The Perpetual Punitive Machine Backfires by RALPH NADER

Our nation has a penchant for creating unnecessary complexity and obstacles for its people in areas such as the tax, health insurance and student debt miasmas. The prison industry adds to this with what it euphemistically calls “collateral consequences.” In simple language, this means a series of state-based statutory punishments – rooted in the medieval English practice of “civil death” …

If We Don’t Overturn Citizens United, Congress Will Become Paid Employees of the Billionaire Class

I recently introduced an amendment at the Senate Budget Committee. It was pretty simple. It asked my Senate colleagues to begin the process of overturning the disastrous Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United, and to bring transparency and disclosure to the political process. Here’s what I asked my Senate colleagues to consider: Are we comfortable with an American political system …