Ralph Nader's Blog, page 59

Remarks by Ralph Nader on the loss of Ray Anderson

When it came to bending industrial processes to making peace with the planet, Ray Anderson was the greatest of them all. He was the greatest CEO, the greatest engineer, the greatest educator of his peers in industry, and the most knowledgeable motivator, by example and vision, for the environmental movement.
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Congressional Tea Party Downgrades America

The Boston Tea Party in December 1773 threw the East India Company's tea overboard. The Republican Tea Party in August 2011 threw America overboard.



Only in Congress, with its rules for minority rule, can a minority of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives impose its havoc on the American people there, then on the Senate side and on Obama
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Retreat, Surrender, Can He At Least Plead?

The headlines came quickly after President Obama concluded the deficit-debt deal with the Republicans Sunday evening. There were few shades of gray. The New York Times editorial was titled "To Escape Chaos, a Terrible Deal: Democrats won almost nothing they wanted except avoiding default."



It was truly, as the Times pointed out, "a political environment laced with lunacy." But don't blame it all on the Republican "mad dogs" on Capitol Hill playing chicken with the economic plight of the American people and its wobbling economy. It was President Obama who surrendered.
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Warning to Ratings Agencies

Deven Sharma, President, Standard & Poor's

Ray McDaniel, CEO Moody's Corp

Stephen Joynt, CEO Fitch's Ratings



Dear Mr. Sharma, Mr. McDaniel and Mr. Joynt;



You have each indicated that the time may be near for a downgrade of the credit rating of the United States government, with all the negative and uncontrollable consequences that flow from such private corporate decisions.
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Ideological Inebriation on Capitol Hill

Legislating while under the influence of ideological inebriation is not yet a statutory offense. It is only a multi-directional menace to much of what anxious Americans hold dear for themselves and their children.



The dominant Republicans in Congress - both the new and many of the longer-term incumbents - are in heat. It is as if a mob psychology has seized them, starved them of facts, and deprived them of reality. Their chief mad dog is Eric Cantor - he of the sneering soundbites so memorably described in a recent Washington Post column by Dana Milbank.


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Nader Blasts Obama for Bypassing Warren for Consumer Post

Via Institute for Public Accuracy



AP reports: "Reigniting a partisan fight over banking regulations, President Barack Obama intends to nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead a consumer protection bureau that was a central feature of a law overhauling the rules that govern the financial sector.



"Obama plans to announce the nomination formally on Monday, the White House said Sunday. Republicans immediately threatened to block Cordray's Senate confirmation. In choosing Cordray, Obama bypassed Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of consumer groups...


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The Corporate Supreme Court

Five Supreme Court Justices--Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy are entrenching, in a whirlwind of judicial dictates, judicial legislating and sheer ideological judgments, a mega-corporate supremacy over the rights and remedies of individuals.
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Ralph Nader letter to Ron Bloom

Dear Mr. Bloom:



The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which includes General Motors and Chrysler as major members, has an extensive advertising campaign (see WTOP locally) opposing your Administration's proposals for fuel economy standards going out to 2025. There is nothing unusual about the auto industry's self-immolating position.


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Ralph Nader On Philanthropy at the New York Public Library

Ralph Nader On Philanthropy at the New York Public Library



On May 4th 2011, Ralph Nader appeared at the New York Public Library with two billionaires -- Ted Turner and Peter Lewis.




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Corporate Tax Escapees and You

The all-consuming Washington, D.C. wrangling over debts and deficits, spending and taxing is excluding a large reality of how these financial problems can sensibly and fairly be addressed. These blinders in Congress and the White House come from fact-starved ideologies--mostly from the Republicans--and fear-fed meekness--mostly from the Democrats. Both are furiously dialing for commercial campaign cash.



Take the gigantic world of corporate tax avoidance. Ronald Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 that was designed to increase corporate tax revenues by over 30 percent. Today, President Obama wants to diminish or delete some tax loopholes (technically called tax expenditures) for large corporations, but let most of the revenues be cancelled out by lowering the corporate tax rates. How the world changes.
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