Ralph welcomes old friend, Judge Andrew Napolitano, to talk about why the U.S. government offered a plea deal to the supposed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four others. He asks, “Why would the government agree to such a plea for the persons it claims are the monsters who murdered 3,000 Americans on 9/11?... What does the government fear?” Plus, Ralph gives us his take on the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. And then on a lighter note, we talk about the Super Bowl.
Another great show that you won't hear any place else. I recommend a book called The Case Against George W Bush by Steven C. Markoff especially on the topic of torture.
Of possible interest: The Costs of War Project released a study called "Beyond the War Paradigm" last year. It opened by noting that we hadn't revisited our national security footing since 9/11—when we went off half-cocked and never looked back.
Considering the long term effects of the Ohio train wreck purposeful conflagration in the presence of high winds; the reeason is obvious. If there had been an explosion, the damage and deaths would have been obvious and undeniable. The consequences of the chemicle plume could be mostly denied and difficult to prove. Vinyl chloride does cause glial blatoma multiforme. I know this because my mother had glial blastoma in 2005 and died. I did a little investigation. Vinyl chloride was used as a propellant in hair spray. My mother as a beautician inhaled lots in building coifs in the 50s-80s. A Stanford researcher came to interview her while she was bedridden. I already knew about vinyl chloride and blastoma. She got most of her biographical info on my mother from me. Some she confirmed with my mother. I asked the researcher if there was any indication that vinyl chloride caused blastome. She said that is what she was gathering data on. I could not find any info on the connection of vinyl chloride and blastoma on the web just now. It seems to have disappeared, perhaps to avoid class action suits by hair dressers who suffered the same fate as my mother.
Maureen, as you noted, Leguizamo is a fan of Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. — “I think she can be president someday” — but he knows that Republicans can effectively harp on “socialism.”
However, harping on socialism is not what it used to be, nor is jumping on $150 million custom Gulfstreams any way to seriously attract anyone but Trump — “a tiny little bitch” — should be any way to aspire to be a nominee.
Getting serious about our unfortunately imperialist socio-political economics, in America — and throughout our entire fragile little world — is neither enhanced by "Amusing Ourselves to Death" [Neil Postman 1985].
As Warren Beatty shouted out, perhaps a bit too prematurely, in 'Bulworth', [1998], which shape-shifted two decades later into "Don't Look UP" — Democratic Socialism in America is finally coming into style today — regardless of brandishing complexions in "these 'TIMES' they are a changing", from lighter to those of a mixed complexioned socialist revolutionary Jew — among many other mortals: Mark Twain, W. E. B. Du Bois, Henry Wallace, Albert Einstein, Rev. Martin Luther King, Rev. Chris Hedges, Dr.. Cornel West, et. al.
LOVE
OVER
VIOLENT
EMPIRE
Yes, Maureen, Mr. Leguizamo’s got a soapbox and he’s comfortable on it — as we all should be, in the land of the free.
Happy Saturday to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour crew!
Listener question: According to Politico, Marianne Williamson is reportedly planning on announcing her candidacy to primary Joe Biden for the democratic nomination and may already have done so by the time you guys read this.
Would Ralph support a Marianne Williamson candidacy for the Democratic Nomination?
On Feb. 6 & 7,1961 Judge J. Cullen Ganey of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, imposed fines of $1,787.000 on 29 electrical manufacturers, including General Electric and Westinghouse, and sentenced 7 executives in the industry to prison for conspiring to violate the antitrust laws against price fixing. Before imposing sentence Judge Ganey said " I want to make certain observations... what is really at stake here is the survival of the kind of economy under which America has grown to greatness, the free enterprise system. The conduct of the corporate and individual defendants ... has flagrantly mocked the image of that economic system of free enterprise which we profess to the country and destroyed the model which we offer today as a free world alternative to state control and eventual dictatorship.(The Nature and Functions of Law fourth edition Harold J. Berman & William R. Greiner)
Napolitano's and Ralph's support if fascist ruzzia it's execrable. Both will eat their words when Ukraine wins. And Seymour Hersch s conspiracy nonsense about Nordstream is just that. Based on one anonymous source, which is why the socialist The Guardian newspaper turned him down. In years past, Seymour's publishers have run corrections fue to gross inaccuracies.
People quit all the time in the citizen's movements.
Probably because people figure out the movement is often more important than the citizen or the stated goal.
Following the advice in articles or interviews from people such as Ralph I spent many years contacting movements (and activists, politicians, journalists, etc.) with a stated common goal of getting the big money out of politics by organizing citizens to demand small donor candidates and enforce that demand with our votes (One Demand).
One of the few that answered wished me good luck but said he was sticking with the organization's approach of seeking a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
I replied that the constitutional amendment would take at least twenty years to be passed and ratified if the big money politicians could be convinced to pass it and that in four to ten years One Demand could make progress in getting the big money out of politics and make it easier to pass an amendment to overturn Citizens United if it was still needed.
In his reply he acknowledged that One Demand could make faster progress in getting the big money out of politics and help to get the amendment passed but he was satisfied with using his approach.
It seemed that he was more interested in twenty years of making a living fighting the good fight than actually solving the problem in four to ten years.
I also spent many years writing and submitting articles to all forms of media and the few responses I got said that they would not publish my articles because I had not been published anywhere else and suggested that I write to people that do get published.
The few people that get published that answered wished me good luck and advised me to write and submit my own articles.
One journalist said the idea was good but as it was January of an election year this was not the time to start it and the time to start was immediately after the election at the beginning of the next election cycle. When I wrote to him again in November his reply was that people were sick of elections so the time to start this would January in the next election year.
On 10-24-2018 Ralph Nader said on Washington Journal that he would have me on the Radio Hour to discuss One Demand and has only briefly mentioned One Demand as a listener question which does not qualify as a discussion.
It is no wonder that people get disillusioned and give up when confronted with this kind of stonewalling from people that are claiming to want to achieve common goals and/or explore all possible solutions to our problems.
A good start to encourage more citizens to participate would be for Ralph to devote one segment per month to citizens that have not given up, starting with a segment on One Demand. While I have made this request in previous comments those comments disappeared with the switch to Substack.
Does Ralph, who has said that politicians want our votes more than big money, not believe that citizens using the basic principles of democracy by making a demand for small donor candidates and enforcing that demand with our votes can work?
Waiting for the big money politicians to pass legislation to get the big money out of politics when their campaign cash depends on the politicians not passing such legislation certainly has not worked for decades.
Why can't Ralph discuss a different approach that only would not work if democracy doesn't work as it is using the basic principles of democracy to test Ralph's theory that politicians want our votes more than big money?
That is the billion dollar question as just 6-7% of 2020 voters investing 100 dollars in contributions to small donor candidates in 2024 would total one billion dollars and be just the tip of the iceberg.
Ralph continuing to ignore this iceberg would be a titanic mistake.
The interview with Judge Napolitano was quite interesting and informative. I know Mr. Nader did not have time to elaborate on a one-hour radio program, but it would have been nice if Judge Napolitano and Mr. Nader could have expanded on the US and UK-led overthrow of Iranian PM Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and the subsequent damage that has done to the Iranian people and the corrosive impact it has had on foreign relations between the Middle East and the West even to this day. Of course, similar conversations could be had about the blatant anti-democratic actions by the US in other parts of the world. Oh well, I reckon this is an idea for a future RNRH with Judge Napolitano or another expert on the subject.
On the subject of sports injuries and how it intersects with consumer advocacy, I am curious what Mr. Nader, Steve, and Dr. Reed of the League of Fans think about the idea of professional athletes and the modern concept of ‘load management’. Steve Skrovan seems to be a sports fan, and I would guess he lives in the Los Angeles area, so perhaps he is familiar with that concept as it pertains to the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team and their use of ‘load management’ to allow their players, especially the star veteran players, to have days off for the sake of injury management and injury prevention. The players aren’t necessarily taking games off because they are injured and can’t play, but rather because the players want to better manage nagging injuries and be fresher for the playoffs.
In many ways, it is a rather progressive approach by teams such as the Clippers, who are my favorite NBA team, to empower their players by giving them some freedom to better manage their bodies. On the other hand, there are complaints by fans that they pay a lot of money to see certain star athletes and are then disappointed when the star players decide to sit out a game that they could have played in simply due to load management. I know some in the sports media have advocated for fans being able to get a refund for their tickets if star players engage in load management, but that might put more pressure on athletes to perform while injured. I’m not sure if there is really a right or wrong answer about load management, but it might be an interesting question for the League of Fans panel.
As a Houstonian, I know that AstroTurf gained popularity here at the Houston Astrodome. Early AstroTurf was made by corporate Hall of Shame inductee Monsanto. Fortunately, modern artificial turfs, such as FieldTurf, seem to be more forgiving than the old artificial turfs, but there is still a lot of debate in the NFL if real grass or artificial turfs are safer. Some players have advocated for expansion of real grass, but I saw recently that the Tennessee Titans were switching to artificial turf and player safety was a reason cited for the change. It might well be the case that good artificial turf is better than bad real grass turf. The NFLPA should press the NFL to maintain high quality playing surfaces regardless if it is real or artificial. Unfortunately for NFL players, it seems the NFLPA union is not as strong as some of the other professional athletics unions so I’m not sure if much will be done on the matter.
Another great show that you won't hear any place else. I recommend a book called The Case Against George W Bush by Steven C. Markoff especially on the topic of torture.
Interesting topic. Thank you for your work.
Of possible interest: The Costs of War Project released a study called "Beyond the War Paradigm" last year. It opened by noting that we hadn't revisited our national security footing since 9/11—when we went off half-cocked and never looked back.
Considering the long term effects of the Ohio train wreck purposeful conflagration in the presence of high winds; the reeason is obvious. If there had been an explosion, the damage and deaths would have been obvious and undeniable. The consequences of the chemicle plume could be mostly denied and difficult to prove. Vinyl chloride does cause glial blatoma multiforme. I know this because my mother had glial blastoma in 2005 and died. I did a little investigation. Vinyl chloride was used as a propellant in hair spray. My mother as a beautician inhaled lots in building coifs in the 50s-80s. A Stanford researcher came to interview her while she was bedridden. I already knew about vinyl chloride and blastoma. She got most of her biographical info on my mother from me. Some she confirmed with my mother. I asked the researcher if there was any indication that vinyl chloride caused blastome. She said that is what she was gathering data on. I could not find any info on the connection of vinyl chloride and blastoma on the web just now. It seems to have disappeared, perhaps to avoid class action suits by hair dressers who suffered the same fate as my mother.
Maureen, as you noted, Leguizamo is a fan of Bernie Sanders and A.O.C. — “I think she can be president someday” — but he knows that Republicans can effectively harp on “socialism.”
However, harping on socialism is not what it used to be, nor is jumping on $150 million custom Gulfstreams any way to seriously attract anyone but Trump — “a tiny little bitch” — should be any way to aspire to be a nominee.
Getting serious about our unfortunately imperialist socio-political economics, in America — and throughout our entire fragile little world — is neither enhanced by "Amusing Ourselves to Death" [Neil Postman 1985].
As Warren Beatty shouted out, perhaps a bit too prematurely, in 'Bulworth', [1998], which shape-shifted two decades later into "Don't Look UP" — Democratic Socialism in America is finally coming into style today — regardless of brandishing complexions in "these 'TIMES' they are a changing", from lighter to those of a mixed complexioned socialist revolutionary Jew — among many other mortals: Mark Twain, W. E. B. Du Bois, Henry Wallace, Albert Einstein, Rev. Martin Luther King, Rev. Chris Hedges, Dr.. Cornel West, et. al.
LOVE
OVER
VIOLENT
EMPIRE
Yes, Maureen, Mr. Leguizamo’s got a soapbox and he’s comfortable on it — as we all should be, in the land of the free.
Happy Saturday to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour crew!
Listener question: According to Politico, Marianne Williamson is reportedly planning on announcing her candidacy to primary Joe Biden for the democratic nomination and may already have done so by the time you guys read this.
Would Ralph support a Marianne Williamson candidacy for the Democratic Nomination?
On Feb. 6 & 7,1961 Judge J. Cullen Ganey of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, imposed fines of $1,787.000 on 29 electrical manufacturers, including General Electric and Westinghouse, and sentenced 7 executives in the industry to prison for conspiring to violate the antitrust laws against price fixing. Before imposing sentence Judge Ganey said " I want to make certain observations... what is really at stake here is the survival of the kind of economy under which America has grown to greatness, the free enterprise system. The conduct of the corporate and individual defendants ... has flagrantly mocked the image of that economic system of free enterprise which we profess to the country and destroyed the model which we offer today as a free world alternative to state control and eventual dictatorship.(The Nature and Functions of Law fourth edition Harold J. Berman & William R. Greiner)
Napolitano's and Ralph's support if fascist ruzzia it's execrable. Both will eat their words when Ukraine wins. And Seymour Hersch s conspiracy nonsense about Nordstream is just that. Based on one anonymous source, which is why the socialist The Guardian newspaper turned him down. In years past, Seymour's publishers have run corrections fue to gross inaccuracies.
I believe they had it
right the last time:
it's the WAR
Dept.
.
NICE having a Principled
Republican. thanks, Ralph!
it's nice to know they Exist
The live content is amazing.
People quit all the time in the citizen's movements.
Probably because people figure out the movement is often more important than the citizen or the stated goal.
Following the advice in articles or interviews from people such as Ralph I spent many years contacting movements (and activists, politicians, journalists, etc.) with a stated common goal of getting the big money out of politics by organizing citizens to demand small donor candidates and enforce that demand with our votes (One Demand).
One of the few that answered wished me good luck but said he was sticking with the organization's approach of seeking a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
I replied that the constitutional amendment would take at least twenty years to be passed and ratified if the big money politicians could be convinced to pass it and that in four to ten years One Demand could make progress in getting the big money out of politics and make it easier to pass an amendment to overturn Citizens United if it was still needed.
In his reply he acknowledged that One Demand could make faster progress in getting the big money out of politics and help to get the amendment passed but he was satisfied with using his approach.
It seemed that he was more interested in twenty years of making a living fighting the good fight than actually solving the problem in four to ten years.
I also spent many years writing and submitting articles to all forms of media and the few responses I got said that they would not publish my articles because I had not been published anywhere else and suggested that I write to people that do get published.
The few people that get published that answered wished me good luck and advised me to write and submit my own articles.
One journalist said the idea was good but as it was January of an election year this was not the time to start it and the time to start was immediately after the election at the beginning of the next election cycle. When I wrote to him again in November his reply was that people were sick of elections so the time to start this would January in the next election year.
On 10-24-2018 Ralph Nader said on Washington Journal that he would have me on the Radio Hour to discuss One Demand and has only briefly mentioned One Demand as a listener question which does not qualify as a discussion.
It is no wonder that people get disillusioned and give up when confronted with this kind of stonewalling from people that are claiming to want to achieve common goals and/or explore all possible solutions to our problems.
A good start to encourage more citizens to participate would be for Ralph to devote one segment per month to citizens that have not given up, starting with a segment on One Demand. While I have made this request in previous comments those comments disappeared with the switch to Substack.
Does Ralph, who has said that politicians want our votes more than big money, not believe that citizens using the basic principles of democracy by making a demand for small donor candidates and enforcing that demand with our votes can work?
Waiting for the big money politicians to pass legislation to get the big money out of politics when their campaign cash depends on the politicians not passing such legislation certainly has not worked for decades.
Why can't Ralph discuss a different approach that only would not work if democracy doesn't work as it is using the basic principles of democracy to test Ralph's theory that politicians want our votes more than big money?
That is the billion dollar question as just 6-7% of 2020 voters investing 100 dollars in contributions to small donor candidates in 2024 would total one billion dollars and be just the tip of the iceberg.
Ralph continuing to ignore this iceberg would be a titanic mistake.
The interview with Judge Napolitano was quite interesting and informative. I know Mr. Nader did not have time to elaborate on a one-hour radio program, but it would have been nice if Judge Napolitano and Mr. Nader could have expanded on the US and UK-led overthrow of Iranian PM Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 and the subsequent damage that has done to the Iranian people and the corrosive impact it has had on foreign relations between the Middle East and the West even to this day. Of course, similar conversations could be had about the blatant anti-democratic actions by the US in other parts of the world. Oh well, I reckon this is an idea for a future RNRH with Judge Napolitano or another expert on the subject.
On the subject of sports injuries and how it intersects with consumer advocacy, I am curious what Mr. Nader, Steve, and Dr. Reed of the League of Fans think about the idea of professional athletes and the modern concept of ‘load management’. Steve Skrovan seems to be a sports fan, and I would guess he lives in the Los Angeles area, so perhaps he is familiar with that concept as it pertains to the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team and their use of ‘load management’ to allow their players, especially the star veteran players, to have days off for the sake of injury management and injury prevention. The players aren’t necessarily taking games off because they are injured and can’t play, but rather because the players want to better manage nagging injuries and be fresher for the playoffs.
In many ways, it is a rather progressive approach by teams such as the Clippers, who are my favorite NBA team, to empower their players by giving them some freedom to better manage their bodies. On the other hand, there are complaints by fans that they pay a lot of money to see certain star athletes and are then disappointed when the star players decide to sit out a game that they could have played in simply due to load management. I know some in the sports media have advocated for fans being able to get a refund for their tickets if star players engage in load management, but that might put more pressure on athletes to perform while injured. I’m not sure if there is really a right or wrong answer about load management, but it might be an interesting question for the League of Fans panel.
As a Houstonian, I know that AstroTurf gained popularity here at the Houston Astrodome. Early AstroTurf was made by corporate Hall of Shame inductee Monsanto. Fortunately, modern artificial turfs, such as FieldTurf, seem to be more forgiving than the old artificial turfs, but there is still a lot of debate in the NFL if real grass or artificial turfs are safer. Some players have advocated for expansion of real grass, but I saw recently that the Tennessee Titans were switching to artificial turf and player safety was a reason cited for the change. It might well be the case that good artificial turf is better than bad real grass turf. The NFLPA should press the NFL to maintain high quality playing surfaces regardless if it is real or artificial. Unfortunately for NFL players, it seems the NFLPA union is not as strong as some of the other professional athletics unions so I’m not sure if much will be done on the matter.