Trump’s Attack on Science/ Year of the Co-op

Ralph welcomes Timothy Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to speak about how federal workers across all government agencies are being unfairly denigrated and summarily fired by the Trump Administration to clear the way for corporate corruption. Plus, we are joined by Toby Heaps, Editor-in-Chief of “Corporate Knights” magazine to talk about the benefits of the cooperative business model over the corporate shareholder model.

Timothy Whitehouse is executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Prior to joining PEER, he was a senior attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency and was head of the Law and Policy Program at the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal.

The time to stigmatize federal workers is over. It's time to start rallying for unions for federal workers and what they do, and to support the idea that government plays an important role and that government (the civil service) must be as non-political as possible. Our country will be much better for it.

Timothy Whitehouse

That's a good way to describe it: supersonic. We knew things were going to be really bad, but they are much worse than bad because there's no check and no balance on this President's madness. And some of the people and institutions we had hoped would stand up a little bit are collapsing one by one.

Timothy Whitehouse

Our foreign enemies could not have devised a better way to grind our system to a halt, and that's what's happening.

Timothy Whitehouse

Toby Heaps is the CEO and co-founder of Corporate Knights, and Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Knights magazine. He spearheaded the first global ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations in 2005, and in 2007 coined the term “clean capitalism.” Toby has been published in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Globe and Mail, and is a regular guest speaker on CBC.

I think in the co-op movement, the biggest bugaboo holding it back (in North America, that is) is people's perception that it's not a significant force. And it is already a significant force. In many cases, we're not familiar that the company might be a co-op (such as Associated Press or Ocean Spray) but in the United States alone, the turnover of co-op enterprises sales in 2023 was $324 billion US. And so, it's a significant part of the economy already.

Toby Heaps

I can't underline enough that if you care about a sustainable economy that works for people and planet, that the operating model is not just the clean economy (the environmentally friendly economy), it's the cooperatively-run economy.

Toby Heaps

The principal obstacle to co-ops is the inadequate engagement of consumers to know about the huge benefits— to control the local economy from multinational corporations (absentee), who are pulling strings in ways that are very damaging, and basically to assume the purchasing power of the consumer.

Ralph Nader

News 9/12/2025

* Several major stories surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case have emerged in the past week. First, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released a note written by President Trump to Epstein included in the latter’s “birthday book” from 2003. In this note, Trump refers to Epstein as his “pal” and writes “May every day be another wonderful secret," according to Reuters. Trump has denied that this letter even existed, going so far as to sue the Wall Street Journal for defamation over their reporting in July. Trump continues to deny that he wrote the letter, though his signature is a perfect match, and he has sought to tamp down the matter, calling it a “dead issue,” per NBC.

* In Congress, Republican allies of Donald Trump are seeking to quash the Epstein issue as well. On Tuesday, Republicans on the House Rules Committee “shot down a bid to put the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which would compel the Justice Department to release all unclassified records related to Jeffrey Epstein—to a floor vote,” in an 8–4 party-line vote, the New Republic reports. However, despite this setback, dissident Republican Thomas Massie continues to press the issue. Speaking about the birthday note, Massie said “It’s…indicative of the things that might come out if we were to release all of the files…embarrassing, but not indictable. And I don’t think avoiding embarrassment is a reason to avoid justice,” per CNN. Massie added in an interview on ABC that "I think it's going to be embarrassing to some of the billionaires, some of the donors who are politically connected to [Trump’s] campaign. There are probably intelligence ties to our CIA and maybe to other foreign intelligence." Democrat Ro Khanna insisted in this same interview that he and his allies, including Massie, will be able to pull together a House majority of 218 members to force a vote on releasing the files.

* Our final Epstein story for the week concerns James O’Keefe. Former leader of Project Veritas, O’Keefe continues to carry out far-right hidden-camera sting operations. In a rare move targeting conservatives, O’Keefe engineered a date between Joseph Schnitt, a deputy chief of staff at the Office of Enforcement Operations at DOJ, and an operative in his employ wherein Schnitt admitted that the Trump administration will “redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, [and] leave all the liberal, Democratic people.” In this video, Schnitt also implies that Epstein’s lieutenant, Ghislaine Maxwell was relocated to a lower security prison to “keep her mouth shut,” as part of a deal with the government. This according to the Hill. One should certainly take revelations from O’Keefe with a heavy dose of salt, but these troubling comments should also raise suspicions about the government’s possible plans to manipulate information related to this case for political ends.

* Aside from the Epstein affair, the Trump administration continues to issue destructive policy directives in all directions. AP reports the federal Department of Transportation has scrapped a Biden-era rule that required airlines to “compensate stranded passengers with cash, lodging and meals for flight cancellations or changes caused by a carrier.” This rule, which sought “compensation starting at $200…[and] as high as $775…for delays of nine hours or more,” was consistent with European aviation consumer protections. Unsurprisingly, airlines – represented by lobbyists in the employ of the industry trade group Airlines for America – bitterly resisted the rule and celebrated the administration’s abandonment of this basic consumer protection. The Biden Transportation Department had also been weighing rules that would have required airlines to provide, “free rebooking on the next available flight, including flights on rival airlines, as well as meals and lodging when passengers are stranded overnight.”

* At the same time, the Trump administration’s Federal Trade Commission is abandoning its rules banning noncompete clauses for employees. An eye-popping 1 in 5 workers are bound by noncompetes, approximately 30 million Americans, and experts estimated that banning such clauses could boost wages to the tune of nearly $300 billion per year and help create 8,500 new businesses, per NPR. The FTC voted 3-1 to vacate its defense of the rule, with Chair Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, both Republicans, issuing a joint statement. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the lone remaining Democrat on the commission after Trump purged the FTC earlier this year, voted no.

* Turning to foreign affairs, the Guardian reports two ships in the Gaza aid flotilla have been struck by drone attacks while docked in Tunisia. The first struck the Family Boat, which carries activist Greta Thunberg, though she was not on board at the time. The second struck the Alma, a ship bearing British flags while docked in the port of Sidi Bou Said. In a video, one can see, “a luminous object hitting the boat and fire erupting on board.” Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, is quoted saying, ‘‘Authoritative sources suggest the attack involved an incendiary grenade, wrapped in plastic materials soaked in fuel, which may have ignited before even hitting the vessel.” These attacks come amidst a renewed Israeli bombing campaign against its neighbors, including bombing the Qatari capital of Doha and the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Trump says he is “very unhappy” about the strikes; Israel’s ambassador to the United States however says the world will “get over it.” This from Al Jazeera.

* Meanwhile, Drop Site is out with yet another bombshell report, this time on Israel’s propaganda push to cover up the scale of the hunger crisis in Gaza. According to this report, the Netanyahu government signed a previously unreported $45 million deal with Google to push false propaganda through the massive platform. One video, viewed more than 6 million times, asserts “There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie.” Israel also reportedly paid $3 million for an ad campaign on X, formerly Twitter, and another $2 million on a French platform called Outbrain. This report also cites other examples of Israeli propaganda campaigns in recent years, including against UNRWA and regarding the illegal strikes in Iran.

* In more positive news, the pro-Palestine campaign in Hollywood continues to grow. This week, Variety reports a group of over 3,900 filmmakers, actors and other industry professionals signed a new pledge to boycott working with “Israeli film institutions and companies that are ‘implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.’” This group includes many household names, such as Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Jonathan Glazer, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Emma Stone, Boots Riley, Ayo Edebiri, and many, many more. The list continues to grow as this pledge circulates. According to the Hollywood Reporter, this campaign is led by Film Workers for Palestine, which explicitly modeled their strategy after Filmmakers United Against Apartheid. That group, founded by eminent filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, demanded that the film industry refuse distribution in apartheid South Africa.

* Beyond Israel/Palestine, events are rocking Nepal, the small Himalayan nation that lies between India and China. The BBC reports “Fierce protests against corruption and nepotism spiralled into arson and violence on Tuesday. The prime minister resigned as politicians' homes were vandalised, government buildings torched and parliament set ablaze. Twenty-nine people have died since Monday.” The "Gen Z" youth groups leading the protests have distanced themselves from these acts of destruction, claiming their movement was "hijacked" by "opportunists". Nepal’s military has been deployed in the capital of Kathmandu in an attempt to restore order and enforce a curfew. The government of Nepal, led by now-ousted Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, sought to cultivate a closer relationship with China to offset Nepal’s historical dependence on India. For the time being, China seems to be taking a wait and see approach to the situation in Nepal, with foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian calling for all parties to “properly handle domestic issues and restore social order and national stability as soon as possible,” per the South China Morning Post.

* Finally, Democracy Now! reports that in an apparent fit of retaliation, the Trump administration is now threatening to redeport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the American green card holder recently returned from his wrongful deportation to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. This time, instead of sending him to El Salvador, the government plans to send Garcia to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland. Garcia had previously expressed fear of being deported to Uganda. This move would surely be punitive, capricious and just plain bizarre, but that is hardly a deviation from the course of the Trump administration. We express solidarity with Garcia, who stands practically alone against the juggernaut of the United States’ deportation apparatus.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

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