Monday, September 19, 2016

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Monday, September 19, 2016

Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González for Monday, September 19, 2016
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A Debate on Empire: Is Donald Trump One Terrorist Attack Away from the Presidency?
Ralph Nader, former presidential candidate, discusses what expanding the presidential debate to include third-party candidates would mean for the discussion of this weekend’s attacks in New Jersey and New York. Nader says, "Brute force doesn’t work. … State terrorism kills far more people than stateless terrorism." He says Clinton is "more systemically hawkish" and Trump is "unpredictably belligerent."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I mean, let’s take something like what this community has gone through this weekend.
RALPH NADER: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, we are sitting in Chelsea between where, on 27th Street, a pressure cooker with wires linked to a flip phone was found, and 23rd Street, where some kind of device went off, injuring 29 people. They’re all out of the hospital now. It was put in or near a dumpster that was a part of construction in front of the home of the blind on 23rd Street between 6th and 7th. Some have said Donald Trump is one terrorist attack from the presidency. We’re now looking at—we don’t know any details yet about whether the explosion on 23rd Street, the pressure cooker on 27th Street, the backpack in Elizabeth that was just blown up this morning, New Jersey, outside of the train station, or five men who were detained earlier in a car, as well as another New Jersey attack this weekend—we don’t know any more information than that, though I’m sure the authorities do. How does a debate that includes four different candidates impact what we’re dealing with this weekend?
RALPH NADER: Because candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson of the Green Party and Libertarian Party, respectively, will show that when we are in their backyard supporting their dictators overseas, military attacks everywhere—it’s been going on for a hundred years—eventually, they’re going to want to come into our backyard. Now, Trump’s not going to say that, Clinton’s not going to say that. But these two parties are going to say that. What’s really important is, we don’t have a debate on empire. We don’t have a debate that we’re all over the world, that we’re breaching national sovereignties, violating our Constitution, killing anybody the president wants to kill. And we see it in Yemen. You see it in Afghanistan, Iraq, now Syria, and many other countries. So, it’s not working. What started with a criminal gang in northeast Afghanistan has now spread into 20 countries. They’re more trained, they’re more adept in social media, they’ve got more people, and they’re heading this way.
So, Trump will only exacerbate that, because he takes everything personally in terms of his ego. He has no impulse control. And he’ll lash out with brute force, and it will only come back. And we are far more vulnerable than other countries. I mean, we totally freak out with an explosion here or a shooting there, compared to what happens in Baghdad or in Afghanistan every day. So we are extremely vulnerable. The last thing we want is someone in the White House who believes in brute force. And I’m sorry to say that Hillary Clinton has that tendency, as well, when she advances U.S. foreign policy.
AMY GOODMAN: Would you say Hillary Clinton is more hawkish than Donald Trump?
RALPH NADER: Well, she’s more systemically hawkish, like she’ll go and try to persuade—successfully—Barack Obama to topple the Libyan regime, which has resulted in huge areas of Africa now in total chaos and violence. What the problem is with Trump is he’s unpredictably belligerent. And he brings his personality into the White House. You cannot, as president, take every slur, every criticism, every affront from Congress or some foreign leader personally and translate that into military options.
AMY GOODMAN: What is the answer? You’re a four-time presidential candidate. How do you think you deal with what is referred to as terror in the world? Terror, certainly, the killing of innocent civilians. The question is what we consider a terroristic act and what we don’t consider a terroristic act.
RALPH NADER: Well, first of all, the state terrorism is killing far more people than stateless terrorism. What’s important is, the brute force doesn’t work. You’re going against people, many of them in their twenties, who have nothing to lose. There’s nothing more dangerous than an unemployed person who has no purpose left in life except to attack the invader. And so, it’s a losing proposition.
We have to wage peace. We have to use a fraction of the money we use for armaments abroad, making things worse, dealing with healthcare and clean drinking water and agricultural co-ops—all the things—and education—all the things that will build support for a peaceful resolution of disputes and support for the United States. You know, it’s—as they say, it’s not rocket science. The proof in the pudding is that our government does not learn from its failures. There is no flunking grade for brute force in military and foreign policy. And the essence of it has to go down to us, we, the people. I mean, if—we got reasonable arms control and reduction because a few thousand people in this country organized groups like SANE in the past and led to arms control agreements between Washington and Moscow. It never takes more than 1 percent of the people representing the public sentiments of the majority to change power, to break through power. I mean, we have historical records of that going back 200 years.
Why don’t we learn from that? Because if we sit down as spectators—yeah, we’re spectators; we’re watching the debates—what an absurdity. Every city in this country is full of people who want presidential debates. So why don’t people organize? We’ll start with the Chamber of Commerce, the labor unions, the neighborhood groups in every city—Atlanta, in Seattle, in Los Angeles, in New York—and say, "The heck with this corporation that limits debates, we want the candidates to come to our city." There’s nothing that can stop that. Why are we rationing debates? We don’t ration cosmetics. We don’t ration all kinds of trivia. Why are we rationing debates? Because we’re spectators. Because we’re told, "Shut up and shop, and once in a while look at politics," because it’s now entertainment. I mean, Trump has turned elections from circuses to burlesque shows. And it’s making money for these corporations—CNN and Fox and others. And we’re sitting around watching it, when we have the sovereign power under the Constitution? Corporation isn’t even mentioned in the Constitution. Political parties aren’t even mentioned, Amy. Why are they controlling us? So, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and grab the reins of our country for ourselves and our posterity. There’s nothing stopping us from doing this. It’s just a sort of a, you know, resignation—whatever will be will be; let’s go back to our private lives, not be public citizens.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to this discussion. We’re talking to Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, four-time third-party presidential candidate. His new book is headlined—or titled Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think. This is Democracy Now! Back in a minute.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: By The Magnetic Fields, "The Book of Love." Congratulations to Michelle Lau Burke and Mike Burke. Mike Burke is our senior producer. That was the music for their first dance Saturday night when they got married.... Read More →

Two-Party Tyranny: Ralph Nader on Exclusion of Third-Party Candidates from First Presidential Debate
It's official: When the first presidential debate takes place next Monday, a week from today, it will exclude third-party candidates from the debate stage. The Commission on ... Read More →
Ralph Nader: Calling a Third-Party Candidate a "Spoiler" is a "Politically Bigoted Word"
In an extended discussion of the exclusion of third-party candidates from the first presidential election of 2016, four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader argues against the need to vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in order to defeat Republican Donald Trump. He argues that instead voters opposed to both candidates should work together to support a third-party candidate of their choice. "The idea of calling a third party 'spoiler,' using the First Amendment right to run for office, is a politically bigoted word and should never be tolerated by the American people," Nader says. When asked about critics who say his candidacy in 2000 allowed George W. Bush to defeat Al Gore, he says they are "scapegoating."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let’s talk about some of the issues you’re going to talk about—
RALPH NADER: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And I want to get your views on both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
RALPH NADER: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: But before I do, who will you be voting for, Ralph Nader?
RALPH NADER: I never say who I vote for. I’m not—certainly, not going to vote for either Hillary or Trump. Listen, if I don’t have a third party to vote for, I’ll write in my vote. I will never vote for someone who is going to engage in illegal armed force, unconstitutional killing of innocent people, selling Washington to Wall Street and driving our country into the ground, all the time sugarcoating the American people on TV with rhetoric.
AMY GOODMAN: So the idea that some people have, that is very much pushed, about swing state strategy—
RALPH NADER: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —you don’t agree with?
RALPH NADER: No, because it’s very easy. Let’s say you’re in a swing state, and you think that the least worst candidate is Hillary. What you do is you go with a Trump voter who thinks the Trump voter is the least, and you trade off. You say, "Look, you won’t vote for Trump, and I won’t vote for Hillary. Let’s make a deal, and then we’ll vote for whoever we want to in terms of our conscience, third party or whatever." There are already computerized systems for this underway you can actually join and network, and that will get rid of that.
But what Bernie Sanders never talks about is, if we had proportional representation, instant runoff voting, all this spoiler stuff wouldn’t be around. And the idea of calling a third party "spoiler," using the First Amendment right to run for office, is a politically bigoted word and should never be tolerated by the American people, because everyone has an equal right to run for office. Everyone is going to get votes from one another. So they’re either spoilers of one another or none of them are spoilers.
AMY GOODMAN: People refer back to your presidential candidacy in the midst of the Al Gore-George W. Bush race back in 2000—
RALPH NADER: Sure.
AMY GOODMAN: —talk about you as the spoiler. You have always said this is absolutely wrong. Why?
RALPH NADER: Well, it’s wrong from a First Amendment point of view, first of all. You should never tell anybody to shut up. And when you run for office, it’s free speech, petition and assembly. It’s the consummate use of the First Amendment. But here—it’s a scapegoating. The Democrats could never get over how they couldn’t beat this bumbling governor from Texas, who couldn’t put a paragraph together and has a horrible record—children and women and pollution, etc., policy, right?
AMY GOODMAN: You’re talking about George W. Bush.
RALPH NADER: George W. Bush. So they scapegoat the Greens. So here’s how it goes: 300,000 registered Democrats in 2000 in Florida voted for Bush—blame the Greens. Thousands of people were misidentified as ex-felons by Katherine Harris, the secretary of state for Jeb Bush, governor of Florida—blame the Greens. The butterfly ballot, which was very deceptive and got people to vote for exactly the opposite candidate in South Florida—blame the Greens. Scalia’s political 5-4 decision, which blocked the Florida Supreme Court’s full recount in Florida—blame the Greens. The Electoral College took the victory in the popular vote from Gore—blame the Greens. Gore loses his Tennessee state, where he represented in Congress for years—blame the Greens. It’s total scapegoating. It’s disgusting that extremely smart people, who happen to be Democratic Party apparatchiks, like Howard Dean, who’s now in a corporate firm that lobbies for the healthcare and drug industry, by the way, and never identified as such by The New York Times and others who quote him—he is now reviving this 2000 nonsense.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to break and then come back to this discussion. Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, ran for president four times. He has a new book out; it’s called Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think. And he has a four-day conference next week demanding people break through power. Stay with us.... Read More →
Ralph Nader: Bernie Sanders' Opposition to Third Parties is Why His Movement is in Disarray
When longtime independent Senator Bernie Sanders lost his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, he concluded his campaign by endorsing Hillary Clinton instead of a third-party candidate. "This huge, wonderful effort that he launched is now aborted," says our guest, four-time former presidential candidate Ralph Nader. "Sanders hasn’t returned a call from me in 18 years. He is a lone ranger. He doesn’t like to be pushed into more progressive action than he is willing to adhere to. As a result, millions of his voters now are in disarray. They don’t know where to go." Nader has a new book titled "Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think."

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Yes, this is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. Our guest for the hour is Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, four-time presidential candidate. In July, former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders formally endorsed Hillary Clinton. He has consistently argued against voting for a third-party candidate. In an interview with The Washington Post last week, Sanders said, quote, "This is not the time for a protest vote, in terms of a presidential campaign. I ran as a third-party candidate," he said. "I’m the longest-serving independent in the history of the United States Congress." He said, "I know more about third-party politics than anyone else in [the] Congress." In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, Senator Sanders explained his opposition to a protest vote.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: All right, you disagree with Hillary Clinton on this or that, you may not like her on every respect, but look at the real issues that impact your lives, your children’s lives, the future of this country, and you will end up concluding that right now is not the time to be supporting a protest vote. Right now we have to make sure that Trump does not become president.
AMY GOODMAN: That is Senator Sanders. Ralph Nader, your response?
RALPH NADER: Well, it is the time for Senator Sanders to mobilize, as he can, all his supporters around the country with mass rallies to put the heat on both candidates. Is anything wrong with that? He should have a mass rally in the Mall and then spread it all over the country, so you have civic pressure, citizen pressure, coming in on all the candidates to further the just pathways of our society. Why doesn’t he do that? Because, you know, Bernie Sanders hasn’t returned a call from me in 18 years. He’s a lone ranger. He doesn’t like to be pushed into more progressive action than he is willing to adhere to. As a result, millions of his voters now are in disarray. They don’t know where to go. They’re cynical. Some will go Democrat. Some will support Libertarian, Green. Some will stay home. And so this huge, wonderful effort that he launched is now aborted. It’s dissipating. So, it isn’t a matter of either/or; it’s a matter of him cutting out from the accolades to Hillary, which he doesn’t like to do—he doesn’t like to be a robot or run around the country that way—and mobilize the citizenry, which will transcend the election and start something effective after the election....Read More →
50 Years After Vehicle Safety Victory, Ralph Nader Talks "Silent Violence" by Corporations
Our guest is longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader, author of the groundbreaking 1965 book, "Unsafe at Any Speed,” which prompted Congress to enact the most sweeping auto safety law in U.S. history. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act. President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark legislation on September 9, 1966, greatly reducing the annual number of traffic fatalities. It set mandatory federal safety standards for vehicles and drivers, and established the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nader went on to win a major settlement against General Motors for spying on him and trying to discredit him, and used the lawsuit’s proceeds to start the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. Now he has a new book out, titled "Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think." Next week he hosts a related conference in Washington, D.C.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Our guest for the hour is Ralph Nader, four-time former presidential candidate, consumer advocate. I want to talk about Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. You fought against NAFTA—that was under President Clinton—now the TPP. Hillary Clinton initially supported the deal, but then spoke out against it when she was running in the Democratic primary against Bernie Sanders. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has lambasted trade deals. At the G20 summit earlier this month, President Obama tried to assure Asian countries that the U.S. will ratify the TPP despite mounting opposition.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: On the merits, it is smart for America to do it. And I have yet to hear a persuasive argument from the left or the right as to why we wouldn’t want to create a trade framework that raises labor standards, raises environmental standards, protects intellectual property, levels the playing field for U.S. businesses, brings down tariffs. It is indisputable that it would create a better deal for us than the status quo.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Ralph Nader—that was President Obama. Ralph Nader, talk about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s stances on the TPP and what they mean.
RALPH NADER: Well, Trump says he’s against it, but you can’t believe anything he says. He’ll back down according to any opportunistic lever that he might want to hold, should he ever become president.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you think he has a chance?
RALPH NADER: I don’t think so, but it all depends on whether Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton start advancing authentic majoritarian issues before people and workers in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: And do you think—
RALPH NADER: Hillary Clinton is going quiet now, after she vanquished Bernie Sanders at the convention. She’s not speaking that much against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which empties jobs from this country, raises drug prices and subordinates our own sovereignty in consumer, labor and environmental protection. Why? Because Barack Obama is going to make a major move in December, in the lame-duck session, and she doesn’t want to embarrass him. And so, she’s going quiet—you know, the usual reversal from rhetoric that the Clintons have been known for.
But why is there opposition really on the ground against TPP? Because of building civic skills. That’s what Lori Wallach has done with Global Trade Watch. That’s what our mobilization next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Washington—if you’ll let me just illustrate, the first day is—and these are from major civic leaders and doers—building civic skills and breaking through apathy. Wouldn’t people want to be in the auditorium for that?
Controlling what we own, shifting the power: People don’t realize that we own the greatest wealth in the country—the public lands, onshore, offshore, the public airwaves, trillions of dollars of government research and development, not to mention all kinds of intellectual property—but we don’t control it. And so, we are going to have a whole day, by the experts, on how you shift power, so that we control what we own, we have our own audience networks, we control the public lands, we deal with the things that our assets are involved in.
And the third deals with citizen action models, on September 28th.
And the fourth is the liberation movements from medieval England that are being crushed: the law of torts, the law of wrongful injury—if somebody wrongfully injures you with a medicine that’s hazardous or a defective car—and the law of contracts, which we’ve given up with the fine-print contracts. I don’t know anybody who hasn’t signed on the dotted line and given away their rights to these vendors.
So, do contact BreakingThroughPower.org and Ticketmaster, 1-800-745-3000.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to talk about the theme of the conference—
RALPH NADER: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —and also the fact that it is the 50th anniversary of your book Unsafe at Any Speed, which prompted Congress to enact the most sweeping auto safety law in U.S. history, 50th anniversary of the signing of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act. President Johnson signed the landmark legislation September 9, 1966, greatly reducing the annual number of traffic fatalities. It set mandatory federal safety standards for vehicles and drivers, established the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Our guest today, Ralph Nader, went on to win a major settlement against GM—that’s General Motors—for spying on him and trying to discredit him, and used the lawsuit’s proceeds to start the Center for the Study of Responsive Law. This is Ralph pointing out the safety flaws of General Motors’ Chevrolet Corvair.
RALPH NADER: What aggravates the problem is that the rear wheels of the Corvair begin to tuck under. And as they tuck under—the angle of tuck under is called "camber." And as they tuck under, it can go from three or four degrees camber to 11 degrees camber almost in an instant. And when that happens, nobody can control the Corvair. Interestingly—
CBC INTERVIEWER: Well, then, surely they did the right thing. They found out there was something was wrong with the car, and they fixed it.
RALPH NADER: Yes. The question is: Why did it take them four years to find out? This is my point. Either it’s sheer callousness or indifference, or they don’t bother to find out how their cars behave.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Ralph Nader back in the '60s. Ralph, what's happened in this 50 years?
RALPH NADER: What’s happened is, whenever we’ve advanced anything, it’s been less than 1 percent of the people around the country, in various congressional districts, supported by public opinion, whether it’s food safety, cleaner air, cleaner water, improved information flows, Freedom of Information law. People have got to realize. That’s why I call Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think, and full of examples of where a few people started the ball rolling. Lois Gibbs, starting this group out of Love Canal, all over the country, against toxic contamination of people’s homes and neighborhoods, she had—she had no power at all, but she built power.
AMY GOODMAN: Compare the number of people who die in terrorist attacks to the number of people who die, well, in very different situations, that you’ve been taking on for years.
RALPH NADER: OK. Take a study by Johns Hopkins University Medical School last March and break it down. And in the period when these bombs are being discovered in trash cans in New York, 25 people have died in the New York area from mishaps in hospitals—hospital-induced infections, hospital malpractice, bad prescription of drugs. Totally, it’s 700 a day. This is a silent violence from corporate negligence, that includes air pollution, includes a lot of other hazards from negligent or criminal corporations. But silent violence doesn’t get on TV. It’s overt violence that gets on TV, which is more like street crime or violent attacks. So, but by far, the greatest number of Americans who are dying from preventable causes are from corporate misbehavior, whether it’s air pollution, water pollution, contaminated water, hospital hazards, you name it. And it’s all documented by groups like Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins. But very little, if anything, is done about it, because it emanates from profit-making corporations that put money into political campaigns. But that doesn’t stop people from organizing in each congressional district. You can transform this country with Congress watchdog groups in each congressional district, representing majority opinions, a lot of left-right support for change in this country.
AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask you something. A lot of progressives who don’t want to go the major-party route—
RALPH NADER: Yeah, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —who are deciding perhaps between Jill Stein and Gary Johnson, Libertarian Party known as pro-LGBT, pro-choice—oh, what are the other—anti-interventionist, but when you talk about issues of regulations that are so close to your heart, that—where you talk about saving so many lives, where does the Libertarian Party come down?
RALPH NADER: Terrible. They’re against health and safety regulation. They’re against Medicare, full Medicare for all. That’s their very serious weak point. And they can’t back it up with many facts, unfortunately. But as you say, they’re against empire. They’re for civil liberties and, therefore, civil rights. But very incomplete party.
AMY GOODMAN: What would no corporate regulation look like?
RALPH NADER: Well, it would—you would repeal—they would actually get rid of the federal regulatory agencies. They want to get rid, some of them, of the IRS. I don’t know how they’re going to collect taxes. But they’re really estranged from reality in that way. But you take them for what they are. They are good on civil liberties, and they are good against empire. And they don’t like the bloated military budget. But they’re very incomplete. They haven’t figured out: How do you build all these public works, that they use every day, all these public services?
AMY GOODMAN: This is the 50th anniversary of Unsafe at Any Speed, of you launching the many different groups to push the country, the government, to make people safer. What do you think has been accomplished? What are you proudest of in this 50 years?
RALPH NADER: Well, you know, the air, water is cleaner. That’s one. Much safer in cars, where it’s one-fifth the risk of getting killed in a car by a given 100 million vehicle miles. We have the best Freedom of Information Act in the world, and we’ve got to use it more. We have civil rights laws that we don’t use enough of. We have the law of wrongful injury, that’s very underutilized. Most of the people who are wrongfully injured are not finding their way to a lawyer, against the perpetrator of their harm, so they can get compensated and deter other unsafe characteristics. So, there has been. But in the foreign and military area, it’s been very, very regressive. It’s been worse—more risky, more empire, more illegal actions under—
AMY GOODMAN: And what do you think that would change that, in 20 seconds?
RALPH NADER: Again, it’s the Congress. It’s Congress watchdog groups. And it’s doing me a favor, folks, by showing up at Constitution Hall and calling Ticketmaster for the next four days, 1-800-745-3000. Be there.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Ralph Nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, four-time presidential candidate. His new book, Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think He’ll be speaking and doing a book signing tonight at the Barnes & Noble in New York City at Union Square at 7:00 p.m. Then, from September 26 to September 29, the first two days at Carnegie Institution and then the 28th and 29th at Constitution Hall, will be the Breaking Through Power conference.... Read More →
Nader: Trump is a Freeloading, Pontificating Empty Suit Who Has Cheated on Everything He's Done
As The New York Times reports Donald Trump received at least $885 million in New York City tax breaks for his real estate projects since 1980, and also sued three mayoral administrations when the city sought to deny him tax breaks for a pair of Trump skyscrapers, we speak with consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Trump is "a freeloader on the backs of taxpayers who have to make up the difference for the taxes he doesn’t pay, or get less public services," Nader comments.

TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about—I want to go through the records of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. How would you characterize Donald Trump and what he represents, from foreign policy to domestic politics, specifically what he is saying that he would do as president of the United States?
RALPH NADER: Well, you don’t know what he’s going to do, and he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. He’s basically wondering how he ever got to the top of the Republican Party and turned it into the Trump dump. He has no impulse control. He has no factual content in his head. He doesn’t really know much about anything other than being a gambling casino czar that goes bankrupt and creams off the crop and leaves the devastation to the workers and the creditors and the small business suppliers. Donald Trump has cheated everybody he has been able to cheat. He’s cheated workers, small businesses, taxpayers. He’s cheated creditors. And almost everything he attacks people for, he has done in spades. He refuses to release his tax returns, because it not only shows he hardly pays any taxes and he’s a corporate welfare king getting all kinds of freebies from the taxpayer, but he has entanglements with his partnerships all over the country and the world that may prove very embarrassing to him. So, this is what the Republican Party has reaped by allowing the electoral process to be commercialized and corporatized. So, if you say, "What is he going to do?" the one thing we know is, if anybody dares offend his ego, they’re going to get a lash back. And when you’ve got your hand on the nuclear button and you’ve got the kind of power you have in the White House, that’s a very dangerous option.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about some of his domestic policies. For example, a New York Times investigation has found Donald Trump has received at least $885 million in New York City tax breaks for his real estate projects since 1980. The Times also reports Trump successfully sued three mayoral administrations when the city sought to deny him tax breaks for a pair of Trump skyscrapers. You must have read that front-page story.
RALPH NADER: Yes, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: For his supporters, they may say the man uses the loopholes, which means he knows the loopholes, and then he’ll close the loopholes. Is that true?
RALPH NADER: That’s interesting. The millions of his supporters would be very, very critical of a neighbor that worked the welfare system unfairly. And he’s a corporate welfare king. He’s a freeloader. He’s a freeloader on the backs of taxpayers who have to make up the difference for the taxes he doesn’t pay, or get less public services. So, to the Trump supporters, who are believed to take any criticism of Trump personally, to them, I say, reduce Trump to a neighbor, and see if you’d really want to live next to that man, who is a boastful, pontificating empty suit and who lies as a matter of conviction rather than just principle.
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, the Trump campaign proposed cutting back on food safety regulations, arguing they’re burdensome to farmers and, quote, "overkill." But the campaign later deleted the proposal from its website and offered no explanation. In the fact sheet, the campaign had said, quote, "The FDA Food Police, which dictate how the federal government expects farmers to produce fruits and vegetables and even dictates the nutritional content of dog food," unquote. The statement went on to say, quote, "The rules govern the soil farmers use, farm and food production hygiene, food packaging, food temperatures and even what animals may roam which fields and when. It also greatly increased inspections of food 'facilities,' and levies new taxes to pay for this inspection overkill." That was the fact sheet that’s no longer on the website. Your response?
RALPH NADER: Well, maybe someone who runs Trump hotels says you better have strong regulation of food; otherwise, your guests are going to come down with a contaminated food sickness. That’s part of his lashing out. He’s trying to appeal to the corporations that are now funding him—after he said nobody funds him, he funds his own campaign.
This is—the Trump campaign tells a lot about the failure of our educational system, where millions of people come out of our schools and either are unwilling or unable to separate truth from fiction and lies from propaganda. It also, the Trump campaign, tells us that there’s no level of degradation that the mass media will not descend to in order to make a profit with high ratings, covering his bombastic, wild statements against people. It’s interesting. He keeps saying "crooked Hillary." Where are the Democrats to give him his nickname? "Cheating Donald." I even wrote a column on this; you go to Nader.org. He has cheated everything he’s touched over the years.
AMY GOODMAN: Be specific.
RALPH NADER: Yeah, well, for example, he’s gone bankrupt deliberately four or five times in his Atlantic City and other casinos, because he rakes off the cream from the bankruptcy, and he gets rid of his debts. So he’s cheating his creditors. He’s cheating his workers, who are left on the street. With Trump University, he’s cheated his students. That’s now in litigation. He’s cheated the taxpayers, because anybody who’s a corporate welfare king is a freeloader on the backs of middle-class taxpayers, who have to pay their taxes. And he’s boastfully cheated on matrimony. Imagine a guy boasting about cheating in the past on his own matrimony. And you have evangelicals supporting him? You see, this—he is doing us a favor by showing us the degree of disintegration in our society, civically and otherwise.
That’s why we’re holding this four days’ convocation in Washington, two at Constitution Hall, called "Breaking Through Power."
AMY GOODMAN: This is in Washington, D.C.
RALPH NADER: In Washington, D.C., September 26, 27, 28, 29. And it’s basically a remobilization of the civic society with the major civic leaders of our time, some of them starting back in the late '60s and ’70s, that helped transform our country in terms of nutrition and food, such as Dr. Michael Jacobson, or transforming our energy options into sustainable energy efficiency, like David Freeman, who ran four public utilities, like the TVA—he's a real expert. This is a mobilization that we want people to come to. And you can go to BreakingThroughPower.org and get really excited and get empowered, or you can call directly Ticketmaster, the 1-800 number, 745-3000, 745-3000. It’s only $10 a day, and you can get scholarships, so there’s no barrier to entry.... Read More →
Headlines:
Chelsea Bombing Suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami Arrested in New Jersey after Shootout
In breaking news, authorities say police have arrested 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, who is a suspect in the bombing in Chelsea on Saturday and another bombing this weekend in New Jersey. According to police, Rahami was arrested after a shootout in Linden, New Jersey, on Monday morning. Rahami was reportedly injured during the shootout. Police say they identified Rahami in surveillance video seen Saturday planting two bombs in Manhattan—one 23rd Street, which did explode, and four blocks away on 27th Street, which did not explode. Police described this device as a pressure cooker bomb connected to a flip phone, packed with shrapnel and wired to detonate with Christmas lights. Authorities say Rahami may also be linked to a pipe bomb that exploded in a garbage can early Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey. Authorities say Rahami is originally from Afghanistan and a naturalized American living in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
New York: Suspect Named in Chelsea Bomb Attack
Authorities are searching for 28-year-old man named Ahmad Khan Rahami after a string of improvised bombs targeted parts of New York and New Jersey, including a blast Saturday night in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood which wounded 29 people. Authorities say Rahami is originally from Afghanistan and a naturalized American living in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His whereabouts are unknown. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said on CNN the investigation was moving very quickly.
Mayor Bill de Blasio: "The fact that they have now, in just the last moments, put out a photo shows real confidence on the part of law enforcement that this is someone that was likely involved in one way or another. But we shouldn’t speculate yet how many people, or what role each person played. What we do know is, we need to get this guy in right away. Now, again, my experience with the NYPD and the FBI is, once they zero in on someone, they will get them."
Rahami was identified after the FBI detained five men Sunday night in Brooklyn. The agency said it was questioning the men without charge in connection with the Chelsea bombing. Police also say they identified a suspect in surveillance video seen planting two bombs in Manhattan—one 23rd Street, which did explode, and four blocks away on 27th Street, which did not explode. Police described this device as a pressure cooker bomb connected to a flip phone, packed with shrapnel and wired to detonate with Christmas lights. Police told CNNvideos showed the same person near both devices. Elsewhere, a pipe bomb left in a garbage can exploded Saturday morning in Seaside Park, New Jersey. No one was injured in the blast, which appeared to target a charity run hosted by the U.S. Marines. Cell phones were used in the Seaside and New York devices. And in Elizabeth, New Jersey, early this morning, police discovered a bomb in a backpack at a commuter rail station. Part of the device exploded when a police robot attempted to disarm it. It’s not known whether the three bombing attempts are related. They came just before world leaders began converging on New York for this week’s meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. The NYPD says it will beef up security, with more bag checks in train and subway stations, and heavy weapons teams deployed in transit centers. Governor Andrew Cuomo has called up 1,000 members of the National Guard and police.
TOPICS:
New York
Minnesota: ISIS Claims Responsibility for Shopping Mall Stabbings
In St. Cloud, Minnesota, a man in a security guard’s uniform stabbed and injured nine shoppers at a mall on Saturday before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer. The Minneapolis Star Tribune identified the man as Ahmed Adan, a 22-year-old born in Kenya of Somali descent who grew up in the U.S. An ISIS website claimed responsibility, calling the assailant a "soldier of the Islamic State." FBI Special Agent Richard Thornton said the agency was looking into possible links to terrorism.
Richard Thornton: "We do not at this point in time know whether the subject was—it was in contact with, had connections with, was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization. That’s what the investigation is attempting to ascertain at this point in time."
TOPICS:
Islamic State
Minnesota
Syria: Ceasefire Unraveling After U.S. Strikes Kill Syrian Soldiers
In Syria, a ceasefire continues to unravel after U.S.-led bombers attacked a Syrian military position, killing scores of government soldiers and allowing ISIS fighters to overrun the survivors. U.S. military officials acknowledged Saturday’s attack near Deir ez-Zor, which killed more than 60 Syrian soldiers, saying they mistakenly believed they were targeting ISIS units. The attack came less than a week into a ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and Russia meant to separate warring factions and to allow humanitarian aid to reach besieged cities. It prompted Russia to call an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, where Ambassador Vitaly Churkin questioned whether the attack was timed to derail the ceasefire.
Vitaly Churkin: "It is quite significant and, frankly, suspicious that the United States chose to conduct this particular airstrike at this time. Why would all of a sudden the United States choose to help the Syrian armed forces defending Deir ez-Zor? After all, they did nothing when ISIL was advancing on Palmyra. ISIL made a hundred-mile march without being attacked by the coalition."
Russia’s Foreign Ministry accused the White House of defending ISIS, and Syria’s government said the attack proved the U.S. was aiding the group in a bid to topple the Assad regime. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power denounced such claims, and blasted Russia for calling a meeting of the Security Council.
Samantha Power: "If we determine that we did indeed strike Syrian military personnel, that was not our intention. And we, of course, regret the loss of life. This said, even by Russia’s standards, tonight’s stunt, a stunt replete with moralism and grandstanding, is uniquely cynical and hypocritical."
Following the U.S. bombing, there were reports of other ceasefire violations across Syria, including at least four airstrikes in Aleppo.
TOPICS:
Syria
Kashmir: India Blames Pakistan After Attack Kills 17 Indian Soldiers
India’s government is accusing Pakistan of involvement in an attack that left 17 of its soldiers dead at an army base in Kashmir. Sunday morning’s attack came near the highly militarized "line of control" between Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. It was one of the deadliest attacks since the start of an armed insurgency began in 1989. Top Indian officials accused Pakistan of backing the attack and supporting terrorism in Kashmir—a claim Pakistan denied. Ram Madhav, the general secretary of India’s ruling BJP party, said the attacks would be heavily punished, writing on Facebook, "For one tooth, the complete jaw. Days of so-called strategic restraint are over."
TOPICS:
India
Pakistan
Amnesty International: U.S. Bomb Used in Attack on Yemen Hospital
Amnesty International says a U.S.-made bomb was used in an attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Yemen last month. The August 15 airstrikes by a Saudi-led coalition killed 11 and injured 19 others. Amnesty International today distributed photos it says show a U.S.-made precision-guided Paveway-series aerial bomb. The U.N. says at least 10,000 civilians have died or been wounded in the 18-month conflict. The U.S. continues to supply Saudi Arabia with weapons, including banned cluster bombs.
TOPICS:
Yemen
CodePink Activists to Protest U.S. Military Aid to Saudi Arabia
Meanwhile, activists with the antiwar group CodePink will gather outside Senate offices in Washington, D.C., today to protest U.S. weapons sales to Saudi Arabia. They’re supporting a bill by Senators Chris Murphy, Mike Lee, Al Franken and Rand Paul, which would block the U.S. from supplying the kingdom with more than a billion dollars’ worth of tanks and other military hardware.
TOPICS:
Saudi Arabia
Gasoline Pipeline Ruptures in Alabama, Creating Massive Spill
Governors in six states have declared states of emergency after nearly 340,000 gallons of gasoline spilled in central Alabama from one of the region’s major pipelines, prompting gas prices to rise across the region. The Colonial pipeline carries 1.3 million barrels of gasoline a day down to refineries in Texas and Louisiana, accounting for a full 40 percent of the region’s gasoline. EPA officials say the massive spill narrowly avoided reaching the Cahaba River, home to endangered species.
TOPICS:
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Alabama
Environment
Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Wins Expanded Halt to Pipeline Construction
In news from the ongoing standoff at Standing Rock in North Dakota, a federal appeals court has officially halted construction of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline within 20 miles on either side of Lake Oahe along the Missouri River. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals says this ruling will give the court more time to rule on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s request for an emergency injunction against construction over concerns it could destroy sacred sites and burial grounds. The emergency injunction was filed by the tribe after a lower court rejected a request for an injunction the previous Friday. This latest ruling now makes mandatory the Obama administration’s request that Dakota Access voluntarily cease construction along that same 40-mile stretch. In a separate legal development, a federal judge in Bismarck has dropped temporary restraining orders against Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault and other tribal leaders. The restraining orders were part of aSLAPP suit—a strategic lawsuit against public participation—filed by Dakota Access against leaders of the tribe in August over their participation in protests. Meanwhile, a citizen journalist was arrested and jailed Sunday and charged with criminal trespass after she filmed portions of the pipeline under construction. A live video posted to Facebook shows Sara Long being asked by private security guards to leave a field near a public highway. She complies and returns to her vehicle, where she’s met by police.
Sara Long: "Unless I’m being detained, I don’t actually want to answer any questions."
Police officer: "OK. You’re under arrest for criminal trespassing."
Sara Long: "OK. Hear that, everybody? I am under arrest for criminal
trespassing."
Police officer: "It’s time to end the phone call."
TOPICS:
Dakota Access Pipeline
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Environment
Iowa: 40 Arrested at Construction Site of Dakota Access Pipeline
In more news on the Dakota Access pipeline, police arrested more than 40 people in southeastern Iowa as they crossed onto a Dakota Access pipeline construction site near where the company plans to bore beneath the Mississippi River. The activists were arrested with plastic handcuffs and were charged with trespassing. This comes less than three weeks after 30 others were arrested in Iowa blocking the pipeline’s construction. A group of Iowa landowners have also sued the Dakota Access pipeline company over its use of eminent domain.
TOPICS:
Dakota Access Pipeline
Natural Gas & Oil Drilling
Environment
German Far-Right Party Gains Seats in Parliament
In Germany, the party of Angela Merkel lost ground in regional elections that saw the largest vote share for a far-right party in Berlin since World War II. The anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party will gain its first-ever seats in Parliament after winning 14 percent of the vote.
TOPICS:
Germany
France: Child Afghan War Refugee Dies Attempting Border Crossing
In France, a 14-year-old Afghan War refugee died in a hit-and-run incident as he attempted to board a moving truck bound for Great Britain. Charity workers at the Calais refugee camp near the English Channel say the boy had a legal right to travel to Britain, but months of delay in processing his paperwork led him to attempt to stow away on a trip through Channel Tunnel. The boy, whose name is not being released, was at least the 13th person to die near the port this year and the third child. Click here to see our full report from France’s largest refugee camp, the Calais "Jungle."":http://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/9/i_dont_want_to_die_this.
TOPICS:
Refugees
France
Afghanistan
U.S. Hate Crimes Against Muslims at Peak Since 9/11 Aftermath
Hate crimes against Muslims in the U.S. have reached their highest level since just after the 9/11 attacks. New data from researchers at California State University, San Bernardino, shows a 78 percent rise in attacks, including arson, murder, assault and violent threats.
TOPICS:
Arabs and Muslims in America
Racism
Trump Admits Obama a Citizen, Reversing Birther Claims
For the first time, Donald Trump has admitted that President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Trump’s comments on Friday came more than five years after he became a leader of the so-called birther movement. Trump falsely accused Hillary Clinton of questioning Obama’s citizenship.
Donald Trump: "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period."
President Obama laughed off Trump’s admission, telling a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation dinner, "In other breaking news, the world is round, not flat."
President Barack Obama: "I am so relieved that the whole birther thing is over. I mean, ISIL, North Korea, poverty, climate change—none of those things weighed on my mind like the validity of my birth certificate."
TOPICS:
Donald Trump
2016 Election
Trump Calls on Clinton Bodyguards to Disarm
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has once again alluded to violence against Hillary Clinton. At a campaign rally in Miami on Friday, Trump claimed Clinton would "destroy" Second Amendment rights, and said her bodyguards should disarm.
Donald Trump: "I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm. Right? Right? I think they should disarm, immediately. What do you think? Yes? Yes, yeah. Take their guns away. She doesn’t want guns. Take their—let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away. OK? It’ll be very dangerous."
TOPICS:
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Gun Control
Fraternal Order of Police Endorses Donald Trump
The nation’s largest police union has endorsed Donald Trump. More than two-thirds of the national board of the Fraternal Order of Police voted in favor of the endorsement. In a statement, the FOP said Trump will "make America safe again."
TOPICS:
Police
Donald Trump
Washington Post Calls for Edward Snowden to Face Criminal Charges
And The Washington Post’s editorial board is calling for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to face criminal charges. In an editorial published on Saturday, the Post called on Snowden to return to the United States to face charges under the Espionage Act, or to bargain for "a measure of criminal responsibility for his excesses." A team of Washington Post reporters won a Pulitzer Prize in 2014 for covering NSA spying revealed in documents leaked to the Post by Edward Snowden. Two other news outlets to publish large numbers of the documents––The Guardian and The Intercept––have called on President Obama administration to pardon Snowden. The New York Times has called on the administration to grant Snowden clemency or a highly reduced sentence.
TOPICS:
Edward Snowden
NSA
Whistleblowers
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