, Deborah, that resulted in their book, “Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America.” Plus, wunderkind, Felix Finkbeiner, joins us to report on his mission to plant a trillion trees around the world.
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How To End GMOs! Jun 16, 2018

In a passionate and articulate call to action, food safety warrior, Andrew Kimbrell, returns to make the case that passing food labeling laws will spell the end of the GMO industry. Plus, progressive Maryland senate candidate, Jerome Segal battles the Democratic establishment.

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Democracy in Chains Jun 10, 2018

Ralph welcomes Duke University historian, Nancy MacLean, to discuss her book “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America,” which delves into the destructive “libertarian” ideology the Koch brothers fund to keep the minority in power. Also, Ralph talks to English professor, Tymofey Wowk, about his strategies for teaching students in the age of social media.

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Trump and Trade: What’s Going On? Jun 02, 2018

Public Citizen’s global trade expert, Lori Wallach, tells us what’s really going on in the White House and Congress with these “free trade” deals. And citizen activist, Barry Klein, gives us a step-by-step formula for how you can make meaningful change in your local community. Hint: It’s easier than you think.

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How Central Banks Rigged The World/Facebook Privacy May 26, 2018

Ralph talks to former financial insider, Nomi Prins, about what central banks are and how much power they have to shape our world. Plus, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Marc Rotenberg, tells us how Facebook uses our information for good or ill.

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Is The U.S. Turning Into Russia?/DC Statehood? May 19, 2018

Ralph welcomes back Yale historian Timothy Snyder, author of “On Tyranny,” to talk about his new book “The Road To Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America.” Then journalist Mark Plotkin tells us the status of DC statehood. Plus, Ralph weighs in on Gaza.

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Nuking the Iran Nuke Deal May 12, 2018

Ralph talks to Colonel (ret) and West Point military strategist, Isaiah Wilson, about the consequences of the United States pulling out of the Iranian nuclear deal and the dark side of American exceptionalism. Plus, Ralph answers more of your questions!

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The Myth of the Litigious Society May 05, 2018

The Radio Hour celebrates that bedrock Constitutional principle of an ordinary citizen’s right to have their day in court, when Ralph talks to legendary trial lawyers, Stephen Susman, Shanin Specter and Executive Director of the American Museum of Tort Law, Richard Newman. Plus more listener questions!

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Trump’s Corporate Presidency/The Truth About Airlines Apr 28, 2018

Ralph welcomes back president of Public Citizen, Robert Weissman, for an update on the Trump agenda and what they are doing to fight it. Also, aviation expert William McGee tells us what’s really going on in the airplanes you fly with his book, “Attention All Passengers: The Airlines Dangerous Descent and What You Can Do To Reclaim Our Skies.”
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Beating City Hall/What’s Really Going On in Syria Apr 21, 2018

Ralph welcomes independent candidate for California Lieutenant Governor, Gayle McLaughlin, who talks about how she and small group of progressive reformers turned around the city of Richmond, California. And one of the foremost experts on the Middle East, Professor Joshua Landis, clues us in to what exactly is going on in Syria, and what we should do about it.

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Happy Tax Day!? Apr 14, 2018

Former Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, John Koskinen, joins Ralph to discuss the bad rap the IRS gets and the consequences of Congress cutting its budget. Plus, listener questions!

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John Bolton Must Be Stopped/How To Buy a Car Apr 07, 2018

Ralph welcomes conservative Constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, who argues against the appointment of John Bolton as National Security Advisor and why that should be a position confirmed by the Senate. Plus, Jack Gillis, co-author of “The Car Book,” gives us tips on how to buy the safest, most reliable car. And, a listener asks, “Did Ralph pave the way for Citizens United?”

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John Bolton: The New Dr. Strangelove Mar 31, 2018

Ralph talks to journalist Gareth Porter about why both liberals and conservatives should be afraid - be very afraid - of warhawk John Bolton’s appointment as Trump’s National Security Advisor. And author/activist Julie Wark joins us to talk about why she is “Against Charity.”
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Iraq: Fifteen-Year Criminal War of Aggression Mar 24, 2018

On the fifteenth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, Ralph talks about the true costs of war with executive director of Veterans for Peace, Michael McPhearson and un-embedded war correspondent, Dahr Jamail, eyewitness to the battle of Fallujah.
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Good News For The Environment! Mar 17, 2018

Ralph spends the full hour with the co-founder of Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), Jack Dangermond, talking about the gift he and his wife Laura gave to preserve 24,000 acres of incredibly bio-diverse California coastal land as well as their vision for all of the positive ways computer mapping software can be used.

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Skin in the Game Mar 10, 2018

Former derivatives traderturned philosophical essayist,Nassim Nicholas Taleb, joins us to talk about his new book, ‘Skin in the Game,” about the role risk and reward plays not only in politics but also our daily lives.

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The Chicken S**t Club Mar 03, 2018

Ever wonder why no bankers went to jail after the 2008 financial crisis? Investigative journalist, Jesse Eisinger, tells us why in his book, “The Chicken S**t Club.”

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Your Tax Dollars/Animal Agriculture Feb 24, 2018

Ralph questionsthe Comptroller of the United States, Gene Dodaro, head of the Government Accountability Office, about a long overdue audit of the Pentagon. Plus, Dr. Gordon Douglas, co-founder of Princeton Studies Food has some pretty harsh words for our industrial animal agriculture system.

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Naming Brand Names! Feb 17, 2018

Ralph welcomes the head of testing for Consumer Reports, Liam McCormack, who gives us a tour of the marketplace for many of the products you buy from automobiles to computers to auto insurance to appliances to laundry detergent and much, much more.

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Real Terrorists/Solutions For the Homeless Feb 10, 2018

Ralph talks about the “real terrorists” in our midst - killer germs - with Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center For Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. And then Brian Carome, executive director of Street Sense Media, tells us how his organization is helping the homeless in the Washington DC area.

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Drones, Snowden & the State of the Union Feb 03, 2018

Investigative journalist Pratap Chatterjee joins us for a deep dive into his graphic non-fiction book “Verax: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance,” which reveals the dark underbelly of how the U.S. conducts the so-called War on Terror. Also, Ralph deconstructs Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

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It’s Even Worse Than You Think Jan 27, 2018

Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, tax expert and Trumpologist extraordinaire, David Cay Johnston, talks to Ralph about his new best seller: “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What The Trump Administration Is Doing To America.”

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March for the Ocean!/Basic Income Jan 20, 2018

Ralph welcomes back ocean conservationist David Helvarg, who talks about offshore oil drilling and June 9^th’s March for the Ocean and Steven Shafarman, author of Basic Income Imperative: For Peace, Justice, Liberty and Personal Dignity.

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Medicare For All/UnKoch My Campus Jan 13, 2018

Ralph talks to a new generation of young activists, Timothy Faust, who tours the country promoting single-payer healthcare, and Ralph Wilson, who is putting a spotlight on Charles Koch’s efforts to influence what’s taught at colleges and universities.

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Ramsey Clark/”Progressive” vs. “Liberal” Redux Jan 06, 2018

Ralph talks to legendary progressive lawyer and former U.S. Attorney General,Ramsey Clark, about the conflicts in the Middle East. And we continue our discussion about the difference between “progressives” and “liberals” and why the distinction is important. Plus more listener questions!

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Listener Questions and Year End Jokes! Dec 30, 2017

To wrap up a year filled with anxiety, Ralph answers a bunch of your questions and then David and Steve try out some jokes. As usual, Ralph gets the last laugh.

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The Nuns, The Priests, and the Bombs Dec 24, 2017

We track down disabilities champion, Ralf Hotchkiss, who is in Nicaragua helping poor communities design and build more durable, low cost wheelchairs. Then filmmaker Helen Young promotes her gripping documentary about the elderly activists who snuck onto two of the most fortified military installations in the country to peacefully protest the nuclear weapons industry. Plus, David, Steve and Ralph talk more about Al Franken and sexual harassment as well as the GOP tax bill.

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A Coal Miner Speaks Out/The Fall of Al Franken Dec 16, 2017

Ralph talks to activist coal miner, Stanley Sturgill, who advocates for the strengthening of EPA regulations on the coal industry and mountaintop removal. Also, Mark Green gives us his take on the sudden, steep fall of Senator Al Franken.
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The Difference Between Liberal and Progressive Dec 09, 2017

Ralph and Washington Post columnist, E.J. Dionne debate the distinction between “Progressive” and “Liberal,” and Original Nader’s Raider, Robert Fellmeth tells us why he thinks speech on the Internet should not be anonymous.
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The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump Dec 02, 2017

Ralph spends the whole hour with Dr. Bandy X. Lee, psychiatrist from the Yale School of Medicine and editor of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

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The Art of the Steal Nov 25, 2017

Ralph spends the hour with fraud expert, Frank Abagnale, inspiration for the Spielberg film, “Catch Me If You Can.” They talk about how to protect yourself from identity theft and other scams in our high tech, digital economy. Plus listener questions!

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Invasion of the Robots! Nov 18, 2017

Ralph welcomes back America’s #1 populist, Jim Hightower, to discuss how to make sure that robots will work for us and not the other way around. Then, attorney Roberta Walburn joins us to discuss her book about firebrand populist judge “Miles Lord: The Maverick Judge Who Brought Corporate America To Justice.”

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Representation Without Taxation! Nov 11, 2017

Economist James Henry takes apart the Republican tax plan, calling it “the largest wealth transfer in history to the ruling class" And activist, law student, Pete Davis, tells us how he’s trying to get Harvard Law School to fulfill it’s stated mission by funneling fewer of its graduates toward powerful corporate firms and more toward the public interest.

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Grassroots Action! Nov 04, 2017

Ralph welcomes Sarah van Gelder, founder of PeoplesHub and Mark Pertschuk, director of Grassroots Change, two organizations that offer you the skills and expertise on how to make change in your community.

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Who Owns The Media?/Monsanto’s Whitewash Oct 28, 2017

Former FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson, gives us a perspective on the media landscape from Johnson to Trump. And investigative journalist, Carey Gillam, explains how, thanks to chemical companies like Monsanto, we’re all probably eating the pesticide, Round Up.

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"I Agree?"/Trip, Slip & Fall Oct 21, 2017

Ralph talks to law professor Margaret Jane Radin about the hazards of fine print contracts and to Russell Kendzior about the hazards of slippery floors, two seemingly minor things that have a surprisingly profound effect on our daily lives.

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Nurses United!/Animal Welfare Oct 14, 2017

Ralph talks wildfires, single payer healthcare, and the state of the union movement with Executive Director of National Nurses United, RoseAnn DeMoro; and the head of the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacelle, argues that if industry treated animals better, they’d actually increase profits.

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The Truth About Trump’s Tax Plan Oct 07, 2017

Ralph and Alan Essig, Executive Director of Citizens for Tax Justicebreak down President Trump’s Tax Reform proposal and insurance expert, Robert Hunter, returns to explain what’s going on with hurricane and flood insurance in the wake Harvey, Irma and Maria.

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Patriotic Millionaires/Congress Working?/Trump vs. NFL Sep 30, 2017

Ralph talks to millionaire Morris Pearl, chairman of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy individuals fighting for economic and political equality, which includes raising their own taxes. And former FTC Chair, Michael Pertschuk reminisces with Ralph about how they got good things done in Congress. Plus, in the Wrap Up Ralph weighs in on Donald Trump vs. the NFL.

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Clean Water/Throwing Rocks At The Google Bus Sep 23, 2017

Ralph talks everything water, including how cities can maintain clean water in the face of natural disasters with George Hawkins, CEO of the municipal utility, DC Water. And media maven, Douglas Rushkoff, author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, talks about how to maintain your power and humanity in the age of digital monopolies.

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The Existential Threat of Big Tech Sep 16, 2017

Ralph spends the whole hour with journalist Franklin Foer, author of World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech, about how the Big Four, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are attempting to dominate every aspect of our lives and minds. Plus, we get Ralph’s take on the Bernie Sanders’ single-payer bill, and he answers more listener questions.

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Amazon Takes Over The World! Sep 09, 2017

Ralph talks to Lina Khan, monopoly expert with the Open Markets Institute, about how to tame “Too Big To Fail” corporations like Amazon. And Ralph’s Princeton classmate and Renaissance Man, Scott McVay, tells us about some of the adventures he chronicled in his memoir Surprise Encounters With Artists and Scientists, Whales and Other Living Things.Plus, Ralph weighs in on the DACA controversy and devastating hurricanes.
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Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse/Iran Nuclear Deal Sep 02, 2017

Ralph talks to political correspondent, John Nichols, about the scoundrels populating the Trump Administration. And Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson outlines the dangers of scuttling the Iran nuclear deal.

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Outrageous CEO Pay/Progressive Banks/Remembering Dick Gregory Aug 26, 2017

Ralph dissects how your boss makes 500 times more than you do with Steven Clifford, author of The CEO Pay Machine: How it Trashes America and How to Stop It. And the President of the progressive Amalgamated Bank, Ken Mestrich, joins us to discuss why small banks like his are where you should putting your money. Plus, David, Steve and Ralph talk about the late great comedian, Dick Gregory.

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Hands Off Our National Parks!/Trump Connections to ISIS? Aug 19, 2017

Ralph talks to author and conservationist, Terry Tempest Williams about her lyrical paean to our national parks, The Hour of Land. And intrepid investigative journalist, Allan Nairn, tells us about Donald Trump’s connections to ISIS in Indonesia.

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Congressman Jamie Raskin/Teamsters Battle XPO Aug 12, 2017

Ralph talks to Democratic Congressman and constitutional law scholar Jamie Raskin about how progressives can break the Republican stranglehold on the federal government. And union organizer Jeffrey Farmer describes the pitched battle between the Teamsters and XPO Logistics, one of the largest transportation companies in the world.

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Inside Philanthropy Aug 05, 2017

Ralph has a fascinating conversation about the billions of dollars spent on political philanthropy and what all that money is working for with David Callahan, author of The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age. Also, Ralph answers more listener questions!

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Fighting Student Loan Debt/A Better Deal? Jul 29, 2017

Ralph talks to insurance expert Robert Hunter about another way toward a single-payer healthcare system: buy out the insurance industry. Attorney, Joanna Darcus, tells you how to fight for your rights against predatory student loan debt collectors. And we get Ralph’s take on the Democratic Party’s “Better Deal.”

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A More Progressive Economic Agenda Jul 22, 2017

Distinguished economist, Robert Pollin, joins us to share his ideas on a progressive more egalitarian economic agenda. And Dr. Steffie Woolhandler tells us why doctors and other health professionals want a single-payer, Medicare for All healthcare system.

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Draft Bernie?/Raising Minimum Wage Jul 15, 2017

Nick Brana joins us to discuss his efforts to “Draft Bernie for a People’s Party;” and economist Ben Zipperer explains how, contrary to conventional wisdom, raising the minimum wage will not result in significant job loss.

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Fighting For Justice/Protecting Endangered Species Jul 08, 2017

Ralph talks to Edgar Cahn about the Legal Services Corporation, which makes thousands of lawyers available to low income Americans; and Leda Huta executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition joins us to tell us why we should care about endangered species. Plus, Ralph answers your questions!

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Dean Baker/Standing Up For Children Jul 01, 2017

Ralph talks to renowned economist, Dean Baker, about the state of “free trade” in the era of Trump; and original Nader’s Raider, Robert Fellmeth, joins us to advocate for a group of people who have virtually no say in the political process, children.

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Hitler’s Model/The Shape of a New Economy Jun 24, 2017

Ralph talks to historian James Whitman about how the Nazis in the thirties modeled a lot of their racial policies on our very own Jim Crow laws and what that means for us today; and political economist Gar Alperovitz gives us an encouraging progress report on how the New Economy Movement is transforming the system.

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The Moral Failure of the Business School Elite Jun 17, 2017

Ralph has a fascinating conversation with author Duff McDonald about how business schools like Harvard are producing graduates who are nothing more than “heat seeking money missiles.” And muckraking journalist, Roldo Bartimole, tells us how billionaire sports team owners extort money from a city’s taxpayers.

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Synthetic Mesh Epidemic Jun 10, 2017

Ralph talks to hernia surgeon, Dr. Robert Bendavid and whistleblower journalist, Jane Akre about all of the problems arising from the use of surgical mesh. Plus, Ralph answers listener questions!

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Impeachment/Can The Dems Win? Jun 03, 2017

Learn everything you ever wanted to know about the impeachment process when Ralph talks to constitutional professor, Alan Hirsch, author of “A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment. Also Bill Curry joins us to discuss what Democrats need to do to win. Plus Ralph answers your questions!

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Beyond Nuclear and the Bright Future of Solar May 27, 2017

Ralph talks to Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear about all the lies the nuclear industry tells to stay afloat; and solar expert Scott Sklar joins us to talk about how solar energy is already creating more jobs than nuclear and fossil fuels combined.

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Noam Chomsky – Requiem for the American Dream May 20, 2017

Ralph interviews Noam Chomsky about his latest work Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power

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Progressive Teaching/Raised By Animals/Comey Firing May 13, 2017

Ralph talks to education expert Brian D. Schultz about how he has put his innovative, child-centric teaching philosophy into practice in public schools. And Dr. Jennifer Verdolin tells us what humans can learn about parenting from the animal kingdom. Plus, Ralph weighs in on the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

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Music and Laughter May 06, 2017

Ralph welcomes Dr. Ani Patel to talk about how our brains process musical rhythm and Ralph finally talks about something Steve and David know a little bit about: the power of laughter.

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Trump’s First 100/Adjunct Professors/Public Banks Apr 29, 2017

Ralph assesses the first 100 days of the Trump administration. He also talks to Maria Maisto of the New Faculty Majority about how universities’ exploitation of adjunct professors hurts higher education. And Ellen Brown tells us how public banks are the best alternative to Wall Street.

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Sports/Democrats/Public Banking Apr 22, 2017

Ralph talks to Ken Reed, policy director for League of Fans about his book Ego Vs. Soul in Sports and also answers your questions on the state of the Democratic Party and public banking.

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What’s Wrong With The Democratic Party Apr 15, 2017

In a lively roundtable discussion Ralph talks to top political analysts Thomas Frank and Bill Curry about why, despite the obvious cold-hearted cruelty of the Republican agenda, the Democrats continue to lose.

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Fighting World Hunger/Superbugs Apr 08, 2017

Ralph talks to Oxfam's, Scott Paul, about effective strategies for overcoming world hunger and Emily L. Heil of the University of Maryland Medical Center outlines the risks to humans of giving antibiotics to farm animals.

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Don’t Think of An Elephant! Apr 01, 2017

Ralph questions noted linguist, George Lakoff, about the language progressives need to use to get their message across. And Washington Post columnist, Christine Emba, tells us about how “Smartphones Changed Our Lives. Let’s Think Before We Let Robots In.”

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Is Trump Mussolini? Mar 25, 2017

Yale history professor Timothy Snyder tells us what lessons can be learned from 20^th Century European history in order for America to avoid fascist authoritarianism. And Deborah Weinstein of the Coalition for Human Needs breaks down Trump’s cruel budget plan.

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What’s So Funny About Palestine? Mar 18, 2017

Ralph welcomes Palestinian/American comedian Amer Zahr to talk about finding humor in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. And author, Steve Early, tells us how the town of Richmond, California became one of the most progressive communities in the country.

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Attacks On Legal System/Surveillance State Mar 11, 2017

Ralph welcomes civil justice advocate, Joanne Doroshow, to unpack the latest corporate efforts to deny you your day in court; and Dr. Richard Stallman joins us to discuss his views on digital surveillance, privacy and the free software movement.

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History of Fraud/Trump Promises Mar 04, 2017

Ralph talks to professor Edward Balleisen about his book Fraud: An American History From Barnum to Madoff and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Hedrick Smith, rejoins us to critique Trump’s promises and tell us how we can “Reclaim the American Dream.”

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Capitalism, Federal Reserve, 9/11 Feb 25, 2017

Ralph answers your Facebook questions about the Federal Reserve, the state of capitalism, job opportunities in grassroots activism, the two-party system, unanswered questions about the 9/11 attacks and much more!

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Reading and Suing Feb 18, 2017

Ralph talks to literacy expert, Nancy Newman about how to raise passionate readers; and law professor, Alexandra Lahav tells us how a "litigious society" is actually vital to a functioning democracy.

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Vertical Farming/Hemp Farming Feb 11, 2017

Ralph talks to Dickson Despommier about “vertical farming,” how to raise farm crops in tall inner-city buildings. And hemp lobbyist, Eric Steenstra, tells us about his ongoing efforts to convince Congress to make hemp farming legal.

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What Do We Do Now? w. Robert Reich Feb 04, 2017

Ralph welcomes former Labor Secretary and Chairman of Common Cause, Robert Reich, to talk about how to fight back in Donald Trump's America. And children’s studies scholar, Heidi Tilney Kramer, talks about her book Media Monsters: Militarism, Violence, and Cruelty in Children's Culture.

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The Future of Work Jan 28, 2017

Ralph talks to Professor Trebor Scholz about how to organize workers in the new “Uber” economy. And David and Steve ask Ralph about what he thought about the Trump Inauguration speech. Plus, listener questions.

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Grassroots Action/Satirizing Trump Jan 21, 2017

Ralph welcomes America’s Number One populist, Jim Hightower, to tell us how grassroots action can resist the Trump agenda and legendary satirist Lewis Lapham to talk about whether Donald Trump can even be satirized.

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Trumpology Jan 14, 2017

In a busy show, tax expert and Trumpologist, David Cay Johnston joins us to discuss the President-elect’s fitness for office, the “Deal Professor” Steven Davidoff Solomon unveils corporate shenanigans in Silicon Valley, and ocean conservationist, David Helvarg, tells us how Marco Rubio and Rick Scott deny climate change while their state of Florida sinks.

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Israel/Palestine: One State/Two State? Jan 07, 2017

Ralph talks to Israeli activist, Miko Peled, author of The General’s Son, Journey of an Israeli in Palestine about whether a two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is even possible. Also, Mark Green rejoins us to discuss whether president-elect Donald Trump has already violated The Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from negotiating on behalf of the U.S. with a foreign government.

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Trump’s Conflicts of Interest: Divest or Impeach Dec 31, 2016

With former colleague, Mark Green, Ralph elaborates on the public letter they published demanding that president-elect Donald Trump divest himself of his business interests or risk impeachment for violating the Constitution. Ralph also appraises the cabinet picks of the incoming Trump Administration.

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The Truth About American Manufacturing Dec 24, 2016

Ralph asks New York Times reporter, Louis Uchitelle, how manufacturing can make a comeback in America. And David Halperin reveals how the for-profit college industry is ripping us all off.

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What To Do About Gerrymandering Dec 17, 2016

Ralph talks about the institutional corruption behind the practice of gerrymandering with David Daley, author of Ratfucked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy. Then Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen tells us what he thinks President Obama should do in the final days of his administration.

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Victory at Standing Rock! Dec 11, 2016

Activist Winona LaDuke gives her first person account of how the “water protectors” fended off the oil company over the Dakota Access Pipeline. And Ralph offers a plan to help Marine families, gain justice with Mike Magner, author of A Trust Betrayed: The Untold Story of Camp Lejeune and the Poisoning of Generations of Marines and Their Families.

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Militarism and Popular Resistance Dec 03, 2016

Ralph talks to political activist Kevin Zeese about how to resist in the age of Trump and to professor Joel Andreas about his graphic novel-style critique of the military industrial complex: Addicted To War: Why the U.S. Can’t Kick Militarism.

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Inside the Mind of a Trump Voter Nov 26, 2016

We talk to social psychologist, Arlie Russell Hochschild, who helps us get inside the head, and more importantly, the heart of the typical Trump voter. Also, Bill Curry gives us his take on the way forward for the Democratic Party. And, Ralph responds to your questions about last week’s show on the Electoral College.
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What To Do About The Electoral College Nov 19, 2016

Stephen Silberstein of National Popular Vote rejoins us to tell us how the Electoral College can be reformed to more fully reflect the will of the people. And Ralph pays tribute to longtime colleague and head of The Center for Auto Safety, the late Clarence Ditlow.

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2016 Presidential Election Postmortem Nov 12, 2016

Salon’s Bill Curry and The Nation’s John Nichols join Ralph and David to sort out what the hell just happened this past election day.

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Almighty/They Rule the World Nov 05, 2016

Author, Dan Zak, tells us the gripping story of the three peace activists, who broke into the most heavily guarded nuclear facility in the country. And poet Samuel Hazo tells us who “they” are in his new book of poetry entitled “They Rule The World.”
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Ted Koppel/Remembering Tom Hayden Oct 29, 2016

The tables are turned this week when Ralph gets to ask the questions in our interview with legendary broadcast journalist Ted Koppel about the state of the media and his book Lights Out: A Cyber Attack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath.

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The Minds of Animals/Income Inequality Oct 22, 2016

Ralph talks to animal behaviorist Marc Bekoff about how animals think and feel and also to former heir to the Oscar Meyer fortune, Chuck Collins, about his book Born on Third Base: A One-Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good.
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The Politics of Technology, Hillary’s Wikileaks Oct 15, 2016

Ralph talks to author Doug Hill, author of Not So Fast: Thinking Twice About Technology about, among other things, whether people like Elon Musk and Mark Andreeson actually believe in their grand techno-visions or are just seeking publicity for their businesses. Plus, Ralph breaks down the second Presidential debate, and we discuss the Wikileaks revelations of Hillary Clinton’s closed door speeches to corporate America.

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Noam Chomsky Oct 08, 2016

For the first time in a public forum two titans of the progressive movement in conversation: Ralph spends the full hour with Noam Chomsky talking about censorship, nuclear war, citizen activism, ISIS, the Israeli/Palestinian question and much, much more!
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Listener Questions, Breaking Through Power 2 Oct 01, 2016

Ralph answers a whole slew of your questions, ranging from the Colin Kaepernick protest to voting your conscience to living off the grid. And we also feature two clips from the Breaking Through Power Conference, featuring Janine Jackson talking about the nature of corporate media and Robert Weissman, who tells us how the country is not as divided as the pundits would have you believe.

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Breaking Through Power 2! Sep 24, 2016

Ralph previews the second Breaking Through Power conference, the Super Bowl of Civic Action, with tax expert, Jon Fox, public banking advocate Ellen Brown, community cooperative founder and funder David J. Thompson, and star litigator, Shanin Specter.
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Jill Stein Sep 17, 2016

We are joined this week by Green Party presidential candidate, Dr. Jill Stein,who talks with Ralph about Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, third parties, the media, the TPP, the Presidential debates, and much, much more!
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Presidential Debates/Mathbabe Sep 10, 2016

We check in with George Farah, who reveals the “Secrets of the Tomb,” otherwise known as the Commission on Presidential Debates. And the Mathbabe, Cathy O’Neil, drops in to discuss how numbers can crunch us with her book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy.

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Going Nuclear! Sep 03, 2016

Filmmaker Ivy Meeropol tells us what it’s like inside a nuclear power plant with her documentary “Indian Point.” And S. David Freeman tells us about how activists convinced the power company PG&E to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in central California.
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The Stop Act; Robbing Banks Aug 28, 2016

Ralph talks to Representative David Jolly (R: FL) about The Stop Act, which would prohibit members of Congress from personally soliciting campaign donations. And Professor William Black tells us that the best way to rob a bank is from the inside.

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Cuddling/Triumph Goes to the RNC & DNC Aug 20, 2016

Ralph talks about the importance of human touch in our industrial and virtual society with entrepreneur, Adam Lippin, CEO of the cuddling service Cuddliest.com. Plus, David comes back to report on his foray into both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

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Waging Peace/Tax Havens Aug 13, 2016

Ralph talks to activist Charles Keil about his work trying to encourage a Department of Peace and economist and journalist James S. Henry tells us how the wealthy hide trillions of dollars in offshore tax havens.

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Rebroadcast: Jonathan Martin, David Cay Johnston Aug 06, 2016

Due to technical difficulties we had recording this week’s show, we are unable to bring you a new episode of the Radio Hour. So instead we present an encore edition of a show we recorded in April, which seems even more relevant today. It features third party advocate Jonathan Martin and Pulitzer Prize winning author and tax expert David Cay Johnston. This week, Warren Buffet called upon Donald Trump to release his tax returns, and David Cay Johnston will tell us why that is not likely and even if Trump did what we would expect to see. And now that both the Democratic and Republican national conventions are over, some disaffected people are turning to third party candidates like Jill Stein of the Green Party and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian party. Professor Jonathan Martin will tell us the important role of third parties in American politics over the years. We will be back next week with a brand new episode of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. In the meantime enjoy this encore presentation.

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Fighting the Good Fight; Autonomous Cars Jul 30, 2016

Ralph talks to the President of Public Citizen, Robert Weissman, about that organization’s storied history fighting and winning against the perfidies of corporate power. And in our listener question segment, Ralph defends his position on autonomous cars and talks about what he might do differently if he had it to do all over again.
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Fixing the Media and the Police Jul 23, 2016

Ralph talks to renowned investigative journalist Charles Lewis about his book 935 Lies: The Future of Truth and the Decline of America’s Moral Integrity and former police chief Norm Stamper tells us what needs to be done to repair the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve with his book To Protect & Serve: How to Fix America’s Police.

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Thomas Frank; Steven Hill Jul 16, 2016

In two very lively discussions, Ralph talks to progressive author and essayist, Thomas Frank, about the failings of the Democratic Party and his new book Listen Liberal: Or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? And then author Steven Hill returns to tell us why and how we need to Expand Social Security Now!

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Charles Derber; Nicholas Mokhiber Jul 09, 2016

Ralph talks to professor Charles Derber about how corporate capitalism has turned America into a “bully nation.” And nineteen year old Nicholas Mokhiber shares with us his adventure hiking the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail.

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David Whyte; Steve Tombs; George Mallinckrodt Jul 02, 2016

Ralph makes the case for abolishing the corporation with the help of professor David Whyte and Steve Tombs, authors of The Corporate Criminal. And we also hear from psychotherapist George Mallinckrodt, who blew the whistle on the systemic abuses of mentally ill prisoners in the Florida state prison system.
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Michael Shuman; Malcolm Sparrow Jun 25, 2016

Ralph talks to author and entrepreneur, Michael Shuman about ways local businesses can actually beat big business in your town. And we discuss the enormous cost of Medicare fraud and how you can report it with Professor Malcolm Sparrow.

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Phil Donahue; James Cullen Jun 18, 2016

Ralph talks to legendary TV talk show host, Phil Donahue about his documentary “Body of War,” the moving story of the late Iraq war veteran Tomas Young. We also welcome the editor of the “Progressive Populist,” James Cullen.

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Robert Monks; Jackson Katz Jun 13, 2016

Ralph talks to shareholder advocate, Robert Monks about how we are becoming more and more a corporate society and author Jackson Katz tells us what it really means to be a man in his very timely book Man Enough?: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and the Politics of Presidential Masculinity.

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Wenonah Hauter; Bartlett Naylor Jun 04, 2016

Ralph talks fracking with Wenonah Hauter author of Frackopoly, and then delves into finance with consumer financial expert, Bartlett Naylor, who contends that the mega-banks are not only too big to fail and too big to jail; they’re even too big to manage.

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The Best of The Ralph Nader Radio Hour! May 29, 2016

In this episode, we present highlights of Ralph’s conversations with activists Lois Gibbs, David Helvarg, and Anna Myers, journalists Jim Naureckas and Bill Curry, and scholars Gar Alperovitz and Paul Pillar.

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Molly Sinclair McCartney; David Dayen May 21, 2016

Ralph welcomes journalists Molly Sinclair McCartney, who tells us exactly which vested interests keep us in a state of perpetual war, and David Dayen, who tells us the incredible story of how three ordinary citizens blew the lid off of the largest consumer crime in American history.
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Mickey Huff; David Freeman; Dr. Gordon Douglas May 14, 2016

In a fast paced and lively hour, Ralph interviews media critic, Mickey Huff, of Project Censored, eco-pioneer, David Freeman, who is trying to shut down the last nuclear power plant in California at Diablo Canyon, and food and nutrition expert, Dr. Gordon Douglas. Plus listener questions!

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Chris Hedges; Mark Green; Karen Friedman May 07, 2016

Continuing to promote the Breaking Through Power conference, Ralph welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author, Chris Hedges, former New York City Public Advocate, Mark Green, and executive vice-president of the Pension Rights Center, Karen Friedman.

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“Breaking Through Power!” Apr 30, 2016

Ralph promotes a conference he is organizing called “Breaking
Through Power” at Constitution Hall in Washington DC where leading
experts in the public interest field will be talking about how to
renew the spirit of civic action that came on the heels of Ralph's
seminal work Unsafe At Any Speed. Guests today include
America’s #1 populist, Jim Hightower, founder of Consumer Watchdog,
Harvey Rosenfield, and executive director of Veterans For Peace,
Michael McPhearson.

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Winona LaDuke, Kai Newkirk Apr 23, 2016

In two very high energy and passionate interviews, Ralph talks to former Green Party running mate, Winona LaDuke, about her fight to stop a tar sands pipeline from running through tribal lands in Minnesota and Kai Newkirk, one of the organizers of Democracy Spring, a protest to highlight the corruption of money in politics.

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Peter Bradford, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel Apr 16, 2016

Ralph discusses the efficacy of nuclear power with former Nader’s Rader and Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner, Peter Badford and poverty in America with journalist and author, Loretta Scwartz-Nobel.
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Ron Unz, Hannah Archambault Apr 09, 2016

Ralph talks to conservative ally Ron Unz about their plan to run for the Harvard Board of Overseers to convince the school to completely eliminate tuition. And UMass graduate student, Hannah Archambault, joins us to talk about “needs, wants and whims.”
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Jonathan Martin, David Cay Johnston Apr 03, 2016

Ralph talks to professor Jonathan Martin about the role of third parties in America and how they can be empowered. Then Pulitzer Prize winner, David Cay Johnston, tells us what we are likely to see in Donald Trump’s tax returns.

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Paul Pillar Mar 26, 2016

Former CIA intelligence analyst and terrorism expert, Paul Pillar, tells us about how in his experience at the CIA during the lead up to the Iraq War, the intelligence community was completely ignored.
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Robert Ashford, Rick Hind Mar 19, 2016

Professor Robert Ashford explains how turning labor into capital can benefit everyone. And Greenpeace’s Rick Hind let’s us know if how to find out if you are living near a toxic chemical plant. Plus, Ralph answers more listener questions.

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Bill Curry, Poetry, Laura Flanders Mar 12, 2016

Political columnist, Bill Curry, returns to give us his analysis of the 2016 presidential election. And the great progressive radio/podcast host, Laura Flanders, stops in to tell us how she tried to register her company in the Grand Cayman Islands to avoid domestic taxes. Also, Ralph grills David about poetry and answers more listener questions.

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Harvey Wasserman, Comedy, Listener Questions Mar 05, 2016

Ralph challenges old friend, Harvey Wasserman, on his claim that electronic voter fraud turned the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 and could also do so in 2016. Also, Ralph and Steve debate the value of comedy. Plus: Listener questions!

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Denis Hayes, Nicholas Kachman Feb 27, 2016

Renowned environmentalist, Denis Hayes, talks to us about how we should reduce our meat consumption for the good of the planet, while former General Motors exec, Nicholas Kachman, tells us the real cause of GM’s 2008 bankruptcy and also discusses with Ralph how GM should have been a good corporate citizen and warned the people of Flint about the lead in the water. Plus, Ralph grills David about - of all things – music.

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Randall Robinson, Antonin Scalia, William Janssen Feb 20, 2016

Author and human rights activist, Randall Robinson, tells us about the Clintons’ ties to the private prison industry, while law professor William Janssen argues that pharmaceutical companies have a “duty” to sell live saving medicines. Plus, Ralph gives us his take on the legacy of late Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia.

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Toxic Avengers! Feb 13, 2016

Ralph gives advice to former security workers at an Ohio uranium enrichment plant, Chick Lawson and Jeff Walburn, on how to fight for compensation for their work-related illnesses. And legendary activist, Lois Gibbs, breaks down the Flint water crisis and a looming toxic catastrophe in St. Louis. Plus, Ralph’s latest commentary on the 2016 primaries!

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Dr. John Geyman, Obamacare, Iowa Feb 07, 2016

Dr. John Geyman critiques Obamacare and tells us why a majority of doctors would prefer National Health Insurance. Ralph also gives us his take on the Iowa Caucuses. Plus: Listener questions! .

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Carl T. Bogus, Kenneth R. Harney Jan 30, 2016

Ralph talks to anti-trust expert, professor Carl T. Bogus, about how corporate mergers are stifling innovation and screwing workers and real estate columnist, Kenneth R. Harney, gives you some good news about your credit score.

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State of the Union, Typewriter Revolution Jan 24, 2016

Ralph gives us a clear-headed analysis of President Obama’s last State of the Union address and then geeks out over typewriters with professor Richard Polt, author of The Typewriter Revolution.

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Vultures! Jan 16, 2016

Ralph talks “vultures,” the auto industry kind with Clarence Ditlow of The Center For Auto Safety, the Big Pharma kind with Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, and then the good kind with environmental author, Elizabeth Royte.

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Anna Myers, William Miller Jan 09, 2016

Ralph talks to Anna Myers, executive director and CEO of GAP, the Governmental Accountability Project about the importance of encouraging and protecting whistleblowers; and William Miller from Global Television Connections tells us why we really need the United Nations.

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Year in Review Jan 02, 2016

Ralph takes David and Steve through various issues such as minimum wage, free trade, alternative energy, the national security state; and you might be surprised at the progress made in a year.
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Concussions, Cruises and Conversation Dec 26, 2015

We talk concussions with policy director from League of Fans, Ken Reed. And our intrepid reporter, Ralph Nader, tells us about his week on “The Nation” magazine cruise, where instead of taking a Zumba class, he visited “Ugland House,” the building in the Grand Cayman Islands that corporations use to avoid U.S. taxes.

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Joanne Doroshow, Steven Hill Dec 19, 2015

Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy, talks about how big business perpetuates the myth of the “litigious society” to keep ordinary people from pursuing civil justice. And Steven Hill tells us how “The Uber Economy” and unregulated capitalism are screwing the American worker.

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ISIS; Al Gore; Bernie and Paul Dec 13, 2015

This week, we devote the entire episode to Ralph answering our listeners' questions.

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Joseph M. Belth, Jeff Harder Dec 05, 2015

We discuss Fed Chairperson Janet Yellen’s reply to Ralph’s open letter and the accusation of “mansplaining.” In addition, Ralph tries to put life insurance in layman’s terms with professor Joseph M. Belth, author of The Insurance Forum: A Memoir. Also: writer and dog lover, Jeff Harder, talks about our obsession with pets.

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“Unsafe At Any Speed” 50th Anniversary Nov 28, 2015

Using clips from the documentary “An Unreasonable Man,” David and Steve take Ralph through the history of how his seminal work, Unsafe At Any Speed, launched the modern consumer movement.

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Arno J. Mayer, David Helvarg Nov 21, 2015

Ralph discusses the history of Zionism in Israel, the nature of empire, and also France’s response to terrorism with distinguished Princeton University historian Arno J. Mayer. And ocean conservationist, David Helvarg, of Blue Frontier returns to tell us all about his latest bipartisan campaign to end offshore oil drilling called The Sea Party Coalition.
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Robert Monks, Mehrsa Baradaran Nov 15, 2015

Ralph’s Harvard Law School classmate and corporate governance expert, Robert A.G. Monks, explains how CEOs enrich themselves at the expense of productive investment.  And law professor, Mehrsa Baradaran proposes an alternative to puttingyour money into the big bad banks.

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Richard Master, Nomi Prins Nov 07, 2015

Ralph talks with businessman, Richard Master, the executive producer of “Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point,” about how the business community should embrace a single payer healthcare system; and also Nomi Prins fills us in on how the Federal Reserve serves Wall Street over Main Street.

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Gar Alperovitz Oct 31, 2015

In a wide-ranging discussion, Ralph talks community and worker ownership of businesses and the decision to use the atomic bomb with distinguished scholar and author, Gar Alperovitz. And Ralph answers our listener questions.

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Forrest Pritchard, Jim Naureckas Oct 24, 2015

Ralph talks to Forrest Pritchard about how he saved his family farm, and we also critique the corporate media with Jim Naureckas of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

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Laura Nader, Amy Berman Oct 17, 2015

David and Steve talk to Ralph’s sister, the distinguished anthropologist Dr. Laura Nader about what the rest of the world thinks is good and bad about Euro-American culture from her latest work What the Rest Think of the West. Then Ralph talks to nurse Amy Berman about how she is living a full life despite terminal breast cancer. Also, Ralph reviews the first Democratic debate.

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Jim Hightower, Lori Wallach Oct 10, 2015

Ralph tears apart the looming Trans Pacific Partnership with America’s #1 populist, Jim Hightower, and the director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, Lori Wallach. Plus, listener questions.

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Eben Moglen, Paul Hudson Oct 03, 2015

Ralph talks to Columbia Law Professor and software expert, Eben Moglen, about the recent VW scandal and how computer software in cars and voting machines is ripe for mischief and accidents. And Paul Hudson, president of Flyers Rights tells us how we can fight bad airline service.
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Matthew Crawford, Gary Ruskin Sep 26, 2015

Author and car mechanic Matthew Crawford talks to us about his book Shop Class as Soul Craft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work about what it means to be able to work with one’s hands. And co-founder of U.S. Right To Know, Gary Ruskin(gary@usrtk.org), tells what we can do to find out what is really in our food. And after the latest deferred prosecution, Ralph calls GM a “homicidal fugitive from justice.”

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Jamie Love, Andrew Kimbrell Sep 19, 2015

Ralph talks to intellectual property activist, Jamie Love, about his historic, yet unsung, efforts to get affordable, life-saving AIDS drugs to Africa and other underdeveloped areas of the globe. And the head of the Center for Food Safety, Andrew Kimbrell completely takes apart all the arguments in favor of GMO foods and dangerous herbicides.
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Harvey Wasserman, Dr. Michael Carome Sep 13, 2015

Harvey Wasserman rejoins us this time to talk about the real mischief going on with electronic voting machines. And Public Citizen’s Dr. Michael Carome warns us about bad drugs, antibiotic resistance, hospital infections and ways to avoid them.

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Mitchell Rofsky, Rick Newman Sep 05, 2015

Ralph talks to former protégé, Mitchell Rofsky, who founded the “Better World Club,” an eco-friendly alternative to AAA. And we also check in with Rick Newman, the executive director of The American Museum of Tort Law about the importance of preserving our civil justice system.

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Ambassador Anthony Quainton, Mark Everson Aug 30, 2015

Former ambassador Anthony Quainton from the School of International Service talks to Ralph a bout the Iran deal. And Ralph both grills and advises Mark Everson, who is running for president in the Republican primary about the IRS, tort reform and breaking up the big banks.

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Craig McDonald, Brandon L. Garrett Aug 23, 2015

Ralph talks about fighting political corruption Texas-style with Craig McDonald, director of Texans For Public Justice and professor Brandon L. Garrett fills us in on the depth of American corporate crime with his book Too Big To Jail.

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Richard Oswald, Harvey Wasserman Aug 16, 2015

President of Missouri Farmers Union, Richard Oswald discusses the fight for U.S.’s “Country of Origin Labeling, and nuclear advocate and old friend Harvey Wasserman on the continuing dangers from the use of nuclear energy and aging power plants.

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Dr. Sidney Wolfe, Alyssa Katz Aug 08, 2015

Ralph talks to old pal Dr. Sid Wolfe about the prescription drugs you should immediately stop taking and how Medicare Plan D has been paying needlessly high prices for the drugs you should be taking. We also hear from journalist and author Alyssa Katz about the US Chamber of Commerce’s perverse idea of patriotism.

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Owen Fiss, David J. Thompson Aug 01, 2015

Yale legal scholar, Owen Fiss, explains the impact the War on Terror is having on our constitutional rights and David J. Thompson of Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation let's us know how you can join or start a co-operative venture.

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Ralf Hotchkiss, Carol Miller Jul 26, 2015

Ralf Hotchkiss is a wheelchair-rider, engineer, inventor and for 35 plus years a wheelchair designer, builder, and trainer. In 1989 he was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and has been the recipient of countless other honors and awards. Mr. Hotchkiss has worked in 42 countries teaching people who need wheelchairs how to build and maintain them for themselves.

Carol Miller, who is a longtime peace activist and nuclear abolitionist. She is president of the Peaceful Skies Coalition of northern New Mexico and Colorado, which was founded to fight the US Air Force and its plans to turn 94,000 square miles of the Rocky Mountains into a low altitude spying and warfare training area. Peaceful Skies Coalition networks with and supports other community based, anti-militarization groups across the US as well as in other countries.

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Hedrick Smith; Dr. Anthony Bogaert Jul 19, 2015

Ralph talks to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and executive director of Reclaim The American Dream, Hedrick Smith, about how much of democracy is simply "showing up." And professor Anthony Bogaert fills us in on a particular sexual orientation that is not often discussed --- asexuality.

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Chris Hedges, Dr. Nicholas Ashford Jul 11, 2015

Ralph and acclaimed journalist/author Chris Hedges talk about why the American people need to revolt and MIT professor and globalization expert Dr. Nicholas Ashford talks to us from Greece about what is really going on over there.

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Patrick Burns, Doug Hughes Jul 04, 2015

Patrick Burns of Taxpayers Against Fraud talks to Ralph about too big to fail corporations and who really is ripping off the government; and Doug Hughes, the postal worker who flew a gyrocopter onto the US Capitol lawn to protest money in politics, drops by to give us the latest on his campaign and trial.

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Patrick J. Sloyan, Dr. Michael Alexander Jun 27, 2015

Ralph talks to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Patrick J. Sloyan about what really happened behind the scenes in the administration of John F. Kennedy detailed in his book The Politics of Deception: JFK’s Secret Decisions on Vietnam, Civil Rights, and Cuba. And if you have a hernia, boy do we have the place for you. Top surgeon, Dr. Michael Alexander, calls in to tell us about his work at the world famous and innovative Shouldice Hospital in Toronto.
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Fred Stokes, Joan Claybrook Jun 21, 2015

Ralph talks to farm activist, Fred Stokes, about how corporate factory farms are abusing family farmers and damaging the quality of our food system; and long time colleague of Ralph’s, Joan Claybrook, calls in to give us the latest on the fight to prevent enormous dangerous trucks from plowing down our highways. Plus, Ralph answers more of your Facebook questions.

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Stephen M. Silberstein, Uber Raiders, Gouging Hospitals Jun 13, 2015

Stephen M. Silberstein of National Popular Vote tells us how we can change the Electoral College to ensure that the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote actually wins the election. Then Ralph, David and Steve talk about Uber, for-profit hospitals gouging patients and women and war. Plus more of your Facebook questions.

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Barry Ladendorf, John R. MacArthur Jun 06, 2015

Ralph talks about the human and financial costs of war to Barry Ladendorf, the President of Veterans for Peace. And journalist, John R. MacArthur, tells us why President Obama would push for a bad "free trade" deal like the Trans Pacific Partnership. Plus Ralph answers more of your Facebook questions.

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Mickey Huff, Victor Pickard Jun 02, 2015

Ralph critiques the corporate media and talks media reform with the director of Project Censored, Mickey Huff and Professor Victor Pickard, author of America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform.

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Wadie E. Said, Johanna Fernandez May 23, 2015

Professor Wadie E.Said talks to Ralph about what it is like to defend terrorist suspects in court, and Dr. Johanna Fernandez of The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home updates us on the health of political activist, radio commentator and former death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal.

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George Farah, William Blum May 16, 2015

Ralph talks to the executive director of Open Debates, George Farah, who takes us behind the curtain to reveal how our presidential debates have been co-opted by the two major parties. And foreign policy critic, William Blum, talks about the long list of countries the CIA has overthrown in the past sixty years. Plus more of your Facebook questions.

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David Helvarg, Ray Rogers May 10, 2015

This week, Ralph talks sharks to ocean activist David Helvarg of Blue Frontier and talks coke to corporate nemesis Ray Rogers and his Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.

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Steven M. Druker, Charles Slack May 03, 2015

Ralph talks to Steven M. Druker about the problems with GMOs and Charles Slack, author of Liberty's First Crisis about the fight to preserve the First Amendment. Plus, more listener questions.

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Steve Shafarman, Basic Income, GM Apr 25, 2015

Ralph interviews Steven Shafarman, program director of an organization called Basic Income Action, who explains how we can solve a lot of our nation's problems by guaranteeing about $1,000 a month to every citizen for food and shelter. Ralph also critiques the recent bankruptcy decision that shields General Motors from lawsuits stemming from deaths due to faulty ignition switches. Plus more of your Facebook questions.

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Bill Curry, Helene Z. Hill Apr 18, 2015

Salon political columnist Bill Curry joins us again to analyze Hillary Clinton's announcement for President and Dr. Helene Z. Hill tells us about her fourteen year odyssey to reform the system for blowing the whistle on medical research fraud. Plus, Ralph answers more of your FaceBook questions.

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Return To Sender Apr 12, 2015

We talk to Ralph about his new book, Return To Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President 2001-2015, a compilation of letters he sent to both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The Nation magazine called Return To Sender " a twofer: a spiritual exercise in citizen participation and a counterfactual history lesson in what might have been if only our government had hewn to democratic first principles and priorities over the last fifteen years. And, as always, more listener questions."

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Remar Sutton, Lois Gibbs Apr 04, 2015

In this week's episode, we talk toRemar Sutton, director of the Foolproof Foundation about how to teach your kids how to be smart about spending money and using credit cards. Ralph also talks to old friend and compatriot, Lois Gibbs, of Love Canal fame about how regular people can organize and make a difference in their communities. Plus more listener questions.

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Allison Stanger, J. Robert Hunter, Getting Steamed Mar 29, 2015

Ralph talks to Professor Allison Stanger about her book One Nation Under Contract and how private contractors have become an integral part of our foreign policy. We also talk to Bob Hunter, insurance director of the Consumer Federation of America, who warns us about the latest scam that may be affecting your auto insurance rates. Plus, Ralph tells us how you should be "getting steamed."

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Bill Fletcher Jr., Phil Mattera Mar 21, 2015

Ralph talks to labor activist and author Bill Fletcher Jr. about the state of labor and the overall performance of the Congressional Black Caucus. And Good Jobs First research director Phil Mattera stops by to unveil a new web-tool (subsidy tracker) they have developed that identifies which prominent corporations are living off the government teat. Plus, more listener questions.

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Mark Green, Netanyahu, Hunger in Ohio Mar 14, 2015

Former NYC Public Advocate and Nader's Raider Mark Green engages Ralph in a lively debate over Hillary Clinton and the difference between a politician versus an advocate. We also delve into Israeli Prime Minister's address to Congress and the letter to Iran signed by forty-seven Republicans. We also discuss those that the economic upturn have left behind in Ohio.

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Victor Schwartz, Wall St. Task Force, Cable TV Ads Mar 08, 2015

Ralph gets into a debate with his old friend, Victor Schwartz, about malpractice lawsuits and hot coffee. Along the way, former President Bill Clinton horns in on the discussion, and we get a visit from the ghost of Ronald Reagan. Plus more listener questions.

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James Ridgeway, Solitary Confinement, Revolution Mar 01, 2015

Renowned investigative reporter, James Ridgeway, tells us about his latest project, Solitary Watch, which exposes the uses and abuses of solitary confinement in our prison system. Ralph also answers a listener question about what it will take to spawn a second American Revolution.
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Frances Crowe, Libya, United Airlines Feb 21, 2015

We talk to peace activist and war tax resister, Frances Crowe, about her memoir Frances Crowe: Finding My Radical Soul and how she's been arrested for civil disobedience more times than she can remember. Ralph also fills us in on the mess in Libya, tells us about how United Airlines employees are getting screwed, and we answer more listener questions.

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Dr. Ken Reed, Birth Year Legacies, Canadian Civil Liberties Feb 14, 2015

We talk sports with Dr. Ken Reed policy director of League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan. Ralph pitches his idea for bettering the country by organizing people born in the same year to support civic engagement, and he also explains how Canada may be following our bad example.

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Bruce Fein, Super Bowl, Geo-Engineering Feb 07, 2015

We talk to one of Ralph’s favorite Republicans, attorney Bruce Fein, about the constitution and how Bush, Cheney, Obama, and Hillary Clinton could be tried as war criminals. Ralph actually has some praise for the NFL during the Super Bowl and answers a slew of listener FaceBook questions.

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Colman McCarthy, McConnell's Dems, Falling in Love Feb 01, 2015

We could call this the "peace and love" show with our guest Colman McCarthy explaining how he teaches peace and Ralph later quizzing Steve and David about love. In between, we discuss Mitch McConnell courting Democrats, Elizabeth Warren declaring war against Big Pharma; and Ralph wraps it all up with a poem.

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Greg LeRoy, State of the Union, Listener Questions Jan 25, 2015

Ralph talks to Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First about how to fight shady development deals in your community and along the way Steve and David find out that the New York Stock Exchange is actually a non-profit organization. Ralph also gives his review of the president's State of the Union address, and we answer more listener questions.

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Dr. Charles Blatt, Professional Cuddlers, Charlie Hebdo Jan 18, 2015

Ralph talks to Dr. Charles Blatt of the Lown Cardiovascular Clinic about their philosophy of "doing more for patients and less to patients." We talk about the emerging trend of "professional cuddlers." Ralph gives his view of the latest consumer electronics show in Vegas, and David has a surprising take on the tragic events in Paris.
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Edgar Cahn, NFL Conspiracy?, Mario Cuomo Jan 12, 2015

We speak to legendary legal thinker, Edgar Cahn, who explains how we can make the world a better place through a concept called "Time Banking." We also discuss the terrible pass interference non-call in the Cowboys/Lions game, the legacy of the late Mario Cuomo and answer more listener questions.

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Walter Hang, Letter to Obama, Holiday Reading Jan 04, 2015

Environmental activist extraordinaire, Walter Hang, tells us the inspiring story of how a highly organized grassroots movement led to Governor Cuomo prohibiting fracking in New York State. Ralph also tells us about the letter he sent to the President, and we discuss our Holiday reading.

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Listener Questions, What Ralph's Reading Dec 28, 2014

In this special holiday edition, we devote the episode to your FaceBook questions. Plus Ralph recommends some books and David makes an embarrassing joke.

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Rena Steinzor, Cuba Dec 21, 2014

Law Professor Rena Steinzor talks to Ralph about her new book, Why Not Jail? which makes the case for treating corporate criminal like we treat street criminals. We discuss the new opening up to Cuba and Ralph tells us about some of his personal encounters with Fidel Castro.

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David Halperin, Torture Report, Police Brutality Demonstrations Dec 13, 2014

Ralph talks to advocate and writer, David Halperin, about how for profit colleges are ripping you off. We also discuss the Senate report on torture, the demonstrations on police brutality, and the congressional omnibus spending bill that is loaded with a lot of corporate goodies.

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Mark Dimondstein, Drones, Credit Cards Dec 06, 2014

Our guest, Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers' Union, tells us how the forces of privatization are trying to cripple the Post Office, and what we can do about it. We discuss the latest report on how drone attacks are actually losing us the "war on terror." And Ralph explains why he has never owned a credit card.

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Lori Wallach, Solar Power, War Talk Nov 29, 2014

Public Citizen's Lori Wallach explains in clear and engaging detail why so-called "Free Trade" is really an international corporate coup. In addition, Ralph talks about the lack of anti-war voices on major media, and the good news about solar power.
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Fighting Nurses, Killer Painkillers, Tanaka Update Nov 23, 2014

This week, we talk with the feisty and effective executive director of the California Nurses Association and Nurses United, RoseAnn DeMoro, about ebola, Robin Hood taxes and the problem with doctors. Plus, Tanaka airbag update and listener questions.

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American Political B******t, Medicaid Fraud Follow Up, Tomas Young Nov 15, 2014

Ralph interviews Stephen L. Goldstein, author of The Dictionary of American Political B******t; we report on developments in our Medicaid fraud story in Minnesota, and pay tribute to late Iraq War veteran, the articulate and courageous Tomas Young.

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Midterm Elections 2014 Nov 09, 2014

This week, Ralph, David and Steve talk to former Clinton advisor, Bill Curry, about why the Democrats got drubbed in the midterm elections, and what progressives need to do to challenge not only regressive Republicans but the Democratic Party establishment.

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The Commons, Apple, Airbags, Beavers Nov 02, 2014

Ralph interviews author and activist, David Bollier who tells us how we need to save our greatest source of wealth. Ralph writes a letter to the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook. We also discuss dangerous airbags, productive beavers and answer more listener questions.

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Falling Down, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ebola Redux, Ben Bradlee Oct 25, 2014

Ralph interviews slip and fall expert, Russell Kendzior; we discuss more abuses of the First Amendment; we talk about the pharmaceutical industry's responsibility in the Ebola outbreak; Ralph pays tribute to former Washington Post executive editor, the late Ben Bradlee; and more listener questions.
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Ebola, Civic Heroes, Basic Income Oct 20, 2014

This week we talk about the real reasons behind the ebola outbreak, we celebrate civic heroes, and Ralph answers a listener question about the idea of a "basic income."

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The Fed, Lakoff, Incarcerated Consumers Oct 11, 2014

In a wide ranging discussion, we feel sorry for former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, who apparently can’t refinance his house. We also wonder why progressives are so bad at messaging. And Ralph tells consumers how they can free themselves from their shackles. Plus, your FaceBook questions.

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Dave Freeman, Eric Holder, Ashraf Ghani Oct 04, 2014

This week, Ralph talks to old friend and climate crusader, S. David Freeman, about how we can get off of fossil fuels and make all of our power renewable. We ask Ralph to score Eric Holder's tenure as attorney general. And Ralph sees new hope for Afghanistan because a genuine progressive has just been elected president.

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Smart Meters, Shaming Boehner, Censored Stories Sep 29, 2014

Are smart meters installed by utility companies an invasion of privacy? Does John Boehner make too much and work too little? Where can you find important stories seldom picked up by the mainstream media? This and more on this week's Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

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Offensive NFL, Defensive Dems, Driverless Cars Sep 20, 2014

This week, we discuss whether NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is really worth 44 million a year, how political consultants are ruining the Democratic Party, whether driverless cars are a good thing, and how our quest for empire is compromising the homeland.

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Citizen Action in MN, New Technology, Elizabeth Warren Sep 13, 2014

This week we talk to a citizen activist from Minnesota about Medicaid fraud and Ralph gets on the case. We also discuss what new technology is doing to our children, the warning Larry Summers gave Elizabeth Warren, and why runway models don't smile.

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A Corporate State, A Brazilian, A Corvair Sep 06, 2014

We discuss what came first, the corporation or the state; what they do in Brazil we never do here (hint: it has nothing to do with shaving); what you can do to help raise the minimum wage; and Ralph tells us how he once was the guest of honor at a Corvair convention and lived to tell the tale.

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Labor Day, Healthcare, The Future of Truth Aug 30, 2014

In this episode Ralph analyzes the state of the labor movement, the state of Obamacare and ruminates upon civic motivation and the future of truth.

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Photocensorship, Medicare Fraud, Robot Insects Aug 23, 2014

Ralph, David, and Steve talk about censorship of photographs from our factory farms to our battlefields, who is really ripping off Medicare, and what we can learn from spiders.

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Robin Williams, Spoilers, Hillary the Hawk Aug 16, 2014

David, Steve, and Ralph pay tribute to Robin Williams, talk about election "spoilers," and analyze Hillary's recent criticism of Obama's foreign policy.

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How The Dems Can Win, Ebola, Gaza Redux Aug 09, 2014

This week, Ralph wonders if the Democrats really want to win this November, discusses the ebola epidemic and the "politics of neglect," and he and David once again go at it over the crisis in Gaza.

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Democrats, Gaza, GM Aug 02, 2014

Ralph discusses the (lost) soul of the Democratic Party, responds to feedback about his comments on Gaza and calls GM back on the carpet.

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Jerry Brown, Dangerous Microbes, Redskins Jul 28, 2014

In this episode, Ralph believes California Governor Jerry Brown still harbors presidential ambitions, tells the FDA how they should store their dangerous microbes, excoriates Big Pharma once again for overpricing, and weighs in on the Washington "Redskins controversy."

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Gaza Jul 19, 2014

This week, Ralph and David spend the whole hour debating the current crisis in Gaza.

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Going Postal, Facebook, Darrell Issa Jul 12, 2014

Among many other things, Ralph offers a solution for the 30 million people who cannot afford bank accounts, argues Facebook should pay us for our information, and tells us why Darrell Issa is a "menace."

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Fourth of July Special! Jul 07, 2014

On this Fourth of July weekend special, David, Steve and Ralph engage in a free flowing conversation about the true meaning of patriotism, political correctness and Coney Island hot dog eating contests.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

What Ralph Reads, Bush's Inferno, Sleazy Wall Street Jun 28, 2014

Turns out, Ralph is skeptical of Hillary's reading habits, outraged that Bush and Cheney aren't being tried as war criminals, and unconvinced that Wall Street is doing "God's work."

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Bad Climate Change Strategy, No Shame on Iraq, Tired Truckers Jun 22, 2014

In a wide ranging discussion, Ralph talks about "spoilers," the revolving door, tired truckers, whistleblowers, the neocons who have no shame about the Iraq War, and also outlines how the environmental movement could be far more effective.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Cantor's Loss, Hillary's Coronation, GMO's Deception Jun 14, 2014

This week, Ralph cooks up what progressives can learn from Eric Cantor's defeat, mixes in Hillary Clinton's "Hard Choices," with a dash of GMOs and a splash of Drunk History.

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Sean Hannity, School Lunch, Clean Power Jun 07, 2014

In a wide ranging discussion, Ralph talks about the time Sean Hannity cut off his mic, tells Michelle Obama to hang tough on nutrition standards, and tells us how we can make good things happen with just a little time and effort.

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Death Penalty, Swiss Banks, Grover Norquist May 31, 2014

This week Ralph talks about how Donald Sterling’s racism paid off, the ghoulishness of executions, American tax evaders in Switzerland, and his reported “bromance” with conservative activist, Grover Norquist, which makes David go “Ewwww…”

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Worst Pills|Best Pills, Taking on the FDA, A Culture In Decay May 25, 2014

Live from Washington DC, Ralph Nader introduces us to Dr. Sidney Wolfe, his compatriot in taking on the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Wolfe is the co-founder and director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group, a consumer and health advocacy lobbying organization. Among his numerous books, Dr. Wolfe is the author of Worst Pills, Best Pills: A Consumer's Guide to Avoiding Drug-Induced Death or Illness.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Aids Drugs in Africa, Money in Politics, and Corporate Patriotism May 17, 2014

From the headquarters of Public Citizen in Washington DC, David and Steve talk to Ralph about money in politics and other good fights with special guest, Public Citizen president, Robert Weissman.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Monsanto, Free Trade, and Amazon May 10, 2014

We talk to Ralph about patenting human genes, and how Monsanto is doing "God's work," literally. Ralph writes to LeBron James and offers Barack Obama one hundred grand on a dare.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Unstoppable, Drug Wars, Donald Sterling May 03, 2014

In episode seven of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Ralph talks about his new book “Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State,” and we touch on a few of the twenty-five things on which liberals and conservatives should be able to agree. Also: the real reason Donald Sterling is a racist.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Airline Security, Safety, and Smoke; Tax Day; Electoral College and New Zealand Apr 19, 2014

With Ralph in DC, David in LA and Steve in New Zealand, Ralph tells us how one airline made the mistake of bumping him from a flight, how Paul Ryan lives in a corporate bubble, how he might tweak our system of government, and how one irate gentleman once delighted in blowing smoke in his face.

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Good Apps/Bad Apps/Good Contracts/Bad Contracts/Good Seeds/Bad Seeds, and More! Apr 12, 2014

Ralph pitches a couple of apps, explains how not to get screwed on contracts, and we ask him if the Comcast/Time-Warner merger is good for us. Take a wild guess.

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Sugar, McCutcheon, Climate Change, Oil Spills and Army Food Apr 06, 2014

Ralph carves up Antonin Scalia and “Corporate Welfare King,” Rush Limbaugh, points out how Exxon actually made money on the Exxon/Valdez oil spill; and we discuss whether Germany actually won World War II, and the one position that Ralph took that he now regrets.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Bernie Sanders vs Hillary, Hobby Lobby, College Athletes Unionizing, and Jonathan Schell Mar 29, 2014

In episode three of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Ralph tells Bernie Sanders to go for it, tells us why a corporation does not have religious beliefs, why college athletes should be paid and pays tribute to the late anti-war writer and activist, Jonathan Schell.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Wall Street Criminals, the CIA, Fukushima and March Madness Mar 22, 2014

This week we ask Ralph if Jamie Dimon is a criminal, whether we really need a CIA, and why should we worry about Fukushima. And Ralph explains the true meaning of one of our most sacred holidays-March Madness.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

General Motors, Obamacare, Missile Defense & Lou Gehrig Mar 20, 2014

In this inaugural episode of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Ralph talks about his old nemesis, General Motors, once again getting called on the carpet. How conservatives and liberals should come together to raise the minimum wage. Whether young people should sign up for Obamacare. The situation in Ukraine. Missile defense. And whether the Yankees' Derek Jeter is a worthy successor to his boyhood hero, Lou Gehrig.

Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

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Ralph Nader Radio Hour

“In the last twenty years or so, [civics] has really kind of faded from the curriculum. Students need training in media literacy. They need training in what a democracy requires of them as a citizen. Until we start that with the young, it’s going to be hard to accomplish anything.”

Nicholas Johnson, Catfish Solution: The Power of Positive Poking

“I haven’t seen a plane out of Charleston yet that I would put my name on saying that it’s safe and air-worthy.” John M. Barnett, former Quality Control Manager on the 787 Dreamliner

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 297 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 296 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

Tom Mueller, author of Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud

Tom Mueller, author of Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 295 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past Present and Future of American Labor”

Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past Present and Future of American Labor”

Ralph Nader

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 294 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Michigan)

“No transformative change has truly happened because of something happening in the United States Congress or out of the White House. It always happens because of grassroots movement work outside of the halls, outside of the Oval Office.”

Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Michigan)

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 293 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

“It’s not just the conservatives who are in my judgment derelict here. I think the entire political class now has conceded that we no longer have a Constitutional dispensation. Both parties, if their guy is in the White House, say ‘do whatever you want to do.’”

Bruce Fein, attorney and Constitutional scholar

“As far as what people can do: they need to reach out to their legislators. Their Rep and their two Senators need to hear from you. And let them know that you don’t want the U.S. to be participating in the Yemen War any longer.”

Hassan El-Tayyab, lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 292 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

“We are in this urgent moment where Donald Trump almost on a daily basis attacks our Constitution, our democracy, and the rule of law. He’s a direct and serious threat to our republic and he needs to face impeachment proceedings now.” John Bonifaz, of the The Impeachment Project

“The problem is fossil fuels. It’s 70% of the greenhouse gasses being emitted. And the answer is old-fashioned. We need to outlaw the goddamned stuff.” David Freeman, former director of the Tennessee Valley Authority

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 291 TRANSCRIPT (RIGHT CLICK TO DOWNLOAD)

“People understand how important it is not to leave water in corporate hands. Giving water to corporations is putting ourselves literally and physically at the mercy of those monsters.”

Ugo Mattei, lawyer and activist who masterminded the Italian campaign against the privatization of water

“People today after ten years of neo-liberalism and social media are not able to understand physical struggles. The social media are against social movements. It’s complete rhetoric and narrative that social media are crucial for the success of these kinds of battles.”

Ugo Mattei, lawyer and activist who masterminded the Italian campaign against the privatization of water

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 290 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

“We need to know if that message popping up on a device eight inches from our faces is from a Russian bot or the Koch Brothers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or our favorite pizza place.”

Robert Fellmeth in his open letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Richard Newman, promoting the first annual Tort Law Day, October 5th 2019

RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 289 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download)

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