Ralph Nader Radio Hour

In our continuing series honoring whistleblowers, Ralph welcomes winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage, Dr. George Luber, former head of the Centers for Disease Control’s Climate Health program, who despite pressure from the newly-minted Trump Administration, blew the whistle after refusing to cancel a convention on how the climate crisis was affecting public health. George Luber is an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His research interests include the health impacts of environmental change and biodiversity loss, harmful algal blooms, and the health effects of climate change.  Dr. Luber headed the CDC’s climate health program until it was eliminated in 2018 by the Trump White House. The nation’s premier health protection agency continues to retaliate against him for speaking out on the climate crisis and its public health effects. He has since filed for whistleblower status with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and has just received the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage. “The most frightening thing, actually, is that somebody would make a decision like this in anticipating the potential blowback from the [Trump] Administration. That to me is frightening, because it’s the most insidious form of power. And when you can get people to do things for you without even asking them, that I think is the most frightening thing. To get people to act on your behalf in ways that they normally wouldn’t merely out of fear of what you might do.” Dr. George Luber, winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage “I was escorted by armed guards when I needed to get some books out of my office [at the CDC]. I had an armed escort and they asked me to come at 11:00am – the height of the day when everybody is around intending to humiliate me – and marched me through our large ten story office building with a large armed guard behind me that even followed me to the bathroom.” Dr. George Luber, winner of the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 296 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Ralph welcomes Tom Mueller, author of “Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowers in an Age of Fraud,” where they discuss the heroic stories of the brave men and women, who at great personal cost, have called to account corruption across government and industry. Plus, Ralph answers your questions.   Tom Mueller is a free-lance writer of non-fiction and fiction, whose work has appeared the New Yorker, National Geographic, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and elsewhere. His first non-fiction book, Extra Virginity, is a New York Times best-selling account of olive oil culture, history, and crime. His latest is Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud. “Bill Binney had the awful irony of having created this structure to surveil foreign targets and winnow out at top speed potential terrorists and seeing his own work… being used against Americans. It was a thing he had sworn every day of his working life not to do… So, he backed away from the agency (NSA) when he felt they were fundamentally violating their mission. And what would Edward Snowden take away from this message? If you follow protocol and you surface your concerns about mass, warrantless surveillance through channels, what happens to you? Well, all he had to do is look at Bill Binney and Tom Drake and see that his only hope of getting the word out was to take another route.” Tom Mueller, author of Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud “If you look at what Donald Trump is today and his coterie of bandits that he’s put in charge of our government, you can see the price that is paid when you do not pay attention to recidivist white-collar criminality over a generation or more. You get Donald Trump… Donald Trump didn’t come from Mars. He is the logical extension of the corruptions we’ve allowed to creep into our political and social system.” Tom Mueller, author of Crisis of Conscience: Whistleblowing in an Age of Fraud RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 295 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Labor writer, Steven Greenhouse, joins Ralph to discuss his new book “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor.” Then Steve, David, and Ralph have a spirited discussion about how the 99% can wrest power from the 1%. Steven Greenhouse is an award-winning reporter who covered labor and workplace issues for nineteen years at The New York Times.  He has also served as a business and economics reporter and a diplomatic and foreign correspondent. His latest work is Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor. “I think one of the reasons Trump won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania is that workers were too misinformed, and they thought Trump was going to do wonders for them. And if unions did a better job communicating, educating, perhaps a weekly email newsletter about how Trump is hurting workers, how Trump has rolled back all these protections that Obama had provided, extending overtime to millions of more workers. Obama issued this very important rule that doesn’t get enough attention that required Wall Street firms to act in the best interests of workers in handling their 401Ks. And Trump, doing a huge favor for Wall Street and really stabbing workers in back, scrapped that rule. Now, it’s much easier for Wall Street firms to rip off workers.” Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past Present and Future of American Labor”   “In no other industrial nation do corporations fight so hard to beat back and, indeed, quash labor unions. And they threaten to close their plant if they unionize. They threaten to even cut benefits if workers unionize. In 34% of unionization drives – one study found – the companies fire the workers who are leading the unionization drive in order to cripple the unionization drive.” Steven Greenhouse, author of “Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past Present and Future of American Labor”     “Tens of millions of workers are making less today than workers were paid in 1968 adjusted for inflation, even though – because of automation etc. – you are twice as productive. One worker in Walmart produces as much as two workers in Walmart in 1968. You’re getting zero benefit. All the productivity gains are going to pay Walmart’s executives and top managers and not to you.” Ralph Nader RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 294 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

A member of “The Squad,” Rashida Tlaib, joins Ralph to talk about her aborted trip to the Occupied Territories, Israel and Palestine, poverty in Southern Michigan, and of course, impeachment. Plus, listener questions! Rashida Tlaib is currently the Congresswoman for Michigan’s 13th Congressional District, which includes the city of Detroit and many surrounding communities. Representative Tlaib is a well-known progressive warrior who made history in 2008 by becoming the first Muslim woman to ever serve in the Michigan Legislature. She is beloved by residents for the transformative constituent services she provides, and for successfully fighting the billionaires and corporations that tried to pollute her district. “We already know that corporations have tainted our democratic process on all levels of the government, not just on the federal level. For us, this (impeachment) is about our way of life… This won’t be the last crooked CEO that runs for President of the United States. So, it is really about putting our democracy first, putting our way of life first… If you really want to show your patriotism, this is the time to do it.” Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Michigan)   “No transformative change has truly happened because of something happening in the United States Congress or out of the White House. It always happens because of grassroots movement work outside of the halls, outside of the Oval Office.” Congresswoman Rashid Tlaib (D-Michigan) RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 293 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

With a Constitutional crisis afoot, we continue our discussion of impeachment with Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein. And, Ralph welcomes Middle East policy expert, Hassan El-Tayyab, to fill us in on what’s going on with the humanitarian tragedy that is the war in Yemen. Bruce Fein is a Constitutional scholar, who was Associate Deputy Attorney General under Ronald Reagan. Mr. Fein has been a visiting Fellow for Constitutional Studies at the Heritage Foundation and an adjunct scholar at American Enterprise Institute. He has advised numerous countries on constitutional reform, including South Africa, Hungary and Russia. He is author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, and American Empire: Before the Fall. “It’s not just the conservatives who are in my judgment derelict here. I think the entire political class now has conceded that we no longer have a Constitutional dispensation. Both parties, if their guy is in the White House, say ‘do whatever you want to do.’” Bruce Fein, attorney and Constitutional scholar Hassan El-Tayyab is the lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. Previously, he was co-director of the national advocacy group Just Foreign Policy, where he led their lobbying work to advance a more progressive foreign policy in the Middle East and Latin America. He played a major role in the successful passage of the War Powers Resolution to end US military aid to the Saudi-UAE coalition’s war in Yemen. “As far as what people can do: they need to reach out to their legislators. Their Rep and their two Senators need to hear from you. And let them know that you don’t want the U.S. to be participating in the Yemen War any longer.” Hassan El-Tayyab, lead lobbyist on Middle East policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation. RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 292 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Ralph talks to John Bonifaz, of The Impeachment Project, where he argues that the Ukraine scandal is just the last straw in a long line of Donald Trump’s impeachable offenses. And energy expert, David Freeman joins us to talk about the necessary steps the Climate Strike movement needs to take to realize their demands. John Bonifaz is a public interest lawyer and the Co-Founder and President of Free Speech For People, which in coalition with Credo Action has initiated The Impeachment Project. Mr. Bonifaz previously served as the Executive Director and then General Counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute and has been at the forefront of key voting rights battles in the country for more than two decades. In 2004, Mr. Bonifaz wrote the book Warrior-King: The Case For Impeaching George W. Bush. “We are in this urgent moment where Donald Trump almost on a daily basis attacks our Constitution, our democracy, and the rule of law. He’s a direct and serious threat to our republic and he needs to face impeachment proceedings now.” John Bonifaz, of the The Impeachment Project David Freeman is an engineer, an attorney, and an author, who has been called an “ecopioneer” for his environmentally conscious leadership of both the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. He is also a noted anti-nuclear activist and the author of a number of books on energy policy, including Winning Our Energy Independence and his latest All Electric America.  “The problem is fossil fuels. It’s 70% of the greenhouse gasses being emitted. And the answer is old-fashioned. We need to outlaw the goddamned stuff.”  David Freeman, former director of the Tennessee Valley Authority RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 291 TRANSCRIPT (RIGHT CLICK TO DOWNLOAD) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Ralph welcomes lawyer and advocate, Ugo Mattei, who tells us how he started a movement that successfully stopped Italy from privatizing its water supply. Plus, listener questions! Professor Ugo Mattei is Distinguished Professor of International and Comparative Law at University of California, Hastings and at the University of Turin, Italy. He is a widely published scholar in economic and political aspects of law and his work has been translated into many languages. He masterminded, as lawyer and an activist, the Italian campaign against the privatization of water, which was successfully completed in June 2011 with a national referendum endorsing Professor Mattei’s plan to recognize water as a common. He is the co-author with Laura Nader of Plunder: When the Rule of Law is Illegal, and also authored The Turning Point in Private Law. “People understand how important it is not to leave water in corporate hands. Giving water to corporations is putting ourselves literally and physically at the mercy of those monsters.” Ugo Mattei, lawyer and activist who masterminded the Italian campaign against the privatization of water “People today after ten years of neo-liberalism and social media are not able to understand physical struggles. The social media are against social movements. It’s complete rhetoric and narrative that social media are crucial for the success of these kinds of battles.” Ugo Mattei, lawyer and activist who masterminded the Italian campaign against the privatization of water RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 290 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Original Nader’s Raider, Robert Fellmeth, expands upon his open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, demanding that we should know who is talking to us on Facebook. Also, Executive Director of the Museum of Tort Law, Richard Newman, joins us to argue for an ordinary person’s right to have their day in court as he promotes Tort Law Day on October 5th. Robert Fellmeth has had a long and distinguished career as a public advocate. As a graduate student in the late sixties, he became the original Nader’s Raider, investigating the Federal Trade Commission. He then went on to work as an attorney in Ralph’s office, the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. In 1980, he founded The Center for Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego Law School and also founded the Children’s Advocacy Institute, an organization that specializes in reforming the child protection and foster care systems and improving outcomes for youth aging out of foster care.  “We need to know if that message popping up on a device eight inches from our faces is from a Russian bot or the Koch Brothers, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or our favorite pizza place.”   Robert Fellmeth in his open letter to Mark Zuckerberg  Richard Newman is the Executive Director of the American Museum of Tort Law. He is a consumer attorney who practices in Connecticut. He has served as the President of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association.  “Tort Law Day is an innovative new program, and we hope it will be a model for cities and communities all around the country. The idea is that tort law affects directly or indirectly everyone in this country, because of dangerous or defective products, unsafe conduct, malpractice, whatever it might be, people are at risk. And tort law is the mechanism that lets them defend themselves from wrongful injuries.”   Richard Newman, promoting the first annual Tort Law Day, October 5th 2019  RALPH NADER RADIO HOUR EP 289 TRANSCRIPT (Right click to download) Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Ralph spends the bulk of the hour with prominent FBI whistleblower, Mike German, whose new book is “Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy.”  Plus, Ralph answers listener questions! Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

Ralph welcomes the man who coined the term “net neutrality,” Tim Wu, who talks about how we need to break up concentrated power in Big Tech and other industries. Then, Mickey Huff, director of Project Censored, returns to talk about the state of the media as outlined in his new book “United States of Distraction.” Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe