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The Rick Smith Show 7-22-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_05]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:18
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the Rick Smith Show.
0:20
[SPEAKER_03]: That's so much for being here.
0:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Today, the big program wants to get to lots to talk about.
0:25
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't Trump keeps telling us that he's making America respected again.
0:31
[SPEAKER_03]: But the reality is, especially for working people, with friends like that, who needs friends?
0:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And with wars like his,
0:40
[SPEAKER_03]: uh... who can afford to live gas i don't know if you notice back over four bucks a gallon yay winning and not because of some natural disaster and not because your kids are you know doing better in soccer uh... and suddenly need more fuel to get the not up it's because trump is playing tough guy in the straighter her moves and escalating his war with i ran that nobody literally nobody asked for
1:07
[SPEAKER_03]: So what we have now, our tankers that are choked, naval blockades are back and every time he fires off another truth, I mean threat of the price of the pump jumps, grocery bills climb, and delivery surcharges are on the rise on everything from drywall, the diapers.
1:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, that's Trump's economic plan.
1:27
[SPEAKER_03]: That's it in practice, chaos abroad, shock in awe at home.
1:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And he struts around like, like he's some kind of strong man.
1:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's winning.
1:37
[SPEAKER_03]: But if you look at the scoreboard for working people, pretty bad defeat, brutal in fact.
1:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Four bucks a gallon means every commute costs a little bit more.
1:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Every delivery truck pays a little bit more.
1:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Every food item that gets shipped a little bit more.
1:53
[SPEAKER_03]: A little bit bigger layer of pain baked in there.
1:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you Donald.
1:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Happy to be winning.
2:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, has your paycheck gone up?
2:03
[SPEAKER_03]: No, flat, rents gone up, though.
2:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And Trump's answer apparently is, I don't care about you paying more just as long as I look like a tough guy on TV.
2:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And while our wallets are bleeding, he's busy picking fights now with our closest allies.
2:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, for no good reason, understand, Canada built and paid for.
2:28
[SPEAKER_03]: uh... the gording how bridge critical piece of infrastructure to continue our trade across borders uh... scommers jobs helps our supply chain all that uh... what's trump's instinct hold it hostage he truth uh... i will not allow this bridge to open until the united states is fully compensated
2:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And then he rages on about some other bizarre way we want our respect and then demand some undefined tribute and respect like a reality show mob boss and he goes on slaps of 50% tariff and threatens more calls in America first and let's be clear this this isn't toughness
3:14
[SPEAKER_03]: This is bullying.
3:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Canada isn't some hostile enemy trying to sink our ships.
3:19
[SPEAKER_03]: There are neighbor.
3:20
[SPEAKER_03]: They're one of our closest trading partners.
3:22
[SPEAKER_03]: They're in an ally.
3:24
[SPEAKER_03]: They buy our stuff.
3:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Share our defense burdens.
3:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Help keep supply chains moving along.
3:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So our factories and our warehouses are humming or get at least limp in a long.
3:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So when Trump hammers them with tariffs and tantrums, he's not punishing the elites in Ottawa.
3:44
[SPEAKER_03]: He's punishing workers in Detroit buffalo and every place that depends on on that car cross-border trade.
3:52
[SPEAKER_03]: So look, with friends like these, Trump's version of friendship, your allies get treated like punching bags, your enemies get endless war rhetoric and oh, by the way, we picked up the tab, is that how this works?
4:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And then he runs around talking about respect while disrespecting the basic reality.
4:11
[SPEAKER_03]: that we working people can't absorb and list price bikes, sorry I can't afford his kind of winning.
4:20
[SPEAKER_03]: He yells about fairness while making life less fair for everyone who drives heach their home buys groceries, any of this.
4:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Now he's promised, he'll never let America be taken advantage of.
4:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And somehow, that translates into us paying more for gas, more for imported goods, more for food, more for all of this.
4:43
[SPEAKER_03]: More for his fallout from his foreign policy roulette.
4:49
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the deeper scam folks.
4:52
[SPEAKER_03]: He postures like a champion of the forgotten American worker.
4:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And then he makes decisions that guarantee we forgotten workers, pay the highest price for his ego.
5:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Naval blockades, tariff tantrums, hostage taking over a bridge.
5:09
[SPEAKER_03]: That doesn't hit billionaires first.
5:12
[SPEAKER_03]: That hits us, delivery drivers, hits us warehouse workers, and hits us, nurses, trying to get to the hospital, parents, trying to keep the lights on.
5:22
[SPEAKER_03]: And understand, Trump's chaos isn't some abstract Washington drama.
5:28
[SPEAKER_03]: It lives in your gas tank, in your grocery bill, and the cost of everything that comes across that border.
5:35
[SPEAKER_03]: It's punishing our allies, destabilizing global trade.
5:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And look, I'm not a huge fan of our global trading system.
5:40
[SPEAKER_03]: But there's no strategy here.
5:43
[SPEAKER_03]: There is no strategy while he's continuing to push us towards a wider war.
5:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And basically saying it's in our net.
5:52
[SPEAKER_03]: And I come back to the reality that with friends like this running our foreign policy and our economic policy.
6:05
[SPEAKER_03]: The question is, is whether American workers can afford one more day of his kind of respect without going broke?
6:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, should we have a conversation about what our trade policies are?
6:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, be calling for that for decades.
6:22
[SPEAKER_03]: But this ain't that.
6:25
[SPEAKER_03]: This is him feeling somehow, oh, I don't know, aggrieved.
6:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And every time he feels slighted or aggrieved in one way or another, it comes out in us falling further and further behind.
6:44
[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of those things that makes me angry because there are real problems.
6:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And the thing that I do respect about what Trump has been able to do, is he has highlighted real problems, real grievances in the working class.
7:00
[SPEAKER_03]: My problem on the other hand is that he's done nothing, absolutely nothing to make any of it better.
7:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And in fact, and universally has made things worse.
7:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know my Red Hat friends, one of them, they want to defend him.
7:16
[SPEAKER_03]: They want to go, no, my life's better since Don's been on the scene.
7:20
[SPEAKER_03]: They want to, they feel the need to, but they can't.
7:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Why?
7:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And as you look at every day, and I said, someone, you know, in a year, it's going to be better.
7:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And I said, well, what about 10?
7:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, if you're going to go out of here, I said, well, 10, it's the same argument.
7:40
[SPEAKER_03]: They gave us about trickle-down economics.
7:42
[SPEAKER_03]: We just haven't done it enough.
7:45
[SPEAKER_03]: We need to give rich people more money.
7:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Expecting different results, doing the same stupid stuff.
7:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome to insanity.
7:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
7:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Email me Rick at therixmithsure.com.
7:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Quick break, right back.
8:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
8:07
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1931.
8:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And Chicago Public School teachers went home without a paycheck.
8:15
[SPEAKER_03]: The school system was broke.
8:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Property owners out of work due to the great depression could not pay their property taxes, which were used to fund the public schools.
8:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Schools in inner cities lack libraries, playgrounds, and often even adequate toilet facilities.
8:29
[SPEAKER_03]: classrooms were overcrowded, black teachers faced racial discrimination, school administrators, piled on more clerical work onto teachers already busy workloads.
8:39
[SPEAKER_03]: They introduced a blizzard of standardized tests, still, according to an article published in 1927 in the American Teacher Magazine,
8:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Teachers were supposed to believe that teaching was a noble profession, free and immune from the cares of the more sordid world.
8:55
[SPEAKER_03]: The same article went on to say that many teachers, quote, believe their personal dignity and self-respect, required that they keep aloof from any organization affiliated with labor.
9:07
[SPEAKER_03]: The Great Depression made teachers more militant.
9:09
[SPEAKER_03]: However, Chicago teachers stayed on the job despite the payless paydays.
9:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Not to desert the Chicago schools.
9:19
[SPEAKER_03]: It was not easy organizing Chicago's teachers.
9:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Only 10% of the teachers belong to the four competing teachers' unions.
9:27
[SPEAKER_03]: But not getting paid helped arouse them.
9:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And two years later, 5,000 teachers converged on Chicago's largest banks in protest.
9:36
[SPEAKER_03]: They broke windows in overturned desks.
9:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Chicago's mayor had Kelly agreed to pay four of the nine months back pay owed to them.
9:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Finally, in 1934, thanks to federal assistance, the Chicago teachers received all of their back pet.
9:50
[SPEAKER_03]: You only need read about the current Chicago teachers struggle to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
9:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Labor history and too brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
10:07
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
10:08
[SPEAKER_05]: Now here is Rick Smith.
10:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm Sunday.
10:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Our president did it.
10:18
[SPEAKER_03]: But on Sunday in New Jersey at the World Cup, the final there, Trump, I've a deadly spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, told him he had to get the wildfires under control.
10:31
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to stop these fires coming in and you know, poisoning our air, like Carney was doing it on purpose.
10:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I've a deadly told reporters that joint base Andrews, our air has been poisoned.
10:46
[SPEAKER_03]: He said that they had a good relationship, but, you know, they've got to stop these fires up there.
10:52
[SPEAKER_03]: He said, quote, if we can help them, we'll help them.
10:54
[SPEAKER_03]: But maybe they should pay us some damages, or something, or we should do some tariffs.
11:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, more tariffs, because, you know, tariffs are gonna make it so much better.
11:06
[SPEAKER_03]: It's gonna be so, so much better.
11:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, crazy stuff, and here to share some thoughts on well, maybe the, uh, the claim and maybe the tariffs, are they working?
11:17
[SPEAKER_03]: That's why I've asked Ryan Maulin to come and share some thoughts with us, Ryan is a senior fellow of international economic policy there at the Center for American Progress, you can check out their website, americanprogress.org, Ryan, that's what I can time for.
11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Hey Rick, good to see you again.
11:31
[SPEAKER_03]: So did you see the the the dust up so to speak as our our our president is now demand I guess demanding that we pay they pay for for air.
11:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Smoke.
11:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I certainly did I mean it it sort of another example of.
11:50
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Trump taking this tool that, you know, ought to be used to level the playing field and bring prosperity to working people and using it for some kind of weird political play, right?
12:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, in this case, it's about, you know, tariffs potentially on wildfires.
12:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we should all sort of realize that Trump makes a lot of tariff threats and never follows through.
12:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen this again and again, you know, where are those tariffs on movies that were suggested last year?
12:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, another example of sort of, you know, focusing the, the tariff tool on the wrong things at the wrong time.
12:26
[SPEAKER_03]: But here again, it's another one of these things that, you know, and I, you know, I look at this administration.
12:30
[SPEAKER_03]: I look at, I look at him as, as president going, there's literally nothing that comes out of his mouth that you can believe.
12:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And, and the things that do come out that actually happen are bad for us, and tariffs are one of those things like, I'm a tariff guy.
12:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I am someone who said, I believe in the use of tariffs, just like I believe in using a reciprocating saw.
12:49
[SPEAKER_03]: But I don't use a reciprocating software every single thing I do, it's in the toolbox.
12:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And this ability to discern when to use, let's say the reciprocating saw, it's kind of important, isn't it?
13:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no doubt.
13:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, to be fair, I'm not opposed to tariffs on countries that are polluting the air.
13:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think that feels like a fairly reasonable thing and could be used effectively.
13:15
[SPEAKER_02]: There's all sorts of pollutants, carbon being one of them, but there's a bunch of others as well.
13:19
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think it's very fair to consider how you might use tariffs.
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: That's of course now what this is, right?
13:23
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is yet another example of Trump's sort of using
13:26
[SPEAKER_02]: tariffs to promote sort of his own, you know, power his own, you know, self-dealing, if you will, you know, whether it's sort of using tariffs and saying they're about forced labor, which we all know that these tariffs coming later this week are not about forced labor.
13:43
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, whether it's about deforestation.
13:44
[SPEAKER_02]: We all know the tariffs on Brazil are not about deforestation.
13:48
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the trade deficit, the section 122 tariffs that expire this week were supposed to be about some sort of balance of payments issue, apparently the trade deficit is a balance of payments issue.
13:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you would not, but even if you believe him that it was, the trade deficit has gone up since the section 122 tariffs were put in the place.
14:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is,
14:08
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, stretching for justifications, and it's really kind of, you know, every day Americans who are paying the price.
14:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Now you guys have a new piece out on that on the section 122 tariffs.
14:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And basically, what I get your arguing is has done literally nothing for American businesses, workers or communities.
14:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I would argue it's actually harmed a lot of a lot of folks in that prices have gone up because of it because look I do agree in certain circumstances Terrif's do raise prices in certain circumstances, but there are certain circumstances.
14:41
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm okay with that Just long ago talking about protecting domestic industries that are vital to our economy or our interests
14:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no doubt, and I'm with you on that too.
14:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, there's certainly a time and place for tariffs, you know, used strategically, you thoughtfully, that's not what this is, right?
14:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think we all know that.
14:59
[SPEAKER_02]: We sort of, you know, a 10% tariff on, you know, goods coming in from everywhere.
15:05
[SPEAKER_02]: with exemptions across the board on a bunch of different things, was never really meant to move production back to the US.
15:12
[SPEAKER_02]: It certainly wasn't used to protect anybody's job.
15:15
[SPEAKER_02]: This was about trumping, spiteful of a spring court that overturned his IEPA tariffs.
15:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I find if I can't use that authority, I'm going to use this authority.
15:25
[SPEAKER_02]: to do roughly the same thing.
15:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the way, when they expire at the end of the week, they're going to be replaced by other tariffs using a differently go authority that will look, you know, by the end of the day, awfully close to what Ayiba tariffs he had in place before.
15:38
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is not about helping people.
15:42
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not about bringing jobs back.
15:44
[SPEAKER_02]: This is about Trump sort of, you know, trying to stick it to the court and get back the tariffs that they overruled in the first place.
15:50
[SPEAKER_03]: That kind of vindictive nature seems to be the one constant of this administration.
15:56
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not about good governance, not about making people's lives.
16:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really about settling scores, isn't it?
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, no, I think that's right.
16:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you see sort of like many competing kind of arguments for tariffs, you know, the folks around Trump, they all love tariffs because Trump loves tariffs, right?
16:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So they have to.
16:13
[SPEAKER_02]: But they come at it from pretty different perspectives.
16:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, there's folks in this administration, I give them credit who, you know, want to use tariffs to kind of rebuild American manufacturing to, are we going to build a production product?
16:24
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a great bowl.
16:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't agree with how they're doing it, but I can get there and why they want to do it.
16:29
[SPEAKER_02]: There's other people that sort of see tariffs as a revenue generator.
16:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there's Trump himself who sees tariffs as a way to sort of extract concessions, you know, tariffs they tribute from other countries.
16:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, that's what this is, right?
16:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And we should call a Spain-to- Spain.
16:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, you know, I've had, I've had my red hat friends say that, you know, the US has never used their leverage because we've got all this power and it look, I agree we've got some power that maybe we could use to get better deals so to speak, but this just seems like there isn't really a strategy it just seems like the spaghetti theory you throw enough stuff against the wall maybe something sticks.
17:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Or maybe it helps somebody, but more importantly, it's just, it seems like the exercise of abusing the tool more than actually, you know, someone who actually knows how to use the tool.
17:18
[SPEAKER_03]: If I'm, if I'm phrasing that right.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you, you, you are and, and, you know, to be clearly, you know, this is an administration whose tariffs have cost us manufacturing jobs, right?
17:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So when you look at sort of overall manufacturing jobs since liberation day they are down.
17:34
[SPEAKER_02]: during the same sort of, you know, first, you know, year and a half give or take at the Biden administration, we, you know, created 600,000 manufacturing jobs.
17:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, you can compare kind of, you know, different administrations with different ways of using tariffs, and you can see the impact, right?
17:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would, you know, look at blue collar jobs across the country.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They are, they're down, and this is, this is impacting not just sort of,
18:02
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, the industrial base, which, you know, we're supposed to be in this golden age now, but it's also impacting, you know, communities who rely on those jobs for, you know, sectors that rely on the manufacturing sector being strong, whether it's, you know, transportation or warehouse and workers, for example.
18:18
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, this, this is an administration who's,
18:22
[SPEAKER_02]: in print on the economy is growing day by day and it doesn't look good.
18:27
[SPEAKER_03]: No, but you all look there.
18:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's the reality.
18:29
[SPEAKER_03]: As you know, when you're talking about manufacturing jobs, government input is a huge part of this.
18:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Our procurement drives a lot of our of our manufacturing needs.
18:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean Joe Biden had us on a path to building renewables.
18:43
[SPEAKER_03]: A lot of them and they came in and quashed a bunch of that.
18:46
[SPEAKER_03]: I now know that we're going to have a defense budget that's going to be pretty pretty hefty and there was just a big powwow not too far from my house last week where they're talking about ramping up defense production and doing it fast so do you see maybe we're going to see an increase in jobs just in the wrong direction of building arms instead of building I don't know stuff that might make us butter.
19:10
[SPEAKER_02]: potentially.
19:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, you know, it, uh, your point about clean energy, I think is a good one for a few reasons.
19:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, one is that if Trump actually cared about wildfires in Canada, we would stop, you know, defunding all the things that went into clean energy that, you know, would help address a climate crisis that is causing fires, uh, to, you know, burn out a control on, you know, the Canadians, and the US side of the board, right?
19:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So, uh, you know, you know, you know, also probably,
19:37
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, charge, you know, American companies for polluting the air and making our communities, you know, less healthy and creating the conditions for wildfires, right?
19:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, this is a situation where, you know, you have priorities in the wrong places and using tools that could be used for good, could be used for bringing prosperity to working people in their communities.
20:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And then using them for the wrong ends.
20:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, what would you do?
20:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, look, if you had the power to advise him, because I believe it's who's around him, that he ends up doing stuff.
20:11
[SPEAKER_03]: We're putting stuff in his ears.
20:13
[SPEAKER_03]: That usually comes out of his mouth without a filter.
20:16
[SPEAKER_03]: What should we be doing?
20:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Because look, the wildfires in Canada are a perfect example.
20:20
[SPEAKER_03]: You can scream and complain all you want.
20:22
[SPEAKER_03]: You're poisoning in our air.
20:24
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's our policy, because we're making coal great again.
20:27
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to see if we're going to burn baby burn.
20:30
[SPEAKER_03]: and and you look and you go it's been really hot the weather has been really crazy these wildfires have been more frequent um... maybe i don't know maybe use smart policy to move us in a direction but i'm i'm curious what would you do
20:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, first of all, I don't think it's about putting ideas in Trump's head.
20:48
[SPEAKER_02]: It's more about putting money in his pocket that's sort of moving the needle on some of these things.
20:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think this is a president who's about $2 billion richer since taking office, largely because of pursuing deals that are beneficial to him and his family and not the country as a whole.
21:03
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think a couple of things on your question about what do you do differently.
21:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think first and foremost, we have to think about how do you make the
21:11
[SPEAKER_02]: the trade policy united states one that we can be proud of one that sort of is focused on putting money in people's pockets is focused on bringing security to our planet and to our communities and to rebuilding an industrial base that allows us to compete at the highest level producing sort of those like next generation materials.
21:32
[SPEAKER_02]: that the world needs.
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't do that.
21:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And all by the way, you can do that alongside kind of partners and allies who also care about the same things that we do.
21:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think the idea that we're fighting Canada when we actually need Canada and others like them to sort of address some of the challenges that we all face is a pretty good example of how this is so wrong.
21:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I got to tell you with friends like us who need enemies.
21:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll be honest, you know, when you look at what's going on, and I'm sure on Monday, you saw Trump's truth.
22:03
[SPEAKER_03]: His truth where he said, I will not allow the the Gordy how bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them and also importantly, Canada treats the United States with the fairness and respect that we deserve because.
22:21
[SPEAKER_03]: uh one of our biggest trading partners we're not going to open a bridge to make trade a little bit easier no no we're going to uh I guess extract something and I don't really know what it is yet that he wants uh but hey he wants something yeah and and let me let me venture a guess and say that that what he wants has nothing to do with American workers.
22:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Right, what do you want to say something good for him?
22:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think there's a big difference.
22:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think people see that, you know, Canada's reaction to all this.
22:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I think is really telling you know, the first, I don't know, a couple months of the administration six months of the administration, Trump would make some sort of outrageous tariff threat.
23:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And Canada would be down in DC.
23:02
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, within hours, trying to sort of, you know, figure out how to deal with it and appease him with a piece of, a piece of, carnage just shrugs his shoulders now.
23:11
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got his own plan, right?
23:12
[SPEAKER_02]: He's, he's doing deals with other countries.
23:15
[SPEAKER_02]: He's investing in Canada.
23:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think he's really sort of demonstrated that there's a way forward that just says, let Trump sort of do his crazy, but we're going to move forward into the future and he's showing a lot of leadership and he's benefiting politically because of it.
23:29
[SPEAKER_02]: He's wildly
23:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, because he's sort of standing up to Trump and as a vision for the future that's that's inclusive and compelling.
23:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, what's scary is, you know, I saw that they're going to open up Canada to, well, I think it was like only 49,000 Chinese EVs, and I'm going, you know, that cracked the door open, that that's not good for me.
23:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is, I think the message was is we can no longer trust the US, and our partners to build these things, we're going to start looking to someone else.
24:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And someone that I don't know is, even, I don't know that's trustworthy, but as viewed
24:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's the right read.
24:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, you know, if Trump did not act the way he has against Canada, there's no way that the Carny government would do the deal that they did with China.
24:22
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, there'd be no Carny government.
24:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, he, Carny basically won because Trump was so belligerent towards Canada.
24:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the Canadian government is looking at the situation, they say they can't trust their their southern neighbor, they need some reliability.
24:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And part of that kind of reliability and resilience comes from diversifying their imports and their exports.
24:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's not a good thing for the US.
24:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, we've been partners of theirs for, you know, centuries.
24:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And have benefited because of it and Trump is sort of throwing that away because of some weird.
24:55
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, political, um, you know, hatred of Canada.
25:00
[SPEAKER_03]: No, it's very bizarre.
25:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So I guess the last line of question I had got for you, because look, I think.
25:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I think all of the red hats that I know voted for him because he was gonna make America great.
25:09
[SPEAKER_03]: We were gonna make a man, you were gonna bring manufacturing jobs back.
25:12
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, prices were gonna fall.
25:13
[SPEAKER_03]: It was gonna be this economic utopia.
25:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It really hasn't.
25:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And from a policy perspective, I think Democrats had better figure out how to reach those people who may be are potentially reachable with an economic message, or a message that's going to at least calm things down a bit.
25:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you see that possible?
25:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Or is this where we're heading?
25:36
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's definitely possible.
25:38
[SPEAKER_02]: No question.
25:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think the reality is not going back to what was, right?
25:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So the the old way we did trade didn't work for working people.
25:44
[SPEAKER_02]: It didn't work for the climate.
25:45
[SPEAKER_02]: It led to kind of hyper concentrated supply chains in China.
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And so if we're not going to go back, because that doesn't work.
25:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And we're not going to go this sort of like toxic nationalist way that that the Trump folks want to go.
25:58
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a bit of a question mark about, okay, which way do you want to go?
26:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think, you know, we're going to have, you know, long, drawn out kind of primary process.
26:05
[SPEAKER_02]: But through that process, I think we'll see a lot of different ideas put forward of kind of what a new progressive, you know, vision of the future looks like for industrial policy and trade.
26:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, hopefully some of the ideas that we put for in a capital, you know, influence that conversation, but I, you know, there's a lot of really talented, really thoughtful people out there that are putting ideas out now, excited to see where it goes.
26:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because I look, everybody I talk to is, you know, there's one thing crazy than the next that happens.
26:34
[SPEAKER_03]: The chaos level is through the roof.
26:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And in fact, the weird thing is you go on social media, there's a lot of things that aren't true being floated around the Trump set or did, but you go plausible.
26:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, the, you know, part of this too is like, you know, it's, it is from a company perspective when I talk to company leaders, they will say, you know, there's bad policy and then there's impulsive chaotic policy and it's it they don't like bad policy, but they can invest around it.
27:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Nobody can deal with this, sort of chaos and impulse of Trump, because you have no way to what the rules are going to be tomorrow, much less, you know, four or five, you know, 10 years from now.
27:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think part of this is about sort of recreating rules that allow people to invest in their people and grow industries here at home.
27:23
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that's exactly it.
27:25
[SPEAKER_03]: But look, the teleprompter guy made 100 grand.
27:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, at least someone's making money out of the chaos, but my question, Ryan Mahall and I appreciate the time, great talking with you.
27:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, Nick.
27:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Good to see you, too.
27:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Ryan Mahall and Senior Fellow of International Economic Policy there at the Center for American Progress, Nick.
27:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Make sure you check out their work, Americanprogress.org.
27:46
[SPEAKER_03]: One of your thoughts, email me, Rick at theRicksmithshow.com.
27:49
[SPEAKER_03]: You ready for the next round of tariffs?
27:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Excited?
27:52
[SPEAKER_03]: One here at Rick at theRicksmithshow.com, right back.
28:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
28:03
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1877.
28:06
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day some of the worst violence of the Great Rail Road strike erupted in Pittsburgh.
28:13
[SPEAKER_03]: The strike started days earlier.
28:15
[SPEAKER_03]: It's contested as to whether it began in Martin'sburg, West Virginia, or Baltimore, Maryland.
28:20
[SPEAKER_03]: The strike spread rapidly along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to New York State, Pennsylvania, and throughout the Midwest.
28:27
[SPEAKER_03]: At its height, the Great Railroad strike involved well over 100,000 workers.
28:32
[SPEAKER_03]: The strike began on the Pennsylvania Railroad on the 19th.
28:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Management repeatedly tried to move trains through the yards and was confronted by angry strikers.
28:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Pennsylvania guardsmen were called out.
28:43
[SPEAKER_03]: The striker is presented the railroad with their demands.
28:46
[SPEAKER_03]: They wanted an N to double engine trains that required fewer workers, wages reinstated, reinstatement for their fired co-workers, and an N to pay grades.
28:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Local militias sided with the strikers and refused to show for duty.
29:00
[SPEAKER_03]: When thousands of strikers gathered at the depot, the Pennsylvania National Guard moved unsuccessfully to disperse them.
29:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Then they fired on the strikers killing 20 and wounding 29.
29:11
[SPEAKER_03]: The strikers were infuriated by the deadly aggression and drove guardsmen into a nearby railroad roundhouse.
29:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Words spread quickly throughout the city of the massacre, launching a virtual general strike.
29:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Workers began seizing arms wherever they could find them.
29:26
[SPEAKER_03]: They set fires to dozens of railroad buildings burned down the Union Depot, destroyed over
29:36
[SPEAKER_03]: The next day, Gardsman shot their way out of the roundhouse, killing 20 more as they were chased from the city.
29:43
[SPEAKER_03]: A total of 3,000 federal troops would be necessary to quail striker's fury by months and.
29:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Shop.
29:55
[SPEAKER_03]: For more information, go to LaborHistoryInto.com.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Some presidents are known as Uplifting Orifters.
30:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Our president, president, however, is known for Pachelent Putdowns.
30:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Periodically Trump discovers a new pejority that he considers clever, so he wears it out.
30:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Attacking his endless list of enemies.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: His current favorite is lunatic.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Hurling the slurred women reporters, most foreign leaders, all Democrats, protesters, and, well, everyone who offends him.
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: But if he wants some real lunatics to be little, why not that managerie he's appointed to top government positions?
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Such as Brendan Carr, Trump's FCC attack dog who keeps yapping that he's gonna abolish NPR.
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Failing at that, Carr has now gone from silly to ridiculous, pushing a phantasmagoric scheme that truly is lunacy.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: It comes from some Elon Musk Prodigy's who apparently noticed that our planet gets dark as nightfalls.
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Yureka, they exclaimed, we need to light the night.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
31:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they say to eliminate all city streets and rural roads, make crops grow faster and stuff like that.
31:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But how to generate the light?
31:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Easy, the geniuses explained.
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Mirrors.
31:15
[SPEAKER_00]: They won't government support to deploy a global network of orbiting space mirrors that could reflect sunlight onto Earth's rotating dark areas.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of mirrors.
31:26
[SPEAKER_00]: These schemers proposed to put 50,000 in our skies by 2030.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: With each of the largest ones shining as bright as 100 full moons.
31:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing could go wrong with that, right?
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The dazzle card didn't ask.
31:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, with no public input, he just rubber stamped and initial launch of this novel technology.
31:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Blanley is sharing us, they quote, harms are unlikely to occur.
31:50
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiter saying, to oppose this lunacy, connect with the American Astronomical Society, A-A-S dot org.
32:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
32:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:10
[SPEAKER_03]: So I've been reading a lot of stories recently about how AI is not not going to be a problem.
32:15
[SPEAKER_03]: AI is not going to do what they said is going to do.
32:18
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, the the biggest
32:22
[SPEAKER_03]: position some of the a.e.
32:25
[SPEAKER_03]: it's overblown folks are saying is it's actually the the problem is going to be old people are going to be retiring at some point and well we're not going to have people to replace them.
32:35
[SPEAKER_03]: That's been kind of the weird argument while a lot of companies are moving towards AI.
32:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And I saw this story by our friend Michael Sinado about what was going on in the Bronx.
32:48
[SPEAKER_03]: How, you know, some nurses there have been replaced by AI.
32:51
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of questions around that.
32:53
[SPEAKER_03]: But I guess my question is, would you feel comfortable with, you know, just the robot checking your chart or making sure your meds are right or okay with just the robot?
33:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm interesting stuff, but here to share some thoughts on what's going on in the Bronx, and some other stuff we can jump around into, I've asked our good friend Michael Sennado to come share some thoughts.
33:14
[SPEAKER_03]: He's a labor reporter over at the Guardian.
33:16
[SPEAKER_03]: You can check out their website, the Guardian.com.
33:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Michael, thanks for taking time for us.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: any time Rick, thanks for having me again.
33:24
[SPEAKER_03]: So what's going on at this Montfort hospital there in the Bronx?
33:27
[SPEAKER_03]: As I understand, I think 12 is it 12?
33:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's 12.
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: 12 nurses in this department.
33:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So these are utilization review nurses, so they essentially are reviewing medical care that was already been performed.
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: and kind of, you're tracking it with, you know, insurance claims, whether that's private or, you know, Medicare Medicaid and in making sure it aligns and oftentimes, you know, speaking to, you know, I interviewed a nurse who had been on the hospital for 30 years who was involved in this layoff and she.
34:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Explain to me that she doesn't understand how AI can replace what they do because oftentimes they don't have enough information at hand to make a decision or make an actual review.
34:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So they have to, you know, she gave an example of the mental psych ward.
34:20
[SPEAKER_01]: They often have to speak with staffers there and figure out, you know, what care was given, why it was given when and, you know, complete the review that way.
34:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, part of this also was, this was one of the hospitals that was involved in the largest nurses strike in York City history in January, lasted several weeks.
34:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I think Yura was one of the hospitals that was holding out as hospitals, as nurses were still out on strike.
34:53
[SPEAKER_01]: They were spending a significant amount of money on travel nurses to
34:57
[SPEAKER_01]: try to replace those nurses rather than, you know, agree to a fair contract with these nurses.
35:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, you know, afterwards, this nurse explained to me once they returned to work, you know, the way their protocols, their working conditions were kind of changing, and they were never given any answers as to why.
35:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And then a few weeks later, all of a sudden they had received a 45
35:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And even in reaching out to the hospital, they had no explanation.
35:31
[SPEAKER_01]: All they said was the unions lying, they lie all the time, but didn't provide any actual information on how AI are going to replace the work that these nurses do, why is it going to do that?
35:45
[SPEAKER_01]: They didn't, the nurses complained there was no pilot program to ensure that the work is actually
35:54
[SPEAKER_01]: it seemed, you know, haphazardly and partially as a retaliation for what the Union did.
36:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I reach out to the National Nurses United, you know, the an affiliate of theirs are represent the nurses at these hospitals.
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And they said this is possibly the first layoff of nurses within the Union, as far as they can tell.
36:21
[SPEAKER_01]: which is very, very concerning and I think provides a glimpse of the kinds of things we're going to see where, you know, AI is not where it is to, you know, replace large swaths of workers, but it's got to start somewhere and, you know, I think we're seeing the beginning of that.
36:44
[SPEAKER_03]: now they have a collective bargaining agreement how can they can they just implement this stuff because look I've had a lot of truck driver friends who are concerned that when the company starts going towards automated vehicles you know is there language in their contract that stops that you know anything here contractually or is this just an opportunity to just steam roll over
37:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, before the labs happen, they filed an unfair labor practice charge and obviously added to it once they received way off notices.
37:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's up to the NLRB and this is Trump's grossly underfunded underman NLRB.
37:25
[SPEAKER_01]: that has to, you know, adjudicate it and, you know, even in, you know, the best of times under the Biden administration can take, you know, well over a year for workers who are terminated in retaliation for union activity or in violation of a contract to be made whole.
37:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, that process is going to, you know,
37:50
[SPEAKER_01]: be carried out at the NLRB, but in the meantime, yes, these nurses were laid off and AI is conducting their utilization reviews at Montefior Hospital as far as we know.
38:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So is this something that the entire nursing industry at some points going to have to worry about?
38:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, is this something?
38:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Is this like a
38:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think so, so National Nurses United have been, you know, they put out a lot of, you know, literature and taking stances, you know, strongly against this, that nurses at the bedside cannot be replaced by AI, AI, I cannot, you know, there's no replacement for the work that they do.
38:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And doing so, you know, risk patient care, you know, risk workers, and,
38:47
[SPEAKER_01]: This is further adds, you know, an issue to the U.S. health care system.
38:54
[SPEAKER_01]: We're already the most expensive in the world with poor outcomes.
39:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like 60, 70 million Americans are under insured.
39:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's 30, 40 million have no insurance.
39:11
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is just just adding on to the issues already facing nurses who have been dealing with staffing shortages, being just understaffed, overworked, you know, not getting breaks.
39:28
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've covered nurses' strikes for years and you know what they've been fighting.
39:33
[SPEAKER_01]: for our, you know, these issues of, you know, what affects them, affects their patients.
39:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is just a big issue.
39:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, the healthcare industry, there's a lot of money to be had.
39:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know,
39:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And anyone that has any familiarity with the labor movement knows that employers will try to, you know, undercut in a limited labor or get find the cheapest labor they can regardless of, you know, the quality going down as a result.
40:09
[SPEAKER_03]: No, it's scary times.
40:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Look, I mean, I don't, I don't necessarily want, you know, as you point it out, I don't want someone who doesn't have all the information, or a eye that doesn't have all the information, just reaching for, you know, whatever is there.
40:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I
40:25
[SPEAKER_03]: especially when you're talking about my health.
40:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that's something that Americans are going to be a little little freaked out about or do you think that this idea of this is the future, this is the innovation of the future, this is how we make healthcare cheaper by getting rid of actual workers.
40:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think that message lands?
40:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it lands when you are doing it in direct opposition to the workers that are being impacted.
40:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I think there's a right way to you know implement.
40:53
[SPEAKER_01]: AI and making and ensuring that the quality doesn't go anywhere or that, you know, the nurses of the nurses you know, you know, kept saying, it's a tool.
41:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It should be used as a tool and conjunction with nurses to better assist them to improve their ability to care for patients, not to replace nurses and, you know, save some money for these multi-billion dollar health care
41:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, or, uh, you know, it's just, yeah.
41:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
41:28
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I mean, you know, it's the reality where we are, but I do want to hear people thoughts on on this.
41:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, are you okay with, with an all AI hospital?
41:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, they've got, you know, all robotic hotels is that our future.
41:41
[SPEAKER_03]: That scares me.
41:42
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to hear thoughts on that Rick at the Ricksmith Show.com.
41:44
[SPEAKER_03]: You got another article that caught my attention, Michael, that I wanted to spend a little time to because, you know, all the stuff that's going on in Minnesota around,
41:51
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, all the, the, the, the some all these are cheating and it is really played into that kind of fear and smear that the right does so well, and I kept asking the question, the kid, the guy who's running around making these claims doing these videos.
42:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Much like the, the other right wing provocateurs, you know, how much of it is well edited, how much of it is perfectly timed for maximum chaos and finally a group of civil rights groups have.
42:21
[SPEAKER_03]: to maybe find some, if any of this stuff is real, I'll walk me through some of that.
42:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So in March, the ACLU and a bunch of other groups, file made on a FOIA request to get these records.
42:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Because, you know, the Trump administration, the officials, were openly citing this Nick Shirley YouTube video is why we think there's all this massive fraud.
42:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Minnesota Republican Party actually worked with Nick Shirley to develop this video and Elon Mosquey tweeted it and gaged with it made sure that on his platform on X it went viral and it did and this was cited as the basis for all this context, all this claims about fraud.
43:09
[SPEAKER_01]: a couple of weeks later is when this massive immigration or anti-immigration raids in Minnesota by the Trump administration happened that resulted in the murders of Alex Pretty and Rene Good.
43:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And since then it's just amplified this hate towards
43:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Somalians, you know, I think there's around 40 to 60,000 Somalians immigrants in Minnesota, you know, Trump has made a overtly racist rhetoric toward the community, along Omar is a Congresswoman, you know, representing Minnesota for, you know, comes from Somalia.
43:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they're looking for transparency on so after that video, the Trump administration attempted to freeze child care funding and funding for two other social programs for five democratic states claiming that because of this video, there's all this fraud.
44:16
[SPEAKER_01]: state sued and immediately a judge was like, this is ridiculous, you can't do that.
44:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And they actually backed off of it because they didn't want to provide the emails around that decision.
44:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So they don't want transparency.
44:33
[SPEAKER_01]: They claim to be the most transparent administration effort, which is laughable, which is a ridiculous claim, a vertely alive.
44:44
[SPEAKER_01]: These civil rights groups are just trying to get the information as to what was going on in the communications between the Trump administration and this YouTuber to make this video and to put out the claims in this video because even this kid this 23 year old didn't know what he was doing.
45:03
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... you know they interviewed seen an interview them after it and he said uh... uh... uh... you saw what i saw and local news media outlets went the next day and they were actually children uh... at the daycare centers he said they were completely empty and that they were Somalia and fraud uh... even though he showed no evidence of that and state regulators visited all these sites also uh... and didn't find anything out of the ordinary
45:31
[SPEAKER_03]: But hold on, this is all of this, you know, I went for months of people going, there's all this waste fraud and abuse, all this fraud that's out there, Michael, they're, they're, these, these, there's a whole setup and it's benefiting the Democratic, there was a whole storyline that went around this, are you telling me that's not, that's not entirely accurate?
45:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not entirely accurate.
45:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So there has been like, there was fraud in the pandemic everywhere.
46:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a Minnesota where there as a large place case, but it was already under investigation, the Biden administration officials in Minnesota were in our were investigating and prosecuting.
46:16
[SPEAKER_01]: These cases are already so what the Trump administration did was try to latch on to that and then you know use this You know Experiencing fraud and claim that it's you know evidence of this mass conspiracy and that they You know, which is why there's the whole like propaganda arm of what
46:40
[SPEAKER_01]: uh, doge was doing around Elon Musk and that was uh, turned out to be completely, uh, a fraud in an oven and self, uh, didn't do what it claimed to do.
46:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Elon Musk didn't last long.
46:52
[SPEAKER_01]: All they did was break a bunch of stuff, uh, steal a bunch of data.
46:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And claimed they made a fraction of the savings they initially promised and actually didn't even do that because their claims were false and you know there's a lot of reporting pointing that out.
47:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's it's it's just laughable and then they they switched it so now JD van says running this fraud task force and you have Trump officials constantly lying or misleading or taking.
47:28
[SPEAKER_01]: existing cases and trying to use it as like a propaganda of claiming that there's this all this vast fraud in these public programs, and really it's to justify cuts for snap, for Medicaid, for all these programs.
47:48
[SPEAKER_03]: right because they know they know that all this stuff makes front page news but the retraction ends up in the back of the the back of the pages.
47:55
[SPEAKER_03]: They know this and it seems to be the demo.
47:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if you saw the big speech last week, but evidently, you know, 2020 election of which Trump was president when it happened, that was the Chinese evidently.
48:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, we've now needed to get another buggy man.
48:08
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess we're doing the communist red scare again.
48:11
[SPEAKER_03]: That's coming back.
48:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So it seems like there's an MO here.
48:14
[SPEAKER_03]: There seems like there's a path that they keep following.
48:17
[SPEAKER_03]: They throw out a bookie man.
48:18
[SPEAKER_03]: They get a hammer hammer hammer.
48:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Get us all afraid of something.
48:22
[SPEAKER_03]: And then, well, it turns out to be nowhere close to accurate.
48:26
[SPEAKER_03]: But what they did, they got people afraid of each other.
48:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
48:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the whole premise of the why they're focusing on fraud, on waste and abuse, and you've been hearing this mantra for the past, you know, 16, 17 months out of this administration, regardless of the fact that this is, you know, the self-dealing within this administration, the insider trading, the corruption, the conflict of interest are just astronomical.
49:01
[SPEAKER_03]: crazy crazy finally i got to get your thoughts i don't know if you saw the the big news i think you actually wrote a piece on it uh Lindsey Graham's sister i guess is now going to run for the full terms you're going to run in the election uh actually being appointed first woman first woman senator from South Carolina um is that big deal
49:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's very on democratic to just a point, you know, someone's sister and, you know, this is a red state where, you know, Democrats really don't stand a chance.
49:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, you know, in, in, in election.
49:42
[SPEAKER_01]: So, uh, it's going to come down to a Republican primary.
49:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you have someone appointed who says they're going to run the general election, they're already, uh, you know, appointed to be a front runner, essentially.
49:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Power of incumbency, man.
49:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Power of incumbency, don't, and I got to be honest.
49:58
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what are qualifications to be sent at or are, but to be honest, um, you know, I didn't think Lindsey Graham was qualified either.
50:04
[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, it is what it is.
50:09
[SPEAKER_03]: not touching that good on you.
50:11
[SPEAKER_03]: But Michael has always loved the work.
50:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope folks will check it out over at theguardian.com.
50:16
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll get links out in social media.
50:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Michael sent out.
50:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much.
50:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, of course.
50:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, right.
50:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
50:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Email me, Rick at theRicksmithshow.com.
50:24
[SPEAKER_03]: What do you think?
50:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Lindsey Graham, sister.
50:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Who needs qualifications?
50:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Because didn't we just go through a whole Graham Platner thing about not being qualified?
50:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
50:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Rick at TheRicksmithshow.com, right back.
50:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History In 2.
50:46
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1878.
50:50
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day that a new song was introduced to the U.S. Labor Movement.
50:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Reverend Jesse H. Jones set the lyrics of a poem that had been written by IG Blanchard more than a decade earlier.
51:03
[SPEAKER_03]: The song was called the eight-hour day.
51:06
[SPEAKER_03]: The fight for eight hours had become one of the central causes of labor.
51:11
[SPEAKER_03]: In 1850, the average work week was 70 hours.
51:15
[SPEAKER_03]: This meant that workers had little time for anything else beside their daily toil.
51:20
[SPEAKER_03]: After the Civil War, calls for the eight-hour day gained momentum.
51:24
[SPEAKER_03]: It became a movement that united workers from different workplaces and backgrounds.
51:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Eight-hour leagues were formed in cities across the nation.
51:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They hosted talks and rallies to spread the word about the need to shorten the work week.
51:39
[SPEAKER_03]: At rallies, protesters waved eight-hour banners.
51:42
[SPEAKER_03]: They also sang the song that became their anthem.
51:46
[SPEAKER_03]: The first verse boldly began.
51:48
[SPEAKER_03]: We mean to make things over.
51:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We are tired of toil for not, with but bear enough to live upon, and never an hour for thought.
51:56
[SPEAKER_03]: We want to feel the sunshine, we want to smell the flowers, we are sure that God has wielded, and we mean to have eight hours.
52:04
[SPEAKER_03]: We're summoning our forces from the shipyard, shop in mill, eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.
52:14
[SPEAKER_03]: The eight hour day song continues to be reimagined today, including this version by rhythm fast.
52:21
[SPEAKER_06]: Stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of this for what we live in, stay out of
52:54
[SPEAKER_03]: So a couple of labor stories I want to get to today before we wrap up first north of the border, new to foreign Ford of Canada say they've reached a tentative three year deal covering over five thousand auto workers at a key plant and distribution center there in in Ontario and Alberta.
53:14
[SPEAKER_03]: that's a good thing.
53:16
[SPEAKER_03]: The agreement unanimously endorsed by the Union's bargaining committee.
53:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Now heads for ratification to the membership.
53:22
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see what happens with that.
53:24
[SPEAKER_03]: As workers are looking for some real wage gains given the fact that I've got to be honest.
53:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Inflations have been crazy.
53:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They want stronger pensions.
53:34
[SPEAKER_03]: They want some job security commitments, especially in the EV era.
53:38
[SPEAKER_03]: That's your thinking about it.
53:38
[SPEAKER_03]: You got to wonder how all of that's the backdrop of the 49,000 Chinese EVs are coming in.
53:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't wonder what that's going to be.
53:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, back here to the states, the UAW, the United Auto Workers, the reform movement there facing a little...
53:54
[SPEAKER_03]: kind of a test.
53:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Trump's Department of Justice has opened up a grand jury investigation alleging that the UAW President Sean Fein abused his power and secured benefits for fiancee and retaliated against Vice President who objected.
54:11
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see, Fein calls the claims false, but the probe raises some questions about transparency.
54:19
[SPEAKER_03]: and accountability inside the union that just had some real serious, real serious problems.
54:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, they're the folks who have been out there leading the most militant strikes that we've seen in decades.
54:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've got to tell you, from my perspective, seems like a hit job, but we'll see.
54:38
[SPEAKER_03]: This will play itself out.
54:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, Boeing defense,
54:44
[SPEAKER_03]: everyone bracing for potential action there around pay safety and respect after years of record defense contracts and crisis at the company workers are signaling that they're done the done taking promises without concrete improvements and yet about time.
55:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, throw on top of all of that, the macro economic picture that we're living through right now, pretty ugly for workers, inflation still north of 4% and the war driven economic uncertainty that's pushing costs up while wages flat, not a good, not a good mix, I would argue probably not winning.
55:29
[SPEAKER_03]: But from the gas pumps to the grocery aisle, we're feeling it.
55:33
[SPEAKER_03]: We're paying for Trump's geopolitical games, and we didn't sign up for it.
55:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I said this earlier, did not sign up for any of this.
55:41
[SPEAKER_03]: None of my red hats signed up for this either.
55:46
[SPEAKER_03]: bottom line auto workers in Canada are trying to lock in some some good sizeable gains for themselves work auto workers here in the US are watching their leadership being tested in real time while defense workers are inching toward the picket line will keep an eye on that's all against the backdrop of you know rising inflation stagnating and falling wages and an potential expanding
56:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And aren't you just frustrated that you have no leadership in Washington?
56:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is where I go back to Thomas Massey.
56:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I go back to some some Republicans who are going, hey, we have all the power.
56:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Why aren't we doing anything?
56:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And look, I've gotten a lot of responses from folks about, you know, how the minterbs are going to be this big blowout and Democrats are going to going to sweep in and that's probably going to happen.
56:41
[SPEAKER_03]: But it still doesn't mean anything's gonna get done.
56:43
[SPEAKER_03]: That's when the hard work begins.
56:46
[SPEAKER_03]: That's when the education begins.
56:48
[SPEAKER_03]: That's when having a platform really matters and what Republicans are doing right now.
56:53
[SPEAKER_03]: What the media is doing right now, what the wealth class in this country is spending, a little energy on right now is framing anything that helps working people as somehow to be communist.
57:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause that's back.
57:07
[SPEAKER_03]: and who didn't see that coming interesting interesting because remember there was a period where the right and Russia they were kissing they were they were fond of each other they were they were hanging our they were hanging on each other because well that and now this this ramping up and I know look Russia's not communist anymore
57:34
[SPEAKER_03]: No, they've gone further to the other side.
57:36
[SPEAKER_03]: They've gone all the way around the dial, to just around the other side.
57:41
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's interesting to watch, but also frightening in that people are buying some of it.
57:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And while Democrats may take power and probably will definitely take the house, maybe take the Senate.
57:56
[SPEAKER_03]: There is an opportunity to begin the education process of moving for policies in 28.
58:02
[SPEAKER_03]: because this is the Republicans plan.
58:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they've given up on 20, on 20, on 20, 26.
58:07
[SPEAKER_03]: It's about 20, 28 and holding onto the presidency and then looking back and going, you know, Democrats had bolder for due years.
58:13
[SPEAKER_03]: They didn't do anything.
58:15
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, this is coming.
58:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Because it's what they do and they do it well.
58:22
[SPEAKER_03]: The pendulum swings around a little bit and they seem to play the calendar a lot better than Democrats do, which is why I'm hoping I'm hoping that the next two years are lots of accountability, holding Trump accountable for all of the stuff that he's done all of the crimeing, but also pushing an agenda of going, look, once we get the oval office back, if we can keep the house in the Senate, these are the policies we want to move forward.
58:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, we're gonna have to fight back on, oh, it's all communism, it's not.
58:53
[SPEAKER_03]: But we'll see.
58:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's why I think they're pulling this card now.
59:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Get us used to it a little bit.
59:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Get us pointing our fingers at each other.
59:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I wanna hear your thoughts.
59:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Email me Rick at therixmithshow.com.
59:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you, are you tired of winning yet?
59:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know that's kind of like beating a dead horse.
59:15
[SPEAKER_03]: But are you?
59:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I gotta tell you, you know, I, this, not good, not good.
59:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Email me, Rick at theRickSmithShirt.com, miss any portion of the program.
59:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Make sure you grab the podcast where if you get your favorite podcast, you will find hours and as always, thanks so much for being here.
59:34
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:46
[SPEAKER_05]: email rack at rick at ricksmithshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Until next time, this is Ben the ricksmithshow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_05]: We're working people come to talk.