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Ralph Nader Radio Hour

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Dec 10, 2022 • 1h 21min

Sports Betting/Trouble in Toyland

Ralph welcomes Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times investigative reporter, Eric Lipton, to give us the over/under on how professional sports in the U.S. is now part of a multibillion-dollar corporate gambling enterprise that can now even reach children. And before you buy toys for your loved ones this holiday season you need to hear our interview with Teresa Murray, director of U.S. PIRG’s Consumer Watchdog office, discussing their latest report on dangerous toys, entitled “Trouble in Toyland.”Eric Lipton is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and an investigative reporter for the New York Times. He traveled to Topeka, Kansas to report on lobbying and sports-betting legislation for the New York Times’ new series that examines how the sports-gambling industry has expanded in the US.The end goal for the sports betting industry is not sports betting. It’s actually something they call “iGaming”... They’re pushing states that have already adopted sports betting to move on now to iGaming. And we’ll see how successful they are, but already we have witnessed—just since 2018— the largest expansion of legalized gambling in United States history.Eric LiptonYeah, it’s true that many people bet on the side— college basketball or Super Bowl betting— that’s been around for so long. But with the institutionalization and the legalization now it’s become such a part of the enterprise of sports. It has fundamentally transformed the relationship we have with such an important part of our culture.Eric LiptonA major-league ballplayer is not going to strike out in a key game in order to collect some hidden gambling bets from their family or friends. But it’s terrible for appearances, and it’s fertile for suspicions— where you’re sitting there, watching, and you know that there are all kinds of endorsements and entanglements, and you say “Ah, he couldn’t have bungled that play! That was deliberate.” And so, there’s a stench that begins arising by people who suspect that this greed does penetrate the games. Ralph NaderTeresa Murray is a Consumer Watchdog with the US Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and she directs US PIRG's Consumer Watchdog office, which looks out for consumers' health, safety and financial security. She is the primary author of “Trouble In Toyland 2022”, the Consumer Watchdog’s annual toy safety report.We have an increasing number of smart toys. Which, on some levels, can be good— maybe it keeps the kid’s interest, maybe there’s an educational value… The problems are when these toys are invading our children’s privacy, collecting information about them, maybe without the parents’ knowledge. And then in some cases the information can be used to market to the child, which is wrong. Or spy on the child, which is creepy. Or in some cases perhaps even stalk the child.Teresa MurrayFamilies should realize and remember that just because a toy is for sale, it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily safe. It could be a recalled toy. It could be a counterfeit toy. Or it could be a toy that’s just not appropriate for your child.Teresa Murray Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Dec 3, 2022 • 1h 24min

Mike Pertschuk Tribute/Inspiring Tweens

Ralph invites longtime colleague, Joan Claybrook, to the program to help him pay tribute to the work of the legendary, Michael Pertschuk, an individual responsible for an enormous amount of landmark, lifesaving consumer legislation. Then Steve and David interview Claire Nader about her book “You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens.” Plus, Ralph once again warns against falling for Medicare (Dis)Advantage.Joan Claybrook is one of the public interest champions of the modern consumer movement. She is president emeritus of Public Citizen. During the Carter Administration, Ms. Claybrook headed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Ms. Claybrook has testified frequently before congressional committees on many public interest issues, but with a particular focus on auto and highway safety.There is not anyone in this country who has not benefitted from what [Michael Pertschuk] did.Ralph Nader[Michael Pertschuk’s] strategies were brilliant because he figured out how to get people to work with him, as opposed to against him… And he did that beautifully. He was a charming guy. Very sweet, very smart, and he didn’t act like a “tough insider,” but he worked with people.Joan ClaybrookI think that every staffer and every member of Congress ought to read [When the Senate Worked for Us: The Invisible Role of Staffers in Countering Corporate Lobbies], because it shows how you can achieve a legislative goal and get things to the finish line, as opposed to just having hearings, or introducing bills, or voting on someone else's bill.Joan ClaybrookClaire Nader is a political scientist and author recognized for her work on the impact of science on society. She is an advocate for numerous causes at the local, national and international level. As the first social scientist working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, she joined pioneering initiatives in energy conservation and the multifaceted connections between science, technology and public policy. Her latest book is You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens.[Tweens] will tell you what’s on their mind, and you can’t help but notice that they have no ax to grind. And you’re asking yourself, as an adult “What is my ax?” And what’s the difference if you don’t have an ax to grind? Then you really focus on the problem, not any self-interest.Claire Nader, author of You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of TweensAARP comes across in its own promotion as a great consumer advocate for elderly people. But it was commercialized years ago. It’s a nonprofit, and in 2021 it made over $800 million in profits by working with the UnitedHealthcare corporation, selling royalties off the use of its name and trademarks, etc, and it pays its CEO $1.3 million a year.Ralph NaderAll this is to warn listeners if you know elderly people that are being swarmed over with these deceptive brochures – tens of millions of people have been receiving them for several weeks – tell them not to go into Medicare Advantage. It’s a snare and a delusion. And it’s a cruel surprise when you’re really sick, and you need to get those bills paid.Ralph Nader Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Nov 27, 2022 • 1h 36min

Ukraine: Senseless Conflict

On this week of Thanksgiving, Ralph welcomes two distinguished anti-war activists and Nobel Peace Prize nominees, Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODE Pink to discuss her book “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict” and David Swanson of World Beyond War to not only put the conflict in Ukraine in context but also to reveal the financial incentives that drive endless war.Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. Her most recent book, coauthored with Nicolas J.S. Davies, is War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.I remember everybody was talking about the peace dividend: “Hey, the Soviet Union collapsed. Now, we can shrink the military budget. We can disarm more. We can put the money back into communities. We can rebuild and restore America’s public works— our so-called infrastructure.” We didn’t count on the profit motive of the determined, deliberate, limitless greed and power of the military industrial complex.Ralph NaderWe have a history of the US making coups in countries around the world. And it’s oftentimes decades after those coups that we find out the information about the extent of US involvement. That will be the case in [Ukraine] as well.Medea BenjaminWe are looking sector by sector about how to mobilize and put pressure on our Congress and directly on the White House. Because I think that it’s the only way that we, in this country, can use our influence. And we must do it.Medea BenjaminDavid Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, radio host and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. His books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War.When you see these videos contrasting “all the money going to Ukraine” and the homelessness problem and the poverty problem in the United States, we shouldn’t imagine this money as benefiting the people of Ukraine at the expense of benefiting the people of the United States. It’s exacerbating and prolonging a war that is devastating the people of Ukraine.David SwansonThey’ve made war something that involves no US lives— or very, very few, and not officially a US war—and they’ve made it all about assisting a “struggling little democracy” against a “brutal authoritarian dictatorship”. And it has been the most phenomenal propaganda success I can recall or have read about in history.David SwansonBruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law.  Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.NATO expansion only happened because the Senate ratified the inclusion of all of these new countries in amending the NATO treaty. So, Congress is a partner with the President in flouting the pledges to Gorbachev (at the time) against further NATO expansion east after the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Just another example of congressional dereliction.Bruce Fein Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Nov 19, 2022 • 1h 3min

Populism! The Good Kind.

Ralph welcomes back old friend and America’s Number One Populist, Jim Hightower to hash out a whole range of topics including what happened with Beto O’Rourke in the recent governor’s race in Texas, the battle between corporate Dems vs. progressive Dems and much, much more. Plus, Ralph warns again about falling for the relentless corporate pitch for Medicare (Dis)Advantage and gives us an update on the ongoing Boeing Max 8 litigation.Jim Hightower is a syndicated columnist, national radio commentator, and America’s Number One populist.  He has written many books including Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow. Mr. Hightower is a board member of Public Citizen. He is also a founding member of Our Revolution, an organization inspired by the issues brought up in the Bernie Sanders campaign. Along with that, he writes a monthly newsletter called the Hightower Lowdown.Shakespeare said “First, kill all the lawyers,” but I think first, kill all the consultants.Jim Hightower[To see what’s gone wrong], you’ve got to go back… to when the Democratic Party didn’t just abandon Texas, they abandoned grassroots politics. They went with the money.Jim HightowerIf you don’t show up, you’re not gonna win. And we’re not going to win just by going to cities and the inner suburbs. Yes, we have to be strongly active there. Yes, we have to be totally committed to women’s right to control their own bodies. All of that is a given. But you’ve got to have something in addition to that.Jim HightowerRepublican attorneys general, Republican congressional leaders when they’re in charge, they use power. And they use it to change the structure of the system… And we tend to fumble around with it and say we’ve got to be cautious, we don’t want to offend anybody, and we need to pursue the law carefully. That’s why we have to have grassroots movements that build power at a local level.Jim Hightower Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Nov 12, 2022 • 1h 20min

Midterm Postmortem

Ralph invites political psychologist Dr. Drew Westen back to the program to give his analysis of what happened in the midterm elections. What the Dems did right and what they still do wrong. And we also welcome back labor journalist, Steve Early, co-author of “Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs.”Dr. Drew Westen  is a clinical, personality, and political psychologist and neuroscientist, and Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University. Dr. Westen is the author of The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation and is the founder of Westen Strategies, a strategic messaging consulting firm. He has advised a range of candidates and organizations, from presidential and congressional campaigns to major progressive organizations to the House and Senate Democratic Caucuses.Normally, within the first couple of years of a president’s administration, he’s usually picking up from where the last president left things— which is usually with a bad economy. And voters blame the new president for it, and that’s why you see these historic midterm effects where the party in power usually gets killed. And this time, the Democrats didn’t get killed. Let’s give them that first.Dr. Drew WestenDemocrats have trouble figuring out that if you just speak honestly as a populist, you can win anywhere… Because people know when they’re getting screwed. And they know when somebody has their back. And they know when someone is speaking honestly to them. Dr. Drew WestenAll politicians—with very few exceptions— flatter the voters. When do we say, “It’s the voter’s responsibility”? That they have exerted a wave of masochistic voting against their own interest?Ralph NaderSteve Early is a lawyer, organizer, union representative, and labor journalist. He is the author of Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City, and co-author, with Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven, of Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs.One of the great things about the VA is that a third of the VA caregiving workforce is veterans themselves. So you have this unique culture of solidarity and empathy, connection between patients and providers. You don’t find that at Kaiser, or Sutter, or UnitedHealth, or any of the other big for-profit or nonprofit healthcare chains. So this is a real national treasure that needs to be defended.Steve Early, author of Our Veterans: Winners, Losers, Friends, and Enemies on the New Terrain of Veterans Affairs Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Nov 5, 2022 • 1h 39min

The Most Toxic Place in America

Counterpunch’s Joshua Frank joins Ralph to discuss his new book, “Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America” about the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State— the Cold War plutonium manufacturing facility that even after a $677 billion taxpayer clean-up bill still leaks radioactivity. And immigration lawyer extraordinaire, Susan Cohen, regales us about her experience representing asylum seekers and refugees as chronicled in her book “Journey From There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions.” Plus, Ralph makes one final pitch before the midterms for “Winning America.”Joshua Frank is an investigative journalist and the managing editor of the political magazine CounterPunch. He is also an author— his latest book is Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America.”Everyone would agree that any amount of money should be spent to clean this place up (Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State), but if it’s lining the pockets of private corporations and the job’s not getting done, then something’s wrong.Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in AmericaThat’s their answer (to radioactive waste)—tarps. They don’t have an answer. Because it’s a very technical, very laborious process. And, I would argue, takes more ingenuity in figuring out how to clean this up than it did to produce it in the first place.Joshua Frank, author of Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in AmericaSusan Cohen is an immigration attorney and founding Chair of Mintz Levin’s Immigration Practice. She is president of the board of the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project, and led a team working with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts to obtain a temporary restraining order on Trump’s 2017 Travel Ban. She is the author of Journeys From There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions.The fact that there are so many authoritarian regimes and corrupt regimes that we have had a hand in supporting over the years—where people can’t get justice when they’ve been egregiously harmed, or where the facts are evident and there’s not a question about what happened— is just another indication of the kinds of intolerable life situations that people face in these countries where they truly have to escape for their very lives.Susan Cohen, author of Journeys From There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and ContributionsThe stark choice on November 8th is between a fascist/autocratic party and one that supports a major social safety net for tens of millions of Americans and their children. For anybody who says, “What about third parties?” I say, “Go for it.” But you know what’s going to happen on November 8th— it’s either going to be the Republican or the Democratic candidates for the duopoly. And there's never been a bigger gap in domestic policy— they’re very similar on empire— than at the present time.Ralph Nader Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Oct 29, 2022 • 1h 8min

Chris Hedges/Mark Green

Ralph invites back award-winning war correspondent and author, Chris Hedges, to discuss his new book “The Greatest Evil is War” in which he points out that war is not only a racket but - no matter what its causes - a moral obscenity. And Mark Green joins us to elaborate on “Winning America” a compendium of rhetorical strategies and concrete policies Democrats should be running on to win the midterm elections. Plus, we plug Tort Law Education Day!Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He is the host of The Chris Hedges Report, and he is a prolific author— his latest book is The Greatest Evil Is War.Unchecked militarism is cancerous to a civilization. And it overreaches in the end. So, as it decays— as we have decayed — it engages in more forms of military adventurism in an attempt to reclaim a lost hegemony and a lost glory and a lost power.Chris Hedges, author of The Greatest Evil Is WarDemocratic administrations are wholly in lockstep with the Republicans on militarism. In some cases, even worse, because they provide more cover… So, we have to hold those who prosecute permanent war— Democrat or Republican— accountable. And I think that by surrendering to a Democratic administration in the idea that it's “the least worst,” we weaken our power and our credibility.Chris Hedges, author of The Greatest Evil Is WarBloodthirsty military action books sell far more than books that challenge the grizzly evil and crimes of war. It's books of aggression, violence, military prowess that gained the bestseller listRalph NaderMark Green is a former Nader’s Raider, who ran Public Citizen’s Congress Watch for ten years and was elected New York City’s first Public Advocate. He’s a prolific author, and has collaborated with Ralph Nader on Fake President: Decoding Trump’s Gaslighting, Corruption, and General B******t, and Wrecking America: How Trump's Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All. He is co-founder, with Ralph Nader of Winning America.To summarize, dangerous extremists are trying to steal our votes and our wallets. [Progressive candidates] have to get in both: “They’re destroying democracy,” and “That economically hurts our families.”Mark Green, co-founder of Winning AmericaTrump’s GOP— they want to be lawmakers to break the law, violate the Constitution and crush our democracy, and put the plutocrats in charge. Behind all these Trumpsters is the corporate state… turning the government against its own people.Ralph Nader Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Oct 22, 2022 • 1h 1min

How the Right Wing Captured the Supreme Court

Ralph and Rhode Island Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, dive into his new book “The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.” And Ralph takes the opportunity with the Senator to pitch his "Winning America" strategy for the Democrats to use in the midterms.  In addition, our resident constitutional expert, Bruce Fein, stops by to argue that so many of the books about Trump and other American presidents emphasize personality and ignore the constitutional implications of their decisions. Plus, Ralph urges listeners to sign up for Tort Law Day, Saturday October 29th to celebrate our constitutional right to have our day in court.Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate. He has served as his state’s United States Attorney and as the state Attorney General, as well as its top business regulator. He is the author of Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy, and the new book The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme Court.We just had a vote on [the DISCLOSE Act] in the Senate, and every single Republican voted against it. They voted— to a person—to protect dark money. Despite not only 80% of Republican voters feeling opposed and hostile to dark money and all this corporate influence, but really angrily opposed to it. These are people that come in with a very high sense of frustration and fury. It's a very salient and even emotional issue, and yet they all voted— to a person— against it.  Because, in my view, they've become as dependent on dark money as a deep-sea diver is on an air hose.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, author of The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme CourtImagine blaming Joe Biden for high gas prices when the fossil fuel industry actually sets the gas prices. If they actually let Joe Biden set gas prices when they were high, he could have knocked a dollar per gallon off like that. But of course, you can’t. We’ve got a market economy. But they blame him for it.Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, author of The Scheme: How the Right Wing Used Dark Money to Capture the Supreme CourtBruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar and an expert on international law.  Mr. Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan and he is the author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall.There's only one oath that all of our members of Congress and the President and the judiciary take— the one oath to hold and support the Constitution of the United States. They don't take an oath to support their political party. They don’t take an oath to get re-elected. They don't take an oath for any other purpose other than to uphold and defend the Constitution.Bruce FeinThe crux of our Republic is process— following process as prescribed in the Constitution, and if you lose, you go back and you make a better argument, or if you think the Constitution is defective, you propose an amendment…that is what makes us different from other countries. And this preoccupation with personalities is leading us off of a cliff very fast.Bruce FeinYour broader point, Bruce, is truly being occluded by people who engage in the public press and Congressional activities. Your broadest point is that we are living in an age of massive serial violations of our Constitution by our elected representatives, and of course, by implication, government officials who are working under these elected representatives in the branches of government. And this breeds a culture of lawlessness all the way down to the corporate crime wave to violations of consumers’ rights, workers’ rights, civil rights, civil liberties.Ralph Nader Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Oct 15, 2022 • 1h 9min

Consumer Rights Are Civil Rights

Ralph welcomes Marta Tellado, president and CEO of Consumer Reports and author of “Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace.” She and Ralph tackle many consumer related issues including how consumer rights are also civil rights. And previous guest Professor Michael Hudson rejoins us to forcefully rebut a listener comment about his view of the Federal Reserve, quantitative easing, and who runs the US Treasury. Plus, Ralph has some choice words about how we should be thinking about immigration.Marta Tellado is president and CEO of Consumer Reports, an independent nonprofit that works side-by-side with consumers to create a fair and just marketplace. She is the author of Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace.I believe that democratic freedoms can coexist and thrive with economic equity. And I wrote the book in part to tell a larger story about how our democracy can only thrive if we really have a marketplace that has opportunity that is fair and just across all populations. And so, it really is a way of engaging a broader audience in this idea that a fair marketplace is absolutely essential to a fair democracy. Economic freedom is a civil right.Marta Tellado, author of Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent MarketplaceWith each individual [consumer] action, we really talk about some of the big changes we need to see in the marketplace. Particularly now, with the domination, lack of competition, and the concentration of the power that we have. How do we, as a collective force, drive a marketplace that is safer by design? That is private by design? That doesn't put all the burden on consumers?Marta Tellado, author of Buyer Aware: Harnessing Our Consumer Power for a Safe, Fair, and Transparent Marketplace[On harnessing consumer spending] All this money that Apple and Amazon make— all the money they use to lobby, all the money they use to propagandize— it all starts with consumer dollars that are given to them in return for services.Ralph NaderMichael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street Financial Analyst, and Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire,  …and forgive them their debts – Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year, and Finance Capitalism and its Discontents.When you realize that the purpose of quantitative easing was to raise real estate and stock market prices, why would they do it, if not to rescue the banks? It didn’t make the economy healthier. It raised the cost of living. It added to the debt deflation… So, by re-inflating the financial markets, this created a whole new business for banks— lending credit.Michael Hudson Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe
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Oct 8, 2022 • 1h 6min

Who’s Raising The Kids?

Ralph does a deep dive into the commercialization of childhood with Dr. Susan Linn, psychologist, and author of “Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children.” Plus, Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, fills us in on their campaign to end the tenure of Louis DeJoy, the Trump-appointed Post Master, who is trying to dismantle the US Postal Service.Dr. Susan Linn is an author, psychologist, and award-winning ventriloquist. She was the Founding Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (now known as Fairplay), and she is a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children. Her latest book is Who’s Raising The Kids? Big Tech, Big Business and the Lives of Children.The combination of this incredibly compelling and sophisticated and seductive technology and unregulated capitalism is already terrible for children— and it’s going to get even more terrible. And one of the things that I think it’s important for people to remember is that commercialism, or advertising and marketing— which is what all these devices we love so much were basically made for— that it doesn’t just sell products. It sells values and behaviors. And the values of commercial culture— “me first”, materialism, image is more important than anything else—those values are so harmful to society.Dr. Susan LinnIt’s enraging — at a time when books are being banned, teachers and librarians are being silenced and can’t talk to kids about important things— that the tech companies are pretty much unregulated and can say basically anything they want to children.Dr. Susan LinnEvery major religion in the world, thousands of years ago, warned their adherents not to give too much power to the merchant class. Because the commercial motive is relentless and all-encompassing. It will destroy or co-opt other civic values that are far more important for society to sustain.Ralph NaderRobert Weissman is a staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on a wide variety of issues ranging from corporate accountability and government transparency, to trade and globalization, to economic and regulatory policy. As the President of Public Citizen, Weissman has spearheaded the effort to loosen the chokehold corporations and the wealthy have over our democracy.You can’t cut [the USPS] down to save it, you have to expand it and make it more robust. Its significance in American history and its future depends on it being a network that connects all of us and does so efficiently. So, the more you reduce it, the less chance it has to be relevant to the lives of Americans.Robert WeissmanSupport for the government and federal agencies is stronger than people realize, among the public. Most of the public supports most of what the federal government does— at least when they do it well. But support for the Postal Service is through the roof. And it’s in significant part, because it may be that a lot of the “elite opinion makers” themselves don’t personally rely on as much on the postal service and the post offices around the country as regular people do.Robert WeissmanDeJoy is playing the Republican game: You undermine public services as the reason to argue for corporatizing them.Ralph Nader Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

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