Ralph Nader's Blog, page 40

OPEN LETTER TO THE WOMEN IN CONGRESS:

By Ralph Nader

February 24, 2020

Think of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Angelina Weld Grimké, Alice Paul and Jeannette Rankin. Recall their courage and leadership in comparison with the courage needed to request an investigation of President Trump’s treatment of women.

It does not take many conversations with women lawmakers and their staff on Capitol Hill to sense the deep indignation over the recidivist, serial sexual predator now inhabiting the White House as President. Since his selection by the Electoral College, Donald Trump has been embroiled in numerous tort lawsuits alleging sexual assaults with sworn testimony by aggrieved plaintiffs. He has called the charges by aggrieved women lies and showered his accusers with degrading fulminations. The credible accusations by many women, under oath, of Trump’s very brutish, violent rapacious assaults are overwhelming. As has been his practice in a bankrupt-ridden business career, Trump has thus far escaped being deposed under oath because of the well-honed dilatory tactics of his attorneys. (Unlike Bill Clinton who was deposed under oath in a tort case asserting sexual aggressions and then impeached by the House of Representatives for lying about sex).

Through his last three years as President, Trump has persisted with non-stop slanders of women, whether they are accusing him of sexual assault and battery – a felony in every state – or whether they displeased him by denouncing him for sexist behavior or other practices. On national television and before large rallies, Trump has called the chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, “low-IQ Maxine Waters” repeatedly. Never any remorse nor apologies. He just doubles down with his unprecedented intimidating misogyny in action.

Last year, Trump singled out two female members of Congress by urging the prime minister of Israel to deny these two women visas to exercise their oversight responsibilities regarding U.S. foreign policy in Israel and Palestine. In so doing, he violated the spirit if not the letter of the “speech or debate” clause of Article I, section 6, clause 1 of the Constitution. Trump has never selected any male members of Congress for such exclusions. He refuses to express regrets and promise never to repeat this violation of the critical separation of powers under our Constitution. He has denied the House Speaker appropriate military aircraft for hazardous foreign travel while exercising her official oversight responsibility. Trump always has had difficulties with strong women.

Democratic women lawmakers led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand forced the departure of Senator Al Franken and Representative John Conyers for past inappropriate sexual advances. It did not matter enough that these two Democrats were champions of women’s rights in the Congress. There was an absence of due process, particularly regarding Senator Franken’s request for an ethics proceeding that was pending before the Senate Ethics Committee, despite expressions of remorse. Both women and men in both Houses just said –“get out now” to both Democratic legislators. Senator Franken and Representative Conyers complied.

What of Republican Donald Trump? His blatant sexual transgressions, boasted over national television shows, were far, far greater in number and levels of felonious violence than the above legislators. Moreover, his rise to public notoriety that in turn gave rise to his plan for the White House was partly based on his outrageous outbursts on television shows, such as those on the Howard Stern show, and what went on about his treatment of women behind the scenes of Trump’s show The Apprentice.

As related by one of Trump’s sexual victims, Natasha Stoynoff, in the Washington Post op-ed page on November 7, 2019: “Two weeks ago, 43 new allegations of sexual misconduct by Trump surfaced in a new book, ‘All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator,’ by Barry Levine and Monique El-Faizy. My sisters and I were not surprised: we suspect there are even more out there.”

This book was given major coverage in the New York Times. A reporter there told me she was surprised at the mild response to the feature by the MeToo movement engaged in the protection of women from sexual assaults and harassments. This same citizen constituency created public awareness that led to some 200 powerful officials in the business, sports, entertainment and academic world being ousted. The book’s co-author, Barry Levine wrote that “Trump’s actions helped catalyze the #MeToo movement…”

Has Donald Trump – the bully and sexual predator – become too terrible to challenge, too much of a criminal sexual marauder gravely abusing his power and public trust, to justify impeachment and removal from office? Republican Trumpsters take note – Trump’s offenses are rooted in state statutory crimes. In addition, he criminally paid hush money to a porn star late in the election year of 2016, which is itself rooted in the violation of federal campaign finance laws having criminal penalties. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has denounced Trump, the kingpin of sexual predators in the White House. In December 2017, Gillibrand said:

“President Trump has committed assault, according to these women, and those are very credible allegations of misconduct and criminal activity, and he should be fully investigated and he should resign,” Gillibrand told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an exclusive interview.

“These allegations are credible; they are numerous,” said Gillibrand, a leading voice in Congress for combating sexual assault in the military. “I’ve heard these women’s testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.”

If he does not “immediately resign,” she said, Congress “should have appropriate investigations of his behavior and hold him accountable.”

Other members of Congress made similar demands at that time. Why no action since that declaration? Why the surrender?

Public hearings by the House of Representatives and the Senate, where the assaulted women testify under oath followed by a demand that Donald J. Trump appear before Congressional Committees to respond under oath are a critical component of the lawmakers’ belief that no one is above the law. These are clearly inquiries with legitimate legislative purpose to discover the extent of violations of the laws pursuant to the available probative evidence on the record and what laws need to be strengthened.

The women in Congress have the facts, the morality and the law squarely on their side. Moreover, a CNN national poll released on November 27, 2019 reported that 61 percent of women are ready to impeach and remove Donald Trump from his office.

On January 30, 2020, over two dozen women legislators in the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Jackie Speier, Representative Lois Frankel and Brenda J. Lawrence co-chairs of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, sent a letter to President Trump reprimanding him, with graphic detail, for his “continuing derogation of women in your rhetoric and policies.” It ended with the plea: “Mr. President, instead of being the biggest bully on the playground, why don’t you set a moral example for our children?” This unprecedented admonition received almost no media, much less a response. Letting Trump get away with a sharp verbal slap on the wrist does little to counter violent behavior against women for all too many men and boys to find acceptable.

Where is the call for Congressional hearings? If these accusations by scores of women, some made under oath, turn out to be either felonious crimes or tortious wrongful injuries, such offenses are impeachable or grounds for resignation. The public has a right to know the facts and the violations of pertinent applicable laws to this boastful unrepentant sexual sadist.

Our Founders cited serious abuses of power or violations of the public trust as a prime definition of the clause “high crimes and misdemeanors,” including by no less an advocate of a strong executive than Alexander Hamilton.

Imagine the horrible precedent for future presidents and wannabe presidential candidates that are being established by not moving to hold Donald Trump accountable to the rule of law. Having gotten away with racist/bigoted policies and incitements to violence, this serial fabricator cannot be allowed to escape accountability for these egregious, chronic offenses. As collateral harm, he is shredding further the moral fiber of our society among impressionable youths, as detailed this week in the Washington Post (See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/school-bullying-trump-words/).

By comparison, note how the lawmakers in Albany, New York reacted in March 2008, when the New York Times reported that Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer had paid a prostitute for her service at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. Legislators especially Democrats, told him if he did not resign immediately, he would be impeached. He resigned two days later with remorse. After ending a promising political career, he subsequently said: “I resigned my position as governor because I recognized that conduct was unworthy of an elected official,” and “again apologize for my actions.”

It is true that Spitzer’s conduct occurred while he was governor. Trump’s conduct, as far as is known, preceded his taking office but is civilly sub judice and still vulnerable to criminal prosecution. Moreover, his conduct in office is deeply misogynistic and offensively sexist, with regular, crudely phrased (“She’s not my type,”) denials, not under oath, of violent encounters described in great detail under oath or ready to do so, by his accusers. At the least, a Congressional investigation would discover more of the facts and move a long overdue process of accountability forward.

I write this letter from decades of indignation over the cruel, discriminatory treatment of half the human race by the dominant male culture and its laws. As a law student I started writing about these blatant repressions, including some states prohibiting women from serving on juries as late as the nineteen fifties. I challenged our law school Dean as to why only 15 women were admitted to our class of over 500. Later, I wrote articles and sponsored books on the corporate marketplace discrimination and exploitation of women as consumers, workers, patients, and debtors. I never would have envisioned, after years of successful advances of the rights of women by organized women that such continued inaction toward President Donald Trump would presently prevail in the powerful seats of the U.S. Congress.

This letter does not in any way exonerate male legislators and staff who mostly are willing to pass the responsibility for action to their female counterparts. I have been told and have seen women staffers with frustrated, reddened faces and moistened eyes when this issue of nothing being done is raised with them directly. Perhaps they think it is not for them to speak up before their principals do, but it may be necessary for them to take the first steps.

Speaking for the scores of Trump’s victims, Natasha Stoynoff asks on their behalf “But for us, the question remains. Will this, finally, be the time when enough people care?”

The clock of history is ticking, Congress.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Three Major News Stories That Need To Be Exposed

By Ralph Nader

February 21, 2020

The news is filled with stories about President Trump and his predecessors imposing sanctions on other countries, their officials, and other prominent persons. But the media rarely spells out exactly what these sanctions are, the intermediaries who enforce them, the impacts they have on innocent civilians – women, men and children – how they are countered or evaded, and whether they fulfill or undermine their diplomatic, military, or economic purposes.

For example, sanctions against Iran by Trump increase by the year. They force banks and other financial institutions to cut off all decreed transactions, such as exports from Iran or purchase by Iran of critical spare parts, raw materials, even medical devices. Years ago, sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein prohibited Iraq from purchasing chlorine to purify drinking water and children’s catheters. These sanctions produced deadly results for innocents. Iran’s economy is now in ruins and the brunt of the pain is suffered by innocent families. Under international law, disproportionate harm on civilians from sanctions is a serious violation.

Presently, from Trump there are sanctions on individuals in numerous countries, restricting their travel, their purchases and more. When banks like Citigroup and Bank of America are told by Washington to cut off any financial transactions from any companies doing business with a sanctioned country, do the banks receive payment for their trouble, or are there other quid pro quo rewards? We do not know. Secret government actions are pervasive, though sometimes a freedom of information request, followed by litigation, may pry open what is hidden.

Media alert! Sanctions are potential hotbeds for corruption and illegalities.

A little told story relates the tariffs Trump is imposing on imports from other countries, especially China. There are serious questions as to whether presidents have the constitutional authority or whether Congress must maintain authority on tariffs. Veteran constitutional law litigator Alan Morrison is now contesting sweeping executive tariff power in the federal courts. Reporting on this overreaching by the President is scarce.

Digging deeper, reporters should be asking what standards control presidential discretion or whims on imposing tariffs. The “national security flag” can’t just be waved arbitrarily.

Trump passes out many waivers for certain U.S. companies. Why, for example, did Trump give Apple CEO Tim Cook a waiver on tens of billions of dollars in iPhones imported from China, but not provide waivers to any number of smaller U.S. companies who buy products from China for their manufacturing or retail/wholesale sales?

Constitutional law specialist, Bruce Fein, says the absence of standards for giving waivers raises fundamental questions of unlawful delegation by Congress.

Media alert! Potential incentives for corruption and lawlessness in these burgeoning behind the scenes intrigues are huge.

The third hotbed of abuses relates to the charges by Washington that countries abroad tolerate “corruption,” and that security and economic relations with them are either jeopardized or unworkable. Such charges are regularly made against the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq – both militarily occupied by the U.S.

Corruption involves more than high-level officials taking bribes. Low-level public servants, so woefully underpaid, take money under the table to survive. As it happens, Ashraf Ghani, the elected president of Afghanistan, a former professor at Johns Hopkins University, was a leading expert on the nuances and functions of bribery in third-world countries. He can be a worthy source of knowledge on corruption.

U.S. agencies are a major generator of secret corruption in countries like Afghanistan. For example, cargo planes full of crisp one hundred dollar bills are shipped to Kabul and then trans-shipped to places like Kandahar. It doesn’t take much imagination to frame a reporter’s investigation—of what happens to cash in occupied, desperate societies.

Books and articles on the intelligence agencies note that cash handouts, big and small, are critical to achieve their purposes. There is so much bribery cash in Afghanistan that to stop the flow would seriously affect their shaky economy.

Bribery is a two way street – the briber and the bribee. Secret payments and bribes have often backfired against U.S. foreign policies in many undesirable ways.

Bribes to get what Washington and giant multinational corporations want from fragile countries merits more reporting, if only to show that a good deal of the bribery is under our control and within our power to reverse.

Media Alert!

“Democratic Socialism” – Bring it on Corporate Socialists!

Crooked Donald Trump, the erstwhile failed gambling czar and corporate welfare king, is assailing Bernie Sanders for his “radical socialism.” How ludicrous given Trump’s three-year giveaway of taxpayer assets and authorities to giant corporations – a perfect portrait of crony capitalism.

Others are joining the socialist labeling bandwagon, including corporatist right wing radio talk show blowhards, themselves freeloaders, profitably using the public airwaves. This pack includes Lloyd Blankfein, former lawbreaking chairman of Goldman Sachs.

Bernie knows, of course, how to rebut this distorted interpretation of “democratic socialism.” But will his rebuttals be enough given that the Biden-Bloomberg-Klobuchar wing of the Democratic Party is determined to label Bernie “unelectable” against the boastful Don the Con?

Some suggestions for Bernie and others to use in this upcoming back and forth on “democratic socialism” vs. “corporate socialism” of the super-rich corporations:

Go after the corporate socialists who have invited Wall Street and Big Business to socialize the means of government against the peoples’ necessities and freedoms. It is a government of, by, and for the dominant corporations. Such private power dominating our government in so many reported ways was called “fascism” in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a formal message to Congress. This is a fertile field for taking the offensive.
“Democratic socialism is a political force in countries like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, sometimes Canada, and others. In these places, it means all the people in those countries get their taxes returned in the form of improved livelihoods, economic security, and peace of mind. Democratic socialism means better pay, universal healthcare, pensions, day care, family sick leave, vacations, tuition-free higher education, robust public transit and parks, and many other amenities backed by stronger unions, denied the American people in the “land of the free and home of the brave.” Since World War II, the European political movements were led by “social democratic” parties.

Back to our country. Corporatists and right-wing Wall Street Democrats are inferring that “democratic socialism” is un-American, ruinous for our economy. These demonizers argue that a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” is a sure loser in the election against Donald Trump – a self-enriching crook, outlaw, boastful, savage sexual predator, bigot/racist in his policies, inciter of violence, and a serial, delusionary liar. Trump, the Electoral College-selected tool of the super-rich and corporate powers should be easy to defeat given his disgraceful presidency.

The American people of all backgrounds like their public libraries, public local control water works, municipal fire departments, police precincts, and public schools. They seem okay with government highways, bridges, public transit, and want their taxes spent to repair and upgrade these vital pieces of our infrastructure. Taxpayer’s don’t want our commonwealth being owned by tax-escaping, gouging corporations.

There are over 1,000 municipal public utilities providing electricity. The “Red” states of Tennessee and Alabama would fight any corporatization of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which 87 years ago, brought electricity to a large poor region that the private electric companies didn’t think was profitable enough.

The unfairly maligned Veterans Administration brought free hospitals and health care to millions of veterans. Millions of Americans are favorably disposed to life-saving Medicare and Medicaid and are economically saved by Social Security and unemployment compensation. Hey! There must be a lot of “democratic socialists” out there in “blue” and “red” states. New Hampshirites are mostly okay with state-owned, revenue-producing, hard-liquor retail stores.

At a meeting long ago with top medical officials at the Walter Reed Army hospital, I was told that after learning the second leading cause of hospitalization for U.S. soldiers in Vietnam was malaria, the U.S. Army asked the drug companies to develop remedies. The negative response was that developing medicines to deal with malaria wasn’t profitable enough. In response, the Pentagon brought together skilled doctors and scientists and started its own “drug company” inside Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals. For less than 10 percent of what the big drug companies say it costs, our government developed three out of four of the leading anti-malarial drugs in the world and made them available everywhere without any patents producing big pharma-like profits.

If the political and corporate Trumpsters and the Clintonite Democrats snort at all this, tell them that they do agree on one thing. Those in both these camps have been eager to have collapsing capitalism, as during the 2008 Wall Street dive, always saved by reliable socialism – aka – trillions of taxpayer dollars via Washington, D.C. funding the bailout of the reckless bankers and speculators.

The Vengeful, Lawless, Corporate Toady Trump Explodes

By Ralph Nader

February 7, 2020

The day after his acquittal by the Republican Party in a trial that banned witnesses, the unhinged Donald Trump gloated for over an hour on all the television networks. Trump flattered his courtiers, one by one, and fulminated against his Congressional adversaries, Hillary Clinton and ex-FBI chief James Comey.

Donald Trump’s speech degraded his office for the ages. Trump lied about himself and others and received applause from the assembled sycophants. The morning of his speech, Trump attended a prayer breakfast. Trump never goes to church to atone for his habitual, career-long violations of seven of the Ten Commandments. His hypocrisy has no bounds.

Tightening his dictatorial grip on the U.S. government,  Trump pledged to destroy his opponents— from Nancy Pelosi to Adam Schiff to the “radical, socialist Democrats.” These shameful threats cannot be taken lightly. Never forget Trump saying “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President.”

The egomaniacal Trump is inebriated with his disgraceful acquittal, convinced of his own innocence, despite the clear evidence of his guilt. No apologies, no remorse, since he never does “anything wrong.” Trump’s petulant actions could make him an object of abject pity were he not in a position to start wars, shred the Constitution, repeal life-saving regulations, and turn the U.S. government over to avaricious giant corporations.

In politics, the tactical question between the contestants is who is on the offensive and who is on the defensive. Trump knows this in his gut. How do the Democrats regroup? Nancy Pelosi did not send a broad array of impeachable offenses to the Senate – some with clear ‘kitchen table’ appeal. Sending just the articles dealing with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress stemming from the Ukraine extortion assured a Republican kangaroo court acquittal. Early polls don’t indicate the imperfect trial diminishing his public support. What Democrats have going for them is the certainty that Trump will continue to commit daily impeachable offenses, including defying Congressional subpoenas. Despite these daily offenses, Trump continues to mock the Democrats. He is practically begging them to pursue a second round of impeachment charges. They should do so just to defend the critical checks and balances required by the Constitution.

Trump’s actions are a departure from those of Bill Clinton. After his Senate acquittal, Clinton spoke for only two minutes on television and he used his time to express regret and apologize. Trump exploded with rage, vindictiveness, and plans for revenge. His unseemly outburst at the annual National Prayer Breakfast smashed all precedent.

After acquittal, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote: “He described his political opponents as ‘bad,’ ‘dirty,’ ‘horrible,’ ‘evil,’ ‘sick,’ ‘corrupt,’ ‘scum,’ ‘leakers,’ ‘liars,’ ‘vicious,’ ‘mean,’ ‘lowlife,’ ‘non-people,’ ‘stone-cold crazy,’ and ‘The crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I’ve ever seen.’” Mostly, the exact description of the person he sees in the mirror. Conservative columnist Michael Gerson warned further: “…we are reaching a very dangerous moment in our national life. The president is seized by rage and resentment…for all to see and hear. He now feels unchecked and uncheckable. And he has a position of tremendous power. That is what happens when a sociopath gets away with something.”

Another columnist, Catherine Rampell, lists past vengeful uses of his power to twist procurement contracts and antitrust enforcement decision against his enemies. She calls it “weaponizing the presidency.”

For example, Trump doesn’t like CNN so he ordered the Justice Department to challenge the AT&T merger with Time Warner in court (unsuccessfully).

The White House has refused to give Congress documents that could reveal whether Trump intervened for personal political advantage. Congress is the only institution that has the authority given to it by the Founders to thwart a fast-emerging monarch.

Defying Congressional subpoenas is a slam dunk impeachable offense.  No resort to the courts is required. Congress has plenary power to enforce its subpoenas. When Trump ignores Congress’s constitutional authority, all other powers of Congress are debilitated. These include the powers to spend, tax, declare war, confirm nominees and, of course, to check a runaway executive branch under a dictatorial, seriously unstable, chronically lying President.

Under “Moscow Mitch” McConnell, the Senate has been shut down. The only time the Senate takes any action is when it acts like Trump’s lapdog. Senator McConnell is sitting on over 300 bills passed by the House, including legislation that would protect our elections from foreign interference. (For more information see, https://ditchmitchfund.com/).

That leaves the House of Representatives, which Trump promises to punish. What Speaker Nancy Pelosi must now do is to assemble her more than willing Committee Chairs and collect all the existing disregarded House subpoenas and continue their existing investigations which, stonewalled by Trump, will require more subpoenas.

Before he resigned, Nixon was about to be impeached, in part, for defying one subpoena. Trump’s holds the presidential record tearing up subpoenas for witnesses and documents.

He has raised the stakes as to whether the Congress as the central institution of our government will survive his executive branch shredding of the Constitution.

Given what they said, wrote, and placed into the Constitution, the number one concern of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, was to prevent another King George III – a monarch in practice if not in name. They implemented this priority by placing the most powerful authorities by far in the Congress.

Trump is daring the House of Representatives to challenge his outlawry and abdicate the constitutional obligation to impose “checks and balances” on the Executive branch. An article of impeachment regarding mass subpoena defiance needs no witnesses, is clear-cut, and can be approved in less than a day and sent to the Senate. Then the people can see whether McConnell will say that the people need volumes of information about Trump corruptly destroying their health, safety and economic protections and turning our government over to Wall Street.

Kitchen table issues are everywhere behind those subpoenas by ongoing House Committee investigations. The spreading “Ditch Mitch” movement in Kentucky will be watching Senator McConnell.

Misleading Categories and Trump’s Swamps

By Ralph Nader

January 31, 2020

It is remarkable how the Democratic Presidential candidates allow themselves to be pigeon-holed by the media as “moderate,” “centrist,” “extreme,” “left-wing,” and other abstract fact-deprived nomenclature.

It is also astonishing that the Democratic operatives have made something called “electability” a yardstick for deciding who to vote for in the primaries. This is particularly ironic considering the winner of the primary will be running against “crooked” self-enriching Donald and his brazen wrecking crew. Remember, Donald Trump was once considered unelectable.

Let’s start with the labels. Why are overdue and overwhelmingly popular proposals put forward by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren labeled “extreme?” What is extreme is the greed and power of the plutocrats and Wall Street, not advocates cracking down on corporate crime and ending corporate welfare. There is nothing extreme about supporting a living wage, universal health insurance, or big infrastructure investments funded by reforming the tax system.

There is nothing radical about preventing the super-rich and giant corporations from using tax havens and other tax escapes. The proposals to close the tax loopholes and properly enforce the tax laws would collect trillions of dollars over a decade and fund necessary government spending for the benefit of the American people.

Look at the Warren and Sanders proposals and see how they poll. Almost all have majority or overwhelming left/right support. What’s so radical about tuition-free higher education? From New York’s CCNY to University of California, after World War II, there was virtually no tuition. The same is true for many western European countries to this day.

What’s so “radical” about de-bloating the vast waste and redundancy of the military budget that now takes over half of the operating federal budget? Or opposing endless criminal wars of aggression like destroying Iraq?

On the other hand, what is so “moderate” about not taking these positions, or taking campaign money from fat cats and super-PACs or maintaining military contractor’s mega waste and crony capitalist handouts?

Why does Joe Biden’s history of coddling banks and credit card companies rather than protecting consumers make him a “moderate” or “centrist?” It is time to poll those retrograde, corporatist positions. What about Biden’s support of the Iraq war and other costly, brutal adventures of Empire? What about Biden’s defense of the “Delaware” corporation laws that rig the power of corporate bosses against shareholders, whether they be individual, pension, or mutual funds?

As to the issue of “electability,” that is just another name for the self-compromised Democratic Party’s defeatism and cowardliness. How can Democrats question someone’s “electability” when the opponent is the hateful lawbreaker Donald Trump?

Who wouldn’t be as electable as a Democratic presidential nominee this year? The Democrats have the money and even now the advantage in the polls.

How hard should it be up against Trump’s record of abuses, any one of which would have disqualified a person from even running for President a few years ago?

Shouldn’t it be easy to run against a brazen, serial sexual predator, whose lawyers are keeping him from being deposed under oath in numerous tort law suits by his victims? This is a time when powerful corporate chieftains, legislators, and other influential people have been forced immediately out of their jobs once exposed for doing a fraction of what the “sexual predator in chief” has done. A late November 2019 CNN poll had 61% of women wanting Trump both impeached and removed from office.

Shouldn’t it be easy to run against Trump’s actions reflecting his bigotry, racism, and daily stream of lies and fabrications about situations that matter? Shouldn’t Trump be held accountable for open incitement to violence, should he be convicted of flouting the Constitution and the rule of law?

What about Trump’s deadly undermining of life-saving government agencies? Trump and his cronies shredded health and safety laws that kept poisons from the air, water, and food. American families don’t want to breathe dirtier air and drink dirtier water. Trump is making America dread again.

What about the paltry, frozen federal minimum wage, stuck at $7.25 per hour? Workers make a pittance while Trump enriches himself and his cronies through tax cuts for the super-rich that he championed. Don’t forget the money the Trump family has made from its own hotels attracting courtiers for favors. Recall that in 2016, Trump said that American workers were overpaid. Under Trump, manufacturing jobs have declined and his regime’s attacks on worker rights have increased.

Both conservative and liberal voters get ripped off alike and bleed alike when Trump takes federal sheriffs off the corporate crime, fraud, and abuse beats. How hard is it to make a big issue of Trump’s abandoning ‘law and order’ when it comes to the corporate crime wave and letting the big boys get away with so much that seems very unfair to voters.

Most voters do not want a megalomaniac who courts foreign dictators and offends allies. Last year, Trump pontificated: “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President.” The American Revolution rejected King George III and his “King can do no wrong” doctrine. The conservative Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) ought to be worried about that Trumpian power grab.

Trump should be the most defeatable president in history. He is openly destroying the moral fiber of our society. In his business and political career Trump has regularly violated seven out of the Ten Commandments. Evangelicals take note!

Trump has continued the endless, illegal, brutal wars in several countries – wars that he pledged to end. He defies all Congressional subpoenas for witnesses and documents from committees that are investigating corruption, including his administration’s regulatory responsibilities to America. His actions are harmful to all Americans and threaten the health insurance of over 20 million people. As documented in earlier columns, a billion dollars of taxpayer and consumer health care dollars are being stolen every day. Trump does nothing to stop this commercial robbery. He doesn’t even give a “tweet” about this pillage.

Unfortunately, the entrenched corporate Democrats in Washington are just using the “electability” excuse to block the rising progressive presidential candidates who intend to upset the plutocratic applecarts and cushy fat-cat sinecures. The leadership of establishment Democrats has led to the loss of too many national and state elections to the worst Republican Party in the GOP’s history. It is time for these Democrats to shape up or ship out.

Pelosi’s Choice: Enough for Trump’s Impeachment but not going All Out for Removal

By Ralph Nader

January 23, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has her reasons for limiting her impeachment articles to offenses stemming from the abuses and violations related to Ukraine. Unfortunately, she declined to pursue a broader impeachment approach that recognizes multiple provable, serious violations of the Constitution. Speaker Pelosi overruled Chairs of Committees, including the Judiciary Committee, and other senior lawmakers who wanted to forward to the Senate a broader array of impeachable offenses.

Having lost four of the last five House elections to the worst Republican Party in history, Speaker Pelosi remains cautious. She is overly worried about the conservative Democrats who won congressional seats in 2018 in Republican, pro-Trump districts. Endangering their seats might, Pelosi fears, lead to the loss of the House in 2020 and, more immediately, risk not having the votes in the House to pass additional impeachable offenses.

Other knowledgeable House members think she is too reticent and guarded. They think Trump has huge downsides. It is no secret that Pelosi has called Trump “a crook, a thief, a liar,” and that “he should be in prison”— just for starters.

In addition, there is her well-known general distaste for the impeachment power, because she believes it divides the country. In 2007, Pelosi took off the table impeachment of the war criminals George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Regardless of her feelings on impeachment, Trump has been a belligerent, monarchical President with a history of constitutional violations and inciting violence. To our Republic’s founders, Trump’s dictatorial, flagrant behavior would only strengthen the necessity of impeachment and conviction.

Speaker Pelosi also believes turbulence of further impeachment proceedings in the House would spill over into the presidential primary elections, embroiling the Democratic candidates and distracting them from their chosen agendas and campaigns. The Speaker is very attentive to the polls, telling people that the Democrats went against Nixon when the polls were 60% against him – A CNN poll recently found that 51% of respondents want Trump removed from office. By contrast, in 1998 the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton with only 24% support in the polls.

Unfortunately for the country, the House sending the Senate narrow charges instead of ‘throwing the book’ at Trump assures, barring some “black swan” event, that the ditto-headed Republican Senators under “Moscow Mitch” McConnell will vote to acquit him. This is likely even if witnesses are called to make an airtight case even stronger. Trump has cleverly tethered the political future of the GOP to his re-election telling anyone straying to be ready for massive public intimidation.

Trump is lucky  that he avoided being charged both with “bribery” and across the board defiance of Congressional subpoenas of witnesses and documents by other House Committees. Donald will gloat that those two additional articles, which are Nancy’s publicly expressed beliefs, were not presented and passed because they’re all “lies, fake,” and that he didn’t do “anything wrong.” Before large crowds of Trumpsters he will say the same about other serious, continuing impeachable offenses that are stripping Congress of its major, exclusive authorities under the Constitution.   See the  statement submitted by me and constitutional law experts Bruce Fein and Louis Fisher in the Congressional Record (December 18, 2019, page H 12197).

You can’t get more basic, lawless behavior than an imperial president who flouts the Congressional “power of the purse” by spending money not authorized by Congress and threatening and making war as if he is a King. Trump is defiantly and corruptly refusing to faithfully execute the laws, and is abusing “the public trust.” As Alexander Hamilton said, this is the very definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Trump is violating criminal statutes such as the Antideficiency Act, the campaign finance laws, and the anti-snooping law requiring judicial approvals.

By sending earlier a broad array of impeachable offenses to the Senate, including articles of impeachment that address Trump’s corrupt repeal of health, safety, and consumer protections of the American people, Pelosi could give the public a stake in impeachment.   A broader number of articles or counts of impeachment would also give citizens an informed sense of what Trump has done to harm people and would increase public support for impeachment. Important constituencies—women, patients, workers, minorities, environmental advocates, and protectors of defenseless children will understand why impeachment affects them directly. Despite the importance of the Ukraine extortion/bribery scandal, most people do not perceive themselves as having a personal stake there.

Speaker Pelosi missed known opportunities to throw the Republicans on the defensive in the Senate and tie them up in knots. Let Mitch McConnell’s gang try to defend, before tens of millions of television viewers, the crooked serial sexual predator, bigot/racist, chronic liar, and inciter of lawlessness. The raging, foul-mouthed, egomaniacal outlaw in the White House will only make it harder for the Republicans with his daily torrent of terrorizing tweets.

It looks like, as has been the case from his long, bankrupt-ridden business career to the Presidency, Donald Trump will again escape the rule of law.

Nancy Pelosi did just the minimum to impeach Trump in the House, but nowhere near enough for enlarging the public demand to remove him from office by the Senate. Maybe that was the limit of her expectation from the get go.

Surely, Speaker Pelosi at least wants to diminish Trump’s gloating that additional articles of impeachment were not presented to the Senate because these charges against him were “fake and lies.” There is still time for Pelosi to instruct her colleagues to immediately publicize the other ways Trump has shattered our Constitution and warn him that a second round of impeachments could be around the corner. For certain, Trump, showing no remorse or apologies, will continue to commit more constitutional outlawry to fuel a second coming of overdue Constitutional justice.

After all, he operates daily under his own self-impeachable declaration that, “I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as President.”

An Open Letter to Donald Re: “Quickly Spreading Virus Raises Fears Across China,” Washington Post, 1/21/2020

January 22, 2020

President Donald J. Trump

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington D.C. 20500

Dear President Trump:

This is a short letter with a serious message about national security and safety.

It has now been established that the Coronavirus spreading in China can be communicated from human to human. That includes you and everyone else. Already the first case has been diagnosed in Washington State. The patient had just returned from the city of Wuhan where the afflictions originated. China is in a near panic trying to curtail the spread of this lethal virus during a period of massive movements of people in China on the occasion of the Spring Festival holiday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta is tasked with detecting, alerting, containing and preventing deadly pandemics worldwide. You know about the CDC because in your first budget you wanted to cut its $7.2 billion budget by $1.2 billion. Before, that is, cooler heads prevailed. Cooler heads failed to persuade you not to give an additional $80 billion to the military budget and its large wasteful contractors that year.

The CDC needs more resources, more scientists, more training programs, and more field personnel in key areas of the world to do its life-saving job.

So stop the golf games, drop your “fake news” fulminations and GET TO WORK. Bear in mind, all your techniques of intimidations, and your guided missiles and armed drones, don’t faze deadly viruses and bacteria at all. You are a well-known germophobe. Act like one! NOW!

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

PO Box 19312

Washington, D.C. 20036

Trump: Making America Dread Again!

January 14, 2019

President Donald Trump

White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Trump:

The disabling and dismantling of the federal health and safety agencies under your cruel command has been leaving a trail of American fatalities, injuries, and property destruction without precedent even among past Republican Administrations. Your criminal negligence toward federal agencies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is an impeachable offense. You are obsessed with corporate profits, obeisant to the corporate CEOs funding your campaigns. You deliberately selected corrupt henchmen to run these lifesaving agencies into the ground, under the guise of “deregulation.”

Constitutional law scholars declare that refusing to “faithfully execute laws” was seen by our Founders to be a major impeachable violation, sufficient for removal from office by the Senate. Your failure to appoint capable leaders, for required Senate confirmation, to head life-saving federal agencies is abhorrent and violates the appointments clause of the Constitution, Article II: Section 2, Clause 2.

Nonetheless, the media has not caught up with the full scope of your lawless commercial drive to “Make America Dread Again.”

Consider a recent address at Used Car Week 2019 in Las Vegas last November by Jerry Cox, a consultant to many businesses in trouble. Here is an excerpt from his remarks, elaborated in greater details in his forthcoming book, Killer Airbags:

Your government will do almost anything to protect the industry and nothing to protect you. At the start of 2020 – the final year of the first Trump Administration – NHTSA still had no Administrator. Instead, President Trump installed Takata’s lawyer [Steven Bradbury] as general counsel of the Transportation Department in 2017 and as Acting Deputy Secretary in 2019. Unbelievably, the guy who negotiated the sweetheart deals that allowed Takata executives to keep selling defective airbags and avoid criminal prosecution was put in charge of every government employee responsible for enforcing auto safety laws.

Shame and guilt on you, Donald Trump! You were willing to start an undeclared war with Iran last week, had their missile attack taken one American soldier’s life, but when American lives are threatened by crony capitalism, you do nothing. It is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s duty to save American lives on the highways from vehicle design and construction defects, yet under you the agency becomes even more toothless. You are leaving tens of millions of American motorists defenseless. Some will lose their lives if more Takata airbags disintegrate and hurl lethal shrapnel into their bodies. American drivers and passengers must receive protection by your Administration.

Will you stop your time-wasting 24/7 tweeting, and your prevaricatory assaults on the truth and reputations of innocent Americans? Will you pay attention to the Takata horrors and name a safety advocate to reinvigorate the enfeebled NHTSA?  Will you start doing your job?

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Full Impeachments for Trump will Shake Senate Republicans from Kangaroo Court

January 9, 2020

By Ralph Nader

Many Americans have forecasted that the outlaw Donald Trump will commit even more illegal acts to increasing his support in the 2020 presidential year. Remember Wag the Dog, a film about using a fabricated war to draw attention away from presidential misdeeds. Those Americans have been proven right by Donald Trump’s attempt to provoke an unlawful war with Iran. Likewise, Trump has illegally ordered his staff or ex-staff to ignore Congressional subpoenas to testify and provide documents.

As the most impeachable president in American history, Trump continues to shred our Constitution and its critical separation of powers. Trump has repeatedly, brazenly seized Congressional authority in an attempt to turn the presidency into a monarchy.  Trump once went so far as to say, “I am the chosen one.”

Unlike Nixon, who slinked away because of the Watergate scandal, every day Trump is providing more evidence to the Congress about his impeachability. He never stops. He never expresses remorse or apologizes for violating the Constitution or federal criminal statutes, such as the Antideficiency Act. Likewise, Trump has shown no respect for international treaties to which the U.S. is a solemn signatory.

Trump’s mantra of usurpation is clear. He declared that because of Article II of the Constitution, “I have the right to do whatever I want as President.” Trump seems to have neglected Article I, which gives Congress the exclusive authority to declare war, to appropriate funds, and to conduct investigations of the Executive branch with the plenary authority, i.e. issue and enforce subpoenas. Congress is the primary branch of government, not a co-equal branch.

Trump has refused to turn over his tax returns, unlike previous presidents who released them every year. Trump has much to hide in terms of entanglements with foreign entities. He is a walking violation of the Emoluments Clause (Article I, section 9, paragraph 8), which prohibits any president from profiting from foreign interests. Trump profits when foreign dignitaries patronize his hotels and other properties.

The Constitution requires Trump to faithfully execute the law. Instead he is destroying health, safety, workplace, and environmental laws through his corrupt henchman. The Trump regime is dismantling congressionally mandated federal agency law enforcement programs and, in so doing, is removing lifesaving protections. At the same time, Trump is corruptly raising money from the corporate interests that want to dismantle these agencies, from Wall Street to Houston’s oil barons.

The most morally distinguishing impeachable offenses come under the heading of what Alexander Hamilton called “abuse of the public trust.”

Consider these abuses of the public trust:

Trump’s chronic, obsessive, pathological lying and falsifications (he has made over 15,000 false or misleading claims since January 21, 2017);
Trump’s history of being a serial sexual predator working to delay numerous court cases and escape demands for depositions under oath by many victims;
Trump’s endless racism and bigotry in words and deeds. Since becoming president, Trump has backed voter suppression aimed at minorities; and
Trump’s incitement of violence on more than one occasion.

Trump should be impeached and convicted. If the supine Republican-controlled Senate fails to convict Trump, the voters should landslide him in November.

It is almost as if Trump looks to setting records in how many parts of the Constitution he can violate. He interceded with the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent two members of Congress visas to Israel. Trump’s actions prevented these members of Congress from exercising their oversight responsibilities under the Speech and Debate Clause (Article I, section 6, clause 1). No president has ever dared such an intervention.

For the elaboration of twelve impeachable counts under one major Article, see the letter by me, constitutional law experts Bruce Fein, and Louis Fisher in the Congressional Record (December 18, 2019, page H 12197).

Speaker Pelosi must add some of these impeachable offenses, backed by constitutional law specialists, or Trump will trumpet that though she had the votes to do so, she didn’t because they are “fake, lies.” Exonerating him will prove to be a devastating precedent for future presidents behaving similarly, as the standards for presidential behavior keep dropping lower and lower into lawless immunity and impunity.

Conservative Fox News commentator, constitutional law scholar, and former Judge Andrew Napolitano has said if he were the Democrats, he would reopen the impeachment case “on the basis of new evidence. That would justify holding onto the articles of impeachment [from the Senate] the articles of impeachment [abuse of power and contempt of Congress] because there’s new evidence and perhaps new articles.”

Pelosi can strengthen her hand constitutionally by enlarging the impeachment case against Trump. This move would give millions of Americans a stake in impeachment because it would directly relate to protections and services they lost because of lawless Trump.  In addition, more articles of impeachment would make the Senate Republicans led by “Moscow Mitch” McConnell far less able to hold a hasty kangaroo court trial without witnesses.

Fein, Fisher, and I have written Speaker Pelosi and Senator McConnell urging that the trial’s procedures should be established by Chief Justice John Roberts, subject to Senate majority repeal, to assure not only fairness, but the perception of fairness (See the letter here). Right now in the Senate there is too much bias, prejudgment, and conflict to avoid a farce.

Moreover, when will the American Bar Association, with over 194,000 lawyer-members, insist on constitutional observance and the rule of law? When will all those original members of Trump’s cabinet, whom he fired in favor of “yes men,” stand up patriotically for America? When will Colin Powell, George Shultz, and other leading figures from past administrations stand tall and speak out? When will former President Barack Obama stand up to Donald Trump? All of these people are privately worried sick over what Trump is doing and will do to our country.

These are very dangerous times for our Republic, its democratic processes, and our freedoms. Trump is going to “wave the flag” and try to intimidate and bully his opponents and the citizenry. Don’t fall for it America!

Ralph Nader Letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi I, together with Constitutional Law scholars Louis Fisher and Bruce Fein, proposed that the Senate allow Chief Justice John Roberts to prescribe impeachment trial procedures—subject to veto by a Senate majority. In doing so, the Senate would avoid some degree of political infighting and blatant partisan bias. While this approach is not perfect, it would create a more impartial and legitimate impeachment process.

Date: December 27, 2019

TO: Honorable Mitch McConnell

Majority Leader United States Senate

317 Russell Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

TO: Honorable Nancy Pelosi

The Speaker of the House of Representatives

United State Capitol

Washington, D.C. 20515

FROM: Ralph Nader, Louis Fisher, Bruce Fein

Dear Majority Leader McConnell and Madame Speaker Pelosi:

We, the undersigned, encourage a bipartisan resolution of the current impasse over procedures for the impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump. The trial is too important to the Republic to be left to partisan political ambitions.

We propose that the Senate endow the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, who will preside, with authority to prescribe trial procedures, subject to veto by a Senate majority.

Among other things, the procedures would govern the admissibility of evidence, claims of privilege, subpoenas to compel testimony, the burden of proof, direct and cross-examination of witnesses, and, jury instructions as to the elements of an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor.

We are convinced that only the Chief Justice can rescue the impeachment trial from the taint of partisanship that would destroy the legitimacy of the outcome. Justice requires the appearance of justice. But both Republican and Democratic Members of Congress have openly proclaimed biases in favor or against President Trump. And citizens generally do not trust Members to be fair. Public confidence in Congress hovers around 10 percent, as opposed to 42 percent for the United States Supreme Court. Many Members of Congress place party loyalty above loyalty to the Constitution and their oaths of office. They crave power, not justice.

Article I, section 3 of the Constitution provides that when sitting as jurors in impeachment trial Senators “shall be on oath or affirmation.” And according to the standing rules of Senate impeachment trials, Senators must swear as follows: “I solemnly swear that in all things pertaining to the trial of the impeachment of ( Donald J. Trump], now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws: So help me God.”

But both Republican and Democratic Senators have made statements inconsistent with impartial justice. In an ordinary courtroom, these Senator-jurors would be disqualified for cause.

Moreover, most if not all Senator-jurors confront conflicts of political interest that would ordinarily justify disqualification. Republicans incline towards acquittal of Mr. Trump to retain control of the White House in 2020, whereas Democrats incline towards conviction to boost their 2020 presidential prospects.

Impeachment procedures ordained by the Republican majority in the Senate or pressured by the Democratic majority in the House will be perceived by an alarming portion of citizens as illegitimate, i.e., calculated to make justice subservient to party ambitions. In contrast, Chief Justice Roberts has earned respect with judicial temperament and robust defense of the impartiality of federal judiciary: “We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges or Bush judges or Clinton judges.”

The Chief Justice, of course, has critics. Many Republicans assail his decisions sustaining President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Many Democrats assail his opinion upholding President Trump’s travel ban and invalidating the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act. A plurality of voters, however, belong to neither party. Chief Justice Roberts, in contrast to the Senate Republican majority or House Democratic majority, is the optimal choice to establish independent and credible procedures for the impeachment trial of President Trump to strengthen public confidence in the outcome.

In the impeachment trial of President William Jefferson Clinton, the Senate unanimously determined trial procedures. Such unanimity cannot be expected today with the appalling spike in partisanship. It seems politically plausible with your support, however, that Senate Republicans and Democrats might agree to hand off responsibility for procedures governing Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial to Chief Justice Roberts.

The delegation to the Chief Justice passes constitutional muster. His procedures could be vetoed by a simple Senate majority. Ultimate authority is thus retained by the upper chamber. And the Constitution itself makes the Chief Justice the presiding officer, which contemplates power to prescribe procedures. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, for instance, are promulgated by the United States Supreme Court under the Rules Enabling Act subject to overruling by Congress.

Making the Chief Justice the impresario of the impeachment trial is innovative and imperfect, but markedly less imperfect than every other imaginable option.

We would welcome the opportunity to assist in drafting the proposed rulemaking delegation.

Ralph Nader, Louis Fisher, Bruce Fein

Please call your Senators at 202-224-3121 and urge them to support this modest, but important proposal.

Louis Fisher is a Constitutional Law Scholar who worked for four decades at the Library of Congress as Senior Specialist in Separation of Powers (Congressional Research Service, from 1970 to 2006) and Specialist in Constitutional Law (the Law Library, from 2006 to 2010).

Bruce Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel to the Federal Communications Commission under President Ronald Reagan. He served on the American Bar Association’s Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements from 2005-2006 and has advised numerous countries on constitutional reform.