Latest / The Rick Smith Show / The Rick Smith Show 8-20-2026

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The Rick Smith Show 8-20-2026 · 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 the working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Rex Myth Show.
0:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for being here.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today, the big program wants to get two lots to talk about.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today is National Whistle Blowers Day.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And, well, it's not a ceremonial footnote.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It marks the 248th anniversary of the first whistleblower law in American history past unanimously by the Continental Congress on this day in 1778 with a sentence that sounds like a dare to
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[SPEAKER_00]: all persons to report misconducts, frauds, and misdemeanors to the proper authorities.
1:03
[SPEAKER_00]: The first kind of sees something, sees something, and that founding principle.
1:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That thing matters now more than ever, because we've got the orange one.
1:15
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got Donald Trump who has spent years trying to make patronage great again.
1:20
[SPEAKER_00]: He runs government like a loyalty test where the question is not, is this legal or is this corrupt, but are you obedient?
1:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And that really is the soil in which abuse grows.
1:35
[SPEAKER_00]: When power is concentrated in the hands of one well, shady character, when agencies are hollowed out, when watchdogs are sideline, and when truth tellers are treated like enemies of the state, it's whistleblowers who become, well, one of the last lines of defense.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the last lines of defense the public has against tyrannical unitary executives.
2:01
[SPEAKER_00]: History teaches over and over and over.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The first American whistleblowers, Richard Marvin and Samuel Shaw, exposed abuses in the Revolutionary era, and were punished for it before Congress actually stepped in and protected them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In the Civil War, the False Claims Act.
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[SPEAKER_00]: answered war profiteering and contractor fraud by empowering citizens to expose theft theft from where the public treasury and in the modern era the whistleblower protection act and the whistleblower protection enhancement act were written because Congress understood a simple
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[SPEAKER_00]: Whistleblowers are not abstract heroes.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're working people.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're civil servants, they're contractors, they're analysts, they're nurses, investigators, employees, there are neighbors, our friends, our family, who know exactly what can happen when they tell the truth.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that is, they can lose their jobs, their careers, their pension, their security clearances, their reputations, and even sometimes, their health and even their safety.
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[SPEAKER_00]: they step forward anyway because, well, not because they enjoy the punishment, not because they're sadists, not because they understand the, it's because they really understand the cost of silence can be failures.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And let's be blood.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Courage like that is rare because the odds are brutal.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The system often rewards obedience, punishes dissent, and dresses retaliation up as management paragative.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's why whistleblower protections are not a luxury.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're a democratic self-protection.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and in a healthy republic where it's supposed to be loyalty belongs to the constitution the law the public interest not not a single person or president not a political machine and well not a culture of fear so on national whistleblower day yeah we should out of the people willing to risk everything to tell the truth
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is wrong, and the public deserves the, no.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And I know, I know, but Rick, you're gonna get people who are gonna come out and they're gonna, they're gonna make those false accusations.
4:37
[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna weaken internal discipline.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna discourage disloyalty.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And look, that all sounds plausible when you remember the whole point.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Protections only cover reasonable good faith the closures about fraud, waste, abuse, or danger.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and retaliation itself is the real threat.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The claim that whistleblowers are somehow snitches, ignores history.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Major anti-fraud laws, like the False Claims Act, exist because public money and public safety need to have inside witnesses.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We need people who know and they need to be able to come forward.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're, you know, I got to tell you, I listened to Trump speech the other the other week and the weaponization of the department of justice and him coming out and saying, look, we're going to hunt people down.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We were going to go after those career bureaucrats.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to silence them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now understand, properly designed protections strengthen accountability.
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[SPEAKER_00]: deter corruption, and that workers tell the truth without being crushed for it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately, in a healthy democracy, we should have the ability to do just that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, in this era of red hat blue hat, in this Gacha era,
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[SPEAKER_00]: and more than ever we need people of courage because they're not in Congress right now and we need voters of courage who are going to step forward and and elect people who believe that we should get to know the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us add whatever you want later
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[SPEAKER_00]: When I hear your thoughts, email me ricketerricksmithshow.com.
6:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take a quick break when we come back.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to talk a little bit more about national whistleblower day.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a look around.
7:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This day in labor history, the year was 1965.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day that U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed Medicare in the law.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This federally funded health care program provides assistance to one of the country's most vulnerable populations.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The elderly, at the time the law was enacted, many seniors found it difficult if not impossible to get private health insurance.
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[SPEAKER_00]: President Johnson signed the law in a ceremony in Independence, Missouri, the hometown of former President Harry Truman.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While in office in the 1940s, Truman had proposed a national health insurance plan.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately, he was unable to get his plan through Congress.
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[SPEAKER_00]: President Johnson wanted to recognize Truman's efforts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: At the Bill signing ceremony, President Truman received the very first symbolic Medicare card.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The law went into full effect in 1966, 19 million people registered for the benefit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: One of the labor leaders who fought for Medicare was Nelson Hale Crouchang, Nelson held several positions for the AFL CIO, and he spent his career advocating for social insurance protections for working people.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He earned the nickname the Father of Medicare.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The same year that the Medicare Law was passed, Kirk Shank explained why he thought it was so important to reform health insurance.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He said, quote, in too many doctor's offices today, the Hippocratic oath has given way to the Dow Jones average.
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[SPEAKER_00]: By 2010, 48 million Americans received their health insurance through the Medicare program.
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[SPEAKER_00]: 8 million were people with disabilities, the rest were seniors.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The program has had a tremendous impact on the quality of life of millions of older Americans.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yet, since its inception, there have been those who aim to make it less accessible by scaling back benefits and raising the eligibility age.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
9:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it's national whistleblowers day, and well, to be honest, shouldn't every day be whistleblower day?
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[SPEAKER_00]: When going after the cheats and the cons and the people who are screwing over working people every day, shouldn't that be a thing?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this day also marks the 248th anniversary of whistleblower day and understand, you know, with patronage being great again, now that the Trump administration is more about loyalty and, you know, dear leader.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think we need to make this even stronger and make it even greater now, and that's why I've asked Joe Spielberger to come share some thoughts with us.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Joe is the senior policy consultant over at the project on government oversight.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can check out their website at pogo.org.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They've also got a website national whistleblowerday.org.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Very creatively named.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can find that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get links out Joe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for the time for us.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for having me on Rick.
10:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So 248 years of going of protecting whistleblowers and calling out the cheats and the cons, I gotta tell you, I don't think most people knew this was a thing, tell me about it.
10:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Certainly, this is a very timely conversation.
10:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Today is National Whistleblower Day, and it's a great reminder that whistle blowing literally dates back to the American Revolution, so the very first federal whistleblowers exposed misconduct involving
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[SPEAKER_03]: Naval Commander in 1777, who was participating in the torture of prisoners of war, and I think it can be a really powerful room under that this has been interwoven into the fabric of this country from the very beginning.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And when we look throughout the past two and a half centuries,
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[SPEAKER_03]: of scandal, of great uncertainty.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It hasn't just been those in the halls of power who have rerouted history, but it's been ordinary people who have spoken out courageously in order to do the right thing.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that can be a really powerful message for people to hear now.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and this is why it's such an important event that brings the larger whistleblower community together in DC every year.
11:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I got to be honest, there was a little shocked that the first whistleblower law was today 1778, uh, 248 years ago.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and it was passed unanimously by the continental congress so everybody was on board because they understood just how important it was to hold our government officials accountable which I got to be honest I often wonder what the founders would think of a president demanding loyalty oaths and and being able to name your favorite executive orders kind of got to wonder about that
12:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, and I mean, it really underscores the tremendous amount of work that is still left to do with the blowing still does get a lot of really strong bipartisan support across the political aisle in Congress, but like a lot of other issues.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It is increasingly getting politicized where whistleblowers are treated differently based on which party controls the White House or controls Congress.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so we really need to ensure that support for whistleblowers remains a strong
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[SPEAKER_03]: wrong bipartisan issue despite anything else that's going on.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And there are still good opportunities to pass important legislation and make some serious reforms even with this Congress.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is an important topic because I'm sure you saw Trump's speech a couple weeks ago.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we're doing the red scare thing again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to go after the communist.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the threat that he made about using the Department of Justice to go after federal workers, it's my concern that we're in kind of a moment when whistleblowers will now be the target which is why I think laws need to be strengthened.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Is there a move in Congress right now to follow what that continental congress in 1778 did and put that first law on the place and maybe strengthen some of the ones we've got now so that we can hold our elected officials top to bottom accountable,
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[SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, so that there are different answers to that question.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There are short-term things, and there's the longer-term work that we really need to do.
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[SPEAKER_03]: One important piece of legislation that I'll highlight really briefly is called the Expanding Whistle Blower Protections for Contractors Act.
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's been about over a dozen years since Congress last updated protections for contractors.
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[SPEAKER_03]: more and more traditionally government work gets outsourced to the private sector.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There's billions and trillions of dollars in new federal spending and that's one of the key areas where, you know, we can build more accountability within the system so that people do in this important work through federal contractors have the protections that they need and deserve to be able to
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[SPEAKER_03]: experience or have knowledge of ways of fraud in a piece of power.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That's one of the main things that we're working on at Pogo right now along with where it was a lower advocacy partners.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I think the second part or the longer term, answer to your question, is
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, we really need to figure out and reimagine a new system of oversight.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We can't just go back to the status quo and so that's going to involve a lot of deep conversations, many of which are have already started and will be ongoing.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But I think that's the critical component.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We can't just go back to how things were previously.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We have to really imagine a better system that is actually working in accountable for the public.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think when most people think about whistleblowers, they think about the high profile ones, I think immediately of Snowden and Assange and some of those people who get get named when whether you agree or disagree, whatever side people are on in this, these are folks who came out had information for whatever reason did what they did and look, their lives were ruined.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you agree with what they did or not, the question for most people is if I come forward, you know, is my life over?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think at least it would be for me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What does that world look like if someone comes for this?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I have this stuff.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What do you, I guess what are you advocating for?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Well, the number one thing that we would advocate is that anyone who is thinking about blowing the whistle should consult with an attorney as soon as possible, they're especially right now whistle blowing is increasingly fraught.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of confusion and misinformation about what people's whistleblower protections are.
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[SPEAKER_03]: The ones that still exist and how you can
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[SPEAKER_03]: who's in power, who's in the White House, who controls Congress.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Whistleblown is often a very serious and very dangerous decision to make.
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[SPEAKER_03]: There are no guarantees, especially in the current environment of ensuring, you know, one can keep their job, not their career, Whistleblowers take these huge risks and often really pay
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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I asked you because you know the reality is we're in a moment I brought up the you know you guys are nonpartisan you guys don't get into the the right left red hat blue hat stuff But I watched Trump speech and I'll be honest quite frankly scared that you know what out of me because he he was talking about the in my view the next McCarthy era using the department of just as to go after people who may not agree who may
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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, come forth with information and I want to make sure that people have the ability to hold them accountable as they would have if it were Obama or Biden or anyone else or whoever the future's going to be I want good governance of foreign by we the people not one unitary executive or a handful of oligarchs and I think most people want that Joe or maybe that's just my opinion
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[SPEAKER_03]: All right, I think you're right and one thing that I think is really important to underscore is that, you know, we're seeing a lot of very big changes almost on a daily basis throughout the federal government and especially where it intersects with whistle blowing and what we've seen on the advocacy side.
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[SPEAKER_03]: is really what I would characterize as a systematic dismantling of the structure that exists that makes whistle blowing possible in the first place.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so we've seen unraveling of specific due process protections for federal employees and whistle blowers.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We've seen the
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[SPEAKER_03]: rolling back and undermining of the independence of independent agency watchdogs that are responsible for investigating whistleblower disclosures and enforcing those protections.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We've seen agencies already try to target employees or undermine the channels for disclosing important information and so
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[SPEAKER_03]: It's one of those areas where I think it needs to be understood in this larger on-tats that we don't miss the force for the trees so to speak.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's my understanding and correct me if I'm wrong, that federal employees have a much better
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[SPEAKER_00]: uh... have much better protections and i would argue they've got a you they've got union protections for now i know this administration's been going full-tilt boogie at trying to strip their collective bargaining rights away but they have some protections in place whereas many private sector uh... employees of the federal government may not or am i reading that wrong
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[SPEAKER_03]: So there are definitely distinctions in different categories depending on private and public sector, depending on which agency someone happens to work for.
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[SPEAKER_03]: One thing that I definitely would highlight that speaks to the undermining of how these protections can be utilized and enforced.
20:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, is that, um, you know, again, the agencies that are responsible for, in fourth in these protections had been systematically undermined and in a lot of ways stripped of their independence, uh, for, you know, that includes the office of special counsel, where a previous special counsel was fired without cause.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Uh, at the beginning of this administration, we saw the mass firings of inspectors general,
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[SPEAKER_03]: We saw the administration try to strip Congressional appropriated funding from the entity that coordinates inspectors general.
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[SPEAKER_03]: We saw the firing of the only previously serving Democrat on what is supposed to be a bipartisan merit systems protection board.
20:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we've really seen those efforts across the board, which go back to one of your earlier questions about can people really exercise these rights with any trust that they will be given a fair shake.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And as time goes on, the question becomes, I think increasingly no.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And that's also why we really need to kind of shift gears and not just go back to the status quo but really rethink what a system of oversight looks like where people do have trust that the system can work effectively for them and they can continue to speak out.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Because at the end of the day, you know, this is not an issue that
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[SPEAKER_03]: just impacts federal workers themselves or people living within the DC bubble, but people below the whistle on anything from healthcare to workplace violations to environmental threats, and it comes down to
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[SPEAKER_03]: you know, the services and benefits and protections that we all rely on to live our lives.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's one of the important pieces for people to understand because this can be a wonky issue, but at the end of the day it's an issue that directly impacts how we're able to live regardless of where we live across the country.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And the first whistleblower protection act, the first law that was passed, you know, 2048 years ago, was seemed pretty straightforward.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It read resolved that it is the duty of all persons of the United States, as well as all other inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information to Congress or any other proper authority of any misconduct frauds or misdemeanors committed by any person in service
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[SPEAKER_00]: which may come to their knowledge.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That seems pretty straightforward.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Someone's doing something wrong.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it's the original.
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[SPEAKER_00]: See something say something.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And there have been times where Congress has reiterated that.
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[SPEAKER_03]: But it's important to understand that, you know, for a lot of whistleblowers, I mean, they are often some of the most dedicated public servants because they are willing to take these grave risks.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Knowing that they will risk retaliation, they'll risk losing their jobs, their careers, even, you know, physical safety, they could be subjected to civil lawsuits or serious criminal penalties,
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[SPEAKER_03]: They are still oftentimes motivated to do that despite the risks because they believe in the core missions and works of their federal agencies and they want to see a government that works effectively for the people.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, outside of the of the Snowdens and the the Asanges, you know, there are a lot of whistleblowers that, you know, a few days later, their names are out of the press, but their lives are still still in turmoil.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There are a lot of folks who have shown the courage to come forward to hold our government accountable to point out waste fraud and actual abuse.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This history, remember those folks, well, and other ones that you look back on and go, you know, maybe this person changed something, because I think when we think about whistleblowers, we only think about the ones who had to run off to Russia or something.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that we're reminded too much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Are there any that you think about?
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[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so I definitely think a lot personally about whistleblowers who often don't make the front pages of the newspaper for existence or whose experiences aren't necessarily highlighted in high profile congressional hearings or testimony.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And one thing that really stands out to me based on the individual whistleblowers that I've had the privilege of interacting is
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[SPEAKER_03]: people who have gone through so much had experienced so much retaliation and those really life-changing impacts and one of the first
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[SPEAKER_03]: Things that they're motivated to do is to change the systems so that other people in similar situations don't have to have the same experiences that they did.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's been really inspiring to me to be doing this work and to see people who have gone through so much and their first instinct is saying, how can we do this?
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[SPEAKER_03]: come after me.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I think that's also a really inspiring takeaway.
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[SPEAKER_03]: That's true.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So how do we get there?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Last night, a question I've got.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're very for you because I think, you know, when you talk to, when I've brought this up to folks, it's always, yeah, I want the, I want the information.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I want to make sure Congress has all of the information.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I want, you know, when people see something wrong, they speak up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's common sense a little bit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What do we do?
25:58
[SPEAKER_00]: What's what are the marching orders if there are any in this moment?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Especially given the fact that, and again, my opinion not yours, that this administration is doing everything it can do to tap this stuff down and crush leaks and crush any of the things that they view as against them.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What should be done?
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[SPEAKER_03]: I think one of the most important things that we can be doing as a larger community is really finding ways to tell the stories of individual whistleblowers and to connect whistleblown at the national level to impacts in communities across the country.
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[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so again, this is an issue that often gets
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[SPEAKER_03]: translated to the public in a very high level, 10,000 foot approach, and it can be difficult.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I think for people to understand the impact that it really has on their day-to-day lives and the safety of themselves and their families and communities.
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[SPEAKER_03]: And so,
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[SPEAKER_03]: I think where we can really make it clear and connect these dots between federal whistleblowers and threats to people and families and communities across this country.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I think that can go a long way in putting pressure on Congress to act and to take this work seriously.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Joe, I appreciate the time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The thoughts are great stuff.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Keep up the great work.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Joe Spielberg or Senior Policy Council.
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[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks Rick.
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[SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate the conversation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You as well.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear your thoughts email me rickethorexmithio.com National whistleblower day check out the website national whistleblower national whistleblower day dot org you say it ten times fast.
27:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear your thoughts rickethorexmithio.com quick break right back after this stick around
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1866.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day known as the Mechanics Institute Massacre, Black and White Republicans in New Orleans called a constitutional convention to consider voting rights for African Americans.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It would be another three and a half years before the ratification of the 15th Amendment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Friedmen, many of them civil war veterans, gathered at the Fawberg Marnie and proceeded to march to the convention held at the Mechanics Institute on Canal Street.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Just before they reached the Institute, Black Republicans were confronted by a mob of white Democrats
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[SPEAKER_00]: ex-conferred soldiers and police determined to prevent blacks from attaining any semblance of civil or political rights.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The delegates were able to momentarily beat back the mob and reach the mechanics institute, but the racist mob charged again and started shooting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: By the time it was over, at least 50, mostly black Republicans were shot dead in the street.
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[SPEAKER_00]: more than 200 or seriously injured.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Historian Justin Nystrom notes that it was an absolute massacre.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But he adds, it was actually very useful to the Republican Party because it gave them a concrete example of the kinds of problems former Confederates were causing in the South.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He adds that events such as these helped influence voters to bring more radical Republicans in the
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[SPEAKER_00]: Nice drum points to a poem written by Camille Nodden to commemorate the one year anniversary of the massacre.
29:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Titled owed to the martyrs, the poem mourns the massacre, while bitterly observing that Jefferson Davis remained alive.
29:43
[SPEAKER_00]: But for the Milado's blacks and whites, this fact I must tell she writes, Victor Lacroix is dead, Jeff Davis lives still.
29:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Ricksmiths
30:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's an interesting fact, dinosaurs dominated Earth for 165 million years, and they assumed they always would.
30:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Which brings us to, well, us.
30:13
[SPEAKER_02]: We buy petal, far-ranging, homo-sapian primates has certainly established our dominance over modern-day mother-earth.
30:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And even though our reign has only lasted about 200,000 years, we 21st century humans, grandly assumed that we're ordained by the gods to rule odd infinitum over our planet and beyond.
30:33
[SPEAKER_02]: But, oops, unfortunately, we've based our pre-eminence on the unsustainable consumption of our domain, rather than on stewardship for the ages.
30:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Under the global misguidance of corporate political religious academic and other powers that be, our large brain species has ended up making an awful mess of the nest we inherited.
30:54
[SPEAKER_02]: elite plunders and profiteers have imposed an ethic of greed, inequality, and even inhumanity that is devouring everything from Earth's climate to our basic human values of fairness and justice.
31:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Leading this careless assault is a clique of arrogant and abusive high-tech gabillionaires who consider themselves geniuses because, well, they're rich.
31:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Consider Elon Musk, presently the richest of the world's richest, who posture says an Uber-brain deep-thinker and hoarding corporate dervish.
31:26
[SPEAKER_02]: But wait, strip away the hype, and Musk is just another self-serving, plutocratic ravageer, a cartonish robber baron whose genius lies in one, taking credit and profit from other people, too, demanding subsidies and special breaks from government, three, cheating workers and customers, and four, suing everyone for his failures.
32:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So interesting story of the Shopify CEO Toby Lutky, he just said the quiet part out loud.
32:26
[SPEAKER_00]: He appears to endorse a voting system where the rich, the wealthy, the rich are powerful.
32:36
[SPEAKER_00]: They get more say than the poor.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... never mind poor people never mind retirees never mind anyone without enough income uh... and tax paid to uh... to get to get shoved toward the margins or or out of the electorate entirely and then look it's done innovation or stakeholder democracy uh... what he's talking about his old fashion pletocracy with a tech bro polish
33:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And it tells you exactly what some billionaires think of voting rights and what they're worth.
33:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Only as much as you can afford.
33:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So his ideal democracy is your vote depends on your bank account.
33:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think he said, you know, if you have the more money, have you get five votes and well.
33:26
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not rich, you're just baggage, you get nothing.
33:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And the weird thing is, and this is where I keep coming back to you have you ever noticed the same people who can't shut up about freedom and democracy are usually the first ones trying to make sure fewer and fewer people could exercise it funny how that works and you know here at home
33:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, our right wing has spent decades dressing up anti-democracy as election integrity.
34:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, and look, it's like slapping a tuxedo on a dumpster fire and then, you know, uh, and then you're trying to say it's a banquet.
34:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, it doesn't, it doesn't fly.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It's still trash.
34:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, it just smells like colonial billionaire donor cash.
34:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with the obvious.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not some new misunderstanding or bureaucratic accident.
34:27
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the same old Republican project over and over and over again for generations.
34:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Reduce turnout, confused voters, intimidate voters, purge voters.
34:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Draw districts so crooked they look like they were designed by a drunk map thief.
34:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, when they win under the rigged conditions, they've created, they call it the will of the people.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: No pumpkin, that's not how that goes.
34:59
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the will of the wealthy, delivered through a billion dollar filter with a whole lot of legal vandalism.
35:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And because they've always been too cowardly to say that, quiet part, out loud with their full chest,
35:16
[SPEAKER_00]: They've had the rely on old friends like Paul Warrick and you may remember, you know, Paul Warrick back, you know, 1980 to a crowd of Baptist ministers saying, I don't want everyone to vote.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: How many of our Christians have good, good, good, good government syndrome?
35:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I don't want everyone to vote our leverage, our leverage goes down as the voting populist goes up in which look understand what he said is is beautiful in the worst possible way because there it is the whole philosophy bare backside naked on a polygetic on a shamed just like litkey I got money I should have five votes you should get none
36:05
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't believe in expanding democracy.
36:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, Rick?
36:09
[SPEAKER_00]: He believed in shrinking it until the right people were allowed to vote and voted for the right people.
36:19
[SPEAKER_00]: He understood something modern Republican still worship.
36:23
[SPEAKER_00]: If more people vote, their power goes down.
36:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So the mission became simple.
36:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Make voting harder.
36:32
[SPEAKER_00]: and call it righteousness.
36:35
[SPEAKER_00]: You gotta love that good Christian kind of hyper-religiosity, smeared all over it.
36:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why these people talk about saving elections.
36:47
[SPEAKER_00]: And anytime you hear that, you should hear a siren, like the Save Act, it's not a noble defense of democracy, it's a polite little shiv aimed at the voter rolls.
37:01
[SPEAKER_00]: it asks for for documentary proof of citizens papers please push his barriers on the registrations and it creates a whole expensive exhausting obstacle course for ordinary working people who already have jobs kids bills aging parents and exactly no interest in performing an act of political paperwork theater so some cable news Republican can declare the Republic
37:32
[SPEAKER_00]: If a law is designed to make eligible voters jump through hoops, the law is not protecting elections.
37:39
[SPEAKER_00]: It's protecting incumbents.
37:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It's suppressing participation.
37:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's rewarding the people who can most easily navigate the maze.
37:48
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, the wealthy, the well-organized, and the well-loored?
37:54
[SPEAKER_00]: And don't let them lie about this is just a technical debate over forms and compliance.
38:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's how they always hide the knife behind the language of admin work.
38:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But the effect is real.
38:09
[SPEAKER_00]: More people get pushed out, more people get confused, more people get discouraged, more people with legitimate rights to vote.
38:17
[SPEAKER_00]: are treated like suspects, because well, and maybe they moved.
38:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they got married.
38:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they changed their names.
38:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
38:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they don't have a passport in their socks drawer.
38:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Or, or the other part, most of us, we can't take three hours, four or five hours off work to prove to some bureaucrat that we are, in fact, who they think we are, and in fact, American enough to be counted.
38:43
[SPEAKER_00]: What a triumph for democracy.
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Please present your birth certificate, your patience, your retmoney, and your surrender.
38:55
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a special rich coming from the party that has turned voter suppression really into an art form.
39:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You look at the Jerry Mandarin, treating districts like a drunken game of pipe cleaners and revatch.
39:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You talk about polling place closures, very innovative.
39:13
[SPEAKER_00]: If your innovation is making people stand in line for six to ten hours in neighborhoods, you don't really like our respect.
39:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about voter, voter purges, classic, male ballot restrictions.
39:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, every trick in the book.
39:28
[SPEAKER_00]: that a few more, they write themselves in the margin, because the moral of the story is always the same.
39:35
[SPEAKER_00]: If democracy is left open enough for working people to actually use it, Republicans lose.
39:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And look, I go back to the auction of 2010 when Tom Corbett was running.
39:47
[SPEAKER_00]: The former governor of Pennsylvania, because he won, reportedly said that if they could just hold the vote down in Philadelphia, they would win, and they did.
39:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Imagine being that blunt and still expecting us to present to believe that you're a side.
40:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe is an equal participation.
40:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, look, it's not a gap.
40:09
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really an admission.
40:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Hold down the vote.
40:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Is exactly what it means when they talk about targeting turnout, when they talk about election protection.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: and all the other sterile phrases that sound like they were focused group tested and amazily in some way.
40:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And understand, the goal is not to earn support in cities among workers, among black voters, among young people.
40:35
[SPEAKER_00]: No, that's not it.
40:37
[SPEAKER_00]: The goal is to suppress the number of votes until the map works for them.
40:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And now you add in a ton of money, because apparently stealing the vote isn't enough, they wanna buy the whole damn election.
40:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And thanks to Forbes magazine, we now find out, billionaires are dumping about what was the number, $433 million thus far into the 26 midterms, almost a half a billion dollars, and guess what?
41:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So Musk, the Wall Street monsters venture capital billionaires, donor dynasties, and the usual suspects in the usual scam, they don't invest because they love freedom, they invest because they want a government that will kneel when they click their heels.
41:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And if a few hundred million bucks could influence Congress, corn appointments, labor law, tax
41:43
[SPEAKER_00]: what we have is not representative government.
41:46
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a high-end subscription service for the very wealthy.
41:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I go back to my grandfather who always said if a rich guy is going to take a buck out of his pocket to tell you you don't need something you better spend to to get it.
41:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Because what they understand return on investment.
42:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what they're getting massive, massive return on their investment.
42:11
[SPEAKER_00]: and the part that should make all of us furious is just how shameless they are about it.
42:19
[SPEAKER_00]: They rig maps, they rig rules, they rig the money, they rig the access.
42:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, then they lecture us about civics.
42:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They tell us to participate while they install locks on the doors.
42:32
[SPEAKER_00]: They tell us every vote counts.
42:35
[SPEAKER_00]: While designing laws, we're saying that some might not count.
42:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe yours.
42:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They tell us democracy matters while treating the electorate like a nuisance to be managed.
42:49
[SPEAKER_00]: It is condescension wrapped in patriotism and sold back to us in some kind of virtue.
42:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And working people keep getting stuck in the middle, trying to survive what is a rig dichotomy, while a rigged political system tells us, well, we're the problem.
43:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Wages leg, housing costs explode, health care bleeds us dry, grocery bills are getting our way out of control, kids need child care, the rents do, the car breaks down, the boss feels your time, and in between all that, the political class wants us to go run and find a passport, a birth certificate, or a half a day off work, just to prove that we deserve the same ballot as some hedge fund manager.
43:36
[SPEAKER_00]: It is absolutely obscene, and it's insulting, but it's what they exactly what they intend.
43:48
[SPEAKER_00]: So the answer is not to shrug our shoulders and say, well, you know, both sides do it.
43:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's some middle school dodgeball gap.
43:59
[SPEAKER_00]: because both sides aren't doing it.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: One side is openly and aggressively trying to narrow the electorate, weaponize the rules and flood the feel with billionaire money.
44:12
[SPEAKER_00]: The other side, trying to various degrees of effectiveness encourage, trying to hold the line.
44:20
[SPEAKER_00]: But the real lesson in all this is bigger than party politics.
44:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is very simply that power only seeds to power.
44:28
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't soften, it doesn't repent, it does not get embarrassed into doing the right thing or being fair.
44:36
[SPEAKER_00]: working people need to find one another and stand together.
44:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be it in our unions, in our neighborhoods, our churches, tenant groups, local campaigns, workplaces.
44:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care where.
44:48
[SPEAKER_00]: In every place where isolation has been used to keep us weakened, grateful, we should be organizing, we should be fighting together.
44:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the people rigging this system are counting on us
45:02
[SPEAKER_00]: being pitted against each other.
45:03
[SPEAKER_00]: J-goals, I could pay half the working class to murder the other half.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: They count on us, staying fragmented, tired and distracted.
45:14
[SPEAKER_00]: They're counting on us, thinking the game's fixed for good.
45:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's never gonna get any better.
45:18
[SPEAKER_00]: This is it.
45:19
[SPEAKER_00]: It's permanent.
45:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not.
45:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It only survives if we let it.
45:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the part that they fear the most.
45:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I say this all the time.
45:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now they have all the money.
45:32
[SPEAKER_00]: 80% of it's going to Republicans.
45:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now there are more of us.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We still have the opportunity to outvote them.
45:41
[SPEAKER_00]: We have outprocreated them.
45:44
[SPEAKER_00]: While we still can, we should be voting and understand.
45:48
[SPEAKER_00]: You what they fear the most is that, not outrage, not hashtags, not speeches from other billionaires, pretending to be reformers.
45:57
[SPEAKER_00]: They fear organized working people who understand what the score is, understand the game, the scam, and refuse to play along with the lie that the wealthy were just, you know, magically born to rule the rest of us, and we all were, well, we're born to take it.
46:16
[SPEAKER_00]: That empowerment?
46:18
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the real threat to their system.
46:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Not a slogan or a donation, a class that finally recognizes itself and starts acting like it deserves power.
46:31
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the moment that we're in.
46:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know how much simpler to put this.
46:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the weird part to me is, we've easily been distracted.
46:46
[SPEAKER_00]: by all of the other stuff, everything else.
46:51
[SPEAKER_00]: There is truly an opportunity to do the right thing, not just for ourselves, but for our children.
46:59
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know in this day and age,
47:02
[SPEAKER_00]: After all these years of supply side, Voodoo, Reagan,omics, and they had the hyper-individual and the hooray for me and the heck with everyone else.
47:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I want new wins with the most toys wins, dice wins, and greed is good at all of that that I grew up being force-fed.
47:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I know we've internalized that, but the idea of looking to our right, to our left, and to the people around us, and that being how we move this country forward,
47:33
[SPEAKER_00]: because our billionaire friends, friends loosely, they understand the moment we're in.
47:43
[SPEAKER_00]: They understand who's on their side and who's on your side.
47:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And understand, working people used to ask that question, which side are you on?
47:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, on the side of the bosses and the money interests, the billionaires and the corporates,
48:02
[SPEAKER_00]: or you on the side of working people.
48:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know the weird part?
48:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of those working people might just be trans, might just be gay, might just be different, might just be living their best life, might just be pursuing their happiness.
48:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what?
48:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's okay.
48:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's their lives, not yours.
48:28
[SPEAKER_00]: be concerned about how we put food on our tables, how we keep roofs over our children's heads, and how we provide opportunity for a working class that has been just wrestled away from us and gifted to our billionaire class.
48:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Want to hear your thoughts?
48:45
[SPEAKER_00]: email me, ricketerricksmithshow.com.
48:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to take a quick break right back to ground.
49:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
49:06
[SPEAKER_00]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1975.
49:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the day that began one of the greatest mysteries of the United States Labor Movement.
49:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in Detroit.
49:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Hoffa was the son of a coal miner.
49:21
[SPEAKER_00]: After his father died, Jimmy left school and went to Detroit to work in a warehouse.
49:25
[SPEAKER_00]: When Hoffel was only 20 years old, he organized a strike of dock workers at the Crocker grocery and bakery company.
49:32
[SPEAKER_00]: He became recognized for his labor organizing skills and went on to head the Teamsters Union.
49:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Under Hoffa's leadership, the Teamsters had become the largest international labor union.
49:43
[SPEAKER_00]: He played a key role in negotiating the first ever national freight hauling agreement.
49:48
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1967, he faced several charges related to a federal investigation.
49:52
[SPEAKER_00]: He was convicted of jury tampering and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
49:56
[SPEAKER_00]: President Richard Nixon commuted office sentence in 1971.
50:00
[SPEAKER_00]: But the release was conditional upon his not participating in union activities for 10 years.
50:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Hoffa planned to appeal this restriction in court.
50:09
[SPEAKER_00]: What happened next is a mystery.
50:10
[SPEAKER_00]: He was reportedly scheduled to have a dinner meeting with Anthony Tony Jack G. Cologne, a Detroit mobster, and teamster boss Anthony Provisano.
50:19
[SPEAKER_00]: When Hoffa did not return home that evening, his wife reported him missing.
50:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Both men denied they were supposed to have met with it.
50:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Hoffa's body has never been found.
50:27
[SPEAKER_00]: and the actual cause of his death has never been determined.
50:31
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1982, he was declared presumed dead.
50:34
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1992, Jack Nicholson starred in a biopic about Hoffa's life.
50:38
[SPEAKER_00]: His disappearance has generated considerable interest over the years with multiple theories, and still the mystery remains unsolved.
50:46
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing that's not a mystery was his determination.
50:49
[SPEAKER_00]: to make workers the lives better.
50:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
50:55
[SPEAKER_00]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's at Labor History in two.
51:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So Trump's numbers are tanking still because, look, American see the same thing every day.
51:25
[SPEAKER_00]: He's obsessed with himself.
51:28
[SPEAKER_00]: and failing on prices, on affordability, on the war, on basic priorities of government, and governing the country seem to, I don't know, like just another side hustle.
51:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So I look at this new CNN S-R-S-R-S poll that found 73% of us say that Trump hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems
51:57
[SPEAKER_00]: say he has the right priorities 27% that's the number that's important to me because I put Mago World right around 33% about a third or the red hat that died in the wall the folks who drank the the cool aid while that that number is down to 27% that means all things aren't going
52:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, not Trump's approval rating is 34%, that is a career low, 66% disapproval and oddly enough.
52:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, remember, I'm thinking about a third of the country, about 33% of the MAGA folks bought the hats, got the T-shirts.
52:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Only 15% strongly approved of Donald Trump.
52:49
[SPEAKER_00]: That means half of Magal World, only half of Magal World are strongly in the camp now.
52:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Two thirds say, as economic policies have worsened, worsened conditions.
53:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Two thirds say his Iran decision has hurt the country.
53:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You go, really, that's it, just 67% for those.
53:10
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
53:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Huh, his weakest issue obviously are Iran inflation and gas prices and look, you know, he did come out with a freedom fuel, which hasn't really worked, hasn't just 21% approve of what he's done on fuel and I got to be honest, this is one of those moments where I go 21% are okay, are happy with the gas prices, 21% seems high to me.
53:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That sounds like people who are goofing around.
53:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Not 74% say gas prices have caused hardship.
53:48
[SPEAKER_00]: 71% say he hasn't done enough to lower every day cost.
53:53
[SPEAKER_00]: And I go back to this frame.
53:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I hate this frame because prices don't come down.
54:00
[SPEAKER_00]: We need wages to go up.
54:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be honest, this is where Democrats have an opportunity to have an actual plan because the majority of people don't think Trump has a plan.
54:11
[SPEAKER_00]: because guess what, surprise, surprise, he doesn't?
54:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Just 27% say Trump is in touch with ordinary people, about two thirds, say he puts personal gain ahead of the country.
54:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you know, only about two thirds, think he puts personal gain ahead of the country.
54:37
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it?
54:39
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all?
54:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Seems, I gotta be honest, seems like it should be higher.
54:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, his DC construction projects and business interests are wildly unpopular across the political spectrum.
54:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And you look what he's done to the capital.
54:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You look at that whole debacle with the reflecting pool and you go, doing what Trump does best, trying to find someone to blame.
55:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about you, but I went and I filled up my truck today.
55:11
[SPEAKER_00]: and it was not uh... it was not joyful i was not i was not joyful i was it was uh... it was a lot it was like eighty five bucks and it's one of those things where you go to even at costco where it was four or five a gallon it was well over four bucks uh... in my neck of the woods most of the places were in the four twenty nine range and higher now again when when he took office that wasn't it
55:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So we've another war of choice that they can't seem to figure out because I don't know whether to not believe him every moment of every day.
55:52
[SPEAKER_00]: or if it's just, you know, he lies by default because while they're supposedly negotiations going on and Iran wanting to talk, the Iranians keep saying, no, no, that's going on.
56:04
[SPEAKER_00]: That's an alternative reality.
56:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a problem.
56:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And I gotta tell you, this has gotta be a problem for my red hat friends as well.
56:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I gotta think they wanna believe the guys, their guy, he put him there, he, their responsible for him being there.
56:24
[SPEAKER_00]: But can you believe it?
56:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, here's the opportunity, and this is what I've been doing because I do know a good number of red hat folk.
56:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I do know people who bought the T-shirts.
56:36
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, I know a couple of people who used to do shifts at the stand to sell other people that the Schwag.
56:44
[SPEAKER_00]: That stops tap down.
56:47
[SPEAKER_00]: The shirts have gone.
56:48
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't seen a Trump shirt in a while.
56:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably because it was in the truck and had to grab something, although the flags have gone down in my neighborhood.
57:02
[SPEAKER_00]: There's an opportunity, which is why Trump is is grabbed onto this communist thing.
57:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we got to create another bookie map.
57:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm hoping that even our red hat friends who were told Russia was good are now kind of looking
57:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping and I'm at every opportunity trying to reinforce just how bad things are, not because I'm happy about it.
57:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But because, well, one told you so, you knew this was going to happen, you knew what he was going to do, horrible stuff, and you knew it was going to hurt your pocketbook.
57:45
[SPEAKER_00]: You knew it was going to enrich the very wealthy, they're happy.
57:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Folks who have big investments, they're doing great.
57:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And the rest of us, and this is one of those things that always has driven me crazy, because I got people, oh, my four-year-old goes doing okay.
58:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you accessing that now?
58:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And do you have enough to live on?
58:07
[SPEAKER_00]: The answer is no.
58:08
[SPEAKER_00]: What the business community has done masterfully is they've gotten us all thinking like we're owners.
58:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we're the boss now.
58:15
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got investments.
58:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So we gotta start thinking about the stock price.
58:20
[SPEAKER_00]: We gotta care about Wall Street.
58:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It was masterful.
58:23
[SPEAKER_00]: It really was.
58:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Cause they gave us a little skin in the game.
58:27
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot, don't get carried away.
58:28
[SPEAKER_00]: A little bit.
58:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And now that's where our focus is.
58:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be a millionaire.
58:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Well reality is is being a millionaire today.
58:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Ain't what being a millionaire used to be.
58:45
[SPEAKER_00]: and the more that our wealth class walks away in shirts it's responsibility to funding our government and our nation, and the more they play these kind of games but we're so it's gonna get for all of us and as I keep saying, it's gonna have to get really bad and I know people who think it's real bad right now because they are struggling to put food on the table they are struggling to keep their head above water
59:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, this administration has done absolutely nothing to make any of that easier, to make life more bearable, even for the people who wore the red hats.
59:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Want to hear your thoughts email me ricketerriksmithshow.com, something I said, Major Matt, happy sad.
59:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to hear about it.
59:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much for being here.
59:37
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:42
[SPEAKER_01]: You've been listening to the Rick Smith show.
59:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Email Rick at RickSmithshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, this is Ben the Rick Smith Show, where working people come to talk.