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The Rick Smith Show 9-11-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_04]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:17
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks so much for being here today on the big program.
0:22
[SPEAKER_04]: Lots to get to, lots to talk about.
0:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Trump, a Paloza, the GOP telethon down in Texas.
0:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, can it help Trump?
0:32
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, with a 37% approval rating, 61% disapproval rating according to the Economist, you've got poll.
0:41
[SPEAKER_04]: I've seen polls down at 32% approval.
0:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, not, not great.
0:48
[SPEAKER_04]: But what's amazing to me is still 32% to 37% are hanging on.
0:55
[SPEAKER_04]: That's their guy.
0:55
[SPEAKER_04]: And those are the people who tuned in to the GOP telethon.
1:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I know they're calling it a convention.
1:02
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not really a convention.
1:03
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a telethon.
1:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm surprised they didn't have an 800 number for people to help sponsor their special candidate.
1:12
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is where the struggle I have for me is is I want to mock it.
1:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to give it attention, but I also want to ignore it and the last night I'm watching some of it.
1:22
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm turning away from it.
1:23
[SPEAKER_04]: I decided to watch football instead of any of the other just to stay away from it because I know it's just going to be this big wet sloppy kiss.
1:36
[SPEAKER_04]: to Donald Trump.
1:37
[SPEAKER_04]: I know everyone who's going to get up there, they're going to bend over backwards sideways, kissing the ring, kissing the, you know, a fusive with praise that does not anywhere match reality.
1:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Because you can't make dear leader mad.
2:02
[SPEAKER_04]: And the more I look at this, the more I'm hoping the ratings are terrible.
2:06
[SPEAKER_04]: The initial response was virtually nobody watched.
2:10
[SPEAKER_04]: I look, Republicans want nobody to watch because of how unhinged Trump is.
2:16
[SPEAKER_04]: The one interesting thing that came out of all of it for me was the fact that John Federman basically announced he's going to run as a Republican in 2020 yet.
2:26
[SPEAKER_04]: I think I think that was his coming out part of it.
2:29
[SPEAKER_04]: I think, yeah, I think federal, I think he came out as a Republican and look, there had been rumors.
2:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Look, I've been friendly with John for years.
2:40
[SPEAKER_04]: Had him on the show numerous times, I don't know where the John federal meant I knew.
2:46
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know where he is.
2:49
[SPEAKER_04]: not look he could have been playing it you know a good interesting game you know our our relationship was not of a friends hanging out having beers clearly we we now he's in the studio a number of times we've had a man over the years when he was mayor all the way back um this this time is interesting watching uh the john federman i knew was uh was a worker was a guy who was was
3:15
[SPEAKER_04]: He was doing the work, he was putting in the time, putting in the hours, did amazing stuff in his local community.
3:22
[SPEAKER_04]: Was a great hands-on mayor in my view.
3:26
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't know what happened from the stroke until now that has created the person that we see.
3:33
[SPEAKER_04]: But what I do know now from the the spiel that he gave about how wonderful, how wonderful Dave McCormick is as a senator and how are you showing up for Pennsylvania?
3:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Seems to me like coming out, hey, I'm gonna run as a Republican, because understand the political folks that I know in Pennsylvania have already decided that there will be a primary.
3:55
[SPEAKER_04]: there will be someone.
3:58
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't think you get, I don't think federal men gets the youth enthusiasm that he got the last time, especially over his, you know, just of not, look, I understand people who support Israel or support the Palestinians or some, I understand people who support either so I do.
4:18
[SPEAKER_04]: But it's the kind of obnoxious way in which he went about it.
4:24
[SPEAKER_04]: That's one of those weird things for me.
4:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going, you do know that people are literally dying in all of this and you're making childish political maneuvers out of it.
4:36
[SPEAKER_04]: It seems ridiculous, but I marked my words.
4:39
[SPEAKER_04]: In, for the 2020 election cycle, federalmen will be a Republican candidate.
4:47
[SPEAKER_04]: Do I think he'll be of the nominee?
4:49
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, possibly,
4:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Quite possible, because look, the Republicans in Pennsylvania have literally nobody, unless they can like like McCormick, they can import them from Connecticut or somewhere else.
5:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Because well, this, this Republican part, Doug Maustriano, this, this, this Guarity woman who, wow, Lynn Swan, you go back to you to think about some of the Republican candidates
5:22
[SPEAKER_04]: took one for the team.
5:24
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think federalmen would be a formidable Republican candidate in this day and that's scary.
5:32
[SPEAKER_04]: That should be scary for Democrats.
5:35
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, what do we do now from now to election time?
5:39
[SPEAKER_04]: The hope is we take what's going on here.
5:43
[SPEAKER_04]: We wake up to the
5:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Every day can Democrats match that energy can Democrats can they do the work can they have the message because Trump is already proven that you know you don't have to deliver You just have to say stuff Trump says lots of stuff and and still 32% to 37%
6:23
[SPEAKER_04]: scary scary times and oh the weirdest thing for me a sitting treasury secretary gave a convention speech i know it was a it was it's a telethought but still i mean kind of makes kind of makes me wonder kind of makes me wonder yeah but you know welcome to where we are want to hear your thoughts email me rick at the ricksmithshow.com quick break right back
6:57
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
7:00
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1897.
7:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Striking coal miners marched on a coal mine in Latimer, Pennsylvania.
7:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Earlier that year, the miners had gone out on strike.
7:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Most of the miners were German or Eastern European immigrants.
7:15
[SPEAKER_04]: The Lehigh and Wilkesbury coal company had laid off workers, raised fees for homes and doctors, and forced longer hours on those who still work.
7:24
[SPEAKER_04]: By August 16th, 2000 workers had walked off the job in the mines.
7:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Most of the miners joined the United Mine Workers of America.
7:32
[SPEAKER_04]: The strike ended on August 23rd when the company agreed to the workers' demands, including a tencent an hour raise.
7:39
[SPEAKER_04]: However, when the raise went into effect on September 1st, only a few workers were given the raise.
7:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Two days later, the miners went back on strike.
7:47
[SPEAKER_04]: This time, they demanded a 15 cent an hour raise, a week later between 5 and 10,000 miners were on strike.
7:55
[SPEAKER_04]: And on this day in labor history, about 3 to 400 miners marched to a mine in the town of Latimer.
8:00
[SPEAKER_04]: They carried before them a large American flag.
8:04
[SPEAKER_04]: In the lead up to the march, Luzern County deputies were openly heard, bragging about how many miners they would kill.
8:10
[SPEAKER_04]: When the miners reached Latimer, Luzern County Sheriff James Martin and the coal and iron police deputies met the strikers at the mine and ordered them to disperse.
8:20
[SPEAKER_04]: 60 deputies armed with windchester rifles, hit behind a low rise along the route of the march.
8:25
[SPEAKER_04]: The deputies opened fire, killing 19 strikers in cold blood and wounding as many as 50.
8:31
[SPEAKER_04]: All of those killed were shot in the back.
8:34
[SPEAKER_04]: The state actually put the coal and iron police deputies on trial, but despite the overwhelming evidence that the workers were shot in the back all were acquitted.
8:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
8:48
[SPEAKER_04]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintube.com,
9:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
9:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Now here is Rick Smith.
9:08
[SPEAKER_04]: So earlier in the week, we talked about Lori Chavez, Deriemer, Trump's former secretary of labor and understand a secretary of a labor hand chosen by Teamsters president, Sean O'Brien.
9:22
[SPEAKER_04]: So this was this was this was his choice.
9:25
[SPEAKER_04]: We find out
9:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Kind of like a friend party, you know, drunkenness and that strippers and dollar bills and, well, you know, mocking the poor and the hostile toxic work environments.
9:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe someone should join a union there and maybe stop some of this stuff, but here to share some thoughts on, well, what was the story?
9:46
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's my good friend Michael Sinado to come share some thoughts.
9:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Michael's got a piece on this over at the Guardian.
9:52
[SPEAKER_04]: You can check out their website TheGuardian.com.
9:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Michael, thanks for taking time for us.
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, for at any time.
9:58
[SPEAKER_04]: So any shocker here, any surprise that this was gonna end this way?
10:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So based on her resignation, we knew there was an investigation going on since this past January.
10:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And the report from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Labor came out last week.
10:35
[SPEAKER_01]: really bad comical.
10:38
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just ridiculously just corrupt.
10:44
[SPEAKER_01]: A money allegations of the report found was that she and her aides took gifts without properly disclosing them with ethics department.
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: She was using the department for personal trips, taking, you know, luxury, she took a luxury trip to Palm Beach and the government has certain thresholds where you're allowed to get.
11:12
[SPEAKER_01]: reimbursement for travel and things like that.
11:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They completely ignored it.
11:17
[SPEAKER_01]: She had two aids to basically berated workers at the agency.
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We're terrible to them throughout the report.
11:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, a litany of just abuse from her AIDS, they drink, they drink on the job.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Laura Chavez, the remort, you know, there's a case, an example cited in the report where.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: She forces a limo driver to go to into a strip club with her.
11:48
[SPEAKER_01]: This is on a personal trip to Oregon, and, you know, pressures her security guard who she had a romantic relationship with to force the limo driver to give money to strippers.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, she's 58 years old, married.
12:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't get into her husband who was banned from the Department of Labor headquarters for harassment claims against staffers.
12:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just really just a reality show and you get little snippets and little details from it.
12:28
[SPEAKER_04]: The reality shows the best way to put it because you knew it was going to be a train record and I said at the time, look, when I'll Brian and Trump and Deremer did the whole thumbs up picture and the whole group picture I remember saying at the time, this isn't going to age well.
12:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Because it's just not, but I said at the time, she is the the best possible choice of every other worse option because at least while this kind of circus is going on while this fret party's happening They're not spending a lot of time with their guns aimed at working people, which I guess is the best for me at the time the best I could hope for
13:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It really was, just even earlier this year, in January, the Department of Labor started posting these neo-Nazi themed social media posts.
13:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And some people on social media were criticizing it, but there was really no centralized opposition to whether it's from the Democrats or the Labor Rubin.
13:33
[SPEAKER_01]: In general,
13:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had to go in like ask unions, hey, have you seen these posts can you comment on that and then finally, you know, a week later than your times did their own story and then he was moved to the Department of Homeland Security, but it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was,
13:51
[SPEAKER_01]: It was dysfunctional, a dysfunctional department of labor under her rule.
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: She was hailed as this pro-labor Republican, but as soon as her hearings started, she had voted for the pro-acti flip-flop on that.
14:09
[SPEAKER_01]: and you know there's literally nothing you can point to to say oh she did this is good for workers and not want not one example.
14:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Now I gotta tell you know as you know the 20 year old version of me would have loved to work in that office a little drink in a little strip club time a big party atmosphere why not she's just reliving her youth come on get cut her cut her a brick I gotta tell you though my favorite part of the of it was her sending one of her staffers home
14:38
[SPEAKER_01]: They organized their closet up.
14:41
[SPEAKER_04]: How do I get one of those?
14:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I need one of those.
14:45
[SPEAKER_04]: I got an email from Graham on another story you've written.
14:48
[SPEAKER_04]: And Graham asked the question about labor in the south.
14:51
[SPEAKER_04]: He said particularly West North Carolina East Tennessee.
14:54
[SPEAKER_04]: He said it needs a shot in the arm.
14:56
[SPEAKER_04]: He said I listen to your program every day.
14:57
[SPEAKER_04]: I agree with your views and concerns.
14:59
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm currently an FEE member of National Federation of Federal Employees.
15:03
[SPEAKER_04]: I says, but I've carried an IBW and I have G.E.
15:06
[SPEAKER_04]: cards in the past.
15:07
[SPEAKER_04]: For years, I've watched Unions in the South shrink, I've watched our membership to climb and our market share fade.
15:14
[SPEAKER_04]: He goes, you know, my question is, where's the Union organizing?
15:18
[SPEAKER_04]: You got a story on, you know, last year we saw a big increase for 11,000 new members, that's not hitting in the South, is it?
15:28
[SPEAKER_01]: No, okay, most of the Union member increases occurred in states that aren't right to work state.
15:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's 26 states that have right to work laws on the books and for people that aren't familiar with that, it basically allows people to free ride off of unions.
15:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, the phrase was coined by a man named
15:57
[SPEAKER_01]: in the 1940s and in 1950s and he popularized it and that's when these laws really went on the books.
16:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Michigan revoked their right to work a couple years ago, the first state to do that in a while but you really have a tale of two countries in the US.
16:21
[SPEAKER_01]: You have right to work states.
16:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hate that term, it's how the people and support of it, but that's, you know, it's a, it's a right to free ride.
16:33
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a free, free letter, absolutely.
16:35
[SPEAKER_04]: And the right to bargain stance.
16:37
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, the sad reality is is, you know, the laws matter.
16:39
[SPEAKER_04]: And I've been saying this for a while, why politics matters.
16:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Got a lot of my union brothers and sister go, you know, union shouldn't be involved in politics at all.
16:47
[SPEAKER_04]: And you go, no, they really should be because,
16:50
[SPEAKER_04]: good laws help us organize and fight for better wages, hours and conditions, and bad laws do this.
16:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely, the politics are going into the unions, whether the unions are getting into politics or not.
17:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, what happens in state legislators and the federal government impacts unions and what they're able to do, so unfortunately, theoretically, it might sound nice to remain neutral and not be political, but the root sobriety
17:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yesterday we had Stephen Greenhouse on the program and another labor journalist who was talking about his piece, you know, basically saying the Trump administration is the worst for labor and the, and at least in our lifetimes and probably the last hundred, at least the last hundred years.
17:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And
17:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And you know, went through all of the reasons why all of the, the different assaults on organized labor and pointed out the fact that look, they went after a million federal workers in their right to bargain, this is not a labor friendly administration by any stretch of the imagination and it's only going to get worse with bad policies coming out of these folks.
18:03
[SPEAKER_04]: So when you have states that are growing a little bit in 411,000.
18:08
[SPEAKER_04]: is a good number but when when unions when ours popular as they are now when you're talking about 71% of people saying that they approve of and majority of them saying they want to join unions if they could I would think that number would be I don't know a little bit more elevated thoughts.
18:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
18:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, the our labor law system is broken.
18:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we've seen it with any high profile union organizing campaign in the past, you know, five, ten years.
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe's, you know, stores of unionized workers of one union elections.
18:45
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no contract.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no consequences.
18:49
[SPEAKER_01]: for these companies, it's very unfortunate.
18:56
[SPEAKER_01]: The reality is the National Labor Relage Jack was passed in the 1930s, coming out of the great depression and just the labor strife that had been going on where workers were basically getting killed, you know, hunger strikes, you know, things of that nature.
19:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And we basically need another update and there needs to be teeth and labor law reform, but there needs to be other avenues aside from that.
19:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We the pro act passed the house under when the Senate was in control of Republicans.
19:36
[SPEAKER_01]: We can't wait on the laws to change at the federal level.
19:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And that there doesn't need to be
19:45
[SPEAKER_01]: uh, you know, concerted efforts into organizing, uh, and then at a big level, um, I know the AFL CIO has pledged to do that, uh, and continue to add members, uh, you know, and like you said, the labor movement labor unions, the Gallup poll just came out, uh, you know, last week, uh, 71% of the American public approve of labor unions.
20:12
[SPEAKER_01]: more popular than both political parties.
20:16
[SPEAKER_01]: People see the evidence, the data, the substantiate that labor unions are the vehicle needed to combat inequality, the affordability crisis, that the working class and the middle class in America are enduring right now.
20:37
[SPEAKER_04]: I've been saying for a couple of decades here on this program that the only balance to corporate power is strong militant unions at the fight back on that corporate power and demand some of the productive gains that corporate America has been pocketing and basically snatching from us.
20:55
[SPEAKER_04]: And again, another scheme corporate America has come up and you've got another piece that I want to talk about a little bit.
21:01
[SPEAKER_04]: It's these,
21:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Changing prices at the, with these electronic pricing schemes and I saw this a couple of years ago there was a department store that had him and I and I said at the time ago this is this is it wasn't there yet, but you knew eventually.
21:19
[SPEAKER_04]: you know we're going to get dynamic pricing you know more people are buying this product so hey let's jack that up a little bit uh more hey you might buy this product more often than others so we're going to charge you individually because we give them all our all of our data with those store cards that I've I've really tried to push back over uh walk me through what the AFL tech institutes come up with I've what I see some like 6.9 billion dollars
21:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So they came up with estimates based on the marketing materials of the companies that manufacture these electronic shelf labels, which are essentially digital price tax.
21:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And the systems, like you said, they allow and permit dynamic pricing.
22:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, some of the examples they cited with allergies, when the pollen count is up, they can jack up.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: allergy medicine prices.
22:14
[SPEAKER_01]: If there's a snow storm, they can jack up snow goods, you know, things like that.
22:19
[SPEAKER_01]: That's dynamic prices.
22:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's surveillance pricing, where it is, they know if you have a habit of, you know, if you're looking at a product multiple times, they know you want that or need it so they can jack up the price.
22:34
[SPEAKER_01]: for you and the person down the street is going to get a totally different price.
22:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So there are consumer concerns, a big consumer concerns with this technology and the system's behind it.
22:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And these companies, they're promoting it and publicizing it to retailers,
22:57
[SPEAKER_01]: say saying oh you can save so much on labor cost you can increase your profit margins by increasing prices more more often so between the jobs lost it's anywhere from around 44,000 to over 100,000
23:14
[SPEAKER_01]: just based on their estimations and, you know, between a little over a billion to over six billion dollars in wage is lost.
23:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Because right now, it's workers who take, who, you know, and grocery stores are switching those price tags and then engaging those prices and it's usually done on on a weekly basis.
23:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I worked at CVS, I had to do it on a weekly basis.
23:40
[SPEAKER_01]: But what these digital tags allow is for multiple price changes to occur on a daily basis.
23:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, and that's not good.
23:50
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not going to be good for workers or consumers.
23:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, I heard a story and I, I'm not going to say it's true, but I just is one of those internet things that I heard, uh, that makes sense to be honest, though, uh, that someone picked up a shirt at a big box retailer.
24:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, the, the tag said, let's say five bucks.
24:06
[SPEAKER_04]: By the time they got to the checkout counter at rang up as 10, and then went back to check the tag and it said 10, because the time it took her to walk from front to back, or from the back to the front,
24:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, they, they, they changed, they changed it.
24:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And that, but, and that's an example of what code and will happen with these digital price tags, because, uh, you're not having it on a fixed weekly basis, uh, you know, if you get groceries on, uh, one morning, uh, on Tuesday morning, uh, you, uh, you, uh, you're, uh,
24:40
[SPEAKER_01]: going to anticipate and if you owe it to Tuesday night, they're going to be this, you're going to pay the same price and with this technology, like you said, like you could pick up an item, see a, particularly price and by the time you get to the checkout, it's a completely different price.
24:58
[SPEAKER_04]: No, it's crazy and it's crazy how how things have just flipped on its head like I went to go by hockey tickets today My son and I are going to start going to a couple of hockey games locally and I went to the box office because I didn't want to pay ticket master fees And the woman at the tip at the box office said, you know, it's a lot cheaper if you just go online because we charge a premium now for you to come into the box office And I'm going oh They got you man.
25:25
[SPEAKER_04]: They got you
25:27
[SPEAKER_04]: So let me play Devil's Advocate for a second because some would argue that, you know, corporate America now just has information and the free market is about information.
25:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Everybody going into the market, being informed consumers and sellers, and there's that transaction of two informed groups making that bargain.
25:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Isn't this just the employer is going, hey, we've got a bunch of information that we're now using that's going to benefit us and Hey, by the way, Michael, you have the right not to buy it, you can you can do what I did and walk out and abstain What do you make of that?
26:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I completely disagree with it.
26:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I think consumers have rights.
26:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think we should live in a system where companies can do whatever they want, especially with data collection, which this technology is and enables that.
26:23
[SPEAKER_01]: and enables data collection to also be used in abuse on an individual basis, which, you know, personally, individually, I'm not comfortable with, and I don't want to live in a society way that happens regardless of the extent of it or occurring anyways.
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
26:41
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no, the thing is, this was all predictable.
26:43
[SPEAKER_04]: When the first store card came out, and my wife came home with it,
26:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Our name, our telephone number, our email address, it's not linked to our credit card.
26:56
[SPEAKER_04]: You now start to see that system being built.
26:58
[SPEAKER_04]: This was years ago.
26:59
[SPEAKER_04]: You saw this kind of being rolled out to where, you know, it's now just one more minor intrusion into our lives until eventually that idea of privacy as well.
27:10
[SPEAKER_04]: One of those things we sit on the porch and in pine for.
27:13
[SPEAKER_04]: You remember in the good old days when corporate America didn't know everything about
27:22
[SPEAKER_04]: the good old days.
27:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Anyway, Michael, as always, great work.
27:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope folks will check out the website over there at theguardian.com and the great reporting that you do there.
27:31
[SPEAKER_04]: As always, Michael Sonato, thanks so much.
27:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Laura.
27:36
[SPEAKER_04]: One of your thoughts.
27:37
[SPEAKER_04]: You okay with this?
27:38
[SPEAKER_04]: You okay with the digital pricing?
27:42
[SPEAKER_04]: You okay with the information gathering?
27:43
[SPEAKER_04]: You okay with all of this?
27:46
[SPEAKER_04]: And are we ready to smash the machines
28:00
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
28:03
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 2012.
28:06
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day the Chicago Teachers Union walked off the job for the first time in 25 years.
28:13
[SPEAKER_04]: The historic weeklong strike resonated nationwide among trade units and served to reinvigorate the Labor Movement.
28:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Certainly, higher wages and better benefits were among the teacher's demands.
28:24
[SPEAKER_04]: The city's mayor, Rama manual, had canceled the union's wage increase, laid off close to 1,000 teachers and went on the attack against seniority rights and working conditions.
28:35
[SPEAKER_04]: The strike enjoyed wide public support among parents and the public.
28:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Teachers emphasized broader educational problems they faced, namely the attacks fueled by corporate privatization.
28:45
[SPEAKER_04]: They wanted a return to more traditional forms of education.
28:49
[SPEAKER_04]: rather than simply preparing students for endless rounds of testing.
28:53
[SPEAKER_04]: They wanted more art, music, and gym classes, and they demanded stable funding for social support services for the most vulnerable at-risk students.
29:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Union teachers understood that the Board of Education was using standardized testing to get rid of teachers and schools in order to privatize education.
29:11
[SPEAKER_04]: all in the name of turning around failing schools and helping the kids.
29:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Though the contract was less than perfect, it showed the power working people have to hold the line against continued assaults on their standards of living, especially in the public sector.
29:26
[SPEAKER_04]: The CTO was able to beat back attempts at merit pay and increased use of student test scores in teacher evaluations.
29:34
[SPEAKER_04]: They won first time recall rights.
29:36
[SPEAKER_04]: supply reimbursements and liberal arts classes.
29:39
[SPEAKER_04]: There were concessions, however, made on seniority rights, pay for laid-off teachers and longer work days.
29:45
[SPEAKER_04]: But the CTO demonstrated that strikes can win in a period of extended anti-union onslaughts.
29:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Labor History in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
29:56
[SPEAKER_04]: For more information, go to laborhistoryinter.com.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Growing up, I received a wealth of working-class values from my parents, including this nugget about egalitarianism.
30:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody is better than you, they said, and you're no better than anybody else.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the ethical underpinning for where all in this together.
30:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what Thomas Jefferson enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln consecrated in his Gettysburg Address.
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It's our pledge of allegiance to liberty and justice for all.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what the statue of liberty welcomes.
30:31
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what he Guthrie's anthem to the common good, and well,
30:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's America.
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless, of course, your Elon Musk, Peter Teele, or other far-out plutocratic supremac who do indeed consider themselves better than the rest of us.
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: For this ilk of technocratic elites, government's role is not to promote the common good, but to protect their wealth from the common good.
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Their grandiose sense of self-esteem is as silly as it is dangerous, but it's not new.
31:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And we commoners have risen up many times in our history to beat down such crushing arrogance.
31:08
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, John C. Calhoun, a venerated statesman of the mid-1800s, led a national crusade to convert all workers to slave laborers owned by moneyed masters.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the Civil War, a family of profiteering bankers got one of their sons exempted from duty in the Union Army by a certain quote, there are plenty of lives less valuable than his.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the 1920s, a prominent anti-woke academic proclaim that races are inherently unequal, so quote, democracy isn't unrealizable absurdity.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiter saying, this is the legacy of moral and political failure that Musk Teal at Al are trying to ride the victory today.
31:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's rise up again and crush them once again.
32:12
[SPEAKER_04]: So with the big Trump GOP, Telethon, going down, down in Texas.
32:17
[SPEAKER_04]: You know what they're not talking about?
32:19
[SPEAKER_04]: They're not talking about issues that are important to working people.
32:22
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is a question that I keep asking over and over again.
32:26
[SPEAKER_04]: What do our tools need to be doing to gain our votes?
32:29
[SPEAKER_04]: As I've told you before, I don't view politicians as saviors.
32:32
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't view them as anything other than tools to get what we need done.
32:37
[SPEAKER_04]: So the question is, what should we be asking of our tools?
32:40
[SPEAKER_04]: What should we be demanding?
32:42
[SPEAKER_04]: And if we can't get it, how do we get different tools?
32:45
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's why I have asked Dr. Doyer, Malone to come share some thoughts with us.
32:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Dr. Malone is a political commentator, author, and the host of those who give a damn podcast, you can check that out over at doveyairjmalone.com.
33:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Dr. Malone, thanks for taking time for us.
33:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having me, Rick, I appreciate it.
33:04
[SPEAKER_04]: So this is the million dollar question.
33:06
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, the reality is is, you know, working people, I go back to George W. Bush when a woman stood up and says, hey, I work three jobs.
33:14
[SPEAKER_04]: And she's trying to explain how bad her life is, how hard things are and he's going, man, that's great.
33:19
[SPEAKER_04]: It's amazing that you do it like it's some kind of victory to have to work three jobs to make a living.
33:27
[SPEAKER_04]: What should we be demanding of our political leaders?
33:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely.
33:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Working people do not need another campaign season.
33:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Love letter.
33:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Working people they need a public policy, a rig that's going to reach the immediate needs that the people are concerned with right now.
33:44
[SPEAKER_02]: And those immediate needs are very simple.
33:47
[SPEAKER_02]: People want to make sure that they have affordable housing in this country.
33:52
[SPEAKER_02]: We know that we have a housing crisis in this country.
33:55
[SPEAKER_02]: They also want to make sure that when they go to the grocery store,
33:59
[SPEAKER_02]: That they can afford groceries and not only afford groceries, but also ensure that their groceries are safe.
34:06
[SPEAKER_02]: We've had we saw so many recalls over the last
34:09
[SPEAKER_02]: two years of this Trump administration.
34:11
[SPEAKER_02]: They want to make sure that they're able to afford gas.
34:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Many work in people in this country that are in rural and inner cities across America, they have to have transportation and gas to get to work.
34:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And so gas prices is another issue, affordability, and then also make sure that they have a help here in this country.
34:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And the last thing I will say is we have saw this administration as well, good so many jobs and so we see that the unemployment rate is high in this country and particularly we saw where 600.
34:49
[SPEAKER_02]: African-American women or unemployed.
34:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we need public policy that's going to fix the immediate needs of the American people.
34:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And what do I mean by that Rick?
34:59
[SPEAKER_02]: When legislation is passed, that legislation needs to be able to reach states and get to the people they're very quickly.
35:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We saw that this big beautiful bill they just passed, and the American people should be
35:14
[SPEAKER_02]: What has changed in my life, right?
35:16
[SPEAKER_02]: Has anything changed for the better?
35:18
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it's been a very good question.
35:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, y'all, are you better off now than you were four years ago?
35:24
[SPEAKER_04]: And the answer is for most people, no, we were sold out, you know, Trump was going to come in and I'm day one.
35:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Day one, gas was going to be a buck, a buck.
35:33
[SPEAKER_04]: a life was going to be this economic utopia and yet we've started a war of choice that's jacked up the price of fuel fuel and groceries and everything are through the roof and his responses.
35:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't give it down.
35:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely, but the American people do give a damn.
35:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think you know, the American people are much smarter than politicians give them credit for.
35:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And so
36:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And they are playing in the face of the American people, but I believe that the American people are smart.
36:08
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to go out and they're going to vote and mask numbers and you're going to see Republicans.
36:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to see Democrats and you're going to see independence and they are going to vote based on the immediate needs.
36:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we saw a lot of talk about democratic socialist.
36:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, they've been winning in a lot of places across this country.
36:29
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not winning because they're democratic socialist.
36:32
[SPEAKER_02]: They are winning because they are delivering a message to the American people that working class people deserve better.
36:39
[SPEAKER_02]: They, they deserve policy that are going to meet their needs, that is healthcare.
36:44
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a affordable education that is having livable wages and being able to be a decent American citizen with health care, health care should be a public good and not a private service.
36:59
[SPEAKER_02]: It should be something that people make millions and millions of dollars off of.
37:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the American people are seeing that.
37:05
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I believe that, you know how your your parents will tell you, don't touch that stole.
37:11
[SPEAKER_02]: If you touch that
37:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And as a child, you may want to go ahead and take a recent test at school.
37:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I think a lot of the American people, they test that stove with a Donald Trump giving them a second term, twice the lighthouse twice and this term, this time they have got burnt and I think they're getting burnt even deeper, even deeper.
37:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And so a lot of this is going to be also about turnout.
37:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's why Donald Trump is trying to sell a message tonight to the American people to his base that to pretend like he is on the ballot and to come out one more time and to vote because I believe that Republicans know what's one to happen when the Democrats are in power.
37:53
[SPEAKER_02]: come January of 2028.
37:56
[SPEAKER_02]: They know that there will be multiple investigations.
37:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Disemministration have been one of the most corrupt administrations we've seen in American history.
38:04
[SPEAKER_02]: They understand that there will be oversight.
38:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this administration is trying to get ahead of it.
38:10
[SPEAKER_02]: But I believe that the the the wheels have turned and they have turned to late and the American people have failed it.
38:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And they are going to turn out in mass numbers in November.
38:22
[SPEAKER_02]: and they are one to really use their voices to ensure that they're able to meet the policies that they need.
38:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
38:29
[SPEAKER_04]: And I could serve Dr. Malone, the, and I've heard this argument before there.
38:32
[SPEAKER_04]: People are going to come out and record numbers and every time we pump this up, you know, then I get the feeling that people go, wow, people are coming out and record numbers.
38:39
[SPEAKER_04]: You don't need me.
38:41
[SPEAKER_04]: And we don't seem to get that wave that we were expecting.
38:43
[SPEAKER_04]: And then you throw on top of it all the stuff that this administration is trying to do to put roadblocks in the way.
38:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Look what they're doing with the postal service.
38:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you fear that the rig is already in?
38:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you fear that especially in communities that look like you?
38:57
[SPEAKER_04]: That they're already putting roadblocks in the way.
38:59
[SPEAKER_04]: They're already purging enough people to maybe steal this election?
39:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that a concern?
39:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a concern to me.
39:08
[SPEAKER_02]: But I feel like the my community in particular, I've been American communities and urban communities around this country.
39:14
[SPEAKER_02]: We understand what's at stake.
39:20
[SPEAKER_02]: that they are going to turn out and such a high rate, that it is going to be unrecognizable, that you will not be able to steal the election, that these elections will be won by landmark numbers.
39:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you see a lot of chatter about that, all across this country.
39:36
[SPEAKER_02]: root chats, social media, threes, are showing that, and I believe is going to happen.
39:42
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll give you an example, Rick, when we look at the numbers in the Georgia Democratic primary, a piece of land bottoms turned out double digit numbers out there in Georgia.
39:53
[SPEAKER_02]: People are motivated to come out.
39:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think it's going to be a lot of history making in November and I believe that the American people have failed what Donald Trump has done to this country.
40:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a lot of his supporters in.
40:11
[SPEAKER_02]: and people who supported him, but didn't believe everything that he stood for was like, oh, you know, he says one thing, but he's not going to go this far.
40:20
[SPEAKER_02]: But indeed, he has went just this far, this go around.
40:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We see that with the gutting of the federal government.
40:27
[SPEAKER_02]: We see that with the recalls that are happening across this country.
40:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Many Americans or unsure whether it's safe to eat.
40:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And let's not even get to talking about the farmers that are
40:41
[SPEAKER_02]: I had an opportunity to speak to Scott Colone, who's running for Senate race in Mississippi.
40:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And he is really getting a lot of support from farmers in Mississippi.
40:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And we know that farmers in Mississippi are black, they are white, they are all different backgrounds, all different religious beliefs, but they are hurting because of the tears.
41:01
[SPEAKER_02]: and he told me that many of them in Mississippi or are supporting his campaign.
41:06
[SPEAKER_02]: And so just like that example in Mississippi, that is happening all across this country.
41:12
[SPEAKER_02]: We also see the trade war with Canada, right?
41:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe the American people are watching this and they're taking stock to it and they're gonna take it to the polls.
41:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I also hope to look at it.
41:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Look, I hope that's the case.
41:26
[SPEAKER_04]: I wanna see a man-dent.
41:31
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm moment ago you brought up socialism and the bookie man right now is going to be, you know, any of those people are talking about government actually doing anything, they're either socialist or communist and and playing on the fact that they think Americans are stupid and are going to just react to a name and I got to be honest for a large percent of the people that I know, yeah, I think that's going to be a problem.
41:53
[SPEAKER_04]: So when you when you talk about that kind of messaging,
41:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, how do you get past what Trump has already laid out because I see that hitting home, especially with people who look like me and my community.
42:06
[SPEAKER_02]: You really have to talk about the immediate kitchen table issues that are affecting those people right there in your community.
42:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And so we know that every community is different across the state, I mean across America, we look at rural communities, things that work in rural communities and not going to work in inner cities across this country and so I think the best way to speak to your community is to speak to the immediate needs of those communities.
42:33
[SPEAKER_02]: and to be able to ensure that you are speaking to them.
42:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So for example, if you are running in Mississippi, you should be speaking to farmers, right?
42:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And making sure that you have developed a comprehensive plan that when you come to Washington, that you're going to be able to pass legislation, that's going to meet the immediate needs of them, bringing down the calls of fertilizer, making sure that they have
42:57
[SPEAKER_02]: you know USDA assistance and funding to be able to get the equipment they need to be able to get the equipment they need and to make sure that they understand that you are going to support them whether they're white, black, Democrat, or Republican.
43:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Those are the type of messages that are going to have to be given.
43:14
[SPEAKER_02]: When you look at urban cities across this country places, like Washington, D.C., the state of Maryland, Virginia, you should be speaking to that federal
43:27
[SPEAKER_02]: that you're going to be able to work to get legislation, to reinstate some of those people, to be able to speak to the immediate needs of the people within those communities.
43:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's how you get past some of those stereotypes.
43:41
[SPEAKER_04]: But ultimately, we know anything that the Democrats do take the house in the Senate, ultimately, Trump's going to veto all of that progress, which is the hope that over the next couple of years,
43:52
[SPEAKER_04]: We start to realize that Trump should be the greatest organizer for Democrats to say the Republicans have really screwed you over how about coming this way and again I know we're going to get hung up in the socialism communism talk again because anything that government does
44:10
[SPEAKER_04]: Four working people is now called socialism and I loved a social media post.
44:15
[SPEAKER_04]: I saw a guy asked a question about you know Why is Denmark where are the people in Denmark so happy when they pay such a high tax rate and the guy responded to goes, you know We don't why are you so fixated on taxes
44:26
[SPEAKER_04]: You go, yeah, we pay a little bit more than you do, but we get health care, we get pensions, we get child care, we get education, we get all this stuff.
44:34
[SPEAKER_04]: We're just better at math than you.
44:36
[SPEAKER_04]: We're not socialist.
44:37
[SPEAKER_04]: We just know what a good deal when we see it.
44:39
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think that's got to be the message that Democrats go back and run on going look.
44:44
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to make lives better.
44:45
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to have better wage jobs by and allowing people to join in four mutants.
44:50
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to invest in the things that families actually need.
44:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Like child care, like home care for for aging parents.
44:57
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, go down the list of things health care.
44:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Things are going to make people's lives better.
45:01
[SPEAKER_04]: As much as I don't like James Carvel, it's always the economy stupid.
45:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Absolutely, absolutely.
45:08
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, we do not need to let any one reduce working people.
45:13
[SPEAKER_02]: to a vote or a campaign.
45:15
[SPEAKER_02]: They are people that keep this country moving and we have to take pride in that.
45:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Working people are the people who make sure that our trash is picked up.
45:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Working people are the people who make sure that the produce that we have in the grocery stores are there when we go on Sundays to reset for the week.
45:36
[SPEAKER_02]: working people are all teachers who go into the classroom and educate all young people to lead the next generation of leaders and they have paid a little and nothing, right?
45:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So working people do not need to be reduced to just a voting block or campaign pro.
45:53
[SPEAKER_02]: They are human beings who deserve respect, Rick.
45:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that the work in class understands that and there is one to be the mandate.
46:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope so in November.
46:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, I hope so.
46:05
[SPEAKER_04]: The sad reality is that we're the majority.
46:08
[SPEAKER_04]: While the wealth class has all the money, while the top 1% has all the money.
46:13
[SPEAKER_04]: We've, we've appropriated them.
46:14
[SPEAKER_04]: There are more of us still, but somehow they have figured out how to use the J.
46:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Gold Playbook of, I can pay half the working class, the murder of the other half, to keep us eating each other.
46:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Instead of looking at where the real problem is, is the massive wealth inequality that's going on.
46:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Look, I grew up in a housing project on the West Side of Cleveland, a minority and a minority community.
46:36
[SPEAKER_04]: I was the white kid in the black neighborhood, and I learned very young, it wasn't about white or black, because we were both broke.
46:43
[SPEAKER_04]: It was about green until we start uniting around the reality that in this country there's been a massive redistribution of wealth from people who work to people who just shift money from one pocket to the other.
46:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think anything changes, so my fear in USA is a professor in all of this stuff.
46:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe you've got a thought.
47:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I fear that none of this stuff really changes until we have a major catastrophe, a depression, a world war, where the old labor frame of when your stomach gets empty, your head gets right.
47:13
[SPEAKER_04]: I fear that's what it's going to take.
47:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Any thoughts?
47:17
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I've been talking to people across this country the last two years since this
47:31
[SPEAKER_02]: The level of hard and pain and suffering was not as it is today, September 9, 2026.
47:42
[SPEAKER_02]: This administration moved fairly quickly.
47:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, as I've been talking to people the last couple months, they are filling it at their kitchen tables.
47:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They're filling it at their gas tank.
47:54
[SPEAKER_02]: They're filling it when they go to the grocery store.
47:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They are filling it when they go into their emergency rooms and their rural communities and they no longer have hospitals.
48:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Rick, I'm from a small town and they have Mississippi.
48:09
[SPEAKER_02]: They no longer have a hospital and they have Mississippi.
48:16
[SPEAKER_02]: They just got a pharmacy back in the small town, I believe, because the banks and drugs store had left, right?
48:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And so people are struggling all across this country.
48:26
[SPEAKER_02]: They are struggling in rural communities, hospitals are closing, comprehensive health symptoms are closing across this country, and they are filling the pain.
48:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And I believe that the pain that the American people are filling is going to be the block that we will chip away at in November.
48:43
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think to your point, there's a lot of work to do after November.
48:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Democrats will have a mandate that they're in power and the American people are going to demand that they no longer do business as usual and that they come in fighting because the American people are looking for a fighter.
48:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So they cannot say,
49:01
[SPEAKER_02]: we can't lower healthcare premiums.
49:03
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to be expecting them.
49:05
[SPEAKER_02]: They cannot say that all we cannot lower low gas prices.
49:08
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to be expecting them.
49:10
[SPEAKER_02]: They cannot say that you cannot raise minimum wage.
49:13
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to be expecting it.
49:15
[SPEAKER_02]: This administration has shown us that there are ways to buff the system and use the system in a way that have hurt many Americans.
49:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And so people are saying that if Republicans can buff the system in a way that have hurt us as
49:28
[SPEAKER_02]: then I know goodness well that Democrats can go in and do the right thing for us and bring us the media change, right?
49:36
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that is what I think the American people are looking for, and I think anyone who has any hopes or aspirations to enter the White House on either party, whether Republican or Democrat, they are want to have to speak to the needs of the American people, because I don't think that it's going to get any better between now and November.
49:56
[SPEAKER_02]: for the American people.
49:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know why I say that Rick, look at what is happening tonight.
50:02
[SPEAKER_02]: The Republicans are playing in the face of the American people.
50:05
[SPEAKER_02]: No, absolutely.
50:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I'll jump that one.
50:07
[SPEAKER_02]: When they go to the grocery store, and they're spending,
50:11
[SPEAKER_02]: where they were spending $200 for their family, now they're spending $400, but you telling me it's okay, right?
50:18
[SPEAKER_04]: It's okay, because we're making the world safe from my ran, having a nook, and this is just a freedom tax.
50:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Dr. Malone, it's just a freedom tax.
50:27
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm hoping, I'm hoping you're right.
50:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I want it to be right, I want it to happen, because I think there has to be a correction, but I'll be honest with you, you said a moment ago that the administration moved quickly,
50:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Of course they did.
50:40
[SPEAKER_04]: They told us what they were going to do and this is the one thing I'm going to give him credit I'm going to give them credit for at least on this being honest because they wrote project 2025 They followed it and they are laying it out But I want to at some point down the road We got to get back together and talk more about this because the reality is these are conversations that happen have to happen not just up till November of this year But all the way through well
51:05
[SPEAKER_04]: on infinitum because working people do generally get stuck to this side, but Dr. Malone, I appreciate you sharing some thoughts.
51:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope folks will check out your podcast, those who give a damn podcast.
51:16
[SPEAKER_04]: You can check that out over at dovrjmalone.com.
51:19
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll get links out on social media.
51:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Dr. Malone, thanks so much.
51:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for having me, Rick.
51:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Want to hear your thoughts?
51:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you think Democrats are going to get the message?
51:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you think there's a chance that, oh, by the way, maybe they're going to care about working people this time?
51:34
[SPEAKER_04]: email me, ricketerricksmithshow.com, right back.
51:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
51:47
[SPEAKER_04]: This day in Labor History, the year was 1859.
51:51
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day that the St. Anthony and Minneapolis typographical union number 42 was founded in Minnesota.
51:59
[SPEAKER_04]: It was one of the oldest unions on record in the state.
52:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Three years earlier, printers in St. Paul,
52:05
[SPEAKER_04]: had formed a union local 30 with a dinner-to-honor Benjamin Franklin's birthday.
52:10
[SPEAKER_04]: At the time, just over 6,000 white people lived in the state of Minnesota.
52:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Typographical workers were very important to the early labor movement in the United States.
52:21
[SPEAKER_04]: These printers were vital to spreading the word about the cause of labor to other workers in the era before radio, television, or computers.
52:30
[SPEAKER_04]: In Minnesota, a journeyman printers joined together to form local 42, according to the history of Hennepin County and the city of Minneapolis published in 1881, quote, The Union was prosperous, having at one time on its list every journeyman printer within its jurisdiction.
52:48
[SPEAKER_04]: The war of the rebellion practically dissolved the organization, five of its members entering the Union Army.
52:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Like it did for many fledgling unions, the Civil War took its toll on the type of graphical union local 42 membership.
53:03
[SPEAKER_04]: One member, H.M. Metcalf, was killed in battle.
53:06
[SPEAKER_04]: The union was disbanded during the Civil War, reforming a decade later.
53:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Although the Civil War had disrupted labor organizing across the North, the years following the conflict saw a surge in labor activity, wages stagnated during the war, while prices for goods continued to soar.
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[SPEAKER_04]: Workers banded together for fair pay and against the exploitation that grew along with increasing industrialization.
53:32
[SPEAKER_04]: These early labor unions were prominently made up of skilled workers like these printers.
53:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Labor history in too brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
53:48
[SPEAKER_04]: So one media outlet with a tiny touch of bit a little bit of courage in the the Lake America.
54:07
[SPEAKER_04]: I can't believe it's like you know you do realize that names are important so that people can differentiate what What is what everything can't be America?
54:19
[SPEAKER_04]: But evidently the AP has said the associated press that it will not refer to Lake Ontario as Lake America unless it's deemed relevant
54:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not quite sure what that means.
54:33
[SPEAKER_04]: Does that mean if Trump sues, like he's famous for doing that, then be calling it like America?
54:40
[SPEAKER_04]: And does that mean we're going to change New Mexico to New America?
54:45
[SPEAKER_04]: And in a joke, and I got to be honest, I love South Park, but they're changing the name too.
54:50
[SPEAKER_04]: It's the South America.
54:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Did they know that there's already a South America?
54:57
[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, if Trump decides to bomb a South America, are they worried that it'll be South Park?
55:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Never mind.
55:06
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the weird world we're in because look at the end of the day, the real issues not getting any attention because Trump said that gas prices, they're not gonna come down until after the midterms.
55:16
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, right after.
55:18
[SPEAKER_04]: And there's part of me goes maybe right after maybe right after if Democrats do sweep into power and undo some of the stupid stuff that he's done, you know, like, um, I don't know,
55:36
[SPEAKER_04]: But he claims they're going to come down right after and it's going to be lower than ever and it's going to be the most tremendous ever.
55:40
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to be terrific.
55:41
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to be awesome now.
55:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I ran according to reports at Bloomberg are saying that they're ready for more intense war and that they will not back down.
55:53
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is not surprising from from from crazy people.
55:56
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is what I would have told you before had you come to me and said Rick, we're going to think about Bob and I ran.
56:01
[SPEAKER_04]: We're still thinking about starting a war with I ran.
56:04
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's like, one of those things that my grandfather told me when I was a kid.
56:07
[SPEAKER_04]: You never fight with anybody who has less the lose than you do.
56:10
[SPEAKER_04]: You never get into a street with somebody who, they really have nothing to lose.
56:17
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is kind of the message here.
56:19
[SPEAKER_04]: I ran the clerics, the people at the top.
56:25
[SPEAKER_04]: They're crazy.
56:28
[SPEAKER_04]: They don't care about their people.
56:30
[SPEAKER_04]: And if we start to think that they care,
56:34
[SPEAKER_04]: then then we've got some some issues.
56:37
[SPEAKER_04]: And I do find it interesting that the military some military top officer is saying that the Pentagon needs money now.
56:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh-oh, we're going broke.
56:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff stopped short of discussing the Pentagon's recent munitions agreements, but did kind of say long term
57:04
[SPEAKER_04]: we we need help and do you think America was ready for a long term drawn out conflict do you think we were ready do you think we wanted
57:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Another war because now look, the weird thing is, is I know my Trump supporter friends.
57:21
[SPEAKER_04]: I remember when they were saying it, you know, Trump stopped 9, 8, 9, 10, 20 wars.
57:26
[SPEAKER_04]: He was the peace president.
57:27
[SPEAKER_04]: He was not going to start any more wars.
57:29
[SPEAKER_04]: He stopped a bunch of wars.
57:31
[SPEAKER_04]: In places that most of my Red Hat friends, and I would have a hard time finding on a map quite frankly.
57:38
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the weird part of where we are.
57:40
[SPEAKER_04]: And I hope Dr. Malone is right.
57:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope there is a working class anger that rises up.
57:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Out of the ashes that Trump is creating.
57:51
[SPEAKER_04]: To say, you know what, maybe, you know, that, remember that America first stuff?
57:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe we start thinking about that a little bit.
57:59
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, lose the racism, the homophobia, the xenophobia, lose that.
58:03
[SPEAKER_04]: But think about, you know, investing at home, creating jobs at home, feeding our kids at home, educating our kids at home, getting health care for our kids at home, you know, maybe some of that stuff, maybe not thinking so much about how we enrich corporations in the very wealthy, just throwing it out as a possibility.
58:22
[SPEAKER_04]: because the sad reality is it seems, it seems like Trump and company don't really care about you or me or us.
58:33
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is why elections matter.
58:36
[SPEAKER_04]: I do find it interesting that in the more I talk to people who are going, you'll think it's a really bad, like Dr. Malone was one of them.
58:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Steven Greenhouse, why I highly respect.
58:48
[SPEAKER_04]: We're like, well, you know, we're surprised they move so fast.
58:50
[SPEAKER_04]: We, you know, we're surprised.
58:52
[SPEAKER_04]: No, they wrote it all down.
58:55
[SPEAKER_04]: And we knew it that we all knew they wrote it all down.
59:01
[SPEAKER_04]: They said they were gonna do it.
59:04
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is one of those moments where you go, you know, when they tell you who they are, maybe believe them, right?
59:13
[SPEAKER_04]: Thoughts?
59:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I wanna hear your thoughts.
59:14
[SPEAKER_04]: Are you surprised by what's going on?
59:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Because I'm really not, nothing, nothing this administration will do at this point.
59:22
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll shock me.
59:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Nothing.
59:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Why do you hear your thoughts?
59:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Rick at theriksmithshow.com.
59:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Miss any portion of the program.
59:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Make sure you grab the podcast where you get your favorite podcast.
59:33
[SPEAKER_04]: You'll find hours.
59:34
[SPEAKER_04]: And as always, thanks so much for being here.
59:38
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:42
[SPEAKER_03]: You've been listening to the Rick Smith show.
59:46
[SPEAKER_03]: email wreck at rick at the ricksmitshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Until next time, this has been the ricksmitshow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_03]: We're working people, come to talk.