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Ralph welcomes fellow auto safety advocate, Jackie Gillan, past President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition working together to reduce motor vehicle crashes, save lives and prevent injuries. Then, Ralph outlines the latest issue of the Capitol Hill Citizen and responds to your feedback from recent programs.

Jackie Gillan is past President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition working together to reduce motor vehicle crashes, save lives and prevent injuries through the adoption of federal and state laws, policies and programs. Ms. Gillan has held senior policy positions for three state transportation agencies, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Senate.

Biden talks about peace and humanitarian aid and a two-state solution, but his deeds are to send endless supplies of weapons of mass destruction\u2014including weapons that are used in sheer, total violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law\u2026He appears weak to more and more Americans, and he may well pay that price on November 5th to the horror of a Trump presidency. This is how far he goes in his obeisance to the right wing, violent, genocidal political coalition that has hijacked the Israeli society.

Ralph Nader

Nearly every single safety standard on your car has our fingerprints on it and battle scars for the staff fighting in Congress and in the agencies to try to get those [auto safety] rulemakings finished.

Jackie Gillan

At the time in 1988, there were 47,000 highway deaths and I think everyone was quickly realizing that slick slogans and public education programs were not going to bring down deaths and injuries\u2014so they brought advocates together.

Jackie Gillan

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 6/12/24

1. The New York Times reports that since last year, Israel has been running an \u201cinfluence campaign\u201d targeting Black lawmakers in the United States. This project, overseen by Israel\u2019s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, consists of a crude network of fake social media accounts that post \u201cpro-Israel comments\u2026urging [Black Democrats like Senator Raphael Warnock, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Representative Ritchie Torres] to continue funding Israel\u2019s military.\u201d This project was active on Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram, and utilized OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, until both companies disrupted the operation earlier this year. The operation is still active on X, formerly Twitter.

2. Mondoweiss reports that Israel has been torturing Palestinian prisoners, aided by the complicity of Israeli physicians. According to the report, \u201cprisoners are being viciously beaten and abused multiple times a day, caged in cells \u2018not fit for human life,\u2019 kept blindfolded with their hands bound with plastic ties, isolated from the outside world, stripped of their clothing, collectively punished through starvation, attacked by dogs, sexually assaulted, and psychologically tortured.\u201d As for the doctors, \u201cIsraeli physicians collaborate with Shin Bet interrogators [Israel\u2019s equivalent of the FBI] to \u2018certify\u2019\u2026 that [prisoners]\u2026 are \u2018fit\u2019 to undergo torture. Throughout the duration of interrogation, a physician provides a \u2018green light\u2019 that torture can continue\u2026look for physical and psychological weaknesses to exploit\u2026[and] falsify or refrain from documenting the physical and psychological effects of torture on a detainee\u2019s body and mind.\u201d Meanwhile, for all the talk of Hamas brutality, Israeli news anchor Lama Tatour was fired for commenting that recently released hostage Noa Argamani looked remarkably healthy, saying \u201cLook at her eyebrows, they look better than mine??\u201d per Business Insider.

3. The United Nations Security Council has, for the first time, overwhelmingly passed a Gaza ceasefire resolution, backed by the United States. Reuters reports \u201csenior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri\u2026said [Hamas has] accepted the ceasefire resolution and [is] ready to negotiate over the specifics.\u201d Yet, according to CNN, \u201cIsrael has vowed to persist with its military operation in Gaza, saying it won\u2019t engage in \u2018meaningless\u2019 negotiations with Hamas.\u201d As the CNN piece notes, \u201cThe resolution says Israel has accepted the plan, and US officials have repeatedly emphasized Israel had agreed to the proposal \u2013 despite other public comments from Netanyahu that suggest otherwise.\u201d If the Israelis ultimately do not accept this ceasefire proposal, this would become yet another major embarrassment for the Biden administration.

4. POLITICO reports \u201cAIPAC [is] the biggest source of Republican money flowing into competitive Democratic primaries this year\u2026spending millions to boost moderates over progressives who have been critical of Israel.\u201d This piece quotes Eric Levine, a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition who has donated to Rep. Ritchie Torres as saying \u201cUnder the William F. Buckley rule of politics, I want to support the most conservative person who can win.\u201d On the other hand, Beth Miller \u2013 political director at Jewish Voice for Peace Action \u2013 sees this as the lobby showing its true colors, telling the paper \u201cAIPAC can\u2019t actually claim that they represent Democrats and Republicans in the same way. That veneer of bipartisanship is gone.\u201d

5. The NAACP, among the leading African-American Civil Rights group in the country, has called on the Biden administration to \u201cStop Shipments of Weapons Targeting Civilians to Israel [and] Push for Ceasefire.\u201d In a statement, NAACP President Derrick Johnson wrote \u201cThe current state of Gaza and the latest bombing of Rafah complicates an already dire humanitarian crisis.\xa0 Relief workers have also been killed while attempting to administer aid and support to the people of Gaza. The NAACP strongly condemns these actions and calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.\u201d Data from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace shows 68% of Black Americans favor an \u201cimmediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza\u201d and 59% believe \u201cU.S. military aid to Israel should be conditioned to ensure that Israel uses American weapons for legitimate self-defense and in a way that is consistent with human rights standards.\u201d

6. Yet the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza has not stopped censorship of pro-Palestine speech in the U.S. Democracy Now! reports outspoken progressive commentator and former Bernie Sanders presidential campaign press secretary Briahna Joy Gray has been fired from the Hill\u2019s morning show, Rising, for supposedly rolling her eyes during an interview with an Israeli guest. As Democracy Now! notes, \u201cLast year, The Hill also fired the political commentator Katie Halper after she called Israel an apartheid state.\u201d

7. Even more outrageous, the University of Minnesota is \u201cpausing its search for director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies \u2014 days after it offered the job to Israeli historian Raz Segal,\u201d per the Star Tribune. As this article lays out, \u201cSegal is\u2026[a] professor of Holocaust and genocide studies \u2026at Stockton University in New Jersey,\u201d and a Jewish Israeli. Yet the offer was rescinded for \u201cAmong other things\u2026[publishing] an article called \u2018A Textbook Case of Genocide,\u2019 which he published in [the Left-wing Jewish publication] Jewish Currents.\u201d That\u2019s right, apparently even being a Jewish Israeli professor of Holocaust and genocide studies is not enough to protect you from charges of antisemitism.

8. A new article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, authored by Doctors Adam Gaffney, Steffie Woolhandler, and David Himmelstein analyzes \u201cThe Medicare Advantage Paradox.\u201d This piece argues Medicare Advantage delivers less care to patients at a higher cost. As the authors put it, \u201c[as] enrollment in\u2026private [Medicare Advantage] plans surpassed 30 million\u2026the health insurance industry\u2019s trade group proclaimed [Medicare Advantage] \u2018a good deal for members and taxpayers.\u2019\u2026The first part of that claim is debatable, while the second part is false. Medicare Payment Advisory Commission\u2026the nonpartisan agency reporting to Congress, recently estimated that [Medicare Advantage] overpayments added $82 billion to taxpayers\u2019 costs for Medicare in 2023 and $612 billion between 2007 and 2024.\u201d

9. In Britain, the Labour Party has been conducting a purge of its Left flank under the leadership of its cowardly centrist leader Keir Starmer. Included in that purge is former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn has represented the working class district of Islington North for over 40 years. Yet, as the Guardian explains, \u201c[Corbyn] was blocked from standing again for Labour...[and] has been expelled from the Labour party.\u201d The Guardian report continues \u201cLast year, 98% of attenders at a local party monthly general meeting backed a motion thanking Corbyn for his \u2018commitment and service to the people\u2019, adding it was members\u2019 \u2018democratic right to select our MP\u2019.\u201d Ousted from the Labour Party, Corbyn now intends to stand for the seat as an independent MP. Writing in the district\u2019s local paper, Corbyn stated, \u201cWhen I was first elected, I made a promise to stand by my constituents no matter what \u2026 In Islington North, we keep our promises.\u201d

10. Finally, CNN reports Chiquita Brands International\xa0 \u2013 formerly the United Fruit Company \u2013 has been found \u201cliable for financing the Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia,\u201d by a Florida jury. The AUC was a \u201cfar-right paramilitary group that was designated a terrorist organization by the US.\u201d Chiquita has been ordered to pay $38.3 million to the families of eight victims. CNN adds, \u201cIn 2007, Chiquita pleaded guilty to making over 100 payments to the AUC totaling over $1.7 million despite the group being designated a terrorist organization\u2026The company agreed to pay the US government a $25 million fine.\u201d

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

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