0:00

This is Chris Edges, and you're

0:02

listening to the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

0:09

Welcome

0:12

to the Ralph

0:14

Nader Radio Hour. My name is

0:16

Steve Scrovan, along with my co -host

0:18

David Feldman. Hello, David. Hello, Steve.

0:21

And our producer, Hannah Feldman. Hello,

0:23

Hannah. Hello, Steve. And

0:27

the man of the hour. Ralph Nader,

0:29

hello Ralph! Hello everybody.

0:32

How to describe Elon

0:34

Musk. He's intelligent, wealthy,

0:36

influential in politics, science

0:38

and technology. With an

0:40

extraordinary aptitude for business and

0:42

manipulation, he's also

0:44

proud, calculating, pragmatic and

0:47

vengeful. Driven by an insatiable

0:49

thirst for control and devoid of

0:51

ethical principles. Wait a minute, that's

0:53

the bio of Lex Luthor from the Superman comic

0:55

books. How did the CEO of

0:57

an electric car company become a real -life

0:59

supervillain? Dancing around the White House with

1:01

a chainsaw as he joyfully puts thousands

1:04

of civil servants out of work. Was

1:06

he always this way? Or did something

1:08

happen that set him on his current course? Our

1:11

first guest, Fesediki, has been

1:13

reporting on the tech world, including Tesla

1:15

and Twitter, for years. And he's

1:17

written a book, Huberus Maximus,

1:19

The Shattering of Elon Musk,

1:22

which is described as a cautionary tale

1:24

but the pitfalls of

1:26

lionizing magnetic leaders. Then

1:28

we're going to tag this interview with

1:30

our resident legal expert Bruce Fine, who's

1:33

going to tell us how Elon Musk

1:35

and Doge are literally breaking the law. And

1:37

to close out today's program, David is going

1:39

to pick up our interview with Ralph about

1:42

his new book, Civic Self -Respect, published

1:44

by Seven Stories Press, and we'll let you

1:46

know how to get your copy of Civic

1:48

Self -Respect at the end of the interview. As

1:50

always, somewhere in the middle we'll check in

1:52

with our relentless corporate crime reporter, Russell

1:54

Mochiber. But to kick things off, believe

1:56

it or not, Elon Musk was

1:59

not always MAGA. David. Festadiki

2:01

is a technology journalist who writes

2:03

with the Washington Post and has

2:05

covered companies such as Tesla, Uber

2:07

and Twitter, now X, for the

2:09

business desk. His reporting

2:11

has focused on transportation, social media.

2:20

the shattering of Elon Musk, an

2:22

excerpt of that book can be

2:24

found over at the Ralph Nader Radio

2:26

Hour website. Welcome to the

2:28

Ralph Nader Radio Hour, Fez

2:30

Siddiqui. Thank you so much for

2:32

having me. Thank you very, Fez.

2:34

I must say you are a

2:36

very generous person. You have three pages

2:39

of acknowledgments where you include the

2:41

prior books on Musk. I

2:43

mean, what author of a

2:45

book on Musk would acknowledge

2:47

half a dozen prior books

2:49

on Musk. You also think

2:51

Drew Harwell twice. You're very

2:53

generous to say the least. Listener

2:55

should know this is a very

2:58

gripping book. There's nothing vague

3:00

about this book. And

3:02

as subject to the book, Elon

3:04

Musk is now running a good

3:06

part of the federal government under

3:08

the fascist dictator Donald Trump. So

3:10

please listen carefully. This is

3:12

a very important book. I

3:15

must say, let's give Musk his

3:17

due before we take him apart

3:19

as a lot of your pages

3:21

in your book do. He did

3:23

spot a huge stagnation in the

3:25

auto industry, which didn't want to

3:27

produce electric cars. Always kept promising. The

3:29

first electric cars were produced over

3:31

100 years ago. He saw an

3:34

opening and blew it wide

3:36

open with the production of electric

3:38

cars. At the time, he

3:40

was a great environmentalist. He was

3:42

worried about climate violence. He

3:44

signed a 2014 statement with famous

3:46

scientists around the world saying

3:48

that if we don't control robotics

3:51

or artificial intelligence, they may

3:53

be a force out of control

3:55

and destroy humankind. There was

3:57

no mincing of words in that

3:59

letter, which is online. And

4:01

that was the first rendition

4:03

of Elon Musk that we

4:05

listened to. We also supported

4:07

the Democratic Party. What happened

4:09

to change him into a fervid

4:11

Trump supporter and just a

4:14

complete reversal of his prior

4:16

stands. What do you think

4:18

happened? So the book

4:20

details few distinct periods where he

4:22

felt that what he was doing

4:24

was righteous. He felt that he

4:26

was helping people and the

4:29

mission of Tesla, celebrating the

4:31

world's transition to sustainable energy was the

4:33

right one. And thus why is

4:35

he being attacked? Why is Tesla being

4:37

attacked? And suddenly, as I

4:39

write about, he becomes convinced that there

4:41

is a big oil conspiracy against

4:43

his company, or the government

4:45

is conspiring against his company. So one

4:48

of those periods is in 2018, Elon

4:51

Musk falsely says that he has

4:53

funding secured to take Tesla private for

4:55

$420 a share. It wasn't true.

4:57

And there's an SEC lawsuit

4:59

alleging security fraud. And

5:01

he's in this moment where he ends

5:03

up saying, I don't respect the

5:05

SEC. Over and over throughout

5:07

this book, there's just this sort

5:10

of recurring theme of victimhood, or at

5:12

least Ewan feeling like his back

5:14

is against the wall. And why?

5:16

For what? Him and his fans

5:18

felt they were doing the right

5:20

things, and yet they were being

5:22

scrutinized and punished for it. Yeah,

5:25

it's interesting. You attribute his beginning

5:27

of his turnaround. to

5:29

the regulation activity of the

5:31

Auto Safety Agency, the National

5:33

Transportation Safety Board, the Securities

5:35

Exchange Commission. He didn't like that

5:37

at all. His autopilot has

5:39

been involved in crashes, and

5:42

his financial shenanigans have brought

5:44

the attention of the SEC.

5:46

And that sort of was the marking point

5:49

of his turnaround from

5:51

what might be called

5:53

a liberal Democrat environmentalist

5:55

skeptic of runaway. artificial

5:58

intelligence into a Trump -type

6:00

reactionary. And he put

6:02

a quarter of a million dollars into Trump's campaign.

6:05

But in the area of just giving him

6:07

his due, I have to admit, I

6:10

mean, it's sort of spectacular what he

6:12

achieved. He built Starlink and

6:14

SpaceX. Those are worth

6:16

hundreds of billions of dollars. They're private

6:18

companies. When they go public, he's

6:20

going to be even richer because he

6:22

owns a large share of those

6:24

companies. How does he get

6:26

into these huge areas and

6:28

make fools out of giant corporations,

6:31

you know, sitting around looking at

6:33

their knitting, so to speak? How does

6:35

he spend his time during the

6:37

day? And how does he recruit such

6:39

competent people to pull it off? So

6:42

the recruiting is really interesting.

6:45

So for a long time, I was in Silicon

6:47

Valley, I was in San Francisco specifically,

6:49

and I was covering Tesla, and I

6:51

sort of realized this is a big

6:53

draw. This was At the time that

6:55

I was there, this is in the

6:57

wake of many Facebook scandals, many Uber

6:59

scandals. Tesla was the company

7:02

to work for. Elon was the

7:04

person to work for. There was

7:06

no figure as magnetic who

7:08

inspired people in the way

7:10

that Elon did. So recruiting

7:12

was a strong suit of

7:14

that company. And the pitch was, come here

7:16

and change the world. You're not selling

7:18

ads for a social media company. You're

7:21

going to go work for Elon. and

7:23

you're going to change the world. Now, how

7:25

did he get his hands in so

7:27

many different areas of public life? I talk

7:29

about this in the book. A lot

7:31

of times it was reactive. Elon sees that

7:34

some of these other startups are chasing

7:36

self -driving or artificial intelligence. And

7:38

Elon sees that that's the next

7:40

wave reacts, but has this built -in

7:42

advantage of he can recruit some

7:44

of the best people. That then, as

7:46

Elon's antics spill out into public

7:49

view, he starts to become less of

7:51

a draw, frankly. But that's an

7:53

advantage that he still has. So how

7:55

did he manage to do this?

7:57

Just look at any startup, for example,

7:59

OpenAI, which hits the scene

8:02

with the first big large language

8:04

model that is publicly released. What

8:06

does Elon do? He responds with

8:08

GROC, with XAI, and

8:10

overnight, seemingly, he has

8:12

a bunch of people now chasing the

8:14

same thing and catching up as quickly

8:16

as they can to a company like OpenAI.

8:18

So he just has the ability to sort

8:20

of snap his fingers. and get people going.

8:23

What's amazing about him, and he does

8:25

work like seven days a week. He's

8:27

been known to sleep on mattresses in

8:29

his factories. He's very

8:31

attentive to detail before he

8:33

went into the Trump administration

8:36

and neglected his corporate business

8:38

to the chagrin of some

8:40

shareholders and corporate executives inside

8:42

his company, of course. But the

8:44

fascinating thing about him is 30 years

8:46

ago, he didn't have, as you say

8:48

in your book, two nickels to

8:51

rub together. And in 30 years

8:53

becomes the richest man in the world. There

8:55

is no precedent for Elon Musk, not

8:57

Ford, not Rockefeller. None of

9:00

them can compare with the

9:02

range and breakthrough that he

9:04

has achieved. There are

9:06

passages in your book which describe

9:08

Musk and they sound like

9:10

describing Trump. He's become very much

9:13

like Trump. He lies frequently.

9:15

He exaggerates. He makes

9:17

Corporate promises of autonomous vehicle

9:19

and installations is normal

9:21

that are way off

9:23

the mark. He has appearance of

9:25

a dangerously unstable

9:27

personality. He uses intimidation

9:29

tactics the way Trump does

9:31

on the line. He has hordes

9:34

of followers who spew hate

9:36

against critics of Trump. So let's

9:38

ask the question. Quote, it could be

9:40

asked of Trump. Quote. Can

9:42

Elon Musk do whatever he wants and

9:44

not face the consequences? That's

9:47

a great question. I think you will

9:49

see that the pattern in the

9:51

book is that largely, yes, he

9:53

in that specific trial where

9:56

there's a question over his

9:58

funding secured statement that he

10:00

had the money to take Tesla

10:02

private, causing the stock to soar

10:04

basically to pop and then ultimately

10:06

costing people a lot of money when

10:08

reality dawned on them. Elon

10:11

gets away with it. Elon has

10:13

to step back as chairman of

10:15

the Tesla board over that, but

10:17

he emerges more powerful than

10:19

ever. You raise the subject of

10:21

the amount of wealth that he's generated

10:23

through these companies and how there's no

10:25

parallel. Well, I

10:27

talk about how a lot of that happened.

10:30

He steered what a judge

10:32

essentially called a self -driving

10:34

pay package. Elon steered the

10:36

process initiated by the

10:38

compensation committee of the board.

10:40

But largely as the

10:43

documented at the direction of

10:45

months, it was $150

10:47

billion pay package. There was

10:49

no parallel in history

10:51

that the second largest pay

10:53

package was must. And

10:55

that was in the tens of billions. And

10:58

so can he do whatever he wants?

11:00

I don't know. You hear the Trump thing

11:02

about you could go out to Fifth Avenue

11:04

with Elon. I mean, there is

11:06

this question about what is the limit

11:08

of what Elon

11:10

will be permitted that

11:12

any other CEO might not be

11:15

permitted to do. Before we

11:17

get into his present role as

11:19

Trump's hatchet man wrecking the federal

11:21

government, a couple of questions are

11:23

often asked. By the way, were you

11:25

able to interview Musk for this book? I

11:27

know you covered Musk in Silicon Valley

11:29

for a number of years, but did

11:31

he give you an interview? He

11:34

didn't. Musk has responded to my

11:36

Washington Post reporting before. generally with

11:38

the same refrain, give my regards

11:40

to your puppet master. And

11:42

I talk about how I yell a couple of

11:44

questions at him outside of court over the

11:46

course of that report. But no, he did not

11:48

give me an interview for the book. The

11:50

other thing that's interesting that I

11:52

didn't see much of in your

11:54

book is his personal life. He

11:56

has 12 children with three de

11:59

facto wives, and he's got them

12:01

in a elaborate new compound in

12:03

Texas where they're living together.

12:05

What's the story there? So

12:08

this merges perhaps Musk's

12:10

political and social philosophies

12:12

and his personal life in

12:14

a way. He has been espousing

12:16

this sort of pro -natalist rhetoric,

12:18

but also alarmist rhetoric about

12:20

population decline. He believes humanity

12:22

needs to be having more babies, and

12:24

if they're not... is doomed.

12:26

And this seems to justify decisions in

12:28

his personal life in a way

12:30

that I think the most people probably

12:32

are a bit uncomfortable because it

12:35

just raises a question of is everybody

12:37

comfortable here? Is everybody do all

12:39

these kids have the relationship with

12:41

their parents that they should?

12:43

It's just an interesting one because

12:45

Elon talks so much about

12:47

this threat of population decline and

12:49

seems convinced that he is

12:51

doing his part to address it.

12:54

Well, you spend a lot of time

12:56

in the book. A lot of pages

12:58

in the book on the dangers of

13:00

the Tesla vehicle and the problems with

13:02

the Cybertruck and the deaths and

13:04

injuries that have occurred and the

13:06

regulatory activity out of Washington

13:09

on Tesla. But have

13:11

you thought about the absence

13:13

of any criminal prosecution by

13:15

state prosecutors? When Ford had

13:17

that Pinto problem with the

13:19

rear -end fire risk, a state

13:21

prosecutor in Ohio

13:23

brought an indictment against

13:25

Ford. He eventually lost because

13:27

he didn't have the budget to take

13:30

on Ford's lawyers and the

13:32

friendly judge of the local defender

13:34

of Ford. But do you know

13:36

anything about any possible

13:38

state prosecution of Trump?

13:41

So there are state investigations into

13:43

autopilot. The California DMV most notably

13:45

has had an extensive investigation into

13:47

autopilot. The one thing that seems

13:50

to differ is that you raised

13:52

the prospect of criminal action. I

13:54

mean, I do talk in the

13:56

book about how the FBI interviewed

13:58

a former Tesla employee as part

14:00

of a DOJ investigation into

14:02

autopilot claims. But given

14:04

the political realities of the country

14:07

right now, I would not expect

14:09

to see those go anywhere soon. So

14:11

then there are the state

14:14

level investigations. Again, most notably

14:16

the California DMV. But I don't

14:18

know that they rise beyond the

14:20

prospect of civil penalties. Let's

14:22

look at his role in the Trump

14:25

administration now. He is a private

14:27

citizen. He doesn't have an official title.

14:30

He has a crew that barges into

14:32

the IRS. They want to

14:34

cut half of the employees,

14:36

which would release huge amounts

14:38

of uncollected taxes, tax evasion.

14:40

He's firing civil servants right

14:42

and left. going after the

14:44

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the

14:46

Health and Human Services Department,

14:49

the Environmental Protection Agency,

14:52

the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

14:54

His message to the public, which

14:56

is not very articulated by the

14:59

media, is that they're cutting

15:01

people's programs, almost focused on

15:03

the social safety nets, the

15:05

necessities of all the people to

15:07

be protected from climate violence,

15:09

pandemics. other situations

15:12

of mortal peril, but

15:14

they're giving a pass to the

15:16

three 800 -pound gorillas that really

15:19

constitute most of the waste,

15:21

fraud, and abuse allegedly

15:23

they're going after. And I'm asking

15:25

you, because why doesn't press

15:27

cover the corporate criminal ripoff

15:29

of Medicare and Medicaid and

15:31

other programs, hundreds of billions

15:33

of dollars, corporate welfare,

15:36

subsidies, handouts, giveaways, tax

15:38

expenditures? for corporations

15:41

and the bloated military

15:43

budget that is illegally

15:45

unauditable under a 1992

15:48

federal law, which they

15:50

want to expand, not contract,

15:52

full of waste, fraud and abuse

15:55

in its contracting, for example. Why

15:57

is that? I can't speak for

15:59

the organization, but I know that I've read

16:01

that the same media criticism and what

16:03

is my perspective as a journalist, I

16:05

think it's having read. sections

16:08

of Chomsky, right, manufacturing consent, like we

16:10

get that journalists are only as

16:12

good as their sources at times. And

16:14

I do sometimes wonder if we

16:16

need to get out of our bubbles

16:18

a bit. And we need to

16:20

understand some of the realities of what

16:22

people are dealing with, as opposed

16:24

to reporting purely on the basis of

16:27

what are our traditional relationships in

16:29

Washington. So I think that criticism

16:31

is a real one. Do you

16:33

then agree with Doge says

16:35

it wants to vet

16:37

social security or Medicare or

16:39

Medicaid for fraud? And

16:42

are those aims in alignment with

16:44

this criticism? Should Doge be the

16:46

one to audit those agencies? I

16:48

don't know, but it seems like a valid idea. Doge

16:52

is a criminal enterprise. We're

16:54

not talking metaphor here. They

16:56

are violating criminal statutes as well,

16:58

civil statutes. Seven days a

17:00

week, they're working. out of the

17:02

executive office building, bringing in

17:04

fast food and having very little sleep

17:06

and musk brags about all that. So

17:08

there's a real wrecking crew here. You

17:10

know, Mark Green and I wrote a

17:12

book in 2020 called Wrecking America on

17:15

Trump where we predicted a lot of this

17:17

rampage. But the important

17:19

point here seems to me, Fez,

17:21

is there is an instability

17:23

in his personality. You begin

17:25

to describe his gyrations,

17:28

what he takes in terms

17:30

of pills. how little

17:32

sleep he has, how he

17:34

flies off the handle

17:36

and makes impulsive emotional decisions,

17:38

how he revels in

17:40

anonymous intimidation by his supporters

17:42

of any critics, some

17:44

of them serious threats to the

17:46

critics as well. And

17:48

members of Congress are not immune

17:50

to his induced ire. You

17:52

think he's going to crash? What's the

17:55

future of Twitter? What's the future

17:57

of Tesla? What's the future

17:59

of Elon Musk? You know, you've

18:01

touched on all these bases quite specifically.

18:04

What do you see coming in the next year or

18:06

two? You think he's going to leave Trump

18:08

government pretty soon? Trump has

18:11

mentioned that and go back to his

18:13

company. Give us a sense of what's on

18:15

the horizon here. What do

18:17

the investors want? They wanted to focus

18:19

on Tesla. They wanted, obviously, to make

18:21

them gobs of money and just focus

18:23

on this one thing that is the

18:25

cash cow, but that is... the company

18:27

other than SpaceX that he's most

18:29

associated with. He has proven time and

18:31

again that he is not content

18:33

to do that. So Musk is obviously,

18:36

you know, he's talked about his time

18:38

at Doge winding down because of,

18:40

in part, the limitations of being a

18:43

special government employee, but the momentum is

18:45

sort of going in that direction anyway,

18:47

it seems like. So he is not

18:49

content to go back to his business

18:51

and focus on that. There is always

18:53

a next thing. And you

18:55

raised the idea that how did he get to this

18:57

place where he's involved in so many different buckets?

18:59

Well, the two that

19:01

I think are overlooked a bit

19:03

are Neuralink, which is a brain

19:05

chip implant startup, which, you know,

19:08

has legitimate aims to restore movement

19:10

to people suffering from paralysis, for

19:12

example. And then there's XAI,

19:14

the artificial intelligence startup that Musk

19:16

has talked about that what he

19:18

sees is the existential threat of

19:21

artificial general intelligence. And yet he

19:23

believes that he should be the

19:25

one to build a superhuman AI, to

19:28

prevent it from becoming too powerful. And

19:30

so that is a tremendous amount of

19:32

power to be giving somebody, to put

19:34

your trust in somebody and say like, well,

19:36

you see it as a threat to

19:38

all of humanity, but we trust you to

19:40

be the one to bring it to fruition.

19:42

So I would look at those two areas. But again,

19:44

it's hard to predict what the man is going to

19:46

do next. Well, it's

19:49

not difficult to predict his

19:51

next dimension of activity. in

19:53

what can be called the corporate

19:55

state. Starlink, SpaceX are very, very

19:57

close with the Pentagon, the CIA,

20:00

and NASA. He has huge contracts,

20:03

and these agencies are becoming more

20:05

and more dependent on him. Satellite

20:07

services, for example. It's pretty

20:09

extraordinary how a big deal he

20:11

is now in the national

20:13

security state. And of course,

20:16

that's super secret, and he's

20:18

not known to have

20:20

a careful regard for

20:22

information that might be secret,

20:25

but he is now a full

20:27

fledged participant at a large

20:29

scale in the merger of big

20:31

business and big government. So

20:33

it's not hard to see what

20:35

his next frontier is. He's

20:37

moving in on foreign policy.

20:39

He's talking about elections

20:41

in foreign countries. He's wondering

20:43

whether he should continue

20:46

providing satellite services for certain

20:48

countries that are under

20:50

pressure like Ukraine. There's a clear

20:52

future for Musk in that

20:54

area and not just going back

20:56

to managing Tesla or Neuralink.

20:58

What's your view? I

21:00

think you're onto something with there

21:03

is a desire from Musk

21:05

to expand his reach and influence

21:07

beyond his businesses because

21:09

he has seen the perceived

21:11

threat that looms over

21:13

his businesses from regulation or

21:16

entrenched political power. What

21:18

he sees as this anti

21:20

-Musk. conspiracy, perhaps, from powerful

21:22

levels of government. And

21:24

so I would not be shocked

21:26

to see more activity in

21:28

elections, more political donations. He's

21:31

seen the impact that presidential

21:33

political contributions can make to a presidential

21:35

race. So I think you're onto something

21:37

there. But in the near term, there

21:39

is a lot of pressure on us

21:41

to return his attention to his businesses. Well,

21:44

even Musk only has 24 hours a day

21:47

and seven days a week. So if

21:49

he goes into the corporate state big time,

21:51

he's going to be neglecting Twitter

21:53

and Tesla. Now,

21:55

some skeptics may think that's a pretty

21:57

good thing because his paying attention to

21:59

these companies has become somewhat

22:01

damaging. What's your view of

22:04

the future of Twitter now

22:06

called X by him and Tesla,

22:08

especially with more auto companies now

22:10

expanding their electric car production? And

22:13

the sales of electric cars beginning

22:15

to slow. So I'll take

22:17

the Tesla part of that first. So

22:19

Musk has talked about pivoting

22:21

Tesla to robotics and artificial intelligence

22:23

startup, emphasizing its full

22:25

self -driving technology and its humanoid robots.

22:27

And I mentioned those things

22:30

not because I'm particularly convinced that

22:32

that is what's going to be

22:34

happening a year from now for

22:36

Tesla, but they're trying to tell

22:38

a story of. We're multi -dimensional.

22:40

We're not just an auto company.

22:42

We're not in the low margin

22:44

business of auto manufacturing anymore. Value

22:47

us as a tech company. Value us as

22:49

an AI startup. And so you're

22:51

going to hear a lot of that rhetoric from Tesla.

22:54

Twitter, it seems like every day

22:56

it resembles what it was,

22:58

this micro blogging platform. It starts

23:00

to resemble that less and

23:02

less. It's more of the traditional

23:05

social media model, but

23:07

like casino -ified. They're trying to

23:09

capture your attention in as many

23:11

ways as possible with short form

23:13

video or engaging posts, a curated

23:15

feed, which is much more

23:17

in the realm of TikTok and

23:19

Instagram. So they're under pressure

23:21

to prove themselves out as a

23:23

business and to make up for the

23:25

tumultuous initial years of must Twitter

23:27

ownership. And so you're going to see a

23:29

lot more of this effort to capture

23:31

people's attention rather than

23:34

necessarily serve as a useful

23:36

source of information for people. in the

23:38

way that the old Twitter may have

23:40

been. We're talking with Fez

23:42

Siddiqui, the author of the

23:44

brand new book called, You Burst

23:47

Maximus on Elon

23:49

Musk. I was taken by your

23:51

dedication, Fez. It's a very

23:53

unique dedication. Let me read it

23:55

for our listeners. Quote, to

23:57

the journalist bringing us stories from around

23:59

the world with a particular eye to

24:01

Gaza, where so many have

24:03

been killed in a singularly deadly

24:05

time to be a reporter. You

24:08

are the End

24:10

quote. Let's go to David. A

24:12

follow -up on Ralph's question

24:14

as to whether or not

24:16

Musk ever gets any sleep,

24:18

because Musk has dipped his

24:21

toe into very arcane academic

24:23

subjects, rocketry, astrophysics, computer

24:25

science, political science,

24:27

brain chemistry, banking. Warren

24:30

Buffett sits all day reading.

24:32

That's his job, he says, to

24:34

just read all day. I

24:36

don't get the sense Musk is

24:38

reading. So if you were

24:40

to place Musk's knowledge beans on

24:42

one side of the scale

24:44

and his arrogance beans on the

24:46

other side of the scale, which

24:48

side of that scale would end

24:50

up being the heaviest? Is he smart

24:52

or arrogant? I don't

24:54

know that they're mutually exclusive. I

24:57

probably seems like a cop help,

24:59

but I don't get the sense that

25:01

he's in the subjects where he

25:03

is given the most credit or these

25:05

revolutionary breakthroughs, which are

25:07

electric vehicles, which is

25:09

rocket propulsion. You

25:11

never get the sense that he's out of his

25:13

depth here. The one thing that

25:16

I will say about your comment on

25:18

Buffett reading all day, Musk seems

25:20

to be reading X all day when

25:22

he's taking in information. And

25:24

the quality of information

25:27

on that website, I'm sure we

25:29

can all vouch for it. It runs the

25:31

gamut and sometimes it's not the best. And

25:33

so what does that do? No matter how

25:35

smart you are, if you lack

25:37

sort of the humility to be

25:39

inquisitive, to ask follow -ups,

25:41

to really critically think

25:44

about the information that you're seeing

25:46

or admit when you've been misled, then

25:49

you can end up in a tough place.

25:51

I want to say to our listeners, this

25:54

book is very important for you. It

25:56

reflects a man who

25:58

has enormous political and corporate

26:00

power, perhaps unprecedented, given

26:03

his role under Trump. And

26:05

he's going to affect every aspect of

26:07

life in America. Just

26:09

look what he's doing now in government. So

26:12

you want to take this book, give it to

26:14

your local library. You want to

26:16

take this book, make it part of your

26:18

book club. There are thousands of book

26:20

clubs around the country. It's very

26:22

readable and one that

26:24

increases your sense of awareness of

26:27

who's controlling what in our country.

26:29

Document it, not some

26:31

conspiracy theory. Anna? Fez,

26:34

one of the Elon quotes

26:36

that you include in your book is, don't be an

26:38

NPC. And that seems

26:40

like the through line for

26:43

how he treats his family members,

26:45

how he seems to view

26:47

the American public, consumers, and

26:49

his workers. What is an

26:51

NPC? And what role

26:54

does that character play

26:56

in how Elon operates?

26:59

Yeah. So an NPC

27:01

is a video game

27:03

shorthand for non -player

27:05

character. This refers to the

27:07

relatively generic characters who

27:09

come up in games who

27:11

essentially lack agency. They

27:13

just repeat the same lines over and

27:16

over. Goes back to this idea

27:18

of puppets being controlled by the puppet master.

27:20

And so this is a

27:22

line that Elon has used. And

27:25

I think it applies. I

27:27

mean, it's been applied to... of folks.

27:29

But if you think about how Elon behaves

27:31

versus the typical CEO, the

27:33

typical CEO in that context

27:35

might be the NPC, because

27:37

all they put out online

27:40

or in earnings calls are

27:42

sort of canned statements. And

27:44

that's one view, which seems like

27:46

people are probably sympathetic to

27:48

that view at times. Corporate CEOs

27:50

buttoned up very powerful people. But

27:52

then on the other hand, dismissing

27:55

large. portions of society

27:57

as NPCs, you kind

27:59

of wonder, is that not

28:01

punching down a bit? Is that

28:03

not actually a bit of an

28:05

elitist view that you're an NPC? What

28:07

if it's applied to somebody

28:09

who drives a basic economy car

28:12

that is relatively unassuming and anonymous?

28:14

Does that make you an NPC? Or

28:17

what about now? Like there seem to

28:19

be Tesla's Model 3s and Model Ys

28:21

everywhere. Is the Tesla driver now an

28:23

NPC? It's just

28:25

an interesting way of referring to

28:27

people. Yeah, it's an Elonism. Well,

28:30

before we conclude, what would you

28:32

like readers of your book, Hubris

28:34

Maximus, on Elon Musk take away

28:37

in terms of information and

28:39

activity? So you

28:41

mentioned at the top, there's a lot

28:43

of reference to the previous works

28:45

on Musk and the ways that

28:47

those works have supplemented public knowledge

28:49

of the man. I think what this

28:51

book brings is a healthy

28:54

dose of reality and skepticism, which

28:56

is not to say that it's

28:58

not present in all those other

29:00

works, but that so far has

29:02

been lacking from the overall

29:04

conversation around us. And

29:07

what you'll find is, I hope you'll

29:09

find that you can identify with some of

29:11

the folks in the book who were

29:13

lured in by the promises or you

29:16

know just enamored by the guy

29:18

and what he might be able to

29:20

bring to society if his goals

29:22

were ultimately realized but then ended up

29:24

feeling disappointed or feeling like hey this

29:26

guy was not all he was cracked up

29:28

to be even if the goals were

29:30

noble even if the ambitions were the right ones

29:32

the ends might not have

29:34

justified the means and so yeah

29:37

I mean I want people to find

29:39

ideally that their understanding of one

29:41

of the most powerful people in society

29:43

today is enriched? Well,

29:45

Tesla stock has dropped by

29:48

50 % from November, now

29:50

about 240, 488

29:52

in November. So he's lost a

29:54

lot of tens of billions of dollars, but

29:56

he seems to always find new

29:59

sources of wealth with the

30:01

expanding value of his private company,

30:03

Starlink, SpaceX. But

30:05

I think we can leave our

30:07

listeners who are contemplating buying

30:09

Teslas. to read this book and

30:11

be very cautious, be very

30:13

alert to the safety of

30:15

this vehicle or lack thereof. And

30:18

there's a lot of information on

30:20

that in Fez's book. The

30:22

book is Hubris Maximus.

30:25

I urge you to get it, read it, and

30:27

spread the word. It affects you. Thank

30:29

you, Fez. Thank you so much, Ralph. We've

30:32

been speaking with Fez Siddiqui. We

30:34

have a link to his work

30:37

at RalphNatorRadioHour .com. Now

30:41

let's check in with our resident constitutional

30:43

scholar Bruce Fine for an update

30:45

on the daily high crimes and misdemeanors

30:47

of the Trump administration. Elon

30:49

Musk heads this fictional department of

30:51

government efficiency or DOGE. It

30:53

doesn't exist in law and

30:55

he's fulfilling Trump's directions.

30:58

It really is a criminal enterprise

31:00

and he's violating civil statutes

31:02

but he's also violating criminal

31:04

statutes. Which ones? Well,

31:07

he's violating first the Anti -Deficiency

31:09

Act because by promising

31:11

to pay people

31:13

buyouts worth billions of dollars if they

31:15

leave the government before their

31:17

regular term expired, he's obligating the

31:20

United States to pay money

31:22

that Congress hasn't appropriated. There's nothing

31:24

in the continuing resolution that

31:26

entitles the government to

31:28

pay these people, and that's a criminal

31:30

violation of the Anti -Deficiency Act. The

31:32

other criminal act is the Privacy Act,

31:35

where he's sharing And as

31:37

access to private information without a

31:39

legitimate bonafide, no government purpose, he

31:41

just comes in and rummages around.

31:43

We don't even know the scope

31:46

of it because he has claimed

31:48

that Doge is not subject to the

31:50

Freedom of Information Act. So his operations

31:52

are not transparent, Ralph, but at

31:54

least from what we receive in the

31:56

knows reports in the papers, it's

31:58

clear that he's going into

32:00

a private information and sharing

32:03

it with teenagers without

32:05

any kind of. confidentiality

32:07

provisions, and that's a

32:09

criminal violation. The act, as

32:11

you well know, Ralph, you were involved

32:13

the 1974 Privacy Act, and was calculated

32:15

to prevent precisely these kinds of things,

32:17

which had happened under the Nixon administration. And

32:21

of course, there's the overall destruction

32:23

of statutory mandates by Congress

32:25

to protect the health, safety, and

32:27

economic well -being of the American

32:29

people that he's violating every

32:31

day in his wrecking, marauding

32:33

to the federal government. under

32:35

the information of dictator

32:37

Donald Trump. Yeah, I want

32:39

to just stress a couple of things, Ralph,

32:42

just for our audience. One, most

32:44

of those putting aside the fact that

32:46

some of those are civil rather than

32:48

criminal violations, we already know that Pam

32:50

Bondi, the attorney general, said she's never

32:52

going to prosecute anybody in the Trump

32:54

administration, even when it's as blatant as

32:56

violations of the Espionage Act when they

32:58

don't even use a skiff to discuss

33:00

such issues as the targeting, you know,

33:03

hooties for in war. And

33:05

before anything happens, she says, of course,

33:07

that I'm not going to prosecute anything.

33:09

And she's already said that if there

33:11

have foreign practices act violations, she's not

33:13

going to do anything there. So she's

33:15

just a complete toadie of the White

33:17

House. And this is what gets a

33:19

rather alarming is that Elon Musk knows he

33:21

could violate any criminal law that he wanted

33:23

to. He knows Pambani is going to

33:25

do nothing. So it's kind of like

33:28

a prospective pardon, if you will,

33:30

given the situation we have. But we've

33:32

just examined, I believe, You know,

33:34

the criminal violations, the civil violations

33:36

are virtually omnipresent. In part,

33:38

we already have, Ralph, a

33:40

judge saying that the de

33:42

facto powers being exercised by Mr. Musk

33:44

are even stronger than those entrusted

33:47

to the cabinet, and he needs to

33:49

be confirmed by the Senate. And

33:51

therefore, every single order of doge is

33:53

illegal because he's never

33:55

been confirmed by the Senate. Now,

33:57

that's preliminary decision, but that's just

33:59

one example of what he's flouting every

34:01

day. Another order found just

34:03

yesterday that he illegally shut

34:05

down the voice of America. He

34:08

shut down USAID illegally.

34:10

He's de facto shut down the

34:12

education department illegally. There's

34:14

so many, it's hard even to keep up.

34:16

And then as you pointed out, he's

34:18

also issued an order saying that literally

34:21

as many as hundreds

34:23

of regulations will be

34:25

stopped immediately and viewed

34:27

as illegal without. following the

34:29

Administrator Procedure Act. So there would be

34:31

hundreds of additional violations. The

34:34

only respite we have is yesterday

34:36

Trump and Elon Musk said

34:38

he'd probably be leaving next month. So,

34:40

you know, the disaster at least temporarily

34:42

can come to an end. It probably

34:44

won't be a complete end. But that's just what

34:46

he's saying. But he's just a walking

34:48

violation of the federal code. And

34:51

of course, he's doing this knowing

34:53

that Trump will pardon him if

34:55

he's ever under a criminal prosecution. Thank

34:58

you very much, Bruce. Thank you,

35:00

Ralph. Thank you for that, Bruce. When

35:02

we come back, we continue our

35:04

discussion of Ralph's new book, Civic Self

35:06

-Respect. But first, let's check in

35:08

with our corporate crime reporter,

35:11

Russell Mochiver. From the

35:13

National Press Building in Washington, DC,

35:15

this is your Corporate Crime

35:17

Report of Morning Minute for Friday,

35:19

April 25, 2025. I'm Russell

35:21

Mochiber. The federal agency in charge

35:23

of trucking safety on America's

35:25

highways dramatically slowed the pace of

35:27

enforcement actions after the Trump

35:29

administration took office in January. That's

35:31

according to a report in

35:33

the Washington Post. The sudden change

35:35

during the president's first weeks

35:37

in office reflects a desire by

35:39

incoming Republican officials to take

35:41

a more deliberative approach before levying

35:43

sanctions on trucking companies

35:45

that do not maintain safety

35:48

standards. Industry representatives have

35:50

complained for years that they

35:52

are treated unfairly by

35:54

the agency, which they accuse

35:57

of using flawed methods

35:59

to assess safety risks. But

36:01

safety advocates say that taking

36:03

a less aggressive approach leaves

36:05

motorists on U .S. highways at

36:07

risk. For the Corporate Crime

36:09

Reporter, I'm Russell Mochiber. Thank

36:12

you, Russell. Welcome back to the Ralph Nader

36:15

Radio Hour. I'm Steve Scrovan, along with

36:17

David Feldman, Hannah and Ralph. Last

36:19

week, I took Ralph through the first few

36:21

chapters of his new book, Civic Self -Respect,

36:24

about how you can be a

36:26

civic citizen and a civic worker. Now,

36:29

David is going to take us through the next few chapters. David.

36:32

Ralph Nader is the author of

36:34

Civic Self -Respect. In chapter three

36:36

of your book, I, Consumer,

36:38

you estimate that 90 % of

36:40

American consumers are at a distinct

36:42

disadvantage when they attempt to

36:44

purchase something from corporate America. Who's

36:47

taking advantage of them? Well,

36:49

it's done by advertising,

36:51

which in effect stupefies

36:53

consumers with emotional and very

36:56

often inaccurate claims.

36:58

But there's nowhere to go but

37:00

up, David, in terms of being

37:02

a smart consumer. Unfortunately, our

37:04

elementary and high schools don't teach

37:07

consumer skills. They prefer

37:09

to teach computer skills.

37:12

And consumer skills result in what

37:14

is in effect a pay

37:16

raise. If you can save money.

37:18

shopping. If you can avoid products

37:20

that hurt you, that lead

37:22

to medical expenses, to lost

37:24

wages, rip off excessive

37:27

billing practices that are fraudulent,

37:29

it's equivalent to a pay

37:31

raise at work. And Senator Phillip Hart,

37:33

who many years ago was a

37:35

great consumer advocate representing Michigan,

37:37

he was the chair of

37:39

the Senate Antitrust Committee, estimated

37:41

that fraud is so varied

37:44

and so deep from used

37:46

car. lots, for

37:48

example, insurance fraud, et

37:50

cetera, that it could amount to

37:53

25 % of a person's

37:55

income. So when people

37:57

realize the significance and how

37:59

valuable it is to spend a little

38:01

time learning how to buy food, how

38:03

to buy a car, how to buy

38:05

insurance, how to deal with banks and

38:07

interest rates, and so on, they

38:09

get very motivated. And Consumer Reports,

38:11

which has about 5 million

38:13

subscribers, it should have 50 million

38:15

subscribers. for a very few

38:17

dollars a month and a very few hours

38:19

a month, you can really save

38:22

yourself real money and

38:24

reduce the prospect of

38:26

injury and disease over time.

38:29

So the attitude is very, very

38:31

key here, which is what I

38:33

stress in this segment on consumers

38:35

in my book, Civic Self -Respect.

38:37

And the title is, I

38:39

the Consumer, Strengthening

38:41

Economic Democracy. Because

38:44

the more people develop

38:46

their consumer shopping skills in

38:48

the aggregate. It creates a

38:50

much more efficient and prosperous

38:52

and safe economy. So

38:54

it has an aggregate impact. I always

38:56

like this metaphor, which I

38:58

mentioned earlier, this

39:01

metaphor, that the Mississippi River,

39:03

the mighty Mississippi River starts

39:05

with tiny rivulets in northern

39:07

Montana and northern Minnesota.

39:10

They become brooks, then streams,

39:13

then small rivers. then big

39:15

tributaries like the Missouri

39:17

River and then the Mississippi River.

39:20

And that's why the phrase

39:22

in the book is civic self -respect.

39:25

In fact, you look at yourself and

39:27

say, I'm not going to be ripped

39:29

off anymore. They're not going to

39:31

trick me anymore. I'm not going

39:33

to be taken by some of

39:35

these devastating to my economic well

39:37

-being and health and safety advertising

39:39

on TV. I mean, some of

39:42

the NBA basketball games. before,

39:44

during, and after, right after this. There's

39:46

about a hundred ads. I mean,

39:48

it's just unbelievable, the saturation. And

39:51

none of them are rebutted. You know,

39:53

there's no rebuttal of deceptive ads at

39:55

all. So it's important for

39:57

consumers and shoppers to take control

40:00

of themselves, for their families, for

40:02

their children as well. And there's

40:04

plenty of good information to do

40:06

that. But before you start

40:08

absorbing material like consumers report.

40:10

You have to have a

40:12

higher significance of yourself as

40:14

a consumer and develop

40:16

a civic dimension. That is, when

40:18

you see things that aren't right

40:20

in the shopping centers, you

40:22

talk about it. When you don't

40:25

want to buy something, you tell

40:27

the salesperson, no sale and walk

40:29

away. That's a good feedback. You

40:31

have to articulate it, not just

40:33

have it in your mind and drift

40:35

away. And there are all

40:38

kinds of ways to become more self

40:40

-sufficient. You know, before the Industrial Revolution,

40:42

consumers were producers, you know, they produced

40:44

their own shelter, they grew their own

40:46

food, obviously a much lower

40:48

standard of living, but

40:50

the industrial revolution created specialization.

40:53

And gradually decade after decade,

40:55

the consumer products were

40:58

contracted out, so to speak,

41:00

to specialists. So

41:02

this little chapter gets you a

41:04

little excited. It's pretty hard

41:06

to be excited as a shopper,

41:08

other than something tasting good,

41:10

smelling good. Being excited as a

41:12

shopper means you're part of improving

41:14

your community, your neighborhood. Pretty soon

41:16

the stores get the message. Most

41:19

of us have experienced the

41:21

telephone poles. A lot of people just

41:23

close up, but when they

41:25

do telephone poles and conservators

41:27

surveys, answer the questions. You know,

41:30

when they pull 1500 people,

41:32

they're pulling statistically the views of

41:34

millions of people. So get

41:36

your licks in when they ask

41:38

these questions. Don't just close up

41:40

on them. Where do you get

41:42

information about household appliances? Well,

41:45

in the most obvious place,

41:47

furnaces, stoves, garden

41:50

equipment, they're from

41:52

plumbers, electricians, carpenters,

41:55

painters, roofers, interior

41:57

decorators. They know

41:59

what products are better than other

42:01

products because they deal with

42:03

them every day. And they know

42:05

where they're being manufactured around

42:07

the world. You know, they like

42:09

to answer questions. That's the

42:11

whole source of consumer information for

42:13

you. There's a little humor

42:15

in this section too, I must

42:17

say. When you're talking with

42:19

other consumers, you know, sometimes they're

42:21

wondering why you're expanding the

42:23

range of their sensitivity. I

42:26

mean, what are you up to

42:28

here? And you can just, as I

42:30

say in this little section. when people

42:32

say well how are you and you

42:34

say well how are your consumer skills

42:36

instead of just saying I'm okay how

42:38

are your consumer skills and they sort

42:40

of blink you know what's that all

42:43

about well you know one thing

42:45

you can do to get their attention

42:47

is you can say you figured out

42:49

10 ways you can shaft yourself as

42:51

a shopper you want to hear them

42:53

and they'll say sure give it a

42:55

try and you say okay here goes

42:58

here's how you can shaft yourself you

43:00

buy before you think you buy before

43:02

you read You buy before you ask

43:04

any questions. You buy before you can

43:06

afford to buy going to deep debt.

43:08

You buy before you see through the

43:10

seller's smile and smooth sales pitch. You

43:13

buy before you comparison shop. You

43:15

buy when you're tired or hungry.

43:18

You buy when you're rushed. You

43:20

buy on your children because

43:22

your kid demands the product or

43:24

you buy just to keep

43:26

up with. your friends, their neighbors,

43:28

or as they say, keeping

43:31

up with the Joneses. And other

43:33

things to look into food co -ops,

43:35

they're spreading around the country. And

43:37

one of the big obstacles who's

43:39

going to provide a loan to start

43:41

a food co -op where the consumers

43:43

are the owners and they can

43:45

decide what they want to sell themselves

43:47

and what they know. That's how

43:49

some stores stop selling cigarettes, for example,

43:51

because co -ops took the lead. Well,

43:53

it happens, there's a national cooperative

43:55

bank in Washington. We were very instrumental

43:57

in getting that pass during the

43:59

Carter and they

44:02

provide loans for consumer co -ops

44:04

to get them underway. You may

44:06

belong to AAA. Well,

44:08

there's an alternative to AAA. It's

44:10

called the Better World Club,

44:12

and it focuses on really respecting

44:14

consumer values and environmental values.

44:16

It has a lot of great

44:19

material, and it still gives

44:21

you the services that AAA gives

44:23

you. You know, life tends

44:25

to be routine, tedious, repetitious. It

44:28

makes your day less daily. It

44:30

makes it more interesting. You begin

44:32

thinking that you do matter more

44:34

with your friends and neighbors and

44:36

you're helping improve the efficiency and

44:38

safety of the consumer dollars that

44:40

they spend. Ralph, did

44:42

you consciously decide to be

44:44

known as a consumer advocate

44:47

when you were first starting

44:49

out instead of an advocate

44:51

for say, citizens and Who

44:53

has more power right now

44:55

in the 21st century? Citizens

44:57

or consumers? Well,

45:00

consumers should also be citizens

45:02

arising out of their consumer awareness

45:04

to ward off products that

45:06

are killing people, injuring them and

45:08

making them sick. Remember, you

45:10

have about 400 ,000 people every

45:12

year die from tobacco related diseases.

45:15

And the promotion for becoming

45:17

a tobacco addict started

45:19

with the companies reaching children,

45:21

passing out free cigarettes

45:23

in front of middle and

45:25

high schools when they

45:27

complete the day's classes. We're

45:29

talking serious gravity here.

45:31

We're talking about hundreds of

45:34

thousands of people whose

45:36

lives are shortened because of

45:38

deliberate promotion of fatty

45:40

sugar and salty foods from

45:42

childhood on up. And

45:44

there are more and more

45:46

studies coming out on

45:48

just how deadly these foodstuffs

45:50

are. And that's

45:52

what brought to my attention,

45:54

David, the importance of

45:56

the consumer factor here. Adam

45:58

Smith once said many

46:00

centuries ago that the purpose

46:02

of production is consumption. And

46:05

if consumption is informed and

46:07

feeds back, it can lead

46:09

to a high quality economy.

46:12

It can lead to more integrity

46:14

to your consumer dollar and

46:16

to your health and safety. It

46:18

can lead to less environmental

46:20

damage. It could lead to stronger

46:23

regulation of product defects and

46:25

services that are harmful. It's

46:27

sort of a bottom -up economic

46:29

democracy. That caught my attention years

46:31

ago because at law school, you

46:33

hardly ever hear the word consumer

46:36

or consumer law. So

46:38

you chose it was a conscious

46:40

decision to introduce yourself to the

46:42

world as a consumer advocate? Definitely.

46:44

I've lost. friends in high

46:47

school to unsafe cars. They didn't

46:49

have seat belts, no padded

46:51

dash panels, no airbags, no rollover

46:53

protection, no head restraints.

46:55

On and on, it was like

46:57

people were in a crash or

46:59

bouncing around in a room full

47:01

of knives, sharp edges on the

47:04

dash panel and the like. And

47:06

that motivated me too. Should

47:08

we turn to chapter four of

47:10

Civic Self -Respect, I the Taxpayer? Yeah,

47:13

there's one where there's an

47:15

ideology of control over small,

47:17

medium taxpayers. They've been,

47:19

in effect, cornered into

47:21

just looking at taxes in terms

47:24

of the tax rate they

47:26

pay and being very responsive to

47:28

people who say your taxes

47:30

should be lower. Now,

47:33

I once wondered why there was

47:35

so much less resistance to

47:37

this appeal of reducing taxes in

47:39

Western Europe compared to the

47:41

US. And the overriding reason is

47:43

that in Western Europe, a

47:45

lot of the taxpayers came back

47:47

to help the taxpayers back

47:49

home in the form of universal

47:51

health insurance, pensions,

47:53

various kinds of

47:55

protections, social safety nets,

47:57

maternal health care, family

47:59

paid leave, sick leave, childcare.

48:03

So they felt the money was

48:05

coming back to them. Well, in

48:07

the US, the money went to

48:09

the military budget. The money went

48:12

to corporate welfare. And that obviously

48:14

created a lack of support for

48:16

taxation, which is what Supreme

48:18

Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once

48:20

called, quote, the price we pay

48:22

for civilization, unquote. And

48:25

this section in this book,

48:27

Civic Self -Respect, on

48:29

the taxpayer, it's called I

48:31

the Taxpayer, is to broaden

48:33

the range of awareness and

48:35

get people much more exercised

48:37

and angry about the super

48:39

rich and big corporations paying

48:42

so little taxes. Half of

48:44

the profitable corporations don't pay

48:46

any federal income tax. They've

48:48

still rigged the system and

48:50

a lot of super rich

48:52

people have figured ways using

48:54

foreign jurisdictions and deferrals and

48:56

other techniques to pay far

48:58

less proportion of their income

49:00

in taxes than an ordinary

49:02

working person in the country.

49:04

Remember, Warren Buffett, the multi -billionaire

49:06

once said his tax rates

49:08

were lower than those on

49:10

his secretary. So a

49:12

level of indignation here can

49:14

lead to a reform of

49:16

our tax system. In two ways,

49:18

make it fairer and second,

49:20

return more of the tax

49:22

dollars back home, public services, public

49:25

infrastructure, and deflate

49:27

this massive budget, the Pentagon

49:29

loaded budget that takes

49:31

over 50 % of the

49:33

operation tax. revenues in this

49:35

country. That's why the

49:38

military industrial complex always seems

49:40

to be looking for foreign

49:42

enemies to justify this massive

49:44

waste and erosion of what

49:46

should be public budgets helping

49:48

conditions back home. In

49:51

your book, I think you

49:53

mentioned it on the show

49:55

last week with the former

49:57

IRS commissioner that you had

49:59

lunch once with a head

50:01

of the IRS who told

50:03

you that more People understand

50:05

Einstein's theory of relativity than

50:07

our tax code. I call

50:09

it the complexity industrial complex.

50:12

People who make a

50:14

fortune guaranteeing that

50:16

things are arcane. You

50:19

say big companies want complexity

50:21

in our tax laws. How

50:23

do citizens gain the courage

50:25

to openly say, I don't

50:27

understand this. Simplify it for

50:30

me. I'm not stupid. We

50:32

do need a simplification movement because

50:34

complexity is a tool of power. Complex

50:37

tax regulations are often

50:39

blamed on the federal bureaucracy.

50:42

No, it's the corporate tax lawyers. They're

50:44

always looking for deductions,

50:46

waivers, exclusions, deferrals.

50:48

It increases by feet, the

50:50

pile of tax regulations.

50:53

Far more than in Canada,

50:55

for example, which has

50:57

a similar industrial economy. And

50:59

so we have to look at

51:02

complexity as a tool of corporate

51:04

power. And they use it against

51:06

small businesses, Dave, because small businesses

51:08

can't afford the corporate tax lawyers

51:10

to evade taxes the way big

51:12

business can. So, I

51:14

mean, we have a situation where

51:16

there were a few years

51:18

in the early 20th century when

51:20

General Electric was making billions

51:22

of dollars and paying no taxes,

51:24

even getting a refund. That's

51:26

how bizarre the rigged tax system

51:28

was. They actually had. A

51:30

dozen tax lawyers at a profit

51:32

center, they get bonuses for

51:34

reducing General Electric's taxes to dollars.

51:37

Now, one General Electric worker

51:39

in Schenectady factory sent more

51:41

money in sheer dollars to

51:43

the Treasury Department than the

51:45

entire Corporation General Electric that

51:47

employed that person. That's how

51:49

crazy it is. And we've

51:52

got to have small tax

51:54

periods be much more aggressively

51:56

knowledgeable. about these techniques

51:58

of control because if the

52:00

rich and big corporations

52:02

pay little or no taxes

52:04

that means either there

52:06

are fewer public services or

52:08

the small taxpayer has

52:10

to pay more or the

52:12

deficit increases for future

52:14

generations. So we've got

52:16

to stop being manipulated by politicians

52:18

and charlatans who get us

52:20

on the side only of thinking

52:23

reducing Our taxes and

52:25

letting the rascals get

52:27

away with billions of dollars

52:29

of tax escape. There's

52:31

a relatively new group called

52:33

Patriotic Millionaires. It has offices in

52:35

Washington DC and its purpose

52:38

is to raise or restore higher

52:40

taxes for rich people and

52:42

corporations. They have about 300

52:44

multi -millionaires and go to

52:46

their website and they have

52:48

wonderful usable information for you.

52:50

and they have great credibility

52:52

because they're fighting to increase

52:54

their own taxes or restore

52:56

their taxes. You know, if

52:58

we had the same taxes

53:00

on the rich in corporations

53:02

as we had in the

53:04

prosperous 1960s, David, we'd have

53:07

no deficits to be able

53:09

to fund all kinds of

53:11

public services. That's the extent

53:13

to which the tax system

53:15

has been eroded, sunk into

53:17

complex quagmire by the corporate

53:19

tax lobby in Washington, D .C.

53:21

I did my own calculation

53:23

because a lot of people

53:25

say repealing Trump's 2017 tax

53:27

cuts for the rich won't

53:29

make a dent in the

53:31

budget deficit. Well, my calculations,

53:33

it's $500 billion a year

53:36

that we get extra

53:38

by letting the 2017 tax

53:40

cuts expire this year.

53:42

And then if we didn't

53:44

fire all these IRS

53:46

employees, we could close the

53:48

tax gap. and collect,

53:50

they say, a trillion a

53:52

year. If people just

53:54

had to pay what they

53:56

owe, if we could enforce the

53:58

laws on the books, I

54:00

say half a trillion. That's a

54:03

trillion dollars right there, just

54:05

letting the tax cuts expire and

54:07

not touching all the people

54:09

they hired under the Biden administration

54:11

to collect taxes. That's a

54:13

trillion dollars right there. That's

54:16

a Trump and Musk are destroying.

54:18

They want to fire. Half of

54:20

the employees, the IRS, they know

54:22

it's protecting their own profiteering without

54:24

paying their share of taxes. When

54:27

you hear the word taxes

54:29

and tax revenues, listeners, David

54:31

is describing, you can

54:33

translate it into improving the

54:35

safety of bridges, highways,

54:37

providing modern mass transit, improving

54:40

the repair of schools

54:42

and public buildings. You

54:44

know, it's real. It can

54:46

become real if people are aware

54:48

of it. That's why civic

54:50

self -respect, in a very simple

54:52

way, with clear language, gets

54:54

you as a taxpayer, thinking

54:56

big, thinking excited, thinking you can

54:58

help change the system. How many times

55:00

do we have to go and

55:02

talk to members of Congress on the

55:05

Finance Committee and House Ways Committee? And

55:07

they say, we don't hear

55:09

from people back home enough to

55:11

hold hearings on corporate tax

55:13

fraud. We're not getting a feedback.

55:15

Well, this little book, Civic

55:18

Self -Respect, gives you feedback, connects

55:20

you with lobbying groups like Patriotic

55:22

Millionaires. And, you know, it

55:24

makes life more interesting, more

55:26

engrossing. It makes you feel that

55:28

you matter and you count the

55:30

crushing power of corporate hegemony is

55:32

to make people feel they don't

55:34

matter. They don't count that they

55:37

can withdraw into apathy and indifference

55:39

and suffer what they will. We

55:41

will continue our discussion of civic

55:43

self -respect and how you can take

55:45

more control over your civic life

55:47

next week. And to get

55:49

your copy of the book go

55:52

to nadir .org. For $18 you'll get

55:54

a signed copy shipping included in the

55:56

United States. We will also link

55:58

to it at Ralphnaderradiohour .com. I

56:00

want to thank our guests again, Fezz Siddiqui and

56:02

Bruce Fine. For those you listening on the

56:04

radio, that's our program. A few

56:06

podcast listeners, stay tuned for some

56:08

bonus material we call the Wrap Up

56:10

featuring Francesco DeSantis with. In

56:12

case you haven't heard, a transcript of

56:15

this program will appear on the

56:17

Ralph Nader Radio Hour Substack site soon

56:19

after the episode is posted. Subscribe

56:21

to us on our Ralph Nader Radio

56:23

Hour YouTube channel. And for Ralph's

56:25

weekly column, it's free. Go to nader

56:27

.org. For more from Russell Moe Keiber,

56:29

go to corporatecrimereporter .com. The American Museum

56:32

of Tort Law is going virtual.

56:34

Go to tortmuseum .org to explore the

56:36

exhibits, take a virtual tour, and learn

56:38

about iconic tort cases from history. To

56:41

order your copy of The

56:43

Capitol Hill Citizen, Democracy Dies in

56:45

Broad Daylight, go to capitolhillcitizen .com.

56:47

And to order your copy

56:49

of CivicSouthRespect, go to nadr .org.

56:52

For $18, you'll get a signed

56:54

copy of shipping included in

56:56

the United States. The

56:58

producers of the Ralph Nader Radio

57:00

Hour are Jimmy Lee Wirt, Anna Feldman,

57:02

and Matthew Marin. Our executive producer

57:04

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57:06

music stand -up rise -up was written and performed

57:08

by Kemp Harris, our proofreader is Elizabeth

57:10

Solomon. Join us next week

57:13

on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour.

57:15

Thank you, Ralph. Thank you

57:17

and we'd like more radio stations

57:19

to carry the program and you can

57:21

help in your area listeners, call

57:23

the radio station. Hi,

57:26

this is Jimmy Lee Wirt and welcome to

57:28

the Wrap Up. First up,

57:30

here's the rest of our interview

57:32

with Fez Siddiqui, including the origins

57:35

of Tesla and how Musk took

57:37

over Twitter. We'll start

57:39

with a question I've always wanted

57:41

to ask and it's not

57:43

covered in your book. Who was

57:45

Tesla? And how did Musk

57:47

appropriate the name of one of

57:49

the greatest inventors in modern

57:51

times? You've nailed it. I

57:53

believe Musk, and as you note,

57:55

it's not mentioned in the book.

57:58

I believe Mark Tarpening and Martin

58:00

Eberhardt, the original founders of Tesla,

58:03

were essentially the drivers behind

58:05

this. This was a

58:07

less recognized in the public

58:09

discourse. He was not

58:11

the Edison or the Newton,

58:13

but of course, Nikola Tesla's

58:15

contributions. were probably the ones

58:17

that are most relevant to

58:19

the company we're looking at

58:21

today. Propulsion and sort of

58:23

magnetism, this sort of recognition

58:25

of the power of electricity.

58:28

Tesla is all about this. And

58:30

so Tesla was a fitting

58:32

name for this electric vehicle startup,

58:34

which was founded by two

58:36

individuals who are not named Elon

58:38

Musk, of course, Elon ultimately

58:40

in court was granted or at

58:42

least was allowed to be

58:44

called a founder. And there's no

58:46

reason not to call him

58:48

that. But I should know the

58:51

company was started by two

58:53

individuals named Martin Eberhardt and Mark

58:55

Tarpening. That's interesting.

58:57

I'm always sensitive to commercial

58:59

appropriations of names without permission.

59:01

And then when the name

59:03

becomes the subject of a

59:05

program, as Tesla is now

59:07

with a lot of people.

59:09

boycotting Tesla, selling their Tesla

59:11

out of protest for his

59:13

work under Trump. It's a

59:15

little troublesome the way it happens.

59:17

And I'm sure he didn't ask for

59:19

permission from any of Tesla's descendants,

59:21

did he? Not that

59:23

I'm aware of, but as I

59:26

said, that not a subject of

59:28

my research. The one sort of

59:30

maybe saving race there is obviously

59:32

similar to copyright on something from

59:34

1925. I mean, I think there

59:36

was this feeling that enough time

59:39

has passed, and this is essentially

59:41

a way of promoting a great

59:43

scientific hero, as opposed to

59:45

appropriating as you might put it.

59:47

But again, I think the argument,

59:49

I think it's an interesting one.

59:52

Fest, tell us about Musk's

59:54

takeover of Twitter, how

59:56

he did that, and what it says

59:58

about what he's doing now with Doge.

1:00:01

So Musk slowly began to

1:00:03

accumulate shares of Twitter in,

1:00:05

I believe it was, toward

1:00:07

the end of January 2022. And

1:00:10

as has been now documented in an

1:00:13

SEC lawsuit, Musk accumulates enough

1:00:15

shares to where he has to

1:00:17

disclose that he is going to

1:00:19

be a 5 % owner in

1:00:21

Twitter. He misses that deadline. Had

1:00:24

he disclosed that, obviously the stock

1:00:26

price would have soared. He continues

1:00:28

to acquire shares at what the

1:00:30

government has alleged was an artificially

1:00:32

underinflated price, underinflated by $150 million,

1:00:35

which is Nothing to sneeze at. Again,

1:00:37

when it's a $44 billion acquisition, it

1:00:39

might not seem like a lot, but

1:00:41

it's $150 million. So

1:00:43

he accumulates those shares. He is

1:00:45

just sort of fuming about what

1:00:48

he's seeing as infringements on free

1:00:50

speech by the old folks in

1:00:52

power at Twitter. And he

1:00:54

ends up accumulating enough shares to

1:00:56

not only become a 5 % owner,

1:00:58

he is offered a board seat. He

1:01:01

gets into a spat with

1:01:03

Twitter's existing management and leaders.

1:01:06

and ultimately decides, I'm just going to

1:01:08

take over the site. He goes

1:01:10

public with this, the $44

1:01:12

billion acquisition is announced, and

1:01:14

essentially that launches a crowdfunded

1:01:16

takeover of Twitter, where Musk

1:01:19

leverages some of his fake

1:01:21

and Tesla's equity. So

1:01:23

he essentially guarantees that he's

1:01:25

good for the money and

1:01:27

then finds investors in Silicon

1:01:29

Valley who are very willing

1:01:31

to hitch themselves to Musk

1:01:33

and go in on that

1:01:35

Twitter investment with him and

1:01:37

ultimately they buy it for

1:01:39

$44 billion. The

1:01:41

valuation does not reach that

1:01:43

again, probably until the

1:01:46

election of 2024. As

1:01:48

a reporter on the receiving

1:01:50

end of anonymous comments, you're

1:01:52

in a good position to

1:01:54

answer this question. The vast

1:01:56

bulk of threat and harassment

1:01:58

on the internet come anonymously.

1:02:01

And Professor Robert Falmouth of the

1:02:03

University of San Diego Law

1:02:05

School has been pressing Zuckerberg and

1:02:08

Facebook, for example, to

1:02:10

ban anonymous comment on

1:02:12

the internet. You

1:02:14

would ban a lot of the

1:02:16

threats and a lot of the

1:02:18

pressure from people like Trump and

1:02:20

Musk who have millions of followers

1:02:22

ready to try to intimidate members

1:02:24

of Congress, state legislators, judges, reporters, you

1:02:27

name it. What's your view on

1:02:29

eliminating anonymous commentary on the internet.

1:02:31

You know, newspapers like the ones

1:02:33

you work for, the Washington Post,

1:02:35

you got to put your name

1:02:37

on a letter to the editor

1:02:39

when it's printed. Yeah,

1:02:41

but newspapers also report on anonymous

1:02:43

sources, obviously, who are known, the reporters,

1:02:45

but I guess I comment this

1:02:47

from two perspectives, but I think maybe

1:02:50

it might be generational for me.

1:02:52

So I grew up with the internet

1:02:54

with the principles of the open

1:02:56

internet. And I understand that there are

1:02:58

legitimate reasons for anonymity online, but

1:03:00

it's not a way to establish credibility,

1:03:03

right? There's a reason reporters put

1:03:05

their names on on articles, but whistleblowers,

1:03:07

for example, are a good case

1:03:09

of why do we need to use

1:03:11

some discretion sometimes. And so I

1:03:13

don't know, I sort of think I

1:03:15

fall more on the side of

1:03:18

that that would seem to violate the

1:03:20

principles of the internet as we

1:03:22

know it. But it's an interesting thought.

1:03:24

It's certainly I'm sure

1:03:26

the vast, vast, vast majority

1:03:28

of harassment online is coming

1:03:30

from anonymous actors. Well,

1:03:32

the other side is a free speech

1:03:34

argument, but it's also the argument

1:03:36

that a lot of these threats reach

1:03:38

the level of inciting violence, and

1:03:40

there are senators and representatives who can

1:03:42

attest to that. So it's a

1:03:44

good area of inquiry for reporters, perhaps

1:03:46

not your beat, but maybe your

1:03:48

colleagues. Finally, David

1:03:51

had one more question for

1:03:53

Ralph about his book, Civic Self

1:03:55

-Respect. In your book you

1:03:57

put the term free market in

1:03:59

quotation marks and I took from

1:04:01

that that there is no free

1:04:03

market so that we do need

1:04:05

to be protected. Jimmy

1:04:07

Carter gave us FEMA, the Department

1:04:09

of Education and the Department

1:04:11

of Energy. In the nearly 45

1:04:14

years since he left office,

1:04:16

Congress hasn't created any new agencies,

1:04:18

they've reorganized them. The only

1:04:20

thing I can think of, and

1:04:22

correct me if I'm wrong,

1:04:24

is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,

1:04:27

but that's not a cabinet

1:04:29

level agency. It's

1:04:31

pretty remarkable that there have

1:04:33

been no new agencies since

1:04:35

the Carter administration. Was

1:04:37

there a possibility of his creating

1:04:39

a consumer protection cabinet level

1:04:41

agency? And what would that have

1:04:44

looked like? Would it have

1:04:46

been likely? Federal Trade Commission, I

1:04:48

mean, is such a thing

1:04:50

possible? There were some

1:04:52

agencies created around the

1:04:54

early 1970s, the Consumer Product

1:04:56

Safety Commission, the Auto

1:04:58

Safety Agency, for example, added

1:05:00

to the earlier 20th century

1:05:03

creation of the Federal Trade

1:05:05

Commission and the Food and

1:05:07

Drug Administration. And some years

1:05:09

later, the Civil Aeronautics Board,

1:05:11

which in effect, taken over

1:05:13

by the FAA. in

1:05:15

very modest airline regulation. We

1:05:18

pushed under Carter for the

1:05:20

Consumer Protection Agency. It was not

1:05:22

a regulatory agency, David.

1:05:25

It was not a cabinet level. It

1:05:27

was a advocate intervening in

1:05:29

other agency deliberations to require

1:05:31

them to address consumer protection

1:05:34

inputs and needs. So they

1:05:36

weren't always regulating in favor

1:05:38

of cartels or corporate priorities.

1:05:40

We almost got it through.

1:05:42

We get it through the

1:05:44

house. We didn't get it

1:05:47

through the Senate. Vice

1:05:49

-Vice was finally defeated and

1:05:51

it was just a

1:05:53

small agency that could take

1:05:56

these other agencies to

1:05:58

court if they engage in

1:06:00

arbitrary and capricious ignorance

1:06:02

and indifference regarding consumer protection.

1:06:05

And we lost it and we

1:06:07

never had a chance to

1:06:09

bring it back. That was a

1:06:11

very serious default. It sort

1:06:13

of broke the momentum of the

1:06:15

consumer movement. There are needs

1:06:18

for new consumer groups, needs for

1:06:20

one on privacy, which has

1:06:22

tremendous impact in terms of human

1:06:24

freedom, civil liberties, and

1:06:26

an internet intrusive age, especially

1:06:28

for children. And

1:06:30

now it's time for In Case

1:06:32

You Haven't Heard with Francesco

1:06:34

De Santis. On

1:06:38

Monday, April 21st, Vatican News

1:06:40

announced the death of Pope Francis.

1:06:43

This came just one day after Easter

1:06:45

Sunday, when Francis met with Vice President

1:06:47

J .D. Vance. The day prior, Francis

1:06:50

had snubbed the VP, sending in

1:06:52

his place Cardinal Pietro Parolintotto

1:06:54

to quote, deliver a lecture

1:06:56

on compassion and quote, per

1:06:58

The Daily Beast. Pope

1:07:00

Francis led the Catholic Church in

1:07:02

2013 and during his tenure sought

1:07:04

to move the Church in a

1:07:06

vastly more progressive direction. preaching against

1:07:09

capitalism's destruction of the environment, advocating

1:07:11

for abolition of the death penalty,

1:07:13

and greater acceptance for LGBTQ Catholics within

1:07:15

the Church, and expanding the reach

1:07:17

of the Church into non -traditional areas

1:07:19

such as Mongolia, among many

1:07:22

other initiatives. This won

1:07:24

him the admiration of many around the

1:07:26

world, but also drew the ire of the

1:07:28

conservative clergy, particularly in the

1:07:30

United States. Francis was the first

1:07:32

Jesuit Pope and the first Pope to hail

1:07:34

from the New World. Senior churchmen

1:07:36

will now assemble to elect a

1:07:38

new pope. This conclave is

1:07:40

expected to be contentious with

1:07:42

progressives seeking to consolidate Francis' reforms,

1:07:45

while the conservatives see an

1:07:47

opening to take back the formal

1:07:49

organs of the church. Instead

1:07:52

of death, our next

1:07:54

story concerns birth. Noor

1:07:56

Abdallah, wife of Mahmood Khalil,

1:07:58

the Palestinian Columbia University student

1:08:00

currently being held by ICE

1:08:02

in Louisiana, gave birth to

1:08:04

their son on Monday. According

1:08:06

to a statement by Abdallah,

1:08:08

reported by Ariya Sundaram of

1:08:10

WNYC, ICE denied a

1:08:12

request for Khalil to be temporarily released

1:08:14

to meet their son. A,

1:08:16

quote, purposeful decision by

1:08:19

ICE to make her, Mahmood,

1:08:21

and her son suffer. End

1:08:23

quote. Later in this statement,

1:08:25

Abdullah writes, quote, I will continue to

1:08:27

fight every day for Mahmoud to come

1:08:29

home to us. I know

1:08:32

when Mahmoud is freed, he will show

1:08:34

our son how to be brave, thoughtful,

1:08:36

and compassionate, just like his dad," end

1:08:38

quote. Khalil's case

1:08:40

continues to wind its way through the courts.

1:08:43

The result of this case will

1:08:45

have significant ramifications for the Trump

1:08:47

administration's ability to remove individuals with

1:08:49

legal status on the basis of

1:08:51

political speech. In

1:08:53

an encouraging sign, more and more

1:08:55

congressional Democrats are getting personally

1:08:57

involved in cases of Trump administration

1:08:59

overreach on immigration. In

1:09:02

addition to Senator Chris Van Hollen's highly

1:09:04

publicized visit to El Salvador, Truthout

1:09:06

reports that Senator Peter Welch met with

1:09:08

Mohsen Madawi, the Columbia

1:09:10

University student, entrapped with a false

1:09:12

citizenship test in Vermont. Meanwhile,

1:09:14

Cape Cod Times reports that

1:09:16

on April 22nd, Senator Anne

1:09:18

Markey and representatives Ayanna Presley

1:09:20

and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts,

1:09:23

along with Democratic members of the

1:09:25

House Troy Carter and Benny Thompson,

1:09:27

traveled to a Louisiana detention facility to

1:09:29

demand the release of Ramiesa Auz

1:09:31

Turk, the Tufts University grad student

1:09:33

who was abducted off the street

1:09:35

last month by masked ICE agents. This

1:09:38

delegation met with Auz Turk herself, as well

1:09:40

as Mahmood Khalil. And CBS

1:09:42

reports representatives Robert Garcia, Maxwell

1:09:44

Frost, Yasemin Ansari, and Maxine

1:09:46

Dexter travel to El Salvador

1:09:49

as well, getting pressure up

1:09:51

regarding the Kilmar Garcia case.

1:09:54

Still, hundreds of immigrants of

1:09:56

varying status have been deported

1:09:58

to the ominous and shadowy Seacop

1:10:00

prison camp in El Salvador without

1:10:02

due process, since Trump began this

1:10:04

mass deportation campaign. In

1:10:06

more troubling congressional news, Senate Judiciary

1:10:09

Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa wrote

1:10:11

a letter to Attorney General Pam

1:10:13

Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel

1:10:15

on April 16th, calling for investigations

1:10:17

into the progressive activist group Code

1:10:19

Pink, as well as the New

1:10:21

York City Cultural Center known as the People's

1:10:23

Forum. This letter is almost

1:10:25

textbook McCarthyite red -baiting. Claiming Code

1:10:28

Pink and the People's Forum

1:10:30

are nothing more than mouthpieces for

1:10:32

the Chinese Communist Party. thereby

1:10:34

violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

1:10:37

Beyond the fact that these groups are

1:10:39

engaging in nothing more than constitutionally protected

1:10:41

political speech, it is clear from the

1:10:43

citations within the letter that they are

1:10:45

targeting these groups because of their pro -Palestine

1:10:48

positions. This is

1:10:50

just another escalation in the Orwellian suppression

1:10:52

of free speech critical of Israel's

1:10:54

illegal occupation. Unfortunately, just

1:10:56

as with McCarthyism itself, we

1:10:58

cannot count on congressional Democrats to go

1:11:01

to bat for the free speech rights

1:11:03

of the left. In

1:11:05

a win for consumers, Bloomberg reports

1:11:07

Airbnb announced it will now display

1:11:09

the total price of stays, including

1:11:11

all fees, to comply with

1:11:13

a federal Trade Commission rule set

1:11:15

to go into effect next month. Many

1:11:18

worried that the FTC would rescind

1:11:20

this rule with the changing of

1:11:22

the administration. But for now at

1:11:24

least, the Trump FTC seems poised to keep it.

1:11:26

This new rule is expected to quote, lower

1:11:29

their cleaning fees to make rentals more

1:11:32

affordable, as the sometimes exorbitant

1:11:34

fees have become a key

1:11:36

reason why some customers prefer

1:11:38

hotels over Airbnb. Another

1:11:41

positive move is that the

1:11:43

Trump Department of Justice has proceeded

1:11:45

with an anti -trust case against

1:11:47

Google's advertising technology or ad

1:11:49

tech. On April 17th,

1:11:51

a judge found Google

1:11:53

liable for quote, willfully acquiring

1:11:55

and maintaining monopoly power.

1:11:57

in two markets for online

1:12:00

advertising technology per Reuters. This

1:12:02

follows a similar judgment against Google

1:12:04

regarding a monopoly on search, which

1:12:07

is only amplified by its adoption of

1:12:09

AI. Another trial will

1:12:11

determine the remedy for this monopoly,

1:12:13

which could include Google being forced to

1:12:15

sell off aspects of its business. According

1:12:18

to this report, Google

1:12:20

has previously explored selling its

1:12:22

ad exchange to appease European

1:12:24

antitrust regulators. Senator

1:12:26

Amy Klobuchar, former chair of

1:12:28

the Antitrust Subcommittee, called the

1:12:31

ruling, quote, a big win

1:12:33

for consumers, small businesses, and

1:12:35

content creators that will open digital

1:12:37

markets to more innovation and

1:12:39

lower prices. On

1:12:41

the other hand, public citizens Rick Claypool

1:12:43

reports, quote, 58 corporations

1:12:45

facing federal investigations

1:12:47

and enforcement lawsuits collectively

1:12:49

gave $50 million

1:12:51

to Trump's inaugural fund.

1:12:54

Cases against 11 of these corporations

1:12:56

have already been dismissed or

1:12:58

withdrawn, and 6 have

1:13:00

been halted." More granular information

1:13:02

about each of these enforcement

1:13:04

actions is available through Public

1:13:07

Citizen's Corporate Enforcement Tracker database,

1:13:09

but the big picture is

1:13:11

clear. If a corporation wants

1:13:13

the government off its back, all

1:13:15

they have to do is make

1:13:17

a handsome contribution. Trump administration

1:13:19

is paid to play and

1:13:21

open for business. In

1:13:24

another instance of the administration tying

1:13:26

the hands of key federal regulators,

1:13:29

the Food and Drug Administration will, quote, end

1:13:31

its routine food safety

1:13:34

inspections, quote, according

1:13:36

to the National Public Health Information Coalition.

1:13:39

The FDA plans to, quote, shift most

1:13:41

food safety inspections to state and local

1:13:43

agencies, end quote. While

1:13:45

some food inspections are conducted at the

1:13:47

state and local level, public health advocates

1:13:49

are raising concerns about, quote, oversight

1:13:52

and consistency. According

1:13:54

to CBS, these plans have

1:13:56

not been First

1:14:00

part of this administration, Notus

1:14:02

reports quote, DOGE website, the

1:14:04

only public accounting of Elon

1:14:06

Musk and President Donald Trump's

1:14:08

attempts to reduce federal government

1:14:10

spending has posted revisions that

1:14:12

suggest DOGE was previously overstating

1:14:15

its savings by hundreds of

1:14:17

millions of dollars, end

1:14:19

quote. These stunning,

1:14:21

if not altogether surprising,

1:14:23

Overestimations are staggering

1:14:25

in scale. Quote,

1:14:27

on Tuesday, April 15th

1:14:29

alone, DOGE removed around

1:14:31

$962 million in previously

1:14:34

claimed cuts and altered

1:14:36

hundreds of others to

1:14:38

boost individuals' items' reported

1:14:40

savings values, end quote.

1:14:43

The incompetence of DOGE has led

1:14:45

Musk to reduce the target

1:14:48

goal of spending cuts down from

1:14:50

$1 trillion to just $150

1:14:52

billion, a drop in the

1:14:54

bucket when it comes to federal

1:14:56

spending certainly not worth the evisceration

1:14:58

of social and other

1:15:00

programs cuts have

1:15:02

entailed. Finally,

1:15:05

in more bad news for

1:15:07

Elon Musk, Reuters reports the

1:15:09

Chinese Ministry of Industry and

1:15:11

Information Technology tightening electric vehicle

1:15:14

battery safety standards, specifically

1:15:16

to, quote, ensure

1:15:18

batteries fire or explode,

1:15:21

quote. This quite a

1:15:23

humble regulatory goal. However,

1:15:26

this new regulation could spell

1:15:28

disaster Tesla. According

1:15:30

to TeslaFire .com, there have

1:15:32

been 232 confirmed cases

1:15:35

of Tesla fires, and

1:15:37

quote, 83 fatalities

1:15:39

a Tesla car

1:15:41

fire, end quote. If

1:15:44

I were a Chinese EV regulator,

1:15:46

I would be wary of allowing Tesla

1:15:48

vehicles on the roads. but

1:15:51

that's just me. This has

1:15:53

been Francesco De Santis, but

1:15:55

in case you haven't heard. And

1:15:58

that's a wrap. Join us next

1:16:00

week on The Nader Hour. Until

1:16:02

next time.