Ralph welcomes Professor Roddey Reid to break down his book “Confronting Political Intimidation and Public Bullying: A Handbook for the Trump Era and Beyond.” Then, we are joined by the original Nader’s Raider, Professor Robert Fellmeth, who enlightens us on how online anonymity and Artificial Intelligence are harming children
I wasn't aware of the threats to the families of US politicians as changing their votes, that's the first I've heard about this and wonder whether it is a credible report.
I saw a segment on Fox where they were questioning the patriotism of the protestors since they were funded by "billionaires". I drove to one of the protests, it's unclear how people traveling and spending an hour or so doing their civic duty would be "paid" for by wealthy people. "Nextdoor" has a news blackout on the local protests due to complaints by Maga people.
Years ago I moved to a small rural town and I was in the eight grade and my new nextdoor neighbor my same age was a kid that got bullied a lot , I was a pretty good athlete for my age and soon I played on the first team highschool varsity basketball team , so one day " baby Bobby" was being bullied and I told the kids to knock it off ..and they did for a while ,( stay with me there's more to this story) ,
In those days after sports the guys would head to the open showers and it was the first day after open backetball practice and in walked , baby Bobby ,"
At one time I owned a morgan 15 hands high stud quarter horse .
Needless to say Baby Bobby put my 15 hands stud horse to shame.
Soon baby Bobby got a new name .
From then on they called him " big bob" And big bob never got bullied again.
Big bob later became president of the class ,a roads scholar and married the home coming queen ( lucky girl ? ) later I heard they had two sets of twins ,two boys and two girls .
I always say some times natural just takes it's own course and fixes everything if you give it enough time . good luck America have a great day my friends
I never brought abuse or other stuff that happened in school home to my parents. I stood up to a couple teachers in high school that were off base on how they managed a class or two, but the mechanisms were not strong in the 70s to deal with unruly or unprofessional behavior.
As I listen, I hear, Ralph and your guests are not wrong. Whose right? What’s gonna work? Disappointing, frustrating, to me remains the buried away, the bully-ism, on the anti-vaxed, the injured. Have you happened to view Del Bigtree’s documentary “An Inconvenient Study”? How about the right winger/conspiracy theorist, Joel Gilbert’s book and or documentary video “The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America”
End these free speech, disappointments with encouraging law suits & the facts/documentation backing these ICANdecide.org
Replying to myself. Bullies a trickle down effect. We libertarians, independents, democrats, progressives, seem to box kick away the facts Obama administration drone bombed more innocent civilians (war on terrorism) than good ole Bush jr.. Obama, according to searches, during his (give us 4 more yrs) 8 years deported over 3 million people.
So parent's, what have those elected elitists taught your "young minds" ?
I dont think Ralph Nader and Roddy Reid are in danger of underestimating the weaknesses of the American political and social scene, but as Reid says, "we still have trouble acknowledging what’s actually happening".
Public funding of campaigns and a ban on lobbying would never happen except in a democracy. Has America ever been a democracy or even a representative democracy?
The Founders didnt think so. They defined representation in a way that guarantees that Congress would not be. See eg Const. Art. I, Sec. 2: “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand”
When Robert Fellmeth was asked how he would change the way we finance elections he said public financing of elections with small donations from large amounts of people. Ralph then said we should have public financing of public elections like we have public financing of public parks and public schools.
But the public financing described by Fellmeth was not the public financing that Ralph described. The public financing Fellmuth described was many citizens making small contributions while the public financing that Ralph described was government providing the financing for campaigns. Fellmuth should use the term citizen financing.
I am sure Ralph would agree that the reason we want to get the big money out of politics is that the big money legislators only pass legislation that primarily benefits the big money interests which makes big money corrupting our political system the primary obstacle to getting needed solutions to most problems turned into legislation.
But Ralph ignores that reality by proposing public financing of elections which would require the big money legislators to pass legislation that the big money interests have no interest in getting passed.
The only way to pass such legislation would be to first replace the big money legislators with citizen financed legislators as described by Fellmeth.
The problem has to be solved before legislation to solve the problem can be passed.
It has been 50 years that I have been listening to the public financing fallacy and it hasn't worked yet. In fact, we are farther away from being able to pass it then we were 50 years ago as the big money interests have increased their hold and influence on politicians and the media over the last 50 years.
For the last ten years I have been trying to get Ralph to discuss with me the citizen financing of elections as described by Fellmeth by organizing citizens to demand small donor candidates and enforce that demand with our votes.
This could be accomplished in just a few election cycles and be much more effective than waiting another 50 years for the big money legislators to pass public financing legislation that the big money interests do not want passed.
There is little hope for our democracy if people like Ralph cling to their fantasies like public financing of elections and can't even spare one hour in ten years to discuss an alternative proposal to achieving a common goal.
NEVER EVER BACK DOWN TO A BULLY or they will continue to chase you FOREVER!!
And NEVER EVER TRUST A BULLY because they are so insecure narcissistic and paranoid that sooner than later EVERYONE becomes one of their TARGETS!!!
REAL COURAGE is about being afraid of something but doing it anyway!
We ALL NEED REAL COURAGE NOW MORE THAN EVER BEFORE!!!
And so do our politicians!!!
Author: Christopher Lasch
THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM, with a new introduction by J. Dionne Jr.
Good discussion.
PROPAGANDA and the PUBLIC MIND: Conversations with Noam Chomsky.
By David Barsamian and Noam Chomsky.
THE FATHER OF SPIN: Edward L. Bernays and The Birth of Public Relations.
By Larry Tye.
CONTROLLING the Human Mind: The Technologies of Political Control or Tools for Peak Performance. By Dr. Nick Begich. www.earthpulse.com.
I wasn't aware of the threats to the families of US politicians as changing their votes, that's the first I've heard about this and wonder whether it is a credible report.
CNN had this coverage on the "No Kings" protests today and how the GOP was charactering it: https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/18/politics/gop-rhetoric-no-kings-protests-analysis
I saw a segment on Fox where they were questioning the patriotism of the protestors since they were funded by "billionaires". I drove to one of the protests, it's unclear how people traveling and spending an hour or so doing their civic duty would be "paid" for by wealthy people. "Nextdoor" has a news blackout on the local protests due to complaints by Maga people.
A story :
Years ago I moved to a small rural town and I was in the eight grade and my new nextdoor neighbor my same age was a kid that got bullied a lot , I was a pretty good athlete for my age and soon I played on the first team highschool varsity basketball team , so one day " baby Bobby" was being bullied and I told the kids to knock it off ..and they did for a while ,( stay with me there's more to this story) ,
In those days after sports the guys would head to the open showers and it was the first day after open backetball practice and in walked , baby Bobby ,"
At one time I owned a morgan 15 hands high stud quarter horse .
Needless to say Baby Bobby put my 15 hands stud horse to shame.
Soon baby Bobby got a new name .
From then on they called him " big bob" And big bob never got bullied again.
Big bob later became president of the class ,a roads scholar and married the home coming queen ( lucky girl ? ) later I heard they had two sets of twins ,two boys and two girls .
I always say some times natural just takes it's own course and fixes everything if you give it enough time . good luck America have a great day my friends
I never brought abuse or other stuff that happened in school home to my parents. I stood up to a couple teachers in high school that were off base on how they managed a class or two, but the mechanisms were not strong in the 70s to deal with unruly or unprofessional behavior.
https://www.google.com/m?q=George+Washington%27s+warning+about+factions&client=ms-opera-mobile&channel=new&espv=1
As I listen, I hear, Ralph and your guests are not wrong. Whose right? What’s gonna work? Disappointing, frustrating, to me remains the buried away, the bully-ism, on the anti-vaxed, the injured. Have you happened to view Del Bigtree’s documentary “An Inconvenient Study”? How about the right winger/conspiracy theorist, Joel Gilbert’s book and or documentary video “The Trayvon Hoax: Unmasking the Witness Fraud that Divided America”
End these free speech, disappointments with encouraging law suits & the facts/documentation backing these ICANdecide.org
Replying to myself. Bullies a trickle down effect. We libertarians, independents, democrats, progressives, seem to box kick away the facts Obama administration drone bombed more innocent civilians (war on terrorism) than good ole Bush jr.. Obama, according to searches, during his (give us 4 more yrs) 8 years deported over 3 million people.
So parent's, what have those elected elitists taught your "young minds" ?
I dont think Ralph Nader and Roddy Reid are in danger of underestimating the weaknesses of the American political and social scene, but as Reid says, "we still have trouble acknowledging what’s actually happening".
Public funding of campaigns and a ban on lobbying would never happen except in a democracy. Has America ever been a democracy or even a representative democracy?
The Founders didnt think so. They defined representation in a way that guarantees that Congress would not be. See eg Const. Art. I, Sec. 2: “The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand”
When Robert Fellmeth was asked how he would change the way we finance elections he said public financing of elections with small donations from large amounts of people. Ralph then said we should have public financing of public elections like we have public financing of public parks and public schools.
But the public financing described by Fellmeth was not the public financing that Ralph described. The public financing Fellmuth described was many citizens making small contributions while the public financing that Ralph described was government providing the financing for campaigns. Fellmuth should use the term citizen financing.
I am sure Ralph would agree that the reason we want to get the big money out of politics is that the big money legislators only pass legislation that primarily benefits the big money interests which makes big money corrupting our political system the primary obstacle to getting needed solutions to most problems turned into legislation.
But Ralph ignores that reality by proposing public financing of elections which would require the big money legislators to pass legislation that the big money interests have no interest in getting passed.
The only way to pass such legislation would be to first replace the big money legislators with citizen financed legislators as described by Fellmeth.
The problem has to be solved before legislation to solve the problem can be passed.
It has been 50 years that I have been listening to the public financing fallacy and it hasn't worked yet. In fact, we are farther away from being able to pass it then we were 50 years ago as the big money interests have increased their hold and influence on politicians and the media over the last 50 years.
For the last ten years I have been trying to get Ralph to discuss with me the citizen financing of elections as described by Fellmeth by organizing citizens to demand small donor candidates and enforce that demand with our votes.
This could be accomplished in just a few election cycles and be much more effective than waiting another 50 years for the big money legislators to pass public financing legislation that the big money interests do not want passed.
There is little hope for our democracy if people like Ralph cling to their fantasies like public financing of elections and can't even spare one hour in ten years to discuss an alternative proposal to achieving a common goal.