We will air excerpts from the debate and speak to former president ial candidate ralph nader about trump and the race. One thing about trump being a serial law invader evader, he does it day after day, brazenly. Here is a person who said in july 2019, then i have article two when i have the right to do anything i want as president. He later insisted that the constitution should be terminated. Amy and we speak to david dayen of the american prospect about the lawsuit against amazon and the growing calls for senator bob menendez to resign after he was indicted for bribery. Now at least 30 democrats want him out. All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Seven republican president ial candidates squared off at the Ronald Reagan president ial library in california wednesday at the partys second debate but once again the races frontrunner donald trump did not participate. He was criticized multiple times for skipping the debate. This is former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie. I want to look at the camera right now and say, donald, i know you are watching. You cannot help yourself. I know you are watching. You are not here tonight, not because of polls or your indictment. You are not here tonight because you are afraid of being on stage and defending your record. You are ducking these things. You keep on doing that, nobody will call you donald trump anymore, we will call you donald duck. Amy we will look at the second president ial debate with ralph nader after headlines. Instead of going to the debate, donald trump headed to detroit, michigan where he spoke at a nonunionized auto parts supplier. Trumps visit came a day after President Biden made history by being the first sitting president to join striking autoworkers on the picket line. During his rally on wednesday, trump called for unions to support him in 2024. Do me a favor. Just get your union guys, your leaders, to endorse me. I will take care of the rest. Amy very deliberate. Uaw president shawn fain refused to meet with trump during his trip to detroit. Fain said, i see no point in meeting with him because i dont think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for. He serves a billionaire class, and thats whats wrong with this country. in las vegas, unionized hospitality workers overwhelmingly voted to authorize a citywide strike against hotels and casinos i met industry profits in recent years. Hospitality workers are demanding wage increases, job safety protections, increased job security, and training on new technology as well as protection if technology displaces workers. The u. S. Government appears to be barreling towards another shutdown as House SpeakerKevin Mccarthy is refusing to bring a senate stopgap bill to the floor for a vote and does not have enough support to pass his own shortterm house measure. Many republicans oppose the shortterm senate bill in part because it contains aid for ukraine and is just a relief. Mccarthy remains beholden to the farright faction of his caucus, which is pushing for steep cuts to spending which would hit essential food programs, education, and housing. Missouri democratic Congressmember Cori Bush said, maga math is cutting Food Assistance for millions of children and families while simultaneously increasing tax cuts for billionaires. Once again, republicans greed is taking the food out of hungry childrens mouths. Shameful. House Speaker Mccarthy had previously agreed to current spending levels as part of the debtceiling deal. Meanwhile, government workers are bracing to again lose their paychecks. This is everett kelley, head of the Union Representing federal workers. It is a detriment to our economy, detriment to our communities, and to the workforce. We need to be stable. We need to know that we have a job and that we can provide for our famili. Amy the government will shut at midnight on saturday if no deal is reached. Far right republican Marjorie Taylor greene passed an amendment to the defense bill to produce u. S. Secretary lloyd austins salary to one dollar. The president of the selfdeclared nagornokarabakh republic says the government of the contested region will dissolve itself by jan. 1st. The announcement comes just days after azerbaijan carried out a military blitz to seize the territory which is mostly made up of ethnic armenians. Over 30,000 people in nagornokarabakh have fled to armenia in recent days, thats more than half of the regions population. On wednesday, azerbaijan arrested the former head of the nagornokarabakh government as he was trying to cross into armenia. Burkina fasos military rulers leaders say the countrys security and Intelligence Services thwarted a coup attempt by rogue officers. Burkina faso is currently ruled by interim president ibrahim traore, an army captain who himself seized power a year ago following a military coup. The junta vowed to hold democratic elections by july next year. Earlier this week, hundreds of people took to the streets in the capital to show their support for the military leadership. A u. S. Soldier who crossed into north korea in july has arrived back in the United States after being expelled by pyongyang. U. S. Army private travis king had been held for two months after crossing into the dmz. North korean authorities had said king, who is black, had harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and Racial Discrimination within the u. S. Army and was disillusioned about the unequal u. S. Society. the white house thanked the Swedish Embassy in pyongyang and the Chinese Government for their role in facilitating his release and return home. It is unclear what disciplinary action king may now face by the military. Meanwhile, north koreas parliament has voted to enshrine its Nuclear Weapons program as part of the north korean constitution. The u. S. Has admitted israel into its visa waiver program. It joins 40 other countries which enjoy visafree travel to the u. S. The move was quickly met with condemnation from palestinian rights activists. Author and journalist ali abunimah said it was rewarding and encouraging jewish supremacist apartheid, ethnic cleansing and racial terror against palestinians. Meanwhile, james zogby, the president of the arab american institute, said in a statement, by prioritizing a political perk to a foreign country over the equal rights and safety of american citizens, the Biden Administration has agreed to continued, blatant discrimination against arab americans, including palestinian americans, and others who advocate for palestinian human rights. in ethiopia, local researchers say they have verified over 1300 hunger deaths in the wartorn northern Tigray Region since the november ceasefire was enacted. A major contributing factor is the suspension of food aid by the u. S. And the u. N. After they said Food Supplies were being seized by military units. The government has faced accusations of weaponizing humanitarian aid. Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau has formally apologized after he and the house of commons gave a standing ovation to a canadian ukrainian veteran who fought in a nazi ss unit during world war ii. The 98yearold, yaroslav hunka, was honored during a visit by ukrainian president president Volodymyr Zelenskiy who also applauded him. He had been indicted by the speaker of the house of commons who has since resigned from his post. Trudeau spoke on wednesday. The speaker was solely responsible for the invitation and recognition of this man and has fully accepted that responsibility and step down. This was a mistake that deeply embarrassed parliament and canada. All of us who were in the house on friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context. Amy Prime Minister trudeau made the apology after canadas conservative leader, pierre poilievre, described the event honoring the former nazi as the biggest single diplomatic embarrassment in canadas history. In the netherlands, a massive climate protest is now in its 20th day as activists blockade the a12, a major highway. Over 6,000 people have been arrested since the action started. Activists are demanding the dutch government end its over 40 billion in annual subsidies for fossil fuel companies. Demonstrators say police are using increasingly violent tactics to quell their movement. Extinction rebellion netherlands is taking authorities to court in a bid to ban the use of Water Cannons against peaceful protesters. Meanwhile in the u. K. , climate activists have slammed its government after it gave the green light to develop its largest untapped oilfield in the north sea, just off the northwest coast of the shetland islands. The rosebank project will be operated by Norwegian Company equinor and british firm ithaca energy. This is climate lawyer and director of the group uplift, tessa khan. If we are going to stay within a safe climate, that internationally agreed goal of 1. 5 degrees of temperature rise, there is no room for new oil and gas fields. Existing oil and gas reserves and fossil fuel infrastructure are enough to take us past that critical threshold. We cannot afford to add more oil and gas to that existing pile. Amy in strasbourg, france, a Historic Court hearing unfolded wednesday at the European Court of human rights, as six young people from portugal challenged 33 european governments over their failure to combat the climate crisis, which they argue is a violation of their human rights. This is one of the lawyers for the portuguese youth who brought the lawsuit. Todays case is about the young, the price that they are paying for the failure of states to tackle the climate emergency. It is about the harm that they will suffer during their lifetimes unless they step up to their responsibilities. Amy a lawsuit is being closely followed by climate activists around the world. If successful, the 33 countries could be legally required to rapidly reduce their Greenhouse Gas emissions. A ruling is expected in the first half of next year. New jersey sen. Bob menendez, his wife, and two of his Business Associates pleaded not guilty to federal bribery and extortion charges. Menendez was indicted on friday, accused of using his position to increase u. S. Assistance to egypt and to do favors for new jersey businessmen in exchange for mortgage payments, a luxury car, bars of gold, and thousands of dollars in cash. Its the second time in under a decade menendez has been indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges. He has refused calls from at least 30 fellow democrats to resign. And in philadelphia, protesters took to the streets after a judge dismissed all charges, including firstdegree murder, against former Police Officer mark dial in the august killing of eddie irizarry. Dial fatally shot irizarry at near pointblank range as he sat in his car after being pulled over. Prosecutors have vowed to appeal the ruling. Irizarry was reportedly suffering from Mental Health challenges at the time. His family expressed outrage following the ruling. This is his aunt speaking to the Philadelphia Inquirer the way i feel, the way the family feels, everybody is upset because of the position that was made today. She said the da didnt have enough evidence. How much more evidence do you need . The evidence was there, all the video was there. The whole city has the video. For you to say it was not enough evidence, that was wrong. It proves today that Police Officers can kill somebody and get away with murder. Amy and those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Coming up, we have excerpts of the second republican president ial debate without president trump, and speak to former president ial candidate ralph nader about the 2024 elections, trump, and biden. Stay with us. [music break] amy death and roses, music from the movie idiocracy. this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We begin todays show with the second republican president ial debate of the 2024 race. Seven contenders faced off wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan president ial library in simi valley, california. As with the first debate, the republican front runner, former president donald trump, did not attend. He met with workers at a nonunion auto parts factory in the battleground state of michigan, where he attacked President Bidens support for electric cars one day after bidens visit to detroit when he became the first sitting president in u. S. History to stand with autoworkers on the picket lines. During the debate, florida gov. Ron desantis said trump was missing in action, and former new jersey gov. Chris christie tried out a new nickname for trump. I want to look in the camera right now and say, donald, i know you are watching. You cannot help yourself. I know you are watching. You are not here tonight not because of poles or indictments. You are not here tonight because you are afraid of being on this stage and defending your record. You are ducking these things. You keep doing that, nobody will call you donald trump anymore, we will call you donald duck. Amy for much of the debate, criticism focused on democrats as the candidates spoke over each other and moderators. This is christie and former Vice President mike pence responding to moderator Ilia Calderon of univision. The government will shut down if congress does not reach a deal by the end of this week. Vice president pence, is this politics of trumps populist strategies a road to ruin for the gop . Should voters claim populist republicans . Voters can blame everybody in washington, d. C. They have been sent down there to do the job and theyve been failing to do the job for a very long time. Lets be honest with the voters. During the trump administration, they added 7 trillion to the national debt. Now the Biden Administration has put another 5 trillion on and counting. They have failed, and they are in the spot where they are now, because none of them i wanted to tell the truth, take on the difficult issues. They want to keep on kicking the can down the road. The inflation that nikki talked about is caused by government spending. That has white people across the country are suffering tonight. Yet we dont get any answers because joe biden hides in his basement, will not answer why he is raising the debt as he has done. Donald trump is hiding behind the balls of his golf club and will not show up here to answ er questions like all of us here are. He put 7 trillion on the debt. He should be in here to answer to those questions. If the government closes, it is to the blame of everyone in washington, d. C. Who has failed to do their job and displays to the grandstand. The people in washington are shutting down the American Dream with their reckless behavior. They borrowed, they printed, they spent, and now you are paying more for everything. They are the reason for that. They have shut down our National Sovereignty by allowing our border to be wide open. Please spare me the crocodile tears for these people. Where is joe biden . He is completely missing in action and leadership. You know who else is missing in action . Donald trump is missing in action. He should be on the stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added 7. 8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation we have now. I can tell you as governor of florida, we cut taxes, we ran surpluses, paid down over 25 of our debt, and as your president , when they send me a bloated spending bill that will cause your prices to go up, i will take out his veto pen and send it right back to them. Amy that was Florida Governor ron desantis. The economy was one of the debates main topics. This is moderator dana perino of fox news, the former White House Press spokesperson for george w bush, and her fellow moderator fox business host stuart varney, with South Carolina senator tim scott responding first. Americans want to believe a leader who says you can follow me, ive got you, dont worry. President biden is trying to do that with bidenomics. Yesterday, he joined the picket lines where autoworkers are demanding more wages and job security. You recently reacted by praising Ronald Reagan for firing air Traffic Controllers in the 1980s, saying you strike, you are fired. Would you fire thousands of striking autoworkers today . The president of the United States cannot fire anybody in the private sector, however, we should look back at the first bill in congress under joe biden. 86 billion dollars for Union Pensions because they continue to overpromise yet under deliver. One of the challenges we have in the current negotiations is that they want fourday french work weeks with more money, more benefits working fewer hours. That is simply not going to stand. I said in the finance committee hearing, when they came before the committee promising pensions from the unions, 4000 a month. Unfortunately, it was cut to 1000 a month. We must make sure that we honor the commitments we make. One of the ways that we do that, do not overpromise and then under deliver, and then leave the taxpayers on the hook. I will say this. Joe biden should not be on the picket line. He should be on the southern border working to close our southern border. It is unsafe, wideopen, and insecure, leading to the deaths of 70,000 americans in the last 12 months because of fentanyl. It is devastating. Every county in america is now a border county because fentanyl has devastated americans in every single state. I will also say, 6 million illegal crossings since joe biden took office, and he eliminated title 42. The one think you should do is finish the ball, reinstate title 42, and get the job done. I can promise you that we will have a lot of questions on the border and immigration. In the meantime, we want to talk about the economy and jobs, especially about this strike. The ceos of general motors, ford, stellantis make more than 300 times of rankandfile workers. That is part of a wider inequality trend in the country. The richest in the country now holds 1 5 of all income. Vice president pence, you said you would side with American Workers. You also support how these companies operate. Which is it . Thank you for the question. I want to thank univision and foxbusiness for someone such a wonderful forum. I do disagree with something that tim scott said. Joe biden doesnt belong on the picket line, he belongs in the unemployment line. I am from the secondleading manufacturing state in the country per capita. I was governor of the state of indiana. We brought 12,000 factories back to america during our administration. I know something about manufacturing. While the union bosses are talking about class warfare, talking about disparity in wages, i have to tell you, i really believe what is driving that is bidenomics has failed. All American Workers are feeling it. Joe bidens Green New Deal agenda is good for beijing and bad for detroit. We ought to repeal the Green New Deal, get rid of the mandates and subsidies that are driving american gasoline, Automotive Manufacturing into the graveyard. Beyond that, also, as president of the United States, ill be standing with workers all across america, standing for the right to work of every american to join a union or not join a union as they decide. Amy that was former Vice President mike pence. During the debate, former new Jersey Governor Chris Christie also criticized President Bidens support for Teachers Unions, prompting this exchange with pence. What we did was institute more Charter Schools and more renaissance schools and more Public School choice in new jersey with Innovative Solutions in cities like camden, one of the Worst School District in america during my time, and we have increased that by nearly 40 in terms of their proficiency. It can be done when you give people choice. But lets tell the truth about what this is. This Public School system is no longer run by the public. It is run by the Teachers Unions in this country. Randy weingarten and her crew are absolutely strangling. They are taking the worst of their members and defending them, rather than advocating for our kids. When you have the president of the United States sleeping with a member of the Teachers Union, there is no chance you can take the stranglehold away from the Teachers Union every day. They have an advocate inside the white house every day for the worst of their teachers, not for our students to be the best they can be. The president has to take on the Teachers Union. I did it in new jersey and i will do it as president of the United States. Chris, you mentioned the president s situation. My wife is not a member of the Teachers Union, but i have to admit, i have been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years. Amy to discuss last nights second Republican Debate of 2024, and more, we are joined by ralph nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate critic, and former president ial candidate. Hes also the founder of the capitol hill citizen newspaper, which has a new issue out. Ralph nader is the author of many books, including the forthcoming book, the rebellious ceo 12 leaders who did it right. welcome back to democracy now that is the way they talk about education, but summarize your response to last nights debate. Ralph it is pretty embarrassing that this is what they put forward to become president of the most powerful country in the world. We have a political system that does not bring out the best in the American People, doesnt bring out the best in candidates. Saturday, midnight, the government will probably close down. There was not much talk about that. That is a pretty serious problem. Millions of workers depend on federal contracts in district all over the country. Federal grants support major social safety nets for children, disadvantaged people, disabled people. All of that will be suspended. It doesnt matter, red state, blue state. All of these people will be cut off from federal programs of various kinds. We know how many there are. They go into every district. All of these people, whether conservative or liberal, all of these families will bleed the same color. There was not much discussion about how a dozen right wing republicans are basically controlling Speaker Mccarthy, heading the federal government into a shut down. Beyond that, they seem to just be reacting to the headlines of the day. They dont talk about the structural weakening of our democratic society. They dont talk about the distortion of public budgets based on a distorted tax system that under taxes the very wealthy and corporates like never before the trumpet tax cuts in 2017. They dont talk about over 50 of the federal budget goes to the bloated military budget which drains away all kinds of support for the necessities of the American People back home. They dont talk about the corporate crime wave. Even the Mainstream Press is reporting. Insurance companies, banks, oil companies. They dont talk about the huge amount of corporate welfare. They go after programs that help the poor. But the corporate welfare kings are making out like bandits with very little congressional oversight. One area after another. For example, 5000 americans dying every week from what one Johns Hopkins medical reports that are preventable problems in the hospitals. 5000 americans a week. 250,000 a year. The doctors who put this report out a few years ago said nothing is really being done about it by the federal government. That was their most conservative estimate. A billion dollars a day is being ripped off from Health Care Programs by corporate crime. 60 billion ripoff of medicare alone. How inflationary is that . The areas they avoid because of their paymasters, who they raise money from, is pretty extraordinary. But the real problem, amy, we are the people protesting here. You would think they are about to be cut off from all kinds of federal programs with the shutdown down on saturday, midnight. There are no demonstrations in the districts in these dozen or so right wing republicans north carolina, arizona, georgia. Where is the Democratic Party in these districts . They are not challenging these members who are getting a free ride. One member from virginia, congressman goode brandt that he got just one call about his threat to shut down government, is getting all kinds of supporting calls against federal spending. That is because there is no Democratic Party activity. They are giving him a free ride. We are seeing terrible situations here that are not being discussed or debated. Part of it is because fox news doesnt ask those basic questions at all. They dont ask about the crumbling democracy, the empire all over the world. All over the world we expect countries to obey our military dictates. We have bases in over 100 countries. We are wasting trillions of dollars. There is no question about that. Amy let me go to the issue of global politics. During the debate, former governor of South Carolina, former u. N Ambassador Nikki Haley went on the offensive, including vivek ramaswamy, like over his stance on tiktok. Tiktok is one of the most dangerous social media apps we could have. Every time i hear you, i feel a little bit dumber because of what you say. What they are doing 150 Million People are on tiktok. They can get your contacts, financial information, your emails, text messages, they can get all of this. They know exactly what they are doing. You help china. You want kids to get on social media that is dangerous for all. You were in business with the chinese who gave hunter biden 5 million. We cannot trust you. You have 15 seconds. You have 15 seconds, mr. Ramaswamy. I think we would be better served as a Republican Party if we are not sitting here hurling personal insults and actually have a legitimate debate. The answer is, that is one exam or country strong. I believe in these people. These are good people on the stage. Lets have a legitimate disagreement. Amy someone did tweet something along the lines of, if i could ever find somebody to love as nikki haley hates vivek ramaswamy, i would be a happy man. Ralph nader, your response . Ralph generally her criticism of social media and what it does to kids is correct. She is picking out tiktok because it is chineseowned. It could be facebook, instagram, anyone of these wardens of the internet that has our kids hooked to the iphone five hours a day, separating them from their parents, community, nature. They are trying to break out to see who is going to be number two or number three in the polls, against trump. That is what is causing that backandforth. It is really interesting. You have millions and millions of people who are not making a living wage. They dont even mention that the federal minimum wage is 7. 25 an hour, frozen since 2009 or even earlier. They dont even mention it. They dont mention Occupational Health and safety. They dont mention that tens of millions of people are without Health Insurance or underinsured. At least 100,000 people, 2000 a week die because they cannot afford to get diagnosed and treated in time. It is a lot of wrangling backandforth. A lot of it is the debate format and the kinds of questions that are asked. Amy were you surprised by the fox news host varney asking about the ceos of gm, ford, stellantis, making 300 times the rankandfile members. Part of the inequality trend in the country. This issue of wealth and equality, even fox is addressing it. Just too big to ignore. Is that because Rupert Murdoch says he is retiring . Ralph it is too big to ignore but it keeps on going on. Years ago, Fortune Magazine had on its cover, ceo pays out of control and why nothing can be done to stop it. That is because the shareholders are the owners of these companies and are rendered clearly powerless. The hired hands in the executive suite have even made the owners of their capitalist corporation powerless. Mary barra makes 29 million a year as ceo of general motors. That is at least, on a 40hour week, over 14,000 an hour. She has lowtier workers working for 18, 20 two dollars an hour. That is the kind of gap. You have to reduce it. Over 14,000 an hour, hour after hour, eight hours a day, five days a week, not counting extraordinary benefits and perks. The ceos of the big Auto Companies use to restrain themselves because the autoworkers were Strong Enough as a union not to tolerate it. They didnt want to give the autoworkers an excuse. Now, all limits are gone. It is good that the new head of the united auto workers, sean fain, is taking them on and calling them out with great specificity. He is talking like an old time, fighting labor leader. The autoworkers ought to be glad that they are finally led by someone who will draw a line. The autoworkers have been pushed down for years especially after the gm bankruptcy, the 30 billion plus federal bailout in 2012 under obama. The workers had to take all kinds of concessions. It is not that they are breaking new ground here, they are catching up on past deprivations. Amy let me ask you about the issue of covering trump. Trump was not there last night, he was in detroit speaking at a nonunion hall, separately from those in simi valley at the Ronald Reagan library. How do you think the media should be covering trump right now moving into the 2024 elections, now with over 90 charges against him . The most recent judge that came out against him two nights ago could dissolve the trump organization. Ralph they should cover his criminal activity, his unconstitutional record as president , serial violation of federal violations like the hatch act, antideficiency act. He use the white house for political campaigning which is a violation. The press did not cover it except for joe davis in the Washington Post following our letter to the Justice Department. The New York Times does something that is really extraordinary. They put the quote of trump in capital letters when he does on his website. How far do you go in trumpeting trump . They should apply newsworthy standards. If he says the same thing every day, you dont report that. Margaret sullivan, the media critic, Washington Post, recently retired. She wrote a long essay telling the media how not to cover trump, and they still fall for it because of the ratings. He has them by the finger. If it continues this way, he will benefit from billions of dollars of free publicity. The more outrageous he is, the more he lies, the more he creates fantasies instead of realities, the more he engages in false promises, the more he tries to cover up his crimes, the more attention he gets. Amy some critics, including Laurence Tribe tweeted, does cornell west will he want to help the gop nominee win, the way that ralph nader helped to defeat . Please stop this foolishness for you really hurt the things that you care about. Can you respond to this . You were brought into it. Also talk about what you are feeling about President Biden right now. Ralph this is the worst performance by larry tribe. He is a leading constitutional effort expert. He should know what the First Amendment is about. When you are running for office, the right of free speech, petition, assembly, he should say i dont like these candidates, im opposing them, but i will not oppose their right to run. He flew down to florida in 2004 to get me off the ballot. Basically saying, shut up, do not exercise your right of free speech. This is a professor at harvard law school, my alma mater. Our Campaign Director have to go down and block it. He has a real tick on third parties. He doesnt understand. The way that democrats should deal with progressive third parties is to adopt their agenda. That is what harry truman did. He took some of Henry Wallaces progressive agenda. Wallace started dropping in the polls. That is when a competitive democracy is all about. Instead, the Democratic Party, with the help of larry tribe, is scapegoating every time they lose to the worst public and party in history, they blame the greens. The Democratic Party doesnt look at itself in the mirror. It is very low on introspection, doesnt ask itself, why, against the most dictatorial, corporateindentured Republican Party that they are not land sliding them . They dont have a workable majority in the congress. If they lose, they lose to the worst party. People like Teddy Roosevelt and eisenhower, senator robert taft, they couldnt believe how bad the Republican Party is. And the democrats are barely competing. Amy we have 30 seconds. I wanted to get your response. You were just profiled in the Washington Post. The headline was ralph nader wary of trump helped joe biden to win. Is that accurate . Ralph it is inaccurate, which the reporter has nothing to do with. I said in a choice between trump fascism and Democratic Party autocracy, i will take autocracy. It allows an opportunity for a reversal. Fascism, the violent rhetoric, Voter Suppression of the trumpsters and they are just getting underway, while they let wall street do what it wants, deregulate everything, health and safety protection programs for the American People, they give tax escapes so that big corporations are making money in the u. S. And paying virtually no taxes. It is the perfect state that Franklin Delano roosevelt warned about in a message to congress. He said when private power takes over government, that is fascism. That is what we are left with, a two party duopoly. I wish the green party well. Cornell west is by far the most progressive candidate. He has the most complete progressive agenda, domestic and foreign policy. Lets have a competitive democracy and stop engaging in candidate suppression. The democrats criticize the gop for Voter Suppression. Democrats are very good about candidate suppression, thirdparty candidates, bumping them off balance, harassing them, suing them. We got sued a dozen times in a few weeks. Amy we have to leave it there today but we will continue to cover these issues. Ralph nader, longtime consumer advocate, corporate credit, former president ial candidate. Hes also the founder of the capitol hill citizen newspaper, which has a new issue out. Ralph is the author of many books, including the forthcoming book, the rebellious ceo 12 leaders who did it right. Coming up, we will speak to david dayen of the american prospect about the u. S. Governments lawsuit against amazon and the growing calls for senator bob menendez to resign after he was indicted for bribery. Also, the possible shutdown of the u. S. Government. Stay with us. [music break] amy this is democracy now. Im amy goodman. On tuesday, the federal trade commission and 17 states filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against amazon. The lawsuit accuses the company of using punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies allowing you to charge higher prices, harming customers, and weakening competition. The lawsuit was spearheaded by ftc chair lina khan, who made headlines in 2017 after she wrote a widely read scholarly article are going the breakup of amazon. For more, we are joined by david dayen, executive editor of the american prospect. He wrote about this in his most recent piece. His latest book is titled monopolized life in the age of corporate power. david, thank you for coming back today. Start by you talking about the significance of this lawsuit which comes just two weeks after the opening of a landmark antitrust trial against google. David yes. Suddenly there is all of this activity in the antitrust space after a period of dormancy for about 40 years. Specifically, the google trial is the first in 25 years, the first monopolization trial. It is not a trial to put a merger. It is saying this company is using anticompetitive behavior in ways that violates the law. This is the same thing in the amazon case, this monopolization case. Yes, as you say, it alleges that thirdparty sellers that use amazons network are coerced into using all sorts of services that amazon provides for which they take this huge cut. According to the report that i discussed last week, about 45 of all Third Party Sales go to amazon in fees. Those fees are for logistics, fulfillment by amazon, which is their shipping and warehousing networks, also for advertising. Basically, if you use amazon search, pretty much the entire first page is ads. They may not be the cheapest thing or the most useful or quality products, but it is things that the third parties have to pay for to get into the consciousness of people searching for product. There are a variety of ways in which thirdparty sellers are induced to use the services, to pay amazon. Also there is sort of an antidiscounting measure whereby, if you are selling on amazon, you cannot sell your products at a lower price on other websites. Because amazon controls 70, 80 of all online commerce, you have to be at amazon because the eyeballs are there. Basically, through an algorithm, web, see if you are selling the same product for less elsewhere, and if you are, dont vote you in the search so that you cannot be seen by amazon customers, and therefore cannot sell anything there. This arrangement raises prices across the internet, forces these sellers to sell for more money. Amy i wanted to play ftc chair, federal trade commission chair, lina khan speaking in her own words in june about the Biden Administrations antitrust efforts. When you have open markets, you want them to be contestable, which means the existing joints have to be susceptible to competition. A whole set up antitrust lawsuits underway know that alleged these companies have engaged in anticompetitive tactics that have unfairly blocked competition. Amy david dayen, if you could talk about lina khan herself. A lot of corporate democrats wanted to take her out, she is the ftc chair. David as you mentioned, she wrote this very celebrated law review article about amazon itself. Of course, the company has said she is biased because she believes in enforcing the laws it has written, trying to throw her out of the case, as much as they had tried to throw the head of the antitrust division out of the google case because of remarks he has made in the past. Fortunately, judges have ruled there is no need for recusal here. Khan represents an aggressive set of antitrust enforcers that the blighted administrator Biden Administration has put into reverse this troubling trend of the last 40 years. Even to the extent that some republicans are moving in that direction. I will mention the google case, was actually filed during the tail end of the trump administration. This case against amazon has been in the works at the ftc for four years. The investigation at least started under trumps antitrust federal trade commission, i should say. Clearly, both lina khan, jonathan kantor, tim woo, the former Biden Administration antitrust chair, they have all been instrumental in this newfound vigor and antitrust. Amy showing images of the ceo of amazon, jeff bezos. David former, but yes. Amy could we switch gears now to talk about what is happening in congress . I want to ask you about the growing calls for senator bob menendez to resign after being indicted along with his wife for bribery and extortion charges. He was indicted on friday, accused of using his position to increase assistance to egypt and in exchange for thousands of dollars in cash. A second time in under a decade he has been indicted on federal bribery and corruption charges. Now we are up to 30 fellow democrats, including his fellow democratic senator from new jersey, cory booker, demanding he resign. He made his First Court Appearance on wednesday and pleaded not guilty. Your piece is breaking the menendez cycle. Talk about what you mean. David in 2016, menendez gets indicted at the end of the obama administration. He goes to trial. Because the Supreme Court has so defined down public corruption and bribery, that case ends up in mistrial and the Justice Department ultimately dropped the charges. However, it was clear there was a lot unseemly going on in the first case, similar to taking trips, getting gifts, things like that, in exchange for some actions on behalf of the individual who was alleged to have bribed him. Despite the fact that the Senate Ethics committee wrote a report that admonished him, said he failed to disclose these gifts, that violated the law, democrats allowed menendez to get back into that ranking position on that Foreign Relations committee where he was in a position to help with the terry aid with arms sales to the egyptian government. Literally right after he was restored to that seat, another set of scandals begins. This cycle returns itself as he starts engaging in these activities on behalf of certainly helped egypt in exchange for these additional gifts. What i meant by breaking the cycle, in new jersey, where it is kind of a political machine, the machine bosses are now pretty much all the leading democratic politicians, they have rejected menendez, said he should resign. Andy kim, a congressman right now, has signed up to run against him in next junes senate primary. Amy also larry ham has said he will run as well, the wellknown new Jersey Community activist. David interesting. There is this sort ofshunning of menendez within new jersey, which is his power base. There is a possibility this cycle that we see will not recur. He is apparently speaking to members of the senate today and their caucus meeting. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that. Amy and what this could mean for the balance of the senate next year if he hangs on. David certainly. In 2018, when he ran against somebody with no money and no name recognition in new jersey in the primary, he still got only about 60 of the votes. There is clearly a large number of people within new jersey who are not that interested in menendez. The Democratic Senate arm had to spend about 7 million to ensure that he won the general election. Amy we only have one minute to go. I want to get to the possible, you say probable, shut down and what it means. David it is going to happen. There is a solution readily available. 77 votes in the senate for a clean continuing resolution to fund the government. Kevin mccarthy knows that we can get maybe 400 votes in the house but does not want to do it because of the small group of Freedom Caucus members removing him from speakership. It is a dysfunctional situation. I think mccarthy is looking for somebody else to solve it other than him, even though he is the leader in the house. It is a terrible situation. It will affect a lot of federal employees will not get paid or furloughed. Amy david dayen, thank you for being with us. Executive editor of the american prospect. His latest book, monopolized life in the age of corporate power. We will also link to your articles at democracynow. Org. Democracy now is looking for [suspenseful piano music plays] [mechanical reverberations echo] [suspenseful piano music plays] [chiwetel] the earth from space. [classical music builds] the only known planet in the universe with surface water. [suspenseful piano music plays] water is what made life and civilization possible. But the ancient water patterns on earth are shifting. No one can be sure anymore where tomorrows water is coming from. [classical music builds]