Ralph welcomes Professor Stephanie Luce of the City University of New York, who has co-authored “Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the World,” and together they outline the challenges and the strategies that face underdogs trying to change the system. Plus, our resident constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein, joins us to discuss the death of Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny.
Ralph's longer way to ask the question provided a plethora of needed information. And [not] one errr, ummm, or uhh. Happy 90th Mr. Nader (three days early)!
Corporate power is very effective at sapping people of many of their noblest efforts for change in everything from basic guarantees to food, housing, education, jobs with living wages, medical care, and human rights. I thought that Ralph Nader’s take on “Practical Radicals” made several excellent points about many of the community-based organizations, such as the PIRGs, that already exist. His critique of two of the recent mass movements as having acheived very little at street level was very accurate. In fairness to those movements, however, they had their legs cut off by corporate/government power as they tried to acheive their goals.
Like Ralph Nader, I grew up, a bit later, when power had at least some ability to respond sanely to the demands for change, such as in the automobile industry and with other consumer/health issues like lead in paint. Corporate and government power is now joined at the hip and countering their power has become increasingly difficult.
Nothing on the proposed merger of "Capital One" and "Discover" credit cards?
I contacted my Congressional members against this merger this week and heard back from Sen. Blumenthal:
Thank you for your message regarding antitrust enforcement. I appreciate hearing from you.
Americans have seen firsthand the consequences of anticompetitive behavior in the marketplace. From ticket sales to Big Tech, our laws and enforcement mechanisms have failed to protect consumers. That neglect has had profound consequences that we are only now starting to deal with.
We need much stronger antitrust enforcement – enforcement that looks beyond just price effects and instead to how consumers and laborers are harmed by anticompetitive behavior in the modern economy. I have also come to believe regulators may need to go back and challenge mergers they did not previously oppose if the evidence suggests those mergers were harmful to consumers and markets. In egregious circumstances, they may need to break up companies that have used their size and dominance to engage in anticompetitive practices.
I am proud to sponsor several bills in the Senate that I believe are important in bolstering our antitrust framework. Alongside Senator Klobuchar, I introduced S.1321, the Unlock Ticketing Markets Act of 2023. This bill would allow the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit long-term ticketing contracts and thus increase competition in the ticket-selling market. I also reintroduced the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act alongside Representative Johnson on April 27, 2023. This bill would open up the doors of justice to antitrust plaintiffs by prohibiting forced arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, antitrust, and civil rights disputes.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over issues of consumer choice and competition, I will continue to advocate for policies that best serve the interests of American consumers.
Thank you again for your message. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any other questions or concerns.
Yet I never hear back from him on the Israel-Gaza conflict. I wonder why?
Gushing over an unapologetic white supremacist like Navalny while neglecting to mention our political imprisonment and this week’s trial on the extradition of Julian Assange, who’s only crime is good journalism against the U.S. empire. No thanks.
I only discovered this weekly radio show about a year ago, but it has become part of my staple News and Information
The choice of topics and the high-quality contributors is amazing and focuses on the ever increasingly dysfunctional hegemonic American political system
I was born in the 50s and brought up in Britain in the 60s and 70s
I have lived outside of Britain since 1983, but I saddened every time I go back political parole and corporations running the show
A very happy birthday to you, Ralph, and keep up the good work
Mr. Greenwald points out that events such as “a dissidents dying in prison or being killed in gruesome ways by authoritarian governments happen with great regularity-including in the countries of many of our closest allies.” Gonzalo Lira died of pneumonia in a Ukrainian jail after he was locked up for criticizing Zelenskyy and the U.S’s war narrative. American citizens have been intentionally killed by Israeli forces. Julian Assange rots in a British jail and may well die in prison because he exposed U.S. war crimes and embarrassed the CIA and a few prominent politicians.
Mr. Greenwald asks, where is America’s establishment’s “indignation, political concern or anger” over these crimes? He then gives a plausible explanation: The Establishment’s effort to obtain Congressional approval of further billions in aid for Ukraine has faltered. Then, “out of the blue” Navalny dies in a Russian prison. What a propaganda opportunity to turn things around! Play it up for all that it is worth.
Mr. Greenwald also points out that Mr. Navalny is probably not the freedom loving Russian hero our government and media have been making him out to be. He may well have been a white Russian nationalists, who has called immigrants “cockroaches,” who should be exterminated by gunfire. This is no excuse for Putin murdering him, if indeed, that is what happened (Catching a life or death case of pneumonia in a damp, cold Siberian prison is probably common even if murder was not Putin’s plan).
So, I’m not sure whether Mr. Fein or Mr. Greenwald’s take is closer to the truth. My point is that without additional evidence and evaluation thereof, we probably should not get too emotional about Mr. Navalny’s death or its relationship with sending more billions to Ukraine. Sad to say, but our press and government have not proven that worthy of our trust.
The important question is how do the corporations continue to gain, maintain and increase their control over government and what can we do about it.
The answer to how is we keep voting for their candidates. The answer to what we can do about it is to stop voting for their candidates.
The next question is how we make not voting for their candidates effective.
We can look to the uncommitted campaign in Michigan for an example.
It is on small scale what I have been trying to get Ralph to discuss for years that checks all the boxes of the seven points offered in today's program.
The corporate candidates are financed by the big money contributions.
We can demand small donor candidates and use a write in vote if there are no small donor candidates on the primary or general election ballot to register a vote against the big money corporate candidates and to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in future elections.
90% of congressional districts are gerrymandered for either the Democrats or Republicans. So it makes no difference in the out come of those elections if the 40% or so that will not be voting for the gerrymandered winner "waste" their vote on a big money major party candidate that can't win or "waste" their vote by casting a write in vote against both big money candidates.
The difference is that voting for the big money major party candidate guarantees the same lack of choice in the next election while the write in vote builds a base of voters that are demanding something different in the next election.
This can also be effective in non-swing states in the presidential election without effecting the outcome of the electoral votes in those states in this election.
Just 10% of voters nationally participating this in 2024 would to create a voting block that is a bullhorn to say enough is enough and inspire more citizens to participate in 2026 which will inspire many small donor candidates to run in the 2026 primaries so we can vote for and even elect small donor candidates in 2026 instead of using a write in vote.
You have said that politicians want our votes more than big money.
So let's demand that politicians do not take big money in order to earn our votes.
And let's take that demand into the voting booth to show them we mean business.
I realize only about 80% of citizens want the big money out of politics, but with this campaign we should be able to increase that number to a respectable and intimidating amount of public support on this issue that is the main obstacle to implementing available affordable solutions to almost all of our problems.
Please contact me at 505-423-2468 or via conference call or email: heartmindalliance@gmail.com if at all interested in this historic planetary first:
The Heart Mind Alliance (.com) has (via Go Fund Me campaign: “Direct Vote App Development”) raised over $30,000 directly and indirectly to develop the website for direct vote: https://wethepeople.directvotedemocracy.com
The First Question launched before the nation asks if you would prefer to live in a Constitutional Democracy in which you are your own representative and our public servants (having pledged allegiance to the simple majority will) are the administrators of the mandated majority will.
Every voter has a personal ledger and is able to verify if a vote was counted (block-chain transaction record) and counted correctly. When the majority of citizens of this corporation the United States of America want a government truly of, by and for its People, securely documented, we will not ask permission to make this indispensable transition but declare our inter-dependence and begin to save this planet and all life upon to become regenerative until the Seventh Generation.
The Move On campaign "The Great Mandate" outlines a partial list of 33 critical issues for national vote and, after legislative responses, public voting up or down.
The Heart Mind Alliance (.com) has much to share. FYI: Attached Press Release with Instructions for Voting with our “We the People” direct voting website.
Looking forward,
Bob Dunsmore
Founder and president of the Heart Mind Alliance (.com) which has created the block-chain secured direct vote
Producer of the documentary "Bolivia Beyond Belief" (on You Tube) regarding the Bolivian Democratic Revolution I witnessed while living in Bolivia from 2005 to 2008
Initiated as an Andean Cosmovision Amauta
After working in 20 countries in community development: created a You Tube channel with 132 videos of the most successful appropriate technologies I learned of: "Community-based Appropriate Technologies"
Founder of Colorado's San Luis Valley Solar Energy Association and Alamosa Childrens' School
Founder of the Rio Arriba Bioregional Council and the Espanola Valley Community Council, New Mexico
Author of I Am: A Journey Through Times and Spaces and the book The Great Mandate (available via Kindle)
While not disputing the facts discussed, I still have to say the conversation about Alexei Navalny was childish and simplistic. Surely you are aware that he was a racist and homophobe, a white-nationalist who just disagreed with a different white nationalist, Putin. Yes, he was brave and murdered for opposing a dictator, but not because he wanted democracy, but because he wanted a different dictator. I expect the corporate media to ignore the context, but I expect more from you all. Navalny is not a hero, he was a scum bag. He did not deserve what happened to him, and he does not deserve the childish, fawning from the media now.
Ralph's longer way to ask the question provided a plethora of needed information. And [not] one errr, ummm, or uhh. Happy 90th Mr. Nader (three days early)!
Corporate power is very effective at sapping people of many of their noblest efforts for change in everything from basic guarantees to food, housing, education, jobs with living wages, medical care, and human rights. I thought that Ralph Nader’s take on “Practical Radicals” made several excellent points about many of the community-based organizations, such as the PIRGs, that already exist. His critique of two of the recent mass movements as having acheived very little at street level was very accurate. In fairness to those movements, however, they had their legs cut off by corporate/government power as they tried to acheive their goals.
Like Ralph Nader, I grew up, a bit later, when power had at least some ability to respond sanely to the demands for change, such as in the automobile industry and with other consumer/health issues like lead in paint. Corporate and government power is now joined at the hip and countering their power has become increasingly difficult.
Nothing on the proposed merger of "Capital One" and "Discover" credit cards?
I contacted my Congressional members against this merger this week and heard back from Sen. Blumenthal:
Thank you for your message regarding antitrust enforcement. I appreciate hearing from you.
Americans have seen firsthand the consequences of anticompetitive behavior in the marketplace. From ticket sales to Big Tech, our laws and enforcement mechanisms have failed to protect consumers. That neglect has had profound consequences that we are only now starting to deal with.
We need much stronger antitrust enforcement – enforcement that looks beyond just price effects and instead to how consumers and laborers are harmed by anticompetitive behavior in the modern economy. I have also come to believe regulators may need to go back and challenge mergers they did not previously oppose if the evidence suggests those mergers were harmful to consumers and markets. In egregious circumstances, they may need to break up companies that have used their size and dominance to engage in anticompetitive practices.
I am proud to sponsor several bills in the Senate that I believe are important in bolstering our antitrust framework. Alongside Senator Klobuchar, I introduced S.1321, the Unlock Ticketing Markets Act of 2023. This bill would allow the Federal Trade Commission to prohibit long-term ticketing contracts and thus increase competition in the ticket-selling market. I also reintroduced the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act alongside Representative Johnson on April 27, 2023. This bill would open up the doors of justice to antitrust plaintiffs by prohibiting forced arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, antitrust, and civil rights disputes.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over issues of consumer choice and competition, I will continue to advocate for policies that best serve the interests of American consumers.
Thank you again for your message. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any other questions or concerns.
Yet I never hear back from him on the Israel-Gaza conflict. I wonder why?
Gushing over an unapologetic white supremacist like Navalny while neglecting to mention our political imprisonment and this week’s trial on the extradition of Julian Assange, who’s only crime is good journalism against the U.S. empire. No thanks.
I only discovered this weekly radio show about a year ago, but it has become part of my staple News and Information
The choice of topics and the high-quality contributors is amazing and focuses on the ever increasingly dysfunctional hegemonic American political system
I was born in the 50s and brought up in Britain in the 60s and 70s
I have lived outside of Britain since 1983, but I saddened every time I go back political parole and corporations running the show
A very happy birthday to you, Ralph, and keep up the good work
There was a good interview with Mr. Nader on WBAI a couple days ago: https://wbai.org/archive/program/episode/?id=48077
Euro-Med Gazan latest stats: 38,066 killed (14,350 children, 8,620 women, 34,570 civilians) https://apis.mail.yahoo.com/ws/v3/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-JuYCL5JFYiZibyoZhULIfPALeRLh5MxSdowgefdU1_JPyjozv3k1JRgrKYNYLPCe_tmbZU_QP6bd5QzJLzvu9w/messages/@.id==AHBPra8xb_FpZdpg1QIDoHG0B0w/content/parts/@.id==2/thumbnail?appid=YMailNorrin&downloadWhenThumbnailFails=true&pid=2
This book is so good! I recommend it to anyone wanting to improve the functioning of their activist groups.
And, by the way, Happy Birthday!
Bonhoeffer went back to Nazi Germany and certain death
I have a more critical view of Alexei Navalny than does Mr. Fein. I may be wrong or a may be right, but this is what it is based upon.
Journalists who have been marginalized, much like Ralph was 20 years ago, have a different take on Navalny’s death. Glenn Greenwald, for instance, questions the attention given to the event by the establishment press and politicians. https://greenwald.locals.com/upost/5292850/why-is-alexei-navalnys-death-being-depicted-as-so-vital-for-americans-as-assange-faces-final-l
Mr. Greenwald points out that events such as “a dissidents dying in prison or being killed in gruesome ways by authoritarian governments happen with great regularity-including in the countries of many of our closest allies.” Gonzalo Lira died of pneumonia in a Ukrainian jail after he was locked up for criticizing Zelenskyy and the U.S’s war narrative. American citizens have been intentionally killed by Israeli forces. Julian Assange rots in a British jail and may well die in prison because he exposed U.S. war crimes and embarrassed the CIA and a few prominent politicians.
Mr. Greenwald asks, where is America’s establishment’s “indignation, political concern or anger” over these crimes? He then gives a plausible explanation: The Establishment’s effort to obtain Congressional approval of further billions in aid for Ukraine has faltered. Then, “out of the blue” Navalny dies in a Russian prison. What a propaganda opportunity to turn things around! Play it up for all that it is worth.
Mr. Greenwald also points out that Mr. Navalny is probably not the freedom loving Russian hero our government and media have been making him out to be. He may well have been a white Russian nationalists, who has called immigrants “cockroaches,” who should be exterminated by gunfire. This is no excuse for Putin murdering him, if indeed, that is what happened (Catching a life or death case of pneumonia in a damp, cold Siberian prison is probably common even if murder was not Putin’s plan).
So, I’m not sure whether Mr. Fein or Mr. Greenwald’s take is closer to the truth. My point is that without additional evidence and evaluation thereof, we probably should not get too emotional about Mr. Navalny’s death or its relationship with sending more billions to Ukraine. Sad to say, but our press and government have not proven that worthy of our trust.
The important question is how do the corporations continue to gain, maintain and increase their control over government and what can we do about it.
The answer to how is we keep voting for their candidates. The answer to what we can do about it is to stop voting for their candidates.
The next question is how we make not voting for their candidates effective.
We can look to the uncommitted campaign in Michigan for an example.
It is on small scale what I have been trying to get Ralph to discuss for years that checks all the boxes of the seven points offered in today's program.
The corporate candidates are financed by the big money contributions.
We can demand small donor candidates and use a write in vote if there are no small donor candidates on the primary or general election ballot to register a vote against the big money corporate candidates and to create and demonstrate demand for small donor candidates in future elections.
90% of congressional districts are gerrymandered for either the Democrats or Republicans. So it makes no difference in the out come of those elections if the 40% or so that will not be voting for the gerrymandered winner "waste" their vote on a big money major party candidate that can't win or "waste" their vote by casting a write in vote against both big money candidates.
The difference is that voting for the big money major party candidate guarantees the same lack of choice in the next election while the write in vote builds a base of voters that are demanding something different in the next election.
This can also be effective in non-swing states in the presidential election without effecting the outcome of the electoral votes in those states in this election.
Just 10% of voters nationally participating this in 2024 would to create a voting block that is a bullhorn to say enough is enough and inspire more citizens to participate in 2026 which will inspire many small donor candidates to run in the 2026 primaries so we can vote for and even elect small donor candidates in 2026 instead of using a write in vote.
You have said that politicians want our votes more than big money.
So let's demand that politicians do not take big money in order to earn our votes.
And let's take that demand into the voting booth to show them we mean business.
I realize only about 80% of citizens want the big money out of politics, but with this campaign we should be able to increase that number to a respectable and intimidating amount of public support on this issue that is the main obstacle to implementing available affordable solutions to almost all of our problems.
Happy Birthday!!!!
Dear Friends of a Regenerative Future,
Please contact me at 505-423-2468 or via conference call or email: heartmindalliance@gmail.com if at all interested in this historic planetary first:
The Heart Mind Alliance (.com) has (via Go Fund Me campaign: “Direct Vote App Development”) raised over $30,000 directly and indirectly to develop the website for direct vote: https://wethepeople.directvotedemocracy.com
The First Question launched before the nation asks if you would prefer to live in a Constitutional Democracy in which you are your own representative and our public servants (having pledged allegiance to the simple majority will) are the administrators of the mandated majority will.
Every voter has a personal ledger and is able to verify if a vote was counted (block-chain transaction record) and counted correctly. When the majority of citizens of this corporation the United States of America want a government truly of, by and for its People, securely documented, we will not ask permission to make this indispensable transition but declare our inter-dependence and begin to save this planet and all life upon to become regenerative until the Seventh Generation.
The Move On campaign "The Great Mandate" outlines a partial list of 33 critical issues for national vote and, after legislative responses, public voting up or down.
The Heart Mind Alliance (.com) has much to share. FYI: Attached Press Release with Instructions for Voting with our “We the People” direct voting website.
Looking forward,
Bob Dunsmore
Founder and president of the Heart Mind Alliance (.com) which has created the block-chain secured direct vote
website now taking votes on the First Question before the nation: wethepeople.directvotedemocracy.com
Producer of the documentary "Bolivia Beyond Belief" (on You Tube) regarding the Bolivian Democratic Revolution I witnessed while living in Bolivia from 2005 to 2008
Initiated as an Andean Cosmovision Amauta
After working in 20 countries in community development: created a You Tube channel with 132 videos of the most successful appropriate technologies I learned of: "Community-based Appropriate Technologies"
Founder of Colorado's San Luis Valley Solar Energy Association and Alamosa Childrens' School
Founder of the Rio Arriba Bioregional Council and the Espanola Valley Community Council, New Mexico
Author of I Am: A Journey Through Times and Spaces and the book The Great Mandate (available via Kindle)
I've read this a number of times. Although it was published in 1972, many of the rules still apply.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_for_Radicals
Happy birthday!
While not disputing the facts discussed, I still have to say the conversation about Alexei Navalny was childish and simplistic. Surely you are aware that he was a racist and homophobe, a white-nationalist who just disagreed with a different white nationalist, Putin. Yes, he was brave and murdered for opposing a dictator, but not because he wanted democracy, but because he wanted a different dictator. I expect the corporate media to ignore the context, but I expect more from you all. Navalny is not a hero, he was a scum bag. He did not deserve what happened to him, and he does not deserve the childish, fawning from the media now.
HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY Ralph. May you have a great day and many more birthdays.