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The Rick Smith Show 7-28-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:17
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the Rex Myth Show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_02]: That's so much for being here.
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Today on the big program, lots of got too lots to talk about.
0:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Trump's white returned to the White House correspondence dinner.
0:28
[SPEAKER_02]: The speech, um,
0:31
[SPEAKER_02]: a mess, but honestly a masterclass in the same old, same old of trump tricks, which is say something ugly, call it a joke, and then act shocked when nobody gets it or laughs.
0:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And honestly the old performance ran on the same tired formula start with a smirk, throw a dud grenade, and then behind but just kidding, like somehow that magically makes it all better.
0:57
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... he said i believe in the free press more than anyone in this room does maybe not quite uh... that's not a joke i understand the whole speech is satirical supposed to be satiricals if you look at it from that frame okay that makes sense but honestly he's doing some verbal arson right there and the pretending part well you know he's the guy holding the candle
1:22
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, I'm proud to be the most open and transparent president in history, which is even funnier in the worst possible way because nothing says transparent, like a guy who treats accountability like a personal attack.
1:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And when he throws in there for good measure, I always find that when you don't speak to the press, you always get a bad story.
1:44
[SPEAKER_02]: sounded less like a president and more like someone who's finally discovered what it is to to be held accountable and what consequences are.
1:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Then came a line, tonight's event is an even crazier than the last time.
1:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think so, there was a shooting the last time, but of course it was, because Trump doesn't just enter a room, he arrives like a malfunctioning smoke detector.
2:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
2:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And when he says I've been informed by CBS news, David Ellison, that next year, they're going to call it the Trump White House Correspondence Dinner.
2:18
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not a punchline.
2:20
[SPEAKER_02]: So much as it's a hostage note written in a gold marker because he wants
2:27
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, changing the name is the only way you're going to get me back here on the same fake reluctant routine he's been running for for years.
2:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Insult people dominate the room, then act like everyone else is begging for the privilege, everyone wants, everyone's wanting to call, they're begging us for meetings.
2:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We've heard that before, haven't we?
2:48
[SPEAKER_02]: But the best evidence that the whole thing was a mess is that Trump kept undercutting his own material.
2:55
[SPEAKER_02]: About a sex joke that he had to explain, he said that was actually the only thing I thought was good in the old freaky and stupid speech, yeah, and then the the Trump, the the beauty
3:12
[SPEAKER_02]: he said that was going to be a doozy followed by I'm only kidding and you go, sure, sure every because understand, every time he says that, the joke is the same and he's not kidding at all.
3:24
[SPEAKER_02]: He says the nasty part because it's what he means and then the just kidding kind of like the little umbrella he opens after the storm's already hit.
3:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And as I thought about it, I go, you know, maybe a two, maybe a three out of ten, three, maybe because he did open with, you know, hey, we can't have political violence and he did a nod to the secret service, but quickly blew past that and the rest was a rambling thin skin mess of insults, self praise and stale jokes that, you know, fell flat.
3:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It was interesting watching the room when they would pan to the crowd most people are on their phone most people looked confused a lot of people look like why am I sitting here Not some of the media reports after described it as as vicious boring awkward and I go you know that's that seems accurate
4:19
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... but i got to tell you vicious pouring an awkward not great reviews for a dinner speech that's supposed to have some wit and this is where got to get better writers that are done obama delivered the punch line now what what really killed that i think is he treated court the corresponded dinner like a campaign rally in a tuxedo
4:42
[SPEAKER_02]: instead of landing sharp jabs and and and witty lines he kept circling back to grievance score settling and the old attacks on reporters i don't know how you could look a bunch of reporters in the face after you've said they're all fake news none of them are any good all their outlets suck and you're not going to answer any of his questions and go i believe in transparency and i believe in you again it's a satirical speech
5:11
[SPEAKER_02]: But again, the whole thing felt, you know, over-long and defensive, rather than funny.
5:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And I wish you didn't even funny, because there's a lot of good material.
5:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Could have been a lot better material.
5:23
[SPEAKER_02]: A better speech would have needed some tighter jokes, some real self-awareness, and less obsession with his enemies.
5:30
[SPEAKER_02]: He is totally fixated.
5:32
[SPEAKER_02]: There are people living.
5:34
[SPEAKER_02]: There are little people living.
5:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Inside his head, rent free.
5:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So what we get, a lot of noise, not much craftsmanship and just enough chaos to keep people caring that maybe there are some clips that we can mock.
5:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Pretty much yet.
5:50
[SPEAKER_02]: If you saw the speech I want to hear your thoughts, make it the ricksmithshow.com.
5:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Quick break right back with Sarah Burris, stick around.
6:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
6:06
[SPEAKER_02]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1869.
6:10
[SPEAKER_02]: That was the day Labor Leader William Silvus died.
6:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Silvus was born in Armball, Pennsylvania.
6:15
[SPEAKER_02]: He learned the trade of wagon making from his father, but soon he left home to take up an apprenticeship as an iron worker.
6:22
[SPEAKER_02]: He found work in Philadelphia.
6:23
[SPEAKER_02]: At the time, there was an increasing practice of iron molders to hire unskilled workers as helpers for the skilled craftsmen.
6:30
[SPEAKER_02]: This led to skilled workers seeing their wages caught.
6:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Silvus joined a strike against the wage erosion, led by the journeymen, Stove, and Holloware molders union.
6:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Soon, he was elected secretary of the Union, but Sylvus understood that to truly have power, the iron molders would need to organize beyond Philadelphia.
6:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And so in 1859, 12 molders from various unions met in Philadelphia to plan to join together.
6:56
[SPEAKER_02]: The Civil War put those plans on hold.
6:58
[SPEAKER_02]: During the war, as men went to fight, many workers saw their wages increase due to the labor shortage.
7:04
[SPEAKER_02]: But prices at the stores rose even more quickly, and it became harder and harder to make ends meet.
7:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Recognizing the need for labor to organize, in 1863, Sylvus helped found the Iron Moulders International Union.
7:17
[SPEAKER_02]: He became the first president of the new Union.
7:20
[SPEAKER_02]: 21 locals joined under the Iron Moulders International Union, and it grew to include 8,000 workers.
7:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But Sylvus had a bigger vision for the labor movement.
7:30
[SPEAKER_02]: He thought all skilled trades should band together to improve wages and working conditions.
7:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So in 1866, he founded the National Labor Union.
7:39
[SPEAKER_02]: The National Labor Union quickly grew to 30,000 workers.
7:43
[SPEAKER_02]: But Silva's died in 1869, cutting short his efforts to grow a national union.
7:48
[SPEAKER_02]: The union continued until 1873 when it dissolved.
7:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Labor History in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
7:57
[SPEAKER_02]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com.
8:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
8:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
8:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, the big press club dinner, what a poem.
8:18
[SPEAKER_02]: What an absolute bomb and you could you would think this would be somewhere that he would have really gone You know and had the best writers he could have the best writers if they could have got what that Gillis guy could have got him to write some jokes
8:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's the only real half decent right wing comedian right or even that hitch and what was hitch hitch and it's cock hitch hitch more I don't know hitch something or they could have got him to to write something reasonable except you know him in his favorite joke was a a sex joke he had to explain
8:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I just, uh, I don't know.
8:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, here's some thoughts on the White House Correspondence Association Dinner, you know, with the president who's the most transparent and believes in the press more than anyone.
9:07
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why I've asked our good friend Sarah Burst to come and share our some thoughts.
9:10
[SPEAKER_02]: She's a senior digital editor over there at alternate.
9:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Alternat.org, the website if you want to take a look at the, work they, they do.
9:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Sarah, thanks for taking time for us.
9:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey Rick how are you I'm good.
9:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I look I found that the big speech gave it a three out of ten Because he did say well, but let's not have political violence while you know kind of
9:29
[SPEAKER_02]: perpetuating the idea well we're gonna do what we do, but mostly the entire tropes to nonsense But some things I thought that you might be interested in like the fact that he claims that he He himself believes in the free press more than anyone in that room more than anyone he believes in it, Sarah
9:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I'm so sure that he does.
9:53
[SPEAKER_04]: If he believes in the free press, then I am Martha Stewart.
9:57
[SPEAKER_04]: And we're in good living and cooking now.
10:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah, this, it was the joke that I heard somebody tell is that the Secret Service definitely prevented another shooting, but it let a bomb in.
10:16
[SPEAKER_04]: And that was the,
10:19
[SPEAKER_04]: of Donald Trump.
10:19
[SPEAKER_04]: If you, let me say, like, just a key point for anybody who's telling a joke, if you have to explain it, it just don't.
10:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, it's kind of like if you have to explain something you're losing, that's kind of how jokes work, too.
10:33
[SPEAKER_04]: It's like if you have to explain your joke, you're bombing.
10:35
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, you were bombing bad.
10:37
[SPEAKER_04]: And the thing is, he's not funny.
10:40
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, I don't think he knows how to be funny.
10:42
[SPEAKER_04]: The best thing about
10:44
[SPEAKER_04]: people like Obama and George W. Bush is that they're both really self-deprecating.
10:50
[SPEAKER_04]: And like being able to poke fun at yourself is a big piece of just big goofy in general.
10:56
[SPEAKER_04]: And he's not, I mean, he's so self-absorbed and obsessed with his own awesomeness that he can't tell a joke like that.
11:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Like it wouldn't work for him.
11:08
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and the weird thing is, you know, if funny, looking maybe, but not, not funny.
11:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, there was literally nothing in that speech that was funny other than the word salad.
11:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And I like to read Trump's speeches, because I like to see if I can actually pay attention to the words of the page, because in writing, they make no sense, they even make less sense in writing than when they do coming out of his pile.
11:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Any is one of my favorite things to do like to do like a dramatic reading where you just read things slowly like you're saying them as a normal human and then you actually hear the words and you're like, what?
11:52
[SPEAKER_04]: And so I don't know if it's like our culture has somehow like they if they hear his voice saying these things that somehow they tune it out or they're they just assume that it's not going to make sense and so they they just click away I don't know if that's what it is but like.
12:12
[SPEAKER_04]: The second somebody starts actually reading them at loud.
12:16
[SPEAKER_04]: It reminds me a lot to remember the Sarah Palin interview with Katie Curric and how basically Tina Fey just got on camera and she just said the things that Tina Fey said.
12:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, that Sarah Palin said and so it was like if if you do it like that, it's a totally different ball game and I don't understand why I wish S&L would bring that kind of thing back where they just
12:41
[SPEAKER_02]: read the exact same thing that he said maybe there's our future there's our there's our hit show but the other thing is he came out he said that he's proud to be the most open and transparent president in history and I'm like yeah nothing says transparency like a guy who feeds treats fact checking like an assassination attempt but you know here here we are claiming now understand and this is where I give him some credit here
13:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, this is a moment.
13:10
[SPEAKER_02]: This is this was a satirical speech supposedly, uh, everything he says he during the speech.
13:15
[SPEAKER_02]: He said I'm usually just kidding So I then if you look at it through that frame that everything is just kidding Yeah, I'm I'm proud to be the most Yeah, most over.
13:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, transparent sure.
13:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if you look at it like that makes sense
13:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and totally, I mean, I think a really good representation of him just kidding is the fact that his administration subpoenaed a bunch of journalists from the New York Times and then subpoenaed their families because it wasn't enough for them.
13:49
[SPEAKER_04]: to get all of the cell phones of New York Times reporters.
13:52
[SPEAKER_04]: He was apparently so embarrassed about the story that he wanted to track down the leakers through their, like, one of them's mother was subpoena.
14:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, he wanted her phone.
14:04
[SPEAKER_04]: So this is just, like, this guy is, he's, it's, it's, he's spiraling into a whole different level of, who, you know?
14:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Not all in the paranoia gets worse than I think by the day and you know what's interesting is my my son was just telling me that you know
14:23
[SPEAKER_02]: That because his algorithm is much different than mine and yours yours is all cat videos mine is is is mostly repair stuff But you know, he gets some of the fox new stuff because of you know some of the people that he interacts with and he found You know some some people you know claiming that CNN is making Trump look older on the reality is they're just
14:44
[SPEAKER_02]: airing what Trump looks like.
14:46
[SPEAKER_02]: It's actually Fox News evidently according to what he told me that that has kind of figured out a way to kind of frame him in a, we're trying to make him younger.
14:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, this isn't unusual.
14:56
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the media has done this for presidents in the past, where they've kind of changed appearance.
15:01
[SPEAKER_02]: I think if FDR or nobody knew just how how paralyzed he was, and I get it.
15:07
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's interesting to see that, you know, people are, or go, you will see it then, you know, they're making him look older, no, dudes old.
15:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And not much better than Biden, I would argue not at all better than Biden, health wise.
15:20
[SPEAKER_04]: he's 80 freaking years old.
15:23
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, if this, again, like we play this game of if it was your father, if it was your family member, right?
15:30
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just like if you would have taken the keys away.
15:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I would have taken the remote control away.
15:36
[SPEAKER_02]: The keys hit have been gone a long time ago.
15:39
[SPEAKER_04]: No kidding, geez.
15:41
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, this guy is,
15:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'm curious at what point we're going to have the fourth of his annual physicals, because something else is wrong that we don't know about.
15:56
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's long past time that they need to do another one of those little, you know, dementia tests or whatever.
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, of course, it's gonna be the best ever.
16:04
[SPEAKER_02]: You know that.
16:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It's gonna be the best test ever.
16:06
[SPEAKER_02]: No one's ever done better.
16:08
[SPEAKER_02]: No one's ever seen.
16:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, he's got perfect score.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
16:12
[SPEAKER_02]: He's got those verbal ticks.
16:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, no one's ever seen such a thing or yeah, no one's ever seen it because it doesn't exist.
16:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not a thing.
16:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Sure.
16:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Man came up to me.
16:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Sir, tears in his eyes.
16:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Sir.
16:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Ah, no, I do find it funny that he was trying to tell a sex joke, that, you know, some, you know, lead slater was going to come home and climb the stairs and make love to his wife, but, you know, couldn't, couldn't do both.
16:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And his line was that was actually the only thing I thought was good in the whole freaking stupid speech, which is kind of funny that he rose to his own speech, and because everything else was terrible.
16:47
[SPEAKER_02]: If that's the best thing he had got,
16:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, you should fire whoever wrote that speech and get different speech writers.
16:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I think is is that I think if once you alienate everybody in Hollywood, there's just like that's the big problem is I feel like a lot of the the reasons that Obama stuff was so funny is that, you know, he had excellent writers who have
17:11
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, a good history of comedy.
17:14
[SPEAKER_04]: And if you hack off all of those people or wage a lawsuit against them or start subpoenaing their mothers, it turns out they're not going to help you write your better speech.
17:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was hoping that he was going to come out with some real singers because it need to be honest.
17:30
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of stuff that you could poke fun at about Democrats without question, but it just, like I said at the beginning, it just evolved into the old same tired boring grievances that we've heard.
17:41
[SPEAKER_02]: It just seems like someone fixated on everyone's mean to me, nobody likes me.
17:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And I got to be honest, in that room, more than half probably don't.
17:51
[SPEAKER_04]: And there are a lot of jokes you can tell.
17:53
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, you could be
17:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll kind of poke fun that all kinds of hosts on CNN or whatever for, you know, like wolf blizzard basically lives at the studio and they just air them up, you know, every time there's break news or whatever, like,
18:08
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, there's all kinds of things that you could be making jokes about.
18:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And you could use this speech as an opportunity to try and unite people a little bit, because humor is the one thing I think, at least I hope we all can get around and maybe this could have helped him in a way to go, you know, maybe if I'm laughing a little bit, I'm not crying over how much money I'm pouring into the gas tank, or you know, I was at the grocery store today and the cashier was literally announcing,
18:34
[SPEAKER_02]: how far over a hundred dollars that the bill had gotten with the with the person who's buying and the woman was darn near and dead they were never having a moment back and forth it was fun but it was like you know my god and I chimed in ago you know you could probably sell plasma for 75 bucks do that a couple weeks you pay the hundred fifty dollar bill you got there but had a chance and well let that go and look I think a lot of people are going hey this is how you kill
19:01
[SPEAKER_02]: The, in fact, you've got a story on this.
19:03
[SPEAKER_02]: This is how you kill the party.
19:04
[SPEAKER_02]: This is how you kill Trump's GOP by being this completely on a touch.
19:10
[SPEAKER_04]: And you really thought this week he did a couple of speeches where, you know, again, like he's repeating that that sort of language of the Democrats invented the affordability of the word affordability.
19:22
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, they, they, this whole affordability thing doesn't exist and.
19:28
[SPEAKER_04]: It's kind of, I mean, I feel like it's with with the Biden administration, they kept trying to say, look, it's getting better.
19:36
[SPEAKER_04]: It's getting better.
19:36
[SPEAKER_04]: And we're trying.
19:37
[SPEAKER_04]: We're fighting for this.
19:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And who is credit?
19:40
[SPEAKER_04]: It was really, really bad.
19:42
[SPEAKER_04]: And it got less bad, but it wasn't amazing.
19:45
[SPEAKER_04]: And so now that things are just getting worse and worse and worse, who can't convince people that things are great.
19:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Like it's just not.
19:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Nobody's people are basically at the gas station being like can I put the gas back like this is I got too much can I Siphon this out and put it back.
20:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you can't leak on my head and tell me it's a river of honey Yeah, unfortunately and look even even far right commentators and you've got a story on this as well You look at this Terry Schiller
20:14
[SPEAKER_02]: who, you know, admits, you know, the economy's not working for everyone, and and is basically come out and come out and said, I guess, that I, what's he saying, that, you know, look, the Tracodana economics hasn't worked.
20:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess he, he wants more rules as a solution.
20:31
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I was really shocked.
20:33
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, honest, honest to God, you don't hear a lot of
20:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Republicans willing to say, one, the economy isn't working.
20:41
[SPEAKER_04]: The economy isn't great, but he actually did, I think, without knowing, made the case for more regulations.
20:48
[SPEAKER_04]: And so, I was just kind of like, what?
20:51
[SPEAKER_04]: That's somebody who has a rather talking point lately, or...
20:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
20:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's been for me when I read this.
20:57
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I'm like, you know, the reality is,
21:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Because he said I don't think Americans are embracing socialism or communism even if I think they're just they're tired of just getting and then he stopped and we know what he was going to say they're getting screwed Exactly, you know and even he gets it.
21:14
[SPEAKER_02]: This is where honest conservatives of the past which we have none in government right now understood that there was pain at home.
21:20
[SPEAKER_02]: There was struggle that we had to do something
21:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And this unfettered, laws-a-fair rigged capitalism that we're in now, Wall Street winds everyone else gets screwed, not good politically, and could be the end of the party.
21:35
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and I think, I mean, the case that he makes is basically like if we had rules that people followed.
21:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's not like we don't have regulations, it's not like we don't have rules.
21:46
[SPEAKER_04]: It's that capitalism works when everyone follows the rules that are outlined.
21:51
[SPEAKER_04]: And we have people who are getting away with not following the rules who are not paying their taxes.
21:58
[SPEAKER_04]: And we're not going after those people to enforce
22:01
[SPEAKER_04]: the laws and the regulations that we have on the books and so it gives this idea of capitalism isn't working when that's not actually the problem and at the same time like you have all of these socialist policies that we've incorporated into government like social security, like Medicare and people see those programs and they're like, these are great, these are
22:29
[SPEAKER_04]: or we're getting something out of, right?
22:31
[SPEAKER_04]: And so people are like, well, more of this, more of this.
22:34
[SPEAKER_04]: And they associate that with an economic philosophy.
22:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And so it's not even that people are like, oh, I'm a socialist now.
22:42
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just like, no, I just want things to function the way that they're supposed to.
22:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I just don't want to have to choose between, you know, gas and medicine or food and gas, right?
22:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, good on the list.
22:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And the weird thing is I talked to a lot of people who are really struggling right now.
22:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's because, well, we've crushed unions.
23:01
[SPEAKER_02]: It's because we've allowed speculation in the Wall Street gamblers to dominate.
23:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We've made the incentive to debt is good for people to go deep in debt.
23:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And this kind of speculation and we're creating these bubbles that ultimately the working classes who ends up paying for it.
23:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, things are gonna get worse before they get better.
23:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I just fear when things go boom, how bad people are gonna struggle
23:28
[SPEAKER_02]: But who's going to be caught holding the bag exactly like any of that stuff, but here's the thing I All I see coming out of Washington all I see coming out of this this administration are more power grabs I understand they're they've now and I blame this not on Trump
23:42
[SPEAKER_02]: But on Project 2025 and all the people that are around him, this idea that they're going to rig the census, I don't think Trump's that smart.
23:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think he dreamed this up, but I do think the right wing think tank world who's been dreaming up bad ideas for decades, sees this presidency as they're super bowl, and every bad idea they've ever dreamt up, every night is a wet dream and how much horrible they can bring tomorrow.
24:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, so I don't know if you remember like the last time around in the first Trump administration, we had this thing working was trying to not count anybody who was an immigrant and the whole purpose of the census, like it is in the constitution of the United States, you count
24:23
[SPEAKER_04]: everybody.
24:24
[SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't matter if they're, you know, living here for nine months out of the year, if they're citizen, if they're, you know, if they're documented or not, like it doesn't matter.
24:35
[SPEAKER_04]: You count every single person.
24:36
[SPEAKER_04]: And the reason for that is so that we know.
24:39
[SPEAKER_04]: how many cities need what kind of funding right like you've got towns that need bridges and and roads fixed so who is prioritized based off of population and if you don't count half of your population then those cities aren't getting any federal funding.
25:01
[SPEAKER_04]: And so the thought, this time around, and we're not certain because what's been filed is really only kind of like a content page, basically like a title page of what these new rules are, and what the new, what the title of it is is that they're trying to rewrite
25:22
[SPEAKER_04]: what the term residency means.
25:25
[SPEAKER_04]: And residency isn't even in the actual constitution.
25:28
[SPEAKER_04]: It doesn't define who is a resident.
25:31
[SPEAKER_04]: It just says, everybody who's here, it's counted.
25:35
[SPEAKER_04]: And so basically what they're trying to do is say, well, you know, what constitutes living here.
25:46
[SPEAKER_04]: And so if they can whittle away a bunch of people who, even if they're documented people, if they can just start whittling those people away, then they can start prioritizing areas in the country that are on their side.
26:04
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's like redefining what is is.
26:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it is.
26:09
[SPEAKER_04]: They're trying to redefine what a resident says or where you live.
26:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, but hey, most transparent president ever.
26:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, I'm going to end right there.
26:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Most transparent president ever.
26:29
[SPEAKER_04]: The thing is that I'm really annoyed by is that we interestingly just had a lawsuit that Katie Fang filed, basically calling out the Justice Department.
26:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I saw this on Saturday night where, um, basically a judge said, hey, guess what, um, we don't trust that all of the documents from the Epstein files you actually turned over.
26:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
26:54
[SPEAKER_04]: So we're going to ask you to start giving us all of this information and we're going to go through it.
26:59
[SPEAKER_04]: So it's like really, oh, you want to, you want to talk about being the most transparent.
27:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Tell me about those Epstein files, you know.
27:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
27:08
[SPEAKER_04]: So let's just start there, right?
27:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I, I struck my imaginary beard, my, my evil cat.
27:19
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm right there with you.
27:21
[SPEAKER_02]: We need the Epstein files and maybe maybe when the next president comes, who knows if they haven't destroyed them all, but we will find out more as we continue Sarah as always amazing stuff.
27:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I appreciate the time.
27:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks so much.
27:34
[SPEAKER_04]: My pleasure.
27:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Have a great rest of the week, everyone.
27:36
[SPEAKER_02]: You as well are good friends, servers.
27:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Want to hear your thoughts?
27:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Email me, ricketerricksmithshow.com.
27:41
[SPEAKER_02]: What did you think of the speech?
27:43
[SPEAKER_02]: You give it more than a three out of ten.
27:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a bunch of my friends said zero.
27:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to give them a little credit for, you've kind of taken out political violence.
27:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though, you know, back after this.
28:00
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
28:03
[SPEAKER_02]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1918.
28:07
[SPEAKER_02]: That was the day, Miner's President, Ginger Goodwin, was shot dead in British Columbia.
28:12
[SPEAKER_02]: His murder sparked Canada's first general strike in Vancouver the following week.
28:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Goodwin had arrived in British Columbia eight years earlier and found work in the Comberland mines on Vancouver Island.
28:25
[SPEAKER_02]: He considered working conditions in the mines absolutely appalling and began advocating for safety and organizing miners.
28:33
[SPEAKER_02]: He was soon blacklisted after participating in a two-year coal miners strike for recognition on the island.
28:39
[SPEAKER_02]: He moved to trail British Columbia where he emerged as a socialist party candidate in the 1916 election.
28:46
[SPEAKER_02]: He was also elected President of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers District 6, the Vice President of British Columbia's Federation of Labor and the head of the local trades and labor council.
28:57
[SPEAKER_02]: He openly expressed his opposition to Canada's entry into the war, stating that workers were now employed in killing each other.
29:05
[SPEAKER_02]: He was found unfit for military duty after a medical exam.
29:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That was, until he let a strike for the eight-hour day at Consolidated Mining and Smelting.
29:14
[SPEAKER_02]: It was the world's largest lead and zinc smelter and a key munitions producer during the war.
29:20
[SPEAKER_02]: His status was quickly changed to make him eligible for conscription.
29:24
[SPEAKER_02]: He fled to the Cumberland Hills where he hit out for months to avoid the draft.
29:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And on this day, Goodwin was shot dead by a Dominion police special constable.
29:33
[SPEAKER_02]: He was brought back to Cumberland where thousands turned out for his funeral in a mile-long procession.
29:39
[SPEAKER_02]: The Vancouver Labor Movement was outraged by Goodwin's murder and called a one-day general strike on August 2nd to protest his killing.
29:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Labor History in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
29:52
[SPEAKER_02]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's At Labor History in two.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Does becoming a billionaire turn one into an insufferable jerk?
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is that an innate quality they bring to the position?
30:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Big name billionaires like Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg literally flopped their irrepressible jerkism, but the disease seems to inflict their entire class of Uber-rich corporate royals.
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Its tell-tailed symptoms are not their grandiose mansions and yachts, but they're sudden impulse
30:30
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular, they're now demanding that we get out of their way so they can remake society in their image.
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Jensen Whang, for example, a Silicon Valley techno whiz who heads in video, now the world's richest corporation.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He's demanding that we transform our economy and social structure into a new order of AI dominance.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Piously chatting those of us who are angry about AI's destruction of our jobs, communities
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Tutt, the Gavey in their schools, you petty people must quote, create new social norms to advance AI.
31:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's the little-known hauncho of soft bank, a multi-trillion dollar Japanese tech powerhouse, trying to impose AI supremacy worldwide.
31:17
[SPEAKER_00]: He's now asserting a corporate morality of wealth.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Calling people who question AI foolish.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: He philosophizes that tech war all quote will transform our lives completely, and do so in a way that generates profits.
31:32
[SPEAKER_00]: For whom?
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: For billionaires, of course.
31:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So there you have a clear statement of the values and goals of AI profiteers.
31:40
[SPEAKER_00]: More for them, no matter the cost to everyone else.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Soft banks imperious boss laughs at those of us who dare question his vision of an AI plutocracy.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Calling us fools who are spitting upward.
31:53
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hi-Tar saying, no sir, look again.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We are spitting straight at you.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So, one of the things I thought about while Trump was blathering on during the correspondent's dinner.
32:16
[SPEAKER_02]: on Friday was he was pimping his his indie car race and it like I I like indie car it's it's fun to watch people go fast like I like crashes
32:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but I started thinking about, you know, running indie cars through the streets of Washington, D.C.
32:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Normally they put these like, when I was in Cleveland, it was at Berkeley for an airport.
32:40
[SPEAKER_02]: There's nothing around.
32:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Perfectly fine.
32:43
[SPEAKER_02]: I started thinking about the William J. Cohen federal building.
32:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I know only I would be dumb enough to do that.
32:50
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's been in the news.
32:51
[SPEAKER_02]: You know the Cohen building as the the social security administration building or what I love better The 16-chappel of the new deal And why was I thinking about it because there's a lot of priceless Irreplaceable art on that building that I don't know See in those things zoom in by The vibration There's a lot
33:15
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why I thought it would be interesting to maybe get some different perspective on this.
33:20
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why I've asked Mary Oken to come share some thoughts.
33:22
[SPEAKER_02]: She's the assistant director of the Living New Deal.
33:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You can check out their website at LivingNewDeal.org.
33:28
[SPEAKER_02]: We have had Mary on a number of times talking about this building and trying to figure out how to save it as Trump and his cronies are trying to hack it off for pennies all the while destroying our history.
33:39
[SPEAKER_02]: But Mary, thanks for looking time for us.
33:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for having me on again, delighted to be here.
33:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got to say because of you, and I'm going to blame you for this, or credit you, let's go with that.
33:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to credit you when I heard Trump blather that out of his mouth about the indie car race.
33:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I go, I wonder about that building that Mary was talking about.
34:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So what do we know and what's happening with the building since the last time we spoke?
34:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of them positive there was a meeting a couple of weeks ago now where someone from the US General Services Administration said that the agency is actually rethinking
34:21
[SPEAKER_03]: plans to sell the building.
34:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've heard that the administrator, the head of GSA, who's a political appointee, saying, waffling about the perspective of selling it.
34:31
[SPEAKER_03]: However, I was just recently in DC, and the indie car race that you mentioned came to my attention.
34:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know how it wasn't sort of prominently on my radar sooner.
34:42
[SPEAKER_03]: But I started thinking about what it would mean for indie cars to race around downtown Washington, DC.
34:50
[SPEAKER_03]: past all the historic monuments and the historic buildings.
34:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And I immediately wondered whether it was going to be going by the Wilburjacoan federal building, which has, as you say, priceless art in it, and priceless art that is incredibly fragile.
35:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And I looked at the published map of the race and sure enough, it goes right by the Cohen building.
35:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So I actually am in the process of trying to do something about that.
35:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and this is one of those things where you go, was it by accident, was it on purpose, you know, was this a planned route and this is where with this administration, my mind goes to horrible places, because they're doing horrible things.
35:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I look at the fact that they're trying to rewrite our history, you know, as we speak, I mean, look at what they're doing to the Smithsonian.
35:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the.
35:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So I guess that's where my mind goes that you know, I'm surprised they didn't run a ring around it.
35:44
[SPEAKER_02]: You're kind of a loop right around it.
35:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And then shoot back out on the course.
35:49
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's really devastating.
35:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I think there is if there's something that ties all these things together.
35:55
[SPEAKER_03]: It is a general disrespect for our shared cultural heritage and the norms of our culture.
36:03
[SPEAKER_03]: There have been bicycle races around the National Mall in Washington DC.
36:08
[SPEAKER_03]: There have been foot races around the mall in Washington DC.
36:12
[SPEAKER_03]: There have not been car races, which are not just a matter of really fast cars rumbling around and causing sound vibrations at levels that these historic buildings and certainly fresco paintings are not, you know, not able to easily withstand
36:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, there's going to ask you about that.
36:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, look, there's a lot of traffic to go.
36:33
[SPEAKER_02]: He's buying because I know this is going to be the response.
36:35
[SPEAKER_02]: I get you know, there are a lot of people who drive fast by their Mary.
36:39
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of, there's a lot of traffic.
36:40
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of smuggle of fumes.
36:42
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lot of people throw in stuff at the building.
36:45
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of bad stuff happens.
36:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Why does this matter?
36:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's not just a matter of of cars going by.
36:51
[SPEAKER_03]: First of all, cars do go by the building, not at that speed and volume.
36:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And with that much noise, number one, an indie car is not the same as a regular car.
37:00
[SPEAKER_03]: number one.
37:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Number two, it's not just a matter of the indie car race.
37:04
[SPEAKER_03]: They have to build the track, which means there's going to be construction right outside the building, where there hasn't been construction for a long time.
37:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And the movement and the vibrations from building a racetrack into assembling a racetrack also has an effect on this building.
37:20
[SPEAKER_03]: As far as I understand from talking to experts, the building is not sitting on solid bedrock.
37:25
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a very
37:30
[SPEAKER_03]: it was built to withstand the weight of the records of the Social Security administration.
37:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's pretty sturdy, but it doesn't sit on solid bedrock, which means that the underground hallways and whatever else is beneath many of the buildings on the mall amplify vibrations from something like a street race.
37:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think there are good reasons why past administrations haven't done this kind of thing.
37:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, you know, and frankly, as I think I've publicly, you know, stated on my social media, like if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and FDR and any other president before this had thought it was a good idea to have a race car or street brawl on the mall, um, American culture would have looked very differently.
38:14
[SPEAKER_03]: They very specifically didn't.
38:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but George
38:22
[SPEAKER_03]: They didn't.
38:23
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know, maybe there were horses.
38:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I have no idea.
38:26
[SPEAKER_03]: At that point, I don't think there were underground tunnels.
38:28
[SPEAKER_03]: So I just I think that the lack of decorum is they could have gone down the beltway.
38:34
[SPEAKER_03]: There are plenty of other places where you're not going to be going by all the major museums on the mall.
38:39
[SPEAKER_03]: And I should add beyond the coin building.
38:42
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, there's a bunch of other museums and as far as I understand, some of them are taking measures to protect their collections in anticipation of potential damage and my bigger question is who's going to pay for the damage is that the American taxpayer because we're not making money off the Indian car race.
39:00
[SPEAKER_03]: That's for sure.
39:01
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so it's.
39:03
[SPEAKER_03]: who is at Roger Penske who owns Indicar and the Penske race team, which is going to be competing in the Penske corporation.
39:12
[SPEAKER_03]: He stands to make a profit.
39:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Certainly, the president I assume is going to be making a profit.
39:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Who's going to pay for all the damage?
39:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And there has been damage from the Freedom 250, Great American Fair, which I visited and have to tell you not very impressed at all.
39:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I came with an open mind and man was I was at a total disappointment and embarrassment in my opinion and there was damage to the mall like, you know, a lack of care for the environment for our national capital region and I find that to be unacceptable, you know, behavior.
39:48
[SPEAKER_03]: So profiting off of us and expecting us to pay for the damages to entertain yourself
39:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I also, just to be very clear about the Cohen frescoes, they have already sustained damage for a number of reasons, and they've been conserved very carefully and stabilized.
40:07
[SPEAKER_03]: They had damage from an earthquake, and they're also issues with the masonry behind them.
40:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's what's called cracking and tending that's been sort of stabilized, but that means they can't withstand vibrations at a sustained rate that you're during a race.
40:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the that's the point right there because I know people are going to woe you know there's all this traffic that the kind of vibrations you're talking because look I've gone to indica race.
40:34
[SPEAKER_02]: I I lasted to be honest quite frankly I lasted about 45 minutes in the kind of infield because it was just it was it was incredibly loud and and you couldn't breathe because of the smell of rubber and whatever it is they're burning as fuel and I just think you know I not not for me I know I love watching the crashes like everybody else
40:53
[SPEAKER_02]: But not for me and certainly not in a place where you have high density residential residential areas and well buildings like this So yeah, I can see now I get it.
41:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I get why that's kind of the kind of the the important part It's primarily I mean, I've been to DC a bunch.
41:11
[SPEAKER_03]: There is some traffic.
41:12
[SPEAKER_03]: It's primarily a pedestrian area people are walking on the mall
41:16
[SPEAKER_03]: people are going to museums.
41:18
[SPEAKER_03]: There's actually not a lot of parking in the area.
41:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a high density car area, at least in the times that I've been there.
41:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And the other part for me, Mary, you know, real quick is that, you know, if you're going to sell the building, why do you want to devalue it by ruining it?
41:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would you, you know, the number one thing that would be there, the history of that building, the selling point, I know outside of the fact that the property is incredibly valuable and we're basically going to give it away.
41:42
[SPEAKER_02]: But why would you, why would you want to devalue
41:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, this is what preservation is called demolition through neglect, right?
41:50
[SPEAKER_03]: So you, you know, don't take care of the building over a long period of time.
41:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you can, you know, demo it.
41:59
[SPEAKER_03]: You can basically say, you know, it's way too expensive to do the upkeep that this building needs.
42:04
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just going to be cheaper to knock it down and replace it.
42:07
[SPEAKER_02]: But isn't that everything this administration is doing just kind of destroying everything?
42:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, I go back to what I said at the beginning.
42:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I look at what they're doing with the Smith Sony and how they're trying to rewrite history and now evidently they're putting warnings.
42:21
[SPEAKER_02]: They're a version of history in front of the actual history.
42:25
[SPEAKER_02]: As if they're the same, there's some weird stuff and also something with help me with this because I'm not 100% sure what section 106 is, but there's some changes there.
42:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Walk me through.
42:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, so first with the Smithsonian, I think this kind of censorship stuff, you know, you look at the 1930s, which is the period we care about it, living New Deal a lot, you know, you look at Nazi Germany and the, you know, censorship of artists and intellectuals in fascist countries abroad, you look at similar suppressions here at home and you can see parallels in the rhetoric and the actions of what's happening today.
43:06
[SPEAKER_03]: for people who are interested in silencing any form of descent or any kind of alternative position to their views even if it's historically accurate.
43:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's number one.
43:17
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the ways the other ways that you undermine history and collective memory and kind of respect for our shared cultural values is you destroy historic sites.
43:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And one of the things that has been protecting historic sites across the country is the National Historic Preservation Act, which was passed in 1966 and something called section 106 last year the president fired or removed the majority of people through from a series of commissions and agencies that managed.
43:53
[SPEAKER_03]: public art, public buildings, and historic properties.
43:57
[SPEAKER_03]: The most prominent of which is the advisory council on historic preservation.
44:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was revealed last weekend that there were plans underway to completely got section 106.
44:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Now what is section 106 specifically?
44:12
[SPEAKER_03]: In layman's terms, it's a chance for us as the American people, particularly organizations that represent the best interests of the American public,
44:21
[SPEAKER_03]: to come to the table and have a discussion with the government about proposed projects that would impact historic sites and their specific definitions which are quite broad for what a historic site could be anything from an indigenous sacred site that doesn't have buildings on it but is considered historic because of its cultural significance.
44:41
[SPEAKER_03]: to historic district like New Orleans and the French Quarter or Greenwich Village, for example, to places like the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building or Main Street in your typical historic downtown.
44:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, what they've done last weekend is to completely eviscerate those broad distinctions that give us a chance to protect historic places and instead, um, have narrowed those definitions to make it really, really easy for people to go through and do whatever they want with little to no input from us.
45:18
[SPEAKER_03]: It is catastrophic and the solidarity and mobilization of the stark preservation community has been unprecedented and incredibly inspiring.
45:27
[SPEAKER_03]: There's as cultural heritage partners said it or now, you know, between, you know, this administration's, you know, desires and the right thing to do.
45:40
[SPEAKER_02]: No, and their desires are, well, I'm not going to throw any, what do you think the desire is them?
45:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think it is to be able to do whatever you want without having to consult experts without having to consult communities and to make as much money as you possibly can off the resources the United States, including historic resources.
46:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Or, you know, the resources that you imagine would be helpful to you instead of protecting things that places that mean a lot to Americans that define American communities.
46:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Because you think I hadn't heard of Section 106.
46:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that the average American has any idea what it is, but it's one of those things I think was put into place to make sure that you can't do what they're trying to do, which is why I think they are trying to destroy it so that they can do what they're trying to do, which is to whitewash history, to create their version so that they can keep pointing us and dividing us by pointing out others.
46:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, using our history against us, if you will,
46:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
46:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think the other important thing is, you know, the point that they are going to try to say to you is that section 106 prevents projects from moving forward.
47:02
[SPEAKER_03]: We need things like affordable housing, we need things other kinds of things in section 106 and the National Historic Preservation Act gets in the way of development.
47:12
[SPEAKER_03]: That's simply statistically untrue.
47:15
[SPEAKER_03]: If you look at the history of how many lawsuits have been filed for section 106, it's pretty minimal.
47:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And the process has worked really well by bringing people to the table and identifying issues that just having a project development team move forward without consulting anyone doesn't necessarily provide.
47:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And so actually having people come forward and have a discussion and say, what about this, what about that?
47:38
[SPEAKER_03]: So it can be addressed on the front end,
47:45
[SPEAKER_03]: that didn't have to be wasted, but that can be avoided.
47:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's one of the only places Rick in American law.
47:53
[SPEAKER_03]: where we get a seat at the table in the decision-making process.
47:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's not just an attack on historic places in the historic preservation community.
48:01
[SPEAKER_03]: This is like an attack on Americans in general on our rights of fundamental rights that we've had since the 60s to tell the government what we think about decisions affecting our communities and how they're defined.
48:15
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, as a historian, as someone who studies all this stuff, and especially the FDR era, you know, I've been saying, you know, what we're witnessing is the end of the new deal.
48:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We're witnessing the end of democracy pretty much as we've known it through our lives and and returning it to the kind of democracy that the original intenters really wanted.
48:35
[SPEAKER_02]: The land did gentry, the white land donning males over 21 being able to vote, and I've heard a number of people talk about the original intent of the constitution.
48:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you agree with me or do you have a different thought?
48:48
[SPEAKER_02]: That's where they're trying to move us in that direction to kind of return us to the good old days.
48:53
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, where you didn't get the vote and well, those folks over there didn't get access to this, that or the other thing.
49:00
[SPEAKER_02]: But people like Trump, they do.
49:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there certainly is a pattern, you know, I'm not it, I'm not it by no means an expert on, you know, the motivations of all of these people, but I can say that the rhetoric that's being used and the kind of actions that are taking place suggests that there's not a ton of respect and consideration for what ordinary people need and what ordinary people deserve.
49:29
[SPEAKER_03]: FDR established a lot to protect historic sites, to protect our national parks, to provide resources for them.
49:38
[SPEAKER_03]: This administration is doing very different kinds of things.
49:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And we have to question, you know, what does this look like for me?
49:46
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a raw deal.
49:47
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what I call it.
49:48
[SPEAKER_03]: You have the new deal.
49:49
[SPEAKER_03]: You have the new deal legacy and the coalition and all the good that they did for unions for our national parks for
49:57
[SPEAKER_03]: working families through things like social security and the FDIC, the SEC, you know, building rural hospitals, all kinds of things.
50:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you have this, you know, indie car races and downtown DC that might destroy historic sites for the benefit of like a few people primarily and maybe some entertainment for the masses.
50:18
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... at the circus here a little bit of bread and circus and trump to you joked during his uh... is is press corps uh... speech that they were going to have Friday night fights and the world front of the white house lawn uh... he said he was joking but i gotta tell you uh... man i don't know i'm not buying the joking so last last bit uh... what do we do about it you know give me a marching order what what do i got to do
50:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
50:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So the ACHP, as far as I know, the advisory council on historic preservation has voted on the section 106 deregulation and it's moving forward.
50:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, I'm not an expert by my understanding is that now it's going to go over to the White House and then it will be open to which probably will green light it and then it will be open for public comment and it is incredibly important for people to read up on this issue and to make a public
51:05
[SPEAKER_03]: comment and to make a unique public comment not just like copy and paste a canned response because those tend to be grouped together as if they're one response.
51:14
[SPEAKER_03]: That's really important number one to show opposition to this, a ratio of our ability to
51:21
[SPEAKER_03]: you know sit down at the table with a government and tell them no if they're going to be destroying a historic site in our community.
51:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And too, because they're likely will be litigation and those public comments will play a role in that demonstrating that the American public are opposed to it.
51:35
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you want to learn more, there are plenty of articles that have been published about this in the New York Times and the Washington Post and the New Republic, my
51:45
[SPEAKER_03]: friend, journalist, and now kind of colleague friend Timothy Noah, who's been covering the colon building from the start of this whole issue and covered this issue as well, and also cultural heritage partners, which is really leading the effort to mobilize the entire historic preservation community and has established a war room.
52:05
[SPEAKER_03]: that details this issue has resources for people that you can watch, listen to, read, and action items that people can do.
52:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Post about it on social media, tell your friends and family.
52:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Like this is a really big deal.
52:20
[SPEAKER_03]: section 106 is kind of obscure, but it's actually for you, it's to your benefit.
52:27
[SPEAKER_03]: So let's all try to protect it.
52:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Something to hold on to.
52:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Mary, how can I appreciate you taking time for us?
52:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Assistant Director of Living New Deal.
52:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You can check out the website livingnewdeal.org.
52:35
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, thanks so much.
52:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much, Rick.
52:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
52:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Email me, Rick, at therixmithshow.com.
52:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Do we care about the building?
52:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Do we care about our history?
52:46
[SPEAKER_02]: sometimes I wonder, but I want to hear your thoughts.
52:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Email me ricketerriksmithshow.com back after this.
53:02
[SPEAKER_02]: This day in Labor History, the year was 1903.
53:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Labor leader Mother Mary Harris Jones was leading a march of children laborers to President Theodore Roosevelt's summer home in New York.
53:14
[SPEAKER_02]: The long march had began 20 days before in Philadelphia.
53:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Mother Jones was hoping to draw a national attention to the plight of child workers.
53:23
[SPEAKER_02]: The action caught the public's attention, and across the nation, newspapers reported on the March of the Mill Children, all the way in Leadville, a town in the mountains of Colorado west of Denver, the Harold Democrat carried the story of Mother Jones's East Coast March.
53:39
[SPEAKER_02]: The paper's July 27th article began, quote,
53:44
[SPEAKER_02]: That little army of mother Jones marching through the broiling heat of summer lay a petition before the president.
53:50
[SPEAKER_02]: She says truly that her errand is as vital as any which takes persons to oyster bag.
53:56
[SPEAKER_02]: She comes to please the cause of the child laborers.
54:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And to emphasize her protest has with her several score of ill-clad, puny children, the result of the enforced work of these children in factories.
54:09
[SPEAKER_02]: When the children's march reached the president's door two days later, the president was not there to meet them.
54:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yet the march had sparked national attention.
54:17
[SPEAKER_02]: In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee formed to take action on the issue.
54:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Pennsylvania passed tougher child labor restrictions the next year.
54:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But federal protections would have to wait until the next
54:30
[SPEAKER_02]: President Roosevelt, the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, finally included nationwide limits to child labor.
54:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Labor History in Too brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
54:46
[SPEAKER_02]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's At Labor History in Too.
55:01
[SPEAKER_01]: We're listening to the rinks medshow, we're working people coming to home.
55:05
[SPEAKER_02]: We didn't get to talk about the preserve act, I can't believe I didn't ask Mary about the preserve act.
55:15
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to go through a little bit as you would have explained it much better, but in my view, the preserve act, which call your congressmen, it's been introduced in the house to help address the co-in-building issue.
55:30
[SPEAKER_02]: It's basically a rescue line.
55:32
[SPEAKER_02]: for the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, and really all of the new deal art that's inside of it.
55:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And the simplest way that I can put it is that the government's trying to treat a historic public property, a treasure, like surplus office furniture.
55:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And this bill has meant to stop that.
55:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but here's the problem.
55:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Because the Cohen building isn't just another old federal property, it holds major murals and frescoes, like we've talked about from the New Deal era.
56:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Art that was created with our money, with public money, and it's part of the building, like we've talked about.
56:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And the big race, I think could harm that.
56:14
[SPEAKER_02]: some of those works as we've talked about are literally literally in the walls, which means you can't just yank them down and slap them at a great calm preserved.
56:23
[SPEAKER_02]: The preserve act would force real review before the government can sell the building, transfer it, strip out all of the all of this history.
56:32
[SPEAKER_02]: There would have to be something actually done, and that matters because once the building gets shoved through the fast disposal process, art and the history that's part of it are going to be the first thing sacrificed to the bulldozer gods.
56:47
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... supporters of the co-in buildings say y'all look it can be saved to rehabilitation we should do some things adaptive reuse whoever's gonna get a preserve preservation minded mind leasing or sale do something but only if our government actually stops treating it like a vacant liability and starts treating it like our shared history
57:09
[SPEAKER_02]: The building already has some historic protections, but again, like any rule, any regulation, a speed limit, that only applies if someone's actually paying attention to it.
57:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So this bill is not just about a pretty building.
57:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's about whether or not we value public art, public history, and the idea that things built by and for we the people should stay in the hands of the public trust, that's what this really about.
57:42
[SPEAKER_02]: In other words, do we preserve the legacy?
57:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Or do we let it get auctioned off to the lowest bidder because we want some quick real estate win?
57:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Or, and this is more where my mind goes with this.
57:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Do we want this to be another political favor?
57:59
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... another another chip in the uh... lining of the trump pockets because you know there's no poor person by this this building to be a rich guy is gonna get quite a steal and guess what like a lot of these schemes to privatize the commons and things that we the people hold control of they always make out they always find a way to double triple quadruple or more uh... their their bottom line
58:30
[SPEAKER_02]: well under undervalued for what they're offering to get rid of it for.
58:35
[SPEAKER_02]: But again, you know, we got a real estate president, a business man president who's bankrupted a bunch of businesses.
58:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this what we should be doing?
58:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you believe we should be preserving our art, our history, this is part of it.
58:50
[SPEAKER_02]: because we don't do this very well and there's a there's a comedian eddy isard who years ago did an amazing comedy special or he talks about you go into florida and there's a big display and he said we've preserved this property to weigh it looked over 50 years ago and he was mocking it because like he said I come from where they're at the we actually preserve our history where buildings are a couple hundred years old this is one of those moments
59:19
[SPEAKER_02]: want to hear your thoughts, work at the rxmithshow.com.
59:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Miss any portion of the program grab the podcast, wherever you get your favorite podcast, you'll find hours and as always, thanks for much of being here.
59:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Mell Rack at Rack at RickSmithshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, this has been The RickSmithshow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people, come to talk.