The U.S. war in Afghanistan is testing so much futuristic detect and destroy weaponry that it can be called the most advanced all-seeing invasion in military history. From blanket satellite surveillance to soldiers' infra-red vision to the remotely guided photographing, killer drones to the latest fused ground-based imagery and electronic signal intercepts, the age of robotic land, sea, and air weaponry is at hand. Continue reading "The Jirga Medal of Honor"

January 20, 2012

Dear President Obama:

As you prepare your State of the Union address, please be advised that those who support you are very cognizant of what you do not mention in such annual presentations to the Nation. For example, last year, environmentalists were shocked that global warming-climate change received no attention. Nor did raising the minimum wage, as you promised in 2008 to $9.50 by 2011.

Continue reading "Letter to President Obama Re: The State of the Union Address"

The editor of The Hill, a newspaper exclusively covering Congress, said that Congress was not going to do very much in 2012, except for "the big bill" which is extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment compensation, which expire in late February. That two month extension will likely reignite the fight between Democrats and Republicans that flared last month.
Continue reading "Congress Needs to Get to Work"

The same neocons who persuaded George W. Bush and crew to, in Ron Paul's inimitable words, "lie their way into invading Iraq" in 2003, are beating the drums of war more loudly these days to attack Iran. It is remarkable how many of these war-mongers are former draft dodgers who wanted other Americans to fight the war in Vietnam. Continue reading "Iran: The Neocons Are At It Again"

Open Letter to the Wall Street Journal
By Ralph Nader

How unbecoming it is for the self-styled freedom-loving Wall Street Journal ("Ron Paul Nader?" Dec. 21) to use the politically bigoted word "spoiler" to describe a hypothetical Ron Paul-Libertarian party presidential run.

Why is a third-party candidate called a "spoiler" when the nominees of the Republican and Democratic parties, that have given us a spoiled political system (corrupted by the highest bidder) are never referred to in such a pejorative way? These two decaying parties do not own the voters in this country, though they act that way through their many state laws obstructing outside competition.

Since all candidates are supposed to have the equal right to run for election, then they are either all spoilers of one another in seeking votes or none of them deserve to be called "spoilers." Candidates from smaller parties are not second-class citizens. After all, either of the major party candidates "takes away" far more votes from the other than any third party candidate does.

By Ralph Nader

Students of California, arise, you have nothing to lose but a crushing debt!

The corporate state of California, ever ready to seize its ideological and commercial hour during a recession, has a chokehold on California's public universities. With its tax-coddled plutocracy and a nod to further corporatization, the state government has taken the lid off tuition increases big time.

Students of the University of California at Berkeley may pay a proposed $23,000 in tuition by the 2015-2016 school year, up from $11,160 this year (2011) that in turn is up from $2,716 in the academic year 2001-2002. In short, tuition for resident undergraduates has more than quadrupled in ten years. Continue reading "Stop the Public University Tuition Spiral"

1. America Beyond Capitalism by Gar Alperovitz (Democracy Collaborative Press and Dollars and Sense, 2011). If you want to see how community economies are spreading to displace the sales and influence of companies such as Bank of America, ExxonMobil, Aetna, ADM and McDonalds, this is your book. Democratic credit unions, local renewable and efficient energy, community health clinics and farmer-to-consumer markets are some of the possibilities outlined in this optimistic book.

2. Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers by Ellen E. Schultz (Portfolio/Penguin Hardcover, 2011), award-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal. This book meticulously documents how big business and their attorneys avariciously turned pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters and profit centers, at the expense of millions of trusting, loyal workers. This is the searing story of corporate greed on steroids.

3. This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement ed. by Sarah van Gelder of YES! Magazine. (Berrett-Koehler Publisher, Inc. San Francisco, 2011). Sixteen short essays viewing the Occupy initiatives around the country from a variety of perspectives. Very lively, forward-looking, and filled with interesting insights. Continue reading "Recommended Holiday Reading for the Caring, Agitated Mind"

Dear Mr. CEO,

Most airlines treat unused non-refundable tickets with the fine print dictate of monetary confiscation after one year of issuance. That is, if a passenger buys a non-refundable ticket to somewhere and for some reason does not use that ticket to fly on the prescheduled date, she/he has one year to use it, adjust for any price changes and pay a $100-150 or so ticket change fee. After a year if the ticket is not used the dollar value of the ticket is kept by the airline. No refund.

Over the many years, during and after the paper ticket era, customers would throw their unused tickets in their drawer and either miss the one year deadline because they had no need to travel or forget about what and when they purchased their tickets.

The confiscated sum of monies retained by the airline industry because of this one year dictate must amount over time to billions of dollars.

Would you reveal how much you have kept or retained from these unused, non-refundable tickets for the years 2007, 2008, 2009? If you agree to do so publicly, it will have an added benefit to nudge your customers into being more time-sensitive with the ticket money they entrust to you.

If you do not agree to pull away the curtain of secrecy over these data, would you reveal these dollar amounts if significant shareholders, both institutional and individual, in your company were to make this request?

Thank you for your response.

Sincerely yours,
Ralph Nader

Paraphrasing Shakespeare, something is rotten in the state of Capitol Hill. A majority of Congress is just about to put the finishing touches on an amendment to the military budget authorization legislation that will finish off some critical American rights under our Constitution. Continue reading "Congressional Tyranny, White House Surrender"

Our two representatives at the annual Cisco shareholders' meeting (December 7, 2011) at San Jose, California filed with this report:

CEO John Chambers declined to announce any increase in dividends or special dividends. He conditioned any consideration of dividend increases on the Congress and the President approving a tax holiday for the repatriation of Cisco profits parked overseas. He added that until they "get an answer on repatriation, it's hard to answer" what is the proper balance between acquisitions, buybacks, dividends and cash accumulation. Continue reading "Update Report #4 to "

The battered national consensus behind a national universal postal service--conceived by Benjamin Franklin--is heading for a free fall due to bad management, corporate barracudas and a bevy of editors and reporters enamored with the supremacy of the Internet which makes up their world.
Continue reading "Time to Save the Post Office"

"Here, look at this handsome L.L. Bean catalog and tell me what you want for Christmas," said a relative over Thanksgiving weekend. I started leafing through the 88 page cornucopia with hundreds of clothing and household products, garnished by free gift cards and guaranteed free shipping. I wasn't perusing it for any suggested gifts; instead, I was going through every offering to see whether they were made in the U.S.A. or in other countries.

This is what I found: over 97 percent of all the items pictured and priced were noted "imported" by L.L. Bean. The only ones manufactured in the U.S. were fireplace gloves, an L.L. Bean jean belt, a dress chino belt, quilted faux-shearling-lined L.L. Bean boots (made in Maine), a personalized web collar and leash (for your pet), and symbolically enough, the "made in Maine using American-made cotton canvas are the Original Boat and Tote Bags" to carry all those goodies coming in from China and elsewhere. Continue reading "Not Made in America"

By Ralph Nader
From New York City to Oakland, and several cities in between, the police, on orders from city officials, have smashed the Occupy encampments and evicted the protestors from public parks and spaces. More politicians from Congress to the state and local level want the Occupy people OUT!

Well, why don't they start letting them into the places where decisions are being made against their legitimate interests? Let them IN to:
Continue reading "Let Them In!"