Thom Hartmann: Ralph Nader's Solutions for Saving the Future

[thomhartmann]

Ralph Nader, Consumer Advocate joins Thom Hartmann. Ralph Nader, a consumer advocate & five-time Presidential candidate whose latest book is - The Seventeen Solutions: New Ideas for Our American Future - joins Thom Hartmann.

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann on RT TV & FSTV "live" 9pm and 11pm check www.thomhartmann.com/tv for local listings

[rso]

1. Nader

Sorry, but in my opinion, Nader is an egotistical individual who knew that he had no chance to be elected, yet caused Gore to lose the election and usher in 8 yrs. of Bush.

[libinnyandia]

2. Through the years Nader has had a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately, his campaign of lies in 2000

made possible the election of a man completely opposed to his ideas empowering citizens and reducing the power of corporations. It is so sad that Citizens United is part of his legacy.

[Brothaman]

3. Nonsense.

It's our bullshit, corporately bought and controlled, two (corrupted) party paradigm that's responsible for Bush. Period.

[rso]

6. Nader

Sorry Brothaman, but it's a well known fact that with the votes that he garnered in Florida, Nader caused Bush to beat Gore. Of course if you believe that Gore would have been as bad as Bush, that's your opinion and is another story entirely. But I do not.

[kenfrequed]

7. Actually rso

Most of the studies disagree with you on thsi one.


And I know that you only created this handle to weigh in on this so that you could hate-at-will against Nader and not worry about having to curtail your language or be polite.

[rso]

8. nader

WTF do your two last lines mean ?. Nader will have to live the rest of his egotistical and self-centered life knowing that he brought us 8 years of Bush.

[SheilaT]

4. Every time I see that man I can't help but wonder,

Has he learned to get to the airport on time?

Back in the '70s I was an airline ticket agent at DCA, and Mr. Nader flew us regularly. There was no security at all until 1971 or 72, and it was a simple metal detector after that. So people could still get to the airport at the last minute and still make a flight. Mr. Nader tested the definition of last minute over and over.

So I wonder, in these days of long security lines, does he ever actually make his scheduled flight?

[02potato]

13. back then you could buy a ticket w/cash anonymously

at the counter, and if you couldn't use it it could be sold to anyone!
we've come sooo far bass-aquards!

[SheilaT]

15. Not really. Not entirely anonymously.

There still needed to be a name on the ticket, and while no one was checking ID on every passenger, we did pay attention to the names on the tickets, and we matched the tickets with the Passenger Name List on every flight. If, for instance, the ticket you presented said Ralph Nader on it, and I could tell by looking at you that you weren't the Ralph Nader I already knew, I'd ask you for ID, and it better match the name on the ticket.

If you'd made a series of flight reservations, and missed one of them along the way without bothering to let us know, we'd automatically cancel all of the rest of the reservations in that series. The assumption was, if you didn't get on the flight to Albany today, you probably weren't going to be in Albany two days from now to catch the flight to Chicago.

Also, by 1971, if you bought a one way ticket and paid cash, you'd be subject to a little extra scrutiny going through security.

[02potato]

16. I respectfully disagree....

Last edited Mon Nov 5, 2012, 11:09 AM - Edit history (1)

I've used tickets purchased from people from newspaper classified ads in 1970 and 71.
I walked up to the counter handed them my ticket checked my baggage received a boarding pass walked on the plane, arrived at my destination
and then continued on with my life. (oh yes, I wore a tie and jacket. Flying was considered an event then. Not the simple processing of cattle like today.MOOOOOO)
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[SheilaT]

17. Back then we weren't asking for ID from every single person who flew.

But, trust me, if we had had reason to think you were not the person named on the ticket, we'd have asked for ID.

I was an airline ticket agent from 1969 to 1979 at National Airport in Washington, DC, so I know exactly what I'm talking about.

Most tickets only had a first initial and last name on them, not even a Mr. or Ms. In rare cases there might be a full name, such as John Smith. Only if there was some extremely obvious mis-match between the name on the ticket and the person in front of us did we care. But even then, the rule was you were supposed to have a ticket in your own name. It was much easier to change reservations, change the name on the reservation or the ticket back then also.

The main reason we cared that the name on the ticket was your actual name, and the reason we asked for a phone contact, was in case the plane went down we could correctly ID the bodies and notify next of kin. Since plane crashes have always been very rare events, it wasn't often that this really mattered.

Oh. If you were trying to fly to another country back then you'd have a hard time flying with someone else's ticket because they might want to look at your passport to make sure you could actually travel to an international destination legally.

[02potato]

18. Thank you, I appreciate your response, never flew out of "national" as I will always call it !

My favorite was Delta night coach

Sometimes the plane was almost empty.

You could walk up and by a ticket when the engines were starting!

[SheilaT]

23. Yes. I always say Washington National Airport. DCA, go use its three letter code.

I will NEVER refer to it by any other name. I am pretty sure I will live long enough to see the name changed back.

What was so nice about those pre-security days was that we could let passengers out on the tarmac if they wanted to do something like take photographs. And many airports had open air balconies of some kind that people could go out on to watch the airplanes. It's a genuine shame that all of those have long since been closed. And air travel was so special that people would simply go out to the airport to watch planes take off and land.

For me, the very best part of working for an airline was the opportunity to travel for free. Sometimes the tickets were totally free, other times there was a small service charge involved. In 1970 Pan Am came out with a deal that gave employees of certain airlines (of which mine was one) one totally free ticket anywhere in the world once a year. I promptly went to Australia. And was boarded in first class the entire way. They also offered (to pretty much every airline employee out there) an ID 80% ticket anywhere on their system. There was no limit on these. ID means Industry Discount. 80% was the amount of the discount. But it gets better. The fare discounted was the cheapest excursion fare out of the nearest gateway city, no matter where you flew from. For instance, I travelled with an airline friend from Dulles to Guatemala City. We paid 20% of the excursion fare out of Miami. I think we paid about twenty bucks each. These particular fares only ever got us into coach, but I still can't complain. Back then, as you well know, flights were rarely full, and the service in coach could be pretty good. I got at least one pass per year on every major airline, sometimes more than one. The service charges were usually less than $20.00, and even considering inflation, it was a fabulous deal.

I wanted an airline job for the travel benefits, and I took advantage of them far more than the typical airline employee. Fellow employees couldn't quite figure out how I could afford to travel as much as I did (our pay scales were public knowledge, so we all knew what each other earned outside of overtime), and I always said, "It's because I don't own a car." Which was true. I took the bus to work, and spent all of my spare cash on travel. I'm very, very glad that I did.

These days I refuse to put up with the bullshit of the TSA. I started before any security of any kind, and I recall EXACTLY why and how we got the security system, and I know that what goes on today is complete and utter nonsense. So I drive if I want to go somewhere. Next year I'm planning a long trip to the east coast (from New Mexico) and I plan to take the train.

[02potato]

25. The last time I flew was the last time I will fly!

About 8 yrs ago. I flew to JAX to help my nephew get involved in RC airplanes.
(he needed guidance) I build my own radio receiver battery packs.
on the return trip in my underneath luggage had some of those packs.
when the TSA found one it was "wonderful" !@#%&*&^.
After I much explaining I was released.
(I'm sure I'm on a watch list.)

[IMG][/IMG]

[demosincebirth]

5. Why give him airtime?

[marmar]

9. I wish the "Nader is the Marquis de Sade" crowd would just listen to this segment.....

...... Some of the ideas are really good, and I wish some of our elected officials would pick up on them.

[sabrina 1]

22. Lol ignore them, everyone else does. Nader has always had great ideas. I just wish he had

run for the Senate or Congress instead of the WH since we know no one can get to the WH unless they belong to one of the two parties. That is shame, it should not be that way, but it is.

As for the Nader haters, I think they're funny. I have a feeling he does too!

[ljm2002]

10. I recently mentioned to one of my adult daughters...

...that back when I was growing up, cars did not even have seat belts, much less laws requiring people to use them. She was blown away. I forgot to tell her that it was Ralph Nader who made it happen. While he was out there stumping for seat belts, people were writing editorials saying "How can you ask people to pay and extra $200 per car by requiring cars to have seat belts?"

He has helped with other consumer issues as well. Sure he has an ego. Sure one can be mad at him for the 2000 election -- although truth to tell, his candidacy should have made NO difference as Gore was an excellent candidate and GWBush was an awful one and people ought to have been able to see that. I lay a large part of that on Gore who (a) rejected any association with Clinton (even though he was Clinton's vice president for 8 years); and (b) chose Joe Lieberman as his running mate. Personally I don't think it is fair to blame Ralph Nader for the outcome, given all of the other missteps committed by Gore, and the media's touting of GWBush and ignoring of his many, many flaws.

We need to recognize that people are complex. Few are saints and few are demons. Nader has done so much good in his career, I find it disheartening to see the hate spewed in his direction.

K&R

[lumpy]

19. Nice to see some one who is rational about Ralph Nader. It is his right to run for

political office. And he has certainly done more good for this country than, for instance Geo.W.Bush or Willard Romney. The man should be given his dues instead of blaming him for losing elections. If there is blame to be placed on anyone, it should be placed on the ignorant masses who don't bother to educate themselves about people who will make crucial decisions concerning their very lives.

[rudycantfail]

11. Ralph Nader is an independent thinker, a true heretic,

speaks truth to power and does not care who he angers. Keep tugging on that curtain Mr. Nader.

[02potato]

12. +1

[02potato]

14. Yes, curse you Ralph Nader you singlehandedly ruined amerika...

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[lumpy]

20. The George W. Bush Gang and the ignoramouses that voted for them are the ones

who came damn close to ruining "Amerika" .

[02potato]

21. respectfully, I was sarcastic...

[OhZone]

24. Ralph Nader's solution for America is

to help Corporatists get elected?