Ralph welcomes infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Osterholm to discuss his new book “The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics.” Then, Ralph shares some quick takes on current events.

Dr. Michael Osterholm is a professor and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. In November 2020, Dr. Osterholm was appointed to President-elect Joe Biden’s 13-member Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. He is the author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, and he has a weekly podcast called The Osterholm Update which offers discussion and analysis on the latest infectious disease developments. His latest book (co-authored with Mark Olshaker) is The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics.

What we’re concerned about now is we’re primed for an influenza pandemic someday where a new influenza virus will emerge. And when it takes off, it’ll rapidly spread through the people. And wherever it came from (whether a bird species or another animal) will not be that important because now it’s transmitted among humans.

Dr. Michael Osterholm

I want to be really clear about one thing: There will be an influenza virus that will cause a pandemic in the future. And the pandemic clock is ticking, we just don’t know what time it is.

Dr. Michael Osterholm

Instead of building from a base of modest preparedness from the prior administration (and I emphasize “modest”), they’re going backwards. Also, with quackery positions on a whole variety of issues that is dividing the population, feeding the misinformation on the internet, and general chaos of information transmission.

Ralph Nader

I will just make one prediction here today: There is going to be a large, huge, overwhelming crisis that is going to occur eventually around an infectious disease issue in this country. And it’s going to happen because Mother Nature herself does that to us—just like hurricanes are not optional, these large outbreaks are not optional. What’s optional is how well we respond to them and limit their impact. And we are at a point right now where we have very, very limited impact on these things. So I think the public needs to be aware, we’re in a very different setting today for public health response to a crisis than we’ve ever been in my 50 years in the business.

Dr. Michael Osterholm

News 10/31/25

* Our top stories this week concern U.S. saber rattling in Venezuela. First, a new piece in published Drop Site news, coauthored by Ryan Grim, Jack Poulson and Saagar Enjeti of Breaking Points, takes readers “Inside Marco Rubio’s Push for Regime Change in Venezuela.” This piece deconstructs the Trump administration claims tying the Maduro government to fentanyl trafficking, quoting a senior U.S. official who unequivocally states that “U.S. intelligence has assessed that little to none of the fentanyl trafficked to the United States is being produced in Venezuela.” Another key point is that the Maduro government apparently offered to turn over oil resources to the United States in exchange for cessation of hostilities. Instead, in an echo of the Iraq War, Trump has apparently been, “swayed by arguments from Rubio that the best way to secure Venezuela’s oil reserves was to facilitate regime change in Venezuela and make a better deal with a new government.” As with Iraq, regime change in Venezuela is likely to end up with a chaotic power vacuum in the country, destabilizing Latin America in turn. One would have hoped the U.S. had learned its lesson. Apparently not.

* The administration does however seem to favor covert schemes to oust Maduro as opposed to an outright U.S. invasion. Back in 2020, the Trump administration backed Operation Gideon, which utilized American mercenaries and Venezuelan dissidents to try to capture Maduro. This week, Venezuela claims to have foiled another such attempt. Democracy Now! reports “Venezuelan officials say they’ve captured a group of mercenaries tied to the [CIA]. In a statement, the government of Venezuela said, ‘This is a colonial operation of military aggression that seeks to turn the Caribbean into a space for lethal violence and US imperial domination.’” This report goes on to state, “Earlier this month, President Trump acknowledged that he authorized the CIA to secretly conduct operations in Venezuela.” Meanwhile AP reports that over the past 16 months, a now-retired federal agent named Edwin Lopez sought to turn Maduro’s personal pilot – Venezuelan General Bitner Villegas – and have the aviator deliver Maduro into U.S. custody. In exchange, Lopez promised to make the pilot a “very rich man.” This plot, hatched under President Biden and continuing under Trump, ultimately failed. Yet, as these half-baked covert ops go up in flames, it seems increasingly likely that the administration will resort to brute force. That same Democracy Now! piece reports that on Sunday, a U.S. warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago. With no diplomatic solution on the horizon, it seems only a matter of time before the shelling begins.

* As all of this unfolds, Congressional Republicans are shirking their oversight responsibilities. On October 23rd, Axios reported that Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Jim Risch of Idaho said the committee will not hold hearings regarding the lawless strikes on Venezuelan boats “at this time,” adding that he has been “briefed on it and feel[s] comfortable with where we are.” As if mocking the Legislative Branch, that same day Semafor reported a quote from “a person close to the White House” who said Trump won’t coordinate with Congress until “Maduro’s corpse is in US custody.”

* Turning to the federal government, reclusive billionaire Timothy Mellon, heir to the Mellon fortune, has donated $130 million to the Pentagon to offset military staff salaries during the government shutdown. While $130 million is a drop in the bucket for the American Military-Industrial Complex – this donation will amount to about $50 per troop this pay cycle – it would appear to be blatantly illegal under the Antideficiency Act. The Hill explains that under this statute, “federal agencies are barred from ‘obligating or expending federal funds in advance or in excess of an appropriation, and from accepting voluntary services.’” In part, this statute was adopted to avoid just such a scenario – the president circumventing the Congressional Power of the Purse by soliciting outside donations. Unfortunately, Trump’s subservient Congressional allies are unlikely to do anything about this outrageous usurpation of their power.

* On the regulatory side, the Trump administration is putting its thumb on the scales in favor of David Ellison’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. A New York Post report quotes a senior administration official who says “Who owns Warner Bros. Discovery is very important to the administration…The Warner board needs to think very seriously not just on the price competition but which player in the suitor pool has been successful getting a deal done.” The Post adds that “rival bidders are likely to face stiff hurdles from US regulators.” Ellison, son of Trump billionaire ally Larry Ellison, has had his eye on Warner Bros. Discovery – which owns CNN – since his recent acquisition of Paramount and its subsidiary CBS News. Critics have long warned of the dangers of consolidation in the media sphere, particularly news, but this would truly be an unprecedented upset of the media landscape.

* Turning to consumer news, a new article in the Lever focuses on the fast food chain Shake Shack. According to this piece, the chain, “recently updated its terms of use agreement to include a binding arbitration agreement and class-action waiver denying customers their legal right to take companies to court.” Now, corporations sneaking binding arbitration agreements into their terms of service is not a new phenomenon, but this method is novel. This article explains that Shake Shack, and other fast food chains, are “extending restrictive contracts to consumers through the rapid expansion of online services such as websites, mobile apps, and automated self-service kiosks.” In other words, these automated services are becoming a ‘triple-threat’ for these companies to exploit, simultaneously cutting labor costs, harvesting consumer data, and now forcing customers into these restrictive legal agreements. When will regulators take action to protect consumers from such rampant abuse?

* One bright spot, so to speak, for consumer protection is emerging in the United Kingdom. The BBC reports the British Department for Transport will begin a review of the increasingly bright, bordering on blinding, LED headlights that have become commonplace in automobiles. The new guidelines are to be unveiled in the forthcoming Road Safety Strategy document being prepared by the government. Many drivers in the United States have complained about this issue as well – noting how dangerous it is for drivers to be blinded by oncoming headlights while on the road – and certain states like Hawaii and Massachusetts have taken action, though there has yet to be a federal response.

* In more positive news from abroad, the Economic Times reports China has enacted an anti-misinformation law dictating that, “if you are an influencer and… want to discuss ‘serious’ topics - such as finance, health, medicine, law or education - you must provide proof of relevant professional credentials.” This law will also ban “advertising for medical products and services,” which also covers supplements and health foods. Other reports indicate that the fines for violating this law could be as high as ¥100,000. The proliferation of medical misinformation has become a major issue for governments the world over and in the U.S. has incubated a vast underworld of medical conspiracy theories and dubious health products. It is heartening to see something being done to protect consumers’ health and safety.

* Speaking of someone doing something, Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh made headlines a month ago for blocking vehicles outside of an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, where she is running for office. Now, NBC reports she has been indicted by a special federal grand jury, “alongside five other people, including two other political candidates.” Abughazaleh responded to the indictment, writing “This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.” Her lawyer, Josh Herman, added, “This is a political prosecution that tries to turn dissent and First Amendment opposition to the Trump administration’s cruel policies into a conspiracy…Kat has steadfastly opposed those policies and she will fight these charges with the same principled determination.” The defendants have not been arrested but will surrender to the court next week.

* Finally, Palestine Legal has scored a major victory. The group reports that “The First Circuit…[has] ruled that pro-Palestinian slogans, encampments and criticism of Zionism is protected by the First Amendment -- tossing out a Zionist complaint targeting pro-Palestinian organizing at @MIT.” Furthermore, the court found that “Slogans such as From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, intifada revolution, and calling Israel’s actions a genocide -- and more -- do not target Jewish or Israeli students on the basis of their identity… but target Israel over its treatment of Palestinians.” This is a win for the David side of the David and Goliath struggle between pro-Palestine student groups and the universities where they are organizing – which are themselves under immense pressure from the Trump administration to stifle pro-Palestinian speech. Hopefully, this gives organizers the necessary breathing room they need to regroup as the Trump-brokered ceasefire grows ever shakier.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

We are joined once again by Dr. Bandy Lee, forensic and social psychiatrist and violence expert, who edited the 2017 New York Times bestselling book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” We get her latest take on whether someone with Trump’s psychological profile should have the nuclear football and whether he would actually leave office peacefully. Plus, Ralph assesses the latest No Kings rally.

Dr. Bandy Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist, violence expert, president of the World Mental Health Coalition and New York Times bestselling author of “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” Her new book is “The Psychology of Trump Contagion,” also available as a podcast. And her four-part series on Substack is “The Serious and Imminent Threat of Donald Trump.”

I have often said that every accusation is a confession; that whatever he (Trump) says of others will quite accurately portray what is happening in him because of the level of symptomatology and projection.

Dr. Bandy Lee

He will react (to impeachment) very belligerently, as violently as possible, as we’ve seen from his loss of the first attempt to be reelected. But it also depends on how we handle him. We’ve seen from how dictators of the world – who understand his psychology much better because it’s similar to theirs – can manipulate him and cause him to do all kinds of things that ordinary presidents would never do. And so, I would say that he’s still very malleable, and it depends on how we handle him and manage him. And that’s why mental health consultants would be very important.

Dr. Bandy Lee

Let me suggest why the progressive media is avoiding your type of elaboration and explanation. They do not want to be accused of what the communist regime in the Soviet Union did to dissenters. Stalin and his cohorts would basically say that dissenters are insane. They have mental impairment, and they should be sent to prisons in Siberia. And progressives throughout the decades have been very fearful of being tainted with that accusation about dissent in American society.

Ralph Nader

News 10/24/25

* On October 15th, investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein published a report on the Trump administration’s attempts to implement the new National Security Presidential Memorandum targeting “Antifa” known as NSPM-7. According to this report, the federal government has so far begun “collecting intelligence on Antifa ‘affinity’ groups, canvassing the FBI’s vast informant network for tips about Antifa, and scrutinizing financial records.” What this will mean in practice remains murky. A senior career homeland security official is quoted saying that “no one should doubt the orders that have come down from on high to destroy Antifa,” and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem recently stated “Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of em.” However, as this simply is not the case – former FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that Antifa is “not a group or an organization…[instead]...a movement or an ideology,” – the door is open for the Trump administration to pursue a wide-ranging and ill-defined crusade against any groups or individuals it determines to be antifascist. So far the response to this campaign has been muted, perhaps out of fear of reprisal from the federal government. But with infinitely moveable goalposts, this “war on antifa” as Klippenstein defines it, could have grave consequences for civil society and civil liberties for years to come.

* In more federal news, POLITICO reports that if the government shutdown continues through November 1st, residents of 25 states – including California, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Indiana, Mississippi, D.C. and New Jersey – will lose access to SNAP benefits. SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, helps over 42 million low-income Americans avoid hunger. The loss of SNAP benefits will be acutely felt as the nation enters the holiday, and specifically Thanksgiving, season. It remains to be seen whether this will force either side to blink, and many expect the shutdown to drag on until the November elections.

* Even with the government shut down, things are happening in Congress. This week, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit to force Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to swear in Adelita Grijalva. Johnson has blocked Grijalva, who won the special election in Arizona’s seventh congressional district a month ago, from taking her seat in Congress. Mayes argues that Johnson’s obstinance has left 800,000 Arizonans without representation and is requesting that federal judges, or others authorized to administer the oath of office swear in Grijalva if Johnson refuses to do so. Johnson claims he cannot administer the oath until the House is back in session, yet he used a special pro forma session to swear in Republican Representatives Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine less than 24 hours after they won their respective special elections. Many contend that he is blocking Grijalva because she has vowed to vote in favor of the discharge petition to force the release of the Epstein files. This from AP.

* Meanwhile, in the Senate, a breach seems to be widening between President Trump and Kentucky libertarian Senator Rand Paul on the issue of the strikes on Venezuelan boats. In an interview with Piers Morgan, Senator Paul said “We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war. It’s summary execution!...Everyone gets a trial because sometimes, the system gets it wrong. Even the worst of the worst in our country get due process. The bottom line is that execution without process is not justice, and blowing up foreign ships is a recipe for chaos.” At another point in this interview, Paul disputed the Venezuelan narcotrafficker narrative, emphasizing that “There is no fentanyl made in Venezuela. Not just a little bit, there’s none being made... These are outboard boats that, in order for them to get to Miami, would have to stop and refuel 20 times.” That same day, the Hill reported Trump hosted a lunch with all Republican Senators at the White House Rose Garden – with the sole exception of Rand Paul. Paul brushed this off, saying he was instead having lunch with Congressman Thomas Massie, an ideological ally who also bucks President Trump’s direction on a number of issues.

* On the other side of the aisle, Senator Elizabeth Warren has sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent demanding answers related to the Argentina bailout. Specifically, Warren is concerned about “revelations that the United States government may be purchasing Argentine pesos,” as part of this bailout, and pressing for disclosure as to “whether such purchases have occurred and how much taxpayer money has already been spent.” This from MediasNews. This letter alleges that the deal includes “a $20 billion currency-swap agreement with Argentina’s central bank, efforts to arrange a $20 billion private investment vehicle, and ‘the apparent purchase of at least hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Argentine pesos directly using taxpayer dollars.” The administration seems unusually invested in propping up the government of Argentinian President Javier Milei, a staunch Trump ally in the region. In addition to this bailout, on Wednesday, Trump angered the American cattle industry and their Republican allies in Congress by announcing plans for large-scale purchases of Argentinian beef, which will undercut American producers, per Newsweek.

* In Massachusetts, a complex political dynamic is emerging in that state’s Democratic Senate primary. Longtime progressive incumbent Ed Markey, who fended off a primary challenge from the Right launched by Joe Kennedy in 2020, is now facing a new rightward challenge from Congressman Seth Moulton. Many see Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a “Squad” member, as Markey’s chosen successor, but he has made no indication of stepping aside, despite the fact that he would be 80 years old if he were to be reelected in 2026. Moulton is 46, Pressley is 51. Moreover, in an indication of where the party is ideologically, Moulton made one of his first campaign moves “returning campaign donations that he received from individuals affiliated with…[AIPAC]...and [vowing] he would no longer accept campaign support from the group,” per the New Republic. Moulton is by no means an antizionist, he followed up this announcement by saying “I’m a friend of Israel,” according to JNS, but the fact that even a centrist to center-right Democrat has to reject AIPAC money is a sign of just how toxic the group has become to the Democratic Party rank and file.

* Our next two stories are on bills responding to the challenges of AI. In New York, Governor Kathy Hochul has signed a bill updating the state’s antitrust laws to ban landlords from using AI algorithms to “artificially inflate New Yorkers’ rents,” according to Gothamist. This bill comes in the context of a Justice Department lawsuit against RealPage, a company that uses algorithms to analyze data such as vacancies and lease renewal rates to give landlords price recommendations – which many see as collusive price-fixing. According to a Council of Economic Advisors study, such algorithms cost renters nationwide 3.8 billion additional dollars in inflated rents in 2023. California enacted a similar law earlier this month. Hopefully other states and municipalities, particularly those with hot rental markets, will follow suit.

* And in New Jersey, Newsweek reports Assemblywoman Andrea Katz is pushing a bill to impose a surcharge on AI data centers to help offset the rising power costs caused by the massive amounts of energy these data centers consume. This tax would be used to modernize New Jersey’s power grid. According to the data, “the average price of residential electricity increased 6.5 percent from 16.41 cents per kilowatt-hour to 17.47 cents between May 2024 and May 2025.” This issue is particularly salient in New Jersey right now, as the state gubernatorial elections are rapidly approaching. In this same context, Democratic Virginia state delegate Shelly Simonds is quoted saying “Voters are mad as hell about energy prices increasing…anybody who ignores these issues does so at their peril.”

* Turning to foreign affairs, earlier this week the BBC reported that Prince Andrew would be “giving up his titles, including the Duke of York, following a ‘discussion with the King.’” This announcement raised alarm bells. Prince Andrew has been deeply implicated in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and has been out of public view for years already. This new severing of his ties to the royal family implied there was more yet to come. Indeed, just days later an excerpt from the late Virginia Giuffre’s memoir Nobody’s Girl included an account of the former Duke of York engaging in an orgy with Giuffre and “approximately eight other young girls” at Epstein’s Little St. James island estate. In this memoir, Giuffre also recounts a brutal rape at the hands of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

* Finally, in some positive news, Reuters reports that elections in Turkish-dominated Northern Cyprus this week brought to power Centre-left politician Tufan Erhurman. Erhurman, who won with nearly two-thirds of the vote, has pledged to revive reunification talks with the Greek-dominated portion of the island. Various peace plans and reunification efforts over the years have failed, and talks have largely ceased since 2017. This victory proves one thing: it is never too late for a people to move toward peace. We wish the Cypriots on both sides of the partition luck in the negotiations to come.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph welcomes Professor Roddey Reid to break down his book “Confronting Political Intimidation and Public Bullying: A Handbook for the Trump Era and Beyond.” Then, we are joined by the original Nader’s Raider, Professor Robert Fellmeth, who enlightens us on how online anonymity and Artificial Intelligence are harming children.

Roddey Reid is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego where he taught classes on modern cultures and societies in the US, France, and Japan. Since 2008 he has researched and published on trauma, daily life, and political intimidation in the US and Europe. He is a member of Indivisible.org San Francisco, and he hosts the blog UnSafe Thoughts on the fluidity of politics in dangerous times. He is also the author of Confronting Political Intimidation and Public Bullying: A Handbook for the Trump Era and Beyond.

I think we still have trouble acknowledging what’s actually happening. Particularly our established institutions that are supposed to protect us and safeguard us—many of their leaders are struggling with the sheer verbal and physical violence that’s been unfurling in front of our very eyes. Many people are exhausted by it all. And it’s transformed our daily life to the point that I think one of the goals is (quite clearly) to disenfranchise people such that they don’t want to go out and participate in civic life.

Roddey Reid

What’s broken down is…a collective response, organized group response. Now, in the absence of that, this is where No King’s Day and other activities come to the fore. They’re trying to restore collective action. They’re trying to restore the public realm as a place for politics, dignity, safety, and shared purpose. And that’s been lost. And so this is where the activists and civically engaged citizens and residents come in. They’re having to supplement or even replace what these institutions traditionally have been understood to do. It’s exhilarating, but it’s also a sad moment.

Roddey Reid

Robert Fellmeth worked as a Nader’s Raider from 1968 to 1973 in the early days of the consumer movement. He went on to become the Price Professor of Public Interest Law at the University of San Diego (where he taught for 47 years until his retirement early this year) and he founded their Children’s Advocacy Institute in 1983. Since then, the Institute has sponsored 100 statutes and 35 appellate cases involving child rights, and today it has offices in Sacramento and DC. He is also the co-author of the leading law textbook Child Rights and Remedies.

I think an easy remedy—it doesn’t solve the problem totally—but simply require the AI to identify itself when it’s being used. I mean, to me, that’s something that should always be the case. You have a right to know. Again, free speech extends not only to the speaker, but also to the audience. The audience has a right to look at the information, to look at the speech, and to judge something about it, to be able to evaluate it. That’s part of free speech.

Robert Fellmeth

News 10/17/25

* In Gaza, the Trump administration claims to have brokered a ceasefire. However, this peace – predicated on an exchange of prisoners – is extremely fragile. On Tuesday, Palestinians attempting to return to their homes were fired upon by Israeli soldiers. Defense Minister Israel Katz claimed those shot were “terrorists” whose attempts to “approach and cross [the Yellow Line] were thwarted.” Al Jazeera quotes Lorenzo Kamel, a professor of international history at Italy’s University of Turin, who calls the ceasefire a “facade” and that the “structural violence will remain there precisely as it was – and perhaps even worse.” We can only hope that peace prevails and the Palestinians in Gaza are able to return to their land. Whatever is left of it.

* Despite this ceasefire, Trump was denied in his bid for a Nobel Peace Prize. The prize instead went to right-wing Venezuelan dissident María Corina Machado. Democracy Now! reports Machado ran against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in 2023, but was “barred from running after the government accused her of corruption and cited her support for U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.” If elected Machado has promised to privatize Venezuela’s state oil industry and move Venezuela’s Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and in 2020, her party, Vente Venezuela, “signed a pact formalizing strategic ties with Israel’s Likud party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” Machado has also showered praise on right-wing Latin American leaders like Javier Milei of Argentina and following her victory, praised Trump’s “decisive support,” even telling Fox News that Trump “deserves” the prize for his anti-Maduro campaign, per the Nation.

* Machado’s prize comes within the context of Trump’s escalating attacks on Venezuela. In addition to a fifth deadly strike on a Venezuelan boat, which killed six, the New York Times reports Trump has ordered his envoy to the country Richard Grenell to cease all diplomatic outreach to Venezuela, including talks with President Maduro. According to this report, “Trump has grown frustrated with…Maduro’s failure to accede to American demands to give up power voluntarily and the continued insistence by Venezuelan officials that they have no part in drug trafficking.” Grenell had been trying to strike a deal with the Bolivarian Republic to “avoid a larger conflict and give American companies access to Venezuelan oil,” but these efforts were obviously undercut by the attacks on the boats – which Democrats contend are illegal under U.S. and international law – as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeling Maduro a “fugitive from American justice,” and placing a $50 million bounty on his head. With this situation escalating rapidly, many now fear direct U.S. military deployment into Venezuela.

* Meanwhile, Trump has already deployed National Guard troops to terrorize immigrants in Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times reports Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope and a Chicago native, met with Chicago union leaders in Rome last week and urged them to take action to protect immigrants in the city. Defending poor immigrants is rapidly becoming a top priority for the Catholic Church. Pope Leo has urged American bishops to “speak with one voice” on the issue and this story related that “El Paso bishop Mark Seitz brought Leo letters from desperate immigrant families.” Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, also at the meeting with Leo and the union leaders, said that the Pope “wants us to make sure, as bishops, that we speak out on behalf of the undocumented or anybody who’s vulnerable to preserve their dignity…We all have to remember that we all share a common dignity as human beings.”

* David Ellison, the newly-minted CEO of Paramount, is ploughing ahead with a planned expansion of his media empire. His next target: Warner Bros. Discovery. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ellison already pitched a deal to WB CEO David Zaslav, but the $20 per share offer was rejected. However, Ellison is likely to offer a new deal “possibly…backed by his father Larry Ellison or a third party like Apollo [Global Management].” There is also talk that he could go directly to the WBD shareholders if the corporate leadership proves unresponsive. If Ellison is intent on this acquisition, he will need to move fast. Zaslav is planning to split the company into a “studios and HBO business,” and a Discovery business, which would include CNN. Ellison is clearly interested in acquiring CNN to help shape newsroom perspectives, as his recent appointment of Bari Weiss as “editor-in-chief” of CBS News demonstrates, so this split would make an acquisition far less of an attractive prospect. We will be watching this space.

* In another Ellison-related media story, Newsweek reports Barron Trump, President Trump’s 19-year-old son, is being eyed for a board seat at the newly reorganized Tik-Tok. According to this story, “Trump’s former social media manager Jack Advent proposed the role at the social media giant, as it comes into U.S. ownership, arguing that the younger Trump’s appointment could broaden TikTok’s appeal among young users.” Barron is currently enrolled in New York University’s Stern School of Business and serves as an “ambassador” for World Liberty Financial, the “Trump family’s crypto venture.” TikTok U.S., formerly owned and operated by the Chinese company ByteDance, is being taken over by a “consortium of American investors [including Larry Ellison’s] Oracle and investment firm Silver Lake Partners,” among others.

* As the government shutdown drags on, the Trump administration is taking the opportunity to further gut the federal government, seeming to specifically target the offices protecting the most vulnerable. According to NPR, “all staff in the [Department of Education] Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), with the exception of a handful of top officials and support staff, were cut,” in a reduction-in-force or RIF order issued Friday. One employee is quoted saying “This is decimating the office responsible for safeguarding the rights of infants, toddlers, children and youth with disabilities.” Per this report, OSERS is “responsible for roughly $15 billion in special education funding and for making sure states provide special education services to the nation’s 7.5 million children with disabilities.” Just why exactly the administration is seeking to undercut federal support for disabled children is unclear. Over at the Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., HHS sent out an RIF to “approximately 1,760 employees last Friday — instead of the intended 982,” as a “result of data discrepancies and processing errors,” NOTUS reports. The agency admitted the error in a court filing in response to a suit brought by the employees’ unions. Even still, the cuts are staggering and include 596 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 125 at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, to name just a few. This report notes that other agencies, including the Departments of Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security all sent out inaccurately high RIFs as well.

* The Lever reports Boeing, the troubled airline manufacturer, is fighting a new Federal Aviation Administration rule demanding additional inspections for older 737 series planes after regulators discovered cracks in their fuselages. The rule “would revise the inspection standards…through a regulatory action called an ‘airworthiness directive.’...akin to a product recall if inspectors find a defective piece of equipment on the plane…in [this case] cracks along the body of the plane’s main cabin.” The lobbying group Airlines for America is seeking to weaken the rule by arguing that the maintenance checks would be too “costly” for the airline industry, who would ultimately have to bear the financial brunt of these inspections. Boeing is fighting them too because such a rule would make airlines less likely to buy Boeing’s decaying airplanes. As this report notes, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy – who oversees the FAA – “previously worked as an airline lobbyist…[and] Airlines for America recently selected the former Republican Governor of New Hampshire, Chris Sununu to be their chief executive officer.”

* In more consumer-related news, Consumer Reports has been conducting a series of studies on lead levels in various consumer products. Most recently, a survey of protein powders and shakes found “troubling levels of toxic heavy metals,” in many of the most popular brands. They write, “For more than two-thirds of the products we analyzed, a single serving contained more lead than CR’s food safety experts say is safe to consume in a day—some by more than 10 times.” Some of these products have massively increased in heavy metal content just over the last several years. CR reports “Naked Nutrition’s Vegan Mass Gainer powder, the product with the highest lead levels, had nearly twice as much lead per serving as the worst product we analyzed in 2010.” The experts quoted in this piece advise against daily use of these products, instead limiting them to just once per week.

* Finally, in a new piece in Rolling Stone, David Sirota and Jared Jacang Maher lay out how conservatives are waging new legal campaigns to strip away the last remaining fig leaves of campaign finance regulation – and what states are doing to fight back. One angle of attack is a lawsuit targeting the restrictions on coordination between parties and individual campaigns, with House Republicans arguing that, “because parties pool money from many contributors, that ‘significantly dilutes the potential for any particular donor to exercise a corrupting influence over any particular candidate’ who ultimately benefits from their cash.” Another angle is a lawsuit brought by P.G. Sittenfeld, the former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati – who has already been pardoned by Trump for accepting bribes – but is seeking to establish that “pay-to-play culture is now so pervasive that it should no longer be considered prosecutable.” However, the authors do throw out one ray of hope from an unlikely source: Montana. The authors write, “Thirteen years after the Supreme Court gutted the state’s century-old anti-corruption law, Montana luminaries of both parties are now spearheading a ballot initiative circumventing Citizens United jurisprudence and instead focusing on changing state incorporation laws that the high court rarely meddles with.The measure’s proponents note that Citizens United is predicated on state laws giving corporations the same powers as actual human beings, including the power to spend on politics. But they point out that in past eras, state laws granted corporations more limited powers — and states never relinquished their authority to redefine what corporations can and cannot do. The Montana initiative proposes to simply use that authority to change the law — in this case, to no longer grant corporations the power to spend on elections.” Who knows if this initiative will move forward in Montana, but it does provide states a blueprint for combatting the pernicious influence of Citizens United. States should and must act on it.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph welcomes Andy Shallal of Busboys and Poets to discuss his new memoir, “A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets.” Then, Ralph speaks to business consultant and activist Bennett Freeman about why Big Business isn’t standing up to the Trump Administration.

Andy Shallal is an activist, artist and social entrepreneur. Mr. Shallal is the founder and proprietor of Busboys and Poets restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area, which feature prominent speakers, poets and authors and provide a venue for social and political activism. He is also co-founder of The Peace Cafe and a member of the board of trustees for The Institute for Policy Studies. He is the author of the new book A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets.

I’ve called Andy Shallal “democracy’s restaurateur”, and he really fits the bill.

Ralph Nader

Activism is the best antidote to depression. It’s really hard to be able to sit back—and especially now with social media and everything else that’s right at your fingertips, to be able to watch the little babies being snipered and their limbs being chopped up. And it just feels so, so horrific. And the only way you can really be able to make sense of it—if there’s any way to make sense of it—is to continue to fight for a better world.

Andy Shallal

Since, of course, October 7th opened up a whole new thing for activists and really exposed in a very stark way the myth of “Western civilization,” the idea of how obvious the lies and the deceit that’s been happening, and the power of the military industrial complex that we’ve been warned about over the years I think [a new understanding is] taking shape right now, and we’re starting to understand it more and more. And as I think we are trying to free Gaza and free Palestine, at the same time I think Gaza and Palestine are freeing us to be able to understand our system better.

Andy Shallal

One of the things that I find is necessary for movements to be sustained is to have joy. You’ve got to have opportunities for joy. You got to have opportunities for people to actually have fun together, really feel like they’re part of a community. Because a lot of times, the work we do isn’t—well, it’s soul-sucking work, you know, and you need to have those opportunities to be able to refuel and re-energize.

Andy Shallal

Bennett Freeman is principal of Bennett Freeman Associates, where he advises multinational corporations, international institutions, and NGOs on policy and strategy related to human rights and labour rights. Mr. Freeman was founding chair of the advisory board for Global Witness (an investigative, campaigning organisation that challenges the power of climate-wrecking companies). He was also founding trustee of the Institute for Human Rights and Business, co-founder of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, and co-founder of the Global Network Initiative. He served on the governing board of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, as well as the board of Oxfam America. Mr. Freeman was the lead author of “Shared Space Under Pressure: Business Support for Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders.”

[Ralph,] you correctly characterize the silence and obeisance of much of corporate America (not least the tech CEOs) so far this year. I would use another pair of words as well to characterize their stance, which I think during the campaign last year in 2024 was: complacency, [and] I think the complacency now has become complicity in a dramatic, historic, democratic backsliding in the United States with the erosion of rule of law and our constitutional democracy.

Bennett Freeman

At the end of the day, I’m much more interested in democratic governance based on rule of law and fair elections than I am in what corporate America has to say. But they have a stake now. And I think that those of us who have tried to promote corporate responsibility (and in Ralph’s case and many others, to impose corporate accountability) have to continue this work. And we’ve got to engage corporate America without illusions, but with still aspirations to try to get them back to support—in a nonpartisan or bipartisan way—the fundamentals of what our country is supposed to be about.

Bennett Freeman

News 10/10/25

* Two polls came out this past week which reveal key data points about Americans’ views on Israel. First, a Washington Post poll of American Jews, published October 6th and covering September 2-9th, shows that 61% say Israel has committed “war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza.” This nearly two-thirds majority should put the lie to the canard that American Jews monolithically support Israel’s actions in Gaza. They don’t. Furthermore, 39% say Israel has committed “Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” Some contend these numbers might be higher if the question was worded slightly differently, for example asking in the present tense whether Israel is committing genocide, rather than in the past tense. Regardless, while this result is slightly less than a majority, it certainly proves that a substantial share of American Jews do believe that Isreal is guilty of the crime of genocide. Astute politicians should take note.

* Another survey that shrewd pols should consider is the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project (IMEU) poll released October 3rd. In this poll, 43% of respondents identified “U.S. foreign policy and relations with Israel” as an issue that will play a role in their 2026 Democratic primary vote. As for more ambitious Democrats, 71% said they would be more likely to vote for “A candidate for president who voted to withhold weapons to Israel,” compared to just 10% who said the same about “A candidate who voted against withholding weapons to Israel.” The numbers are cut and dried.

* Last week, CBS confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “directly approved military operations on two vessels,” in the Global Sumud Flotilla carrying aid to Gaza. According to this report, Netanyahu ordered Israeli forces to “[launch] drones from a submarine and [drop] incendiary devices onto the boats that were moored outside the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said.” As this report notes, “Under international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict, the use of incendiary weapons against a civilian population or civilian objects is prohibited in all circumstances.” Put simply, this attack amounted to a war crime. In a statement, the Global Sumud Flotilla wrote “Confirmation of Israeli involvement…simply lay[s] bare a pattern of arrogance and impunity so grotesque that it cannot escape eventual reckoning.” The flotilla was intercepted off the coast of Gaza last week and over 400 activists were detained in Israeli custody. Many have alleged mistreatment, with Turkish activist Ersin Çelik claiming guards “dragged [Greta Thunberg] by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag.”

* Unfortunately, this is the last news critical of Israel we can expect to see from CBS for a long time. On October 6th, CNN reported that Paramount will officially acquire The Free Press for $150 million and appoint its founder, Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News. This position was created specifically for Weiss. According to Paramount, in this role, Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms, and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.” In an interview with Democracy Now!, journalist David Klion of the Nation and Jewish Currents, said Weiss, “has presented herself as a champion of free speech…But in reality, she has a 20-year history of suppressing speech that she finds objectionable, especially when it’s speech championing the rights of Palestinians and criticizing the state of Israel.”

* Meanwhile in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum called for the immediate repatriation of the six Mexican nationals among the Gaza aid flotilla participants following their detention by Israeli forces, per Mexico News Daily. Following a speech by the Mexican president, the foreign ministry wrote that Mexican Embassy officials had gone to Ashdod, where the activists were being held, to “directly verify the conditions on the ground, request consular access, and ensure that … [the] safety and integrity [of the Mexicans] is respected, in accordance with applicable international law.” Notably, President Trump has made no such moves to publicly demand the return of, or even lawful treatment of, the Americans on board these vessels. Perhaps this is a contributing factor to Sheinbaum’s stunning 78% approval in a recent El País poll, which shows her not just overwhelmingly popular among her own party’s base but even among those registered to competing parties. According to this poll, 73% of PAN members, 72% of PRI members, 70% of MC members, and 59% of voters with no party preference approve of her performance in office. These numbers are frankly unimaginable in America, but so are the achievements Sheinbaum has delivered in her short time in power.

* Turning to Congress, Representatives Mark Pocan, Pramila Jayapal and Jared Huffman have authored a letter expressing “grave concerns,” regarding President Trump’s executive order designating “Antifa” as a Domestic Terrorist Organization, calling for the order and accompanying memorandum, known as NSPM-7 to be “immediately rescinded,” according to the related press release. In the letter, the members warn “the sweeping language and broad authority in these directives pose serious constitutional, statutory, and civil liberties risks, especially if used to target political dissent, protest, or ideological speech.” The members also note that the memo “characterizes ‘anti-capitalism’ as a hallmark of violent behavior without explaining the term…[allowing] officials to potentially treat Americans as domestic terrorists for something as routine as organizing a local boycott or operating an employee-owned business.” Perhaps most critically, they write “These actions are illegal, and…We stand ready to take legislative action should you fail,” to rescind the order.

* In St. Louis, former Congresswoman Cori Bush is running to take back her seat. Bush, who came to prominence as an activist during the 2014 Ferguson protests and eventually primaried 10-term incumbent Congressman Lacy Clay, was ousted in a close 2024 primary by prosecutor Wesley Bell. According to POLITICO, Bell received $8 million dollars from AIPAC during that campaign; the pro-Israel PAC had identified Bush, along with former Congressman Jamaal Bowman, as key targets because of their pro-Palestine positions.

* Of course, for the time being, Congressional deadlock is keeping the federal government in a shutdown. One symptom of this shutdown surfaced in Los Angeles this week, when dozens of flights into and out of Hollywood Burbank Airport were delayed or canceled because its air traffic control tower was temporarily unstaffed, the LA Times reports. Staffing shortages also caused delays at Newark Liberty International Airport, Denver International Airport and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. This report added that the Federal Aviation Administration “warned of more disruption at airports due to staff shortages as a result of the government shutdown.” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said in a joint press conference with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, “We need to bring this shutdown to a close, so that the [FAA] and the committed aviation safety professionals can put this distraction behind us and completely focus on their vital work…We do not have the luxury of time.”

* More troubling signs are emerging in the economy as well. For months now, analysts have warned that the U.S. is not just on the brink of a recession, but rather already in one – it is just being masked by the massive speculative bubble of AI. Back in August, Axios reported that “excitement over artificial intelligence…is clouding recessionary signals in more cyclical corners of the market,” citing longer lengths of unemployment and slower hiring. Now, the AI bubble is reaching epic proportions. According to the Financial Times, “AI spending by companies now accounts for a 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year,” while the Financial Post reports AI companies have accounted for 80 per cent of the gains in U.S. stocks so far in 2025. Given the market’s reliance on AI speculation, the economic damage if that bubble bursts whilst the economy is on such unstable footing could be catastrophic.

* Finally, for some good news, a new California law is aiming to regulate the noise level of advertisements on streaming services. The Guardian reports the new legislation, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, “forces the powerful streaming platforms to comply with existing regulations that have barred television broadcasters from bombarding the eardrums of viewers with overly loud commercials since 2010.” According to this story, the bill was sponsored by State Senator Tom Umberg, whose newborn child was consistently awoken by overloud ads. As the Guardian notes, “Since so many of the streaming platforms are based in California, the new state bill could set a national standard and lower volumes across the country.” Rest assured industry will strike back at this law somehow, but it remains to be seen how they will argue for their right to blast ads at consumers at outrageous volumes.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph welcomes Michael Mann, Professor in the “Department of Earth and Environmental Science” at the University of Pennsylvania and author along with Dr. Peter Hotez of “Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World.” Then we are joined by Martin O’Malley, former governor of Maryland and one time Commissioner of the Social Security Administration to refute all the lies being told about the state of Social Security.

Dr. Michael E. Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the “Department of Earth and Environmental Science” at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a co-founder of the award-winning science website RealClimate.org, and the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed and edited publications, numerous op-eds and commentaries, and seven books, including “Science Under Siege: How to Fight the Five Most Powerful Forces that Threaten Our World” (co-authored with Dr. Peter Hotez).

It’s the five actors that we talk about, the five forces that threaten our world: the Plutocrats, the Petro States, the Polluters, the Propagandists, and yes, the Press, not all media outlets, but many of them, including even what we used to think of as legacy. Objective news outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post too often engage in what we call performative neutrality, where anti-science positions are placed on an equal footing with the overwhelming consensus of the world’s scientists.

Dr. Michael Mann

People like to finger point at China, which currently is the largest emitter (of greenhouse gases) because they industrialized much later than the United States, more than a century later. But their trajectory is actually a downward trajectory. They’ve contributed far less carbon pollution to the atmosphere than we have, and they’re taking greater action.

Dr. Michael Mann

The United States doesn’t get to determine the future course of human civilization at this point. It’s going to be the rest of the world. All the United States gets to determine is whether it’s going to be on the front line of the clean energy transition, the great economic development of this century, whether they’re going to be on board or left behind.

Dr. Michael Mann

Martin O’Malley served as Commissioner of the Social Security Administration from December 20, 2023 to November 29, 2024. He previously served as Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015, following two terms as Mayor of the City of Baltimore.

Once they (the Trump Administration) got rid of the heads of all of the offices of Inspectors General, they started launching these big lies, like the lie that there are 12 million dead people that continue to receive checks. And as Trump said himself to Congress, some of them are as much as 300 years old, which would have had them here for the founding of Jamestown.

Martin O’Malley

They (Republicans) are trying to wreck it (Social Security), wreck its reputation, wreck its customer service, so then they can rob it.

Martin O’Malley

News 10/3/25

* Our top story this week is President Trump’s chilling speech to the military high command, in which he proclaimed that “America is under invasion from within,” per PBS. Trump went on to say that he plans to use American cities – citing Chicago, San Francisco, and Portland – as “training grounds for our military.” Warning against conscientious objections by the military to this weaponization against domestic opponents, Trump added “I’m going to be meeting with generals and with admirals and with leaders. And if I don’t like somebody, I’m going to fire them right on this spot.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who has recently styled himself Secretary of War, reiterated this message, saying “if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign.” In terms of actual policy, a new draft National Defense Strategy calls for prioritizing defense of the “homeland,” over potential foreign threats, such as from China, per POLITICO. The administration followed up this declaration with a dystopian deployment in Chicago, where federal agents rappelled down from helicopters to raid a South Side apartment building, arresting Venezuelan migrants and Black American citizens alike. In a statement given to ABC7 Chicago, one man detained by feds stated “They had the Black people in one van, and the immigrants in another.” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker decried the presence of “jackbooted thugs roaming around a peaceful downtown,” and demanded federal troops “Get out of Chicago...You are not helping us,” per the New York Times.

* Speaking of conflicts abroad, this week Trump unveiled his proposal for a peace deal in Gaza. According to CNN, “The plan calls for Israel to release 250 Palestinian prisoners with life sentences, as well as 1,700 Palestinians detained since the start of the war, in exchange for Hamas freeing 48 hostages.” Once these exchanges have been completed, Israel is to gradually withdraw from Gaza and turn over administration of the enclave to a “Board of Peace,” which will include Trump himself along with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a bizarre historical echo of the British mandatory rule over Palestine. If this process proceeds, it will supposedly create “a path for a just peace on the basis of a two-state solution.” The odds of success however are slim.

* In more Gaza news, the Global Sumud Flotilla has been intercepted off the coast of Gaza and Israel has detained the activists on board. Video evidence shows the IDF detaining activist Greta Thunberg specifically. According to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “The Israeli government has illegally abducted over 450 participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla, including nearly two dozen U.S. citizens…We must demand their immediate release and their protection from abuse and torture in Israeli detention. End the siege and genocide of Gaza now.” According to the Flotilla organizers, one of the ships – the Mikeno – got as close as 9.3 miles from the coast, within Gaza’s territorial waters, before they lost its signal. While disappointing, given that this is the largest aid flotilla to Gaza in history and came so close to the shore, it seems that at least the flotilla gave fishermen in Gaza the opportunity to go out on the water without interference from the Israeli navy – a crack in the all-encompassing blockade.

* Meanwhile, Fox News reports that Israeli intelligence hijacked all cellphones in Gaza in order to forcibly broadcast Prime Minister Netanyahu’s United Nations General Assembly speech last week, in which he accused the leaders of western nations who recently recognized the state of Palestine – France, Australia, and the U.K. among others – of being “Leaders who appease evil rather than support a nation whose brave soldiers guard you from the barbarians at the gate,” adding, “They’re already penetrating your gates. When will you learn?” Netanyahu’s speech was also blasted into Gaza via loudspeakers on the Israeli side of the border. The families of the hostages still held in Gaza released a statement decrying this provocative action, writing “We know from our children…that the loudspeakers were placed inside Gaza. This action endangers their lives, all for the sake of a so-called public diplomacy campaign to preserve [Netanyahu’s] rule…He is doing PR at the expense of our children’s lives and security. Today we lost the last shred of trust we had in the political echelon and in the army leaders who approved this scandalous operation.”

* In Latin America, Trump is planning to bailout Argentina, which has suffered tremendous economic shocks under the stewardship of radical Libertarian President Javier Milei. According to Newsweek, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has offered Argentina a, “$20 billion swap line and other forms of assistance to help stabilize the Argentine peso, and said the U.S. remained ‘prepared to do what is necessary’ to sustain the ‘important strides’ taken by Milei.” This kind of ideologically driven foreign assistance flies in the face of Trump’s supposed “America First” policies, but beyond that it has infuriated domestic interests, especially in the agricultural sector. American Soybean Association President Caleb Ragland posted a statement reading, “The frustration is overwhelming…U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. is extending…economic support to Argentina.” This is a particular twist of the knife because following Trump’s offer, Argentina lowered export restrictions and sent “20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days.” Republicans representing agricultural interests share this fury. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley wrote “Why would [America] help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market???...We should use leverage at every turn to help [the] hurting farm economy. Family farmers should be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of [the] USA.” North Dakota Representative Julie Fedorchak added “This is a bitter pill for North Dakota soybean farmers to swallow.”

* Moving on from foreign affairs, this week saw the release of a new batch of Epstein files, demanded by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee and turned over by the Jeffrey Epstein Estate. These files include “phone message logs, copies of flight logs and manifests for aircraft,” along with “copies of financial ledgers and Epstein’s daily schedule.” These new releases implicate many big names, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, and well-documented Epstein associate, Prince Andrew of the British royal family, per the BBC. The release of these files is the latest victory in the campaign to expose everyone involved with Epstein’s underage sex ring, a campaign Republicans in government – led by President Trump – have resisted. According to the Hill, Speaker Mike Johnson is refusing to allow the swearing-in of Adelita Grijalva, who was elected last week in a special election to fill the seat vacated by her father’s death. In this move, many see an attempt by Speaker Johnson to stave off the discharge petition to release the Epstein files. Grijalva has already committed to signing the petition.

* In the wake of the Charlie Kirk assassination, Republicans have hammered the left for what they see as violent rhetoric, with the White House going so far as to classify certain ideas – among them anti-fascism, anti-capitalism and “extremism on migration, race, and gender” – as potentially punishable under domestic terrorism laws. Meanwhile, however, the Arizona Mirror reports a Republican lawmaker in the state has called for the Washington Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal to be “tried convicted and hanged.” The lawmaker, state Representative John Gillette, was responding to a video in which Jayapal counseled protestors on “non-violent resistance” to Trump’s policies. Gillette on the other hand has vocally supported the January 6th insurrectionaries, labeling them “political prisoners” and calling for their release. Asked for comment, Gillette said “The comment is what it is.” For her part, Congresswoman Jayapal has called for “All political leaders, of all parties, [to] denounce” these comments.

* Turning to local news, incumbent New York City Mayor Eric Adams has dropped his bid for reelection, Reuters reports. Adams has been mired in scandal of all kinds, including a federal indictment for bribery. Speculation abounds as to why he chose to suspend his campaign now. It is too late to take his name off of the ballot and he declined to endorse any other candidate, making it unlikely that he did so to bolster the chances of disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is still continuing his independent bid for the mayoralty despite lagging behind Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani by a substantial margin. On the other hand, Adams has previously been offered incentives by President Trump to drop out of the race, including potential protection from prosecution and an ambassadorial post in Saudi Arabia. Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee, claims “Seven different people,” have offered him a “total of $10 million,” to withdraw from the race, but he adamantly refuses to do so, saying “you can’t bribe me, buy me, lease me, I’m not for sale.” This from the New York Post.

* Next, on September 25th, Black liberation activist Assata Shakur passed away at the age of 78, per Democracy Now!. Shakur had been convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in 1973, though serious doubts remain about her role in the death. She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, where she received asylum in 1984 and continued to maintain her innocence until her death. In 1998, Pope John Paul II visited Cuba and faced calls to demand Assata’s extradition to the United States to “face justice” for the murder. In a highly-publicized letter, Assata wrote “The New Jersey State Police and other law enforcement officials say they want to see me brought to ‘justice.’ But I would like to know what they mean by ‘justice.’ Is torture justice?... When my people receive justice, I am sure that I will receive it, too.” Rest in power, Assata.

* Our final story comes to us from, where else, but Hollywood. Variety reports, AI production studio Particle6 has created an AI “actress” who is “named” Tilly Norwood and thereby created a firestorm within the entertainment industry. Tilly’s creator, Eline Van der Velden argues that she sees, “AI not as a replacement for people, but as a new tool…Just as animation, puppetry, or CGI opened fresh possibilities without taking away from live acting…nothing – certainly not an AI character – can take away the craft or joy of human performance.” However, SAG-AFTRA – the union representing screen actors – has issued a blistering statement, writing “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation…It has no life experience to draw from, no emotion and, from what we’ve seen, audiences aren’t interested in watching computer-generated content untethered from the human experience.” The statement continues, “It doesn’t solve any ‘problem’ — it creates the problem of using stolen performances to put actors out of work, jeopardizing performer livelihoods and devaluing human artistry.” This episode is simply the latest clash within the entertainment industry between workers and the rising tide of AI. It will not be the last.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph answers some of your recent questions about the genocide in Gaza, how to jumpstart civic engagement, and more!

Your feedback is very important. And the more detailed and factual it is, the better off the impact will be by your initiative and getting back to us. You have to be active in a program like this. Because we’re not just talking to the choir here. We want the choir to sing back—in affirmation or dissent.

Ralph Nader

I was astonished…how disinterested the American people are in empowering themselves. That’s the problem we have. The lack of civic motivation, the lack of saying, “Look, we’ve given our power to only 535 people in the Congress, and they’ve turned it against us on behalf of some 1,500 corporations. We’re going to turn it around. We’re the sovereign power.” As I’ve said a hundred times, the Constitution starts with “We the people,” not “We the Congress” or “We the corporations.” And the people don’t seem to want to focus on that. If they had anyone in their neighborhood and community who were treating them the way Congress is treating them—as voters, as workers, as consumers, as parents, as children, as taxpayers—they would never allow it.

Ralph Nader

You get more and more voters vulnerable to just what comes out of a politician’s mouth. Remember, everything Trump has achieved politically has come out of his mouth—not out of his deeds, just out of his mouth. Repeatedly, unrebutted largely over the mass media, and faithfully relayed to the American people by a supine media which points out his mistakes once in a while, but it was too little, too late.

Ralph Nader

News 9/26/25

* This week, the campaign for Palestinian statehood notched major victories. According to the BBC, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia and Portugal all announced on Sunday that they would recognize the state of Palestine. They are expected to be joined by a number of smaller states, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra and San Marino. These countries, all traditionally close allies of the United States and Israel, join the 140 countries that already recognize the State of Palestine. A statement by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese explains that this move is “part of a co-ordinated international effort to build new momentum for a two-state solution, starting with a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the hostages.” These heads of state are pursuing this policy despite a thinly veiled threat from Congressional Republicans, a group of whom – including Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Elise Stefanik – sent a letter to President Macron and Prime Ministers Starmer, Carney and Albanese warning them of possible “punitive measures in response,” and urging them to “reconsider,” per the Guardian.

* In more Palestine news, as the Global Sumud Flotilla draws near to the coast of Gaza, they are apparently under low-level attack. Al Jazeera reports the flotilla, “has reported explosions and communications jamming as drones hovered overhead.” In response, the United Nations has called for a probe, with UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan stating, “There must be an independent, impartial and thorough investigation into the reported attacks and harassment by drones and other objects.” In response to this harassment, Reuters reports Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto expressed the “strongest condemnation” and ordered the “Italian multi-purpose frigate Fasan, previously sailing north of Crete, to head towards the flotilla ‘for possible rescue operations’, focusing primarily on Italian citizens.” The strong response by the Italian government is likely related to the labor unrest the targeting of the flotilla has engendered within the country. ANSA, a leading Italian news outlet, reports the Unione Sindacale di Base or USB “would proclaim a wildcat general strike and protests in 100 Italian cities for Gaza after the success of Monday’s stoppage and protests involving an estimated 500,000 people in 80 cities.” The union has organized these massive protests under the slogan “let’s block everything.”

* In more foreign policy news, following on the heels of the protests in Nepal, anti-corruption protestors took to the streets in the Philippines this week, Time reports. The acute cause of these protests was a recent audit which found widespread corruption in the country’s flood control projects. The Philippines has invested around $9.5 billion on such projects since 2022, but these have been plagued by kickback schemes, resulting in shoddy work and even deaths. Even President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., aka “Bongbong,” sympathized with the protestors, saying “Do you blame them for going out into the streets? If I wasn’t President, I might be out in the streets with them…Of course, they are enraged. Of course, they are angry. I’m angry. We should all be angry. Because what’s happening is not right.” The potency of these protests is likely to grow as the Philippines was hit this week by Typhoon Ragasa, which is reported to have killed three Filipinos this week, per NBC.

* For our final foreign policy update, just days after the dubiously-legal strikes that killed 11 Venezuelans on a boat the U.S. claims was being used to transport drugs, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sent a letter to American special envoy Richard Grenell, per CNN. In this letter, Maduro denies any involvement with narco-trafficking, calling the allegations “fake news, propagated through various media channels,” and calling for Trump to “promote peace through constructive dialogue and mutual understanding throughout the hemisphere.” Trump brushed off Maduro, saying “We’ll see what happens with Venezuela,” perhaps implying a renewed attempt to remove the Venezuelan president. Since then, the U.S. has conducted more of these lethal strikes, with no conclusive proof of the victims’ criminality. The U.S. government is offering a $50 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest.

* Moving northward, a disturbing story comes to us from Florida. The Miami Herald reports, “As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined.” Speaking to the paper, attorneys characterized entering the facility as entering “an alternate [immigration] system where the normal rules don’t apply.” This story cites one case of a man “accidentally deported to Guatemala before a scheduled bond hearing,” similar to the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, and a Cuban man supposedly transferred to a facility in California but who could not be located there. This kind of disappearing of migrants adds fuel to the fire of the worst suspicions about the administration’s immigration policies. The Florida facility was forced to halt operations after a court ruling in August, but an appeals court has now overruled that ruling. The future of the site and its detainees remains uncertain.

* In another instance of what appears to be a cover-up by the Trump administration, NPR reports the Department of Agriculture will “end a longstanding annual food insecurity survey.” In a statement, the USDA called the report “redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous.” This removes another crucial data tool, following the discontinuation of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report Trump ended just weeks ago. The signature legislation of Trump’s second term thus far, the One Big Beautiful Bill, expanded work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which is estimated to cut food aid to 2.4 million Americans. That will surely add to the 47.4 million food insecure households recorded in 2023. Crystal FitzSimons, president of the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), told NPR “The national food insecurity survey is a critical, reliable data source that shows how many families in America struggle to put food on the table…Without that data, we are flying blind.”

* And in another assault on the regulatory state, the Supreme Court this week allowed Trump to keep Rebecca Slaughter – the last remaining Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission – out of her post for another three months. POLITICO reports the high court is reviewing a 90-year-old law which “limit[s] the president’s power to fire…officials for political reasons.” According to this report, many expect the conservative majority on the court will rule that that law “unconstitutionally interferes with the president’s ability to control the executive branch.” If so, Trump will be able to remove Slaughter permanently – along with any other remaining Democrats within the regulatory apparatus.

* On the media front, ABC – and its parent company, Disney – have balked, reinstating Jimmy Kimmel’s late night television program after abruptly suspending the show last week. Kimmel, in his return, clarified that “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” but excoriated the ABC affiliates who took his show off the air, calling the move “un-American.” This from AP. Theories abound as to why exactly ABC and/or Disney walked back what seemed like a cancellation; these include a potential costly lawsuit due to wrongful termination of Kimmel’s contract, as well as a coordinated boycott campaign targeting Disney’s streaming service, Disney+. For his part, President Trump washed his hands of the fiasco, writing that Kimmel can “rot in his bad Ratings,” per New York Magazine.

* In tech news, Axios reports the Trump administration has approved Grok, Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, for official use by every government agency. This news comes via a press release from the General Services Administration. This release quotes Musk, who says “We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to rapidly deploy AI throughout the government for the benefit of the country.” This comes after an August 25th letter in which a coalition of over 30 consumer groups – such as Public Citizen, Consumer Federation of America, and the Center for AI and Digital

Policy – urged the Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell Vought, to “take immediate action to block the deployment or procurement of Grok.” Among the concerns cited in this letter are Grok’s penchant for generating “conspiratorial and inflammatory content, including accusations that South Africans were committing a ‘white genocide’...Expressing ‘skepticism’ about historical consensus of the Holocaust death toll and espousing Holocaust denial talking points…[and] Referring to itself as ‘MechaHitler’.” It remains to be seen what, if any, next steps opponents can take to halt the incorporation of Grok into the daily functions of the federal government.

* Finally, Adelita Grijalva has won the Arizona 7th congressional district special election in a landslide. According to preliminary reports, she swamped her Republican opponent Daniel Butierez by nearly 40 points, according to Newsweek. This is a substantially larger margin than that won by Kamala Harris in 2024, who won the district by 23 points, which itself was a 10-point decline from Joe Biden, who won the district by 33 points in 2020. Grijalva’s ascension to the House will further winnow away the Republicans’ razor-thin majority in that chamber, bringing the margin to 219-214. She could also prove to be the critical 218th vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files. Adelita is the daughter of Raúl Grijalva, who passed away earlier this year. The elder Grijalva was widely considered one of the most progressive House Democrats, being the first member of Congress to endorse Bernie Sanders in his 2016 campaign and the second to call for Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. Hopefully, the new Representative Grijalva will fill those big shoes.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph interviews New York Times reporter, David Gelles, about his new book, “Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away.” Then, we welcome back former IRS commissioner, John Koskinen, to update us on how the Trump Administration is dismantling the IRS and stealing your personal information.

David Gelles is a reporter on the New York Times climate team and he leads the Times’s “Climate Forward” newsletter and events series. He is the author of The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America—and How to Undo His Legacy, and his new book is Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away.

He [Yvon Chouinard] saw Patagonia as a role model for other corporations and believed that by running Patagonia in a different way, he could show that capitalism just didn't have to suck so much.

David Gelles

There's a paradox that runs through the pages of Dirtbag Billionaire and it's never fully resolved…It's the fact that Chouinard is an environmentalist who wants to reduce the impact of mankind on planet earth, and yet he runs a big, complicated clothing company that is taking a toll on the environment that he's trying to protect. He runs a company that in theory, he says, and in practice is largely doing, the work of funding grassroots activists and environmental conservation. But he's doing it by participating in the very capitalist system that is responsible for so much of the damage to our natural world. And the list goes on. These contradictions are what really has animated Chouinard and his executive team for all these years. They understand their own perfections. But unlike most, they are willing to really examine their own failings, to look it square in the eye, straight in the mirror, and try to figure out how to make things better.

David Gelles

Chouinard being a “dirtbag” is something he always identified as and he still does at a certain level. The great insult in his mind is being called a “billionaire.”

David Gelles

John Koskinen served as the IRS Commissioner from 2013 to 2017.

Lobbyists and corporations are very good at making sure that [tax advantages] always stayed. You never hear too often of tax advantages taken out of the code, what everybody argues about as new ones being put into the code.

John Koskinen

These (IRS workers) are very skilled people who in fact have given up the opportunity to make two or three times more money in the private sector because they believe in public service.

John Koskinen

News 9/19/25

* Just weeks after David Ellison’s Skydance Media completed their $8 billion takeover of Paramount Global, Ellison is setting his sights even higher – a proposed $70 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Variety reports. If this deal proceeds, it would mean that Ellison would control CNN in addition to CBS news, the latter of which he seemingly plans to place under the supervision of “anti-woke” arch-zionist media personality Bari Weiss. While true that cable news does not possess nearly as much clout as it did just a few years ago, this would represent a nearly unprecedented consolidation in that sector. Ellison and his lieutenants would wield a tremendous amount of influence in the media, which would translate to real impacts on the political process. It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration media regulators will take any action to block this deal. Based on their actions so far, it seems unlikely.

* In more media news, ABC has indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which the comedian has hosted since 2003, after he criticized Trump and his allies for “capitaliz[ing]” on the murder of Charlie Kirk to score political points, CNN reports. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr threatened action up to and including revoking the broadcast license for ABC, which airs the program, or possibly blocking their merger with Nexstar. While Rolling Stone reports multiple executives at ABC and its parent company Disney, felt that Kimmel “had not actually said anything over the line,” they folded immediately under the threat of retaliation by the administration. This move represents a major contradiction of Carr’s previously stated belief that “[the FCC] must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans.” Democrats are incensed at this attack on free speech, Congressman Ro Khanna is seeking to subpoena Carr to testify to the House Oversight Committee. Trump, feeling confident after claiming the scalp of both Kimmel and Colbert – two outspoken critics – is now calling for NBC to remove Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, via Truth Social. Variety reports conservative media conglomerate Sinclair will “replace the Friday timeslot of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ with a Charlie Kirk tribute special on its ABC affiliate stations — and is offering the special to all other ABC stations across the country.”

* Regarding social media, the Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. and China are nearing a deal on control of TikTok, under a framework in which “an investor consortium including Oracle... Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz” would acquire an 80% stake. Oracle is of course run by David Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, one of the richest men in the world, while Andreessen Horowitz is the venture capital firm of Trump ally Marc Andreessen. Silver Lake is another Silicon Valley private equity firm. This deal would finally put an end to the nebulous legal limbo created by Congress passing the TikTok ban and Trump refusing to enforce it. According to this report, the new company that would be created to run TikTok in America, “would also have an American-dominated board with one member designated by the U.S. government.”

* The administration is seeking to shore up support in corporate America in other ways too. Trump has renewed his 2018 push to eliminate the reports businesses are mandated to issue on a quarterly basis, moving to a biannual reporting system. Trump argues that this shift would “cut costs and discourage shortsightedness on the part of publicly traded companies.” Others however believe that this change could be harmful to the economy, making companies less transparent and therefore increasing potential investor risk. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it is “making Trump's proposal a priority.” This from Reuters.

* More troubling signs are emerging in the U.S economy. Per Bloomberg, “Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total spending,” in the second quarter of 2025. This is the highest percentage of consumer spending accounted for by that demographic going back to 1989, according to an analysis of the Federal Reserve’s Financial Accounts and Survey of Consumer Finance data conducted by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s. Chandan Economics reports a spike in late rent payments in August, suggesting stress in the “financial health of renter households,” while for homeowners, Polymarket reports that even more people are searching "help with mortgage" on Google than during the 2008 housing crisis. This comes as only 1.3 million home building permits were issued in August, the lowest level since the Spring of 2020, according to economist and Washington Post columnist Heather Long. Taken together, this data paints a picture of an economy flailing, and kept afloat only by the very rich.

* Speaking of the very rich, the first American Pope, Leo the XIV, condemned the precipitous rise in CEO pay compared to their employees. Leo remarked that CEOs now make “600 times more than what average workers are receiving," adding "What does that mean…If [money] is the only thing that has value anymore, then we're in big trouble." Specifically, Leo was referring to the proposed new compensation package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, which could turn the billionaire into a trillionaire. This from Yahoo! Finance. Senator Bernie Sanders echoed this sentiment, writing “The Pope is exactly right. No society can survive when one man becomes a trillionaire while the vast majority struggle to just survive — trying to put food on the table, pay rent and afford health care. We can and must do better.”

* Turning to Israel and Gaza, AP reports Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry’s is resigning from the company after 47 years. In a letter, Jerry explains that he could not “in good conscience” remain at Ben & Jerry’s because their parent company – the British conglomerate Unilever – has been constraining his ability to advocate against the genocide in Gaza. Jerry writes “For more than 20 years under their ownership, Ben & Jerry’s stood up and spoke out in support of peace, justice and human rights, not as abstract concepts, but in relation to real events happening in our world…It’s profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone.” This is the largest, but by no means only, rupture between Ben & Jerry’s and Unilever; this report notes “In March Ben & Jerry’s said that its CEO was unlawfully removed by Unilever in retaliation for the ice cream maker’s social and political activism.” However, as Greenfield’s departure illustrates, the founders have little recourse besides their public platform and resignation.

* In a sign of Israel’s waning influence in the Democratic Party, POLITICO reports Democratic public affairs “megafirm” SKDK has ended their $600,000 contract with the state of Israel which was supposed to run from April 2025 through March 2026. The firm’s recent focus had been “pitching guests for news shows to hear Israel’s side of the war in Gaza.” The firm has been tight-lipped on this decision, saying only the work “had run its course.” Yet, this decision comes directly on the heels of reporting that Stagwell, the parent company of SKDK, was involved in “setting up a bot program ‘to amplify pro-Israel narratives on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other platforms,’” as revealed in a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing.

* On Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders crossed a major rhetorical rubicon, labeling Israel’s actions in Gaza a “genocide.” In an op-ed appropriate titled “It Is Genocide,” Sanders cites the casualty totals – noting that “The full toll is likely much higher, with many thousands of bodies buried under the rubble” – along with the Israeli blockade on the enclave and their systematic destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, including hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and schools. Sanders also cites the genocidal intent expressed by Israeli leaders, through quotes like “the Gaza Strip should be flattened, and there should be one sentence for everyone there — death. We have to wipe the Gaza Strip off the map. There are no innocents there.” Sanders concludes this piece by warning that if the world fails to act, as during the Holocaust, Netanyahu and other “demagogues” will feel emboldened. History, Sanders writes “demands that the world act with one voice to say: enough is enough. No more genocide.” After Sanders’ announcement, Vermont Congresswoman Becca Balint came out with her own statement accepting the genocide label. Zeteo reports a total of 20 members of Congress now say Israel is committing genocide.

* Finally, to end on a positive note, on Monday the House passed the bipartisan Mental Health in Aviation Act, which seeks to “break down…barriers and support the mental health of our aviation workforce by changing the current rules which prevent aviation professionals from seeking mental health care by imposing unfair penalties on those who do,” according to a press release by the bill’s Republican sponsor Pete Stauber. A press release from the Democratic sponsor, Sean Casten, reads “Aviators should not be unfairly penalized for seeking mental health care…The current system perpetuates a culture of silence, and it’s past time that changes.” Some observers have attributed some credit for the passage of this bill to the comedian Nathan Fielder’s series The Rehearsal, the latest season of which dealt extensively with the issue of aviators’ mental health. While congressional staff have downplayed the show’s influence, it seems hard to deny that at the very least it raised the profile of this pressing issue. Either way, hopefully this bill will make it safer to fly by removing the stigma from pilots seeking mental healthcare.

Ralph welcomes Timothy Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) to speak about how federal workers across all government agencies are being unfairly denigrated and summarily fired by the Trump Administration to clear the way for corporate corruption. Plus, we are joined by Toby Heaps, Editor-in-Chief of “Corporate Knights” magazine to talk about the benefits of the cooperative business model over the corporate shareholder model.

Timothy Whitehouse is executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Prior to joining PEER, he was a senior attorney at the Environmental Protection Agency and was head of the Law and Policy Program at the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal.

The time to stigmatize federal workers is over. It's time to start rallying for unions for federal workers and what they do, and to support the idea that government plays an important role and that government (the civil service) must be as non-political as possible. Our country will be much better for it.

Timothy Whitehouse

That's a good way to describe it: supersonic. We knew things were going to be really bad, but they are much worse than bad because there's no check and no balance on this President's madness. And some of the people and institutions we had hoped would stand up a little bit are collapsing one by one.

Timothy Whitehouse

Our foreign enemies could not have devised a better way to grind our system to a halt, and that's what's happening.

Timothy Whitehouse

Toby Heaps is the CEO and co-founder of Corporate Knights, and Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Knights magazine. He spearheaded the first global ranking of the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations in 2005, and in 2007 coined the term “clean capitalism.” Toby has been published in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Globe and Mail, and is a regular guest speaker on CBC.

I think in the co-op movement, the biggest bugaboo holding it back (in North America, that is) is people's perception that it's not a significant force. And it is already a significant force. In many cases, we're not familiar that the company might be a co-op (such as Associated Press or Ocean Spray) but in the United States alone, the turnover of co-op enterprises sales in 2023 was $324 billion US. And so, it's a significant part of the economy already.

Toby Heaps

I can't underline enough that if you care about a sustainable economy that works for people and planet, that the operating model is not just the clean economy (the environmentally friendly economy), it's the cooperatively-run economy.

Toby Heaps

The principal obstacle to co-ops is the inadequate engagement of consumers to know about the huge benefits— to control the local economy from multinational corporations (absentee), who are pulling strings in ways that are very damaging, and basically to assume the purchasing power of the consumer.

Ralph Nader

News 9/12/2025

* Several major stories surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case have emerged in the past week. First, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released a note written by President Trump to Epstein included in the latter’s “birthday book” from 2003. In this note, Trump refers to Epstein as his “pal” and writes “May every day be another wonderful secret," according to Reuters. Trump has denied that this letter even existed, going so far as to sue the Wall Street Journal for defamation over their reporting in July. Trump continues to deny that he wrote the letter, though his signature is a perfect match, and he has sought to tamp down the matter, calling it a “dead issue,” per NBC.

* In Congress, Republican allies of Donald Trump are seeking to quash the Epstein issue as well. On Tuesday, Republicans on the House Rules Committee “shot down a bid to put the Epstein Files Transparency Act—which would compel the Justice Department to release all unclassified records related to Jeffrey Epstein—to a floor vote,” in an 8–4 party-line vote, the New Republic reports. However, despite this setback, dissident Republican Thomas Massie continues to press the issue. Speaking about the birthday note, Massie said “It’s…indicative of the things that might come out if we were to release all of the files…embarrassing, but not indictable. And I don’t think avoiding embarrassment is a reason to avoid justice,” per CNN. Massie added in an interview on ABC that "I think it's going to be embarrassing to some of the billionaires, some of the donors who are politically connected to [Trump’s] campaign. There are probably intelligence ties to our CIA and maybe to other foreign intelligence." Democrat Ro Khanna insisted in this same interview that he and his allies, including Massie, will be able to pull together a House majority of 218 members to force a vote on releasing the files.

* Our final Epstein story for the week concerns James O’Keefe. Former leader of Project Veritas, O’Keefe continues to carry out far-right hidden-camera sting operations. In a rare move targeting conservatives, O’Keefe engineered a date between Joseph Schnitt, a deputy chief of staff at the Office of Enforcement Operations at DOJ, and an operative in his employ wherein Schnitt admitted that the Trump administration will “redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, [and] leave all the liberal, Democratic people.” In this video, Schnitt also implies that Epstein’s lieutenant, Ghislaine Maxwell was relocated to a lower security prison to “keep her mouth shut,” as part of a deal with the government. This according to the Hill. One should certainly take revelations from O’Keefe with a heavy dose of salt, but these troubling comments should also raise suspicions about the government’s possible plans to manipulate information related to this case for political ends.

* Aside from the Epstein affair, the Trump administration continues to issue destructive policy directives in all directions. AP reports the federal Department of Transportation has scrapped a Biden-era rule that required airlines to “compensate stranded passengers with cash, lodging and meals for flight cancellations or changes caused by a carrier.” This rule, which sought “compensation starting at $200…[and] as high as $775…for delays of nine hours or more,” was consistent with European aviation consumer protections. Unsurprisingly, airlines – represented by lobbyists in the employ of the industry trade group Airlines for America – bitterly resisted the rule and celebrated the administration’s abandonment of this basic consumer protection. The Biden Transportation Department had also been weighing rules that would have required airlines to provide, “free rebooking on the next available flight, including flights on rival airlines, as well as meals and lodging when passengers are stranded overnight.”

* At the same time, the Trump administration’s Federal Trade Commission is abandoning its rules banning noncompete clauses for employees. An eye-popping 1 in 5 workers are bound by noncompetes, approximately 30 million Americans, and experts estimated that banning such clauses could boost wages to the tune of nearly $300 billion per year and help create 8,500 new businesses, per NPR. The FTC voted 3-1 to vacate its defense of the rule, with Chair Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, both Republicans, issuing a joint statement. Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the lone remaining Democrat on the commission after Trump purged the FTC earlier this year, voted no.

* Turning to foreign affairs, the Guardian reports two ships in the Gaza aid flotilla have been struck by drone attacks while docked in Tunisia. The first struck the Family Boat, which carries activist Greta Thunberg, though she was not on board at the time. The second struck the Alma, a ship bearing British flags while docked in the port of Sidi Bou Said. In a video, one can see, “a luminous object hitting the boat and fire erupting on board.” Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, is quoted saying, ‘‘Authoritative sources suggest the attack involved an incendiary grenade, wrapped in plastic materials soaked in fuel, which may have ignited before even hitting the vessel.” These attacks come amidst a renewed Israeli bombing campaign against its neighbors, including bombing the Qatari capital of Doha and the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Trump says he is “very unhappy” about the strikes; Israel’s ambassador to the United States however says the world will “get over it.” This from Al Jazeera.

* Meanwhile, Drop Site is out with yet another bombshell report, this time on Israel’s propaganda push to cover up the scale of the hunger crisis in Gaza. According to this report, the Netanyahu government signed a previously unreported $45 million deal with Google to push false propaganda through the massive platform. One video, viewed more than 6 million times, asserts “There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie.” Israel also reportedly paid $3 million for an ad campaign on X, formerly Twitter, and another $2 million on a French platform called Outbrain. This report also cites other examples of Israeli propaganda campaigns in recent years, including against UNRWA and regarding the illegal strikes in Iran.

* In more positive news, the pro-Palestine campaign in Hollywood continues to grow. This week, Variety reports a group of over 3,900 filmmakers, actors and other industry professionals signed a new pledge to boycott working with “Israeli film institutions and companies that are ‘implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people.’” This group includes many household names, such as Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Jonathan Glazer, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Emma Stone, Boots Riley, Ayo Edebiri, and many, many more. The list continues to grow as this pledge circulates. According to the Hollywood Reporter, this campaign is led by Film Workers for Palestine, which explicitly modeled their strategy after Filmmakers United Against Apartheid. That group, founded by eminent filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, demanded that the film industry refuse distribution in apartheid South Africa.

* Beyond Israel/Palestine, events are rocking Nepal, the small Himalayan nation that lies between India and China. The BBC reports “Fierce protests against corruption and nepotism spiralled into arson and violence on Tuesday. The prime minister resigned as politicians' homes were vandalised, government buildings torched and parliament set ablaze. Twenty-nine people have died since Monday.” The "Gen Z" youth groups leading the protests have distanced themselves from these acts of destruction, claiming their movement was "hijacked" by "opportunists". Nepal’s military has been deployed in the capital of Kathmandu in an attempt to restore order and enforce a curfew. The government of Nepal, led by now-ousted Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, sought to cultivate a closer relationship with China to offset Nepal’s historical dependence on India. For the time being, China seems to be taking a wait and see approach to the situation in Nepal, with foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian calling for all parties to “properly handle domestic issues and restore social order and national stability as soon as possible,” per the South China Morning Post.

* Finally, Democracy Now! reports that in an apparent fit of retaliation, the Trump administration is now threatening to redeport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the American green card holder recently returned from his wrongful deportation to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. This time, instead of sending him to El Salvador, the government plans to send Garcia to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland. Garcia had previously expressed fear of being deported to Uganda. This move would surely be punitive, capricious and just plain bizarre, but that is hardly a deviation from the course of the Trump administration. We express solidarity with Garcia, who stands practically alone against the juggernaut of the United States’ deportation apparatus.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph welcomes Palestinian-American writer, activist, and scientist Susan Abulhawa to discuss the ongoing Palestinian genocide and the evidence that supports a vastly higher death toll in Gaza.

Susan Abulhawa is a Palestinian-American writer and political activist. She is the author of Mornings in Jenin—translated into thirty languages—and The Blue Between Sky and Water. Born to refugees of the Six Day War of 1967, she moved to the United States as a teenager, graduated in biomedical science, and established a career in medical science. In July 2001, she founded “Playgrounds for Palestine,” a non-governmental children’s organization dedicated to upholding the Right to Play for Palestinian children.

I consider this, first of all, immoral. It's disrespecting the Palestinian dead while they kill the Palestinians who are still alive with US bombers and artillery shells and other weapons coming from Washington, D.C. And it underestimates the kind of urgency that should be confronting this genocide.

Ralph Nader

This is something that I think generations will study for a very long time to come. The complicity of Western media across the board is no less criminal than the genocide itself.

Susan Abulhawa

This is a complete wiping out of life. A total destruction. And it's completely driven by this unfathomable hate and colonial arrogance and Jewish supremacy and this notion of entitlement. Of being favored by God, of being promised some real estate by a real-estate-agent Lord. I mean, it beggars belief the narratives that we see spoken in mainstream outlets and in the halls of power. Truly, it beggars belief.

Susan Abulhawa

No, I don't believe Israel has a right to exist. It has never had a right to exist. No political entities have a right to exist. People have a right to exist. They have a right to exist in their own homeland with dignity. People have a right to universal dignity. A supremacist ideology—and that's ultimately what Zionism is predicated on, on supremacy and entitlement for a group of people at the detriment of another group of people—that is not a right, and it should never be a right. It should be anathema, in fact.

Susan Abulhawa

News 9/5/25

* The Intercept reports AIPAC has lost another Democratic ally in Congress. Congresswoman Deborah Ross of North Carolina has pledged that she will not accept AIPAC campaign contributions in her 2026 reelection bid. In previous elections, Ross has accepted over $100,000 in AIPAC donations. This comes on the heels of another North Carolina Congresswoman, Valerie Foushee – who received over $800,000 in AIPAC contributions – also renouncing donations from the group. As the Intercept notes, in June, the North Carolina Democratic Party adopted a resolution calling for a “complete arms embargo on all military aid to Israel until it ends its apartheid rule of Palestinians.” Dr. Paul McAllister, a reverend and chair of the Interfaith Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, is quoted saying “AIPAC uses the muscle of their resources to oust anyone who disagrees with them regarding Israel, the conduct of Israel and the atrocities that may be committed by the government of Israel — so it is good that Deborah Ross is willing to recognize and acknowledge that.”

* In more Israel news, a new aid flotilla bound for Gaza departed from Genoa, Italy last Sunday. Unlike previous flotillas however, this one carries the protection of a surprising group: Italian dockworkers. According to POLITICO EU, “Speaking at a rally on the docks of Genoa, one of Europe's largest ports, a dockworker representing the USB union said…‘Around mid-September, these boats will arrive near the coast of Gaza. If we lose contact with our boats, with our comrades, even for just 20 minutes, we will shut down all of Europe.’” Genoa has expressed unprecedented solidarity with Gaza. A food drive in the city collected “more than 300 tons of humanitarian aid…[and] over 40,000 people, including the city's mayor, Silvia Salis, joined a torchlit march through the streets in support of the [humanitarian flotilla on Saturday].” During the procession, Salis remarked “Every day I am proud to be the mayor of this city, but tonight, if possible, I am even more so.”

* In yet another Israel story, Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, an Israeli cybersecurity apparatchik, who was arrested in August during an undercover operation “targeting child sex predators,” failed to appear for his court date in Nevada. Alexandrovich fled to Israel after being bailed out of jail in the U.S.; his lawyer, David Chesnoff, told the court that he told Alexandrovich not to attend the hearing. Judge Barbara Schifalacqua is now demanding that Alexandrovich appear before the court this week, but it remains to be seen whether he will actually show. This case has become politicized, with liberals and conservatives accusing one another of allowing Alexandrovich to flee the country. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu falsely denied that Alexandrovich was arrested at all. This from Al Jazeera.

* In more sex predator news, Representatives Ro Khanna, Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor-Greene held a press conference this week with survivors of abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein to push for full disclosure of the Justice Department’s files on the case. At this conference, survivors also said they will release their own list of names. This comes amidst a renewed push for Congressional action spearheaded by the survivors. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee released a batch of records, but most of these have been made public before. The survivors met with lawmakers this week, including Speaker Mike Johnson, who said “I think the Oversight probe is going to be wide and expansive, and they’re going to follow the truth wherever it leads,” per the Washington Post. Congresswoman Nancy Mace was also seen emerging from a meeting with the survivors visibly upset, though we do not know what exactly was discussed in this meeting. What is clear is that the Epstein story is not going away any time soon.

* In local news, the National Guard has shared a statement with CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane in which they boast that, “Guardsmen have cleaned more than 3.2 miles of roadways, collected more than 500 bags of trash, and disposed of three truckloads of plant waste.” Looking beyond the absurdity of deploying the National Guard to pick up trash, Samuel Littauer, Commissioner of ANC 3C01 – a local government district in Washington – crunched the numbers and found that “DC’s cleaning crews cover around 81 miles/day for around $150K/day… [while the] National Guard has cleaned a total of 3.2 miles and costs more than $1M/day.” This means, “It’s about 170X more cost efficient per mile to fund DC’s existing work.”

* Yet, despite the staggering inefficiency of the federal occupation – to say nothing of the outrageous, authoritarian government overreach – D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has signed an order outlining how the District will “continue to work with the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, U.S. Park Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, [and] the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,” according to WTOP. This report notes that, “Bowser’s order provides a path for working with federal law enforcement…[a] public indication that federal law enforcement could remain in the city indefinitely.” Other D.C. officials, including the District’s delegate in Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton, have decried the occupation. Unfortunately, Norton is not even afforded the power of a single vote in Congress. This debacle further underscores the necessity for sovereign statehood for D.C.

* In more news of federal law enforcement overreach, Prem Thakker of Zeteo reports new figures that show, “61,226 people are currently in ICE detention — the highest number ever in US history.” Thakker goes on to report that “According to ICE data, 70% of these people have no criminal conviction.” This unjustifiable mass detention shows no signs of slowing down, with ICE being granted larger and larger budgets and more and more latitude by the administration. The parallels to other shadowy secret police organizations throughout history continue to grow more pronounced.

* Labor Notes editor Luis Feliz Leon reports Columbia University is seeking to bust graduate worker unions – at Columbia and beyond. A statement from the union reads “Over the summer, the university expelled and suspended 80 students, eliminated all but ten…graduate instructor jobs, and filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge that could reshape the future of higher ed.” This marks yet another blow to the august reputation of Columbia, already damaged by their authoritarian overreaction to pro-Palestine protests and their capitulation to borderline extortion by Trump.

* In the federal government, Trump continues to attack critical safety regulators. Reuters reports, “Two of the three remaining commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. nuclear safety watchdog, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday they feel President Donald Trump could fire them if they obstruct his goal to approve reactors faster.” Trump, via executive order, has committed the United States to, “fast-tracking new reactor licenses and quadrupling U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050…while also reducing staffing at the NRC.” The Commission is already down to just three members from its usual five and according to this report, “a dozen senior level managers…have left or announced they will leave since January, and…143 staff departed between January and June.” The Commission is currently considering five reactor applications and “expects another 25 to 30 soon.” Whatever one’s thoughts are on nuclear energy in general, it is wildly irresponsible and dangerous to consider these reactor proposals by a commission short-staffed and constantly threatened with dismissal.

* Finally, the Government Accountability Project has submitted a stunning whistleblower complaint on behalf of Chuck Borges, Chief Data Officer at the Social Security Administration. This complaint concerns “serious data security lapses, evidently orchestrated by DOGE officials, currently employed as SSA employees, that risk the security of over 300 million Americans’ Social Security data…including apparent systemic data security violations, uninhibited administrative access to highly sensitive production environments, and potential violations of federal privacy laws by DOGE personnel.” The most critical violation is the DOGE staffers’ move to “create a live copy of the country’s Social Security information in a cloud environment that circumvents oversight.” As this complaint explains, “This vulnerable cloud environment is effectively a live copy of the entire country’s Social Security information…that…lacks any security oversight from SSA or tracking to determine who is accessing or has accessed the copy of this data.” This includes “all data submitted in an application for a United States Social Security card—including the name of the applicant, place and date of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, parents’ names and social security numbers, phone number, address, and other personal information.” If this data were to be compromised – as is eminently possible given the unsecured and unsupervised nature of the cloud copy, “Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital healthcare and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for re-issuing every American a new Social Security Number.” This staggering degree of carelessness and incompetence is almost unbelievable, if not for the fact that it comports perfectly with the DOGE track record. We can only hope lawmakers and regulators take swift action to shut down this ticking timebomb of data before it’s too late.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.

Ralph welcomes constitutional scholar, John Bonifaz, co-founder and president of the group “Free Speech for People,” which has launched the non-partisan campaign “Impeach Trump. Again.” Plus, Ralph, Steve, and David discuss Donld Trump’s servile corporatist agenda and his attempt to rig the midterms by ordering Texas to gerrymander him five more districts.

John Bonifaz is a constitutional attorney and the co-founder and president of Free Speech For People. Mr. Bonifaz previously served as the executive director and general counsel of the National Voting Rights Institute, and as the legal director of Voter Action. In 2004, Mr. Bonifaz wrote the book Warrior-King: The Case For Impeaching George W. Bush.

We either have a constitution,or we don't. We either have an impeachment clause, or we don't. If we're not going to invoke the impeachment power at this critical moment in our nation's history, then we might as well say we're giving up on the Constitution. We refuse to give up on the Constitution.

John Bonifaz

I think the biggest thing that we have to deal with are the naysayers. Those who somehow claim that we're not going to invoke the impeachment power because either it's not the right time, or he's already been impeached twice and what's the point or we just need to move on.

John Bonifaz

These are high crimes against the state. These are not policy disputes. These are political high crimes against the state, for which you must be held accountable via the impeachment process.

John Bonifaz

I think it's disgraceful for any member who claims that they're out there defending the Constitution and defending our democracy, and yet they won't even want to mention the "I- word”. As much as I respect them on other fronts and what they do, if they're not invoking the impeachment clause at this critical hour, frankly, they're part of the problem.

John Bonifaz

News 8/29/25

* In an interview on “Hamakor” or “The Source” on Israel’s Channel 13, former Biden State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told former Secretary of State Antony Blinken that he planned to continue fighting in Gaza for decades, per the Middle East Eye. Other revelations in this interview include behind the scenes accounts of ceasefire negotiations, such as a story about Netanyahu blowing up a proposed six-week ceasefire with his declaration that Israel would invade Rafah “whether there was a ceasefire or not,” according to the Times of Israel. It is disgraceful that Miller and the Biden administration kept this information from the public at the time, but better late than never.

* A new report in the Chronicle of Higher Education reveals that, “Hundreds of pages of previously unseen documents reveal that [Pennsylvania Governor Josh] Shapiro’s office was intimately involved in managing the controversy [over the pro-Palestine demonstrations and encampments at the University of Pennsylvania], seizing an unprecedented level of influence over the university in the process.” Through a proxy, a lawyer named Robb Fox, Shapiro “pushed the university to ban Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine (PAO), its main pro-Palestinian student group,” and “worked closely with the Penn Israel Public Affairs Committee — a significant pro-Israel group on campus — to a great enough extent that PIPAC effusively thanked Shapiro and Fox for their ‘partnership.’” Shapiro putting his thumb on the scales against pro-Palestine student activism is sure to come back to haunt him if he seeks the presidential nomination in 2028, as many speculate he will.

* In more foreign policy related news, investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein reports “The Trump administration has directed the military to prepare for lethal strikes against cartel targets inside Mexico…which are to be ready by mid-September.” This is the latest escalation in Trump’s campaign against transnational criminal organizations, or TCOs, but critically, “sources say that military action could be unilateral — that is, without the involvement or approval of the Mexican government.” If so, this would constitute an extremely aggressive act within the sovereign territory of another country. It is unlikely that Mexico would respond with any kind of military action, but diplomatic and economic sanctions would be on the table.

* In domestic political news, the Democratic National Committee held a much-anticipated meeting in Minneapolis on Tuesday, featuring dueling resolutions to lay out the party’s position on Gaza – one of which called for a “military arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel.” As POLITICO reports, “The committee initially voted to reject that measure while advancing…one backed by [DNC Chair Ken] Martin, which called for ‘unrestricted’ aid to Gaza and a two-state solution. But soon after the arms embargo vote failed, Martin announced he was withdrawing his successful resolution.” Martin stated “There’s a divide in our party on this issue,” and urged Democrats to “keep working through” what their position should be. Allison Minnerly, the progressive Florida delegate who sponsored the more strident resolution, expressed that while she was glad Martin didn’t ram through his preferred position, she considered the result “disappointing” when “it’s clear what voters want.” According to Gallup, just 8% of Democrats approve of Israel’s actions in Gaza.

* More Democratic Party division surfaced in Minnesota this week, with Axios reporting that, based on a technicality, the state Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party's rules committee vacated the local DFL’s endorsement of democratic socialist mayoral candidate Omar Fateh. Fateh, who has been hailed as the “Mamdani of Minneapolis” won the local party’s endorsement in July, which gave him – rather than incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey – exclusive access to the party’s voter database. According to this report however, a third candidate was wrongfully eliminated from the endorsement vote process, rendering the endorsement null and void. Fateh’s campaign is understandably incensed by this decision and views it as an attempt by the state party to intervene on behalf of Frey. Moreover, Ryan Faircloth of the Star-Tribune reports “the state DFL committee [also] barred the Minneapolis DFL from holding another endorsing convention this year…placed the Minneapolis DFL on probation for two years and said it must be supervised by [the] state DFL executive committee.” Fateh co-campaign manager Graham Faulkner is quoted saying “Our campaign sees this for what it is: disenfranchisement of thousands of Minneapolis caucus-goers and the delegates who represented all of us on convention day…The establishment is threatened by our message…They are scared of a politics that really stands up to corporate interests and with our working class neighbors." Congresswoman Ilhan Omar called the move a “stain on our party.”

* In more local politics news, the administration of New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been rocked by yet new corruption indictments. On August 21st, the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, “announced the indictment of INGRID LEWIS-MARTIN for accepting more than $75,000 in bribes…in a wide-ranging series of bribery conspiracies …while serving as Chief Advisor to the Mayor of the City of New York.” Lewis-Martin was previously charged in an alleged bribery conspiracy totaling more than $100,000 in December 2024. This new indictment is related to Lewis-Martin accepting bribes in exchange for favorable treatment by city agencies, including “help[ing] fast-track permit approvals for a karaoke bar in Queens,” and “hav[ing] the New York City Department of Transportation…withdraw its approval for a street redesign of McGuinness Boulevard in Brooklyn, which would have included new, protected bike lanes.” For the latter, Lewis-Martin allegedly received a speaking role on the television show Godfather of Harlem. This indictment further cements the comically corrupt reputation of the Eric Adams administration.

* In more news of possible corruption, Unusual Whales, which tracks congressional stock trading, reported on August 19th that Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott just disclosed trades worth $26,000,000 more than a year late, noting that Scott “traded millions on companies he legislated.” Scott, one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, previously served as CEO of Columbia/HCA, the largest for-profit healthcare company in the nation in the 1990s. He was forced to resign in 1997, when the Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company and imposed a $1.7 billion fine, the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history up to that point.

* Moving on to consumer news, the Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit against “LA Fitness and other gyms over allegations they make it exceedingly difficult for consumers to cancel their gym memberships.” The agency is “seeking a court order prohibiting the allegedly unfair conduct and money back for consumers harmed by the difficulty in cancelling memberships.” This lawsuit is related to the FTC’s “click to subscribe/call to cancel” rule, but these gyms go far beyond requiring customers to merely call to cancel their memberships. As the FTC explains, “LA Fitness has required consumers who want to cancel their membership to either go to the gym itself or send a cancellation notice by mail,” and they make both processes as difficult as possible. For instance, “consumers who tried to cancel in person…could only cancel with one specific employee, even though LA Fitness authorized several employees to sign consumers up for memberships. This restricted cancellation hours to times when consumers are typically at work, despite most locations operating up to 19 hours per day, seven days per week.” These kinds of mundane degradations are far too common throughout the economy and the only thing that will force companies to treat their customers with the respect they are due is regulatory action.

* Our last two stories concern lawsuits against Amazon. First, Law360 reports a federal judge has ordered Amazon to disclose information “regarding the company’s alleged ties to antitrust researchers.” In a series of antitrust cases, Amazon’s “expert economists” have cited “various academic authors,” about whom the plaintiffs “have presented records suggest[ing Amazon] ‘has communicated with or funded.’” This includes “antitrust research by economists, scholars and think tanks that [were] ‘funded, solicited or edited’ by the company.” This decision could prove to be momentous if it turns out that Amazon funding of antitrust research has been as deep and widespread as some believe. As the Lever’s Luke Goldstein puts it, “Grifters are on notice. Clock is ticking.”

* Finally, the Hollywood Reporter is out with a story on a proposed class action lawsuit against Amazon, filed in Washington Friday, over a “‘bait and switch’ in which the company allegedly misleads consumers into believing they’ve purchased content when they’re only getting a license to watch, which can be revoked at any time.” Essentially, this lawsuit revolves around the fact that despite marketing “purchases” of movies on their platform, these “purchases” can actually be revoked at any time if Amazon loses the rights to the film. This is also a case of a “fine print” contract; as this story notes, “On its website and platform, the company tells consumers they can ‘buy’ a movie. But hidden in a footnote on the confirmation page is fine print that says, ‘You receive a license to the video and you agree to our terms.’” This issue has previously arisen with regard to video games, spawning the so-called “Stop Killing Games” movement which seeks to prevent companies from “destroying titles consumers had already bought.” California has responded to that movement by passing a law “barring the advertisement of a transaction as a ‘purchase’ unless it offers unrestricted ownership of the product.” Amazon will surely deploy an army of lawyers to fight this case, but for the time being at least, the momentum is on the side of the consumers for once. We can only hope for their victory.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven’t Heard.