In a fast-paced hour, Ralph welcomes progressive champion Dennis Kucinich to talk about his adventures taking on the corporate establishment as the youngest mayor of Cleveland as described in his book “The Division of Light and Power.” Then heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune, Chuck Collins, explains how so many rich people spend millions to hide trillions in his new book, “The Wealth Hoarders.” Plus, member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and General Manager at SAGE Development Authority, Joseph McNeil Jr., joins us to promote the 235-megawatt Anpetu Wi wind farm designed to ensure energy independence, protect the environment, and promote economic growth in the region.
Dennis Kucinich is a statesman and the author of The Division of Light and Power. He served eight terms in the US House of Representatives, and he is currently running for mayor of Cleveland, a position he held from 1977 to 1979.
“Imagine a private utility company… using manipulative blackouts every time Dennis Kucinich, when he was mayor, was getting an advantage on them. Building public support for them, because they figured that by a blackout, they could blame the mayor and this municipally-owned electric utility, Muny Light.”
Ralph Nader
“If you believe that reality is socially constructed and culturally confirmed, I walked into a world that became upside-down. Right was wrong, and wrong was right.”
Dennis Kucinich, author of The Division of Light and Power
“When [CEI] created these blackouts, the next day CEI salesmen were at the doors of Muny Light customers. Saying, ‘Looks like your power system isn’t working. Why don’t you have one that’s reliable?’ So, this was a mob kind of mentality. But the strategy that was executed by CEI was a military-type strategy across the board.”
Dennis Kucinich, author of The Division of Light and Power
“There are slightly over a thousand municipally-owned electric companies in the United States… And they are hounded and disadvantaged by the large private electric generating companies, to this day. To make them look bad, and to stereotype anything owned by the government as inefficient or unreliable.”
Ralph Nader
Chuck Collins is the program director at the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and the co-editor of Inequality.org. He’s written several books, the latest of which is The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions.
“The estimate is somewhere between 24 and 36 trillion dollars, globally, has moved to the shadows. So, we can talk all we want about tax policy– and the Biden proposal to raise taxes on the wealthy– but unless we shut down this hidden wealth system, we’re not going to make much progress.”
Chuck Collins, author of The Wealth Hoarders
“I said [to Congressman Richard Neal’s Chief of Staff], do you know who you’re talking to? Do you know that I expect Congress to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time?”
Ralph Nader
“I know we want to work at the Washington level, but municipalities can also require disclosure of who’s buying the real estate. All over the country, shell companies are buying luxury real estate. Often as a form of wealth storage or hiding kleptocratic capital from around the world. Why shouldn’t cities have the power… to have municipal disclosure? You want to own property in our city? You need to tell us who owns it. It’s like getting a library card– you need to tell us who you are and where you live.”
Chuck Collins, author of The Wealth Hoarders
Joe McNeil is an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the General Manager at SAGE Development Authority. SAGE is currently fundraising to construct their new wind farm, Anpetu Wi. The revenue from the wind farm will support Standing Rock in providing essential needs such as schools, roads, health care, and housing development, as well as future SAGE renewable energy projects.
“We have to produce the ability to provide for our people in a way that doesn’t destroy the environment. We are headed towards a precipice of pretty severe consequences if we keep going this route. And we have to stop. That’s flat out. There’s really not a lot of mitigating that. We have to turn to other [energy] alternatives. And turn to them pretty quickly.”
Joe McNeil, General Manager of SAGE Development Authority
“Our wind project is… building that prayer for a new day. Not just for Standing Rock, but for other Native nations and then other communities that can gather– or have natural resources that they can coalesce– to do a project that’s public-focused, community-focused, and community-benefit. So, we could turn to a degree away from strict profiteering, in the sense that a few investors will be the only ones benefiting from the project. But the communities will have the ultimate benefit in the long term.”
Joe McNeil, General Manager of SAGE Development Authority
Dennis Kucinich/Wealth Hoarding/Wind Farm at Standing Rock