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The Rick Smith Show 10-7-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_06]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_06]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:18
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for being here.
0:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Today on the big program, I'm lost to get two locks to talk about, hey, I was, I was seeing some clips from Fox News caught my attention.
0:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And I just had to, I have to play this.
0:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, Fox News, it's almost unbelievable.
0:40
[SPEAKER_02]: We have a society now that's losing its grip and respect and need for the truth, which is why the disinformation and the misinformation and the conspiracy theories are so popular and they break through in social media, people have a complicated relationship with the truth.
0:57
[SPEAKER_03]: A complicated relationship with the truth, complicated, complicated,
1:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Gee, I wonder, I wonder why, I wonder why so many of my Fox News viewing friends are living in a completely alternative reality.
1:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it's they've been lied to 24, 7, 365 year after year after year, maybe I don't know.
1:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I gotta be honest, you know, Fox News lecturing?
1:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Any one about having a complicated relationship with the truth is kind of like a picked pocket hosting a seminar on wall that's secured it The audacity.
1:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it really it deserves its own graphics package Fair and balanced Apparently that means putting reality on one side of this scale way over there, and then a fog machine on the other Uh
1:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to go with their court defense.
1:54
[SPEAKER_03]: The Fox News channel is more infotainment than news.
1:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause remember in 2020, the Tucker Carlson defamation case, it did successfully argue that I don't know why anybody views us as news.
2:08
[SPEAKER_03]: It's opinion, it's not factual.
2:12
[SPEAKER_03]: We're not making factual assertions.
2:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And the judge said, yeah, you know, reasonable viewers, reasonable viewers should approach Carlson's statements with skepticism.
2:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Now look, personally, I look at anything with the Fox News name on it skeptically.
2:30
[SPEAKER_03]: As I suggest everyone, I suggest everyone, everyone, everyone, look at every news story with great skepticism.
2:38
[SPEAKER_03]: But especially this one.
2:41
[SPEAKER_03]: I look at my mind goes imagine seven a smoke detector and then defending it in court for not working by explaining that reasonable customers should have known the beeping is interrupted by an interpretive jazz oh I just thought it was music and what's with the sermon about the truth please your moral high ground appears to be a studio riser the truth really
3:09
[SPEAKER_03]: If you demand evidence, it gets complicated when the sales pitch says, hey, trust us.
3:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And the legal defense says, understand the hyperbole.
3:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, I kind of wonder if Fox next slogan is going to write itself, fair and balanced.
3:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Take us seriously until our lawyers explain to you why you shouldn't or why you're stupid.
3:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Now that's infotainment with benefits.
3:37
[SPEAKER_03]: But you go back through the years and Fox has made these fantastical claims.
3:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the dominion voting machine conspiracy theory that they kept pushing.
3:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Costum, what, $787.5 million?
3:51
[SPEAKER_03]: They had their teeth into the Seth.
3:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Rich case for so long, the poor mother.
3:56
[SPEAKER_03]: She described the experience like burying her son all over a guy.
4:01
[SPEAKER_03]: And then all of the Islamophobia and all of the, what was it Birmingham, England, whether there were no one but Muslims and non-Muslims, not, not enter.
4:12
[SPEAKER_03]: What?
4:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And what was it?
4:15
[SPEAKER_03]: The European Muslims, no gozones.
4:20
[SPEAKER_03]: There was that.
4:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, the, the, the Biden hamburger restriction.
4:25
[SPEAKER_03]: We were only gonna get one hamburger a month.
4:28
[SPEAKER_03]: It was one of my favorites.
4:30
[SPEAKER_03]: the Texas disaster when the one that you had the big blackouts in 2021.
4:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, because it was cold, you had Tucker Carlson saying, oh, it was a reckless reliance on windmills.
4:42
[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't that everything froze, especially the natural gas plants.
4:46
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no.
4:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't the fact that their infrastructure was totally unprepared for a extreme call.
4:52
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no.
4:53
[SPEAKER_03]: It was that green energy, it was that renewable stuff.
4:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And then all of the doctoring of photos and all of the, hey, Seattle, we're gonna steal some of these pictures and we're gonna use them with Minneapolis and we're gonna switch them around when they look, well, when they look right.
5:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's crazy what they've gotten away with and the base, the base sucks it up.
5:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And we wonder why there's a complicated relationship
5:24
[SPEAKER_03]: over there.
5:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
5:26
[SPEAKER_03]: We're at TheRictionItShow.com right back.
5:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
5:37
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1993.
5:41
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day that President Bill Clinton signed into law reforms to the Hatch Act.
5:46
[SPEAKER_03]: The Hatch Act was passed in 1939.
5:49
[SPEAKER_03]: It limited the political activity of federal employees.
5:53
[SPEAKER_03]: The act was passed due to accusations of alleged political chronism by Democrats on new deal projects.
5:59
[SPEAKER_03]: half a century later, Congress loosened the restrictions.
6:03
[SPEAKER_03]: In his speech before signing the reform, President Clinton explained the changes saying quote, the federal employees' political activities act, which I am about to sign, will permit federal employees and postal workers on their own time to manage campaigns, raise funds, and hold positions within political parties.
6:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Still, there will be some reasonable restrictions.
6:29
[SPEAKER_03]: President Clinton described the importance of the changes saying, quote, we've been supporting democracy throughout the world.
6:36
[SPEAKER_03]: But here in our own country, millions of our own citizens have been denied one of the most basic democratic rights, the right to participate in the political process.
6:47
[SPEAKER_03]: He ended his remarks by saying, quote, I look forward to the infusion and federal and postal employee energy expertise and dedication into our political system that this bill makes possible.
6:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Today, under the regulations of the act, most employees can assist in voter registration drives, attend fundraisers, contribute money, and distribute campaign literature.
7:10
[SPEAKER_03]: They can even run for office in non-partisan elections.
7:14
[SPEAKER_03]: They cannot, however, use their jobs to influence elections or engage in political activities while on the clock.
7:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Today, there remains a balancing act between protecting the free speech of federal employees and keeping the government politically neutral.
7:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
7:44
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's been interesting to watch the fight over the data centers, which is seeing some really interesting grassroots political marriages, if you will, especially especially in the NIMBY world.
7:56
[SPEAKER_03]: But even in my red hat crowd who generally deferred corporate interests and well, you know,
8:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Republican messaging, they're kind of sitting up in questioning, well, is this good for us, questioning the corporate message, even even Trump on this issue.
8:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And as we talked about yesterday on my other radio program, the Daily Jolt, California just passed a series of laws regulating the use of AI in the workplace, which oddly enough got some red hat approval on, so that is a
8:31
[SPEAKER_03]: These new rules would ban AI in the decision to hire or to fire or discipline as I remember.
8:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And also updated the Warn Act to include information about AI's impact on layoffs.
8:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I would prohibit using AI to screen how you're feeling.
8:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Also, it ban AI from surveilling you.
8:53
[SPEAKER_03]: in the bathroom, and look, I'm with you.
8:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought through rules against that already.
8:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I've had debtly not for AI.
8:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's why I've asked Don Bell to come and share some thoughts with us.
9:02
[SPEAKER_03]: He's policy counsel.
9:03
[SPEAKER_03]: They're at the Constitution Project at the Project on government oversight.
9:07
[SPEAKER_03]: You can check out their website, pogo.org.
9:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Don, thanks for the good time for us.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.
9:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So I mean, let's start with the bathroom thing.
9:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I got to be honest, I thought, thought they were already rules that you couldn't regulate me and that it couldn't watch me in the bathroom.
9:22
[SPEAKER_03]: But California being a little proactive going, who knows how far AI goes?
9:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Thoughts?
9:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's a whole new world, right?
9:32
[SPEAKER_01]: We are kind of building the plane as we're flying when it comes to thinking about AI and how to effectively regulate it.
9:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I don't think anyone can assume that there are rules in place to manage any of this stuff.
9:46
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why it's important that policy makers really ask a lot of questions and talk to a lot of people and think about how AI could be invasive in every aspect of our lives.
9:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, look, you know, I've dealt with a lot of this stuff over the years, you know, like in my workplace, and I'll start with, we'll start with the workplace first, you know, one of the things that came online were cameras in all the vehicles and the union had to negotiate over, do you want cameras in the vehicles?
10:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Are they, are they facing the road?
10:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Are they facing the driver?
10:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And what we found is, you know, they didn't really care about what you were doing as a driver.
10:20
[SPEAKER_03]: They were just, they were watching your eye movements.
10:23
[SPEAKER_03]: They were watching so much, the control.
10:26
[SPEAKER_03]: was just quite remarkable.
10:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Unfortunately, our union was able to block it, but most, most workers don't have that ability.
10:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So for me, that finally, the legislative branch picking up a little bit of Slack seems, well, about time.
10:43
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good thing that they're doing it.
10:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's no time like the present.
10:48
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, from our last conversation, I mentioned just how rapidly this technology was moving and now we're starting to see impacts that are even greater than some of the AI companies originally thought.
11:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And so again, it's really important that policymakers are thinking about every aspect of how this technology can be used because it's important to protect people's privacy.
11:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's important to protect people's economic standing, right?
11:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, one, AI to be in a place where it's replacing us, and the only way that we're going to be successful in navigating all of the changes that are happening is by thinking ahead, and an intransparent about.
11:33
[SPEAKER_01]: about what's happening.
11:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Now I see I look at all of this is a failure of our legislators across the country and in DC to stay ahead of things.
11:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And one of the arguments that my Republican crowd makes to me as well, we can't regulate these things.
11:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's the same thing that Alan Greenspan said about the derivatives and the mortgage back securities.
11:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And all the stuff that crashed our economy in 2008, he said they were so complicated that we shouldn't regulate them.
11:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And I remember saying at the time
12:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe, maybe we shouldn't have them.
12:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, if this stuff is so hard to figure out, so hard to control, maybe don't.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, just ask yourself in the history of our country, how often has it worked out for Americans when mega companies were able to self-police, not often at all, right?
12:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Congress historically has been slow in
12:30
[SPEAKER_01]: acknowledging how society and technology has changed, but this is one of those areas where it is so important and moving so quickly that it is it's downright dangerous if we don't have the kind of regulations in place.
12:46
[SPEAKER_03]: But what do you say to the argument, because the argument I'm making is we got here and we're the frog that's already boiling.
12:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Because they've been slow walking us into a world of getting used to cameras everywhere, invasive checks every time we go somewhere.
13:03
[SPEAKER_03]: I parked my car the other day and I asked for my driver's license.
13:06
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not like I was near a military base, it's not like I was near any, it was at an amusement park.
13:12
[SPEAKER_03]: But hey, my driver's license, I think they scanned it into some kind of record, which is frightening.
13:19
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, here's the thing, they've slow walked us into this, because I'll talk about my neighborhood.
13:24
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, in our neck of the woods, they put cameras in a...
13:28
[SPEAKER_03]: They put it in the high poverty area, you know, those people, and everybody was on board.
13:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we need to control that area because, you know, there's crime there instead of figuring out how maybe we don't have crime there, how we alleviate poverty, how we make lives better.
13:44
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, we need to control that and everyone was on board for the cameras because it was well, them.
13:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, now all the people who were cheering that on are realizing that them is
13:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
14:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not surprising.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I've written about this before and I think this is why we see such bipartisan outrage and anger when it comes to surveillance.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It starts now.
14:16
[SPEAKER_01]: kind of to your point, being slow walked out, right?
14:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's only going to be targeted toward a certain group of people.
14:22
[SPEAKER_01]: But history shows that almost inevitably surveillance ends up becoming far more widespread, far less transparent, far less watched over scene than it's originally pitched to people.
14:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think flock and their cameras,
14:42
[SPEAKER_01]: ALPR is on my license plate readers as a great example of this, right?
14:46
[SPEAKER_01]: You slow walk this technology out assuming that people aren't going to pay attention.
14:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And once it's in someone's face and they realize, oh, why am I walking down the street or driving down the street and seeing this camera pointed directly at my car?
15:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Then things change.
15:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have certainly been slow walked in a lot of different areas, but policies are choice.
15:09
[SPEAKER_01]: The same way that a lot of municipalities and states are reversing, corsad, and floccaneal PRs is the same way that we can reverse some of these things that have really just gotten too far out of hand.
15:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, it's crazy and I look at the workplace and for me the first place as a labor guy, the first place is the workplace You know what policies are they rolling on you know I remember the Amazon campaign down in Bessomer, Alabama where we learned a lot about What Amazon does the kind of control I know in a lot of hotels you know you're you're not you're not supervised by a person You're supervised by your phone telling you what to do where to go and then tracking your every movement
15:49
[SPEAKER_03]: So imagine, and this was an awakening for me, especially as a laborer guy, that we have the technology to follow your every movement of every second of every day.
15:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And as a truck driver, I'll have in that camera in my face watching how long I blink, where my eyes go, what, maybe what I'm thinking, maybe listening to, listening to my phone calls, or even at some point, I got a magic listening to the thoughts banging around between my ears.
16:16
[SPEAKER_03]: That scares me.
16:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And it gets more dangerous with every month every year that passes by with Congress and legislatures, not doing anything.
16:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, the technology is moving so fast.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really important for people to think not of where the technology is today, but where it's going to be six months for now, it's 12 months for now, 18 months for now.
16:39
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the only way that you really, I think, going to be able to try to keep up with the rapid changes that are happening.
16:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And to your earlier point, sometimes we just need to say as a society, sure we may have this capability, but we shouldn't use it at all.
16:54
[SPEAKER_01]: No one should have the power to do the kind of vast surveillance, certainly without a warrant that some of the capabilities are starting to become now.
17:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, do you see this is an opportunity for maybe the working class to find itself?
17:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe the, because I've been saying for years and this is, it's not new and I'm not the only one who says it, but you know, we're not, I don't think we're as divided on the right and the left in the working class, as they say we are.
17:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the major divide and the thing we should be more focused on,
17:21
[SPEAKER_03]: is the rich in the poor because more of us are closer to poor than we are to Elon Musk.
17:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think the organizing should really be focused on that because understand the musks of the world want this system because they don't want the pitchforks to come out when people can't put food on the table.
17:37
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't want the pitchforks to come out when you can't get health insurance for your children.
17:42
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't want the pitchforks to come out when we're living in Hoover or Trumpetville's under a bridge somewhere.
17:49
[SPEAKER_03]: they want to be able to know who we're when and why and who to go after at any moment and this to me seems like you know, I don't know why they would care what I'm doing every second of the day other than Justin K's that's not rational or paranoid
18:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, surveillance has always been a means for control, right?
18:10
[SPEAKER_01]: If you want to attend a protest because you're second tired of, you know, pick your political party.
18:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know that there are cameras all along the route and that there might be people who are tracking your moves by having drones in the air, you may be less, you may feel less comfortable exercising your constitutional rights.
18:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And in doing so, that's a means of control.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, to your earlier point about, you know, the divide that we see, I agree, especially in the surveillance space, there is a lot more unity across a political spectrum than people may normally think and you may.
18:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You may look at the last two weeks as a great example of why.
18:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So last week, the president held a meeting at the White House and had many of the big tech CEOs from Meta and Amazon and the AI companies and DropBick and OpenAI, and obviously Elon Musk was there to talk about AI.
19:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And they signed many of them signed this voluntary document
19:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So-called standards and guardrails, agreements, right?
19:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And the president said that the only thing that was binding about it was morals.
19:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, again, in the history of the country, how often has large companies, self-pleasing themselves worked out for?
19:39
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna argue's never, I'm gonna go out on the limb here, don't.
19:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm gonna go never.
19:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Corporate America has never had my best interest first ever.
19:49
[SPEAKER_03]: It's always been about their bottom line and what's easiest for them to make that bottom line.
19:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't think they care whether I breathe, live, die, happy, unhappy, just as long as they can profit.
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you hear people from these companies and spaces talk about, well, we just need to accept the bad with the good that AI does, I think a lot of people call BS on that because you're talking about all the possible good things that could happen, but we're already seeing some of the bad things that are happening.
20:23
[SPEAKER_01]: in terms of surveillance in terms of large-scale data centers and the impact on those communities.
20:29
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why you really do need government to step in and make sure that these companies are regulated.
20:35
[SPEAKER_03]: No, one of the conversations I just recently had is because I've been accused of being a little paranoid on this issue.
20:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, well, you know, here's the thing.
20:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't trust the Trump government to have my interest at heart.
20:47
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, recently there was a story that the FBI is collecting this kind of data on people going to protests, much like you said a moment ago.
20:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and, and I said, you know, let me ask you during the Biden years, if you knew this was happening, would you feel a secure believing what you believed about Biden and how invasive they were into your life or even worse?
21:09
[SPEAKER_03]: the dreaded Obama.
21:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Would you have been happy with Obama having this technology?
21:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And to a word, no, absolutely not.
21:17
[SPEAKER_03]: But they trust dear leader.
21:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is the weird kind of moment that I find us in that Trump saying, hey, you know, only I can do this with what the regulations we need is just a strong president.
21:28
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, an authoritarian type, someone who's going to take good care of our personal, you know, our personal freedoms and our personal liberties and our
21:39
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the oldest traditions in America is that Americans don't trust a big government.
21:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a pretty fundamental feature and you see it in the limited power.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have in our constitution, right?
21:52
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I'm a government guy.
21:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I think government.
21:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I believe government is the place where we do the things collectively that we can't do individually.
22:00
[SPEAKER_03]: pave roads, educate a populist, get health care, defend the country, there are things that we should do.
22:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want them in my bedroom.
22:07
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want them in my house.
22:09
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want them in my head.
22:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And we're carrying around this cell phone thing where if they get access and they're able to go through with AI, they have the incredible power of knowing your every thought.
22:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And the fact that we haven't
22:29
[SPEAKER_01]: emphasis on big government, right?
22:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you said, when government works for the people to solve problems that a state or a community can't solve on its own, that's a good thing.
22:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you have big government, that is engaged in buying its way around the Fourth Amendment and possibly using AI and more powerful AI to get a sense of
22:53
[SPEAKER_01]: who are associations are, what are, you know, or hobbies are, where we live, you know, all of the things that make us us.
23:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's where you cross into very dangerous territory for our democracy.
23:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So last line of questioning on this because, look, I know that I know people are saying, hey, we got to do something, and this isn't the data centers.
23:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Data centers are something completely different.
23:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
23:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And I want to focus just on AI because this, this frightens me, I do agree with some of the Republican messaging that that, you know, we do have to compete in this space.
23:24
[SPEAKER_03]: We do have, you know, China's going to potentially rule this.
23:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And I want us to not fall behind, but I also don't think we should surrender our personal liberties, our freedoms, our privacy, just so that we can be worse than our worst monster.
23:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you see any possibility of that being or is this just hopeless?
23:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, is this AI fight a race to the bottom to see who dominates the ability to control its populace, the fastest?
23:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not hopeless, but we really have to take it seriously, you know, for people who are watching or listening and thinking, in the past that, you know, this surveillance stuff doesn't impact me.
24:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we see now with flat cameras and automated license plate readers, that surveillance is really everywhere.
24:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's in our face more than we've ever seen it.
24:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And so,
24:20
[SPEAKER_01]: that anger and backlash against what we've been seeing should be a reminder to everyone that there is a glimmer of hope here.
24:28
[SPEAKER_01]: People recognizing that this has gone too far and demanding that their policy makers change the laws of bringing down these cameras is an example of what can happen.
24:39
[SPEAKER_01]: when people do come together and force change.
24:43
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's going to take a whole lot more to move this Congress and the next Congress to do what's necessary.
24:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Closing the data broker loophole, prohibiting the government from buying our data when they would otherwise need to warrant.
24:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Putting bands in place on how AI could be used for the purposes of surveillance.
25:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Those kinds of things could really make a positive impact.
25:06
[SPEAKER_01]: doesn't necessarily slow down how we can, you know, win the so-called AI race, but there's not going to be a whole lot of value in winning the AI race if there's not a democracy as a result because we haven't regulated the stock.
25:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Are those two separate issues?
25:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you know, you think about the, you think about the, the new Chris, you know, you had nations, you know, deciding, you're trying to fight over who is going to have the biggest new, who is going to be able to destroy the world the most times.
25:34
[SPEAKER_03]: We didn't, that didn't filter down into the average, into the average person's, you know, garage.
25:40
[SPEAKER_03]: My concern with AI is that, you know, it's, it's, it's, potentially, you know,
25:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Who knows?
25:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Who knows where this goes?
25:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Who knows how far down the rabbit hole we end up?
25:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So for me, it's it's it's it there's the military aspect of it and then there's also the personal aspect of it Is it possible to divorce those or is it all one in the same?
26:02
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a good question, you know, I think
26:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we probably need to hold these ideas simultaneously, right, because in the wrong hands without any kind of regulation or laws governing its use, they can be dangerous for anyone.
26:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, and to your point, what is fundamentally different about this is anyone can pick up their phone, right, and access some version of AI.
26:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone can see it, everyone can use it.
26:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know that as it gets more powerful, if it's unrestrained, some people can use it for some seriously damaging things.
26:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And when we're talking about government, who has, you know,
26:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Unlimited funding and, you know, a lot of people, right?
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really important that we all understand what the risks are.
26:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And force our policy makers to address them now, rather than waiting, three, four years down the line when, whatever regulations may be passed, or laws may be passed may be too flis.
27:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I've got to tell you, I'm becoming more and more hopeless on this because I just fear that they've scared us enough that we're willing to give up our liberties and our privacy and all that.
27:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Just so we can feel safe.
27:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Look, I lived after the 911 era.
27:22
[SPEAKER_03]: This is this is frightening moments, but don, I appreciate the time, great work.
27:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope folks will check out the website pogo.org, the project on government oversight, Don Bell Policy Council there at the
27:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
27:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
27:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you with me kind of in concerned?
27:41
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to hear your thoughts, work at theworksmithshow.com.
27:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Quick break, right back, stick around.
28:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
28:03
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1917.
28:07
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day civil rights leader, Fanny Lou Hamer, was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi.
28:13
[SPEAKER_03]: She was the youngest of 20 children.
28:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Her parents were sharecroppers, and she began working in the fields at the age of six.
28:20
[SPEAKER_03]: By the age of 12, Fanny had to drop out of school to sharecropped to meet the needs of her family.
28:26
[SPEAKER_03]: marrying in 1944, she and her husband continued to work as sharecroppers on a plantation near ruleville.
28:33
[SPEAKER_03]: After decades of abject poverty and southern political repression, Fanny Lou Hamer joined up with voter registration activists in 1962.
28:42
[SPEAKER_03]: When she and 17 others traveled to Indian Ola to register, Fanny was fired from her job and driven from the plantation she had worked at for decades.
28:52
[SPEAKER_03]: She began working with the student non-violent coordinating committee and played a central role in organizing freedom summer.
28:59
[SPEAKER_03]: In a short time, Fanny was repeatedly arrested, beaten, and shot at for her activism.
29:05
[SPEAKER_03]: She suffered kidney damage after police beat her near to death in a winona Mississippi jail as she traveled home from a literacy workshop.
29:14
[SPEAKER_03]: By 1964, she helped to found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the all-white delegation to the Democratic Convention.
29:23
[SPEAKER_03]: President Lyndon Johnson was so threatened by live testimony she was giving before the conventions credential committee.
29:29
[SPEAKER_03]: that he organized an emergency press conference to pre-em the broadcast.
29:33
[SPEAKER_03]: When the committee attempted a backroom deal to seat just two MFDP delegates with no voting rights, hammer and other delegates left in disgust.
29:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Hammer continued her activism, but her life was tragically cut short in 1977 from hypertension and breast cancer.
29:50
[SPEAKER_03]: She was just 59.
29:52
[SPEAKER_03]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter,
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a sub story that might bring you to tears, or make you uptruck and discussed.
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about hogs, both the four-legged species and the more pigish two-legged breed of agribusiness executives.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: The latter have long profited from cruel abuse of millions of hogs caged in their monopolistic system.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, the agbys giants have launched a loving campaign call, Sob, Save Our Bacon.
30:27
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a plea to save the abused animals, but to save the abusers' profits.
30:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It turns out that most consumers don't like animal abuse, so states are passing laws to prevent such corporate practices.
30:40
[SPEAKER_00]: This has led to a vibrant new market for humanely raised pork, already gaining more than a fourth of national pork sales.
30:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Outscrew the factory farm giants, feeling the pinch of real competition?
30:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather than clean up their methods, though, the monopolists have rushed to Washington, demanding that Congress save their bacon by artificially and automatically rigging the market.
31:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Their save our bacon act would you serve state's rights to set their own standards for animal welfare?
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not an academic free market issue.
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: In recent state ballot initiatives, voters have overwhelmingly endorsed ethical standards for animal agriculture.
31:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Moreover, responsible family farm producers have quickly responded to this growing new market, upgrading their facilities to meet the new state standards of humane production.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, rather than embracing this success for animals, farmers, and consumers,
31:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Here come tiny clicks of corporate profiteers like the National Port Producer's Council.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They're wielding their big money lobbying muscle trying to overrule the public interest and the political will of America's majority.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiteau, saying, which side is your member of Congress on?
31:53
[SPEAKER_00]: For information, go to Compassion and World Farming.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: C.I.W.F..
32:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm jealous of the weekend.
32:17
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't get a ticket to the power to the people festival.
32:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I didn't look amazing.
32:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Everybody I know who was there.
32:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I had nothing but amazing things to say about the idea that it was about peace and love and democracy and all of those things and then some and the organizing hopefully that comes out of this.
32:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I think what's important, look, we got an election coming up in the near future.
32:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's why yesterday I played the quit clip of Jimmy Williams Jr. talking about hey, you know why why he was there and well Here's Jimmy Williams Jr.
32:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Speaking at the festival any union people in the house Are you in your people in the house Good
33:01
[SPEAKER_04]: this fight that we take on now going forward is bigger than any one of us in this room.
33:07
[SPEAKER_04]: And the American labor movement, those working people that built this country now for generations is ready to fight with you to take back our democracy once and for all.
33:21
[SPEAKER_04]: we're going to work together, we're going to fight together, and we're going to win together in November.
33:26
[SPEAKER_04]: We are in this fight with you, and we will lead this fight to bring about change for the working class, because in the labor movement, we fight fear with passion, we fight hate, with love, we fight division, with unity.
33:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
33:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Ah, yes.
33:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Solidarity forever my brothers, and that's why I've asked Jimmy Williams Jr to come share some thoughts and and maybe Maybe I'm going to be a little jealous about him being able to be there, but Jimmy's the general president of the international union of painters in allied trade.
34:01
[SPEAKER_03]: You can check out their website IUPAT.org Jimmy.
34:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for taking time for us
34:07
[SPEAKER_03]: For sure, Rick, and you, you lucky, I guess I owe you one, I owe you one somewhere, you know, lucky, lucky, I mean, I got to tell you a little jealous, little jealous, it won't tell me about the event.
34:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, it was kind of surreal for me personally to be asked, but I mean, you know, I got to give 100%.
34:31
[SPEAKER_05]: love and respect to Ken Casey, the lead singer, the dropkick Murphy's who, you know, true to form wanted to make sure labor had a spot and that we weren't like not considered because, I mean, the dropkick Murphy's are a voice for the work in class and he's true to form.
34:53
[SPEAKER_05]: And it was correct.
34:54
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it was, it was Ken's idea, Rick.
34:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Ken came up with it and communication
35:01
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to make sure that Labor doesn't get forgot and I want to I want to use this platform because what you what the clip didn't play was was Prior to him introduce to me he said you know organized labor is that the tip of the sphere of how we've rebuilt a movement not only to win back our democracy But will win something better for working people going forward.
35:21
[SPEAKER_05]: That was his intro and and should have formed you know the dropkick Murphy's in Ken Casey
35:27
[SPEAKER_05]: got to give him all the credit for making sure that labor had a voice there.
35:30
[SPEAKER_05]: But the vibe in general, it was great.
35:34
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, all the different organizations that were there, signing people up, connecting what it's all about this moment that we live in.
35:41
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not just about November.
35:43
[SPEAKER_05]: It's so much bigger than that.
35:44
[SPEAKER_05]: It's about making sure we have a democracy, what that looks like, and have an active participation in it.
35:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It was one of those days that I
35:55
[SPEAKER_03]: I must have been incredible, and look, I've been saying for years if we're going to reunite this country, we've got to reunionize this country.
36:00
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what pulls us together.
36:02
[SPEAKER_03]: The idea of that, when we're all doing better, we're all doing better.
36:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And look, this is the kind of thing that I've been saying, we've been needing to do for a very long time, this kind of community activities, especially around music and culture and bringing us together.
36:19
[SPEAKER_03]: I just, I think we should be doing more of this stuff.
36:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And the music, especially Dropkick Murphy's, we play it on my other show and awful lot because it is the labor songs of old that I wish we would update a little bit more to get people motivated, to be able to sing the songs of the past and maybe what we need for the future.
36:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and what again, you know, was amazing about the night was,
36:43
[SPEAKER_05]: We were in between Dave Matthews and the food fighters.
36:46
[SPEAKER_05]: And you know, I'm a product of the 90s.
36:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a child of that era, you know, being able to, to also have, you know, and see Cyprus Hill and public enemy and all the different connections culturally with rage against the machine.
37:00
[SPEAKER_05]: And then having Bruce and,
37:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And the rest of the folks that were there, it was genuinely one of those things where it's like, you know what, we do need to, like within labor, we got to step out of our comfort zone of always being involved in like the political fights, you know, internal, like, how are we going to move the democratic part?
37:21
[SPEAKER_05]: It's like, how are we going to move people back to where we need them to be?
37:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's, and culture and, and arts and all those things play such a huge role.
37:31
[SPEAKER_05]: and being able to do that, that, you know, Kudos to Tom or Ella too for, you know, wanting to do this and organizing it and, and centering it around people.
37:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought that was the best message is like this ain't about politics, this is about people and getting people to own their power.
37:50
[SPEAKER_03]: No, absolutely, but you know, ultimately, it does, it all comes back to politics, because you know, it all comes back down to government deciding who gets what.
37:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And for the last 50 years, I would argue the working class of this country has not gotten its just due.
38:03
[SPEAKER_03]: We have we've created the largest billionaire class in the history of humanity.
38:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet, we still have children who go to bed hungry veterans who are sleeping on the streets and people who are, you know, cutting up medicines, hoping they go longer.
38:15
[SPEAKER_03]: So while, yeah, I'm with you, the political part of that is still there and these kind of events I think are a way to bring people together, have some common interests, and then kind of push an overall platform.
38:27
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think labor is the perfect, as perfectly positioned to position that platform of, hey, we want a better wages.
38:34
[SPEAKER_03]: We need health care.
38:35
[SPEAKER_03]: We need some retirement security.
38:37
[SPEAKER_03]: We need basic things that regardless of what color had you're wearing, we're moving forward
38:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no, absolutely, and labor also has to recognize to come to the table in a way that understands that we can't solve everybody's issue, right?
38:54
[SPEAKER_05]: But we certainly need to work in community with people.
38:57
[SPEAKER_05]: We need to be supportive of a broad working class agenda, and being able to be in spaces that normally we would try to control, or normally we would try to tell others what the labor movement needs.
39:15
[SPEAKER_05]: a way to reach a broader audience about the issues that are affected them and, you know, it stems way beyond.
39:21
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that was, you know, the intent was it stems way beyond just organized labor's issues every day.
39:28
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, working, working people need some relief and
39:32
[SPEAKER_05]: And they do got to be able to politically navigate a system where they're being manipulated.
39:37
[SPEAKER_05]: And you and I've talked about it.
39:38
[SPEAKER_05]: We know it, you know, both parties have been manipulating the work in class now for our lifetime.
39:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And the only way to win back is something that can cut across political divides is to meet people culturally and in their communities.
39:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I know like, and I talked about this yesterday extensively, the reality is music is one of those things that can move people because you feel it.
40:00
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I grew up, you know, I came of age during the end of the Vietnam protest era.
40:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, you know, from you know,
40:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, you know, Buffalo Springfield, you know, Crosby Stills Nash and young, you hear those songs, you hear the line, you know, four dead, no higher, your mind immediately goes to a place.
40:17
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the winds are changing, for the folks who grew up there in the civil rights movement, you immediately go to that place.
40:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've been saying, you know, we need that kind of music today.
40:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, that kind of, that thing that tells a story, tells the struggles, the pain, the suffering, and the nights people, as opposed to keeping us pitted against one another.
40:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and then we need something to be able to hold the corporate interest that align in the Democratic Party, too, from trying to dominate where the activist spaces.
40:46
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, look, the response that we got
40:49
[SPEAKER_05]: from the labor movement from the crowd was one of love right I mean it was working people you know this activist they they do want to figure out how organized labor plays a world that just don't understand and it's so difficult to organize the workplace why would we be dismissive of you know activists that want to hold their government accountable around how this democracy is being torn down or how wars are being
41:12
[SPEAKER_05]: being fought without people saying it, you know, and, you know, there's other things than just the working class agenda, that people can organize around.
41:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you know, you got the sense in there that there's got to be room
41:27
[SPEAKER_05]: for us to be able to navigate some complex issues right now.
41:31
[SPEAKER_05]: And it centers around can we can we can we save our democracy?
41:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Can we figure out once and for all how to put control on controls on corporation?
41:40
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, it looks different that today then it didn't in the 1920s.
41:44
[SPEAKER_05]: but in the 1920s it was how we react into the industrial revolution.
41:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Well right now it's what are we doing about AI and the expansion of corporate control and and all of it ties back to corporate America and and large corporations trying to control this this this government and people's lives.
42:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, the war is the same.
42:03
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's the war versus capital in labor.
42:05
[SPEAKER_03]: That has never changed.
42:06
[SPEAKER_03]: The battlefields have changed, although the weapons have changed.
42:10
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's still the same basic war.
42:12
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd still, and I say this all the time, it's the class war.
42:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Even though we want to believe we're a classless society, and we all have the same interests.
42:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Sadly, we don't.
42:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no, no, absolutely.
42:24
[SPEAKER_05]: But what does that the same interest humanity, right?
42:27
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, people that show love, show, show care around issues of, you know, basicness.
42:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, why do we need to go to war?
42:36
[SPEAKER_05]: And how's that affecting me back home in my community?
42:39
[SPEAKER_05]: Right?
42:40
[SPEAKER_05]: That was the movement of the 1960s, early 1970s, you know?
42:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Like, it's like, why is it that we can give away corporate,
42:50
[SPEAKER_05]: welfare, but we take away welfare for the work in class, right?
42:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Like it's I think
42:55
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, both parties have done such a great job of masking it that every now and then hitting a pause on it and going where is the activist base in this country, you know, for a while there, the activist base was moving towards them make America great again, you know, philosophy because it didn't see movement on the democratic party side, right, like we live in this tug of war and it, and you always need movements to be able to reshape where our political system goes and, you know, I think,
43:22
[SPEAKER_05]: in working like we did this weekend but working more towards that over the next two years we're going to be able to create what that platform in that movement is about.
43:30
[SPEAKER_03]: So come November and I know you're you're shining away from the politics a lot but you know we got a major election coming up.
43:36
[SPEAKER_03]: There's some who view this is a wave moment.
43:39
[SPEAKER_03]: There's some who viewing it as it's just an anger movement.
43:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You know where are you, where do you see things going and you see the opportunity to maybe
43:49
[SPEAKER_03]: not just the Democratic Party, but maybe the Republican Party.
43:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I know there's this this want to believe that they're both the same from my perspective.
43:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Both parties haven't been the same.
43:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the Democratic Party has not been great, but sadly the Republican Party has done it, you know, Reagan forward an awful lot of damage that's almost unforgivable.
44:09
[SPEAKER_05]: No, I rip you and I've talked about that and we are similar mindset right it's not that it's they're both as as bad it's you got one party that's out to destroy it.
44:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, another party that has very, very confusing views of what the working class needs and what the corporate class needs and tries to balance both, right?
44:32
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, the only way to try to win over both parties is to never budge on what those issues are, right?
44:40
[SPEAKER_05]: And not be so willing to compromise based on politics.
44:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And,
44:44
[SPEAKER_05]: the more elected officials that we can get in there that understand the platform and what that looks like, the better off we're going to be in the long run.
44:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And I truly believe that this election coming up is going to determine what it looks like for for 2028, right?
44:59
[SPEAKER_05]: What type of people won, what we mean we're obviously going to do in a autopsy after, but like what type of candidates won, you can already see which type of candidates
45:14
[SPEAKER_05]: running in certain places, like Maine, where a member of our union is running for the United States Senate, and a member of multiple unions, you got Texas, you got Michigan, you know, you have candidates that don't come from the typical lane into politics.
45:35
[SPEAKER_05]: That is going to determine
45:41
[SPEAKER_05]: even more aggressive about an agenda that works for working people, right?
45:45
[SPEAKER_03]: So I guess you're going to see this as a litmus test of the soul of America.
45:49
[SPEAKER_03]: If I can use it, we're a weird friend.
45:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, I do think so.
45:53
[SPEAKER_05]: And people look for waves.
45:55
[SPEAKER_05]: They look for, I look for what is driving people to vote.
46:01
[SPEAKER_05]: And what issues are driving them.
46:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And what I've seen recently,
46:08
[SPEAKER_05]: And really over the last six months, eight months is again a shift away and a reluctance to believe the political class, right?
46:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Now Donald Trump took advantage of that in 2016, right?
46:25
[SPEAKER_05]: However, I think going forward after 2026 is we don't let anybody take advantage of that.
46:32
[SPEAKER_05]: We hold the line going into 2028, right?
46:35
[SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, you could say it's a lipist test, but I think what we already know going into it is, I think skepticism is there again.
46:44
[SPEAKER_05]: about the people that are in charge of this government and have been for, you know, what, six out of the last ten years.
46:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, that tide is starting to shift and has shifted.
46:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And there's a unique opportunity to build upon the momentum of, well, to a place Saturday, continue that and try to build what that platform looks like.
47:07
[SPEAKER_03]: So let's talk about the issues that because the reality is, there are things that are going to pull us together.
47:13
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a part of a platform that labor should be pushing for.
47:16
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I grew up in a housing project on the west side of Cleveland.
47:19
[SPEAKER_03]: To me as an eight year old kid, Union job better life was apparent as the neighbor got a job at four to a UAW job.
47:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Their lives got immediately better.
47:29
[SPEAKER_03]: What's that message going forward?
47:31
[SPEAKER_03]: to get people, you know, like me as that eight-year-old kid, seeing that the union way that a union job is the way forward, and that thing that ties us all together.
47:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Because like, I believe we all want the same thing, good jobs, good neighborhoods, safe schools, all of those things.
47:47
[SPEAKER_03]: How do we push a platform and are you guys working on that?
47:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, look, I think the platform, and you said it best earlier, right?
47:56
[SPEAKER_05]: The platform has got to be, how do you put guard rails against all of the power that,
48:01
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the American corporate class has been able to gather over the last two years and really out of the last, you know, 50 years and never veer off of that, but it's complicated right now, you know, because it ties to a lot of other major social issues like the advent of AI and what that's going to do for the future of our country and what does that mean
48:30
[SPEAKER_05]: national defense right and more importantly has that affected nurse who's going to lose their job when you know a data center is built a hundred miles away from their home or two thousand miles away from their home like they're the they're the more complex issues that the labor movement can't drive that alone
48:49
[SPEAKER_05]: We got to have conversations with people that are concerned about the future of this country.
48:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but look, you know, I just talked about California a minute ago, you know, they just, they just did a few bands on the use of AI in the workplace.
49:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think this is one of those things that labor should be championing.
49:06
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, they passed, I didn't even know that they had to pass a band on using AI to surveil bathrooms.
49:13
[SPEAKER_03]: in California.
49:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, these are things that seem common sense, you know, updating your war and act information, you know, not allowing AI to discipline and fire people, not allowing AI to screen workers emotional states.
49:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there's just a few things that they did that I think this is stuff that could just draw people together.
49:33
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, you know, we're a California staff, short.
49:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Where?
49:36
[SPEAKER_05]: They stop short at applying any sort of real teeth to the data companies and, you know, to me at the end of the day it's how do you how do you hold these corporations that have truly amassed so much power and it's on a hyperdrive.
49:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And how do you hold them accountable for making sure that we don't just give them the keys to the kingdom, right?
49:59
[SPEAKER_05]: And same thing with our government, like we have lost complete control of checks and balances of the executive branch, we have lost complete control of any sort of normalcy in our democracy.
50:11
[SPEAKER_05]: And people see it, they see it, they know it, they feel it, right?
50:16
[SPEAKER_05]: And again, you know, you look at the two party system and you go of corporate America is not stupid.
50:22
[SPEAKER_05]: If they see the way the wins to change are happening, they're going to hedge their bets.
50:26
[SPEAKER_05]: And they're going to hedge their bets.
50:27
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the one thing Trump was honest about.
50:29
[SPEAKER_03]: He bought both sides on and this is where you guys in the labor movement, right now we're having a moment of trust.
50:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And I hope that we take that and you use it to usher us into into a new A new era of prosperity for the working class kind of like my grandparents generation were able to do, but I got to tell you still a little jealous Jimmy Still a little jealous
50:50
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey, listen, that, you know, when you can meet Chuck D and you could meet, you know, Dave Growl and you can meet, you know, Dave Matthews on the same day for me growing up, like I said, I graduated high school in 1996, not a bed, not a bed day.
51:06
[SPEAKER_05]: But I think the message actually about what putting power to the people truly means, it's relevant because people
51:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Jimmy Williams Jr.
51:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate the time.
51:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Great talk with you.
51:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope you'll come back and talk to us again real soon.
51:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Sure thing.
51:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much.
51:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Our good friend Jimmy Williams.
51:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Make sure to check out their website, IUPAT.org.
51:30
[SPEAKER_03]: He's the general president there at the International Union of Paters and Allied Trades.
51:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
51:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you jealous too?
51:37
[SPEAKER_03]: You didn't get to go to the concert?
51:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I know I am back after this, the ground.
51:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
51:51
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1996.
51:54
[SPEAKER_03]: 15,000 workers at the General Motors plant in Quebec flocked off the job.
52:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Members of the Canadian Auto Workers Union were frustrated with their wages.
52:04
[SPEAKER_03]: They were also angry about layoffs, and General Motors moved to outsource some of the auto production to non-unionized labor.
52:12
[SPEAKER_03]: One striker explained,
52:13
[SPEAKER_03]: GM doesn't want to have 30-year people anymore.
52:16
[SPEAKER_03]: They want temporary workers who they can pay lower wages.
52:19
[SPEAKER_03]: The Canadian auto workers had won an agreement with Chrysler that guaranteed the company would not sell off any Canadian parts plants.
52:27
[SPEAKER_03]: But GM...
52:28
[SPEAKER_03]: refused to make a similar promise.
52:30
[SPEAKER_03]: During the strike, the union reported that General Motors $39 billion profit last year was the largest single corporate profit ever recorded in Canadian history.
52:41
[SPEAKER_03]: The union argued that much of this profit came from underpaying Canadian workers.
52:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Canadians only accounted for 8% of the company's North American workforce,
52:50
[SPEAKER_03]: But they generated 42% of GM's total profit on the continent.
52:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Soon GM workers at other Canadian plants join the strike, which swelled to 26,000 workers.
53:02
[SPEAKER_03]: As the strike war on, its impact was felt beyond the Canadian borders.
53:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Thousands of GM workers in the United States were temporarily laid off.
53:12
[SPEAKER_03]: The parts they built were not needed because of the strike in Canada.
53:15
[SPEAKER_03]: It is estimated that 90,000 cars were not produced because of the strike.
53:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Finally, after nearly three weeks, the Union and the company reached an agreement.
53:24
[SPEAKER_03]: The workers won a 2% annual raise in addition to their cost of living increase, but they also agreed that GM could sell off two of its plants and allow GM the right to do more outsourcing of parts from outside suppliers.
53:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And for that, the workers at those plants were guaranteed their wage level for 3 years.
53:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
53:49
[SPEAKER_06]: We're listening to the Rick Smith show.
53:52
[SPEAKER_06]: We're working people, come to talk.
53:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I end on a high note because the guy who keeps confusing our government for his personal publicity department in piggy bank has announced a different arrangement.
54:12
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right Donald Trump is reaching into his pact, his political operation to pay for that political advertising that we've been talking about.
54:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know what a revolutionary concept, what an idea.
54:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my gosh.
54:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Nobody's ever imagined.
54:28
[SPEAKER_03]: On next, we'll discover that taxpayers aren't legally obligated to purchase the confetti for his next victory lap.
54:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, Donald Trump says, Maggie Incorporated a super-packed.
54:39
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll fund the controversial pro-Trump television ads instead of the federal government.
54:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Why?
54:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Because they're not PSAs!
54:47
[SPEAKER_03]: that announcement follows massive criticism from me and numerous others lawmakers included pointing out the fact that you might be violation of federal law.
55:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I understand this isn't a court verdict.
55:04
[SPEAKER_03]: We haven't confirmed the repayment yet, but the retreat is worth recognizing.
55:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the beautiful part is someone turned on the lights and people woke up people became awake Now the ads that ate through us and you know carried the disclaimer paid for by the US government
55:25
[SPEAKER_03]: but they featured Trump going after, you know, the globalist, the communist, the deep state, the fake news, sounded a lot like a political ad, sounds a lot like his rhetoric at the rallies pointed at Democrats.
55:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And look, critics, including congressional Republicans and good for them objected mightle it.
55:45
[SPEAKER_03]: It's funny how it works when people find out what's going on that they actually do something about it.
55:52
[SPEAKER_03]: It's also funny that, you know, when powerful people tell you that political outrage accomplishes nothing, maybe we remember this moment because what we had was a situation where good reporting exposed to this right just outrage brought it to attention lawmakers even began doing their jobs and challenging it and what you got.
56:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Trump came out and announced the funding change.
56:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, look, it can't take every bit of credit, but can recognize the sequence of events without pretending that a, the retreat fell from heaven.
56:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Not of the benevolence of Donald Trump's heart did he go, wow, you know, maybe I should pay for my own stuff.
56:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Understand, transparency is not a decorative democratic virtue.
56:51
[SPEAKER_03]: get to see into what our elected leaders are doing, how they're spending our money, who that is benefiting.
56:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And, well, who the expect to shut up, that'd be us.
57:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So look, I'm all in favor of some good, righteous indignation, especially when people look through that window and refuse to play along.
57:15
[SPEAKER_03]: No, our tax dollars are not the applause machine that bloats his ego, no wrapping self promotion in the American flag and calling it a transformation into public service.
57:31
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not how it works.
57:33
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you can't use the word patriotic to make it a magical word that makes the invoices disappear.
57:41
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not how it works.
57:43
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a thing.
57:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Not Trump framed his announcement as another response to the radical laughed while saying he would pay for them himself.
57:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Instead, he's using money raised for mega ink.
57:58
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not in his pocket.
58:00
[SPEAKER_03]: That's political fundraising money.
58:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Not proof that he's digging deep into his pocket.
58:05
[SPEAKER_03]: No, no.
58:06
[SPEAKER_03]: That's not what's happening.
58:14
[SPEAKER_03]: But you know, I don't need to invent one.
58:17
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't need one because the public response already supplies us the familiar performance that when he blames the critics when he goes after the loft That's a victory.
58:36
[SPEAKER_03]: It's an announcement of a concession celebrate the concession
58:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, we got to ask questions how much published money was spent, who what's being reimbursed, one of the safeguards you won't do it again, and announcement is not an audit.
58:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We need to be doing some of that, but this is how accountability begins.
58:54
[SPEAKER_03]: This is the start of potential accountability.
58:57
[SPEAKER_03]: This is how we say, sorry, don't care how powerful you are if you have to ask our permission.
59:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And with the kind of scrutiny that I'm sure, I'm sure he would rather avoid.
59:10
[SPEAKER_03]: So let him sneer, let him accuse, let him throw his tantrums, let him do all that, let him insist, any demand of answers is disloyal.
59:19
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a country that is not his property.
59:22
[SPEAKER_03]: It's ours, and the treasury is not his vanity fund.
59:27
[SPEAKER_03]: The anger, our anger, that's what's important.
59:33
[SPEAKER_03]: want to hear your thoughts Rick at the ricksmithshow.com.
59:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for tuning in.
59:37
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see you back here next time.