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The Rick Smith Show 8-14-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_04]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:16
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:18
[SPEAKER_05]: That's so much for being here.
0:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Today on the big program, let's get to lots of talk about we are now officially entering into that magical pre-midterm season when Republicans finally have discovered that they're biggest threat to democracy as well.
0:36
[SPEAKER_05]: people participating in democracy because apparently voting is only sacred when it produces the proper results.
0:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And by proper I mean the ones that make our dear leader feel like he won something other than the world's most heavily litigated participation trophy.
0:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And the latest GOP panic voter ID again, yeah, we're back because evidently allegedly 400 people in New Jersey who are undocumented.
1:09
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the report, 400 may have may have voted in the 2024 election in New Jersey 400 out of four millions more than four million cast
1:19
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to say, and that's not a stolen election.
1:22
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a rounding air wearing a trench coat, but not even proven in my mind yet.
1:28
[SPEAKER_05]: But for Republicans, I don't need proof what it is is proof that we need to put every voter through an obstacle course designated by the DMV, a payday lender, or the guy at the airport who makes you take your shoes off.
1:44
[SPEAKER_05]: They'll tell you it's about election integrity.
1:47
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the phrase politicians use when they want to make voting harder for people who might not vote for them.
1:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And not because Donald Trump lost the mail in ballot in 2020, suddenly mail in voting must be treated like anthrax in an envelope.
2:05
[SPEAKER_05]: But think about that.
2:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Americans have, I don't know, male tax returns, mortgage checks, military ballots, birthday cards, rent payment, social security, documents, prescription drugs on your jury notice.
2:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Virtually every piece of important paper goes through the U.S.
2:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Postal Service, but a ballot.
2:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Whoa, whoa, that's dangerous.
2:28
[SPEAKER_05]: And apparently they want to use the U.S.
2:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Postal Service, who is trustworthy enough to deliver all of the ads for reverse mortgages, evidently they're not trustworthy enough to deliver democracy.
2:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, a federal judge in Boston stepped in and blocked the postal service from carrying out part of what Trump's executive order was in tightening rules around mail and ballots.
2:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Trump and the administration wanted states to hand over their voter list and change ballot procedures or potentially watch the postal service refuse the deliver the mail.
3:08
[SPEAKER_05]: That's right, the federal government's new election policy was basically nice democracy you got there shame if no one delivered it.
3:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And what's their legal justification?
3:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, according to voting rights experts, none of the postal service doesn't get to decide if it's going to stop delivering ballots because a state didn't bow deeply enough to dear leader and his election paranoia.
3:37
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the game folks in Venacrisis, in flight and allegation, find a few hundred votes in the state with millions of ballots, scream fraud into every available microphone, and then sell restrictions as common sense.
3:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Sell obstacles to the ballot box as common sense.
3:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Meanwhile, the real problem is not that too many people are voting.
4:00
[SPEAKER_05]: It's that too many people might vote against the people writing the rules.
4:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Democracy is not supposed to be a private club with a dress code, a cover charge, three forms of ID and a Boutser name, Greg, checking whether your signature looks as spacious.
4:16
[SPEAKER_05]: If your party can only win, making it harder for me and others to vote, you don't have an election strategy.
4:26
[SPEAKER_05]: You got a hostage situation.
4:28
[SPEAKER_05]: And you're holding mother liberty, well hostage.
4:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is the kind of stuff that you'd be out raging people, especially my red adds, who don't are supposed to believe in the 10th Amendment in states' rights and, you know, the thing they used to carry in their pocket, you know, they got those little, what was the word?
4:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, yeah, constitutions.
4:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I remember the Tea Party folks who eventually, many of them morphed into the red hats, still carrying around their unopened, unread constitution, but they
5:03
[SPEAKER_05]: What happened to the 10thers?
5:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Now that we've got a dear leader.
5:08
[SPEAKER_05]: Wanna hear your thoughts?
5:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Email me, ricketerricksmithshow.com.
5:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Quick break, when we come back, another assault on social security just around the corner.
5:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Back after this.
5:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
5:26
[SPEAKER_05]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1935.
5:30
[SPEAKER_05]: That was the day that 35 journalists of the Seattle Post Intelligencer walked off the job.
5:36
[SPEAKER_05]: They represented about half of the newspapers newsroom staff at the time.
5:40
[SPEAKER_05]: The strike started because the paper had fired two longtime employees, drama critic Everhard Armstrong and head photographer Frank Slim Lynch.
5:52
[SPEAKER_05]: a union for newspaper employees that had begun in 1933.
5:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Management claimed the firings were due to the two employees, poor job performance, and in subordination.
6:02
[SPEAKER_05]: But Armstrong had worked for the paper for 17 years, and Lynch for 15 years before joining the union.
6:09
[SPEAKER_05]: The Seattle paper was owned by the newspaper giant William Randolph Hearst.
6:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Hurst was known for his anti-union, anti-communist, anti-Rosevelt stances.
6:19
[SPEAKER_05]: The strike was thus a battle between a few dozen journalists and this national opinion maker.
6:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Even though the numbers of workers on strike were small, the cause won the support of other labor unions.
6:31
[SPEAKER_05]: The teamsters refused to deliver newsprint to the post-intelligenceers, long-sharm and metal workers and lumber workers.
6:38
[SPEAKER_05]: join the newspaper men on the picket line.
6:40
[SPEAKER_05]: The strike wore on for three and a half months, and the paper was shut down.
6:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Many in the public supported the newspaper men.
6:47
[SPEAKER_05]: The strikers put out their own newspaper, they called it the Guild Daily.
6:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It included updates on the strike, as well as general news and sports coverage.
6:56
[SPEAKER_05]: The circulation of the strike paper reached 60,000 a day.
7:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Finally, President Franklin Roosevelt
7:03
[SPEAKER_05]: on a landslide reelection victory.
7:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Perhaps recognizing the mood of the nation was swinging toward the working man, management decided to settle the strike.
7:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Today, the newspaper Guild has 34,000 members throughout the United States and Canada.
7:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor history and too brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith show.
7:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
7:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
7:34
[SPEAKER_05]: So we've all seen the story, social security very soon is going to not be able to pay all of its obligations.
7:42
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not going bankrupt, it's not going to not have any money.
7:46
[SPEAKER_05]: But there is talk over the next couple of years that if nothing is done, if Congress continues to fail as they have for the last, I don't know how long we've been talking about this 20 years now.
7:57
[SPEAKER_05]: This is not a crisis that we have not seen coming.
8:02
[SPEAKER_05]: But every solution that they come up with is it seemed to be worse than the next.
8:06
[SPEAKER_05]: And now we've got another group of centrists on both sides with more bad ideas.
8:12
[SPEAKER_05]: And oh, a BS named Bill, the Promise Act.
8:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And you would think that the Promise Act would, I don't know, honor your freaking promise.
8:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Seems like the idea.
8:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, I don't think that this is what that is and here to help me work through some of it.
8:30
[SPEAKER_05]: That's my good friend Alex Lawson to come share some thoughts.
8:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Alex is the executive director of Social Security Works.
8:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Check out their website at SocialSecurityWorks.com.
8:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Alex, thanks for the good time for us.
8:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, he's Rick.
8:42
[SPEAKER_05]: So another group of senturists, another bad idea, walk, what are we doing?
8:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, so, you know, this is DC 101, which is that bad ideas are eternal.
8:56
[SPEAKER_02]: They just keep coming back and back and to really be in here fighting a policy fight, like I have for 16 years, you have to really gird yourself for the fact that you're going to literally be doing the same thing.
9:14
[SPEAKER_02]: over and over and over again and every time it's going to it like Dick Durbin who's Bill you're talking about the so-called promise act.
9:24
[SPEAKER_02]: He was the guy back in the bowl Simpson Commission under Obama.
9:27
[SPEAKER_02]: He was the biggest booster of that, the BS Commission.
9:30
[SPEAKER_02]: All right, so he's he has not changed.
9:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just bringing the bad ideas back and what are the bad ideas?
9:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Always the same.
9:40
[SPEAKER_02]: If Congress does nothing, there's an automatic benefit cut across the board around 20% disastrous.
9:48
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not going bankrupt.
9:49
[SPEAKER_02]: You're not going to get nothing, but you're not going to get 100% of promise benefits.
9:54
[SPEAKER_02]: That's because the billionaires have taken all the money because you only pay in to Social Security on the first $184,000.
10:00
[SPEAKER_02]: After that, not a nickel
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So most people, the vast majority of people pay in on all their income, billionaires pay in on only a fraction of their income.
10:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Right?
10:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the whole problem.
10:14
[SPEAKER_02]: The problem billionaires.
10:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, what DC does is they're like, yeah, we know that for sure.
10:22
[SPEAKER_02]: what do the people want and the people democrat republican independent like every time they're like yeah definitely just have the billionaires pay the same rate in like we do and then there'll be no benefit cut in fact we can expand benefits and the politicians are like oh well
10:38
[SPEAKER_02]: centrist politicians and Republicans, they're like, well, what are the donors want to do?
10:42
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're like, let's ask the billionaires, the billionaires are like, oh, yeah, definitely don't make us pay more in.
10:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you thought about cutting people's benefits instead?
10:51
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the proposals are always something
10:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Basically, the same is the problem, right?
10:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So the problem is a 20% benefit cut.
11:00
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the solutions that are proposed by these closed or commissions, whatever they're called, is raising the retirement by three years say.
11:09
[SPEAKER_02]: That's usually, it's somewhere around there.
11:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a 21% benefit cut.
11:14
[SPEAKER_02]: not like a 21% benefit cut, the way benefits are calculated, it is 21% benefit cut.
11:22
[SPEAKER_02]: So they take the problem, right?
11:25
[SPEAKER_02]: The danger is people lose their benefits and they're like, oh, well, we've got a great solution.
11:30
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to just do the same thing.
11:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to cut your wheel cut, your benefits by 20%.
11:35
[SPEAKER_02]: But they know they'll lose if they do that.
11:38
[SPEAKER_02]: They know it's
11:42
[SPEAKER_02]: or other processes that are outside of regular order and they line up all of these senators and members who are on their way out.
11:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So like during a lane duck, that's where we're most vulnerable on social security on the benefit side.
11:59
[SPEAKER_02]: you have all these politicians in the least accountable moment of their careers and they're like, yeah, now is when we're going to vote to push this train out of the station and get it, you know, roaring down the track so that no one can stop it and it ends in a benefit cut to protect the billionaires.
12:19
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's exactly the reason why I'm against term limits.
12:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Because of that kind of thing where you've got people head out the door and you would think heading out the door You would do the right thing, but oddly enough as they're heading out the door They're generally looking to do in the profitable thing and the billionaires seem to have all the money So why would I be surprised?
12:40
[SPEAKER_05]: Why wouldn't I be surprised if you've got a bunch of such wrists who have an opportunity on the way out the door to Pick up the next gig by screwing over everybody.
12:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
12:50
[SPEAKER_05]: It seems seems like what we do
12:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, I always say politicians when they're on the way out.
12:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They're auditioning for their next job.
12:59
[SPEAKER_02]: And even if it's like not their job, they still want to rub elbows with the rich and powerful, right?
13:06
[SPEAKER_02]: They want to get flown to Davos to sit on a panel and look sagely into the middle distance and be like, it was hard to cut other people's social security benefits, but we did it to protect the bondholders and then just a glorious applause from the billionaires,
13:25
[SPEAKER_02]: in the room.
13:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's, I'm not joking.
13:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I know, I know, I know what they're into it for.
13:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is, I think.
13:36
[SPEAKER_02]: It's extremely dangerous because the math is there.
13:40
[SPEAKER_02]: There's enough senators who are at least curious enough on this that it could move in the lame duck.
13:47
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the same time, there is enormous popular resistance to this as always.
13:55
[SPEAKER_02]: And that has filtered up to the elected Democrats.
13:59
[SPEAKER_02]: right?
13:59
[SPEAKER_02]: Like so, hockey and Jeffries, for example, and the Democrats in the house, they're much closer to moving forward an expansion bill, something that actually addresses the problem, the billionaires.
14:11
[SPEAKER_02]: So there is this tension within the party, and I think this is just one of those
14:16
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they're sort of like, well, hey, let's get this garbage centrist DLC Wall Street policy done before those pesky leftists and socialists and whatnot take over the party.
14:29
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that they are being driven by that fear.
14:32
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, no, and you're not, you're, you're spot on because I've heard that, but understand, you know, I don't know that my red hats, if you social security and Medicare as communist or socialist, they view it as something they were promised and they damn well want.
14:46
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, Medicare for all seems to be very popular, scrapping the cap seems to be very popular.
14:52
[SPEAKER_05]: This should be where I think Democrats should be hanging their hats.
14:57
[SPEAKER_05]: expanding these programs and you know maybe getting the billionaires who have done very well I don't know if you've noticed but they're not missing meals.
15:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I think I think that's a way to go forward Yeah, and you know, I
15:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I go all over the country and I talk to incredibly varied audiences and social security and Medicare incredibly popular with everyone and depending on the audience, you know, I'm not going to go to a room of red hats and be like, hey, you know that socialism, right?
15:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I'm like, I don't care.
15:32
[SPEAKER_02]: if you what words you use to describe this like people understand policies that work for the people the words, you know, have been poisoned by Wall Street, but when you explain things to people just in in basic English, right?
15:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Like,
15:51
[SPEAKER_02]: tax billionaires fairly and people are like, yes, that's what I want, right?
15:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And it doesn't matter if they're wearing a matte date, a lot of people wearing maga hats actually think that's kind of what they were promised, right?
16:03
[SPEAKER_02]: And so now you see a lot of deep dissatisfaction outside of the hardcore cultist sort of support for Trump.
16:11
[SPEAKER_02]: His numbers are in the gutter exactly because he's not doing the very popular things.
16:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And instead doing things like, you know, raising people's drug prices by ending the Medicare drug subsidy pilot program.
16:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I started a war that, you know, jacked up gas prices, you know, that little fix.
16:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Little things, little things, and being super corrupt and obviously corrupt.
16:35
[SPEAKER_02]: uh... and you know it's it's neck in neck but the corruption in the incompetence are are competing uh... for which one's first who's the first is it incompetence or is this just another way to extract wealth from the working class and put into the hands of billionaires
16:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm not sure, I'm with you that this seems to be a lot of incompetence, but they never seem to lose.
16:59
[SPEAKER_05]: It always seems to benefit them in one way or another.
17:03
[SPEAKER_05]: While we get screwed, which I think is the, I think it's the plan, Alex.
17:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, heads, they win tails, we lose is definitely the plan.
17:13
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think there is just gross incompetence as well, right?
17:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the history of right-wing populists, which are just fascists, right?
17:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Because there is no such thing as billionaire-led populism.
17:27
[SPEAKER_02]: But they are generally incompetent, because they're like the worst people that you could imagine.
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So like, I'm talking about like the reflecting pool, right?
17:39
[SPEAKER_02]: the offensive war that the U.S. started at the behest of Israel with Iran is another one where like the incompetence is on full display and people get that.
17:51
[SPEAKER_02]: They're like this is not working.
17:52
[SPEAKER_02]: This isn't working.
17:53
[SPEAKER_02]: No matter how many pressors you have where you minor might not fall a sleep.
18:00
[SPEAKER_02]: This is clearly not working because look at the price at the pumps.
18:04
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, I just just filled up today and yeah, I cried a little bit.
18:08
[SPEAKER_05]: A little tear coming down the eye because it was so bad, but you know, here's the thing.
18:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Social security is one of those things that universally with the exception of a few outliers who have been sold in this idea that you know, I am so smart.
18:20
[SPEAKER_05]: I couldn't have done much better.
18:22
[SPEAKER_05]: The vast majority of people want this to be strong, want this to be there for them.
18:27
[SPEAKER_05]: What should we be doing?
18:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I know what the commissions are going to come out with, as you pointed out, raising the age.
18:33
[SPEAKER_05]: That's always the first club out of the bag.
18:37
[SPEAKER_05]: What should we be doing?
18:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I obviously, I'm of the scrap the cap behind.
18:42
[SPEAKER_05]: If I'm paying on 100% of my income, social, Elon Musk, and maybe we change what income is.
18:48
[SPEAKER_05]: So instead of me working and punching a clock working for a salary, maybe gambling, winnings, on Wall Street should be taxed.
18:57
[SPEAKER_02]: What should we be doing?
18:59
[SPEAKER_02]: That you just nailed all of it.
19:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So Bernie Sanders in Elizabeth Warren.
19:04
[SPEAKER_02]: in the Senate have a bill, the Social Security Expansion Act.
19:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And it just modifies the cap.
19:11
[SPEAKER_02]: It actually, it starts at 250,000, and then goes above that.
19:17
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you make just above the cap of 184,000, it leaves some of that without...
19:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So you're creating a donate.
19:26
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a donate hole, but it's like a beneficial donate hole
19:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you just have all income counted, right?
19:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So we know that rich people have armies of lawyers who figure out ways to calculate their income so that they don't have to pay taxes on it.
19:47
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like the main thing that rich people spend their time on, they'll spend more money than they would have paid in tax to not pay it in tax, right?
19:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They would rather it's, you know, pull the ladder up or whatever.
20:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever drives them to fill that whole where their soul should be they just try to fill it with money But what Bernie Sanders bill does is really easy Make billionaires pay on all of their income, which includes earned and unearned income and then prevent the benefit cut in 232 and in fact expand benefits by $200 a month for everyone forever Right, it's just like simple stuff.
20:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's why it's so popular.
20:27
[SPEAKER_05]: So let me ask you a dumb question
20:30
[SPEAKER_05]: because I've been arguing this for a long time.
20:34
[SPEAKER_05]: The fact, again, I'm a union guy.
20:36
[SPEAKER_05]: I know you support unions.
20:38
[SPEAKER_05]: I believe a lot of our problems could be solved if we had 35% union density in this country so that wages were up.
20:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Had we continued on the trajectory that we were in the 80s, but even 20% union density, and had wages kept up with inflation.
20:55
[SPEAKER_05]: As it should have had you the bargaining power
21:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Would we be in this situation because I argue the reality is this is another symptom of of crushing workers' ability to earn decent wages and another assault on our standard of living.
21:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Had we been earning the kind of wages we were earning maybe back in the 80s, would that money have it quite a dissolving some of this problem or where would that put us?
21:24
[SPEAKER_02]: almost all of it.
21:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's, if wages had kept up with productivity, right?
21:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Which is what they should do.
21:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Workers produce goods and services and the fruits of their labor is the money that the billionaires were sending to the Cayman Islands, right?
21:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So since 1980,
21:44
[SPEAKER_02]: They've been just stealing all of the gains that workers make.
21:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So productivity has stayed basically the same, which accelerates a little bit while wages have stayed flat.
21:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And economists call it the great divergence and it happened in 1980 and it's a policy choice.
22:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It wasn't like magical, it's a policy choice to value capital over labor and that compounds over time.
22:11
[SPEAKER_02]: wages had kept pace with productivity, there would not be a shortfall that the trust fund was facing in 2032.
22:20
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to say that again, and it's not just me saying this, you can check with, you can look at Steve Goss' chief actuary of social security.
22:30
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all online.
22:32
[SPEAKER_02]: He goes through all the things that it's not from, right?
22:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's everything that the media has talked about.
22:37
[SPEAKER_02]: People are living longer.
22:38
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, nope, that's not the problem.
22:40
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole problem, the whole problem is that the rich have been getting all the gains of the economy and they don't pay in on all of their income because it's above the 184,000 this year cap.
23:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Productivity had just stayed the way it was in the 60s and the 70s and not had this great divergence in the 80s.
23:08
[SPEAKER_02]: We would not be having this conversation and any other conversation.
23:12
[SPEAKER_02]: No, exactly.
23:14
[SPEAKER_05]: The reason I bring this up Alex is, you know, because I've got a bunch of emails from people, boy, you think the billionaires are responsible for everything and you think taxing the billionaires are going to solve all these problems.
23:24
[SPEAKER_05]: And I respond with, yeah,
23:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Exactly, they create our stupid policies that created the largest billionaire class in the history of humanity is responsible for all of this pain and suffering and we can make good choices by making the billionaires pay.
23:42
[SPEAKER_05]: That seems sane and rational to me, but again, I keep seeing this meme out there where the billionaires can't solve all our problems.
23:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we can solve a lot of them.
23:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're like, no, the billionaires can't solve all our problems.
23:58
[SPEAKER_02]: But the people can solve the problem, which is the billionaires.
24:02
[SPEAKER_02]: They're causing the problem.
24:03
[SPEAKER_02]: They are the problem.
24:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And bringing it back to your union density.
24:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, Francis Perkins and the new dealers, the people who created social security,
24:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, the new deal was not just social security, I know you know this, but just to say they knew that you needed to empower the workers to collectively bargain and form a union that that was going to be the way that you could keep wages aligned with productivity and the system would work.
24:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was all meant to work together to create a society that the basic premise was if we're a society that is reliant on wages.
24:43
[SPEAKER_02]: capitalist society.
24:45
[SPEAKER_02]: If you are reliant on wages, then you have to have some systems in place for when people don't have wages, right?
24:53
[SPEAKER_02]: So they form a created unemployment insurance, right?
24:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They created social security for a
24:58
[SPEAKER_02]: when you don't have wages when you retire and then as we expanded it or if you become disabled then can no longer work or if the minor surviving children in the death of a breadwinner.
25:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And importantly, you also have to protect those wages from eroding and going into the boss's pockets, which is what caused the great depression that the new deal was the solution for.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: But not just to fix it at the time, but to build a system that prevented it from happening again.
25:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And then in that 90 years, the billionaires, they've spent all their money systematically ripping apart the system that fixed the Great Depression, because they want that.
25:41
[SPEAKER_02]: That's their jam.
25:43
[SPEAKER_02]: That is what they're aiming for.
25:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Right before the Great Depression, that's their, you know, their utopia.
25:50
[SPEAKER_02]: everybody loses except the billionaires.
25:54
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's not like rocket science that the billionaires always do the same things, right?
26:00
[SPEAKER_02]: They attack things and try to destroy things that work.
26:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Social security works.
26:05
[SPEAKER_02]: public education's work, unions, work, Medicare, works, guaranteed health care, works.
26:12
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why they hated all because if something works for the people, it's not working for the billionaires only.
26:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's the key.
26:20
[SPEAKER_02]: It might work for the billionaires still, but it doesn't only work for them.
26:25
[SPEAKER_02]: And their greed says that the whole system has to work
26:30
[SPEAKER_05]: a bunch of green bags.
26:31
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, that's the sad reality.
26:33
[SPEAKER_05]: So last question I've got.
26:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Obviously, there's going to be a move to do some of the crazy stuff with the centers as you point it out in the lame duck.
26:41
[SPEAKER_05]: What do we do?
26:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Give me some marching orders.
26:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think the key thing is to just really understand the threat in the lame duck.
26:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Because remember, the lame duck is right after the election.
26:55
[SPEAKER_02]: It starts
26:56
[SPEAKER_02]: write that.
26:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And so people think that there's a moment to catch your breath.
27:01
[SPEAKER_02]: You can, but not everybody can.
27:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a relay race.
27:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, people will be working hard to defeat the Republicans, which is really critical.
27:09
[SPEAKER_02]: But the day after,
27:11
[SPEAKER_02]: the next fight starts, and that's when we need to ensure that any democratic senator who's retiring understands that if on their way out the door, they vote to cut our social security benefits, that's all that they'll ever be remembered as the senator who stole from us, the senator who reached into our pocket and stole our money.
27:35
[SPEAKER_02]: And if we do that, I do think we can back them away.
27:39
[SPEAKER_05]: there you go Alex as always great stuff and great marching order things we've got to do Alex lost and thanks so much for the time.
27:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks Ray.
27:48
[SPEAKER_05]: All right good friend Alex executive director there at social security works.
27:51
[SPEAKER_05]: Check out their website social security works dot org quick break right back to ground
28:00
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
28:03
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1892.
28:06
[SPEAKER_05]: That was the day Miners in Tracy City, Tennessee, rebelled against the state's convict lease system.
28:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Miners had been forced to work side by side with convict labor.
28:17
[SPEAKER_05]: The convicts overwhelmingly African-American
28:20
[SPEAKER_05]: were forced to live in deplorable stock-aid conditions.
28:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Their presence in the mines served to minimize paid labor, keep wages low, and stunt union organizing throughout the state.
28:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Miners demanded that Tennessee coal iron and railroad give them the same hours of work as the convicts.
28:39
[SPEAKER_05]: when they refused, the miners marched on the stockades where the convicts were housed.
28:44
[SPEAKER_05]: They released the convicts and marched them onto trains, bound for Nashville, burning the stockades to the ground.
28:50
[SPEAKER_05]: The revolt at Tracy City followed armed uprisings of thousands of miners the previous year, in nearby Bryceville and Cole Creek.
28:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Here it is thought that the Knights of Labor Leaders led miners to surround stockades, disarmed guards, and released
29:08
[SPEAKER_05]: several days.
29:09
[SPEAKER_05]: By August of 1892, hundreds of minors would confront state forces in arms shootouts across Grundy, Marion, and Anderson counties releasing convicts when they could onto trains bound for Nashville.
29:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Minors were eventually arrested and convicted, but these revolts would lead the Tennessee General Assembly to end its convict lease system four years later, making them one of the first southern states to do so.
29:39
[SPEAKER_05]: For more information, go to LaborHistory at 2.com, like us on Facebook.
29:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Follow us on Twitter at LaborHistory in 2.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: The great thing about art towns is of course the artists in their art.
30:06
[SPEAKER_00]: So why are so many town officials deliberately and stupidly driving artists out of town?
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I live in such a place, Austin, Texas.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: For both who years, it welcomed and nurtured a blessing of creators from buskers to tap dancers, muralists to neon sign artists.
30:24
[SPEAKER_00]: neon signs?
30:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, magical artisans who can bend glass tubes into delightful expressive shapes that light up to identify a community and culture is something more than just another concrete and steel erection of corporate power.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: One such creative is Todd Sanders, an Austin pop artist who for three decades has preserved and advanced this eclectic community's proud claim to be keeping Austin weird.
30:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I was personally plugged into that identity when Susan Gamarko, Floyd Domino, and I broadcast a two-hour daily radio talk show across America from a down-home Austin restaurant named ThreadGills.
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Behind us on the stage was a Todd Sanders gym, a three by five foot neon sign, flashing high-toward radio on the air, but multimillion dollar developers backed by a city council now promoting Austin as a Mecca for high-tech billionaires have no room for funky grassroots witness.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: they jacked up city property taxes and artists rents in a corporate gentrification frenzy that his squeeze centers neon shop and others out of Austin.
31:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The good news, though, is that art persevere's, so sender's studio and art gallery found a welcoming spot 80 miles east of us in the small town of Roundtop.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiter saying, but Roundtop artisans will be next if we keep letting profiteers with no values beyond money to find who we are and restricting who we can become.
32:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:15
[SPEAKER_05]: So, I gotta say, I stepped in something.
32:18
[SPEAKER_05]: I stepped on the landmine.
32:20
[SPEAKER_05]: The Translandmine has hit.
32:24
[SPEAKER_05]: And look, I guess I have to go back and kind of explain my position a little bit, because I think it's a bit a little misunderstood, because look, I've gotten every one of the your anti-trans you hate trans people.
32:38
[SPEAKER_05]: You're not 100% pure, so you're the problem.
32:44
[SPEAKER_05]: And then on the other side, you know, you got the, you know, there should be competing in sports and it's unfair and it's, you know, it's, you know, we need, we need women to have their own category because now evidently, mega cares about women's sports like never before.
32:59
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is the bizarre point for me because, look, I enjoy women's basketball, I enjoy, I look, I had two daughters who played sports, I love the opportunities that they were given.
33:10
[SPEAKER_05]: And I've said from the beginning that this isn't
33:13
[SPEAKER_05]: This isn't an issue.
33:14
[SPEAKER_05]: This should not be an issue.
33:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And yet, at every opportunity, what we get fed is, well, it's the only issue.
33:27
[SPEAKER_05]: And, and I wish, I wish we would put the same kind of energy into something that affects, I mean,
33:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, what would the end didn't see double a say there are like 500,000 athletes and like 10 of them are trans, I mean the numbers are so, so skewed where you go, I mean we're talking about, you know, rounding errors.
33:52
[SPEAKER_05]: in the numbers.
33:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And I wish people would pay the kind of attention and have the kind of outrage that we were first fed over this issue on pay and wage that issue as on the cost of housing and health care on the rights of workers to join for immune and safe workplaces, child care paid the family leave, retirement, things that actually affect all of us and real lives
34:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, there you go, Rick.
34:22
[SPEAKER_05]: You're now your do your diminishing the trans people.
34:24
[SPEAKER_05]: No, I'm not.
34:26
[SPEAKER_05]: I want and I'm luck.
34:29
[SPEAKER_05]: I've I've had the privilege of of knowing a couple of people who have transitioned.
34:34
[SPEAKER_05]: And, and I've had to think about it in my frame of mind on how I feel about it.
34:40
[SPEAKER_05]: And I generally, to my core, believe in the idea of life-liverty pursuit of happiness.
34:45
[SPEAKER_05]: You lead your best life.
34:47
[SPEAKER_05]: You have one opportunity to be happy, whatever that takes you, you do it.
34:52
[SPEAKER_05]: As long as it doesn't screw other people up as long as you're not, you know, cheating people out of their wages or kicking people out of their homes or stealing your lollipops
35:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Follow your passion.
35:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Follow your your live your truth.
35:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Since that seems to be popular I want people to be happy and look I've had you know a couple people have come to me and say look this is what we're doing and And I've always said the exact same thing.
35:19
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't understand.
35:21
[SPEAKER_05]: I Probably never gonna understand
35:23
[SPEAKER_05]: And here's the other part.
35:25
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm grateful that I probably am never gonna understand because I don't know what it's like to be in your skin.
35:30
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know what life is been like for you, but I want you to be happy.
35:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And I hope whatever it is you're doing.
35:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Seems fairly extreme to me.
35:40
[SPEAKER_05]: seems fairly out of, out of, of character for me, but I'm hoping that for you, that this is everything that you're hoping it's going to be, that this is everything that you want it to be, and that this, here's the point, this makes you happy in that pursuit of that happiness.
35:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Because again, I go back to, you know, learning about the founding fathers and that the debate
36:08
[SPEAKER_05]: and happiness kind of winning out, I want people to be happy, but I also am probably never going to understand and grateful because I don't know what it's like to lead the kind of lives that have gotten someone to a point to do things that I think are fairly drastic in my opinion.
36:29
[SPEAKER_05]: I think cutting something off,
36:33
[SPEAKER_05]: that I particularly like is a bit extreme, but that's not my call for everyone.
36:40
[SPEAKER_05]: So that said, understanding where I'm coming from, because I know we are used to one way debates.
36:49
[SPEAKER_05]: In the two way debate of going, I'm accepting of you doing whatever it is that you want to do to make yourself happy.
36:55
[SPEAKER_05]: You also have to understand that, you know, I made understand it,
37:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And I've said this every time.
37:04
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't understand it, but I love you.
37:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope this is what everything you want it to be.
37:09
[SPEAKER_05]: And then at the end, you have no regrets.
37:11
[SPEAKER_05]: And I want that truly, truly for those folks.
37:15
[SPEAKER_05]: And everyone who's following their path.
37:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Now that said, the key part that I said a moment ago is you have the right to do whatever you want until you're rights infringed on someone else.
37:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Just as blacks, you have to write the flail your fist around until it touches the tip of my nose.
37:34
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm with trans people 100% on if you're being cheated at work, if you're being discriminated at housing or employment or you're being abused or beaten or any of those things.
37:44
[SPEAKER_05]: That's common sense, and we should all be on that frame, every one of us.
37:50
[SPEAKER_05]: The sports thing is a little trickier and and I've had to spend a little time trying to figure out even what the issue is because we're not allowed to have the discussion of what it is.
38:03
[SPEAKER_05]: were told by one side absolute has to be told by the other absolute can't be and now we've got a couple of former NBA players saying that they're going to go play in the WNBA which again has sparked some outrage and all of the oxygen being sucked out of the room because again I've had my email box full of the crazy and I'm going to get to some of those emails here in a minute but
38:27
[SPEAKER_05]: I had to sit and think about, you know, a couple of former MBA players.
38:30
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, six, 10 guys, you know, a big bulky guys, and knowing what I know from people who have gone through the process, I do know that it's, it's really, really difficult.
38:45
[SPEAKER_05]: It is, it is a real commitment, and I'll be honest, trans people, you've got my respect.
38:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a commitment that I personally could never make to myself.
38:55
[SPEAKER_05]: I've said for my whole life, I'm going to lose weight, I'm going to get into shape.
38:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that happens.
39:01
[SPEAKER_05]: But the go, I'm going to reshape my body in a way that's impressive, really, really impressive.
39:10
[SPEAKER_05]: All the commitment and the dedication and the constant stick to it of this, seriously, my respect, props, and I had to think about this with the two NBA players.
39:23
[SPEAKER_05]: because one of the things that I did find out is in the transition process, you take a whole bunch of hormone replacement therapies and a whole bunch of things to diminish your testosterone, increase the other stuff.
39:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Again, not a doctor, don't know, but I do know the numbers then skew.
39:39
[SPEAKER_05]: If you're going to change the chemistry of the body from male to female, there's a whole bunch of stuff.
39:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And again, doctors and people have gone through this, please educate me if you think I'm wrong,
39:53
[SPEAKER_05]: if these two NBA players want to go through that kind of dedication to change their chemistry so that they have the right amounts of of estrogen and the lower amounts of testosterone and all that comes with that uh... if they're truly dedicated this is where this is where my mind goes then this is where we should anyone who says why should go play women sports go okay here it is
40:17
[SPEAKER_05]: because I think they're doing it one out of, they need attention, but two sheer ignorance.
40:26
[SPEAKER_05]: We're, you know, the Robert Kennedy Jr. tells us we're all with low T and that we've got Pete Hegsef saying we're to test the military so that they don't have low testosterone.
40:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And yet these guys want to take some drugs to lower their testosterone level so that they can have the right balance so they can play in the WNBA maybe and the WNBA has said that they're, I think they pretty much said no ish, because there are no women in the WNBA who are trans at this moment.
40:55
[SPEAKER_05]: No, is it going to be a thing?
40:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know.
40:59
[SPEAKER_05]: All that again is for a private entity.
41:03
[SPEAKER_05]: No one has the WNBA.
41:07
[SPEAKER_05]: But I gotta tell you, there's part of me.
41:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Part of me would want to see that.
41:13
[SPEAKER_05]: There's part of me wants to see these NBA former NBA players.
41:17
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the macho of the macho, the defender of women.
41:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I kind of like to see them go through that process because I don't think they will and I go back to the just the sheer hatred of it.
41:37
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't hate anyone, and look, I've got a lot of people say, I'm transphobic, and maybe I am, I don't know.
41:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I do have some questions around, and I did it the very beginning, especially with contact sports.
41:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I think there can be, I think we're grown up enough, or at least I thought we were to be able to have an honest discussion about what participation should look like, and we're talking about a handful of people, a handful.
42:06
[SPEAKER_05]: and yet we can't seem to come to a rational choice because we're not supposed to.
42:11
[SPEAKER_05]: This is supposed to divide us.
42:14
[SPEAKER_05]: So I got a number of emails from people, you know, the one guy tells me, well, I respect everyone's right to live how they choose bots.
42:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And then, you know, then comes the bot.
42:27
[SPEAKER_05]: And the bot is, I don't think biological males should compete in women's
42:34
[SPEAKER_05]: chemically, not there.
42:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Sorry, but, you know, the reality is is respect.
42:42
[SPEAKER_05]: If you do respect everyone, respect also means not reducing trans women to a label or treating them as a threat.
42:49
[SPEAKER_05]: Sports organizations can make really honestly truthly evidence-based sports specific policies without denying people dignity or or belonging, especially if you're looking
43:02
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, when my kids were younger, they were, they were co-ed teams.
43:05
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm all, when I was in college, we had intermoral co-ed intermoral teams.
43:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I think that's a way to go.
43:11
[SPEAKER_05]: A possibility, a discussion, which we're not allowed to have.
43:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Now the person says, well, you call it inclusion.
43:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I call it unfair.
43:26
[SPEAKER_05]: He says, I call it unfair to the girls who trained their whole lives for a scholarship.
43:30
[SPEAKER_05]: And you go, well, you know, the number of girl athletes who get scholarships are really a small number to be honest.
43:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's it's unfair if you want to really be outraged about something.
43:44
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, look, this girl's opportunities matter deeply, something really, if you look red hats, if you're on board, I'm with y'all, I'll jump on the girl's get cheated bear.
43:57
[SPEAKER_05]: But, you know, trans participation, as I said a moment ago, extraordinarily rare, while on equal funding,
44:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Four sports programs for girls, lower pay for girls, limited facilities for women sports, harassment in women sports, and cuts to, well, all school sports programs.
44:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Effect women athlete, it's a whole lot more than one or two people potentially maybe.
44:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Wanting to play the game and and look I'm not trying to be the grand defender because I've got questions too, but for the crowd who's absolutely not I got real problems The other person says well you know it's not about hate It's not about hate it's about preserving Separate woman's categories in sports because now if it doesn't know they care nobody ever noticed that we've been being been around for a long time
44:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Nobody seems to remember that, didn't care of that, but now it's a political issue, now we're going to get all tingly in the panties.
45:09
[SPEAKER_05]: I look, intent does matter, and so do consequences.
45:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Blanket exclusions in my view can isolate young people and have disastrous consequences, and send the message that people who are different don't belong.
45:23
[SPEAKER_05]: So we should be talking about having a discussion about what fair policies look like and how we address a competitive, actual competitive questions rather than assuming that every trans athlete is all a former NBA player.
45:40
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, this is where my mind goes because you know, some moron decides, oh, I'm gonna bomb it and get some attention.
45:48
[SPEAKER_05]: And well, here we are.
45:55
[SPEAKER_05]: we'll see another person said I voted for Trump because I'm tired of politicians pretending common sense is bigotry like you Rick I'm not a bigot look on the reality is as an I believe this to my core we can disagree about policy whether
46:12
[SPEAKER_05]: without calling each other names for the most part.
46:15
[SPEAKER_05]: But common sense, should include listening to others.
46:19
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, athletes, medical experts, and really the small number of people who are directly affected and not turning them into, well, the economy sucks.
46:33
[SPEAKER_05]: We need a shiny thing to divide people.
46:36
[SPEAKER_05]: We need to get some outrage, candy out into the masses.
46:43
[SPEAKER_05]: because we know that the dim will bite and here we are because we don't we're not talking about we're not talking about the war that's going very badly a war of choice by Donald Trump that is going very badly
47:01
[SPEAKER_05]: another person said, I fought, I fought for athletic opportunities, and I don't think those opportunities should be weakened.
47:08
[SPEAKER_05]: You know what?
47:08
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll be honest.
47:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Fair enough.
47:10
[SPEAKER_05]: There's part of me that goes, you know, look, women fought long and hard, long and hard to get to the place where there's something for them.
47:23
[SPEAKER_05]: That history deserves protection.
47:26
[SPEAKER_05]: protecting women's sports should mean investing in women's teams investing in equal facilities investing in coaching in more scholarships and media coverage because look I love watching the WNBA games I enjoyed my time at the fever game immensely I loved watching the game I love the it was great except for the people around me which means they should also have safe workplaces and not
47:53
[SPEAKER_05]: blame all of those problems on what is a minute miniscule number of participants in people who may want to participate and I know I know you're just going to open the door Rick and then they're all going to come yeah I'm struggling with that uh... another person writes we can be compassionate towards trans people without ignoring the physical differences in competition
48:24
[SPEAKER_05]: played sports, you know, there's part of me that goes, you know what, for the most part as a big guy, I got an advantage over probably 80% of the women, probably.
48:34
[SPEAKER_05]: There's going to be, there's going to be a number that, you know, I clearly, but I got to tell you both compassion and fairness matter.
48:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Physical traits very wildly amongst all athletes.
48:46
[SPEAKER_05]: I look into Brittany Griner.
48:48
[SPEAKER_05]: That's that's a pretty big woman.
48:50
[SPEAKER_05]: That
48:53
[SPEAKER_05]: which is why I think this should be left to governing bodies to decide how they use those nuances.
49:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, evidence-based rules should be discussed.
49:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Instead of government, broad-based political bands.
49:09
[SPEAKER_05]: This is where my problem is in all of this.
49:10
[SPEAKER_05]: But
49:16
[SPEAKER_05]: that's not why we're talking about it.
49:18
[SPEAKER_05]: That's why it's that's not why we're being forced fed this issue again.
49:25
[SPEAKER_05]: We're being forced fed this issue again to keep us blinded to the reality that the economy sucks and Trump's war is going badly.
49:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And that every time we go to the gas pump, we should be as outraged about the price at the pump as we are about some kid that we have no idea who or where they are wanting to dribble a ball or play some sport.
49:52
[SPEAKER_05]: because it doesn't make sense to me.
49:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Another person writes Democrats, keep making this the biggest issue.
50:02
[SPEAKER_05]: What?
50:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Democrats?
50:05
[SPEAKER_05]: He goes on to say, then accused everyone else of being obsessed with it.
50:10
[SPEAKER_05]: What?
50:10
[SPEAKER_05]: What?
50:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Huh?
50:12
[SPEAKER_05]: Did I miss something?
50:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Did I miss?
50:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, when the reality is, most trans people aren't asking to be the center of the culture war.
50:23
[SPEAKER_05]: there are some there are some who want to feel special and you're going to get that in anywhere but you know they want to go to work they want to go to school they want to get their health care you know if you're if if you want to be I'll rage about something for the trans community look at what the Trump administration is doing with the drugs that they desperately need to stay alive
50:42
[SPEAKER_05]: How about we do some of that stuff, but no, that would be an actual policy choice that we could make and that would be an actual discussion that we could make people's lives better.
50:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And again, this has nothing to do with that nothing at all this is about keeping us stupid.
51:00
[SPEAKER_05]: This is about keeping us focused on stuff that you know what and in the grand scheme of things would make our lives so much better if we focused on.
51:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, the person writes, I support equal dignity for everyone, but fairness and safety matter, too.
51:17
[SPEAKER_05]: And then equal dignity should be a starting point.
51:20
[SPEAKER_05]: We should start there.
51:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Safety and fairness should be evaluated based on evidence, you know, real stuff and not what grandpa is afraid of.
51:32
[SPEAKER_05]: just kind of kind of my kind of my thought on this.
51:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And the last email I wanted to get to, you may see this as discrimination, I see it as defending women and sports and girls and their chances to compete.
51:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I understand, I do, I understand the concern for girls' sports.
51:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I do, and I want it, I have fought for expanded opportunities for my daughters.
51:55
[SPEAKER_05]: But a policy that excludes even trans girls, regardless of the sport,
52:01
[SPEAKER_05]: There are circumstances, or again, the people who are in charge of that thing, I think that's discrimination, and we can support women athletes without treating anyone else as the end of it.
52:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, do I think, do I personally think there should be a moment where you consider maybe not?
52:24
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know yet.
52:30
[SPEAKER_05]: the idea of a reactionary government without having any type of real debate other than outrage in social media worlds telling everyone all across this country simultaneously that you cannot and I'll be honest this is where I appeal to my red hats because you're
53:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Live three or die.
53:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And yet, you seem to be okay with your authoritarian dictator wannabe imposing an e-dick from on high that we're all supposed to have to must follow.
53:21
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a little, I'm a little, a little, a little questioning
53:25
[SPEAKER_05]: But again, I want to hear your thoughts.
53:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Something I said, make your anger, make your happy, make your sad.
53:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hear about it because I think more debate, especially on this issue is good.
53:32
[SPEAKER_05]: As long as we're talking about it from a place of, hey, there's a problem.
53:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Let's find a solution.
53:39
[SPEAKER_05]: But I'll tell you, my view, not the problem that they keep force feeding us with.
53:46
[SPEAKER_05]: We've got much bigger problems.
53:48
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is where the people are going to call me anti-trans.
53:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't see this as a huge issue and just don't.
53:55
[SPEAKER_05]: I think this is something we can fix.
53:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we can solve it.
53:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I think after it made it, I think we could probably in every community.
54:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you could come up with something.
54:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Just my thoughts.
54:04
[SPEAKER_05]: Want to hear yours?
54:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Rick at therixmithshow.com.
54:07
[SPEAKER_05]: Quick break, right back.
54:25
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
54:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Communists, grads, long have these been the cries of the press and politicians seeking to undermine the labor movement in the United States.
54:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Sometimes even labor leaders themselves got caught up in the anti-communist hysteria.
54:42
[SPEAKER_05]: And on this day in Labor History, the year was 1938.
54:46
[SPEAKER_05]: That was the day that the President of the Mental Trade Department of the American Federation of Labor John P. Fry gave testimony before the Special Committee on On American Activities.
54:58
[SPEAKER_05]: It was known as the Dyes Committee, Texas Congressman Martin Dyes Jr. found at the effort to root out an alleged communist threat in the U.S.
55:07
[SPEAKER_05]: In his testimony, Fry alleged that there were 300 CIO leaders who were communist.
55:13
[SPEAKER_05]: At the time, the AFL and CIO were two separate organizations.
55:18
[SPEAKER_05]: The CIO had split off from the AFL to pursue more organizing in industries like automaking and steel.
55:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Even after his testimony, Fry maintained a network of operatives in the labor movement to identify suspected communists.
55:33
[SPEAKER_05]: A few days after Fry spoke before Congress, the Chicago Tribune ran a story, explaining the perceived communist labor threat.
55:41
[SPEAKER_05]: The article declared, if the communists in the United States continued to operate as the communist party, they would have no influence on American foreign policy in the foreseeable future.
55:53
[SPEAKER_05]: But by making themselves leaders of labor and therefore powerful in democratic councils, they can be of immediate value to the Soviets.
56:02
[SPEAKER_05]: The paper warned that the communists were hoping to march the U.S. into another European war.
56:08
[SPEAKER_05]: The public had little appetite for another major conflict.
56:11
[SPEAKER_05]: The charge that the CIO was infiltrated by communists who wanted war took its toll on the radical labor organization.
56:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Dividing workers by playing into the fears and hysteria of the era.
56:35
[SPEAKER_05]: So, this is our last broadcast for, for, for a little, for a little, for a little break.
56:41
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, I am having surgery.
56:45
[SPEAKER_05]: that is going to happen.
56:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to get my leg basically chopped off and then re-attached with a brand new shiny little ball.
56:53
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm getting a hip replacement.
56:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Years of beating myself up years of physical manual labor work years of just wear and tear and doing dumb stuff as it's taken its toll and now it's it's time.
57:07
[SPEAKER_05]: and I'm looking forward to it.
57:09
[SPEAKER_05]: It's one of those things where I'm fortunate and that I have really good health care.
57:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And as I said a couple of days ago, I got the advance.
57:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Here's what to expect kind of bill and the surges going to cost like $42,000.
57:24
[SPEAKER_05]: which seems high seem like a lot of money for for a one you know for like maybe 20 hours in in the hospital 24 hours in the hospital maybe Seems high seems high but you know look it's the world we live in But again that the weird part is the doctor's only get like 1400 bucks and I'll tell you I think I've paid more to my mechanic to do some work on my car Then I'm paying to the doctor which again seems very weird to me
57:50
[SPEAKER_05]: But 14 other bucks.
57:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I guess I'm not nothing But it seemed like it'd be higher than that because it you know Literally is cutting me wide open about a foot long foot 18 inch scar Gonna snap my leg out like a chicken wing and and then you know do some sawing and hammering and you know some glue and some woodwork and stuff You know some shop stuff
58:11
[SPEAKER_05]: And then going to put me back together, which, you know, that's the part that I'm, I'm most excited about the going back together, but over the reason I bring this up is over the next several days, we're going to be running some of our best of programs, some of this stuff from the last several days, so if you've got some questions, comments, if you're sending me email, I look forward to it, probably give me a little slower than usual, getting responses, because I'm planning on being miserable for a day or two or a couple days, you know,
58:40
[SPEAKER_05]: it is how it is.
58:42
[SPEAKER_05]: So I wish me well.
58:44
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope I hope this is a good experience.
58:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I've had nothing but positive positive responses thus far had the right one done back in 2020 and it was really a very positive experience hoping this one goes well just as well.
59:04
[SPEAKER_05]: But I want to let you know that that's what do we can expect by all means send me send me some comments.
59:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I know one of you is going to wish me ill.
59:14
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope you don't.
59:15
[SPEAKER_05]: But I'll take it.
59:16
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll take it.
59:18
[SPEAKER_05]: But you can email me Rick at the Ricksmithshow.com as always.
59:22
[SPEAKER_05]: Got anything to say?
59:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hear email me Rick at the Ricksmithshow.com.
59:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Miss any portion of the program grab the podcast.
59:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Or maybe it's your favorite podcast.
59:29
[SPEAKER_05]: You will get hours as always.
59:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for
59:34
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll see you back here next time.