Ralph Nader Radio Hour

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 ParsiLet'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 ParsiDr. 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 SidhwaThis 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 SidhwaLet'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 NaderMore links to the letter sent by Dr. Sidhwa and his colleagues:To Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in CanadaTo Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the UKHow to email the PresidentHow to call the PresidentWrite or Call the White HouseIn Case You Didn’t Hear with Francesco DeSantisNews 9/25/241. 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 t

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 NaderWe 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-TayyabIf 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-TayyabRachel 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 CorbettBruce 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 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 FeinEven 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

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 MapmakerGeography is everything. It's what happens, when it happens, in some cases why it happens, but most importantly, where it happens.Jack DangermondI 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 DangermondYears 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 NaderJohn 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 WarCommon 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. MacArthurIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 9/11/241. 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 collecti

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 BerlinThe 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 9/4/241. 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

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 OsterholmThe 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 OsterholmWe 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 developmentWe have, as a society, a cultural aversion to foreseeing and forestalling omnicides.Ralph NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 8/28/241. 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 tim

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 NaderPhil [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 NaderDonahue 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 ClaybrookMichael 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 JacobsonJeff 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 CohenIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 8/21/241. 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 ac

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 SawantBusiness 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 SawantIf we as working people want to win Medicare for all, we will need mass action— organized independent of the Democrats and Republicans. Kshama SawantMarc 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 FisherIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 8/14/241. 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 legislati

So far this year, the city of Boston has recorded a grand total of 8 homicides while 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 AbtWhen 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 AbtWhile 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 AbtMichael 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 JacobsonThere 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 JacobsonAnd 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Franceso DeSantisNews 8/7/241. 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

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.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. 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 SidhwaThere'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 NaderOne 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 SidhwaI 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 SidhwaLuigi 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 ZingalesOne 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 ZingalesIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 7/31/241. 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…[

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.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.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 NaderYou 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 CohenWe’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 CohenHarvey 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 RosenfieldThis 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 RosenfieldIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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 Be

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.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 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 FeinHaley 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 HinkleThe 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 HinkleJohn 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 NicholsThe 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 NicholsDemocrats 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 NicholsOne 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

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 AhmadI 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 AhmadBruce 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.[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 FeinIt'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 FeinIt'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 NaderNews 7/10/24 In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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 sayi

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 the Washington 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 NaderMichael 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 HenningIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 7/3/241. 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 the New 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

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 HanleyWhile 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 HanleyLawrence 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. 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 NaderWe 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 WilkersonIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 6/26/241. 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. A

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 NaderEvery 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 FernerIt'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 FernerLeonard 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 GoodmanIn 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 wil

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 NaderNearly 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 GillanAt 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 GillanIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 6/12/241. 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

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 NaderOne 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 BarberIt's not just “saving the democracy”, Ralph. It's what kind of democracy do we want to save?Bishop William BarberWe 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 BarberPhil 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 MatteraWe'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 MatteraIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 6/5/241. 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

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 FishWhat’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 dominantThe 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 NaderPhil 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 AssociationIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 5/28/241. 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 7

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 CastlemanYou 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 CastlemanKen 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 BossongWhat 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 BossongBruce 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.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 FeinIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 5/22/241. 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 Is

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 SimonWhat 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 SimonLisa 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 FrankYou 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 NaderChris 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 HedgesIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 5/15/241. 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 ra

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 NolanMore 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 NaderYou 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 NolanFor 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 NolanAnother 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 NolanRobert 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

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 CarperLess-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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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 cop

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 PostolThere'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 PostolThe 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 PostolIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 4/23/241. 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 an

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 Radio for 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 JamesThe 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 JamesNoelle 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 HanrahanMumia 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-JamalWhen 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-JamalIn 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-JamalI 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 Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

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 SachsI 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 SachsThe 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 4/10/241. 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 o

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 AndersonThe 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 AndersonGenerosity 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 4/3/241. 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 heedlessl

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 ShernoffMost 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 ShernoffInsurance 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 DeSantisNews 3/27/241. 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,

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 is An 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 NaderThe 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 KozolWe 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 KozolThe 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 KozolI'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 KozolMatt 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 WetheringtonThe 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 WetheringtonIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 3/19/241. 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

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 NaderIn 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 JudsonFusion 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 JudsonOne 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 JudsonIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 3/12/241. 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

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 McQuadeWe 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 McQuadeYou 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 NaderLawrence 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 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 WilkersonWe 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 WilkersonIt'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 WilkersonIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 3/6/241. 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 Counc

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. 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.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 NaderYou 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 BarberBad 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 takenBishop William BarberDan 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 DiamondIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 2/28/241. 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 t

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 LuceA 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 LuceThere’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 NaderBruce 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.[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 FeinIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 2/20/241. 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

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 BruskinThe 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 BruskinSomeday 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 NaderRick 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 PerlsteinThe 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 PerlsteinIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 2/14/241. 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 Democ

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 of how 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 JacksonIf 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 JacksonWhat [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 NaderDr. 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 HaddadI 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 HaddadIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 2/7/241. 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. 19 student 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

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 BorgwardtThere'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 BorgwardtInvestors 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 NaderDr. 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

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 SetterNothing 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 SetterStefanie 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 FoxThe 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 FoxIn 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 1/24/241. 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 c

Attribution: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimagesRalph 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 PaulIt 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 PaulIt'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 NaderJames 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.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 BamfordIn 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 governme

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 KindtI 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 NaderBruce 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.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 FeinThe 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 1/10/241. 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, th

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 NaderI 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 NaderDr. 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 WoolhandlerDr. 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 HimmelsteinRobert 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 WeissmanDr. 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 NutritionAction, a healthy-living guide for con

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 WagnerOne 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 WagnerClarence Thomas is really the Donald Trump of the Supreme Court. Ralph NaderI 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 Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

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 ShallalUnderstanding 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 ShallalRick 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 FerriThat'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 FerriRobert 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 previo

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 BrownfeldWhat 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 BrownfeldIt'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 NaderBruce 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.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 FeinIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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

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 NestleWe 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 NestleBruce 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.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 FeinVishal 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 ShankarDeJoy 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 ShankarIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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

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 CollinsThe 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 CollinsWe 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 NaderLara 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 DeSantis1. 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 s

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 DeSantis1. 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 vis

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 WeissmanIf 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 WeissmanAmbassador 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 FreemanIt (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 FreemanIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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,” p

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 CohenThis 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 NaderMichael 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 LissnerIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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

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.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.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 PeaceThere 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 PeaceWe 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 PeaceWe'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 PeaceIf 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

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 MokhiberHamas 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 NaderMedea 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 BenjaminIt'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 BenjaminCongress 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 NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis1. 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 tha

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.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. * 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 WilkersonNetanyahu's goal here is to stay out of jail.Colonel Lawrence WilkersonBiden 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 NaderBruce 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.* 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 FeinIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/25/231. 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