Latest / The Rick Smith Show / The Rick Smith Show 8-21-2026

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The Rick Smith Show 8-21-2026 · 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_05]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:18
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks so much for being here.
0:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Today on the big program, lots to get to.
0:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Lots to talk about.
0:24
[SPEAKER_05]: How did it interest in conversation with a guy at the supermarket who was very angry with me, said that Trump is the champion of the working class, and I've got it wrong.
0:35
[SPEAKER_05]: evidently.
0:36
[SPEAKER_05]: And I said, look, you know, the sad reality is is the fact that you've bought Trump's stick is just an example of you getting played because I'm not seeing him as the champion of the forgotten man.
0:48
[SPEAKER_05]: And look, you know, Trump has wrapped himself in the hard hat and and said he was going, you know, we're going to bring the golden age back.
0:57
[SPEAKER_05]: There's going to be factories or roaring wages are going to go up.
1:01
[SPEAKER_05]: It's going to be awesome.
1:02
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to get tired of
1:05
[SPEAKER_05]: But when you pull back what's gone on, when you peel back the rhetoric and look at what this administration has actually done, and this is what I was trying to tell the guy, it's straight up war on wages, straight up war on Union, Safety, and your retirement.
1:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And look, this isn't a theory.
1:20
[SPEAKER_05]: It's what shows up in your paycheck or what doesn't show up in your paycheck.
1:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's look at wages for a second.
1:30
[SPEAKER_05]: While he's bragging about how well Wall Street's doing, the stock market's doing, his labor department was busy dismantling over time protections.
1:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Those are supposed to give millions of workers more time at home.
1:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And he runs around, oh, we're not taxing over time.
1:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Look, if your boss can call you a manager and pay you clerks wages and not have to pay you over time, does that help you?
1:56
[SPEAKER_05]: That's what Biden and Obama wanted to do.
2:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Trump took a wrecking ball to those ideas.
2:04
[SPEAKER_05]: I gotta tell you, that's not standing with workers, that's helping the boss keep you working for free.
2:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Trump's gone after unions and workers voice on the job.
2:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Love's talking tough to CEOs on camera, but instead in the inside, the machinery of government,
2:21
[SPEAKER_05]: He went after the one institution that gives workers any bit of power.
2:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's labor unions.
2:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Federal workers have seen their collective bargaining rights gutted by executive order mind you.
2:33
[SPEAKER_05]: He stacked labor agencies with people who hate unions and their whole life's goal is to make life harder for working people.
2:42
[SPEAKER_05]: You don't do that if you want workers at the table.
2:44
[SPEAKER_05]: You do that if you want them in the corner.
2:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Greatful to have a job and silent.
2:52
[SPEAKER_05]: If you've ever worked in a job like I have or one wrong move, one shortcut could name you, you know safety is not red tape, the rules aren't red tape, though the difference between going home and going to the ER.
3:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And what Trump's crew has done over the years is massive, massive deregulation, targeting dozens of rules limiting exposure to things like benzene, asbestos, or lead.
3:17
[SPEAKER_05]: That's not draining the swamp.
3:19
[SPEAKER_05]: That's telling corporate bad actors.
3:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, go ahead.
3:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Whatever, cut corners.
3:23
[SPEAKER_05]: If they get sick, that's a problem.
3:26
[SPEAKER_05]: And you look at the fact that this was supposed to be an economic utopia.
3:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Life was getting easier for working people.
3:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Instead, a wages have been squeezed, costurizing.
3:37
[SPEAKER_05]: And we gave tax cuts to billionaires in corporations.
3:40
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry.
3:41
[SPEAKER_05]: Where did we pay for that?
3:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah.
3:46
[SPEAKER_05]: And, oh yeah, going after the programs that working people actually rely on.
3:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Even moved to lower the minimum pay for some federal contractors.
3:59
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, so that the owners can have more.
4:03
[SPEAKER_05]: You can't say you're for the little guy while you're literally taking money out of their pockets.
4:07
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry, it doesn't work that way.
4:10
[SPEAKER_05]: And on the retirement front, the long term security front,
4:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Trump went after the, they went after the fiduciary protections that made sure that the person you're getting advice from has your interest in mine and not is.
4:23
[SPEAKER_05]: So here we go, Wall Street being able to skim a little bit more off of that modest savings you've been able to put away.
4:29
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, all at the same time, you've got the, the Trump bites going, hey, maybe we should go after Social Security, go after Medicare.
4:40
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not building a future for working families.
4:42
[SPEAKER_05]: It's carving it up and handing it to donors.
4:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Look, bottom line is Trump talks like a lunch bucket, populist, but governs like a boardroom stooge.
4:54
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the reality.
4:56
[SPEAKER_05]: He didn't forget workers, he's targeted them.
5:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And if you're punching a clock, shipping boxes, or running around, or holding a wrench, you should be furious at the guy who claimed to speak for you
5:09
[SPEAKER_05]: and make your life better, and he's only made it harder, more dangerous, and less secure.
5:15
[SPEAKER_05]: But hey, if you think he's your champion, gotta make me wonder.
5:21
[SPEAKER_05]: One of your thoughts, work at thewrigsmithshow.com.
5:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Back at me.
5:33
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1990.
5:37
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day that George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act.
5:44
[SPEAKER_04]: The ADA prohibits employment discrimination of people with disabilities and requires public accommodations to be accessible.
5:51
[SPEAKER_04]: But the passage of the act was the result of years of grassroots organizing by members of the ADA community and their allies.
5:59
[SPEAKER_04]: When President Bush signed the law, he said that if he had to thank everyone who had been involved, we'd never get out of here before sunset.
6:08
[SPEAKER_04]: The passage of the act had bipartisan support, but many business leaders worried about the ADA's effect, fearing the costs of accessibility accommodations to their bottom line.
6:19
[SPEAKER_04]: While most business leaders did not oppose the act outright, they did push for amendments and concessions to weaken its impact.
6:26
[SPEAKER_04]: The business newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, called the Act, quote, The Lawyers Employment Act, warning that a flood of lawsuits on disability issues would harm businesses.
6:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Insigning the bill, President Bush addressed business leaders specifically.
6:41
[SPEAKER_04]: He said, quote, you've called for new sources of workers.
6:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, many of our fellow citizens with disabilities are unemployed.
6:49
[SPEAKER_04]: They want to work and they can work.
6:52
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is a tremendous pool of people.
6:54
[SPEAKER_04]: And remember, this is a tremendous pool of people who will bring to jobs, diversity, loyalty, proven low turnover rate, and only one request, the chance to prove themselves.
7:06
[SPEAKER_04]: The passage of the ADA paved the way for fundamental changes in America's infrastructure, such as accessibility ramps, spots for wheelchairs on buses and subways and parking accommodations.
7:18
[SPEAKER_04]: This was a major step forward, yet more work remains in order to build a society truly accessible to all.
7:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
7:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
7:40
[SPEAKER_05]: So our quote of the day comes from my next guest, Alex Lawson, head of the executive director of Social Security Works.
7:49
[SPEAKER_05]: He said, I want a world that is awesome.
7:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I want a world that is kind.
7:53
[SPEAKER_05]: I want a world that works for working people.
7:56
[SPEAKER_05]: that is who makes this country great he says it's the billionaires and they're perverted sense of what life is that that's the problem uh... but it's solvable and that's the part that i like it is solvable and that's why that's my good friend Alex loss in the come share some thoughts you can check out his work over at social security works dot org Alex great quote man good to see you great to see you as always right
8:22
[SPEAKER_05]: So walk me through this.
8:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, the reality is I've been saying this a form of that for a year, 21 years now.
8:29
[SPEAKER_05]: It's us who create the wealth, it's us who do the work, it's us who do all this stuff.
8:34
[SPEAKER_05]: But Donald Trump just said the rich people are leaving.
8:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Blue cities and blue states are gonna be ghettos because we need rich people or we're just gonna stand around looking at each other with nothing to do.
8:46
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, Donald Trump says a lot of dumb things that's just add that one to the list, you know, it's just true.
8:53
[SPEAKER_02]: And I tried to bring this message when I'm, you know, get the opportunity like here.
9:02
[SPEAKER_02]: all power comes from the people.
9:04
[SPEAKER_02]: It's provable.
9:05
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not like a guess.
9:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You can see it in action through the entire course of history because governments are created by the people.
9:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And when the government stops working for the people, the government, I mean the people can change the government.
9:21
[SPEAKER_02]: the rules that govern us, the policies created by people, and when those rules and policies stop working for the people, we can change them.
9:33
[SPEAKER_02]: All of the power is with the people, and all wealth is created by labor.
9:40
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, quoting the great Adam Smith, I think the the second most misunderstood book is the wealth of nations.
9:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
9:47
[SPEAKER_02]: He says it very clearly all wealth is created by labor.
9:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So the people create all the wealth, the people have all the power.
9:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So we have all the tools we need to make the world that we want.
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: The part that I was saying right before what you quoted is, I don't want you to live a whole world.
10:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want the bare minimum.
10:11
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not, that's not what I'm aiming for.
10:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I want a world that's awesome for people.
10:16
[SPEAKER_02]: I want a world that works for working people who have all the power and create all the wealth.
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's not a dream.
10:24
[SPEAKER_02]: We can do that.
10:25
[SPEAKER_02]: We just have to break free from the shackles of the billionaires and understand
10:32
[SPEAKER_02]: they're still going to be rich.
10:34
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not even going to be that worse off.
10:36
[SPEAKER_02]: We've seen it in history before the differences that people working people aren't going to be scrambling for the scraps that fall off the billionaires table.
10:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And we are and in the moment where I think more and more people are waking up to their own power.
10:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And now we focus that power and we change the government
10:59
[SPEAKER_05]: No, look, you know, we've had president to the past.
11:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, a Blinken Labor's prior labor is prior to an independent of capital.
11:07
[SPEAKER_05]: Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
11:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor is superior to of capital and deserves much higher consideration.
11:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, we used to know this stuff.
11:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Why don't we, why don't we seem to get it anymore?
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the billionaires have done a really good job of
11:28
[SPEAKER_02]: perverting people's brains of warping people's understanding of what's going on.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And they do play on real human emotions that are there, base emotions, the worst of us.
11:44
[SPEAKER_02]: But that exists, right?
11:45
[SPEAKER_02]: There are,
11:46
[SPEAKER_02]: The worst of us that is there and tyrants and the Thorotarians have always been able to stoke the worst in people to further their power and it is always the same playbook right it's like
12:02
[SPEAKER_02]: The billionaires of the problem, they take all the money, but to protect them, you get a tyrant who's like, you know, the immigrants of the problem, trans people are the problem, whoever has the least power.
12:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a key part of it.
12:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Lain somebody who you can then bully, because that worst instinct in humanity is that bullying instinct, right?
12:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the it's the
12:29
[SPEAKER_02]: hit of adrenaline and joy that bullies get from bullying and then there's a huge part of people who they're not bullies but they're scared of bullies right and they they don't understand that
12:44
[SPEAKER_02]: if they stand up together, the bullies back down every time because they're in their hearts cowards.
12:52
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what we're up against is a bunch of cowards.
12:55
[SPEAKER_02]: So when people understand their power, that's when we see change.
13:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And unfortunately, it often happens only in the midst of great adversity, which we are in right now.
13:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is only going to get worse.
13:09
[SPEAKER_05]: I've been saying since election night, you know, the 2024, I've been looked, you know, you know, the problems to our future are going to come out of the suffering caused by their savagery and they are being every bit of savage as I ever imagined they would be and maybe even a little bit more so.
13:25
[SPEAKER_05]: But I did like something else you said.
13:27
[SPEAKER_05]: You talked about being in the midst of an intergenerational struggle.
13:32
[SPEAKER_05]: and that the reality is and this is hard for Americans to understand and hard for us to get.
13:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Your next line is we're not going to be here to see the the future that we're building and that we're actually just working for our children and that's kind of a hard concept because everybody I talk to seems to be focused on the here and now and not really thinking about down the road because you know that's what the hunger games get us.
13:54
[SPEAKER_05]: I got to survive today.
13:55
[SPEAKER_05]: I can't think about tomorrow.
13:57
[SPEAKER_02]: that's exactly right, isolation and the feeling of powerlessness leads to hopelessness and nihilism.
14:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And what this is a part that I spend a lot of time on in my second level talk, so with the people who are really nerdy about how messaging works.
14:18
[SPEAKER_02]: advertisers.
14:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is not just like you can read the books that advertisers use, right?
14:26
[SPEAKER_02]: This is it's it's a Sigmund Freud's nephew who actually started modern marketing and it is inferiority marketing.
14:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So you make somebody feel bad.
14:40
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you insert something, right?
14:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So feel bad by this razor.
14:47
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why you can get people to buy out either like as your three blade razor, not cutting it for you.
14:52
[SPEAKER_02]: How about a four blade razor?
14:55
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how marketing works.
14:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I isolate people, make them feel alone, make them sad, and then insert,
15:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever it is, you're trying to sell to make them feel better.
15:05
[SPEAKER_02]: This is how you do the, exactly, this will make you happy.
15:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Idealogs do the same thing.
15:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Turn off the part of your brain that's worried.
15:14
[SPEAKER_02]: That can get sad at the state of the world.
15:18
[SPEAKER_02]: The plight of other people.
15:19
[SPEAKER_02]: It's how people can become so heartless.
15:23
[SPEAKER_02]: is because they are just off-loading their executive function to someone else.
15:29
[SPEAKER_02]: That is the trick of tyranny, is that everyday people are very susceptible to propaganda, to fear, to bullying, and especially to isolation.
15:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So now we're up against algorithmic isolation, we're up against all sorts of tech
15:47
[SPEAKER_02]: that's aimed at making us feel alone and powerless so that someone can come in, like Donald Trump and say, only I can fix this, only I can fix what you feel.
15:59
[SPEAKER_02]: that.
16:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the trick of tyrants.
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And so what we do is expose the incompetence, the greed of them, and people are starting to get that.
16:08
[SPEAKER_05]: No, I hope so.
16:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Because look, you know, I recently had a conversation with the guy who heads up a religious group and you know, it's amazing to me that people who call themselves religious or Christians or you know, whatever their faith is.
16:18
[SPEAKER_05]: would take you know Medicaid away from from folks so they don't have health insurance would take food away from children would you would just got social prop policy that makes people's lives better all in the name of giving tax cuts to billionaires and then justifying as well they work hard.
16:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Or you know, Jesus would want me to be richer, some other nonsense that we keep hearing.
16:40
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's weird to me that especially people who follow the book would tell me all of these things that just aren't there.
16:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, if we want to get biblical, what you're also looking at is the cult of ball, right?
16:56
[SPEAKER_02]: This is sacrificing children for the perceived benefit of the adults, right?
17:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So the concept that they're talking about, though, is stealing their children's future.
17:12
[SPEAKER_02]: so that they can live in the here and now in whatever, you know, wealth and comfort and perversions they want.
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what we're up against.
17:22
[SPEAKER_02]: We're up against a billionaire class who is evil, evil, and they don't believe in the future.
17:30
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the way you fight against that is by believing in the future is by fighting for the future.
17:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is hard.
17:38
[SPEAKER_02]: You do have to have
17:41
[SPEAKER_02]: of ability to understand that we are all going to die, and that we don't know why we're here.
17:49
[SPEAKER_02]: But you do know that it feels good when you do good, you do know that you want your children to have a better world, a better life, and so understanding that helps you then look down the chain of history and realize that,
18:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm picking up the work of people who've understand that kernel of humanity and they've passed the torch to me and I'm going to do my part and like MLK said he talked about being the Joshua generation that did not get to the Promised Land, but could see it.
18:26
[SPEAKER_02]: he knew that the state and the forces of racism were probably certainly going to do what they did which was kill him, but he still fought and he still built a future that's better because he understood that the future doesn't end with him.
18:43
[SPEAKER_02]: The future didn't end with him.
18:45
[SPEAKER_02]: The future doesn't end with you.
18:47
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a future and it's worth fighting for.
18:50
[SPEAKER_05]: No, look, I say this all the time.
18:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hand off to my children something better than what I receive.
18:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I want this country to be the best place it can be worth inheriting, if you will.
19:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And what I see happening, I don't know that I'm going to be able at the end of my time to go peacefully in the knowledge that I've handed them something worth inheriting because I look at the policies coming out of this administration.
19:14
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the kind of power and control that corporate interests and the very extraordinarily
19:21
[SPEAKER_05]: And as you've pointed out, evil, I don't know that I'm going to go into that.
19:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Good night.
19:29
[SPEAKER_05]: Rustfully.
19:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, luckily, rage, rage.
19:34
[SPEAKER_02]: We're doing biblical and classical references here.
19:38
[SPEAKER_02]: It's also okay to understand.
19:42
[SPEAKER_02]: that there are periods where things get really bad, really quickly, and if you live through those times, that's when it's most important to find that solidarity, to do what we can to fight against the hopelessness, and hopelessness is, was it worth it?
20:03
[SPEAKER_02]: was it worth it?
20:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Why wouldn't I just follow the greedy few and get under their umbrella of protection turn off my brain?
20:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'll tell you why it's because doing good feels good.
20:16
[SPEAKER_02]: It's because when you look at history, you understand that we are part of an intergenerational struggle that never ends
20:27
[SPEAKER_02]: when you enter that struggle with that understanding, the feeling of hope of being part of something bigger than yourself can block out all of that other propaganda, it gives you a north star that you can focus on and understand that what I'm doing today is worth while, what I'm doing today, you might not even understand who you're giving hope to.
20:52
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't know, but the point is,
20:56
[SPEAKER_02]: We keep trying, we keep working, and that's how we move forward.
21:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Because the burnout or giving up, you don't have to work all the time.
21:06
[SPEAKER_02]: I also say it's a relay race.
21:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a sprint.
21:08
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a marathon.
21:09
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a relay race.
21:10
[SPEAKER_02]: So you do what you can.
21:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Take the baton when it's past to you.
21:14
[SPEAKER_02]: hand it off when you need to.
21:16
[SPEAKER_02]: But do what you can because it will give you a sense of hope and power that you can envision a future where everyone has health care.
21:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you're like, that's not even that hard, right?
21:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you can envision a future where everyone has a access to great education.
21:33
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not even that hard, right?
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: The things that we're asking for are not difficult to achieve as long as the people remember all power comes from the people
21:44
[SPEAKER_02]: all wealth is created by labor.
21:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and into some of where you said, you know, I mean, the, from the radical self interest part that I come from, you know, when my great grandchildren look back, well, they look at me positively or they, well, they look at me with this stain and hatred for what they've been saddled with.
22:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think, from that perspective, I think we do want to do good.
22:03
[SPEAKER_05]: I do want, that the generations down the road look back as I do to my grandparents and go, you built something that that was handed down that made lives better.
22:13
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, we've kind of ruined some of that, but there's an opportunity and you've talked about health care.
22:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Recently, you were in an event with AOC to guarantee health care for everyone, which I don't think should be that hard since we're already paying for it.
22:26
[SPEAKER_05]: We're just not getting it.
22:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it was actually a Democratic caucus-wide event.
22:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And there were many members of Congress there.
22:37
[SPEAKER_02]: A.O.C.
22:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is the co-chair of the health-working group Congresswoman Terry School is the other co-chair.
22:46
[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of other members who are involved.
22:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And it
22:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It was really heartening, Rick.
22:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I went into it and that wasn't sure because the democratic caucus is very broad.
22:58
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't agree with everyone, but where in this room, there was a lot of in a ray.
23:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
23:05
[SPEAKER_02]: It was all like, yeah, hey, we have the worst maternal mortality in the developed nations.
23:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We can end that.
23:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
23:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, hospitals, nursing homes are closing.
23:16
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a non-existent long-term care system.
23:20
[SPEAKER_02]: We can change that.
23:22
[SPEAKER_02]: And it was, you know, there's a lot of in the weeds policy stuff.
23:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I took the moment to just remind people of the new deal that, yes, we're in the middle and the midst of all this adversity in this disaster caused by Republicans ripping trillion dollars away from Medicaid and healthcare.
23:43
[SPEAKER_02]: We're in the middle of a disaster.
23:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We can't just
23:46
[SPEAKER_02]: do fix the disaster though.
23:49
[SPEAKER_02]: The new deal wasn't just about the acute problem of the day.
23:53
[SPEAKER_02]: It was to build a system to prevent that from happening again.
23:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And it worked.
23:58
[SPEAKER_02]: It worked for 90 years.
24:00
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why the Billionaires hate it.
24:01
[SPEAKER_02]: They hate things that work.
24:03
[SPEAKER_02]: But we are in a moment.
24:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And what we have to do is not just say, hey, let's just reverse what Donald Trump did and get back
24:14
[SPEAKER_02]: because that wasn't good enough.
24:16
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what laid the groundwork for Donald Trump to come in.
24:20
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how we got to create a country that's so great and awesome and kind and works for working people that no tyrant can come in with their excuse because people understand their power.
24:33
[SPEAKER_02]: They realize that they're part of something and they're, you know, we can't promise
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: We can pursue it.
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: That's exactly right.
24:45
[SPEAKER_02]: We can pursue it.
24:47
[SPEAKER_02]: We can pursue it.
24:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what we have to do.
24:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Turn towards that future and not away from it.
24:53
[SPEAKER_05]: So last question I've got for you because you're in the room with these folks.
24:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I've been saying if Democrats don't come with a very bold visionary,
25:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll platform with health care, with I'd increase minimum wage, with strength and unions, which now we're hearing from the right as communism evidently, but if they don't come out with policies and stand behind them, that are going to make people's lives better, winning a November isn't going to matter, because there's going to give it away in 28.
25:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you getting the sense that they kind of get that?
25:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I do.
25:22
[SPEAKER_02]: I get the sense that, you know, I'm also, I work here in D.C.
25:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's going to be a struggle.
25:29
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not going to be like a straight shot, but building towards 2028, which is when I think you have to build towards that big transformative vision.
25:42
[SPEAKER_02]: The midterms are going to give us the launching pad for that.
25:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So I do think because of just the fact that Donald Trump will still be president, what the Democrats are going to put out a vision.
25:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to put out, you know, what's going to happen in the first hour, the first hundred days, the first year.
25:58
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're going to have legislative goals.
26:00
[SPEAKER_02]: But they're also going to use the other powers of Congress oversight and investigation to really dig into the criminality.
26:09
[SPEAKER_02]: and all of the wrongdoings of the Trump administration and his cronies.
26:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that that is going to be an incredibly important part of understanding that Democrats will get this big vision, right?
26:26
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, what people are so sick of,
26:30
[SPEAKER_02]: is the Republicans do terrible things.
26:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Democrats come in office and no one's held accountable.
26:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Donald Trump wasn't held accountable.
26:37
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why he's back.
26:38
[SPEAKER_02]: And so accountability.
26:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's the nation and only half measures to get what was done.
26:45
[SPEAKER_05]: So we've continually moved in the wrong direction for too long.
26:47
[SPEAKER_05]: And you're absolutely right.
26:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to, I want Perpox.
26:53
[SPEAKER_02]: exactly.
26:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what it's going to take to break the chains of the and the propaganda false reality that people have been fed because they're scared of these bullies.
27:08
[SPEAKER_02]: But we have to show them that these bullies are just cowards and the law that we create that humans create.
27:20
[SPEAKER_02]: and if something is standing in the way, we can change it because we have that power.
27:25
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all within us.
27:27
[SPEAKER_02]: And when we're organized, we can build the future that we want.
27:30
[SPEAKER_05]: There we go.
27:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Alex, as always, amazing stuff.
27:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I appreciate the time.
27:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Hope folks will check out SocialSecurityWorks.org.
27:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Alex Lawson, thanks again.
27:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks, Ray.
27:40
[SPEAKER_05]: Wanna hear your thoughts?
27:41
[SPEAKER_05]: You agree?
27:42
[SPEAKER_05]: You like that?
27:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Or, you know, because I've been getting a lot of you.
27:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Come on, you want to healthcare.
27:47
[SPEAKER_04]: You come on, you want to minimum wage increase.
27:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hear your thoughts, work at the ricksmithshare.com.
27:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Angry, ugly, hate mail to the top, back after this.
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 1877.
28:06
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day Louisville sewer workers walked off the job.
28:11
[SPEAKER_04]: The daily American reported that hundreds of black sewermen stopped work and began marching through the streets armed with picks and shovels.
28:20
[SPEAKER_05]: They went from one sewer construction site to the next.
28:23
[SPEAKER_05]: calling workers out to strike for higher wages.
28:26
[SPEAKER_05]: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 had clearly impacted workers in mid-Southern cities like Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville.
28:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Historian Stephen J. Hoffman observes, these workers were able to capitalize on strike threats to advance their demands.
28:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Railroad bosses for the Louisville Nashville and Great Southern had rescinded pay cuts from mechanics and engineers.
28:49
[SPEAKER_05]: But they had not raised wages for the lowest paid laborers.
28:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Those laborers joined sewer workers in their march through the city.
28:57
[SPEAKER_05]: By nightfall, the mass of the integrated strikers marched to the LNN Depot.
29:02
[SPEAKER_05]: clashing with police.
29:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Some broke off to march to the short line depot smashing windows of the mayor's house on the way.
29:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Though the crowd was largely dispersed by early morning, Louisville was now in the midst of a general strike.
29:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Hoffman describes the scene, workers at the metal shops, and foundries downtown struck for higher wages.
29:21
[SPEAKER_05]: There were reports of strikes at the Kentucky-led and oilworks, all the downtown furniture factories, woolen mills, horse color makers, and tobacco factories as well as by many of the city's coopers, brick makers, and African-American levy workers.
29:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Many of the demands of these workers, which tended to focus on wages and hours, were met and they returned to work quickly.
29:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Though southern cities avoided rail road strikes for the most part, they could not evade the great strikes impact on other sectors of the workforce.
29:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor history and two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
29:56
[SPEAKER_05]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com.
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But that might explain why John Deers, top executive bosses, have imposed and astonishingly stupid policy on America's farmers.
30:15
[SPEAKER_00]: For years, they've decreed that while a farmer technically owns a tractor or other John Deer product,
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: The owner is prohibited from making any repairs when the machinery breaks down, stalls, out, etc.
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, the owner's must call an authorized deer dealer to fix what most farmers could handle by themselves.
30:35
[SPEAKER_00]: The monopolistic profiteur refuses to make its repair manuals available to customers or local repair shops, so, gotcha.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The Montana Rancher's tractor had gone to put in hay bathing season.
30:55
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, set a deer dealer.
30:58
[SPEAKER_00]: The technician is not available.
30:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And no, you can't have access to the dognostic computer to do it yourself.
31:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So he had to wait weeks before deer finally got his tractor running.
31:09
[SPEAKER_00]: A fairly basic job worth about $600, but they build water $4,000.
31:15
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what's called a monopoly fix.
31:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But they messed with the wrong farmer.
31:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Schweitzer, President of the Montana Farmer's Union, mobilized grassroots pressure from five states, forcing federal officials to sue John Deere.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: This month, deer's aloof executive settle that suit.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, letting its farm customers take charge of the equipment that, hello, they own.
31:39
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiter saying, Schwitzer points out that this landmark went over the arrogance of deer executives is just one stepping stone to a right to repair law for all products.
31:51
[SPEAKER_00]: To help push this right forward, go to repair.org, repair.org.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:09
[SPEAKER_05]: So Congress is in a big hurry.
32:12
[SPEAKER_05]: That's kind of a, it's kind of the dumbest thing I think I've ever said, Congress in a hurry.
32:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Evidently they're rushing to pass some kind of short-term funding bill through December 4th, cause you know, a government shutdown before the midterms,
32:28
[SPEAKER_05]: even they have to know that they can't screw everything up.
32:34
[SPEAKER_05]: But also they're also trying to pass some legislation too.
32:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, take that off the table where there will automatically be funding, I guess, to extend funding.
32:45
[SPEAKER_05]: If Congress just, I don't know, misses their deadlines.
32:49
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm not quite sure how I feel about that because we just never have a deadline.
32:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Kind of like we never have a budget.
32:56
[SPEAKER_05]: because we never can seem to do all 13 appropriation bills on time, but yet Congress.
33:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, here to share some thoughts on where this all could lead.
33:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And if there's another government shutdown, who is going to take the brunt of their dysfunction?
33:12
[SPEAKER_05]: To I've asked my good friend, Phil Glover, to come share some thoughts.
33:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Phil is an international vice president.
33:17
[SPEAKER_05]: They have GE District 3.
33:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Phil, thanks for taking time for us.
33:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you, Rick.
33:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Appreciate you having us on again.
33:24
[SPEAKER_05]: So what do you think?
33:25
[SPEAKER_05]: You think it's possible that they might get out of their own way and get something passed by, so we could at least get past the midterms with some funding.
33:35
[SPEAKER_03]: I really, I really have trouble predicting any more Rick, you know you think you think there's this thing called regular order you think there's they're going to move something and then it gets it gets hamstrung somewhere along the way.
33:52
[SPEAKER_03]: We just don't know the house is trying to pass a bill to get you to December 4th.
33:59
[SPEAKER_03]: But the Senate is talking about going through regular order and doing the appropriations to try to have and appropriations build past through that committee.
34:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's really hard to say where this thing's gonna get hung up.
34:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Now one of the ideas in there that I think you guys are all on board with is, you know, when,
34:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I shouldn't say, if I should say, when Congress doesn't do their job, and there is another government shutdown that there's got to be something that where you guys aren't the pawns and all of this.
34:34
[SPEAKER_05]: I've always said that if you're going to shut the government down, everybody goes home, nobody has to work if they're not getting paid, and let the pain and then the suffering happen that, that, look, somebody's going to have to be held liable for, but I'm curious if you've got some thoughts on that.
34:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, we have funding through September 30th this year.
34:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And so as usual, we will come up to that deadline.
35:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm sure they won't make it.
35:04
[SPEAKER_03]: They haven't made it for years.
35:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And then they'll either do a continuing resolution.
35:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Or if this somehow cooler heads prevail and they pass this thing through December 4th, then we wouldn't have to worry about that.
35:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You're still in that same situation every time.
35:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, Senator Langford and Hassan have tried since 2019 to put up a bill that would continue funding agencies at current year level and then require Congress to stay in town.
35:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And work until there is an actual past bill.
35:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if they'll sell from pose that, you know, to lock themselves into DC to work.
35:53
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, look at something that should happen.
35:55
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, and not just lock themselves in DC, but lock them in Congress, you know, you don't get to go home, you don't get to go for dinner, you know, fundraisers, no, no meeting with lobbyists, you keep your behind them in the well.
36:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, that's a novel thing, right?
36:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Stay and do your job like we have to do, you know, we don't, we don't get to just disappear or go back to our districts or whatever.
36:20
[SPEAKER_03]: We have to go and work and make our paycheck.
36:23
[SPEAKER_03]: They make $174,000 a year, not a bad living.
36:25
[SPEAKER_03]: To be, they run for that job.
36:30
[SPEAKER_03]: and then they can't get the basic parameters of funding done each year, which is part of article one of the constitutes.
36:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, we can't see to get a budget, man.
36:40
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, it was the last time we actually passed a budget.
36:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I've had a couple of people on said it was sometime in the in the late 90s, early 2000s, that we have actually passed a budget with all 13 appropriations bills.
36:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't.
36:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I have to be honest.
36:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I really don't remember.
36:58
[SPEAKER_05]: It's been that long.
36:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, as long as we've passed the minimum wage increase.
37:02
[SPEAKER_03]: It would have probably been in the late 90s, early 2000s, maybe, you know, but I don't remember it being done any time, you know, in the near past year with the last two administrations.
37:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, now I will say Biden never had a
37:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Whether that was for me because he negotiated directly with the Congress, you know, he tried to be the adult in the room kind of thing and we didn't have shutdowns, but, you know, obviously this administration and this president has decided he can just go alone and they'll do another reconciliation bill.
37:38
[SPEAKER_03]: The three, you know, the two houses and and send it up to him for his priorities, whether they get legislate or not, you know, just
37:48
[SPEAKER_05]: No, this is what this is what Democrats are complaining about, you know, continuing resolutions.
37:53
[SPEAKER_05]: These, these kind of funding bills that you're talking about, um, this just gives the White House an awful lot of, of power where Congress has the power of the purse.
38:03
[SPEAKER_05]: And it just seems like that would be kind of giving that away, wasn't it?
38:07
[SPEAKER_03]: they've already given it away.
38:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
38:09
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, here, you know, if you think about it, Congress last term, uh, to be getting in the year, passed funding, and then Russell vote came back the head of office management budget and put forward a decision bill that cut nine billion dollars out of things that the Congress had already passed.
38:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And they had to pass it by 60 votes in the Senate, but the reconciliation or the, uh, decision bill only had to pass by 51 votes.
38:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And so they went in, that's why Democrats don't want to negotiate with this group because they will not keep their word.
38:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you don't have that, you don't have anything.
38:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
38:46
[SPEAKER_05]: No, that's top down.
38:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, look, one of the things with the war and Iran that I agree with Iran on, the only thing I agree with them on is you can't trust what Trump says.
38:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't say that with any type of happiness or glee or it's just sad that you can't trust a word that comes out of his mouth and it filters down and what you're talking about.
39:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I mean, it has infiltrated the agencies, all of his secretaries act similar to the way he acts.
39:21
[SPEAKER_03]: They're all trying to mirror him.
39:23
[SPEAKER_03]: You look how they answer questions to the press.
39:25
[SPEAKER_03]: You look how they deal with unions, you look how they deal with anyone that has any significant opposition to them, or doesn't like one thing that he does,
39:39
[SPEAKER_03]: they just attack and attack and attack.
39:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't have discussions anymore about issues.
39:46
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, you don't agree with me 100%, you're on the outs, you are my enemy.
39:52
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what this has become since January 20th, the 2025.
39:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And unfortunately, you can't govern that way in a democracy.
40:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, you didn't see in a democracy, that was the part of that, but in the world that they want to lead us towards, yeah, patronage, loyalty, you need a bunch of six, yes, man, sick offense to do what they're told.
40:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And to point to that, I look at Pete Hugseth.
40:19
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you've noticed, but as the head of the Department of Defense or War,
40:26
[SPEAKER_04]: We now are at war thanks to them.
40:28
[SPEAKER_05]: We're doing something really important for our military, and as you represent the people at the VA, we're evidently testing their testosterone and we're going to get some vitamins in them.
40:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't recall when I was 19 years old and I went into the United States Army, went through training, all those things.
40:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I had plenty of that.
40:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I was, I was plenty strong, I didn't have any of those needs to pump myself full testosterone.
41:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I had enough.
41:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I was a pretty, you know, pretty fit individual.
41:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And this whole thing again is all propaganda all the time.
41:12
[SPEAKER_03]: It's ridiculous on its face.
41:16
[SPEAKER_03]: He is ridiculous on its face on his face.
41:19
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, he's just ridiculous.
41:21
[SPEAKER_03]: The things that he says, the things that he does, and people that take him any way seriously,
41:27
[SPEAKER_03]: in the veterans community or in the military community, you have to wonder about what is going through their heads.
41:34
[SPEAKER_05]: But again, as one of the loyalists to Trump doing what Trump wants, and that is attacking federal workers,
41:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And one of the things your union is just filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop Higgs-F and his direction to go after workers in the DOD and immediately terminate hundreds of collective bargaining agreements across the country.
41:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Because I guess if you've got testosterone, you don't need collective bargaining.
42:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
42:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Put those two out.
42:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the problem, you know, he waited.
42:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Trump's executive order was back in February of last year of March and he waited until this last month to put a memo out to take all the contracts in Department of Defense and.
42:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It makes no sense because for the last year, they were bargaining and having collected bargaining and filing grievances.
42:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And that did not stop the world, it didn't stop them from going to war, didn't stop them from, you know, any of the things that the Department of Defense does.
42:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And it never has.
42:44
[SPEAKER_03]: We need to go shade and contracts through the Vietnam War.
42:48
[SPEAKER_03]: We need to go shade and contracts through a rack and I get Afghanistan, you know,
42:55
[SPEAKER_03]: So we still had collect the bargaining and grievance process is all through that.
43:00
[SPEAKER_03]: But here we are again with this administration anti union busting unions.
43:06
[SPEAKER_03]: This is what they're about and you know, it's not the hopefully the court will come back as they have the the veterans administration, have they have some of the other agencies TSA and said no, you have a contract, you have to keep it.
43:23
[SPEAKER_05]: That's what, you know, we're hoping to get through this preliminary injunction because I was reading through this and I'm like, why now, like, as you said, the executive orders, you know, well over a year and a half old, you know, why now is, is it because maybe under the fog of war that they thought maybe it would be able to, you know, scoot through that nobody would be paying attention or it, given the message you go, you know, we, during war, we can't possibly do all of these, these hard things like, you know, talk to our workers.
43:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's it again.
43:55
[SPEAKER_03]: who knows what their actual thoughts are because they don't give them.
44:00
[SPEAKER_03]: You see them in front of Congress when they're asked questions about this stuff and they have no answers, no no legitimate answer.
44:07
[SPEAKER_03]: So we're of the mind that this is just another assault on federal workers.
44:14
[SPEAKER_03]: There was an amendment put up last night.
44:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if it got approved or not in the NDA, the National Defense Authorization Act,
44:24
[SPEAKER_03]: that talked about a study to figure out if they could eliminate 250,000 more jobs out of the Department of Defense or Department of War or whatever they're calling it this week.
44:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So, this is just a constant assault on federal workers.
44:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Why we're seeing is the enemy with this administration?
44:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I don't know, do we disagree on some things short?
44:48
[SPEAKER_03]: But we do our jobs.
44:49
[SPEAKER_03]: The workers out there and DOD and VA and the others.
44:53
[SPEAKER_03]: they do their work, they protect the American public, they take care of veterans.
44:57
[SPEAKER_03]: This stuff is just an assault.
45:00
[SPEAKER_05]: No, it's an assault on every level.
45:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, the reality is, we've lost like 10,000 scientists.
45:08
[SPEAKER_05]: We've lost so much, I don't know what the word was, the brain death is not a brain drain.
45:14
[SPEAKER_05]: It didn't happen slowly.
45:15
[SPEAKER_05]: They basically killed off the brain.
45:19
[SPEAKER_05]: And, and I fear, because I'm sure you've seen that I guess now we're at the highest level of measles that we've been in decades in the across the world.
45:27
[SPEAKER_05]: We're making measles great again.
45:30
[SPEAKER_03]: measles, polio, all these diseases that were eradicated basically in the United States are coming back because of the anti-vax push social media.
45:45
[SPEAKER_03]: And now this, you know, RFK junior who, you know, my god, I, you know, I would assume his family is pretty embarrassed by him.
45:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I think most of the
45:59
[SPEAKER_03]: It's it's not good and then now the next step is be beyond the HHS is now you have TSA that Doesn't want to deal with a contract there.
46:08
[SPEAKER_03]: So now they want to privatize airports That's their new thing.
46:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know gold plus is their new plan to privatize airports Security now we did that 911 before 911 Maybe we should learn something here.
46:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know but there's there's a group of people that want to go back to contractor
46:29
[SPEAKER_03]: security.
46:30
[SPEAKER_05]: But again, private privatized profitize.
46:32
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's all right.
46:33
[SPEAKER_05]: The goal.
46:34
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you, you don't know why they're going after federal workers are going after it, so they can destroy the federal government and they can privatize all of the things that you guys do so well.
46:42
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it's that simple.
46:43
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, here's what gets me though.
46:45
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, they're going after your, your members, they're going after federal workers and I don't know if you saw his speech recently, where he's, you know, he's talking about, you know, going after
46:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Using the Department of Justice to go after people on a media, I'm thinking of, you know, the, what was it, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg back from the 50s.
47:03
[SPEAKER_05]: We basically murdered a couple because of trumped up charges.
47:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we, are you concerned about that for your members?
47:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think that your, do you think their members are concerned about them doing their job and catching the eye of this administration?
47:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And isn't that, you know, really the telltale sign of
47:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I think, I do believe that we are moving in that direction.
47:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we're there in some cases, this office personal management, some of the rules that they're putting out now, to eliminate long time, long serving mechanisms for federal employees to file appeals on,
47:50
[SPEAKER_03]: adverse actions and things like that, getting rid of what's called the Douglas Factors, which was a case years ago, that laid out a standardization of things that an agency needs to look for before they can terminate and employ, they want to eliminate those rules.
48:06
[SPEAKER_05]: But I don't think there was any way you could fire a federal employee.
48:09
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought you can't fire a union people.
48:11
[SPEAKER_05]: I've been told.
48:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Haven't you heard?
48:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you have about an 18% win rate at the MSPB, the merit systems protection board for a federal employee.
48:22
[SPEAKER_03]: If they get fired, there's about, if you go to that board, it's about an 18% chance that you can win that case and keep your job.
48:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, do we get settlements through that board?
48:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, through the judges there, we get settlements sometimes, but essentially,
48:39
[SPEAKER_03]: You can definitely fire federal workers if you do your job, which is document, make sure that the rule was known, make sure it was, you know, violated these are things that there was a proper investigation these are things basic process yeah basic do process and if you screw that up then shame on you that's you know what we've always said but but fill we've got a president who has his tag line he's got a tag line.
49:08
[SPEAKER_05]: you know, that's what made him famous.
49:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
49:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
49:11
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm expecting to happen.
49:12
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, I'm expecting that to be the next reality show from the White House.
49:16
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to bring in federal employees and ruin their lives.
49:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Listen, a lot of people watch that show and they got this idea that he was a great businessman, I guess from it.
49:25
[SPEAKER_03]: But, uh,
49:27
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, reality is reality.
49:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we're living in a reality TV show right now some days.
49:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, with this administration.
49:34
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm with you.
49:35
[SPEAKER_05]: But I want to go back to that speech because that speech really was, it was something.
49:39
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll tell you my mind at the end of it.
49:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I texted a friend, I said that's the scariest speech I think I've ever seen because he's basically declaring war on all of us on democracy.
49:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And I know a lot of people have said there was a big nothing burger, but the fact that he's going to weaponize the DOJ to go against people who stand up against him.
49:59
[SPEAKER_05]: and question what's going on.
50:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I find that incredibly dangerous and the fact that they are going after you guys and destroying unions the only balance of power in this country that that's totally on the side of workers.
50:14
[SPEAKER_05]: I gotta tell you it worries me.
50:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, let's face it.
50:18
[SPEAKER_03]: He is an absolutist.
50:21
[SPEAKER_03]: All of his speeches about enemies.
50:25
[SPEAKER_03]: It's, you know, the media is the enemy.
50:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Federal workers are the enemy, unless they're loyal.
50:30
[SPEAKER_03]: They have to be loyal.
50:32
[SPEAKER_03]: That's when they started to roll out these in these applications processes to try to get loyalty test put into them.
50:41
[SPEAKER_03]: These are these are things that he has done and he has a group of people around him in this second term that are loyalists.
50:52
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not like the regular Republicans that were picked in the first term.
50:56
[SPEAKER_03]: There's no experts.
50:57
[SPEAKER_03]: There's no bill bars as the attorney general who would tell him no.
51:02
[SPEAKER_03]: these guys are none of them.
51:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And this taught this blanched that they're about to confirm.
51:09
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, they're finding a way to get to yes.
51:11
[SPEAKER_03]: That's, you know, Tom Tillis.
51:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Trying to find a way to get to yes on this guy.
51:17
[SPEAKER_03]: This was his personal attorney.
51:19
[SPEAKER_05]: There should be no way to, yes, on this.
51:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So real quick, you know, give me some hope.
51:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we winning?
51:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Are we at least holding our ground?
51:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I will say this AFGE membership has taken a curve upward.
51:36
[SPEAKER_03]: We are starting to re-sign up members.
51:40
[SPEAKER_03]: which is good.
51:41
[SPEAKER_03]: After the onslaught of the last year, we stabilized.
51:45
[SPEAKER_03]: We've gotten our organizing program out there and we are starting to see where we're returning.
51:52
[SPEAKER_03]: We're coming back up.
51:54
[SPEAKER_03]: We were able to hold the Veterans Administration.
51:56
[SPEAKER_03]: We got 40,000 members back through the preliminary injunction there.
52:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So that gave us a boost.
52:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know, I think there are.
52:08
[SPEAKER_03]: indications that even some of his supporters out here, you know, if you go around, I know in some of the neighborhoods, I'm in, you know, several years ago, there was a MAGA flag on every house, and now they're not there out there, you know, now some of switched to the American flag.
52:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess to try to hide what they had there before.
52:31
[SPEAKER_03]: But it seems that there might be a fever break.
52:35
[SPEAKER_03]: We hope because of the war in Iran, because of some of the other things he's doing.
52:40
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, gas is back over four bucks a gallon.
52:42
[SPEAKER_05]: The grocery bill hasn't gotten any cheaper in life's getting hard.
52:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, this isn't, this isn't utopia.
52:47
[SPEAKER_05]: But the good thing is you were out there fighting, keeping up, keeping the dukes up and still moving forward.
52:53
[SPEAKER_05]: And feel like if you guys credit and I wish you the best and I hope you'll come back with some more good news down the road.
52:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for it.
52:59
[SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate you.
53:00
[SPEAKER_05]: I always great to talk to my friend, Felklover.
53:03
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hear your thoughts.
53:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Email me or Rick at therixmithshow.com.
53:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I know it seems hard.
53:08
[SPEAKER_05]: It seems like the winning that we were supposed to be getting isn't so much, but we're going to get through this.
53:14
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to go through it.
53:15
[SPEAKER_05]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
53:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Rick at Therixmithshow.com, right back.
53:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
53:26
[SPEAKER_05]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1877.
53:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Workers organized the first general strike in American history.
53:35
[SPEAKER_05]: The strike was an outgrowth of the railroad strike.
53:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Which you may know, if you're a regular listener of Labor History in 2, that started 10 days earlier in Martin'sburg West Virginia.
53:45
[SPEAKER_05]: The drastic wage cuts demanded by competing railroad magnets brought about at work stoppage in East St. Louis on July 22nd.
53:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Railroad workers voted to go on strike, shutting down all freight traffic.
53:58
[SPEAKER_05]: The strike quickly spread across the river to St. Louis.
54:02
[SPEAKER_05]: which at the time was the nation's third largest manufacturing city.
54:06
[SPEAKER_05]: The St. Louis Strike was led by the socialist working man's party.
54:10
[SPEAKER_05]: The working man's party called for a mass meeting at Lucas Market.
54:14
[SPEAKER_05]: That gathered in enormous crowd of thousands of workers to declare their strike.
54:18
[SPEAKER_05]: The St. Louis strikers set out clear goals of ending child labor and establishing an $8 work day.
54:24
[SPEAKER_05]: By the next day, the strike had almost completely shut the city down.
54:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Divisions between rank and file and strike leadership are merged over issues of race.
54:36
[SPEAKER_05]: The demonstrations that emerged in the afternoon of the 25th were led by a group of black river workers.
54:42
[SPEAKER_05]: In an interview following the strike, an executive committee member said, we did all we could to get the crowd to disperse.
54:49
[SPEAKER_05]: He wanted to keep white strikers from following the lead of black workers.
54:53
[SPEAKER_05]: The city's upper classes startled by the events, began organizing a militia, to quail the strike.
54:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Finally, federal troops arrived in St. Louis to crush the uprising, special deputy police joined their forces.
55:06
[SPEAKER_05]: They arrested the strike leaders, injured hundreds, and killed at least 18 people.
55:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor history and two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
55:16
[SPEAKER_05]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintube.com.
55:25
[SPEAKER_01]: We're listening to the Rick Smith show.
55:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people, come to talk.
55:32
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're post just reported to the US, it's most cases of world's most contagious disease in 35 years and it's only July.
55:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks, Maha.
55:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks, RFK, Jr. Because here's the thing.
55:47
[SPEAKER_05]: When federal workers in public health experts warn us that something's wrong, I think smart move, listen.
55:55
[SPEAKER_05]: When scientists tell us there's a vaccine preventable disease that's spreading,
56:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the smart move is not to the snare and expertise, but to respect it, fund it, follow it, and oh, maybe stay alive?
56:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Because the reality is history keeps telling us, the same ugly lesson, when we dismiss science, people die.
56:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And right now, the U.S. has already hit the highest number of cases of measles in 35 years, about 2,300 at this point.
56:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And, and we're about ready,
56:29
[SPEAKER_05]: to no longer be in the status of it being eliminated.
56:34
[SPEAKER_05]: That didn't happen because federal workers failed to do their job.
56:38
[SPEAKER_05]: It happened because too many people stopped trusting the people whose job it is to actually track the outbreaks, warn us about it, and then stop it spread.
56:49
[SPEAKER_05]: Because people were watching YouTube videos on the can going to did my research, and nothing
56:57
[SPEAKER_05]: But this is bigger than just the measles outbreak right now.
57:01
[SPEAKER_05]: It's bigger than one disease, one agency, or one administration.
57:05
[SPEAKER_05]: It's about whether or not we still believe that facts matter.
57:09
[SPEAKER_05]: federal workers and government scientists are not there to win popularity contest or even line their pockets.
57:15
[SPEAKER_05]: They're there to tell us the inconvenient truth that something could kill us and maybe what to do about it.
57:22
[SPEAKER_05]: They're the ones who monitor infections, analyze environmental dangers, investigate food safety, hello Taco Bell, hello Taylor Farms,
57:39
[SPEAKER_05]: The danger that we find comes when political operatives hello Trump, hello RFK junior, turns science into a punchline.
57:47
[SPEAKER_05]: When expertise gets labeled as somehow a leadism, and when public servants are treated like enemies for doing their jobs, it's that kind of anti-science culture that doesn't just embarrass us, it leaves us exposed.
58:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Because diseases don't care about partisan talking points, viruses don't care about cable news, and the measles outbreak is just a small reminder that reality always comes in collects, and it's using our behinds that it collects on.
58:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So if we want to say for country, we have to stop undermining the people who are trained to protect it.
58:28
[SPEAKER_05]: We need to trust science.
58:29
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh my gosh, he didn't say that.
58:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and we need to defend federal workers.
58:34
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the people who are every day getting up to deliver this stuff, and also remember that facts aren't a suggestion.
58:42
[SPEAKER_05]: They're kind of the foundation for public safety.
58:46
[SPEAKER_05]: There are no alternative facts.
58:47
[SPEAKER_05]: There's no world in which, you know, a big outbreak of measles is actually good for us, which I've actually had someone tell me,
58:56
[SPEAKER_05]: going to make our immune systems better, we're going to fight through stuff except for the people who don't make it.
59:04
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's easy to be the one standing here going, oh, I got through it when the ones who didn't don't have a voice.
59:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Because the reality is it could be your children, your grandchildren.
59:15
[SPEAKER_05]: So this administration is doing such damage to the infrastructure, the
59:23
[SPEAKER_05]: It's gonna take decades to undo.
59:24
[SPEAKER_05]: I read a story just the other day.
59:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Some 10,000 scientists are no longer in the pipeline, which means the people who are supposed to be doing the work gone.
59:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Scary stuff.
59:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Why don't you hear your thoughts?
59:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Rick at therixmithshow.com.
59:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for being here.
59:39
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, this has been the Rick Smith Show, where working people come to talk.