Ralph Nader Hour - Sunday, September 28, 2025

Summary

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Ralph Nader Radio Hour – September 28, 2025

Theme: Listener Questions, Civic Accountability, Gaza, U.S. Democracy, and Corporate Power

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Episode Overview

In this special "listener mailbag" episode of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Ralph Nader and co-hosts Steve Scrovan, David Feldman, and Hannah Feldman dedicate the full program to answering questions and responding to comments from their audience. The episode features wide-ranging discussions about government and corporate accountability, the state of democracy under Trump, Palestinian humanitarian issues, political organizing, campaign finance, and more. The recurring theme is civic self-empowerment: how citizens can assert their agency amid political and corporate barriers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Private Security Firms and Accountability in Gaza

[02:13] Listener Question (Andrew Acosta): Concern over private US security firm linked to atrocities in Gaza, questioning their accountability and recourse.

• Ralph Nader: Private security contractors operate with government approval and minimal oversight. Legal remedies are scarce unless political winds change.
  • "There is no remedy here because they are part of a contracting system that's been given approval by our government..." [02:13]
  • Only congressional impeachment powers remain as a check, not courts or public opinion under Trump.
  • The Gaza death toll continues to rise, underscoring the lack of accountability.

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2. Is the U.S. Becoming a Military Dictatorship?

[03:08] Listener Question (Dave Wendland): Should we call the U.S. a military dictatorship considering unchecked military power?

• Ralph Nader: Under Trump, the Insurrection Act could cement a full military dictatorship.
  • “Under Trump, that's exactly what's emerging. All he needs now is to invoke the Insurrection Act to make it complete.” [03:37]
• Media complicity and Democratic Party failures contribute to this erosion.
  • “Everything Trump has achieved politically has come out of his mouth. Not out of his deeds...faithfully relayed to the American people by a supine media.” [04:08]
  • Democratic Party “contracts out” its campaigns to corporate consultants, losing its progressive roots and failing to meet working people’s needs.

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3. Civic Self-Respect and Lack of Civic Motivation

[08:10] Listener Comment (Prof. James d'Amico): Integrating Nader’s “Civic Self-Respect” book in graduate education classes.

• Ralph Nader: The American public is fundamentally disinterested in civic empowerment.
  • “I was astonished… how disinterested the American people are in empowering themselves… The lack of civic motivation, the lack of saying, look, we've given our power to only 535 people in the Congress and they've turned it against us...” [09:00]
  • The Constitution begins with “We the people,” yet the populace rarely asserts this sovereignty over Congress.

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4. Auto Safety and Corporate Accountability

[10:59] Listener Question (Ted): What vehicles today qualify as "unsafe at any speed"?

• Ralph Nader: Federal standards have leveled most differences in auto safety compared to the 1960s—but serious failures (airbags, EV fires) persist.
  • “Federal standards have sandpapered a lot of the differences… But... there are electric cars catching fire… should be the subject of recall.” [11:15]
  • Cites resources: Center for Auto Safety, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, and independent safety advocate Byron Block.
  • Helpful tip [12:59]: Use NHTSA.gov to track recalls with your VIN and know about lemon laws for recourse.

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5. Building Community and Media Literacy

[14:39] Listener Comment (Miriam Gennari): Grassroots media and community activism in action.

• Ralph Nader: Encourages grassroots perseverance: “Keep at it and try to multiply your efforts with your friends in the neighborhood and community.” [15:54]

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6. Starting a Public Policy Watchdog with Limited Resources

[18:00] Listener Question (Sunny Bassoomi): How to found a public policy watchdog with minimal funding (from Europe).

• Ralph Nader: Learn from existing civic groups, research lone advocates, and seek affinity organizations. [18:25]

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7. ICJ Proceedings on Gaza Genocide

[19:10] Listener Question (Dave Buchanan): Has the ICJ case on Gaza by South Africa been updated?

• Bruce Fine (via Feldman): ICJ accepts supplementary evidence; a final hearing is at least 18 months away. [19:10]

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8. Congressional Accessibility Barriers

[21:04] Listener Question (Anthony Killian Behney): Congress blocking citizen attempts to reach staff about Medicare for All.

• Ralph Nader: Congressional offices are fortressed, limiting citizen access and undermining the First Amendment right to petition.
  • “Congress collectively is starting to move into a cocoon… this is basically destroying our First Amendment right to petition our government.” [21:04]
  • Urges listeners to challenge this during congressional recesses and demands written assurances of accessibility.

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9. Foreign Influence in U.S. Congress (Israel)

[24:08] Listener Question (Bill Fringer): Why does Israel have so much influence in the U.S. Congress?

• Ralph Nader: Foreign lobbying is legal unless corrupt, but no country has penetrated Congress like Israel.
  • “Israel… has gone further in penetrating the Congress than any other foreign country in modern history. They have a minder assigned to every member of Congress.” [24:08]
  • Example: Rep. Massie says colleagues check with “AIPAC guy” before setting policy positions.

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10. Disparity in Government Priorities: Cleanup vs. Military Spending

[39:44] Listener Comment (Jill Goldman): Frustration at citizens having to do basic public works while government spends on war.

• Ralph Nader: Other countries can provide social safety nets because they're not mired in massive military budgets.
  • “It's hard to exaggerate the distortion of priorities. One of the reasons Western Europe and Canada have all these social safety nets… they don't have a massive military budget.” [39:44]
• Discussion of Japanese cultural discipline around litter [41:08] and comparison to American attitudes.

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11. The Human Toll and Outrage Over Gaza

[41:48] Listener Comment (Adriana): Emotional response to Gaza, importance of showcasing people doing good, and disgust with global leadership.

• Ralph Nader: Person-to-person communication is the most accelerated free speech: “Spread the word. Talk to your neighbors… The most accelerated form of free speech is person to person.” [42:41]

[43:10] Listener Comment (Selena Sweet): The tragedy of needing “accountants” to confirm genocide and the moral vacuity of U.S. leadership.

• Ralph Nader: Take these comments directly to your congressional offices and refer them to Capitol Hill Citizen. [44:38]

[45:20] Listener Comment (Howie Lisnoff): The textbook definition of genocide applies to Gaza.

• Ralph Nader: Accurate death toll estimates are critical and the current figures are staggering: “That's one out of four Palestinians in Gaza who've been killed.” [46:45]

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12. Campaign Finance and Corporate Power

[28:35] Listener Question (Eric Thusen): How to curtail corporate dominance in elections without infringing citizen group spending.

• Ralph Nader: Public funding is the best solution but recognizes First Amendment obstacles stemming from Citizens United.

  • “The simple answer is public funding of public campaigns… Citizens United opened the floodgates.” [29:17]
  • Money is equated with speech by the courts, so billionaire spending is protected unless public funding displaces private money.
  • The roots of this problem trace to the 1971 Powell Memo and its corporate mobilization, eroding regulatory and civic gains by the public interest movement. [32:22]

• Significant Analysis:

  • Corporations are “perpetual” and have tax-deductible power to lobby 24/7, vs. individuals who cannot.
  • “You cannot have a democracy where corporations have equal rights with human beings under the Constitution.” [33:08]
  • Calls for clear use of “street crime” vs. “corporate crime” terminology by press, naming the agents of harm.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Nothing’s come close.” (Ralph Nader, asked if any era compares to Trump’s threat to democracy) [03:57]
• “We've given our power to only 535 people in the Congress and they've turned it against us on behalf of some 1500 corporations.” (Nader on civic disengagement) [09:00]
• “If any institution should be open, it should be the U.S. Congress.” (Nader on congressional inaccessibility) [21:04]
• "They have a minder assigned to every member of Congress." (Nader on Israeli lobbying) [24:08]
• “It's hard to exaggerate the distortion of priorities…” (Nader, on U.S. military vs. social spending) [39:44]
• “You cannot have equal justice under the law… when corporations have equal rights with real human beings under the Constitution.” (Nader on campaign finance and corporate rights) [33:08]
• “The main criminal centers in Washington D.C... are the White House and the K Street corporate lobbyists on Congress. Hands down.” (Nader, urging focus on corporate crime) [36:23]
• “You ought to tell the reporters, whenever they use the word crime: use an adjective. It’s either street crime or corporate crime.” (Nader, urging media accuracy) [37:27]

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Staffing & Community Acknowledgments

• Ongoing co-host and team recognition:
  • Shouts out to production, staff, and long-time listeners.
  • Celebrates 11+ years on air, 603 episodes. [16:04, 17:36]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:13 | Gaza atrocities, accountability of private security contractors | | 03:08 | Is the U.S. a military dictatorship? | | 08:10 | Civic self-respect in education | | 10:59 | Vehicle safety, NHTSA, lemon laws | | 14:39 | Media literacy, grassroots activism | | 18:00 | Starting a public policy watchdog (Europe) | | 19:10 | ICJ/Genocide case update on Gaza | | 21:04 | Citizen access to Congress; First Amendment implications | | 24:08 | Foreign influence (Israel) in U.S. Congress | | 28:35 | Citizens United, campaign finance reform, Powell Memo | | 39:44 | Public works vs. military spending | | 41:48 | Emotional response to Gaza, value of hope | | 43:10 | The reality of genocide in Gaza; moral critique | | 45:20 | Genocide death toll—accuracy and activism | | 33:08 | Structural barriers for citizen vs. corporate influence | | 37:27 | Press coverage: "street crime" vs. "corporate crime" |

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Style, Tone & Takeaways

The episode maintains the classic Nader style: earnest, direct, and frequently polemical but grounded in institutional critique and a vision of bottom-up empowerment. Listeners are encouraged repeatedly to mobilize, organize, and never accept the status quo of corporate-dominated democracy. The episode balances sobering assessments of U.S. and international failures with calls to action—and a reminder that real change begins with informed, civically engaged citizens.

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For Further Action

• Learn more or access Nader’s reports/books: nader.org
• Engaged listeners are encouraged to communicate with Congress, especially on accessibility and Gaza.
• Follow-up resources: NHTSA.gov, Corporate Crime Reporter, Capitol Hill Citizen.

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Transcript

[Alan Minsky]

Foreign.

[Ralph Nader]

Yo.

[David Feldman]

This is immortal technique.

[Alan Minsky]

Right now you're listening to KPFK 90.7 Los Angeles Revolutionary commentary. You know what it is? KPFK bringing you the realness Peace hall.

[David Feldman]

Of the street stay flooded in white powder.

[Alan Minsky]

This is Chris Hedges and you're listening.

[David Feldman]

To the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

[Ralph Nader]

Stand up. Stand up.

[Steve Scrovan]

You've been sitting way too long. Welcome to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. My name is Steve Scrovan, along with my co host, David Feldman. Hello, David.

[David Feldman]

Hello, Steve.

[Steve Scrovan]

And our producer, Hannah Feldman. Hello, Hannah.

[Hannah Feldman]

Hello, Steve.

[Steve Scrovan]

And the man of the hour, Ralph Nader. Hello, Ralph.

[Ralph Nader]

Hello. We're getting questions and comments and information from you today, listeners. And more than one of them is going to provide material for the Capitol citizen.

[Steve Scrovan]

That's right, Ralph. We're going to devote today's entire program to your listener questions and comments. We're going to go through a whole raft of them. Ralph is going to comment. It'll spur some discussion with us. And as always, somewhere in the middle. We'll check in with our tireless corporate crime reporter, Russell Mokhyber. But first, let's get right to it. And I'll start with our first question that goes. Hello, Mr. Nader. I live near the U.S. contractor U.S. security firm UG Solutions in North Carolina. They are part of the notorious Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. In recent weeks, Palestinians have been lured into these aid sites and slaughtered in daily massacres. As of my writing this, over 400 people have been killed. My question is, who are private security firms answerable to? Are there any better or any worse than boots on the ground? What tools do citizens have to rein them in or seek justice for wrongs committed? I am devastated at the thought of my neighbors having a role in this genocide. Ghf, the Gaza Humanitarian foundation out of Gaza. Palestinians need legitimate aid. That comes from Andrew Acosta in North Carolina. So, Ralph, what do you say to that?

[Ralph Nader]

Well, it speaks for itself. Andrew, your statement. There is no remedy here because they are part of a contracting system that's been given the approval by our government. They may be required under a different kind of administration to file as foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration act, but the Trumpsters are not going to enforce that at all. So it all comes down to impeachment and removal from office by the US Congress. That's the only accountability mechanism left. Trump is not worried about the courts and he's not worried about public opinion against him. But he cannot control the impeachment authority that our founding fathers invested in our U.S. congress. And since you wrote this, Andrew, Far more Palestinians have been killed.

[Steve Scrovan]

Our next question from Dave Wendland.

[David Feldman]

Ralph and company love your show and promote and listen to it every week on WDRT.org in Viraqua, Wisconsin. My question, considering that the US military is running roughshod over the majority of Americans who don't want these endless wars and military aggression, isn't it time to start calling our form of government what it really is, a military dictatorship? Thanks, Dave Wendland.

[Ralph Nader]

Under Trump, that's exactly what's emerging. All he needs now is, is to invoke the Insurrection act to make it complete.

[Steve Scrovan]

Have you ever seen anything close to this, Ralph? I mean, you obviously are around during Nixon. It doesn't seem like anything's ever come close to this.

[Ralph Nader]

Nothing's come close.

[Steve Scrovan]

And why do you think that is? What is it about this moment that makes it ripe for somebody like Trump to arise?

[Ralph Nader]

I think two factors. One is whole generations of American voters have been raised on television and more recently iPhones. They don't have as much experience in going to public engagements and council meetings and, you know, the various town meetings and so forth because they don't learn anything about civics. The computers replace civics in the classroom and we know who what that means. So if they don't know what their own rights are, they are given no experience in the elementary and high school, local civic endeavors with adult guidance, you get more and more voters vulnerable to just what comes out of a politician's mouth. Remember, everything Trump has achieved politically has come out of his mouth. Not out of his deeds, just out of his mouth. Repeatedly, unrebutted, largely over the mass media and faithfully relayed to the American people by a supine media which points out his mistakes once in a while. But it was too little, too late. The second and most important reason is the failure of the Democratic Party. Truman, fdr, Kennedy, they would have landslided this corrupt, arrogant, corporate, self enriching, ignorant GOP in history. There's nothing can compare since 1854 with the level that the GOP has descended. There shouldn't even be in contention. So the responsibility very heavily on the Democratic Party that contracts out as campaigns, the corporate conflicted consulting firms that has cut its roots in the progressive labor movement, cut its roots and in the progressive citizen movement and basically refuses to have its leadership quit when they lose again and again and infuse it with young, dynamic talent, some of whom are already knocking on the bureaucratic doors of the Democratic National Committee.

[Steve Scrovan]

Well, that's what occurs to me, is that because the people voting for Trump are not necessarily the young people. It is older people trying to hang on to whatever they have, have. And there's this, what's called the neoliberal economic order of free trade deals that has caused such a gap in income that working class people no longer can dream that their kids will be better off than they are. And that seems to be what Trump is able to play on. Is that discontent?

[Ralph Nader]

Yeah. But would he be able to play on it if the Democratic Party authentically pressed for raising the minimum wage to $15, 70 and a quarter federal? That's 25 million workers with more food on the table, able to pay their rent, they would be less susceptible to Trump's lies and false promises. Would the elderly vote for Trump? If the Democrats followed Congressman John Larson's lead And increased Social Security benefits frozen for 45 years, that's over 60 million people would get more money that they've deserved and not gotten over the years because of the Democratic Party. But no, you can't do these things if you're a political party that contracts out your campaigns, money raising strategies, tactics, schedules, language to corporate consulting firms, which I have been trying to get the media to investigate and report on, and they just won't do it. They spend all kinds of articles in the times imposed on internal bickering inside the Democratic Party. That's just reporting political gossip that's here today, gone tomorrow. They have to talk about agenda shifts of power, justice, injustice, authentic campaigning, who you get your money from.

[Steve Scrovan]

All right, very good. Hannah, why don't you take the next listener comment.

[Hannah Feldman]

This next comment is from James d'. Amico. He writes. Dear Ralph, my best to you and Claire. I wanted to let you know that I'm using civic self respect in a graduate seminar this summer. The students are primarily classroom teachers or school administrators. Here's a description of the two options for the final assignment. One, develop a curriculum unit, at least three lessons, or an extended workshop that integrates critical literacy and civic self respect for a specific audience. For example K through 12 students, administrators or other adult learners. Or two, analyze a current policy or platform, for example AI regulation, data privacy laws, digital citizenship, education through the lenses of critical literacy and civic self respect. That's from Professor James d' Amico from Indiana University's School of Education.

[Ralph Nader]

Thank you, Hannah. And by the way, when he refers to civic self respect, he's referring to my new book. It's called Civic Self Respect and it's very personal. It deals with people's daily roles. The table of contents illustrates that starts with I, the citizen, I the taxpayer, I the consumer, I the worker, I the veteran, I the parent. And in many ways relates to everybody in the country how they can become civically effective just by adding to. To the things they do every day as workers, consumers, taxpayers, voters, and so on. But I was astonished, my friends on this panel, how disinterested the American people are in empowering themselves. That's the problem we have. The lack of civic motivation, the lack of saying, look, we've given our power to only 535 people in the Congress and they've turned it against us on behalf of some 1500 corporations. We're going to turn it around. We're the sovereign power. As I said 100 times, the Constitution starts with we the people, not we the Congress or we the corporations. And the people don't seem to want to focus on that. If they had anyone in their neighborhood and community who were treating them the way Congress is treating them, as voters, as workers, as consumers, as parents, as, as children, as taxpayers, they would never allow it. And it's the great puzzle that the political scientists in this country have never been able to resolve as to why the American people are not fervently determined to control Congress 365 days a year. It's their arm, and it's their way to a great life and livelihood and safety and health, or to hazards, corruption, deprivation, and injustice.

[Steve Scrovan]

Thanks for that, Ralph. Our next question comes from listener Ted, who says what vehicles today qualify for unsafe at any speed? To be more precise, we have vehicles exploding, catching fire. Who is leading the fight to get these off the road until they are safe?

[Ralph Nader]

Well, it may surprise you, Ted, that the differential between vehicles in terms of safety is a lot less than it was in the 1960s, when you had the Volkswagen Bug and the GM Corvair way out in terms of comparative safety with other models on the road. And the reason why is federal standards have sandpapered a lot of the differences. They all have to have seatbelts now. They all have to have airbags. They all have to have collapsible steering columns, rollover protection, padded dash panels, head restraints, and so forth. Having said that, there are problems that you pointed out. There are electric cars catching fire, for example, and there are other problems that should be the subject of recall by the Department of Transportation, and do recall some of them, but they've had a lot of trouble dealing with the tons of millions of cars with the Takata airbag. The exploding Takata airbag. Imagine that and that's still not been totally resolved. They've had recalls, but it's very slippery situation there. The company has gone bankrupt, by the way, Takata. But having said all that, the reference to your question would be the center for Auto safety in Washington, D.C. a group called Advocates for Highway and auto safety, Washington, D.C. and freelance safety advocate Byron Block often registers focused attention on some of the defects that he has documented, is an expert witness in court trials and he is out of Potomac, Maryland.

[Steve Scrovan]

Yeah, I talked a lot to Byron when I was interviewing people. For an unreasonable man, Ralph, from a.

[Hannah Feldman]

Practical standpoint, you know, I always tell people to go to nhtsa.gov because you can look up use your VIN for your car and you can look up active recalls and any other issues that the dealer might be required to repair for you free of charge. So there's official recalls you might get notified about. But then there's other issues that I don't think people are as aware of that a lot of my friends are surprised when I tell them they could get these repairs done for free. And nhtsa.gov has that info.

[Ralph Nader]

And also there are the lemon laws, the Moss Magnuson warranty laws, which if you buy a new car and has bugs in it or defect, you bring it back to the dealer more than once or so, they're going to have to fix it free. But just look it up. You'll get the details. Every state, possibly with one or two exceptions, has a state lemon law as well that you should follow.

[Steve Scrovan]

Just to remind the listeners, nhtsa, the formation of that agency, was a direct response to Ralph's work that came out of unsafe at any speed in the auto safety laws. And you may not know the answer to this question, Ralph, but in all of the cutting with DOGE and whatever and the dismantling of the administrative state, have they gone after nitsa?

[Ralph Nader]

Well, I haven't read much, but they don't really have to because the budget is so minuscule under Biden and Obama and Bush that it probably wasn't even on their radar. They are cutting into mass transit funds, however, and they enjoy punishing New York City on that score for obvious reasons.

[Alan Minsky]

Trump, right?

[David Feldman]

This next question comes to us or statement comes to us from Miriam Genari and she writes, Good day, Mr. Nader. I am a supporter, a journalist and a mother. You may remember hearing about Styrofoam mom or the Arlington Weekly News where our paths crossed in 2016 at Busboys and Poets. I own the URL green tea party. I would like to utilize that site as a salon for community building. I believe together we can catch a moment and release it in a way that inspires change. Through community building events, I teach media literacy and understanding communication with neurodivergent individuals. I recently dissolved the nonprofit Sustainables co op, but still own the URL and have access to the YouTube channel. I am commonly referred to as Styrofoam Mom. Please contact if you would like to speak. As a media professional, I am happy to support your efforts with resources from our media library. Thank you and good day. Miriam Gennari.

[Ralph Nader]

Well, it speaks for itself, doesn't it? Thank you, Miriam. And just keep at it and try to multiply your efforts with your friends in the neighborhood and community.

[Steve Scrovan]

All right, this is not really a question. It's a comment. And it says this is from. It comes from Nancy Lizza, who's a regular listener. I simply adore listening to Francesco Desantis every week. Please tell him for me.

[Steve Scrobin]

Thank you.

[Steve Scrovan]

And she says, I've been listening weekly for years. Your show is the smartest podcast on the Internet. Hannah asks great questions.

[Ralph Nader]

She.

[Steve Scrovan]

She has a sharp mind. That's from Nancy Lizza. And she pointedly does not mention either.

[Steve Scrobin]

Me or David, which. Fair enough, Nancy, she's a lot more.

[David Feldman]

Astute than she gives herself credit for.

[Steve Scrovan]

That's right. So that's a shout out to the staff that works on the show, especially behind the scenes. Hannah not only asks great questions, but she does a lot of her editing and all the other production work that goes into putting the show together. As long as we're talking about it, you hear about them in the credits. But Mat. Matthew Marin books all the guests, which sometimes is an incredible task, coordinating getting everybody here for us. And Jimmy Leewert, as you know, those listeners know Jimmy, he does the actual physical editing, does the graphics for the website. And we also have Elizabeth Solomon, who proofreads all the transcripts of the radio versions of the show. So we really appreciate all of their efforts that we've been doing this for over 11 and a half years now. And this happens to be episode 603. So that's a tribute to also Ralph, your Lou Gehrig Iron man devotion.

[Ralph Nader]

So, Steve, I really thank you for acknowledging the effort of all of these good people who make the show possible.

[Steve Scrovan]

All right, Very good. Enough of tooting our own horn. Let's get back to the good stuff. Hannah, you're up.

[Hannah Feldman]

I mean, toot away. Who am I to silence your tooting?

[Steve Scrovan]

Let's see. Let's. You can answer. You Ask sharp questions. Let's see if you can read a sharp question.

[Hannah Feldman]

Okay. Dear Ralph, assuming scarce resources and networks, how to start a public policy watchdog as a loan investigator or agent, including securing initial and maintaining recurrent funding. Specifically looking at European policy implementation nationally, how about crowdsourcing? Many thanks. Best regards from Europe.

[Ralph Nader]

Sunny Bassoomi well, thank you for your question. I just don't know enough about the European situation to answer generically. I would urge you to find some group that has an affinity to your civic pursuits and learn from what they have to suggest at the community level that you're working on. And also go to the Internet and find out if there are lone advocates that have broken through like you want to and you can learn from their experiences.

[Steve Scrovan]

All right, very good. Thank you for that question, Sony. This next one, David, you're going to take. And also, we enlisted the aid of Bruce Fine to give us a very short answer to this question. So, David, why don't you take Dave Buchanan from Toronto, Ontario.

[David Feldman]

Hello Ralph. Love your show. I was wondering, has the case presented to the International Court of Justice by South Africa been regularly updated with new accounts of atrocities? If so, it would now seem to be a slam dunk. Or does it have to rest on its initial presentation effects? Thank you for all your hard work. Dave Buchanan, Toronto, Ontario and we did get a response from Bruce Fine, and he says the ICJ entertains supplementary evidence of genocide in Gaza after its preliminary finding. The final hearing on the merits is at least 18 months down the road. That's from Bruce Fine, our resident constitutional scholar.

[Steve Scrovan]

Thank you for that, Bruce. Our next question comes from Anthony Killian Bayney from Tonawanda, New York. I think that's outside of Buffalo, he says, hello, Ralph. I have contacted all House of Representative offices that are not co sponsors of the Medicare for all bill, HR3069. Many offices refuse to provide an email address for a legislative director or legislative assistant. A lot of them are saying that they are prohibited from giving out email addresses. Some refuse to give out a name for the legislative staff or even some refused to even give their first name or even just initials. I'm being polite. And he found this website for ethics, the House.gov he says, are we really prohibited from getting legitimate contact to members of Congress and legislative staffers to discuss legitimate proposed legislation? Members of Congress travel to Israel, a country with universal health care, but will not discuss proposed national health care policy with US Citizens. Is this constitutional? Aren't we guaranteed a Republican form of Government under Article 4, Section 4? Keep up all the hard work and kindness. Regards, Anthony Killian Behney.

[Ralph Nader]

Thank you, Anthony. This is a very valuable feedback that we're going to have the Capitol Hill citizen follow up on. You're showing us that it's even worse than we thought. Congress collectively is starting to move into a cocoon where the keys to the door are only in the possession of commercial lobbyists or other types of special interests, not the citizens and the voters. Back home there is an increasing number of members of Congress are locking the door on their office inside the Senate and House office buildings, which are obviously very well guarded and under all kinds of security. But you have to phone them outside the glass door of their office in order to be let in. So this is basically destroying the our First Amendment right to petition our government. If you can't connect, you don't need censorship. You just need an obstruction and an inability to connect with members of Congress or their staff. And it's getting worse and worse because people are not mobilizing and demanding that it be reopened again. If any institution or government should be open, it should be the US Congress. So when these members go back and campaign in their lengthy recess periods for reelection, raise the issue and have them write you in print an assurance that they are going to respond to serious inquiries about legislation such as yours, and they're going to respond by telephone and they're going to respond by writing letters. They don't have to pay stamps. They're going to respond in any way you expect them and ask them to respond. So, listeners, this is exactly what we want our listeners to do. Obviously, Anthony's had to spend quite a bit of time to call the representatives in the House of Representatives who are not co sponsors. He's had to call over 220 members of Congress, at least, who are not co sponsors, and look at the detail he can now give us. So bravo to you, Anthony in Tonawanda, New York. And just contact us. Anthony, want to give you our report called Incommunicado, where we illustrate letters that we've written to members of Congress as well as executive branch agencies which don't even get an acknowledgement, not even the courtesy of acknowledgment, never mind a response to the substance of the letters. And we put these letters in this compendium and we have your address and we're going to send you a print copy of the report Incommunicado.

[Steve Scrovan]

This next question comes from an episode that we did on July 5 with Hassan El Tayeb from the Friends Committee on national legislation. We were obviously talking about Gaza. And Hannah, why don't you take the question from Bill Fringer?

[Hannah Feldman]

This question is from user billfrenger8955. They say, thank you, Ralph. And friends, why does Israel have the right to interfere in Congress and domestic affairs in this country?

[Ralph Nader]

Well, foreign countries have the right to lobby Congress. They don't have the right to do it in an illegal or corrupt manner. And that's true for anybody who lobbies Congress. Israel, of course, has gone further in penetrating the Congress than any other foreign country in modern history. They have a minder assigned to every member of Congress. In fact, Tom Massie, the Republican who is defying Trump from Kentucky, told an interviewer a few months ago that when he took exception to a certain pro genocide policy by Israel, when he's in the Congress and he walks up to his Republican colleagues, they hear him out and then they say, I gotta check with my AIPAC guy. So that's how detailed. And then you had all the political action committee monies from around the country and you got an extraordinary grip on Congress that is only now being loosened by a few dozen dissidents who don't like the idea of Congress weaponizing and otherwise providing political cover along with Presidents Biden and Trump for the mass murder of over 600,000 Palestinians infants, children, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers who had nothing to do with October 7th. Unlike Netanyahu in Israel today, even though a majority of Israeli Jews supported the attack on Gaza and the slaughter, they still excoriate Netanyahu for opening the borders on October 7th. And they also know that Netanyahu bragged about facilitating the funding of Hamas and supported Hamas because Hamas was opposed to a two state solution, which he is also opposed to.

[Steve Scrobin]

Hi, this is Steve Scrovan from the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. And it has been my distinct privilege to be able to be doing this show on KPFK, the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, for over 11 and a half years. We have done 604, three episodes. And it's been my privilege to be able to work with Ralph, this frankly historical figure, and hear him interact with guests and monologue his own thoughts about what is going on in probably the most critical point of history, in our nation's history, at least since the Civil War. And Ralph is not shy about saying that he lived through Nixon. And this is much worse than Nixon when you have an administration of Donald Trump who is basically.

[Steve Scrovan]

Trying to undo everything that Ralph spent an entire life.

[Steve Scrobin]

Working for, which is watchdogging the government, making the government accountable, helping create certain government agencies that protect us, like the epa, things like the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act. These are things Ralph has worked for and these are things the Trump administration is tearing down and dismantling. So it's been a tremendous education for me and it's been my privilege to do that. And I'm so grateful to kpfk, our mother station, for putting us on the air those 11 and a half years ago. So it's important and Ralph would agree with me to support KPFK. And if you want to support KFPFK, go to 818-984-5-5735. That's 818-985-KPFK. To donate online, just go to kpfk.org and support radio. That really makes a difference and is more important than ever as we hear about Sinclair Broadcasting and nexstar and all these very conservative distributors having the stranglehold on dissent. So call now at 818-985-5735. That's 818-985-Kpfk. Call now. Support the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

[Steve Scrovan]

This next comment comes from our July 12 episode, which we titled Trading Life for Death, which was the title of a report that Public Citizen did. And we featured Robert Weissman on the show, co president, Public Citizen. To talk about that. David, take the comment from Eric Thusen, okay?

[David Feldman]

He says, dear Ralph Nader, et al, I have an inquiry not related to this episode, but something I think is important and would appreciate a response to, if you don't mind. Specifically, like all of you, I am convinced we cannot have a government of we the people so long as corporations and the wealthy are allowed, through Citizens United to dominate contributions to political campaigns by so called independent expenditures. The rub, however, is how we can end this ill without also outlawing unlimited independent expenditures from laudable citizen groups.

[Ralph Nader]

Well, the simple answer is public funding of public campaigns. Public funding of public parks, like public funding of public schools or public drinking water systems. And remember, even before Citizens United there was a lot of commercial money going into campaigns. Citizen United opened the floodgates. There were no limits. They could spend $50 million to defeat some candidate as long as they didn't coordinate with the candidates campaign. But that has been a gray area ever since Citizens United. The issue of coordination. So the answer to your question is public funding of public campaigns. That should be a campaign issue every two years at the congressional level. If you want a more detailed analysis that is more respectful of the rest of your question, you can go to our website, nader.org and read my answer in over 35 pages. And to the notorious Powell Memorandum of 1971, which helped arouse the corporations to mobilize and expand their lobbying pressure on Congress against the emerging consumer, environmental and worker and health safety groups that had succeeded in getting key legislation against all odds in the 60s and early 70s.

[David Feldman]

Ralph, if somebody is a billionaire and wants to spend money personally to gin up support for a candidate, it seems to me the First Amendment protects that behavior, doesn't it?

[Ralph Nader]

Yes. And they can give so much, a few thousand dollars in the primary to a candidate and then the same few thousand dollars for the general election to a candidate. So there are legislative limits, but they still are within the range of being free to exercise what the Supreme Court has called their First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court has ruled that money is speech, and so they don't allow many restrictions. But the big one was Citizens United, where they not only threw money speech into the reefs, they just allowed now billions of dollars to be given by corporate PACs either to support or oppose candidates at the national, state and local level.

[David Feldman]

So if it's 2024, I'm a billionaire. I don't want to get caught donating to Donald Trump if I take out ads warning about the border crisis and criticizing Kamala Harris and the Biden administration for allowing all these migrants. And isn't that protected by the First Amendment?

[Ralph Nader]

Yeah, you can take out ads. If you form a pac, you have license to spend endless money. It's easy to form a pac Political action committee. That's what PAC is.

[Steve Scrovan]

I just wanted to follow up on the Powell memo and how significant. That was written by Lewis Powell, who. He was general counsel of the Chamber of Commerce, later became a Supreme Court justice appointed by Nixon. And the Powell memo was almost a direct response to your work in the consumer movement and your work strengthening government agencies, creating other government agencies like the EPA and like we mentioned before, NHTSA and creating all of these think tanks to sort of put an intellectual veneer on rolling back the New Deal and the administrative state. They're kind of going after your life's work. Ralph, I can understand why you're pretty angry about it.

[Ralph Nader]

Well, that's part of the routine. You know, there's an advance by citizen groups and there's the inevitable reaction. The only problem, Steve, is that corporations can operate 24, 7, and citizens can't do that. They're usually preoccupied with their job, raising their families. They're not perpetual like corporations. Corporations can deduct expenses Citizens can't deduct expenses when they fly to Washington to lobby their senators. So there are dozens of unfair differences between the artificial entity called corporations and real human beings. Which is why I think my response 54 years later to the Powell memorandum went into some detail. Basically saying you cannot have equal justice under the law, you cannot have a democracy when corporations have equal rights with real human beings under the Constitution. That was a judicially decreed bit of activism here. There's nothing in the Constitution that even mentions the word corporation or company. So it was the way it was misinterpreted by courts and repeated by courts for over a century and a half now. And increasingly, when corporations have equal rights with you people, they have unequal wealth and unequal income and unequal supremacy and control over capital. Technology workers strategically deciding the levels of pollution, the tax system, the kind of energy we use, the elections, the government regulations. I mean, they're the most powerful factor, these government agencies, even the Department of Labor. You can never have an equal contest using the First Amendment to convince or persuade people. Impossible. That's a defining issue of our time. And the amazing thing, and you'll appreciate this because we talk about the responsible institution here, corporate crime. We name names of corporations, but if you read even the independent magazines, they talk about the damage done to our society almost without mentioning who delivers it. The corporation. So they'll talk about all kinds of harm, but they won't attribute it to corporations. Especially true in editorials. Now they do name companies when there's a recall or something that close. But by and large, corporations get a pass. They're not the central focus of, of political and economic reform anymore. So we have to come back and ask who's delivering this corruption? Who's delivering this ripoff of consumers? Who's delivering toxic environment? Who's delivering obstacles to doing something about fossil fuel generated global warming and climate catastrophe? If you don't name the agent that is delivering that, are you going to ever make the delivery system accountable? You can't. So they have extraordinary degree of anonymity. I watch the evening news from time to time and the commentary and listen or watch the Sunday talk shows and see how infrequent they ever mention corporate crime. When Trump declared war on democratic cities with black mayors, coincidentally, dc, Chicago, Los Angeles, he talked about crime erupting hell holes, criminals raging as mobs through the street. And crime is defined as street crime. Well, far more people, far more people are killed, injured and stolen from by corporate crime. We've talked about that in the past. There's no time to go into the details. Go to corporatecrimereporter.com and the press never says street crime. They just say crime. Well, the main criminal centers in Washington, D.C. in terms of theft and injury and avoidable fatalities are the White House and the K Street corporate lobbyists on Congress. Hands down, Trump is violating all kinds of criminal statutes. And we know what he's doing to the health and safety programs of the American people in every conceivable manner. Cutting, slashing, firing, weakening. And the press ignores that. So you ought to tell the reporters, whenever they use the word crime, use an adjective, it's either street crime or corporate crime. Stop exculpating the biggest source of criminal theft and violence, which is corporate.

[Steve Scrovan]

Well, that's a perfect segue to take a short break and check in with our corporate crime reporter, Russell Mokhyber. Take it away, Russell.

[Russell Mokhyber]

From the National Press building in Washington, D.C. this is your corporate crime reporter Morning minute for Friday, September 26th, 2025. I'm Russell Mulchyber. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut last week released a report, corporate Pardons the Trump Plan, to let Corporations get away with Crimes. The report reveals how Trump is executing an autocratic pay to play scheme that allows corporations that support him to break the law while abandoning hardening his working class base to face corporate scams and higher prices. Earlier this year, Trump made history as the first president to pardon a corporation, freeing the crypto exchange Bitmex from criminal accountability and $100 million fine. Murphy's new report exposes that Trump has functionally issued many more pardons through the use of executive enforcement power, usually in exchange for millions of dollars in financial contributions to Trump and his allies. For the corporate crime reporter, I'm Russell Mokart.

[Steve Scrovan]

Thank you, Russell. Welcome back to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. My name is Steve Scrovan, along with Ralph and David and Hannah. All right, this next question comes from the episode where we interviewed John Merriman, the ordinary citizen who in his retirement decided to clean up the waste in his neighborhood, especially old tires, and has taken his crusade nationwide. This next comment comes from Jill Goldman, who's quite enervated about it. Jill Goldman says, why do citizens have to do this themselves? Granted, people should never trash the land, but the state and federal government should be committed to keeping this country clean and safe. They spend comparatively little money on cleanup, but trillions on bombing other countries. I'm so sick of living in this dump.

[Ralph Nader]

All I can say to you, Jill, is well said. Okay, that's where the priorities are going, blowing up places around the world. It's hard to exaggerate the distortion of priorities. One of the reasons Western Europe and Canada have all these social safety nets, maternal paid leave, child care, paid family sick leave, all kinds of support structures for children as in France, universal health insurance, on and on. They don't have a massive military budget, although the Russian invasion of Ukraine is maybe going to start changing that under pressure from US dominated NATO to spend more on a military budget. But over the years they've had money to return to the people in the form of these critical social safety services. So well said. Spread the word.

[Steve Scrovan]

Joe I was having a conversation, Ralph, with some friends of mine at dinner the other night who just come back from Japan and they reported to me that Japan has virtually no litter, but they also have no garbage receptacles around. People take their litter or take their garbage, they put it in their pocket and they take it home. So it seems like there's a cultural component to this that Japan is so clean and they don't even have to have garbage cans around.

[Ralph Nader]

No doubt we've noticed the same thing when we went to Japan. Much more self disciplined as a culture. They're much more self disciplined. On the other hand, that can lead to excessive obedience as well, as we learned in World War II.

[David Feldman]

So basically, Americans are slovenly and obedient.

[Steve Scrovan]

Well, let's not get to, you know, let's, let's hold out some hope here. This next comment is from our July 26 episode, which was entitled Doctors Against Genocide with Kamara hawash, Kamarli and Dr. Najal Jabbour. And it's from Adriana. So Hannah, do you want to read what Adriana has to say?

[Hannah Feldman]

Yes. So Adriana says, thank you team for adding those segments with people doing good things in the world. Sometimes I have to stop what I'm doing just because I start crying thinking about the people in Gaza and larger Palestine. The human experiment has failed. I say to myself, until I listen to examples of people doing good things or simply beautiful things for the only reason of doing them because they are necessary. Not only resisting fascism, for example, many are doing that. As for the letter to Obama, he doesn't care. Obama only cares about himself and his quote unquote legacy, whatever it is. He is a coward. Just like all the leaders of countries that vote against Israel's actions in Gaza but continue to support the genocide in the way that actually makes a difference with weapons and continuing trade deals with the genocidal regime.

[Ralph Nader]

Speaks for itself, doesn't it? Thank you Adriana. Spread the word. Talk to your neighbors, members of community. The most accelerated form of free speech.

[Steve Scrovan]

Is person to person, and Adriana is a regular listener. We hear from her a lot and she's an active citizen. This next comment comes from our August 2nd episode, which was entitled Call It a Genocide with Omar Bartov. And we also did a tribute to Morton Mintz in that episode.

[David Feldman]

This is from Selena Sweet Astounding to me that it requires the accountant's mind to certify the pathological, sadistic smashing of Palestinians and their material cultural entities as quote unquote genocide. Just witnessing the starving children, just learning from hospital personnel, the apparent systematic shooting of people, including children, in specific limbs and men's genitals. Hearing the report by the American military man named Aguilar who witnessed the intentional IDF luring of starving and desperate Palestinians to food distribution centers only to murder them is proof of homicidal mentality, the depth of horrifying Israeli evil brutality matches the depths and reaches of American hypocrisy. Moral vacuousness, absence of integrity and courage and capacity for an alarming lack of basic empathy and integrity. No wonder. If they are so paltry regarding the Israeli mass slaughter, not trusting what they see with their own eyes on tv, then we citizens have chosen the wrong people to make decisions about our climate catastrophe. They are simply and grossly incapable and incompetent. How are they not like Biden and Netanyahu criminals?

[Ralph Nader]

And like others who have your viewpoints, Selina, make sure you convey them at least to a staff of members of Congress, your two Senators and Representatives on the telephone. They need to hear in person from you and others. Not enough just to put it up on a website or on the Internet. They need to hear that kind of feedback right into their office on Capitol Hill. And while you're at it, ask them whether they have read the Capitol Hill Citizen and if not, ask them why not. It's delivered in person to them right from the print shop on publication day. Every Congressional office and Congressional committee offices.

[Steve Scrovan]

All right, this next comment comes from our August 16th episode, which was titled the Real Death Toll in Gaza with Dr. Firouz Sidwa. And it's from regular listener Howie Lisnoff, who comments a lot. We appreciate that, Howie, and how he says Dr. Firouz Sidwa has all of the necessary facts to substantiate the massive number of non combatant deaths in Gaza at the hands of Israel, the US and the allies of the us The Intent to wipe out a particular class of people, in this case Palestinians, is the textbook definition of genocide. The international rules of war are clear about the crime of crimes, genocide. That's the single most important lesson coming out of World War II, and that is genocide is the crime of crimes. There are other laws of war that apply to the Israel Gaza war, but they pale when compared to the willful eradication of innocent civilians in Gaza. We could talk all day about proportionality in war and the protection of women, children and men who are non combatants. But what is clear here is that the nation founded after the Nazi genocide is itself carrying out a methodical genocide. What can be done to stop this lethal insanity? As heroic students, professors and men and women on the streets in the US found out in 2024, the US, the main supplier of Israeli arms and major supporter of its aggression, will go to extreme lengths in order to criminalize protest here and substitute near silence instead of protest. That's from how we listen off well.

[Ralph Nader]

How we just amplify a bit your excellent statement. It does help if the real death count was more reasonably estimated instead of 64,000, which is a Hamas death count by names of deceased. The figures now over 600,000. There's no time to go into all the details. We've done that on other programs and that makes a big difference. That's one out of four Palestinians in Gaza who've been killed by the Israeli regime.

[Steve Scrovan]

Hi again, everybody.

[Steve Scrobin]

This is Steve Scravin. We're taking a short break from our regular programming to do a little fundraising here for kpfk. And I'm joined by our executive producer of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, who's the program director at KPFK when the Ralph Nader Radio hour was born, Mr. Alan Minsky. Hello, Alan.

[Alan Minsky]

Hey, it's great to join you, Steve. And you know, I always tell people there is nothing I am more proud of doing in my entire life than the role I played along with you in launching the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. I think this is a gift to the country and all of humanity. In fact, so very proud to work with you on this. And of course, I'm joining you now because it is the KPFK Fund Drive. KPFK is the home radio station of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. So we want people to call right now, 8189-8557-3581-8985-KPFK. For just $25, you get an annual membership. But you know, that was a membership level that was set a long time ago, 25. Doesn't go very far. I'd encourage right now people to consider $10 a month, just do a $10 a month donation, 120 a year to keep this radio program and this radio station alive as the home station of the, of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. You know, who knows? Is there a Ralph Nader Radio Hour without kpfk? So keeping this institution alive right now is so important and as Steve said earlier in the hour, more important than ever. And I don't think there's any way that can be overstated. We see a direct attack on free speech writ large and American media in general and the left. We can maybe even leave the left out of it because you know, they're going to label it left. Whatever is critical of the Trump administration, however that fits in really on the left right spectrum. But with this radio show, it is exactly speaking to so much of what Trump opposes and what people need to hear, including the maintenance of democracy, the maintenance of free speech and the maintenance of honest journalism. Nobody, nobody has better analyzed the roots of the crises of American media over these past few decades, going all the way back to Nader's just fierce and profound opposition to the Telecommunications Act, I believe, of 1996, where the whole Internet was given away to private hands and all the dangers we've had with that since that with the algorithms controlling our lives, as it were, but also that has allowed for the consolidation of media and the situation that we just see right now with these ins, the very few people own major broadcast media outlets and they are, they are so vulnerable to threats from the Trump administration in terms of their business model, no matter how problematic that business model is, the truth is that has given the Trump administration a wedge to demand things from them. They are capitulating. And we need real media. We need not only to keep the Ralph Nader Radio Hour going, we need everybody listening right now to donate to support us. KPFK really might very well need pay for lawyers in the coming days and weeks, right. To defend the right of free speech, to defend the maintenance of kpfk. So give what you can, but not only do that, give what you can and then let every single person you know tell them about the Ralph Nader Radio Hour, get them listening in. Share this There is no better one hour a week radio show in the country or the world right now. No one more important than Ralph Nader Radio Hour. So, Steve, very important moment.

[Steve Scrobin]

Yes, very important moment, Alan. And I also want to recognize my co host David Feldman in The history of the Ralph Nader Radio. It was actually David and you who came to me because you had a slot to fill during a drive time slot, and it was in January 2014, and you wanted to do an alternate State of the Union. Obama was president then. And you thought about what about Ralph? And you knew I had done a documentary about Ralph. And David reached out and talked to me, and I set up the contact and set up the interview. And then David said to me, okay, be here at 4:30. And I said, well, what do you need me for? And he said, you don't understand. Ralph Nader is my hero. He's been my hero ever since my dad pointed at the television, said, that is the greatest American, and I can't do this alone. And so you and I showed up to help him. That's my dog yipping in the background. That's Catherine the Great. So you and I showed up to help him and just be in the room with him. He did a great job. And then afterwards, we all turned to each other and said, boy, this guy knows a lot. I should do this every week. And it took us, it took us a few weeks to get Ralph on board with the idea because Ralph is very busy. He's still doing everything he's doing to this day. At age 91, you would not know that to hear him and to listen to him. And he's still as sharp as ever. And he's a piece of living history because he's. He lived through Nixon, he lived through Vietnam War, he lived through all these other rollbacks of the 80s during the Reagan era. You mentioned the Telecommunications act. Even before that was the Fairness Doctrine in the late 80s that had been repealed, which led the way to, for people like Rush Limbaugh, monologize for hours and hours without any balanced coverage. So, yes, that, that's a little bit of history of how this program started and what we continue to do as Ralph. He's the Iron man, he's Lou Gehrig, he's Cal Ripken. 603 shows so far and still going strong.

[Alan Minsky]

No, it's amazing. And of course, it's popular across the country. It's popular across the Pacifica Radio Network, where it's syndicated, but it doesn't exist without kpfk. So once again, folks, we're asking you, and we've come to you very, very infrequently with the Ralph Nader Radio hour. Please support KPFK, the home station of the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. $10 a month is our suggested donation, maybe do it in one block at $120 or just you can spread it out over $10 a month every month. Make it a recurring payment. Basic memberships 25 their thank you gifts you can get get a KPFK with bag or a T shirt or a cap. Ask him when you call about those kind of thank you gifts. Those are in the 50 to 75 range. Or give more if you can to support the Ralph Nader Radio Hour and kpfk at 8189-8557-3581-8985 kpfk. Or you can go online at kpfk.org and donate there. 818-985-5735 for the Ralph Nader Radio Hour. And I have to tell you, I, I do engage the show every single week and I think the interviews so many times when the show comes in and I, I post it the way that I posted so the Pacific Radio folks can get around the country. I, I was like right away I listen to the whole darn thing, Steve, because I'm looking, I'm, I'm looking in what my current work is as a political organizer and activist. I'm looking for as much insight as I can possibly get. And I can tell you there is nothing, there's nothing that outshines the Ralph Nader Radio Hour week in week out on every subject under the sun that they addressed. Yeah, I mean, you know, look so much of even again if you want to call it like the American left or progressives, there's a real kind of like almost type of blindness as to looking where power really resides in the society. And I think Ralph has always understood that really almost better than anyone. And he, he, he explains how the institutions that are empowered, they're basically getting a free pass, including by so much else in terms of progressive media and media in general. So this is a really, really exemplary radio show and project. So call to Support us at 8189-8557-3581-8985. KPFK speak to when you call, you can speak to the person who picks up the phone and talk to them about getting a thank you gift. In return. You can get KPFK T shirts, kpfk, you know, a whole bunch of stuff, coffee mugs, etc, they're books that you can pick up. Ask the person who picks up about those as thank you gifts. But most importantly, support the Ralph Nader Radio Hour and its home station KPFK Radio with your donation at 818-985-5735, 810-8985, kpfk. And let me ask you this. You now work on this show, and you're on the show every week. Would we, can you imagine anything more important to remain going in the next year in this crisis that we're in, Steve, and how much insight people will get from the Ralph Nader Radio Hour in this next year?

[Steve Scrobin]

Yeah, because, no, I cannot, because for the reasons I mentioned before is that Ralph has seen it all. And so there's nobody on the scene who has that kind of perspective, who's been doing this for over, you know, close to 70 years now and is still, still sharp and still has his handle and still, you know, able to predict things and let us know what is going to happen just based on what he knows has happened. So that's the, that's the insight I get from him. And, and what's, what's great about Ralph, too, is he's just relentlessly positive. He is a fighter. He is, he does not accept the status quo. And he's looking for people. We have all kinds of people on the show. We have journalists, we have book authors, political scientists. We have.

[Alan Minsky]

Activists.

[Steve Scrobin]

We've, we've done a series of shows with activists. A woman in New York and in her district who's doing town halls. We had Marcus Sims, who is taking old fallen trees and turning them to desks for schools. We had John Merriman who is just taking refuse and mainly old tires and all sorts of garbage out of the ditches where he lived. And that started going nationwide. So we just don't highlight the intellectuals, we highlight the real doers. And that's what Ralph really appreciates. I can't tell you how many times we've had a journalist on the air. And Ralph said, okay, this is all great. Now what are you doing about it? And the journalists say, well, I just kind of tell you what the problem is. I'm not, that's not really my bailiwick. And Ralph, in his history was different. He was the journalist who did that research but then did something about it. And that's the spirit we need right now in these dark, dark times.

[David Feldman]

Yeah.

[Alan Minsky]

No. And of course, the constitutional experts you have explaining the, the transgressions of the Trump administration and I have to say, too incredible foreign policy analysis and by the way, geopolitical analysis, the global economy, the trade, the tariffs, everything under the sun Ralph Nader has addressed so brilliantly all the way through to, of course, the horribleness that goes on in our local communities here in Southern California per ice and everything, and just the absolute destruction of people's rights here in the United States of America. And of course, an understanding of the Supreme Court, too. Just a whole series of brilliant interviews on all of these subjects. And again, the intelligence about the operation of power corporations, the macro economy and how it ties together with the political system and the rising oligarchy. The Silicon Valley interviews have been amazing, again, unrivaled in my opinion. Certainly nobody the subset of those that you've done with the understanding it provides for the 21st century. Ralph, Ralph, Ralph Nader is nobody's dinosaur, man. He is up to speed with the moment, just like as anybody could be. And, and by the way, he also has incredible just off the cuff wisdom that he provides every week, too. So look, we got to keep this show going so quickly. One final thought. In 30 seconds, why should people donate to the Ralph Nader radio hour at 818-985-5735? Steve Scrobin, people should donate to the.

[Steve Scrobin]

Ralph Nader Radio Hour to keep the lights on, to keep us going and to keep the truth coming straight at you.

[Alan Minsky]

8189-8557-3581-8985. KPFK donate now with Ralph Nader Radio Hour and KPFK Radio. Thank you so much.

[John Crumshow]

This is John Crumshow with a special Politics or Pedagogy education report, an analysis of education policy and practice that affects our public schools. On kpfk, you hear more than a sound bite. That's education. That's our mission. Please make Your contribution at 818-985-5735 or pledge [e-mail] I'm on the line with Medea Benjamin. She is a co founder of Code Pink and her latest book is called War in Ukraine. Welcome to Politics or Pedagogy.

[Alan Minsky]

Yes, John, thanks for having me on.

[John Crumshow]

Very good to talk with you because that.