Ralph Nader's Blog, page 22

A Public Request for Nick Hanauer to Swing into Action

By Ralph Nader June 3, 2022 Nick Hanauer NickHanauer.com Seattle, WA Dear Nick, Since our meeting at your office in the Fall of 2014, I have tried several times to reach you about a number of civic projects that seem to be right up your alley. As others have noted, it is near impossible to…

Is Corporate Criminal Law Heading for Extinction?

By Ralph Nader May 27, 2022 Crimes without criminals was not a subject for study when I was in law school. The two were seen as part of the same illegal package. That was before notorious corporate lawyers and a cash register Congress combined to separate economic, health and safety crimes from corporate accountability, incarceration…

Donald K. Ross (1943-2022) – Activist and Builder of Democratic Institutions Extraordinaire!

By Ralph Nader May 20, 2022 It was a marathon day of thirty-minute interviews in 1970. Little did I think we were selecting recent law school graduates who would become, over a lifetime, civic leaders of historical significance in producing major changes for a more just and safe society. Ten minutes into my interview with…

The New Corporate Dictators – Super-Rich & Super-Immune

By Ralph Nader May 13, 2022 Ever since the heads of East India Trading Company (1600) and Hudson Bay Company (1670), were incorporated by English Royal charters, there have been corporate dictators. Their range and actions, have varied widely however. Today’s new corporate dictators shatter past restraints. John D. Rockefeller ruled the Standard Oil Company…

“Public Justice” – Standing Forty Years Against Brutish Corporate Power

By Ralph Nader May 6, 2022 It is not often that one speech urging the creation of a national public interest law firm, driven by seasoned trial lawyers, would move from words to deeds, from oratory to action. That is just what happened following my address in June 1980 to the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association.…

Against the Trumpian GOP Onslaught – The Dems are Like Deer in the Headlights

By Ralph Nader April 29, 2022 There is something about entrenched bureaucracies that transcend nations and cultures. When bureaucracies are confronted with unanticipated or new challenges, they freeze – like a deer facing headlights. Sears, Roebuck and Company saw Walmart coming out of Arkansas for years and spreading all over the country, but the Sears…

Dishonoring Earth Day 2022 with An Oil, Gas, Coal & Nuclear Heyday

By Ralph Nader April 22, 2022 Instead of championing solar, wind and conservation energy, the GOP (Greedy Old Party) is championing the skyrocketing profits and prices for the omnicidal fossil fuel and atomic power companies. Surging gasoline prices at the pump are not met with excess profits taxes on profit-glutted Big Oil. Rather the GOP…

Consumer Protection Progress and Regress – From the Sixties to Now

By Ralph Nader April 15, 2022 I’m often asked whether consumers are better or worse off since the modern consumer movement took hold in the nineteen sixties. Let’s look at the record. Motor vehicles are much safer, less polluting, and more fuel efficient now, but not nearly what they should be. Today, consumers have warranty…

Corporate Media Ignores Senate Hearing on Corporate Greed and Inflation

By Ralph Nader April 8, 2022 It is exceedingly rare for a major congressional committee to hold hearings on “corporate greed” leading to corporate profiteering and surging prices on consumer goods. On April 5, 2022, Senate Budget Chairman, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chartered uncensored territory on corporate avarice with a lead witness, former Secretary of…

Bruce Fein: NY Times Letter to the Editor Re: “Madeleine Albright Warned Us, and She Was Right,” Opinion by Hillary Clinton, March 25, 2022)

March 28, 2022 Letters to the Editor The New York Times To the Editor: Hillary Clinton’s exaltation of the late Madeleine Albright neglects the warts and all necessary for a genuine portrait as Oliver Cromwell understood.  Was Ms. Clinton seeking to defend her sister misadventures,  miscalculations, and extraconstitutional stumbles? Ms. Albright sermonized against “moral numbness”…