Ralph Nader Radio Hour

First on today's show, Ralph welcomes author, statistician, and professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb to discuss the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and give us his take on the election results. Then, Ralph and journalist Ryan Grim speak about President-Elect Trump's cabinet appointments and what we can expect from the upcoming Trump Administration. Finally, we're joined by constitutional law expert Bruce Fein for a post-election Donald Trump legal roundup.  Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent twenty-one years as a derivatives trader before changing careers to become a scholar, mathematical researcher and philosophical essayist. Mr. Taleb’s works focus on mathematical, philosophical, and practical problems with risk and probability, as well as on the properties of systems that can handle disorder.  He is the author of many essays and books about risk and uncertainty including the New York Times bestselling The Black Swan and his latest Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life.The supporters of Israel are getting smaller in relative economic and financial size—and of course, in technological size as well. So it's getting smaller while at the same time, Israel relies more and more on their support. So that's not a robust situation. In other words, the strategy of Israel being continuously confrontational has led to more and more confrontation, and the strategy of relying on the West is not going to pay off.Nassim Nicholas TalibIsrael has been behaving like a child with a strong personality and been capable of winning concessions from her or his parents continuously. So that's what has been happening. But the problem is— not finding any resistance, they kept going, they kept going, and one day they realized that, ah, they went too far but it was too late. So you can rely on AIPAC to do a bunch of things, but at some point, the strategy is not going to work.Nassim Nicholas TalibRyan Grim is co-founder of Drop Site News, host of the podcast Deconstructed, and co-host of the show Counter Points. He was previously D.C. Bureau Chief for The Intercept and the Washington bureau chief for HuffPost, and he has been a staff reporter for Politico and the Washington City Paper. He is the author of the books This Is Your Country on Drugs, We’ve Got People, and The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution.[The incoming administration of Trump and his Trumpsters] are very aggressive. They think they're above the law. They are greedy. They want to turn the U .S. government into a honeypot for their commercial paymasters—which include their own businesses, by the way, like Elon Musk. And when that happens—when you have greed and almost total power with the Supreme Court on your side, with the Congress under Republican control—you're inevitably going to get serious examples of corruption. You're inevitably going to get blatant corruption. Ralph NaderSo far, to a lot of people's great disappointment, Democrats have been pretty terrible at [going after corruption]. So on the one hand, they angered the entire support base for Donald Trump and whipped them up into a frenzy accusing Democrats of prosecuting their enemies, while at the same time not actually prosecuting them for any corruption…Now, because the Trump movement has been able to argue to its base that it feels persecuted, they are probably going to spend a significant amount of their energy going after those who they see as their persecutors. Ryan GrimTime is one of [Donald Trump’s] restraints and incompetence is another. He's up against those two elements—and in-fighting. There are a number of competing factions for his attention and for his agenda and they are going to relentlessly work to undermine each other. So that factor will restrain him. Ryan GrimBruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law.  Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.I do think there's a remedy here, and that is I think that any of the decisions made by the people who are appointed through illegal or unconstitutional recess appointments, when they take any action, you wouldn't have to comply with their actions. You can say the decisions, their orders are null and void because they weren't appointed properly.Bruce FeinIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 11/13/241. Following Kamala Harris’ disastrous defeat at the hands of Donald Trump last week – which saw the Vice President lose the electoral college by a greater margin than Hillary Clinton and swept Republicans to power in all three branches of government – the Democratic Party blame game is in full swing. Perhaps the most prominent critical voice has come from Bernie Sanders, who issued a blistering statement in which he writes “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned the working class would find that the working class has abandoned them.” DNC Chair Jamie Harrison has dismissed this criticism, calling it “straight up BS,” but in this moment Democrats are finding it harder to wave this critique away. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, for example, echoed Bernie’s warning, writing “when progressives like Bernie aggressively go after the elites that hold people down, they are shunned as dangerous populists. Why? Maybe because true economic populism is bad for our high-income base.”2. Meanwhile, Donald Trump appears to be setting the stage for Elon Musk to take on a prominent position in the incoming administration. Axios reports Trump had a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last Wednesday, and was joined by Musk. Details of the call remain murky, but Trump reportedly said he “will support Ukraine” and Musk said he will continue to aid Ukraine with his Starlink satellites. Bloomberg further reports that Musk joined Trump on a call with Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, and may meet with Trump and Argentinian President Javier Milei at Mar-a-Lago.3. Filling out the incoming administration, CNN reports Trump has offered New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik the role of Ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik entered Congress as a moderate Republican, but has grown closer and closer to the Trump wing of the party. More recently, she rose to national prominence for her role as ringleader of the McCarthyist hearings on supposed antisemitic protests on college campuses; in actuality of course, these protests were merely demanding recognition of human rights for Palestinians. Because of her staunch Zionist bona fides, Anti-Defamation League President Jonathan Greenblatt celebrated her selection. Stefanik has previously boosted the antisemitic “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, per the Washington Post, but apparently the ADL is happy to look past that so long as she blindly backs the State of Israel.4. Another Trump administration staffing decision which has drawn scrutiny is the supposed appointment of Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Tiffany Trump, as “US point man for Lebanon,” per the Times of Israel. Boulos, a Lebanese-American billionaire, told the Lebanese network MTV “People see that Biden and Harris failed to end the wars and failed to even return the American hostages from Gaza…Lebanese Americans are migrating to [the] Republican Party and to Trump because they feel that Trump is their only hope to end this war, and end all the wars… so we can start talking about rebuilding Lebanon and Gaza.” However, this dovish tone is at odds with Trump’s promises to Right-wing Zionists, meaning one faction or the other is in for a rude awakening.5. In more Middle East News, a potential political earthquake is unfolding in Israel. According to the Times of Israel, the chief of staff to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has allegedly been accused of using security camera footage from the Prime Minister’s Office to blackmail an IDF official into “changing protocols of government meetings related to the October 7 Hamas attack…the attempts to alter the meeting minutes centered on how much knowledge Netanyahu had of the potential for a Hamas attack immediately before October 7.” Specifically, this report insinuates that Israeli intelligence was aware of “activation by terror operatives of dozens of SIM cards.” A curious detail of this scandal is that U.S. media has largely failed to report it at all. As of now, the most high-profile American journalist to cover it is none other than legendary investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh.6. Back on the home-front, the Democrats are failing to safeguard the National Labor Relations Board. Trump has already made it abundantly clear that he will do everything he can to rollback the Biden-era gains for unions and their workers. Bloomberg reports that in addition to “defang[ing]” the NLRB and dismissing the Board’s crusading General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, “business advocates are…urging Trump to make the questionably legal move of firing all the Democrats on the labor board, so that he can more quickly unwind the union-friendly rulings of the Biden years.” Per JacksonLewis, the NLRB currently has “a 2-1 Democratic majority. In June 2024, Biden renominated current Board Chair Lauren McFerran (whose term expires on Dec. 16, 2024) to a third term and nominated Joseph L. Ditelberg to fill the Board’s vacant Republican seat. The Senate, however, has not yet confirmed these nominations. If McFerran is confirmed for a third term, the Board will maintain a Democratic majority until at least August 2026, when Member David Prouty’s term expires. This extended majority could lead to the continuation and expansion of pro-labor policies and decisions. But if the nominees are not confirmed by the Senate prior to Trump taking office, they will likely be filled by Trump appointees and the Board will return to a Republican majority.” In a word, if t

Ralph and the team invite cofounder of RootsAction, Norman Solomon, to autopsy the carcass of the Democratic Party after Donald Trump’s decisive defeat of Kamala Harris in the presidential election. They dissect what happened on November 5th and report what needs to be done about it. Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of War Made Easy, Made Love, Got War, and his newest book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine.The Democrats couldn't even get their base vote out that they got out in 2020. And what are they looking at? Are they looking at themselves in the mirror for introspection? Are they cleaning house? Do they have any plan whatsoever— other than collect more and more money from corporate PACS? This is a spectacular decline.Ralph NaderWe kept being told that party loyalty über alles, we had to stay in line with Biden. And…that lost precious months, even a year or a year and a half, when there could have been a sorting out in vigorous primaries. We were told that, "Oh, it would be terrible to have an inside-the-party primary system." Well, in 2020, there were 17 candidates, so there wasn't space on one stage on one night to hold them all—the debates would have to be in half. Well, it didn't really debilitate the party. Debate is a good thing. But what happened was this party loyalty, this obsequious kissing-the-presidential-feet dynamic allowed Biden to amble along until it became incontrovertible that he wasn't capable.Norman SolomonA lot of people on that committee—and of course, running the DNC—they and their pals had this pass-through of literally millions of dollars of consultant fees. Win, lose, or draw. It's like General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman, they never lose a war. And so, these corporate donors, they never lose a presidential race. They didn't lose what happened with Harris and Trump. They cashed in, they made out like the corporate bandits that they are.Norman SolomonOne reality as an activist that I've come to the conclusion on in the last couple of decades is that progressives tend to be way too nice to Democrats in Congress, especially those that they consider to be allies. Because they like what some of the Democrats do…and so they give too many benefits of the doubt. It's like grading them on a curve. We can't afford to grade them on a curve.Norman SolomonIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 11/6/241. As of now, Donald Trump is projected to win the 2024 presidential election by a greater margin than 2016. In addition to winning back Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona, Trump also appears to have flipped Nevada – which went for both Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Most shocking of all, Trump has won the national popular vote, something he failed to do in 2016 and 2020 and which no Republican has done in 20 years. Democrats also faced a bloodbath in the Senate elections, with Republicans on track to win a 54 seat majority in the upper chamber.2. Bucking tremendous party pressure, Representative Rashida Tlaib declined to endorse Kamala Harris at a United Autoworkers rally in Michigan just days before the election, POLITICO reports. Tlaib urged attendees to turn out but “kept her speech focused on down-ballot races.” Tlaib is the only member of “the Squad” to withhold her support for Harris and the only Palestinian member of Congress. She has been a staunch critic of the Biden Administration’s blind support for Israel’s campaign of genocide in Palestine and voted Uncommitted in the Michigan Democratic primary.3. Along similar lines, the Uncommitted Movement issued a fiery statement on the eve of the election. According to the group, “Middle East Eye ran a story…[which] contains unfounded and absurd claims, suggesting that Uncommitted made a secret agreement with the Democratic Party to not endorse a third-party candidate.” The statement goes on to say that “this baseless story…is misguided at best and a dishonest malicious attack at worst.” Uncommitted maintains that “leaders and delegates are voting in different ways, yet remain untied in their mission to stop the endless flow of American weapons fueling Israel’s militarism.” In September, Uncommitted publicly stated that they would not endorse Kamala Harris, citing her continued support for the Biden Administration policy toward Israel, but urged supporters to vote against Donald Trump.4. Progressive International reports that over 50 sovereign nations have called for an immediate arms embargo on Israel, calling it “a legal, humanitarian and moral imperative to put an end to grave human suffering.” This letter cites the “staggering toll of civilian casualties, the majority of them children and women, due to ongoing breaches of international law by Israel, the occupying Power,” and warns of “regional destabilization that risks the outbreak of an all-out war in the region.” Signatories on this letter include Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Norway, Mexico, South Africa, Brazil, Cuba, Bolivia, and China among many others.5. Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush have sent a letter to President Biden accusing him of illegally involving the American armed forces in Israel’s war without proper Congressional authorization. Per the accompanying statement, “The Biden administration has deepened U.S. involvement in the Israeli government’s devastating regional war through comprehensive intelligence sharing and operational coordination, and now even the direct deployment of U.S. servicemembers to Israel. Not only do these actions encourage further escalation and violence, but they are unauthorized by Congress, in violation of Article I of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.” The letter concludes “The Executive Branch cannot continue to ignore the law…In the absence of an immediate ceasefire and end of hostilities, Congress retains the right and ability to exercise its Constitutional authority to direct the removal of any and all unauthorized Armed Forces from the region pursuant to Section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution.” This letter was endorsed by an array of groups ranging from the Quincy Institute to Jewish Voice for Peace to the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, and signed by other pro-Palestine members of Congress including Ilhan Omar, Summer Lee, and André Carson – though notably not AOC.6. In a story that touches on both the election and labor issues, the New York Times Tech Guild voted to go on strike Monday morning. The Times Tech Guild, which represents “workers like software developers and data analysts,” at the Times negotiated until late Sunday night, particularly regarding “whether the workers could get a ‘just cause’ provision in their contract…pay increases and pay equity; and return-to-office policies,” per the New York Times. The Guardian reports “The Tech Guild’s roughly 600 members are in charge of operating the back-end systems that power the paper’s…[coverage of] the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – but also the hundreds of House and dozens of Senate races across the US that will determine who will secure control of Washington in 2025.” Kathy Zhang, the guild’s unit chair, said in a statement “[The Times] have left us no choice but to demonstrate the power of our labor on the picket line…we stand ready to bargain and get this contract across the finish line.”7. In more labor news, AP reports the striking Boeing machinists have “voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production.” The deal reportedly includes “a 38% wage increase over four years, [as well as] ratification and productivity bonuses.” That said, Boeing apparently “refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.” According to a Bank of America analysis, Boeing was losing approximately $50 million per day during the strike, a startling number by any measure. The union’s District 751 President Jon Holden told members “You stood strong and you stood tall and you won,” yet calibration specialist Eep Bolaño said the outcome was “most certainly not a victory…We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and us as one of the biggest unions in the country couldn’t even extract two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating.”8. Huffington Post Labor Reporter Dave Jamieson reports “The [National Labor Relations Board] has filed a complaint against Grindr alleging the dating app used a new return-to-office policy to fire dozens of workers who were organizing.” He further reports that NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo is seeking a “Cemex order” which would “force the company to bargain with the [Communications Workers of America].” In a statement, CWA wrote “We hope this NLRB filing sends a clear message to Grindr that…we are committed to negotiating fair working conditions in good faith. As we continue to build and expand worker power at Grindr, this win…is a positive step toward ensuring that Grindr remains a safe, inclusive, and thriving place for users and workers alike.”9. In further positive news from federal regulators, NBC’s Today reports “On Oct. 25, the United States Copyright Office granted a copyright exemption that gives restaurants like McDonald's the “right to repair” broken machines by circumventing digital locks that prevent them from being fixed by anyone other than its manufacturer.” As this piece explains, all of McDonald’s ice cream machines – which have become a punchline for how frequently they are out of service – are owned and operated by the Taylor Company since 1956. Moreover “The…company holds a copyright on its machines…[meaning] if one broke, only [Taylor Company] repair people were legally allowed to fix it…due to the Digital Millenni

Ralph welcomes Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union. They'll discuss the crucial role that the Postal Service plays in our democratic process, and how organized labor is impacting this year's elections. Then, Ralph is joined by journalist James Bamford to talk about his latest article in The Nation: "Israel Is Killing Whole Families in Gaza—With Weapons Made in America." Plus, how candidates' positions on Israel may win or lose them voters on Election Day. Mark Dimondstein is the President of the American Postal Workers Union. Since 2013 when Mr. Dimondstein was elected, he has turned the APWU into a fighting activist organization. Mr. Dimondstein advocates for the rights of postal workers as well as the right of the American people to a vibrant public Postal Service. The American Postal Workers Union supports Medicare for All and belongs to the Labor Campaign for Single Payer. The APWU believes in paying a living wage and providing benefits to all workers.We have about 200,000 members. And we definitely represent people throughout the entire political spectrum and throughout the whole country. So we represent people from right to left, left to right, everybody in between, and we represent people from the most rural outpost in the country to the urban centers. So first, the way we handle it is we don't try to tell people how they should think and how they should vote. We're all adults, we vote for what we think is in our best interest as workers, as family members, as community members, as citizens and so on. So we don't try to dictate to our members how to vote, but we do have a responsibility to lead…So I think leadership has a responsibility to educate our members, to activate our members, and to get our members to be involved in the political electoral process.Mark DimondsteinI'm a proud Jewish American. Jewish Americans should be the first to say “never again” when it comes to genocide, when it comes to ethnic cleansing, and when it comes to war crime. And we're not going to solve all the problems of the Middle East and the complicated history of the Middle East on this radio show. But let's at least be clear that the crimes committed against the Jewish people should never be allowed to be committed against anybody else—no matter who's doing it. Mark DimondsteinKamala Harris sent her two closest advisors to Wall Street about a month ago to get advice on her economic and tax policies and not connecting with the Citizens for Tax Justice, which has a progressive proposal. She doesn't connect with citizen groups. She goes around campaigning with Liz Cheney…It's quite amazing that the most popular incumbent elected politician in America today is Bernie Sanders…And she's ignoring Bernie Sanders and going into one state after another with people like Liz Cheney. Ralph NaderWhatever happens next Tuesday, our work isn't done. The divisions that have been created by white supremacy, by this anti-immigrant fervor out here—these things aren't going away. Issues that divide workers instead of unite workers—the growing bigotry, the attack on women's rights to reproductive freedom and health, the attacks on voting rights—these are issues that are going to be here with whoever wins the election. So the working people and the trade union movement have a lot of work to do, whatever the outcome.Mark DimondsteinJames Bamford is a best-selling author, Emmy-nominated filmmaker for PBS, award-winning investigative producer for ABC News, and winner of the National Magazine Award for Reporting for his writing in Rolling Stone on the war in Iraq. He is the author of several books, including Spyfail: Foreign Spies, Moles, Saboteurs, and the Collapse of America's Counterintelligence.The reason I wrote [my article] was because people read about the bombs blowing up schools and refugee camps and hospitals and killing scores and scores, hundreds, thousands of people… But few people realized that it's middle America, largely, that’s building the bombs, sending the bombs, and the American taxpayers are paying for the bombs. All the Israelis are doing is dropping the bombs.James BamfordI think the only way is international pressure. I wrote about this in my last book, that the only thing that you can ever do to affect Israel is to have an international boycott sanction. We have to treat it like the worst country on earth. That's what happened with South Africa. That's what stopped apartheid—once they couldn't buy anything.James BamfordRECOGNIZING TIME-PRESSURED HEADLINE WRITERS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO READERSIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/30/241. A crisis is unfolding at the Washington Post following billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’ decision to block the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. In a statement signed by 21 opinion columnists at the Post, they write “The…decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake.” Signatories include Karen Attiah, E.J. Dionne, and Dana Milbank among many others. Since the publication of that statement, two opinion writers have resigned: David Hoffman, who has written for the Post since 1982 and was awarded a Pulitzer Prize just last week, as well as technology columnist Molly Roberts. Editor-at-large Robert Kagan also resigned his position at the paper. This from Semafor. Responding to the outcry, Bezos himself published an op-ed in the paper arguing that Americans see the news media as too politicized already and an official endorsement would merely make matters worse. As of October 29th, over 200,000 Washington Post readers, nearly 10% of the total readership, have canceled their subscriptions, per NPR.2. Like the Washington Post, the LA Times also opted not to endorse Kamala Harris. Similar backlash followed, with the New York Times reporting “Thousands of readers canceled subscriptions. Three members of the editorial board resigned. Nearly 200 staff members signed an open letter to management demanding an explanation, complaining that the decision this close to the election had undermined the news organization’s trust with readers.” Nika Soon-Shiong, the activist daughter of LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, publicly stated “Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate. This was the first and only time I have been involved in the process…As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.” Per Vanity Fair however, her father disputes this narrative, saying “Nika speaks in her own personal capacity regarding her opinion…She does not have any role at The L.A. Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times.” The murkiness of these circumstances has left readers with many questions that likely will not be answered until well after the election.3. According to Slate, “Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters that he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [last] Saturday…According to Trump, the Israeli leader said he disregarded President Joe Biden’s warning to keep troops out of Rafah in southern Gaza.” In other words, Trump is conducting foreign policy independent of the sitting president, a flagrant violation of the Logan Act and the Constitution itself. This collusion between Trump and Netanyahu is reminiscent of the Nixon campaign’s collusion with the South Vietnamese to prolong the Vietnam War and thereby undermine the Hubert Humphrey campaign and similarly, the Reagan campaign’s collusion with Iran to prolong the hostage crisis. Yet again however, it seems unlikely that there will be any consequences to this open criminal activity.4. Reuters reports that on Monday, Israel formally banned the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency from operating inside Israel. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who has worked extensively in Gaza since this campaign of slaughter began is quoted saying “If UNRWA is unable to operate, it'll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza…So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children.” Reuters reports “over 13,300 children whose identities have been confirmed have been killed” in Gaza, while “Many more are believed to have died from diseases due to a collapsing medical system and food and water shortages.”5. The Muslim Mirror reports “In a landmark diplomatic move, Claudia Sheinbaum, the newly elected President of Mexico and the country’s first Jewish head of state, officially recognized the State of Palestine.” Sheinbaum is quoted saying “Today, Mexico reaffirms its commitment to human rights and justice for all. Recognizing Palestine is a step toward peace and a signal to the international community that the Palestinian people deserve dignity, statehood, and the right to self-determination.” Neither the United States nor Canada recognize the State of Palestine.6. Over 20,000 workers have lost their lives working on Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman’s Saudi Vision 2030 project, per the Hindustan Times. These workers, almost exclusively migrants, say they feel like “trapped slaves” and “beggars,” and allege widespread exploitation including “unpaid wages, illegal working hours and human rights abuses.” While rumors of the workers mistreatment has been circulating for years now, a new ITV documentary has brought more attention to the issue in recent days. The deeply suspect NEOM mega-city project alone, which is just one aspect of Saudi Vision 2030, is expected to cost at least $500 billion.7. BRICS, the loose multi-polar alliance of countries forming an alternative economic bloc to offset the United States, recently concluded their latest summit. Per Democracy Now!, the alliance voted to accept 13 more countries to th

As the Medicare enrollment period gets underway again, we welcome Dr. Adam Gaffney to remind us the ways all those heavily advertised Medicare Advantage programs are ripping you off. Then we receive another house call from Dr. Marty Makary, author of Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health about the effect of medical groupthink on all kinds of accepted treatments from peanut allergies to opioid addiction. Finally, founder of Media Matters, David Brock stops by to discuss his latest book, Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America.Dr. Adam Gaffney is a physician, writer, public health researcher, and advocate. Dr. Gaffney practices at the Cambridge Health Alliance and is an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. A member of the Cambridge Health Justice Lab, his research focuses on healthcare financing, reform, and equity, and disparities in lung health. He writes about the policy, politics, and history of health care, and is the author of To Heal Humankind: The Right to Health in History.The reality is we don't need Medigap. We could plug those holes with public coverage. There's no reason to have a role for private insurers to cover a slice of our healthcare when all seniors need the same thing—which is comprehensive universal care.  There's no need for these private stopgap measures, when what we need is a public system of universal care.Dr. Adam GaffneyI do think there’s growing interest among physicians in change. Their bosses are increasingly these for-profit companies whose mission is not really medicine. Their mission is money. And what we need to do is to rethink our healthcare system, so it serves communities, is owned by communities, and it returns us to the underlying reason why we went into this profession—which is to help patients, and not to pad the pockets of shareholders.Dr. Adam GaffneyDr. Marty Makary is a Johns Hopkins professor and member of the National Academy of Medicine. He is the author of two New York Times best-selling books, Unaccountable and The Price We Pay. Dr. Makary has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, and he has published more than 250 scientific research articles. He served in leadership at the W.H.O. and has been a visiting professor at 25 medical schools. His latest book is Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health.For most of human history, doctors were respected, but maybe like you would respect your hairdresser, or maybe a clergy member in the community. And we didn't have many tools as doctors. We had a lancet, we had a saw to do amputations, we had a couple of drugs that didn't work or were counterproductive like digoxin. And then what happened in 1922 is Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. And by the post-World War II era in the 1940s and '50s, we saw the mass production of antibiotics. That ushered in the white coat era of medicine. Doctors began to wear a white coat. They now had the power to prescribe a magical pill that could cure disease, make childbirth safe, enable surgeons to do procedures safer. And this ushered in this new unquestioned authority. And what happened was, physicians as a class took advantage of this unquestioned authority.Dr. Marty MakaryDavid Brock is a Democratic activist and founder of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog group. Following the 2010 elections, Mr. Brock founded the Super PAC American Bridge, which works to elect Democrats. He is a New York Times best-selling author, and his books include the memoir Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, Killing the Messenger: The Right Wing Plot to Hijack Your Government, and his latest book is Stench: The Making of the Thomas Court and the Unmaking of America.The Federalist Society was originally founded by three rightwing law students. And it was pitched as a debating society. So I don't think in the original incarnation, they had a master plan. But soon enough, they realized that membership in the Federalist Society could confer on people a certain imprimatur for appointments—and that's appointments not only to the federal judiciary, but all through the executive branch.David BrockThe scheme to overturn Roe has been going on for all these decades. There were setbacks, of course, because there were times when Republican appointees ended up being independent—Sandra Day O 'Connor, for example, David Souter, for example—and the right was defeated in their effort to overturn Roe. So it took a while and it took a lot of steadfast, patient spending of money on their crusade.David Brock[This is] a time when the Biden regime is supporting the destruction of the ancient land of Lebanon— whom he's called in prior years an ally. He's letting Netanyahu destroy Lebanon with the same tactics that Netanyahu applied to the genocide in Gaza.Ralph NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/23/241. Last week, Israel announced they had killed longtime Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. As NBC put it, the footage of his death released by Israel “showed Sinwar not hiding in a tunnel surrounded by hostages — as Israeli officials often claimed he was — but aboveground and hurling a stick at a drone with his last ounce of strength.” American political leaders, such as Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, are seeking to use Sinwar’s death to argue that Israel has accomplished its mission and should therefore conclude its genocidal campaign in Gaza. Israeli leaders however have made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of pulling out of Gaza, with Benny Gantz – chairman of Israel’s National Unity Party and among Prime Minister Netanyahu’s chief political rivals – stating that the Israeli military “will continue to operate in the Gaza Strip for years to come,” per Al Jazeera.2. According to POLITICO, during an August 29th meeting in Washington Lise Grande, the top U.S. official working on the humanitarian situation in Gaza told the leaders of more than a dozen aid organizations that “the U.S. would not consider withholding weapons from Israel for blocking food and medicine from entering [Gaza].” It is illegal to block the delivery of humanitarian assistance under both American and international human rights law. As the paper notes, Grande’s “candid assessment…raises questions about the seriousness of recent Biden administration threats to [withhold arms].” One attendee told POLITICO “[Grande] was saying that the rules don’t apply to Israel.”3. Meanwhile, Israel continues its war on the United Nations mission in Lebanon. On October 20th, UNIFIL released a statement saying “Earlier today, an IDF bulldozer deliberately demolished an observation tower and perimeter fence of a UN position in Marwahin…The IDF has repeatedly demanded that UNIFIL vacate its positions along the Blue Line and has deliberately damaged UN positions. Despite the pressure being exerted on the mission and our troop-contributing countries…We will continue to undertake our mandated tasks.” UNIFIL added “Yet again, we note that breaching a UN position and damaging UN assets is a flagrant violation of international law and Security Council resolution 1701.”4. In a frankly dystopian story from the United Kingdom, British counterterrorism police “raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley,” despite the fact that Winstanley has not been charged with any offense. Electronic Intifada reports the raid was conducted under sections 1 and 2 of the 2006 “Terrorism Act,” which deal with the “encouragement of terrorism.” Human Rights Watch has previously urged the British government to repeal the repressive provisions of the 2006 act noting that “the definition of the encouragement of terrorism offense is overly broad, raising serious concerns about undue infringement on free speech.” Electronic Intifada further notes “In August, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service issued a warning to the British public to ‘think before you post’ and threatening that it would prosecute anyone it deemed guilty of what it calls ‘online violence.’” Winstanley is the author of Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn and has been interviewed by the Capitol Hill Citizen.5. According to the Libertarian magazine Reason, Bob Woodward’s new book War includes a passage about a “shockingly blunt conversation,” between President Biden and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham regarding “Biden's attempts to negotiate a ‘megadeal’ between the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.” Per Reason “Graham reportedly said that only Biden could secure a U.S.-Saudi defense treaty, because it would ‘take a Democratic president to convince Democrats to vote to go to war for Saudi Arabia’” Biden’s response? “Let's do it.” Furthermore, reports indicate this security pact only fell apart after October 7th, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman seeing a prominent deal with Israel at that time as a major political liability. Reason cites an article from the Atlantic in January wherein Salman reportedly told Secretary of State Antony Blinken “Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don't, but my people do…Half my advisers say that the deal is not worth the risk. I could end up getting killed because of this deal.”6. In more international news, the Cuban energy grid collapsed on Friday, under strain from Hurricane Oscar. The complete grid collapse left the entire country of 10 million without electricity, per NPR. Reuters reports that over the weekend, the grid failed three more times as authorities sought to restore power. Brasil de Fato, or BdF, a Brazilian socialist news service, reports China, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Russia and Barbados are offering support to Cuba amid the total blackout. BdF further reports “The Alba Movimientos platform, which brings

Ralph welcomes back William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. They'll discuss the Cost of War Project's latest reports on US military spending in support of Israel, and the humanitarian costs of the war in Gaza. Then, Ralph is joined by Palestinian writer and analyst Sumaya Awad to discuss the mass civil disobedience at the New York Stock Exchange, which was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace to protest the weapons manufacturers that are making millions off the genocide in Gaza.William Hartung is an expert on the arms industry and US military budget, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is the author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, and the co-editor of Lessons from Iraq: Avoiding the Next War.In all my years of watching the operations of Washington—including the Bush/Cheney criminal invasion of Iraq—I have never seen such a servile position by top officials of an administration to a foreign power. Not even close. They are humiliating the United States of America. They are jeopardizing the United States of America—because as you know, the Department of Defense, CIA, NSA have studies and scenarios of blowback. So this war in the Middle East is gonna come back to the US in terms of reprisal and retaliation. And we are not able to anticipate that because we think, as the ruling empire in the world, that we're invulnerable. But we're not invulnerable.Ralph NaderThe Biden administration is living in the past. They’ve got this “Israel, right or wrong” ideology. They think it's a political detriment to criticize Israel, and the fact that the younger generation is not locked into that point of view. But I think they’re going to hurt themselves more by enabling the war crimes that Israel is committing than they would by taking a stand. And of course, they keep trying to say that they're pushing for a ceasefire…But as long as they're doing the weapons and the financing, that is laughable.William HartungIt's just stunning. Given the record of this century—two failed wars, $8 trillion spent, hundreds of thousands killed—and yet they could say with a straight face, “We need a dominant military.” As if that’s the tool that's gonna solve any of these problems, rather than make them worse.William HartungSumaya Awad is a Palestinian writer and analyst based in New York City, and she is the spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace’s mass civil disobedience event at the New York Stock Exchange. Ms. Awad directs strategy and communications for the Adalah Justice Project, and she is a cofounder of the Against Canary Mission Project, which defends student activists targeted by blacklists for their Palestinian rights advocacy. She is the co-author of Palestine and Elections and co-editor of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.There were over 200 arrests—the majority of them anti-Zionist Jewish New Yorkers, who want to send a clear message both to the US government and the American people that Israel weaponizes their identity in order to justify crimes against humanity and that they are not okay with this. That they refuse for their identity and Jewish people to be weaponized in this way. And that in fact, what Israel is doing and what the US government is funding and politically backing is actively making this country and certainly the rest of the world unsafe not just for Jewish people, but for others.Sumaya AwadWe are strategizing about how to push back against the role of AIPAC and the grip of AIPAC. I think the reality is that there are many people in Congress that are actually benefiting financially from what is happening in Gaza. We know that at least 50 members of Congress have links to the military-industrial complex—whether that's through stocks or other things. And so it's about unraveling this network, these connections between our government, the way it's profiting from the genocide and then what that means in terms of these elections across the country.Sumaya AwadIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/16/241. The Israeli government is finally dropping the facade that the genocide in Gaza is about ‘returning the hostages.’ Haaretz reports “According to senior defense officials, the Israeli government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.” Not only that, apparently “Israel's political leaders have not held any discussions with the various security branches about the condition of the hostages.” In other words, Israel clearly does not care about the hostages at all and are simply using them as political props to prolong their campaign of terror. In addition, the AP reports “Netanyahu is examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza,” and if Palestinians are unable or unwilling to leave their homes, they “would be considered combatants — meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them.” Last weekend, Israel launched an offensive against the Jabaliya refugee camp, resulting in gruesome footage of Palestinians burnt alive while still connected to IV tubes in field hospital tents.2. Responding to a report by NBC, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), is sounding the alarm that “US officials have discussed joining Israel in offensive strikes against Iran, and passing them off as ‘defensive’ after the fact.” As Just Foreign Policy notes, this would not only violate the War Powers Resolution, but “Unnamed US officials” are seeking to circumvent the debate and Congressional vote required for such an act under the Constitution. Now the question becomes whether the American empire will allow itself to be drawn into a rapidly escalating regional war based on Israel’s aggression.3. On October 10th, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported “This morning, two peacekeepers were injured after an IDF Merkava tank fired its weapon toward an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters in Naqoura, directly hitting it and causing them to fall. The injuries are fortunately, this time, not serious, but they remain in hospital.” Beyond this attack, UNIFIL also reports that the IDF fired on the UN positions in Labbouneh and Ras Naqoura, ending by writing “Any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law and of Security Council resolution 1701.”4. On October 8th, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal released a statement decrying the lack of action by the organs of U.S. foreign policy regarding the killing of American citizen Aysenur Eygi in the West Bank. Jayapal writes “It has been 32 days…and we have seen no movement toward an independent investigation by the U.S. government and no additional information on changes in the practices of the…IDF…units that are using live ammunition on those who are peacefully protesting…I am frankly appalled…If the Israeli government is unwilling or unable to follow our own domestic laws as well as international humanitarian laws…we must initiate our own investigation into Eygi’s killing.”5. In the UK, Jeremy Corbyn and the parliamentary Independent Alliance have sent a letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressing their “disgust over the government’s complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our lifetime.” This letter goes on to explain how “the government could have...opposed the genocide in Gaza. It could have ended military, economic and diplomatic support...[and] defended the equal application of international law. Instead, the failure to bring Israel to justice emboldened it to kill thousands of people in Lebanon and now, wage war on the UN.” The letter then asks a series of questions to the British government, including “what red lines, if any, does Israel have to cross for the government to end its diplomatic and political support?” and “does the UK government oppose genocide?”6. In a humiliation for Elon Musk, Forbes reports that Tesla stock slid by nearly $70 billion following the “sour” reaction to the company’s unveiling of their absurd new products including a “robotaxi” and “Optimus” humanoid robots. In fact, disappointment in Tesla’s “cybercab” was so acute that Uber shares spiked by 11% and Lyft’s by 10%. Another story signaling that Tesla is vastly overvalued comes from the Orange County Register, which reports the Irvine Police Department spent over $150,000 on the first ever police Cybertruck. What is the department planning to use this eye-wateringly expensive boondoggle for? According to this report “the department does not plan to use the truck for patrols. The Cybertruck will…principally be driven by DARE officers to schools.”7. According to USA Today, “A study from the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found that a California state law [which] raised the minimum wage for fast food workers did not lead to large job loses or price hikes.” The law in question, AB 1228 established a “$20 per hour minimum wage for those working at fast food restaurants with less than 60 locations nationwide and restaurants located inside airports, stadiums and convention centers. The law further gave employees stronger protections and the ability to bargain as a sector.” The study found that this law effectively raised average pay of these non-managerial employees by almost 18%, a truly remarkable margin, while prices went up only about 15 cents per $4 item. Hopefully this study will finally put an end to the old canard that raising wages for fast food workers leads to widespread job loss and price increases.8. A depressing story from NPR exposes the US Department of Agriculture’s “Wildlife Services” program, described as “a holdover from the 1930s, when Congress gave the federal government broad authority to kill wildlife at the request of private landowners….So long as livestock or human life are

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (retired) joins us once again to give his unvarnished view of the now yearlong ethnic cleansing of Gaza, an assault that has now extended into Lebanon, Syria, and Iran. Plus, our resident constitutional expert, Bruce Fein stops by to give us a quick take on how U.S. material support of the Israeli aggression in Lebanon, an ally of ours, is a clear violation of The Neutrality Act.Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volunteer Force Forum. The Jewish state in the Levant is finished. Now, if it wants to be a liberal democracy— if it wants to become a real democracy, it could possibly remain. But this Jewish state, especially in its current manifestation, which is the ultimate manifestation, has ended. It's through. The rest of the world, if nothing else, will terminate it just as it did the South African apartheid state. And it will happen—and it will happen despite the Empire's (The U.S.) protestations to the contrary. In fact, I predict ultimately when the Empire smells the tea leaves, it will probably join the crowd and tell them they have no choice but to be a liberal democracy—to invite what that means, which is ultimately a Palestinian Arab majority, and to even change their name to Israel-Palestine or Palestine-Israel or whatever. That's the future. The future is not Bibi Netanyahu.Col. Lawrence WilkersonNetanyahu talks about Joshua who moved on after Moses had given him instructions, and after the leadership had sort of fallen apart, and Joshua takes over. And they go in, and under God's instructions they are to kill everything in sight— leave no human being alive. And that's Netanyahu. Netanyahu thinks he's a latter-day Joshua, and that's what they're doing. They brought a thousand years of history's most rude, most bloodthirsty, most unbelievable procedures in waging war against another state or another people back into vogue again. And we're supporting it.Col. Lawrence WilkersonBruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law.  Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.The Neutrality Act of 1794 in substance prohibits anyone in the United States from directing or supplying arms or assistance— or otherwise engaging in war—that is against a country with which the United States is formally at peace. The United States at present is at peace with Iran. It's at peace with Lebanon. Indeed, Lebanon's an ally. We already know that President Biden had ordered Navy ships to use their Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense in collaboration with Israel to shoot down Iranian missiles—an act of war. And now they basically said we are combatants with Israel and probably planning covertly to join military forces on the next initiative that Israel takes against Iran. So it's a clear violation of the Neutrality Act.Bruce FeinListeners, you have your Senators and Representatives campaigning, as we speak, in your communities. You ask them to come to your town meetings where they can hear you out, and where you require them to respond. This is their moment of vulnerability before the election.Ralph NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/9/241. In These Times reports “U.S. Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists.” This piece, based on interviews with 18 Jewish professionals at 16 different Jewish organizations over several months, yielded descriptions of “being fired, quitting under pressure, or seeing their roles disappear since October 7 for issues surrounding criticism of Israel or support for a permanent cease-fire.” The magazine identifies this trend as part of “a radical rightward turn in mainstream Jewish organizational life over the past year...[where] Support for Israel and its government’s assault on Gaza appear to have become a defining feature of employability.” Shaul Magid, who teaches modern Judaism at Harvard Divinity School is quoted saying “More than an exercise in pro-Israel muscle, this is…an act of desperation. The liberal Zionist center is collapsing.”2. In a statement, the Hind Rajab Foundation – named for the five year-old girl killed by Israeli forces – has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court accusing 1,000 Israeli soldiers of “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza.” The statement goes on to say “These individuals, all of whom have been identified by name, are accused of participating in systematic attacks against civilians during the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” examples of which include destruction of civilian infrastructure, illegal occupation and looting, and use of inhumane warfare tactics, among others. The Foundation alleges that this complaint is supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence, including “videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation.”3. In a clash of the fast food titans, the Washington Post reports McDonald’s has filed a lawsuit against Tyson Foods, Cargill, JBS and National Beef Packing alleging that the meat packing giants engaged in a “conspiracy…to fix, raise, stabilize and/or maintain the price of beef…at supra-competitive levels — that is, prices artificially higher than beef prices would have been in the absence of their conspiracy.” In this complaint, McDonald’s alleges that “the price per hundred pounds of cattle had historically stayed within $20 to $40 of the average price per hundred pounds of wholesale beef…. [but] By 2021, the difference had ballooned to $156.50.” The meatpackers have been under increasing scrutiny for the past several years. “In 2020, the Justice Department…sent subpoenas to the four meatpackers in an antitrust probe. A year later, nearly 30 members of Congress sent...a letter, suggesting it was time ‘to determine whether the stranglehold large meatpackers have over the beef processing market violate our antitrust laws and principles of fair competition,’” and in 2022, JBS agreed to a $52.5 million settlement with direct purchasers.4. In the final days before the 2024 election, Republicans are launching a full-scale assault on the regulatory state. The National Review reports House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer is opening an investigation into Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan, accusing her of politicizing the agency by appearing at events with progressive lawmakers. These events have centered on policy – an event in Texas with Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar was focused on “corporate power and worker freedom,” while others have dealt with grocery prices, health care, and price gouging, per Punchbowl News – but Comer is alleging that these events were political in nature and thus prohibited by the Hatch Act. Meanwhile Mark Joseph Stern reports “Fourteen Republican attorneys general are suing to block a new [Federal Communications Commission] rule that would prohibit prisons from charging inmates extortionist rates for phone and video calls,” which can cost as much $54 each. It seems unlikely that these attacks on consumer protection rules will deliver political dividends for Republicans come November.5. In another bizarre GOP misstep, Indiana Senator Mike Braun recently said “the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage in…1967,” and that the decision should have “instead been left to individual states,” FOX59 Indianapolis reports. Braun then tied himself in knots saying that he condemned “racism in any form” but maintained that “We’re better off having states manifest their points of view.” The Indiana Democratic Party condemned Braun’s statements, calling his rhetoric “an endorsement of…dangerous white nationalist views.”6. Airline Geeks reports “Boeing has cut health care coverage for 33,000 of its workers and their families as [the] machinists union strikes continue to halt production in the Pacific Northwest.” International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers International President Brian Bryant responded to this clear attempt at strikebreaking by saying “Boeing executives cannot make up their mind…One day they say they want to win back the trust of their workforce. The next moment…Boeing executives are…tripping over dollars to get pennies by cutting a benefit that is essential to the lives of children and families, but is nothing compared to the cost of the larger problems Boeing executives have created …over the last ten years. Their missteps are costing not just the workers but our nation.” The Machinists have been on strike since September 13th, and Bryant said “Our members continue to be strong in their resolve and will not settle for anything but a fair contract that recognizes and rewards the critical and dedicated work they perform.”7. According to Documented NY, “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has run a secretive program for years where ICE agents have trained hundreds of civilian volunteers on how to operate multiple types of firearms, conduct investigations and surveillance of immigrants, and use lethal force on human beings.” Documents from this quasi-fascist program, revealed via FOIA request on October 1st, include “detailed images showing where to strike with a baton or a weapon t

First on today's show, Ralph welcomes back Dr. Bandy Lee to discuss her recent conference, "The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership—The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump". Then, Ralph is joined by Professor Ted Postol to talk about the missiles and rockets (and other weapons) being used in the expanding war(s) in the Middle East. [Nadia Milleron] went down to Springfield, the state capitol, and met with every assembly member, saying—for future wrongful death, you should give people in Illinois the opportunity to file for punitive damages against these corporate defendants, or other similarly-positioned defendants. And she got it through—it was considered impossible to beat Boeing, and she got it through and the governor signed it. That's the determination of a parent who loses a child to corporate crimeRalph NaderDr. Bandy Lee is a medical doctor, a forensic psychiatrist, and a world expert on violence who taught at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School for 17 years before joining the Harvard Program in Psychiatry and the Law. She is currently president of the World Mental Health Coalition, an educational organization that assembles mental health experts to collaborate with other disciplines for the betterment of public mental health and public safety. She is the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President and Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul.Let me clarify that there's a distinction among the evaluations that mental health experts do—one is diagnostic, the other is functional. And the diagnostic exam is the one that mental health professionals have no business doing on a public figure because that's what you do in private therapy sessions, and you diagnose someone in order to outline their course of treatment. But a functional assessment is something you do for the public—and that includes unfitness or dangerousness—and these kinds of comments are not only permitted, they are part of our societal responsibility because we are responsible not just for private individual patients, but for the public, for society.Dr. Bandy LeeDonald Trump is not an isolated phenomenon. He is a product of the system that has come before him and he is an accelerator of the dangers that succeed him. I do not believe that a Biden presidency would have been this dangerous without a Trump presidency preceding him. Dr. Bandy LeeTed Postol is Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy Emeritus in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. His expertise is in nuclear weapon systems, including submarine warfare, applications of nuclear weapons, ballistic missile defense, and ballistic missiles more generally. He previously worked as an analyst at the Office of Technology Assessment and as a science and policy adviser to the chief of naval operations. In 2016, he received the Garwin Prize from the Federation of American Scientists for his work in assessing and critiquing the government’s claims about missile defenses.I do not want to appear like I don't think it matters, but at the same time, it's been provoked to the point that it's amazing that the Iranians have restrained themselves to this point. But the Iranians know that they're going to suffer heavy damage from Israel. They have not wanted to go to war. They have shown great wisdom and restraint in spite of the situation.Ted PostolWhat the Israelis want—this guy Netanyahu in particular, who I think is delusional besides being psychopath—what Netanyahu wants, he wants a decisive victory. Again, let me underscore that—a decisive victory against Iran and also Hezbollah and Gaza, these poor victims of his genocide in Gaza. He can't do that. He's going to kill God knows how many more people in his effort—which is already a crime against humanity that's beginning to look like the Holocaust—but he's not going to defeat Hezbollah in a decisive way. Ted PostolIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 10/2/241. ProPublica reports “The U.S. government’s two foremost authorities on humanitarian assistance [USAID and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration] concluded this spring that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine into Gaza.” Yet just days later, instead of acting upon this information, Secretary of State Antony Blinken misled Congress telling lawmakers “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance [to Gaza].” In USAID’s report, the agency laid out specific examples of Israeli interference, including “killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.” The State Department Refugee bureau separately concluded that “the Foreign Assistance Act should be triggered to freeze almost $830 million in taxpayer dollars earmarked for weapons and bombs to Israel, according to emails obtained by ProPublica.” Yet because Blinken refused to accept these facts and instead opted to lie to Congress, the weapons pipeline to Israel continues to flow unimpeded. Some, including Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have called on Blinken to resign, per the Middle East Monitor.2. On September 27th, Israel assassinated Hezbollah Secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah. According to NBC, the Israelis made this decision “after concluding [Nasrallah] would not accept any diplomatic solution to end the fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border that was not tied to an end to the war in Gaza.” Through this assassination, and the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau chairman Ismail Haniyeh earlier this year, Israel has made clear that they would rather resort to extrajudicial killings than negotiate an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Israel now plans to invade Southern Lebanon, further escalating this conflict into a regional war, with the full backing of the United States.3. Following the pager and walkie-talkie attacks in Lebanon, the office of Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib issued a statement decrying that “The Biden-Harris administration continues to allow Netanyahu and the Israeli government to operate with impunity as they carry out war crimes. After facing no red line in Gaza…Netanyahu is now expanding his genocidal campaign to Lebanon…Deploying more U.S. troops and sending more U.S. bombs will only lead to more suffering and carnage. The...administration is capable of stopping the bloodshed. President Biden must implement an immediate arms embargo to end the slaughter and de-escalate the risk of a wider regional war.” Yet, far from de-escalating, the Biden administration has stood by while Netanyahu has escalated further, with increasing signs that the situation will tip over into a full-scale regional war between Israel and Iran. Dark days indeed could be ahead.4. This week, Hurricane Helene cleaved a “500-mile path of destruction” stretching from Florida to the Southern Appalachians, per CNN. So far, the casualties include at least 128 dead and whole communities wiped off the map. Yet, this devastation is not limited merely to peoples’ homes and communities. In a darkly ironic twist, “Hurricane Helene's severe flooding [in Asheville, North Carolina] knocked offline the top tracker of U.S. and global climate data, including of extreme weather…The National Centers for Environmental Information,” or NCEI. According to the NCEI, “Even those who are physically safe are generally without power, water or connectivity,” per Axios. And just outside Atlanta, Vox reports “Amid the devastation and mass flooding…A chemical fire [at BioLab] released a massive plume of potentially toxic gasses into the air.” Officials issued a shelter-in-place order Sunday evening covering Rockdale County, home to around 90,000 people. EPA testing detected signs of chlorine gas in the air. Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, has reported “a haze and strong chemical smell.”5. Last week, the International Trade Union Confederation published a report accusing “Some of the world’s largest companies of undermining democracy across the world by financially backing far-right political movements, funding and exacerbating the climate crisis, and violating trade union rights and human rights.” This report specifically names Amazon, Tesla, Meta, ExxonMobil, Blackstone, Vanguard and Glencore. This report cites a litany of damning acts by these corporations – ranging from union busting and environmental degradation to funding of far-right and anti-indigenous movements around the globe – but makes the fundamental point that “This is about power, who has it, and who sets the agenda. …They’re playing the long game, and it’s a game about shifting power away from democracy at every level into one where they’re not concerned about the effects on workers – they’re concerned about maximizing their influence and their extractive power and their profit…Now is the time for international and multi-sectoral strategies, because these are, in many cases, multinational corporations that are more powerful than states, and they have no democratic accountability whatsoever, except for workers organized.” Per the Guardian, “the ITUC includes labor group affiliates from 169 nations…representing 191 million workers…the federation is pushing for an international binding treaty…to hold transnational corporations accountable under international human rights laws.”6. Yet, although these corporations are being called out for their role in undermining democracy, the Biden administration is granting many of them large sums of money via the newly announced “Partnership for Global Inclusivity on AI.” According to the State Department, this partnership will bring together the Departmen

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 the numerous American citizens killed by Israeli soldiers even before the current explosion of tensions in the region, ranging from Rachel Corrie in 2003 to Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. Senator Bernie Sanders echoed this call in his own statement on September 13th. Despite this pressure, the administration has not launched an investigation. The government of Turkey however – where Ms. Eygi was born, though she moved the United States when she was less than a year old – will pursue charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice, Reuters reports.2. The Intercept reports that the Uncommitted Movement will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. In their official statement, the Movement leaders write “Vice President Harris’s unwillingness to shift on unconditional weapons policy or to even make a clear campaign statement in support of upholding existing U.S. and international human rights law has made it impossible for us to endorse her.” Harris proved unwilling to even meet with the Uncommitted leaders. This cold shoulder could have disastrous consequences, particularly in Michigan where Uncommitted garnered over 100,000 votes in the Democratic primaries.3. Boeing is again in crisis. On September 20th, the New York Post reported that the chief of the company’s space unit, Ted Colbert, had been ousted after Boeing’s Starliner capsule left astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore stranded on the International Space Station. This comes amid a massive strike by Boeing machinists, 96% of whom voted in favor of the strike per Ryan Simms of KOMO News. The New York Post adds that Boeing’s shares have lost over 40% of their value so far this year.4. In more union related news, on September 18th, the Congressional Workers Union announced that “staff in the Office of Congressman Mark Pocan and Congresswoman Val Hoyle secured the first-ever Memorandums of Understanding…between congressional staff and their members.” These MOUs include salary increases, back pay, and immediate cost-of-living adjustments. The union will continue to press for the first ever Congressional office collective bargaining agreement.5. On September 12th, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau “filed a proposed order against student loan servicer Navient for its years of failures and lawbreaking.” If approved by the court, this order would permanently “remove Navient from a market where it, among other illegal actions, steered numerous student loan borrowers into costly repayment options…illegally deprived student borrowers of opportunities to enroll in more affordable income-driven repayment plans and forced them to pay much more than they should have.” Additionally, Navient would be forced to pay out $100 million to harmed borrowers, on top of a $20 million penalty. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra is quoted saying “For years, Navient’s top executives profited handsomely by exploiting students and taxpayers…By banning the notorious student loan giant from federal student loan servicing and ensuring the winddown of these operations, the CFPB will finally put an end to the years of abuse.” Navient, formerly Sallie Mae, is described as “a repeat offender with a long history of regulatory violations,” and when the CFPB first took legal action against the company in 2017, it was the largest student loan servicer in the country.6. More Perfect Union’s Jordan Zakarin reports the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Starbucks illegally closed all three of its Ithaca, New York locations and that the NLRB “ordered that those stores be re-opened, with the unionized staff re-hired and given 16 months of backpay.” Yet, Zakarin notes that because this was decided by an administrative law judge, Starbucks can and more than likely will appeal this decision. This case starkly exemplifies why the capitalist class feels so threatened by the newly reinvigorated NLRB.7. A deeply disturbing story sheds light on sexual assault by CIA officers in postings around the world. The AP reports Brian Jeffrey Raymond, a longtime CIA agent, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for drugging, photographing, and sexually assaulting more than two dozen women in postings around the globe. Yet Raymond’s case is just the tip of the iceberg. “[A]nother veteran CIA officer faces…charges in Virginia for allegedly reaching up a co-worker’s skirt and forcibly kissing her during a drunken party in the office…Still another former CIA employee…is scheduled to face a jury trial next month on charges he assaulted a woman…at the agency’s Langley, Virginia, headquarters. That case emboldened some two dozen women to come forward to authorities and Congress with accounts of their own of sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they contend are the CIA’s efforts to silence them.” Tellingly, even Raymond’s own attorneys contended that his “quasi-military” work at the CIA in the years following 9/11 contributed to his

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 collective, is led by Mark Ruffalo, Cynthia Nixon, Mahershala Ali, and Ilana Glazer. Ruffalo writes “Our demand is simple — our elected leaders must enforce existing U.S. and international humanitarian laws that prohibit the use of military assistance to commit ‘grave human rights violations.’” Nixon adds “Words without action will not end the unbearable suffering…Enough is enough. The global call for a permanent ceasefire — supported domestically by an overwhelming majority of Americans — must be answered.” Despite overwhelming public support for peace, advocating for Palestinian rights has been a dangerous proposition in Hollywood since October 7th, with “A top movie agent, an Oscar winner, and the star of Scream VII [having] all been demoted or fired for calling out Israel’s bombing of Gaza,” per Rolling Stone.4. In a chilling story from our Northern neighbor, the Ottawa Citizen reports “The Ukrainian Canadian Congress says it plans to go to court to stop the federal government from making public the names of alleged Nazi war criminals who fled to [Canada].” As this piece explains, “At issue are documents created by a 1986 federal government war-crimes commission…One of the documents is titled ‘Master List of alleged war criminals resident in Canada… [including] names of alleged war criminals as well as Nazi scientists and technicians” who fled to the country. The total number is around 900. These records have been requested under Canada’s equivalent to the Freedom of Information Act. The government must now decide whether or not to disclose these names. According to this article, the Canadian government has consulted with leaders of Canada’s Ukrainian community, but not with Holocaust survivors or scholars.5. In a major win for the Biden Treasury Department, the IRS announced last week that it has clawed back $1.3 billion from rich tax dodgers since last fall, per AP. Since 2023, the IRS has “launched a series of initiatives aimed at pursuing…taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.” According to officials, approximately 80% of the 1,600 tax delinquent millionaires have now made a payment.6. More positive news comes to us from the union front. The Orlando Weekly’s McKenna Schueler reports “Florida's anti-union law, SB 256, has forced dozens of public sector unions to ask the state for recertification elections—and so far, they're all crushing it. Out of 26 elections with final results reported, workers in all but 1 have voted to keep their unions alive & intact.” Yet despite the unions’ overwhelming victories in these re-certification elections, “more than 68,000 public employees in Florida have lost their union representation - NOT because they voted to get rid of their unions, but because their union had low membership and didn't petition for a recertification election.” 7. In more red-state union news, Washington Post Labor Reporter Lauren Kaori Gurley reports “Apple retail workers in Oklahoma City secured a tentative union contract, the 2nd store to do so at Apple.” This contract between Apple and the workers, represented by the Communications Workers of America, is said to include “pay increases of up to 11.5% over 3 years, severance & store closure protections [and] worker involvement in scheduling.”8. Yet not all is well on the union front. According to NJ.com a “civil war” is brewing between the United Autoworkers and the AFL-CIO at Atlantic City casinos over the UAW’s demand to end indoor smoking. According to this piece, many of the dealers at these casinos, represented by the UAW, have contracted emphysema or even cancer despite not smoking themselves due to their constant exposure to secondhand smoke. Meanwhile the state AFL-CIO, led by Charlie Wowkanech, is standing with the casinos against a proposed ban. The UAW’s Daniel Vicente is quoted saying “Dealing with Charlie was like dealing with some lame-ass mafia guy – it felt like a shakedown…We’re planning to go to war with these other unions…We’re coming straight at anyone who stands in the way of our people coming home safe.”9. Another story of betrayal comes from France. Al Jazeera reports “More than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators…have taken to the streets across France to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint centre-right Michel Barnier as [Prime Minister], with left-wing parties accusing [Macron] of stealing legislative elections.” For the past two months, the French parliament has been hung due to legislative elections that left it divided into three blocs – the largest of which being the left-wing coalition. Yet despite a popular front alliance between Macron and the Left during the elections, Macron has now chosen to elevate a right-winger as PM in order to appease the far-right bloc led by Marine Le Pen. Al Jazeera notes that French pollster Elabe found that 74 percent of French people believed Macron had disregarded the results of the elections and 55 percent believe he

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 is a clear risk of weapons being used to commit violations of international law…This announcement must be the first step in ending all arms…used by the Israeli military to commit genocide in Gaza.”6. According to the ACLU of Indiana, “[Indiana University] has approved a new policy that prohibits all expressive activity if it takes place between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., even if the activity is not at all disruptive, such as standing silently, holding a sign, wearing a t-shirt with a communicative message, or discussing current events with friends.” This policy, which “carries harsh punishments, including suspension or expulsion for students, and suspension or termination of staff,” was adopted in response to campus pro-Palestine demonstrations last year. The ACLU of Indiana has already filed a lawsuit to overturn this chilling policy. And at New York University, Palestine Legal reports “In a dangerous escalation of repression, [NYU] announced new student conduct policies last week that appear to prohibit criticism of Zionism. If implemented, these policies risk creating a hostile environment for Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish students and severely curtail…free expression.” This statement notes that NYU does not afford protected status to any other political ideology and that this decision “opens the door for other ethno-nationalist ideologies to claim protection from criticism. With Zionism enshrined as a protected class, there’s no reason why Hindu nationalism, Christian nationalism, white nationalism or similar ideologies wouldn’t be afforded the same.” Palestine Legal has vowed that it will “continue to monitor and combat institutional attempts to punish and censor students organizing for Palestinian rights.”7. In a major escalation of tensions, the United States seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s plane in the Dominican Republic and transferred it to Florida, per the BBC. According to this report, “US officials said the plane was seized for suspected violations of US export control and sanctions laws,” while Venezuelan officials have denounced this move as an act of “piracy,” and “reserves the right to take any legal action to repair this damage to the nation.” Foreign Minister Yván Gil said the US had justified itself “with the coercive measures that they unilaterally and illegally impose around the world.” This is just the latest case of western governments seizing Venezuelan state assets; in 2018, the Bank of England seized nearly $2 billion worth of Venezuelan gold and has refused to return those assets despite urging from the United Nations special rapporteur on sanctions, per Declassified UK.8. The Miami Herald is out with a stunning new report on the dubious “Havana Syndrome” which finds that patients were “coerced” to join an NIH study on the supposed illness. According to this piece, “An internal review board at the National Institutes of Health…decided to shut down a long-term study of Havana Syndrome patients that found no signs of brain injuries, after several participants complained of mishandled medical data, bias and pressures to join the research. [Jennifer George] A spokeswoman for NIH said the internal review found that ‘informed consent’ policies to join the study ‘were not met due to coercion.” Though George insists the coercion was not on the part of the NIH, she declined to identify who coerced the patients.9. Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine reports “[Arizona Democratic Senate nominee Ruben] Gallego, fresh off of a police union endorsement, just penned a letter to the US [Department of Justice] asking them to stand down in its investigations against the Phoenix police and its effort to bring the department under a consent decree.” The proposed consent decree in question stems from a DOJ investigation that found “[Phoenix PD] uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force… unlawfully detain, cite, and arrest people experiencing homelessness and unlawfully dispose of their belongings…discriminates against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when enforcing the law…violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech and expression…[and] discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities when dispatching calls for assistance and responding to people in crisis.”10. Finally, in more positive Senate-related news, a new Split Ticket poll shows populist Independent candidate Dan Osborn running neck-and-neck with incumbent Republican Senator Deb Fischer in Nebraska. While Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris 54 to 37, the same poll shows Senator Fischer leading by only 1 point – 39% to Osborn’s 38%, with 23% undecided. Osborn, a union leader who organized the 2021 Kellogg strike, has been favorably profiled by the American Prospect. There is no Democrat running for this seat.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

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 time since 2012 the platform doesn't call for abolition and the first time since 2004 there's no mention of the death penalty at all.” Prior to 2012, the Democratic platform called for limiting the practice. This article continues, “Public support for the death penalty has been gradually declining. A Gallup poll last year found that 65% of Democrats oppose the punishment.” Yet despite this super-majority support the Democrats are abandoning this promise and did not even bother responding to her email asking if the party still supports death penalty abolition.4. On Monday, the Middle East Studies Association sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania “denouncing its collaboration with the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s investigation of faculty members.” This letter expresses the association’s, and its Committee on Academic Freedom’s “grave concern about the apparent cooperation of the University…with the [Republican] witch-hunt…against…faculty, as well as faculty and students at other institutions of higher education.” Specifically, the Association accuses the university of providing the committee with materials – including course syllabi – despite no subpoena being issued. The Association compares this “witch-hunt,” to “the now-disgraced House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in the late 1940s and 1950s,” and makes clear that the House committee members are “less concerned with combatting invidious discrimination than with suppressing and punishing pro-Palestine speech.” This letter ends with a demand that the university “immediately desist from any form of cooperation…[and] to affirm [their] commitment to protect the academic freedom of [their] faculty, students and staff, and to vigorously defend them against all forms of governmental harassment and intimidation.”5. Remember the astronauts stranded on the International Space Station due to Boeing’s incompetence? According to AP, “NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring [them] back to Earth in Boeing’s…capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home…What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.” As AP highlights, this is “a blow to Boeing, adding to the safety concerns plaguing the company on its airplane side. Boeing had counted on Starliner’s first crew trip to revive the troubled spacecraft program after years of delays and ballooning costs. The company had insisted Starliner was safe based on all the recent thruster tests both in space and on the ground.” In other words, whether in the air or in space, Boeing craft are undependable and dangerous. According to Good Jobs First’s Subsidy Tracker, Boeing has received nearly $100 billion in public subsidies, loans or bailouts since 1994.6. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump, the BBC reports. In a press conference, Kennedy said he would “seek to remove his name from the ballot in 10 battleground states…where his presence would be a ‘spoiler’ to Trump's effort.” That said, election officials in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada said it was too late to take his name off the ballot. In exchange for his endorsement, Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan “entertained the idea that Kennedy could join Trump’s administration as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services,” per AP, a perch that would allow him to carry out his anti-vaccine agenda. Kerry Kennedy, his sister, released a statement saying his support for Trump was a “betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.”7. Last year, the Department of Justice announced an antitrust lawsuit accusing the meat industry of colluding to fix prices with the help of a data company, Agri Stats, that “violated Section 1 of the Sherman Act by collecting, integrating, and distributing competitively sensitive information related to price, cost, and output among competing meat processors,” per Common Dreams. Now, More Perfect Union has released a video on the case featuring Errol Schweizer, the former vice president of Whole Foods' grocery division, saying “This is probably one of the top five food scandals of the 21st Century, and we can't underplay it…People f*****g need to go to jail…for this s**t.”8. Labor Notes’ Luis Feliz Leon reports “Costco turned down a card check agreement with the Teamsters.” In a statement, the Teamsters explain “Costco Teamsters were forced to suspend negotiations for a new National Master Agreement after the wholesale giant, despite its claims of being pro-union, refused to accept a card check agreement that would make it easier for nonunion Costco workers to join the Teamsters…Despite Costco’s public reputation as a ‘worker-friendly’ company, the wholesaler has undergone a troubling shift in its corporate culture and governance. Increasingly…catering to Wall Street shareholders at the expense of workers.” Teamsters Gene

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 activism, Prem Thakker of the Intercept reports the DNC “will host [its] first ever panel on Palestinian human rights,” featuring Layla Elabed, co-leader of the Uncommitted movement, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, former Congressman Andy Levin, and Jim Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, among others. Ms. Elabed and her compatriot Abbas Alawieh said in a statement “Our focus remains on policy change. Vice President Harris has an opportunity to unite the party against Trump…by turning the page toward a human rights policy that saves lives…We will keep pushing for our party’s leadership to break away from its current financing of Israel’s horrific assault on Gaza and military rule over Palestinians.”3. Yet another sign that pro-Palestine activism is shifting the center of gravity in the Democratic Party, last Friday dozens of congressional Democrats – including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi – sent a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken “urging a halt to weapons transfers to Israel,” per AP. This letter referred to the Israeli strike on American aid workers with the World Central Kitchen relief group, saying “In light of the recent strike against aid workers and the ever-worsening humanitarian crisis, we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapons transfers.” Other signatories include Reps. Rashida Tlaib, Barbara Lee, and AOC. This letter comes on the heels of a series of state polls by IMEU and YouGov showing “A significant share of Democrats and independent voters in pivotal swing states…are more likely to vote for the Democratic presidential nominee…if said nominee pledges support for an arms embargo to Israel,” per Zeteo. In Pennsylvania, 34% said more likely and only 7% less likely; in Georgia 39% said more likely and only 5% less likely, with similar numbers in Arizona. Put simply, it is clear that an arms embargo is both good politics and good policy. Even Pelosi knows it.4. A scandal is unfolding at the University of Florida, centering on a massive misuse of funds by the University president, former Senator Ben Sasse. The Alligator, the university newspaper, reports “In his 17-month stint as UF president, Ben Sasse more than tripled his office’s spending, directing millions in university funds into secretive consulting contracts and high-paying positions for his GOP allies.” This piece continues “A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials…[these] contracts have been kept largely under wraps, leaving the public in the dark about what the contracted firms did to earn their fees.” So much for the party of fiscal responsibility.5. A new piece in St. Louis magazine recounts the ongoing miscarriage of justice against Yolanda Greene. Ms. Greene was “fired from her job after being arrested—even though the police report that provided the basis of the charges against her is clearly contradicted by bystander video.” This piece continues “The police report says that Greene struck one of the officers ‘several times in the back near his neck, head, and shoulders with what appeared to be a closed fist.’ [and that she] ‘actively assaulte[d]’ a second officer.” Yet the bystander video shows “Greene on the ground and an officer [striking] her several times…A different video, captured by an officer’s body camera, records another officer exclaiming, ‘Don’t throw a strike’—even as the officer atop Greene does just that.” Mark Pedroli, Greene’s lawyer, is quoted saying “I sent the tape over to [Wesley] Bell’s office and said, ‘You’re prosecuting the wrong people. You should be prosecuting the police for lying in these reports,’” yet Bell – who is nearly guaranteed a spot in the next congress after his successful AIPAC-backed primary against Cori Bush – is pressing ahead with these charges.6. Continuing its series on civil asset forfeiture, libertarian magazine Reason reports “A new class action lawsuit accuses Indiana law enforcement of seizing millions of dollars a year in cash from FedEx packages without ever informing owners of what crime they're suspected of violating.” This piece cites Sam Gedge a senior attorney at the “libertarian public interest law firm,” Institute for Justice, which claims “the Marion County Prosecutor's Office has sued to forfeit $2.5 million in currency from at least 130 FedEx parcels in transit from one non-Indiana state to another over the past two years. This scheme is one of the most predatory we have seen…It's illegal and unconstitutional for Indiana to forfeit in-transit money whose only connection to Indiana is the happenstance of FedEx's shipping practices.”7. According ProPublica, Arizona’s experiment with school vouchers has failed spectacularly. As the publication explains “In 2022, Arizona pioneered the largest school voucher program in the history of education…any parent in the state

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 legislation to curtail police violence…[and] Democrats…controlling both the House and Senate in 2021 and 2022.” In her concession speech, the Hill reports Bush vowed in no uncertain terms, “AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!” As for Bowman, rumors are now circulating that he will challenge Rep. Ritchie Torres – the “top recipient of AIPAC cash,” according to Track AIPAC – next cycle. Asked about this idea by journalist Ryan Grim, Minnesota Attorney General and former Congressman Keith Ellison said “That'd be a very good thing…I"ll put it like this, none of us own these seats.”3. In related news, a new report in the Intercept exposes the “… ‘Zionists for Don Samuels’ WhatsApp Group Raising Big Money to Oust Ilhan Omar.” As this report notes this group contained at least one campaign staffer, Alex Minn – whom the campaign has since severed ties with – and major outside donors despite “Campaign finance laws prohibit[ing] coordination between candidates’ campaigns and outside spending groups like super PACs.” One major donor in this group, wealthy entrepreneur Michael Sinensky, wrote “The bottom line is…we need to be supportive…of the alt right Christian Neo Nazis at the moment (like Ukraine) to fight off the socialist, Marxist, anarchists who are supporting radical Islam… Nazis are better than Islamic terrorists.”4. Last week, the Mayor of Nagasaki, Japan held a memorial for those killed in the atomic bombing of that city – and opted not to invite the Israeli ambassador “to avoid possible protests over Israel’s war on Gaza,” per Al Jazeera. In response, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel announced he would skip the event because this decision had “politicized” the event. The British ambassador to Japan also announced that she would boycott this event due to Israel’s exclusion. According to the BBC, “In June, [Nagasaki Mayor Shiro] Suzuki said Nagasaki had sent a letter to the Israeli embassy calling for an ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Gaza.”5. Journalist Jessica Burbank reports Palestinian American Actress Sarah Alami has called on SAG-AFTRA to “break their silence on [the] genocide in Gaza.” In a statement, Alami writes “Our union president has helped raise 60 million dollars to fund Israel’s army,” and decries that many actors have “been put on Black lists in Hollywood for speaking out against a foreign government.” Alami also linked to SAG-AFTRA Members for Ceasefire, a group agitating for the Guild to take a principled stand against the genocide.6. On Monday, the leaders of France, Germany, and the U.K. issued a joint statement “calling for the immediate resumption of [ceasefire] negotiations,” stressing that “there can be no further delay…the fighting must end now...the people of Gaza need urgent and unfettered delivery and distribution of aid.” In this statement, President Macron, Chancellor Sholz, and Prime Minister Starmer also expressed that they are “deeply concerned by the heightened tensions in the region” and are “united in [their] commitment to de-escalation and regional stability,” ending this statement by writing “No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East.7. Yet despite such strong words from our European allies, the Biden administration has instead taken measures sure to escalate tensions in the region. On August 9th, Zeteo reported that “The State Department…formally notified Congress of a direct sale of 6,500 joint direct action munitions (JDAM) to Israel.” This shipment, valued at $262 million, was “reportedly delayed in May, as it was…under review…[while the] U.S. sought to prevent Israeli forces from pursuing a major ground invasion in Rafah.” Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said “It is hard to comprehend how the Biden administration can justify rewarding Israel with new weapons, despite Israel's persistent defiance of every single plea the Biden administration has made urging a modicum of restraint, and despite the very apparent fact that such sales violate black letter U.S. laws prohibiting weapons to gross abusers like Israel.” The very same day, Reuters reported that “The Biden administration…decided to lift a ban on U.S. sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia… reversing a three-year-old policy to pressure the kingdom to wind down the Yemen war.” This move is an unsubtle green-light for the Saudis to recommence their war on the Yemeni Houthis, who have had more success than anticipated in their naval campaign of blockading Israeli ports and attacking American naval vessels in the Red Sea.8. Much like the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the Biden administration continues to pursue noble goals at home even while participating in human rights atrocities abroad. On Monday, More Perfect Union reported that “Banks, credit card companies, and more will be required to let customers talk to a human by pressing a single button under a new Biden administration proposed rule.” The pro-labor outlet goes o

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 estimated at £18.2m last year, an arms embargo is widely perceived as an appropriate and powerful means to register disapproval of Israel’s actions towards the Palestinians.”3. The Canary, a left-wing British new outlet, reports “During the early hours of the morning of Tuesday 6 August, six Palestine Action activists were arrested after they broke inside and damaged weaponry inside the highly secured Bristol manufacturing hub of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.” According to this report, the group “used a prison van to smash through the outer perimeter and the roller shutters into the building,” and “Once…inside, they began damaging…machinery and Israeli quadcopter drones.” As the Canary notes, “Elbit System…supplies up to 85% of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment.” Palestine Action issued a statement on this protest, writing “As a party to the Genocide Convention, Britain has a responsibility to prevent the occurrence of genocide. When our government fails to abide by their legal and moral obligations, it’s the responsibility of ordinary people to take direct action.”4. Semafor reports “In January, The Wall Street Journal made an explosive claim: Quoting ‘intelligence reports,’ the paper reported that not only had 12 members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, taken part in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, but 10% of the relief agency’s 12,000 workers in Gaza had ties to militant groups.” Yet, “months later, the paper’s top editor overseeing standards privately made an admission: The paper didn’t know — and still doesn’t know —whether the allegation, based on Israeli intelligence reports, was true.” As Semafor notes, the fact that this story was “based on information [the paper] could not verify is a startling acknowledgment, and calls into question the validity of the claims.” This unconfirmed story resulted in more than a dozen nations – among them the US, the UK, and Germany – freezing their funding for UNRWA, totaling $450 million.5. Federal News Network reports “The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved… funding the Defense Department at $852.2 billion, a 3.3% increase over fiscal [year] 2024.” In other words, another year, another $10 billion for the Pentagon. In 2023, the Department of Defense failed its sixth audit in a row, per Reuters.In more positive news, this has been a banner week for consumer protection action at the federal level.6. On August 2nd, the FTC reported “On behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice sued video-sharing platform TikTok, its parent company ByteDance, as well as its affiliated companies, with flagrantly violating a children’s privacy law—the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act—and also alleged they infringed an existing FTC 2019 consent order against TikTok for violating COPPA.” Specifically, “The complaint alleges defendants failed to comply with the COPPA requirement to notify and obtain parental consent before collecting and using personal information from children under the age of 13.” FTC Chair Lina Khan is quoted saying “TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country…The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online—especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data.”7. On August 1st, the Consumer Product Safety Commission ruled that online retail titan Amazon qualifies as a “distributor” and “therefore bears a legal responsibility for recalling dangerous products and informing customers and the public,” per NPR. This report continues to say this decision “stems from a lawsuit filed by the CPSC against Amazon in 2021 over a slew of [unsafe] products offered on the retailer's platform… [including] children's sleepwear that didn't meet federal flammability standards, carbon monoxide detectors that failed to detect carbon monoxide and sound their alarms, and hair dryers that didn't protect against electrocution when immersed in water. Amazon sold more than 418,000 units between 2018 and 2021.” Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at U.S. PIRG is quoted saying “This order is about making sure Amazon is just as accountable as every other company that sells products to consumers who often think that if something is for sale, it must be safe.”8. AP reports “Coca-Cola…said Friday it will pay $6 billion in back taxes and interest to the Internal Revenue Service while it appeals a final federal tax court decision in a case dating back 17 years.” This lawsuit began in 2015 and centered around how the beverage giant “calculate[s] U.S. income based on profits amounting to more than $9 billion from foreign licensees and affiliates.” The company has been enjoying increased profitability this quarter, reportedly “boosted by product price increases.”9. “The D.C. attorney

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…[and] Hours later, some 1,200 rioters gathered outside the Beit Lid base, where the nine suspects were taken for questioning.” This piece quotes military chief of staff Herzi Halevi who described the riots as “bordering on anarchy” and said the rioters harmed the military. Yet, “Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the suspects as as ‘heroic warriors’…[and] National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the prisons where Palestinians are detained, called [the suspects] the ‘best heroes’ and described the arrests as ‘shameful’.” One of these soldiers has now been released, according to the Middle East Monitor.2. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed Congress last week amid mass protests in Washington D.C. During his speech, Axios reports six spectators were arrested for “disrupting” the address. All six of these demonstrators are family members of the Israeli hostages. Capitol Police spokesperson Brianna Burch is quoted saying “demonstrating in the Congressional Buildings is against the law.”3. In the U.K., the new Labour government is sending mixed messages on their Middle East policy. Late last week, the government announced that they would drop the United Kingdom’s opposition to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu, per CNN. Yet this week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that despite campaign promises, “Labour will…delay recognition [of a Palestinian state] indefinitely, making it conditional on Israel feeling ‘safe and secure,’” as reported by British blog Stats for Lefties. Labour continues to face pressure from independent MPs like Jeremy Corbyn on this issue.4. This week, President Nicolas Maduro was reelected in Venezuela. Elon Musk was caught spreading misinformation implying that Maduro engaged in election fraud – sharing a video that he claimed showed ballot boxes being stolen, when in fact the ballot boxes in question were actually air conditioning units, per Mediaite. The National Lawyer’s Guild International Committee however, which sent a delegation to monitor the election, “observed a transparent, fair voting process with scrupulous attention to legitimacy, access to the polls and pluralism.” The NLG statement went on to decry “Despite the soundness of the electoral process, the U.S. backed opposition, with support from an anti-Maduro western press has refused to accept the results, undermining the stability of Venezuela’s democracy.”5. Forbes reports that Disney has reached a deal with the unionized workers at Disneyland, ratifying a three-year contract that includes “a $24 hourly minimum wage…wage increases, seniority increases, more flexible attendance and sick leave policies, and other benefits.” This deal thus averts the first strike at the Anaheim park in four decades. Last week, More Perfect Union reported that the 14,000 unionized Disneyland workers “authorized a strike by 99%.”6. Jacobin reports “SpaceX [has won] a First Battle in Its Assault on the NLRB.” In this piece, People’s Policy Project founder Matt Bruenig lays out how “SpaceX...[winning] a preliminary injunction in a Texas federal district court against the National Labor Relations Board… moves us closer to a potential Supreme Court decision declaring the NLRB unconstitutional.” This is the latest installment in the corporatist war on administrative law, which has already scored major victories in the SEC v. Jarkesy and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo cases. Bruenig notes that “For now, the district court’s decision simply prevents the NLRB from processing a fairly run-of-the-mill unfair labor practice charge against SpaceX. The real question is going to be what the Supreme Court does once this case makes it to their docket. But in the meantime…it is likely that other companies subject to NLRB proceedings will seek similar injunctions.”7. A storm is brewing within the Kamala Harris campaign over Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. Democracy Now! Reports “some of the Democratic Party’s biggest donors, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, are openly pushing Harris to fire…Khan, who has led Biden’s antitrust efforts.” NBC notes that Hoffman is a billionaire megadonor and that other megadonors like Barry Diller are also calling for Khan’s removal, and adds that “Khan’s pro-consumer, pro-worker, anti-monopoly agenda has attracted no small amount of hate from powerful and monied interests.” On the other side, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and the Service Employees International Union – a close labor ally of Harris – have defended Khan. This battle illustrates the cross-cutting interests Harris will have to navigate as the Democratic nominee, and possibly, as president. We urge the Vice President to back Khan, not the billionaire donor class.8. The Washington Post is out with a heartbreaking new report on the increase of homelessness among “Working Americans with decent-paying jobs who simply can’t afford a place to live.” This report cit

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 Bernie Sanders and AOC – Tlaib did not back Biden against the campaign to have him step aside as the Democratic nominee, and crucially, appears to be using whatever leverage she has to demand Harris push vigorously for a ceasefire in Gaza.3. The New York Times reports several major unions – including the The American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and the National Education Association, the largest union in the U.S. – have sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding they “halt all military aid to Israel.” This letter emphasizes that “it is clear that the Israeli government will continue …until it is forced to stop,” and that “Stopping US military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so.” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement “Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues…Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy.”4. Reuters reports that in talks hosted in China this week, “Palestinian rivals including Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a unity government.” Al Maydeen reports “The meetings saw the participation of 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” The so-called Beijing Declaration promises to “end the Palestinian national division [and] unify national efforts to confront…[Israeli] aggression and stop the genocide.” Implementation of this agreement will be monitored by Egypt, Algeria, China, and Russia.5. In the United Kingdom, “Five climate activists who planned a protest to cause gridlock and block traffic over four days on a major highway circling London were sentenced…to as much as five years in prison,” per ABC. Just Stop Oil, the group planning the protest, “called the prison terms ‘an obscene perversion of justice... for nothing more than attending a Zoom call.’” Protesting this decision, many prominent climate activists – ranging from Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn to Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury to musician Brian Eno – have signed a letter calling this “one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history…making a mockery of the right to a fair trial.” This letter also notes that these sentences are “higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault.” This letter also cites the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who called this “a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”6. In more climate related news, in New York City landlords are required to provide heat for tenants in the winter. Yet, there is no equivalent rule for landlords to provide air conditioning for tenants during the increasingly blistering summers. Now, Gothamist reports New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn plans to introduce a bill “requiring [landlords] to ensure tenants can cool their homes to at least 78 degrees when it is 82 degrees or warmer during the summer.” Restler is quoted saying “Heat is the number one climate or weather-related killer – not just nationally, but right here in New York City…We’ve already suffered three awful heat waves this summer. Can you imagine what it’s like to try to manage it without air conditioning or any cooling device in your apartment?” This move comes amid other attempts to legislate heat protections as temperatures continue to rise.7. In an infuriating example of corporate greed, the Guardian reports that pharmaceutical giant Gilead is charging outrageous prices for a new drug described as “the closest we have ever been to an HIV vaccine.” According to this report, “Lenacapavir, sold as Sunlenca…currently costs $42,250 for the first year…[yet] In a study…experts calculated that the minimum price for mass production of a generic version…allowing for 30% profit, was $40 a year.” This report continues “Given by injection every six months, lenacapavir can prevent infection and suppress HIV in people who are already infected…In a trial, the drug offered 100% protection to more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda.”8. In a welcome check against corporate greed, the Federal Communications Commission has “voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families fordecades.” The new rules will cap the cost of a 15-minute phone call at 90 cents for large jails and $1.35 for small ones. As of now, a 15-minute phone call can cost as much as $11.35 in a large jail and over $12 in a small one. The new rules also bar added fees.9. In more positive regulatory news, the Federa

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 Congress, but state legislatures, governorships, city councils just collapsing. And that's still a very great concern for them.Ralph NaderIn Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantisNews 7/16/24 1. Axios reports a bipartisan gang of Senators has reached a deal to ban stock trading by sitting lawmakers. This group, which includes Senators Jon Ossoff, Gary Peters, Jeff Merkley and Josh Hawley have agreed to a deal which would “immediately prohibit members of Congress from buying stocks and selling stocks 90 days after the bill is signed into law…ban member spouses and dependent children from trading stocks starting in March 2027..[and impose] Penalties for violating the law [totaling] either…the monthly salary of a lawmaker or 10% of the value of each asset they buy or sell.” This is the most promising iteration of the stock trading ban thus far. Action on this bill is expected later this month.  2. In Rafah, scenes of carnage abound. NBC reports the major southern Gaza city, once considered a “safe zone,” has become “an empty husk with almost every…building completely leveled.” NBC was given rare access to the city by Israeli forces as ceasefire negotiations ramped up last week; what they found were “Homes destroyed, buildings reduced to rubble and few signs of life other than sporadic gunfire. That's all there is to see now in...the city…that was once home to more than 1 million people.” NBC further reports that Israel is launching new military operations in northern Gaza.  3. In the UK, pro-Gaza independent MP and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, along with the other four pro-Gaza independent MPs recently elected, have penned a letter to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy reminding him of his and his Government’s “obligations under international law,” with regard to the ICJ’s ruling that Israel is engaging in “plausible genocide.” These MPs call on Lammy to “immediately suspend all provision of weapons and weapons systems to the Government Israel...Immediately restore and increase UK funding to UNRWA…Impose sanctions on individuals and entities inciting genocide against Palesinians...[and] Regonise the State of Palestine,” among other demands. Yet quite to the contrary, the Middle East Eye reports Lammy “will not withdraw [Britain's] objection to the…ICC…prosecutor's application for arrest warrants targeting…Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant,” despite campaign promises to do so.  4. POLITICO reports the Department of Justice is “planning to sue RealPage Inc., a software company used by landlords across the country… [accusing] the company of selling software that enables landlords to illegally share confidential pricing information in order to collude on setting rents.” This is the latest in an ongoing effort by the Biden administration to crack down on “rent gouging among corporate landlords.” The Biden administration has also signaled it intends to propose capping rent increases at 5% nationwide, per Axios.  5. Detroit-based journalist Phil Lewis reports “CNN [is] quietly disband[ing] its Race and Equality team.” This team was presented as evidence of a “significant, sustained commitment to ensure race coverage is a permanent part of [CNN’s] journalism,” when it was announced in during the George Floyd protests in July 2020. A CNN spokesperson confirmed “For all intents and purposes, the team is not a team anymore.” This comes amid news that the cable news channel will “lay off 100 employees as it restructures its newsgathering operations.” 6. This week, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican National Convention. He is the first Teamster ever to address the RNC. In this speech, O’Brien sought to praise Republicans whom he believes have stood up for labor and urged the GOP to stand up for American workers. In terms of specific policies, O’Brien called on the Republicans to reject the “economic terrorism” of companies exploiting labor and bankruptcy laws to bilk American workers and stressed the need for “corporate welfare reform,” paid for by individual taxpayers. O’Brien’s speech has drawn much criticism from the Left. It remains to be seen whether it will sway the Republicans toward a more pro-labor agenda.  7. On the other end of the labor spectrum, UAW President Shawn Fain is sounding the alarm about President Biden’s reelection. At the Netroots Nation conference in Baltimore last week, Fain said “We’re speaking truth to those who need to hear it most and that’s the Democrat Party.” He urged the party to not put “our heads in the sand and hide from reality — we tried that in 2016 and it didn’t work,” per Bloomberg. UAW, which endorsed Biden in January, is reportedly weighing their options in light of the pressure on Biden to step aside. CNBC reports Fain met with the union’s executive board last week to discuss next steps.  8. The American Prospect reports the DNC is seeking to do an end-run around a contested convention by having delegates vote earl

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 saying “Your call to President Fain on an issue so blatantly outside of the Monitor’s jurisdiction was inappropriate…[and] represents a surprising lack of integrity.”   4. More misbehavior from the ADL is on display in a recent expose from the Guardian. According to this report, based on a leaked internal memo from 2020, “the ADL collected information on a Black Indianapolis activist, Tatjana Rebelle, who worked on Deadly Exchange, a national campaign against an ADL-backed program to send US police officials for training with the Israeli military.” Rebelle is quoted in this piece saying “It scared the s**t out of me…It stopped me from moving forward because I don’t want to put people in my life at risk – I work with youth, so it stopped me in my tracks.” The ADL calls itself the “leading anti-hate organization in the world,” with a straight face. 5. AP reports Boeing has taken the deal offered by the Department of Justice, and will “will plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from two crashes of 737 Max jetliners that killed 346 people.” The plea deal, which must still be approved by a federal judge, dictates that Boeing must pay an additional $243.6 million fine and submit to independent monitor-ship for three years, among other provisions. Ike Riffel, whose sons Melvin and Bennett died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, is quoted saying “Boeing has paid fines many a time…When people start going to prison, that’s when you are going to see a change.” 6. President Biden shows no intention of stepping aside as the Democratic nominee. This is despite open calls from prominent Democratic lawmakers, such as Jerrold Nadler and Adam Schiff, as well as a full-blown revolt from major Democratic donors like Abigail Disney. Recent polls show Biden losing most swing states by a substantial margin, including an AARP poll in Wisconsin showing him running 12 points behind Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin. Infuriating many of those who wish to avoid a second Trump term, Axios reports “President Biden indicated…[in his interview with George Stephanopolous] that he would be at peace if he lost to former President Trump ‘as long as I gave it my all.’” 7. Hurricane Beryl is ravaging Texas, leaving millions without power, according to CNN. This widespread power outage will only compound an incoming heatwave, with the Houston heat index reaching 100 degrees on Tuesday. Las Vegas hit a record high temperature of 120 degrees the same day, per Fox 5. As many have remarked, this is likely to be the coldest summer for the rest of our lives. 8. The Daily Beast reports the Pope has excommunicated Carlo Maria Vigano, an ultra-conservative archbishop who served as the Vatican’s ecclesiastical diplomat to Washington from 2011 to 2016. A long time opponent of Pope Francis, Vigano has become increasingly unhinged in his criticisms, including accusing the supreme pontiff of being a “servant of Satan.” Other wild claims he has made in recent years include retweeting a Marjorie Taylor Greene post stating that  “The Covid vaccines are killing people,” and calling Black Lives Matter protests the machinations of “the children of darkness.” Vigano was accused of schism and found guilty.  9. In the United Kingdom, the New Arab reports five pro-Gaza independent candidates won seats in the House of Commons, including Shockat Adam, who defeated shadow Cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth. Most prominent of these however is Left-wing luminary and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who successfully defended his seat in Islington North after being expelled from the Labour Party over his criticism of Israel. Reuters reports that upon his victory, Corbyn said voters are “looking for a government that on the world stage will search for peace, not war.”  10. Finally, beating all expectations, the French Left emerged victorious from the second round of legislative elections. The New Popular Front lead by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, won the most seats, followed by Macron’s centrist bloc, after the two formed a “Republican Front” to defeat the Far-right, led by Marine Le Pen. Now, negotiations are underway to choose the country’s next Prime Minister, according to France24. Mélenchon has campaigned on a very simple platform, stating “I'm not saying we will create a paradise from one day to the next, but we will put an end to hell.” This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.   Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

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 has already “transferred patients, including those in intensive care and babies in incubators…to other facilities ‘in fear of bloodshed,’ according to the hospital’s deputy director and doctors.” The Palestine Red Crescent Society reported earlier this week that the few remaining hospitals in Gaza are overwhelmed by the influx of patients from the European Hospital, as well as other hospitals that have been bombed or evacuated during the Israeli bombing campaign.5. Axios reports that even pro-Israel Democrats are expressing apprehension about what they describe as AIPAC’s “overkill” in the recent campaign to defeat progressive Congressman Jamaal Bowman. AIPAC, via their United Democracy Project PAC, spent at least $14.5 million on anti-Bowman ads as of June 20th, making this the most expensive primary ever, per POLITICO. One House Democrat, speaking anonymously, expressed concern that “that much money could backfire,” with another noting that “They do that a lot.” Progressive House Democrat Greg Casar said “[Progressives] have to adapt…voters have to know that, if they're seeing a huge barrage of ads, they've got to…find out if those [millions] of dollars are telling [them] the truth."6. The Department of Justice will formally charge Boeing with fraud over its fatal 2019 crashes, per Reuters. However, the Justice Department will offer the company a plea deal, including “a financial penalty and imposition of an independent monitor to audit the company's safety and compliance practices for three years.” If Boeing does not take the deal and plead guilty, the Justice Department has vowed to take the company to court; if they do plead guilty, it could affect the company’s ability to enter into government contracts. Companies with felony convictions are barred from being awarded such contracts, but can receive waivers. The Department “declined to comment on the families' reaction.”7. AP reports “Tesla is recalling its…Cybertruck pickup…to fix problems with trim pieces that can come loose and front windshield wipers that can fail.” This is the fourth recall of the Cybertruck since it went on sale late last November. Each recall affects over 11,000 vehicles, each of which cost between $80-100,000.8. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in Grant’s Pass v. Johnson that a local ordinance banning homeless people from sleeping outdoors – even when there is inadequate shelter space available – does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Within days, lawmakers in Oregon and Los Angeles, among others, began to publicly signal they would utilize this ruling to crack down on unhoused people. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reports nearly 600,000 Americans are experiencing homelessness, an increase of six percent since 2017.9. France is facing a political crisis. In the first round of legislative elections, the far-Right National Rally and its allies claimed first place with just over 33% of the vote, followed by the Leftist New Popular Front with 28%. The centrist allies of President Macron came in a distant third. Going into the second round of voting, uncertainty swirled over whether the Center and the Left could form a so-called “republican front” against the far-Right, specifically whether the centrist candidates would stand down in close run-offs between the Left and far-Right, and vice versa. Macron now seems to have endorsed this position. According to Reuters, “A survey…showed a small majority of those who voted mainstream conservative in the first round would back the left-wing candidate best placed to beat an RN rival in the second round.”10. Finally, Kenya is being rocked by its own political crisis – one of neoliberalism. In order to meet targets set by the International Monetary Fund, Kenyan President William Ruto pushed a bill that would have imposed new taxes on “bread, vegetable oil…sugar, mobile-money transfers and some imports,” per Reuters. This announcement led to nothing short of a popular uprising in the streets, leading to violent clashes as the police sought to quash these protests. Those clashes left at least two dozen protesters dead. President Ruto has now pulled the bill, but protests continue to rock the country. One protester told Reuters “People are dying in the streets and the only thing he can talk about is money. We are not money. We are people. We are human beings…He needs to care about his people, because if he can't care about his people then we don't need him in that chair."This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe