Ralph Nader's Blog, page 24

Facilitating Civic and Political Energies for the Common Good*

By Ralph Nader February 2, 2022 Some readers responded to one of my earlier columns urging the national progressive civic groups, with millions of members back home, to overcome the dominance of giant corporatism with a Ten-Year Plan budgeted at $1 billion a year (See, Think Big to Overcome Losing Big to Corporatism, January 7,…

Morton Mintz Turns 100 – Investigative Nemesis of Corporate Criminals

By Ralph Nader January 25, 2022 “Hi Mort,” began my calls to Morton Mintz who would invariably answer his phone promptly at the Washington Post. “I’ve got a story,” to which Mintz would respond warily: “Tell me about it.” And so it went for nearly twenty years with me and lots of other citizen advocates,…

Lost Opportunities in Joe Biden News Conference

By Ralph Nader January 21, 2022 President Joe Biden broke the record for the longest presidential press conference ever – going nearly two hours fielding question after question. He stood that long to prove his stamina and dispel bigoted charges of ageism. How did he do by his own standards? First, his opening remarks naturally…

Repudiating the Myths of Market Fundamentalism and the Corporate Coercions it Masks and Enables

There can be no free market when companies engage in monopolistic or anti-competitive activity and systems. There can be no free market when companies lie, cheat and steal, as a way of doing business (eg. the mortgage rackets and pay day loans) and systematically engage in deceptive advertising (eg. Pills That Don’t Work – Sidney…

Eight New Year’s Resolutions for NPR to Consider Now

By Ralph Nader January 14, 2022 The reasons Congress created NPR (National Public Radio) under the Nixon Administration was to fill the yawning gaps of commercial radio in local, national, and international news coverage and to give voice to the people, without ads. It was to be publicly funded by taxpayers. Almost 51 years later,…

Nader Calls on Attorney General Garland to Create Corporate Crime Database

January 12, 2022 The Honorable Merrick Garland Attorney General U.S. Department of Justice Robert F. Kennedy Building 950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Re: Corporate Crime Database and Annual Report Dear Attorney General Garland: The U.S. Department of Justice has been clear about the dangers posed by corporate crime. We were encouraged by Deputy…

Think Big to Overcome Losing Big to Corporatism

By Ralph Nader January 7, 2022 The progressive citizen groups, that in the sixties and seventies, drove through Congress the key environmental, worker, and consumer legislation, since unmatched, must feel nostalgic. Those were the years when legislation throwing cruel companies on the defensive was signed by arch-corporatist, President Richard Nixon, because he read the political…

Civic Champions of 2021

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the first major conference on whistleblowing, recognition is due to the Government Accountability Project (GAP), which for over 43 years has represented hundreds of whistleblowers from many occupational and professional workplaces. I hope others will join me in celebrating the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and its sterling…

What are Torts? They’re Everywhere!

By Ralph Nader December 29, 2021 What exposed the Tobacco industry’s carcinogenic cover-up? The lethal asbestos industry cover-up? The General Motors’ deadly ignition switch defect cover-up? The Catholic Church’s pedophile scandal? All kinds of toxic waste poisonings? Not the state legislatures of our country. Not Congress. Not the regulatory agencies of our federal or state…

Ralph Nader’s Holiday Season Top Reading Recommendations

By Ralph Nader December 22, 2021 The most important books exposing real injustices are often the least read. Nearly all of the hundreds of thousands of neighborhood book clubs insist on only reading and discussing works of fiction. They don’t want hard feelings over disagreements. Major book awards and prizes rarely select books addressing corporate…