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  • 5/24/2025
A hard-hitting exploration into power and influence ๐ŸŒโ€”legendary activist Ralph Nader exposes who truly pulls the strings behind the scenes in government. From corporate lobbyists to political insiders, Nader dives deep into the forces shaping policies, laws, and the fate of democracy itself ๐Ÿ›๏ธโš–๏ธ.

Who holds the real powerโ€”the elected officials or the shadowy interests behind them? This eye-opening special challenges everything you thought you knew about government control and accountability.

Essential viewing for anyone demanding transparency and justice.

#RalphNader #GovernmentControl #PoliticalPower #CorporateLobbying #Democracy #SpecialReport #Transparency #PoliticalInfluence #Activism #PowerAndPolitics #DeepState #Accountability #TruthMatters #PublicInterest #BreakingNews #CivicEngagement #Watchdog #PoliticalReform #Justice #EyeOpening
Transcript
00:00Transcribed by โ€”
00:30Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
00:36Today is Tuesday, May 20th, 2025. The great Ralph Nader joins us now.
00:42I say great because whether you love Ralph or not, he is truly one of the most intellectually honest, personally courageous people in the modern history of the United States of America,
00:55whose activities and writing and speeches has had a profound effect on human freedom, and he continues to do so.
01:05You see the front cover of the Capitol Hill Citizen, the only magazine, the only publication of which I'm aware circulating in Washington, D.C.,
01:16that truly addresses the evils and the woes of government's failures today.
01:22Ralph has a new book out called Civic Self-Respect.
01:25It's sort of a summary of Ralph's views on what individual citizens can do in the United States of America to right the ship, which is sinking rapidly.
01:37Ralph Nader, a pleasure, my dear friend. Thank you very much for joining us.
01:41It's a pleasure here, too. Thank you.
01:43Sure. People have heard me tell this story before, but Ralph and I met, oh, God, it would be 1970 or 1971 when I was a sophomore or a junior.
01:57I'm not sure of the year at Princeton University. Ralph was debating William F. Buckley, Jr.
02:02I was the head of the organization that sponsored the debate.
02:06The organization decidedly favored Buckley.
02:09There were 3,000 people there for the debate.
02:12They chose me as the moderator, and Ralph was pleasantly surprised at my level of fairness.
02:18I'm quoting you now, Ralph, from 55 years ago, and we've maintained a friendship since then.
02:23We don't agree on everything, but we certainly agree on war and peace and on civil liberties, which is what we'll discuss today.
02:31Right. So genocide, Joe, Ralph, was incapable of stopping Netanyahu's slaughter in Gaza.
02:41Donald Trump is no better. What can we do about it?
02:45Well, you know, it's easy to say Congress should do something about it because it has the war-making authority under the Constitution, which is given up to the presidency.
02:57But it's really interesting how afraid Trump is of Netanyahu.
03:04Netanyahu, in a way, is afraid of Trump, as a reporter from Harris told me, Gideon Levy.
03:12But Trump is really afraid of Netanyahu.
03:15He sidestepped Israel on this trip to the Gulf, where he was flattered and given all kinds of unrealizable contracts and monuments.
03:28And the press said it was a snub.
03:31It wasn't a snub.
03:32It was a way for him to escape, facing up to the mass murder, starvation in Gaza, by the Israeli state terrorists and genocidists led by Netanyahu.
03:45And right now we have someone at the U.N. specializing in these matters, saying in the next 48 hours, 13,000 Gazan children may starve to death, infants, if they don't get relief.
03:59And so Netanyahu's blocking U.S.-funded trucks, thousands of them, at the border since early March, when he broke the ceasefire that Trump took credit for.
04:11So, you know, Trump's ego even is being suppressed here.
04:15He, Netanyahu broke Trump's ceasefire and Trump shut his mouth.
04:22So what I think needs to be done is that everybody involved in this, whether it's the doctors and health workers back from Gaza, whether it's the stand-up members of Congress, and there are some of them, whether it's the media,
04:38we've got to basically show that this is a mass murder that's going on, and even 400 rabbis objecting to the demolition of Palestinian homes.
04:54There's a report out just yesterday from Israeli media, the Brave reporter, Mehran Rapoport, that Israeli soldiers are given missions like, okay, today you've got to take the bulldozers out and destroy 42 Palestinian homes or apartments.
05:13They're just leveling the place, and it isn't a war, Andrew.
05:18It's not a war.
05:19There's no fighting going on.
05:21This Israeli reporter said there's no fighting going on.
05:24Hamas is not a fighting force.
05:28It never was to begin with unless until Netanyahu mysteriously collapsed the elaborate border security on October 7th and opened the gates.
05:38But there's nothing left of Hamas as a fighting force.
05:42You don't hear any information from the Israeli military about Israeli casualties in Gaza, because there aren't any, unless it's, you know, friendly fire or some accident with some building collapsing on the soldiers inside.
05:58So, unconstitutional, as you have pointed out, it violates six federal statutes, including one that says you don't send weapons to countries that violate human rights.
06:09And it's violating, of course, all kinds of international law and Geneva conventions.
06:16So, less than 1% of the people rejecting here, pour it in, call the White House switchboard, Trump's egos at stake.
06:26You appeal to his ego.
06:27So, he doesn't like to have foreign leaders affront to his ego.
06:34So, you can start with that and hope there's a sliver of compassion for those dying kids in Palestine.
06:41Do you subscribe to the view that Trump can't stand Netanyahu because he feels manipulated by him and that Trump's ego will trump, no pun intended, even the donor class on the Zionist money machine, which has funded Trump's campaigns?
07:01It's hard to figure out.
07:05I mean, obviously, he's always been afraid of the domestic Israel government can do no wrong lobby like AIPAC.
07:14He's always been afraid of that throughout his political career.
07:20You know, he has favored annexation of the West Bank.
07:24He moved the capital to Jerusalem.
07:26He legitimized the seizure of the Golan Heights in Syria.
07:33So, he's done a lot that AIPAC loved.
07:36But now, he's got to draw the line because this whole struggle in Israel-Palestine is destroying American civil liberties and civil rights.
07:47It's distorting public budgets.
07:49It's controlling Congress into a grotesque accessory, aiding and abetting the Palestinian Holocaust by the Netanyahu genocidal mass murderers.
08:02And he's going to have to face up to it.
08:05There's already a split in the White House that's growing against bombing Iran and doing what Israel wants us to do, the dirty work on Iran.
08:18And there's a more dominant split now saying, no way, we're not going to play Israel's game.
08:26And they've opened negotiations with Iran.
08:28We'll see how that comes out.
08:31But it's what it's doing to American democracy, Andrew.
08:35Right.
08:35What I really want to ask you is who controls the government.
08:44I mean, I think you're probably going to say the military-industrial complex and the donor class.
08:50But, Ralph, remember when Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress, his speech was 56 minutes long.
09:00He received 58 standing ovations.
09:04And, of course, if you go to AIPAC's website, you'll see well more than half the members of the House and Senate pictured there as regular donors of AIPAC.
09:17Congressman Thomas Massey, who doesn't accept any money from AIPAC, reported that most of his colleagues actually have a minder in their office, an actual agent of AIPAC in their Capitol Hill office, to make sure that they are aware of AIPAC's wishes on every vote.
09:39Why isn't AIPAC designated as a foreign lobbying entity and forced to register with the FBI?
09:50Good question.
09:52They are a foreign agent of the Israeli government in every conceivable manner.
09:57I mean, they even oppose opening Gaza to American journalists and editors.
10:04We're funding the war.
10:09We've got diplomatic and political coverage.
10:13And AIPAC doesn't want American reporters to go in there independently and tell the American people what's going on with their tax dollars.
10:21Even worse, they refuse to support the airlifting of burned and amputated Israeli-Palestinian kids to ready-enabled hospitals in the U.S., in New York, in Philadelphia, in Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles.
10:40They never cross Netanyahu.
10:43They should register as a foreign agent.
10:46Ralph, who controls the government?
10:49Who controls the United States federal government?
10:56Well, obviously, we have a corporate state, which you know from your research is clinically defined as big business controlling big government and turning it against its own people.
11:10And that's what's happening now under the Trump regime.
11:14Notice, under the guise of efficiency and eliminating waste and corruption, the only programs they're going after are people programs, where the tax dollars are going back to help the people.
11:30Whether it's Meals on Wheels or Head Start or pollution controls or food inspection or firefighters or people who are heading off, trying to head off pandemics or people who are trying to deal with the heightened climate, storms and droughts and fires.
11:58It's amazing.
12:01He's even doing it to his own voters.
12:04He's canceling contracts on renewable energy, 80 percent of which go to red states.
12:10There are businesses in Alabama and Mississippi and Georgia saying, what are you doing to us?
12:15We voted for you.
12:17We didn't vote for this.
12:18In the meantime, the three 800-pound gorillas are untouchable.
12:26And they're the source of the vast majority of waste and inefficiency in government.
12:32Why are they?
12:32Cloted military budget, unaudible, violating since 1992 a federal law requiring all agencies and departments in the federal government to produce audited budgets to the Congress.
12:46Number two, corporate welfare, giveaways, handouts, subsidies, guarantees, and what's known as corporate tax expenditures or corporate tax loopholes.
13:00Hundreds of billions of dollars there.
13:02And then the big one is commercial ripoff of government safety net programs like $60 billion ripoffs of Medicare every year.
13:14And then there's Medicaid and there's other government disbursement where these corporate contractors are cheating, looting, and there's very little law enforcement.
13:25Now, both Musk and Trump benefit from these 300-pound, 800-pound gorillas in a variety of ways.
13:33So they're protecting the corporations that are part of the corporate state.
13:39The definition of fascism is clinically being fulfilled by the Trump regime.
13:47Let me ask you about the Congress, Ralph.
13:51Now, we know of AIPAC's influence in the Congress, but why do you think the Congress rolls over and plays dead?
13:57I mean, 90% of Donald Trump's executive orders have been stayed and joined from enforcement by the courts because these changes that he wants can only come about by legislation from the Congress.
14:13But the Congress does nothing.
14:14The Congress looks the other way.
14:16The Congress looks the other way when the president funds genocide.
14:21The Congress looked the other way when the president bombed Yemen.
14:24I didn't see any declaration of war in Yemen.
14:26We spent a billion dollars trying to bomb the hooties.
14:30We couldn't even scratch the surface of it.
14:33But what conceivable authority was there for that?
14:36The answer is none.
14:37The big question is, why doesn't Congress do something about it?
14:43Because for decades, it has been the most one-sided, intensive lobbying campaign in American modern history, with the possible exception of the NRA, and that's AIPAC.
14:55And they do it brilliantly.
14:57I've suggested to people I know of AIPAC, they have clinical civic skill lessons to the American people as a redemption for what they've been doing to control Congress.
15:11First of all, they don't engage in marches and demonstrations.
15:15That's just for the powerless.
15:17They do personal-focused lobbying.
15:21They get to know the member.
15:24They get to know the staff.
15:25They get to know the member's doctor back home, lawyer back home, golf companion back home, business associate back home, relatives.
15:36And they're relentless.
15:38They have about 300,000 lobbyists around the country.
15:44And they're organized to the teeth.
15:47And anybody who dares defy them gets a primary challenge, like Cori Bush did or Jamal Bowman.
15:54They beat them in Missouri and New York.
15:58And then they use the ultimate libelous weapon, which is they accuse people of being anti-Semitic.
16:08Of course, the Palestinians are Semitics.
16:12So the biggest anti-Semite today is Netanyahu.
16:15And it's not with words.
16:16It's with F-16s, artillery.
16:18It's with snipers putting bullet holes in children's heads, for which there is X-ray documentation by American doctors back from Gaza.
16:29Right, right.
16:30Ralph, talk to us.
16:32I'm going to ask you in a few minutes about your new book, which I loved, called Civic Self-Respect.
16:38But before we get there, one more topic to address.
16:41And that is the suppression of free speech in the United States.
16:45The donor class has succeeded in twisting the arms of universities, including the one from which you and I graduated, sadly, getting them to suppress free speech.
16:58Just two days ago, NYU, a fine academic institution here in New York City, a great university, a great research university,
17:09declined to give the diploma to the valedictorian of the school who met every requirement for getting his diploma,
17:19because in his valedictory speech, he accused the Netanyahu regime of genocide, and he used the word genocide.
17:27This kind of pressure on people to get them to conform their speech is utterly reprehensible in America.
17:37Now, this is a private entity doing it.
17:39They do accept a huge amount of money from the feds.
17:43As a condition for accepting that money from the feds, they agree to abide by the Bill of Rights as if they were a government.
17:49They don't, because the donor class is pressing them to suppress the free speech that the donor class hates and fears.
18:01Ralph Nader, what can we do about this?
18:06Well, I've never seen anything so grotesque.
18:08The people who are supporting the genocide and the Netanyahu regime on campuses are allowed to do so.
18:15They are not harassed.
18:18They are not suppressed.
18:20They don't have diplomas withheld.
18:22They don't get canceled.
18:23They don't get fired.
18:26They don't get sanctioned in any way.
18:29It's the people who are opposed to mass murder with our weapons, our tax dollars, our diplomatic cover at the U.N. and elsewhere.
18:38They're the ones who are getting harassed and canceled out, like you just pointed, at various universities.
18:44And I'm going to add law firms, too.
18:47And I've never seen anything like this.
18:50The McCarthy period was nothing compared to what's going on here.
18:54And these people are speaking out.
18:58They're getting kidnapped on streets by masked ICE operatives who don't identify themselves, don't know that they're legal authority.
19:08And they're kidnapped and sent to Louisiana prisons or prisons in El Salvador.
19:14Now, this was called by Professor Nancy Gertzner, a former federal judge.
19:20She's a law professor at Harvard now.
19:23She called what Trump's doing a coup d'etat.
19:25And the representative from Vermont, Becca Tallent, whose grandfather was executed by the Nazis, said that Trump is engaging in Gestapo tactics.
19:38So let's stop using people language here and recognize that the people, by a small margin, have looked at a dictator.
19:50It's not the first time in the world that that's happened.
19:52And Trump now is doing things where even Trump voters are saying, hey, I didn't vote for this.
19:58I didn't vote for that.
20:00I didn't vote for the strip mining of Veterans Administration.
20:04I didn't vote for taking away health care.
20:09I didn't vote for these things.
20:10So Trump is facing a revolt and the Capital Citizen is documenting this in this current issue.
20:19People can go to thecapitalcitizen.com and for a donation of five dollars or more, if you wish, you get a full in print newspaper on Congress like you've never read before.
20:30And its purpose is to empower you, which is exactly the point of my new book, Andrew, Civic Self-Respect.
20:39It started when I'd be speaking at universities.
20:44People would call up to me afterwards and say, well, I got to ask you a question, Ralph.
20:48I know I'm a nobody, but I got to ask you a question.
20:51I said, wait a minute.
20:53What do you mean you're a nobody?
20:54Nobody's a nobody in a democracy.
20:58I said, what do you do?
21:00And I go through.
21:01He said, do you have work?
21:03Yeah.
21:03You're a worker, right?
21:05Okay.
21:05You pay taxes?
21:06Yeah.
21:06You're a taxpayer, right?
21:08Are you a veteran?
21:09Well, some of them say yes.
21:11Do you shop?
21:12Are you a consumer?
21:13Yeah.
21:14Are you a voter?
21:15Yeah.
21:16Are you a citizen?
21:17Yeah.
21:17Well, how can you say you're a nobody?
21:20You know something about all these roles.
21:22And you can mention.
21:24And this book, this book, this book, this book is a blueprint for people who are disgusted
21:34with the government.
21:35But just listen to these chapters, the citizen, the workers, just what you're talking about,
21:40the consumer shopper, the consumer shopper, the taxpayer, the voter, the parent, the veteran,
21:45the philanthropist.
21:47This is a blueprint for anybody concerned with out-of-control government, concerned with authoritarianism
21:54in the government, concerned with undeclared wars, concerned with suppression of civil liberties,
22:01and how mom and pop can actually affect the government.
22:05This almost reminds me of a book that I read a long time ago called Unsafe at Any Speed,
22:14which, of course, targeted in on the automobile industry and the harms it was causing in those days.
22:23Now you're targeting an out-of-control government and giving a blueprint for folks to address it.
22:31What's the most important thing that anybody can do who's disgusted with genocide
22:36and disgusted with the suppression of civil liberties?
22:41Well, there are always demonstrations and marches.
22:45You know, the politicians are still afraid of the people if they organize.
22:49Because they like campaign money from special interests, sure.
22:54But what they like more is your vote.
22:56So you've got to give your vote a condition.
22:59You've got to condition the votes.
23:02And when they go back from Congress, they go back for recess, you know, days and days of recess,
23:08shaking hands and smiling.
23:10There are two questions you should always ask a politician about the positions they're taking.
23:15One, what's the legal authority for your response or declaration or the vote
23:22or giving up your constitutional authority to Congress?
23:25Two, what is the evidence to back up your claim?
23:29Those are the two questions that almost never was asked of Donald Trump.
23:33The reason why he got away with thousands of lies and falsehoods is because while some of the newspapers fact-checked him,
23:41they reached a tiny audience compared to his lies and falsehoods.
23:44And they never asked him, what's the basis for your statement, Mr. President, or candidate Trump?
23:52What's the evidence for your statement?
23:54They gave him a free ride.
23:56It doesn't matter if you fact-check and a few people read it in the New York Times or Washington Post.
24:02So the voters have got to learn how to do their homework, how to focus on the record,
24:08not the rhetoric of a politician, and how to become more than a one-issue voter.
24:13If you're a multi-issue voter, you have more influence over your candidates.
24:18If you're just a single-issue voter, say on abortion, they know how to game that.
24:22They've taken their position, and they know how to answer that.
24:26But if you broaden it out, so what's your position on corporate crime enforcement?
24:30Should we have more budget to enforce crime, fraud on Medicare by the health insurance companies,
24:38for example, or the so-called vendors of health care?
24:43What's your position on increasing the taxes on the undertaxed rich,
24:48and half of the profitable corporations don't even pay any federal income tax?
24:52One worker in these corporations says more money to the U.S. Treasury than the whole corporation,
24:57which has gained the system.
25:00So this book is extremely valuable.
25:03That's why it said it's self-respect.
25:05It all starts, whether we have a functioning democracy or a society,
25:09it all starts with individuals having a high estimate of their own significance
25:14in the ways you just outlined, voter, taxpayer, consumer, worker, veteran, so forth,
25:21and speaking out, connecting with others.
25:23Everything we like about this country, Andrew, that we inherited,
25:28started with a conversation between two people, and then four, and then a hundred,
25:33and then a movement, and then the politicians took heed, or the corporations cleaned up their act.
25:39So this is why this little book, Civic Self-Respect, is something for you to discuss,
25:46give away as gifts to your students who are children, libraries.
25:50This is the fountainhead of democracy, or the absence of Civic Self-Respect is the enablement of fascism,
26:00which we're experiencing today.
26:03And it didn't just start with Trump.
26:04Let me also say that the book is a wealth of a lifetime of your civic self-respect,
26:14and all the lessons you've learned, compacted into this beautiful blueprint.
26:20Ralph, it's always a pleasure.
26:21I hope you'll come back here more frequently.
26:22We had you on about a year and a half ago.
26:24Let's not wait that long for the next time.
26:27You're a hero to our audience.
26:30You remain a hero and a friend to me.
26:32It's a joy to be with you.
26:34Thank you, Ralph.
26:35Thank you for your time.
26:36Very much appreciated.
26:38You're very welcome, Andrew.
26:40And we applaud what you're doing, too, because you transcend left-right differences
26:45and get people to focus on fundamental justice and constitutional observance.
26:51Thank you, Ralph.
26:52God love you.
26:54Coming up later today at 3 o'clock, excuse me, at 2 o'clock, at 2 o'clock this afternoon,
27:00Colonel Douglas McGregor, at 3 o'clock.
27:03Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom.

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