Joe Steps Aside/Insurance Shenanigans

Ralph Nader Radio Hour

Ralph welcomes Jeff Cohen from the activist group “Roots Action,” whose “Step Aside Joe” campaign was years ahead of the curve urging Joe Biden – for many reasons – to keep his promise to be a one-term president. Plus, Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, updates us on how the insurance industry in cahoots with governor Gavin Newsom wants to roll back the immensely successful Prop 103 that over the years has saved Californians billions of dollars in insurance premiums and why this struggle has implications for auto and homeowner insurance premiums across the country.

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Jeff Cohen is Co-Founder and Policy Director at RootsAction. He is a media critic, columnist, documentary filmmaker, and retired journalism professor who founded the media watch group FAIR—Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting— in 1986. For years, he was a regular pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC discussing issues of media and politics, and he is the author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.

Now, the challenge is reminiscent of Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Baines Johnson. And when Hubert Humphrey ran for President in 1968—he was LBJ’s Vice President—he had to face the question, is he gonna stay loyal to Johnson’s position on the Vietnam War…or is he going to be faithful to his own personal judgment, which was to find a way to get out of the Vietnam War. He chose the former, to be loyal—he didn’t distance himself—and he lost the election.

Ralph Nader

You have all of these constituencies that want a change in policy…The base of the party is for peace and social justice. Not for continual expansion of the military budget. People forget that the Democratic platform in 2020 called for a reduction in military spending, and Joe Biden has increased military spending every year.

Jeff Cohen

We’ve organized around that point that if we cut the military budget—which has grown year after year under Joe Biden—and we took that money and spent it on healthcare and housing and education, imagine what a society we would have. If we uplifted working-class people. And when I look at what Joe Biden ran in in 2020—and the promises that were made that have been broken—if he had kept even half of these promises the Democrats would be winning in a landslide.

Jeff Cohen

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Harvey Rosenfield is one of the nation’s foremost consumer advocates and founder of the advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog. Among many other accomplishments, Mr. Rosenfield authored Proposition 103 that has saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in auto insurance premiums. He has also co-authored groundbreaking initiatives on HMO reform and utility rate deregulation and is the author of the book, Silent Violence, Silent Death: the Hidden Epidemic of Medical Malpractice.

The insurance industry never stopped fighting [Prop 103]. Even though they lost at the ballot box, they constantly tried to relitigate that election. They couldn’t believe that the voters would have the temerity to tell the insurance companies how to conduct business in the state of California.

Harvey Rosenfield

This kind of economic blackmail—boycotting state after state in order to up their profits—has worked in the past for insurance companies and this is what they’re doing now. And it’s easy to predict that as their bottom line improves, as the stock market improves…they’ll start coming back into these states with the promise of far higher rates, and things will calm down. But in the meantime, people will have been soaked for tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide.

Harvey Rosenfield

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Ralph Nader Radio Hour Episode 542 Transcript

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In Case You Haven’t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will address the United States Congress for an unprecedented fourth time. According to the Wall Street Journal, presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will skip Netanyahu’s address, but will meet with the Prime Minister – who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court – and is expected to tell him that “it is time for the war to end” and to stop the “suffering of Palestinian civilians.” Harris is expected to take a new foreign policy approach, likely doing away with key Biden administration figures like Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin. Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, has stated that Harris has shown “far greater empathy for Palestinians than Biden.”

2. With Harris taking center stage, the Intercept’s Prem Thakker reports that Representative Rashida Tlaib has released a statement saying “I welcome the opportunity to engage Vice President Harris as my team and I work hard to inspire our Democratic base...They want to see a permanent ceasefire and an end to the funding of genocide in Gaza…They want us to fight against corporate greed that wants to eliminate unions and keep our families in the cycle of poverty. I am eager to speak to Vice President Harris about all of these issues and more.” Unlike other prominent progressive lawmakers – such as Bernie Sanders and AOC – Tlaib did not back Biden against the campaign to have him step aside as the Democratic nominee, and crucially, appears to be using whatever leverage she has to demand Harris push vigorously for a ceasefire in Gaza.

3. The New York Times reports several major unions – including the The American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and the National Education Association, the largest union in the U.S. – have sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding they “halt all military aid to Israel.” This letter emphasizes that “it is clear that the Israeli government will continue …until it is forced to stop,” and that “Stopping US military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so.” APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement “Our unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues…Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy.”

4. Reuters reports that in talks hosted in China this week, “Palestinian rivals including Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a unity government.” Al Maydeen reports “The meetings saw the participation of 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.” The so-called Beijing Declaration promises to “end the Palestinian national division [and] unify national efforts to confront…[Israeli] aggression and stop the genocide.” Implementation of this agreement will be monitored by Egypt, Algeria, China, and Russia.

5. In the United Kingdom, “Five climate activists who planned a protest to cause gridlock and block traffic over four days on a major highway circling London were sentenced…to as much as five years in prison,” per ABC. Just Stop Oil, the group planning the protest, “called the prison terms ‘an obscene perversion of justice... for nothing more than attending a Zoom call.’” Protesting this decision, many prominent climate activists – ranging from Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn to Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury to musician Brian Eno – have signed a letter calling this “one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history…making a mockery of the right to a fair trial.” This letter also notes that these sentences are “higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault.” This letter also cites the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who called this “a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

6. In more climate related news, in New York City landlords are required to provide heat for tenants in the winter. Yet, there is no equivalent rule for landlords to provide air conditioning for tenants during the increasingly blistering summers. Now, Gothamist reports New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn plans to introduce a bill “requiring [landlords] to ensure tenants can cool their homes to at least 78 degrees when it is 82 degrees or warmer during the summer.” Restler is quoted saying “Heat is the number one climate or weather-related killer – not just nationally, but right here in New York City…We’ve already suffered three awful heat waves this summer. Can you imagine what it’s like to try to manage it without air conditioning or any cooling device in your apartment?” This move comes amid other attempts to legislate heat protections as temperatures continue to rise.

7. In an infuriating example of corporate greed, the Guardian reports that pharmaceutical giant Gilead is charging outrageous prices for a new drug described as “the closest we have ever been to an HIV vaccine.” According to this report, “Lenacapavir, sold as Sunlenca…currently costs $42,250 for the first year…[yet] In a study…experts calculated that the minimum price for mass production of a generic version…allowing for 30% profit, was $40 a year.” This report continues “Given by injection every six months, lenacapavir can prevent infection and suppress HIV in people who are already infected…In a trial, the drug offered 100% protection to more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda.”

8. In a welcome check against corporate greed, the Federal Communications Commission has “voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for

decades.” The new rules will cap the cost of a 15-minute phone call at 90 cents for large jails and $1.35 for small ones. As of now, a 15-minute phone call can cost as much as $11.35 in a large jail and over $12 in a small one. The new rules also bar added fees.

9. In more positive regulatory news, the Federal Trade Commission has “issued orders to eight companies offering surveillance pricing products and services that incorporate data about consumers’ characteristics and behavior. The orders seek information about the potential impact these practices have on privacy, competition, and consumer protection.” The companies in question include Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, and perennial corporate malefactor, McKinsey. Indicating the universality of this move, no more than 3 members of the FTC can be of the same party yet the Commission voted 5-0 to issue these orders.

10. Finally, in some local news, NBC4 Washington reports that “Former President Donald Trump has threatened a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., if he wins a second term in November.” Leaving aside the ever-present bluster and bombast that accompany such Trump pronouncements, NBC4 makes the crucial point that because D.C. lacks statehood “The president can take over the police department and many of the powers the mayor and D.C. Council have.” In light of this credible threat, it is more critical than ever that Congress act on D.C. Statehood and end the unjust status quo of taxation without representation.

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