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Ralph welcomes Jeff Cohen from the activist group \u201cRoots Action,\u201d whose \u201cStep Aside Joe\u201d campaign was years ahead of the curve urging Joe Biden \u2013 for many reasons \u2013 to keep his promise to be a one-term president. Plus, Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, updates us on how the insurance industry in cahoots with governor Gavin Newsom wants to roll back the immensely successful Prop 103 that over the years has saved Californians billions of dollars in insurance premiums and why this struggle has implications for auto and homeowner insurance premiums across the country.

Jeff Cohen is Co-Founder and Policy Director at RootsAction. He is a media critic, columnist, documentary filmmaker, and retired journalism professor who founded the media watch group FAIR\u2014Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting\u2014 in 1986. For years, he was a regular pundit on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC discussing issues of media and politics, and he is the author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.

Now, the challenge is reminiscent of Hubert Humphrey and Lyndon Baines Johnson. And when Hubert Humphrey ran for President in 1968\u2014he was LBJ\u2019s Vice President\u2014he had to face the question, is he gonna stay loyal to Johnson\u2019s position on the Vietnam War\u2026or is he going to be faithful to his own personal judgment, which was to find a way to get out of the Vietnam War. He chose the former, to be loyal\u2014he didn\u2019t distance himself\u2014and he lost the election.

Ralph Nader

You have all of these constituencies that want a change in policy\u2026The base of the party is for peace and social justice. Not for continual expansion of the military budget. People forget that the Democratic platform in 2020 called for a reduction in military spending, and Joe Biden has increased military spending every year.

Jeff Cohen

We\u2019ve organized around that point that if we cut the military budget\u2014which has grown year after year under Joe Biden\u2014and we took that money and spent it on healthcare and housing and education, imagine what a society we would have. If we uplifted working-class people. And when I look at what Joe Biden ran in in 2020\u2014and the promises that were made that have been broken\u2014if he had kept even half of these promises the Democrats would be winning in a landslide.

Jeff Cohen

Harvey Rosenfield is one of the nation\u2019s foremost consumer advocates and founder of the advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog. Among many other accomplishments, Mr. Rosenfield authored Proposition 103 that has saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars in auto insurance premiums. He has also co-authored groundbreaking initiatives on HMO reform and utility rate deregulation and is the author of the book, Silent Violence, Silent Death: the Hidden Epidemic of Medical Malpractice.

The insurance industry never stopped fighting [Prop 103]. Even though they lost at the ballot box, they constantly tried to relitigate that election. They couldn\u2019t believe that the voters would have the temerity to tell the insurance companies how to conduct business in the state of California.

Harvey Rosenfield

This kind of economic blackmail\u2014boycotting state after state in order to up their profits\u2014has worked in the past for insurance companies and this is what they\u2019re doing now. And it\u2019s easy to predict that as their bottom line improves, as the stock market improves\u2026they\u2019ll start coming back into these states with the promise of far higher rates, and things will calm down. But in the meantime, people will have been soaked for tens of billions, hundreds of billions of dollars nationwide.

Harvey Rosenfield

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

1. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will address the United States Congress for an unprecedented fourth time. According to the Wall Street Journal, presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris will skip Netanyahu\u2019s address, but will meet with the Prime Minister \u2013 who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court \u2013 and is expected to tell him that \u201cit is time for the war to end\u201d and to stop the \u201csuffering of Palestinian civilians.\u201d Harris is expected to take a new foreign policy approach, likely doing away with key Biden administration figures like Jake Sullivan, Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin. Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, has stated that Harris has shown \u201cfar greater empathy for Palestinians than Biden.\u201d

2. With Harris taking center stage, the Intercept\u2019s Prem Thakker reports that Representative Rashida Tlaib has released a statement saying \u201cI welcome the opportunity to engage Vice President Harris as my team and I work hard to inspire our Democratic base...They want to see a permanent ceasefire and an end to the funding of genocide in Gaza\u2026They want us to fight against corporate greed that wants to eliminate unions and keep our families in the cycle of poverty. I am eager to speak to Vice President Harris about all of these issues and more.\u201d Unlike other prominent progressive lawmakers \u2013 such as Bernie Sanders and AOC \u2013 Tlaib did not back Biden against the campaign to have him step aside as the Democratic nominee, and crucially, appears to be using whatever leverage she has to demand Harris push vigorously for a ceasefire in Gaza.

3. The New York Times reports several major unions \u2013 including the The American Postal Workers Union, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Service Employees International Union, United Auto Workers, United Electrical Workers, and the National Education Association, the largest union in the U.S. \u2013 have sent a letter to the Biden Administration demanding they \u201chalt all military aid to Israel.\u201d This letter emphasizes that \u201cit is clear that the Israeli government will continue \u2026until it is forced to stop,\u201d and that \u201cStopping US military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so.\u201d APWU President Mark Dimondstein said in a statement \u201cOur unions are hearing the cries of humanity as this vicious war continues\u2026Working people and our unions are horrified that our tax dollars are financing this ongoing tragedy.\u201d

4. Reuters reports that in talks hosted in China this week, \u201cPalestinian rivals including Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a unity government.\u201d Al Maydeen reports \u201cThe meetings saw the participation of 14 Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.\u201d The so-called Beijing Declaration promises to \u201cend the Palestinian national division [and] unify national efforts to confront\u2026[Israeli] aggression and stop the genocide.\u201d Implementation of this agreement will be monitored by Egypt, Algeria, China, and Russia.

5. In the United Kingdom, \u201cFive climate activists who planned a protest to cause gridlock and block traffic over four days on a major highway circling London were sentenced\u2026to as much as five years in prison,\u201d per ABC. Just Stop Oil, the group planning the protest, \u201ccalled the prison terms \u2018an obscene perversion of justice... for nothing more than attending a Zoom call.\u2019\u201d Protesting this decision, many prominent climate activists \u2013 ranging from Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn to Rowan Williams, Former Archbishop of Canterbury to musician Brian Eno \u2013 have signed a letter calling this \u201cone of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history\u2026making a mockery of the right to a fair trial.\u201d This letter also notes that these sentences are \u201chigher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault.\u201d This letter also cites the United Nations special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who called this \u201ca dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.\u201d

6. In more climate related news, in New York City landlords are required to provide heat for tenants in the winter. Yet, there is no equivalent rule for landlords to provide air conditioning for tenants during the increasingly blistering summers. Now, Gothamist reports New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler of Brooklyn plans to introduce a bill \u201crequiring [landlords] to ensure tenants can cool their homes to at least 78 degrees when it is 82 degrees or warmer during the summer.\u201d Restler is quoted saying \u201cHeat is the number one climate or weather-related killer \u2013 not just nationally, but right here in New York City\u2026We\u2019ve already suffered three awful heat waves this summer. Can you imagine what it\u2019s like to try to manage it without air conditioning or any cooling device in your apartment?\u201d This move comes amid other attempts to legislate heat protections as temperatures continue to rise.

7. In an infuriating example of corporate greed, the Guardian reports that pharmaceutical giant Gilead is charging outrageous prices for a new drug described as \u201cthe closest we have ever been to an HIV vaccine.\u201d According to this report, \u201cLenacapavir, sold as Sunlenca\u2026currently costs $42,250 for the first year\u2026[yet] In a study\u2026experts calculated that the minimum price for mass production of a generic version\u2026allowing for 30% profit, was $40 a year.\u201d This report continues \u201cGiven by injection every six months, lenacapavir can prevent infection and suppress HIV in people who are already infected\u2026In a trial, the drug offered 100% protection to more than 5,000 women in South Africa and Uganda.\u201d

8. In a welcome check against corporate greed, the Federal Communications Commission has \u201cvoted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for

decades.\u201d The new rules will cap the cost of a 15-minute phone call at 90 cents for large jails and $1.35 for small ones. As of now, a 15-minute phone call can cost as much as $11.35 in a large jail and over $12 in a small one. The new rules also bar added fees.

9. In more positive regulatory news, the Federal Trade Commission has \u201cissued orders to eight companies offering surveillance pricing products and services that incorporate data about consumers\u2019 characteristics and behavior. The orders seek information about the potential impact these practices have on privacy, competition, and consumer protection.\u201d The companies in question include Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, and perennial corporate malefactor, McKinsey. Indicating the universality of this move, no more than 3 members of the FTC can be of the same party yet the Commission voted 5-0 to issue these orders.

10. Finally, in some local news, NBC4 Washington reports that \u201cFormer President Donald Trump has threatened a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., if he wins a second term in November.\u201d Leaving aside the ever-present bluster and bombast that accompany such Trump pronouncements, NBC4 makes the crucial point that because D.C. lacks statehood \u201cThe president can take over the police department and many of the powers the mayor and D.C. Council have.\u201d In light of this credible threat, it is more critical than ever that Congress act on D.C. Statehood and end the unjust status quo of taxation without representation.

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard.

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