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The Rick Smith Show 8-24-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's time for the Rick Smith show!
0:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is the voice of the working class, Rick Smith.
0:12
[SPEAKER_04]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:17
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the rx5th show.
0:18
[SPEAKER_04]: That's so much for being here.
0:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Today on the big program, lots to get to.
0:22
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's talk about, we now find out who the conmanent chiefs shakedown officer is.
0:29
[SPEAKER_04]: And if they could be a guy, you know, kind of a crooked nose, got him a burly dude.
0:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh no.
0:35
[SPEAKER_04]: Meredith O'Rourke is her name, nicknamed the Princess of Darkness, and that's who goes and does Trump's shakedown work, demanding donations anywhere, asking, asking in a nice way.
0:51
[SPEAKER_04]: for donations donations.
0:53
[SPEAKER_04]: I do have from $5 million to $50 million all according to the Wall Street Journal.
0:58
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm just taking the investor classes, newspapers, word for it.
1:02
[SPEAKER_04]: They say that his fundraising operation well.
1:07
[SPEAKER_04]: unprecedented is the word that they used.
1:09
[SPEAKER_04]: The headline is the boss wants this money, which I got to imagine is how she leads into, yeah, we're going to, it's a mighty nice business you got there.
1:19
[SPEAKER_04]: You'd hate to lose, oh, I don't know, 10% of it.
1:23
[SPEAKER_04]: So, you know, right that check.
1:28
[SPEAKER_04]: companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, Nvidia, Comcast, and Union Pacific all have according to the Wall Street Journal reportedly donated to Trump-linked projects, especially the ballroom.
1:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, people like me look at this and go, um, all of those companies do business with our government, all of them.
1:52
[SPEAKER_04]: And it seems to me, look, I'm not the brightest bulb in the box, but it seems to me that this is a pay for play, quit pro quo kind of scheme.
2:01
[SPEAKER_04]: You give me a little bit of money.
2:03
[SPEAKER_04]: I give you a massive return on your investment to lining my pockets.
2:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Now the companies are going, well, no, no, that's not how it is.
2:13
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no conditions.
2:16
[SPEAKER_04]: We're just patriotic.
2:19
[SPEAKER_04]: And the question is, anybody believe that?
2:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Anybody can get a get an amen?
2:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I believe it because the answer is, no, nobody buys it.
2:31
[SPEAKER_04]: And the reality is, is there, there doesn't appear to be a line anymore between what what Trump does in the name of we the people and how he profits for himself.
2:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, maybe I'm missing something.
2:48
[SPEAKER_04]: but when there was a question whether he was actually a billionaire before he became president and now saying that he made a couple of billion while president it kind of um it's kind of turned Trump's second term into some kind of pay for play carnival.
3:08
[SPEAKER_04]: where you've got all these big mega corporations who are just dumping cash into Trump's orbit.
3:14
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll be at the idiot's sons, I'll be at the Kushner guy, be at all of the flackies in Yesmen and the Sikha fans and loyalists around him.
3:27
[SPEAKER_04]: And for that, they get to cash in on big government contracts, deregulation,
3:37
[SPEAKER_04]: favors stuff, you know, like the next contract and you look at some of these big companies who are making huge profits like Shell made nearly $10 billion in profit between April and June because of Trump's war.
3:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Are we taxing them?
3:57
[SPEAKER_04]: And what we got is a little lip service from Trump to make it all while we're going to do something.
4:01
[SPEAKER_04]: When the reality is these big companies are lining their pockets and who's expense yours mine hours and now the big ones boy when when when when when when she calls I guess you better write the check one of your thoughts pay for play president criminal Rick at the ricksmiths show dot com right back I'm Rick Smith and this is labor history into
4:32
[SPEAKER_04]: This day in labor history, the year was 1970.
4:35
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day that the NFL players association went out on strike.
4:40
[SPEAKER_04]: The American football league and the national football league officially merged that year.
4:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Each league had their own players association.
4:48
[SPEAKER_04]: With the league merger, they joined forces into one union.
4:52
[SPEAKER_04]: The players elected John Mackie, a tight end with the Baltimore Colts, their first president.
4:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Frustrated by pay, and lack of control over their careers, the players voted to strike.
5:03
[SPEAKER_04]: The strike lasted for two days.
5:05
[SPEAKER_04]: The owners threatened to cancel the season.
5:08
[SPEAKER_04]: The NFL used its powerful PR machine to vilify the players in the press.
5:13
[SPEAKER_04]: They characterized the players as greedy and stoked fan anger over the walkout.
5:18
[SPEAKER_04]: The two sides met again at the bargaining table and reached a collective bargaining agreement.
5:23
[SPEAKER_04]: The agreement covered four years.
5:25
[SPEAKER_04]: The players won improvements to their pensions and dental care.
5:29
[SPEAKER_04]: They also secured the right to have agent representation for the first time, but many of the disagreements over pay and control remained unsettled.
5:38
[SPEAKER_04]: In 1974, the players were back out on the picket line for five weeks during the summer.
5:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Eight years later, a 57-day strike disrupted the season.
5:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Seven weeks of games were canceled.
5:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Then again, five years later, the Union went on strike during the season.
5:54
[SPEAKER_04]: This time, some of the players crossed the picket lines, including stars like Joe Montana and Lawrence Taylor.
6:00
[SPEAKER_04]: This broke the strike without settling on a contract.
6:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Today, the NFL Players Association continues to push for improved player safety and revenue sharing.
6:10
[SPEAKER_04]: The impact of concussions on players' long-term health remains an important issue for the Union.
6:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Labor History in 2 brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
6:21
[SPEAKER_04]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's At Labor History in 2.
6:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
6:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
6:38
[SPEAKER_04]: So yesterday was the, I think 61st anniversary of the signing of Medicare and Medicaid by LBJ back in 1965, I believe it was, yeah, I did the math, yes, 61 year, something like that, it ran around there.
6:58
[SPEAKER_04]: And the thing that gets me is,
7:01
[SPEAKER_04]: In an election year, you've got a president who's, I don't know if you've noticed, the numbers aren't great for him.
7:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Even the MAGA folks are going, whoa, whoa, whoa, the economy sucks.
7:12
[SPEAKER_04]: We've started a war, and now I guess going to be getting part of Medicare.
7:20
[SPEAKER_04]: That's why I have turned to my expert on all that is Medicare to maybe explain a little bit of this maybe help me figure some of this out on this this part D thing so I've asked Alex Lawson to come share some thoughts Alex is the executive director of social security works you can check out their work overhead social security works dot org Alex thanks for looking time for us
7:41
[SPEAKER_04]: always wreck always my pleasure to be here so um major anniversary sixty first I guess yes sixty first anniversary big program things that I got to be honest with my grandmother was alive had you had you done anything to medicare she to beat you with her walker but here we are in this moment I'm reading some cuts coming to medicare part D what is it
8:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So Donald Trump did announce that he's ending a Biden, Biden put in place a program to help cover some of the high drug costs that people with Medicare Part D, which is the prescription drug part of Medicare still face.
8:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And I will also just state, like part D actually really lowers seniors prescription drug prices.
8:32
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think everyone remembers just how complicated the system is in you.
8:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, oh, there was this donut hole, I think, and also
8:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Medicare didn't negotiate prices.
8:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So President Biden and the Democrats in Congress, you know, all the Republicans voted against, actually took action to lower drug prices.
8:52
[SPEAKER_02]: They put in Medicare drug price negotiation, which is a downward pressure on prices.
8:57
[SPEAKER_02]: They put in an out-of-pocket cap.
8:59
[SPEAKER_02]: to try to simplify so that people wouldn't pay over a certain amount, so that you knew that you wouldn't go bankrupt if your drug just happened to not be covered, but there's still cost that people face, and so...
9:15
[SPEAKER_02]: President Biden also put in this demonstration project and it helps people.
9:22
[SPEAKER_02]: The problem, though, is it doesn't either the out-of-pocket cap or the subsidy, they don't actually lower drug prices.
9:28
[SPEAKER_02]: The only thing that lower drug prices is negotiation, which is
9:33
[SPEAKER_02]: pushing the prices of drugs down, that's like my proudest legislative achievement of my career.
9:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I moved to Washington, DC, got my master's in policy to challenge and dismantle the pharmaceutical structure that we currently have and build something based on public health in its place.
9:52
[SPEAKER_02]: 10 years it took to get to Medicare Drug Press negotiation and it's by far not perfect.
9:58
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they, the, the pharma dems drilled holes in it, it's not all drugs.
10:02
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just some drugs.
10:03
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't start right away.
10:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Starts in the future.
10:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, it should be all drugs right away, but all of this is to say the whole problem is the systems just too complicated, right?
10:14
[SPEAKER_02]: Like what would the other countries don't do this.
10:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Other countries you get sick, you get the care that you need if a doctor says, you know, take this prescription, you go, you get that prescription, you never hit with a $35,000 bill or anything, regardless of if you're over 65 or under right none of that in other countries that don't allow themselves to just get ripped off and the real like slap in the faces.
10:41
[SPEAKER_02]: It's American taxpayers who fund almost all of the research that leads to these new molecules in the first place, so we pay for the research and development, not just early stage research all the way through to the end, we pay for it.
10:59
[SPEAKER_02]: GLP ones, this amazing life-changing molecule, that was all 100% taxpayer-funded research.
11:07
[SPEAKER_02]: The VA, studying de-ammonster venom, led to GLP ones.
11:13
[SPEAKER_02]: That, what would a rational country do?
11:16
[SPEAKER_02]: They would be like, oh, wow, we created this amazing drug that allowed people to live healthier, fuller lives.
11:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It saves enormous amounts of money to the economy by cutting down on other things, other sequely, other things that come from obesity and diabetes extremely costly, right?
11:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Other countries would be like, well great, we developed this molecule, let's give it to our people.
11:42
[SPEAKER_02]: That's not what we do here.
11:44
[SPEAKER_02]: We literally took the molecule and just gave it to a company and we're like now you charge us whatever you want and then they charge us the highest prices in the world It's so dumb Rick I've had this conversation with others.
11:57
[SPEAKER_04]: I go, you know, you know the name Jonah Solk you know, and everyone does only because he gave away his fortune
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, the book to read on this is by Alex Zichack, it's called Owning the Sun.
12:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's about the transition, because it hasn't always been this way.
12:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Like many of the bad things is really starts in the 80s.
12:19
[SPEAKER_02]: We used to actually, like,
12:22
[SPEAKER_02]: solve public health problems, right?
12:24
[SPEAKER_02]: There used to be smallpox and then we eliminated it because that's what America did.
12:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We used our science and the position in the world to build an international coalition and eliminate smallpox.
12:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's what we can be doing.
12:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Like right now, we could be eliminating pathogens, one after another, but we don't.
12:46
[SPEAKER_02]: We don't speak because there's no profit in it.
12:48
[SPEAKER_04]: No, there's no profit in it.
12:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Also, you know, we've got a guy now who, uh, RFK junior, uh, who's starting a new cooking show to help us learn how to eat, you know, whatever he eats, uh, for five bucks a meal.
13:00
[SPEAKER_04]: And so, um, they are solving problems.
13:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like the problem of not enough measles in this country, right?
13:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Like not enough explosive diarrhea from food borne pathogens in this country.
13:16
[SPEAKER_02]: The problems that they're solving are things that, you know, like,
13:22
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just, it's enraging, so I'm trying to use humor to stay calm, but like, this guy, RFK, is, is, uh, he's a, a vector, he's a disease, vector himself, like we've been RFKed as a country, uh, and what that looks like is, sick children, babies.
13:42
[SPEAKER_02]: measles outbreaks, right?
13:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Like it's just a disaster, Rick.
13:47
[SPEAKER_02]: And then they're cutting a they cut a trillion dollars out of Medicaid.
13:51
[SPEAKER_02]: They cut hundreds of billions more from the Affordable Care Act.
13:55
[SPEAKER_02]: You're seeing skyrocketing uncompensated care, which is in emergency room.
14:00
[SPEAKER_02]: So people don't have access to healthcare.
14:03
[SPEAKER_02]: They end up in the emergency room.
14:04
[SPEAKER_02]: We end up paying for that.
14:06
[SPEAKER_02]: It costs
14:12
[SPEAKER_02]: RFK, you know, the the cyan of a of a elite family telling people that, you know, oh, just eat cheaper cuts of meat or I don't remember if it's Treasury, Secretary or whoever I did listen to Senator Kennedy say it from Louisiana on Bloomberg where he said, yeah, we're just going to have to have higher gas prices.
14:36
[SPEAKER_02]: for a few months now, you know, that's just the and they're very willing for you to sacrifice, right?
14:43
[SPEAKER_02]: They're really willing to sacrifice you, but you know, who's not eating the cheaper cuts of meat is RFK and, you know, his Hollywood elite, right-wing Hollywood elite circles that he runs in.
14:56
[SPEAKER_02]: No, they're eating at the fanciest restaurants that exist.
15:00
[SPEAKER_02]: If he's not eating roadkill, because he's also not right in the head.
15:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I was going to go, no, I think he's eaten whatever he ran over or whatever you ran over and he's been laying around.
15:10
[SPEAKER_04]: But any of the realities that your point is spot on.
15:13
[SPEAKER_04]: These people don't care about you or me or anyone else and they're full ready to let you sacrifice for their idiocy and these cuts to socials, these cuts to Medicare.
15:24
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, while I understand is a small program right now, and but was explained to me that this is a transition towards Trump our acts.
15:33
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't need we don't need Medicare to do any of this drug stuff.
15:37
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to go to Trump our acts.
15:39
[SPEAKER_04]: And the question I have is, why would you do something like this when you don't have the other thing already in place or working at all yet?
15:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Also, Trump our acts literally can't lower drug crisis.
15:52
[SPEAKER_02]: So neither can his most favored nation status like his drug price.
15:59
[SPEAKER_02]: So he understands the political importance of high drug prices.
16:02
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he puts in place policies that like if you squint, he might mistakenly believe that they will help drug prices.
16:10
[SPEAKER_02]: But they don't, they don't drive down the prices, which is why the pharmaceutical executives go to the White House and they stand behind them and they're like, you got it.
16:20
[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to lower prices and you're like, no, they're not industry will not lower their own prices.
16:26
[SPEAKER_02]: The only thing that lowers prices is when
16:29
[SPEAKER_02]: We the people express through our elected representatives and senators through the government lower drug prices like every other country in the world we don't get we don't allow ourselves to get ripped off so transitioning to like trump rx is just transitioning to.
16:46
[SPEAKER_02]: the pharmaceutical corporations get to charge whatever they want, whenever they want so that they can have whatever they want, and they're more than happy to sacrifice your health and wellness for their profits, right?
17:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's one in three Americans report not being able to afford the drugs that they need.
17:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So
17:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's sick.
17:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
17:08
[SPEAKER_04]: Let me ask you.
17:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Why are they doing this now?
17:10
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, obviously, the war going on, a good cover, obviously, the economy's doing crummy.
17:16
[SPEAKER_04]: So this might just get buried.
17:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Why is this coming out now?
17:20
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, obviously, the anniversary, but why this now and is this, is will this be the end of it?
17:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Or does it get worse?
17:27
[SPEAKER_02]: it's definitely going to get worse.
17:28
[SPEAKER_02]: This is just a, it's a, whatever, like a glide path made out of razor blades.
17:33
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what they're, they got in store for the American people.
17:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Why now?
17:37
[SPEAKER_02]: I couldn't tell you because it's a little bit of, you know, political misstep, but the one thing is they might just want to remove it from in September, we're going to get the actual party premium increases, which are going to be astronomical.
17:53
[SPEAKER_02]: along with all of the other premium increases so in the other parts of Medicare and the employer sponsor healthcare, every across the board premiums are going to skyrocket and so maybe they're trying to like like work that in but that gives them a level of sophistication that I can't ascribe to them because I watch what they did with the reflecting pool.
18:19
[SPEAKER_04]: No, actually, actually, point.
18:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, you know, the other part that pops into my head is, I know the Medicare Advantage plans.
18:27
[SPEAKER_04]: They do some bit of negotiating and the claim is that they get lower drug prices.
18:32
[SPEAKER_04]: How much of this is killing off what the public side of things was able to do so that people are kind of forced into a private-sized version of Medicare?
18:42
[SPEAKER_02]: So they're doing that.
18:44
[SPEAKER_02]: This is not a huge accelerant on that process.
18:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Every day putting their finger on the scale to move as many people as possible.
18:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, their goal is to privatize Medicare by the end of the Trump administration.
18:58
[SPEAKER_02]: The beginning of the Trump administration and already started at over 50% or in privatized Medicare.
19:03
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get numbers next year, but, you know, it's going to be 55%, they keep trying to make it what they say, they call the default option, which is just a force people into privatized Medicare first unless you say, no, I want traditional Medicare, and they know that that's going to lead to enormous amounts of, it's,
19:28
[SPEAKER_02]: that would probably lead to like 80% Medicare advantage.
19:32
[SPEAKER_02]: And those levels, traditional Medicare doesn't have a risk pool, the way these programs, these insurance and social insurance programs work, large enough.
19:43
[SPEAKER_02]: And at
19:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I won't go super wonky, but it's brutal, they're killing traditional Medicare as fast as they can, because they know that they need to kill traditional Medicare before we improve it and expand it to everybody, right?
19:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So they want Medicare advantage for all, which just means corporate insurance for all, right?
20:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So they want to eliminate Medicare,
20:06
[SPEAKER_02]: guaranteed healthcare and they want insurers to be able to cover everybody because insurers have gotten much better over those 61 years.
20:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Important to note, Medicare wasn't like born because everything was going rosy.
20:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Corporate insurers at the time were not as sophisticated and didn't have all of the tools that we have given corporate insurers today to delay, deny,
20:35
[SPEAKER_02]: they now know that they can get
20:39
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't cover everyone over the age of 65.
20:41
[SPEAKER_02]: They cover everyone who is least likely to use health care over 65 and they let everyone else die.
20:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And the future is that if you get sick, you're just gonna die facing a bevy of denials and delays from your insurer and be like, what's going on?
21:07
[SPEAKER_02]: get sick.
21:07
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you're going to be told that you love your insurance and that we have the best healthcare in the world.
21:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's really hard to pierce that bubble.
21:15
[SPEAKER_02]: But I always say, like, just if you think you love your insurance, find somebody on your insurance who has dealing with medical issues right then.
21:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And they'll tell you, no, it's terrible.
21:26
[SPEAKER_04]: terrible or a long-term chronic ailment to where maybe you can't work for another quarter and you may lose your insurance and then what happens to you know There's this to me we do we definitely need a public option at the minimum.
21:38
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm all in on on Medicare for all I'm I would even say look here tried cares good for our heroes Maybe something along that model might not be bad either
21:48
[SPEAKER_04]: But here we are in this moment where once again they told us they were going to do a bunch of good stuff and well not so much so I guess the question that I have for you is is and this comes back to that that what you just said a minute ago that you know we all love our insurance until we go to use it when is the breaking point do you think because.
22:08
[SPEAKER_04]: I talked to a lot of people who have gone over to the Medicare Advantage, and they go, oh, I get like $35 back in this, and I get this, and then I get shoes, and I get stuff, and it's wonderful.
22:19
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't get to meet them after everything's gone or right.
22:23
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, how do I do?
22:25
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like that's my job.
22:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I get and the the wreckage and carnage it's heartbreaking because there's so many people who have no idea that medicare advantage is not medicare like that's the biggest con that they pulled is having the word medicare in there.
22:43
[SPEAKER_02]: There's all these people who think they have Medicare, they think that their health care is guaranteed, and then they get sick, they need it, and they get prior authorization delays, denials.
22:53
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the most, just disturbing, and it's really sad.
22:54
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you look at end of life, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you,
23:01
[SPEAKER_02]: So people in covered in Medicare Advantage plans at end of life, their families.
23:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You see them switch off, try to get over to traditional Medicare because it's at that point when Medicare Advantage is delaying and denying
23:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just it's brutal because if you're a policy won't you know that that you can't do that.
23:23
[SPEAKER_02]: That in in most places you can't just switch off with Medicare advantage and go to traditional Medicare.
23:29
[SPEAKER_02]: There unless there's what's called guaranteed issue, which only five states have.
23:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's just it's a really it's a it's a brutal brutal system recon.
23:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I know you know that.
23:41
[SPEAKER_02]: But like.
23:42
[SPEAKER_02]: you know what I've been doing my entire career is trying to help people make informed choices but there are then you know oh I I made the best choice I thought and now I'm in this position what can I do and having to be like nothing I'm sorry the system has to change you are chewed up by the system right I don't say it that way but I have to deliver the news like
24:10
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, that's what people, they just can't believe that.
24:14
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so hard for them to believe.
24:16
[SPEAKER_02]: They're like, what, so they're just going to let me die.
24:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, yes, I'm sorry, but yes, and isn't there anything I can do, like, usually yes, okay?
24:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's come up with a game plan.
24:27
[SPEAKER_02]: There's different, you know, providers who might be able to work with you, right?
24:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you never give up, but,
24:35
[SPEAKER_02]: there's this real deep feeling of decency because most people are decent.
24:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So they're like, no, there's got, they can't just do this.
24:44
[SPEAKER_02]: This can't be allowed.
24:46
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, unfortunately, it is.
24:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Fairness is allowed.
24:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Fairness isn't a thing.
24:52
[SPEAKER_04]: So last question, what should we be doing?
24:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, obviously this is the beginning of what I agree a hundred percent with you that they are going to privatize or try and privatize the whole thing before we have a chance to well expand it.
25:06
[SPEAKER_04]: What's the marching order?
25:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, you know, I think Democrats are in a pretty good place.
25:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we don't get caught up in
25:16
[SPEAKER_02]: it's really simple.
25:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's improve Medicare, add vision hearing dental and out of pocket cap.
25:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's lower the age, maybe from 65 all the way down to 50.
25:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's add Medicare 0 to 26.
25:30
[SPEAKER_02]: These are all policies that are out there right now and all would increase the risk pool and all would be on the path towards Medicare for all.
25:40
[SPEAKER_02]: The key is not to get bogged down too much in the details and really remember the goal, which is building a system that guarantees healthcare, right?
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like there's a lot of ways to get there.
25:52
[SPEAKER_02]: The key is you can't let the sociopaths who've been killing people for money.
25:56
[SPEAKER_02]: at a seat at the table because they're sociopaths whose business model is killing people for money.
26:03
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can't have them at the table.
26:06
[SPEAKER_02]: The worker is obviously there's going to be a place for them in any system.
26:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And in fact, their jobs will be so much better.
26:12
[SPEAKER_02]: They won't be, you know, in charge of
26:15
[SPEAKER_02]: actually killing people for money.
26:18
[SPEAKER_02]: They'll be providing health care.
26:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Nurses and doctors, there won't be a whole other department in a provider that's just arguing with insurance, right?
26:27
[SPEAKER_02]: Getting rid of all of that.
26:30
[SPEAKER_02]: So they, you know, well, how are you going to pay for it saves money?
26:34
[SPEAKER_02]: It's what it's saying for it.
26:35
[SPEAKER_02]: It makes exactly our system is so corrupt and evil that if you guarantee everyone health care, right?
26:43
[SPEAKER_02]: So we have tens of millions of people who don't have health care right now, give them health care, make everyone's health care better and give everyone health care and you save hundreds of billions of dollars.
26:55
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
26:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
26:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Listen to you talking comments.
26:58
[SPEAKER_04]: But you just said the main problem, everyone gets it.
27:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that solidarity does grow in adversity and I think we are on health care, on health care, like I hope so.
27:14
[SPEAKER_02]: RFK and those guys are so removed from the reality that working people.
27:20
[SPEAKER_02]: including all of Magaland right and they're getting crushed.
27:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Hospitals are going away.
27:25
[SPEAKER_02]: So I will seek people will be willing and ready for a different vision of healthcare in this country.
27:32
[SPEAKER_02]: We're just country in the world.
27:34
[SPEAKER_02]: We shouldn't just have adequate healthcare for everyone.
27:36
[SPEAKER_02]: The best healthcare in the world for everyone and it'll save us money.
27:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey man social security works not or the website Alex Lawson as always appreciate the time.
27:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks Rick.
27:48
[SPEAKER_04]: our good friend Alex.
27:49
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear your thoughts, is he right?
27:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Are we ready?
27:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Are we going to get there?
27:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Rick at the ricksmithshow.com.
27:55
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear your thoughts.
27:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Back after this.
28:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
28:03
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1939.
28:07
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day striking auto-workers in Cleveland, Ohio, defended their picket lines in what is known as the Battle of East 140th Street.
28:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Members of UAW Local 45 at GM's Fisher body plant had been on strike for three weeks.
28:22
[SPEAKER_04]: They had joined striking GM workers at 12 plants throughout Michigan.
28:27
[SPEAKER_04]: They demanded a supplemental agreement, granting skilled workers' wage increases, over time adjustments in seniority, and apprentice provisions.
28:35
[SPEAKER_04]: In Cleveland, strikers vowed to stop the scabbing, and were mostly successful.
28:40
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, at the start of the morning shift, a scab attempted to plow through the picketlines at a high rate of speed.
28:47
[SPEAKER_04]: Strikers flooded the gates and brought the scab car to a virtual stop.
28:52
[SPEAKER_04]: As they attempted to convince him not to cross through, mounted police viciously charged and attacked the strikers.
28:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Police continued to shoot tear gas guns from behind plant gates.
29:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Soon, there were more than 5,000 picketers fighting with police as workers poured out from half a dozen nearby plants to support the strikers.
29:12
[SPEAKER_04]: For over two hours, workers showered strike breaking forces with bricks, rocks, and paving blocks.
29:18
[SPEAKER_04]: They overturned scabbed cars and drove the police off the street and into the plant.
29:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Fighting broke out again in the afternoon when police tried to bring in more tear gas supplies.
29:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Strike leaders directed activities from an amplifier on the roof of a nearby restaurant.
29:35
[SPEAKER_04]: The next day, famed prohibition crusader Elliott Ness, now Cleveland's director of public safety, enforced a 500-yard riot zone, banning all gatherings near the gates and limited picketers to 7 at each gate.
29:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Strikeers began picking the homes of known scabs and would ratify a new contract just days later.
29:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
30:09
[SPEAKER_00]: big-name billionaires like Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg literally flopped their irrepressible journalism, but the disease seems to inflict their entire class of Uber-rich corporate royals.
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It's tell-tailed symptoms or not their grandiose mansions and yachts, but they're sudden impulse to instruct us regular people on how to think.
30:30
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular, they're now demanding that we get out of their way so they can remake society in their image.
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Jensen Huang, for example, a Silicon Valley Techno who is who heads in video now the world's richest corporation.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: He's demanding that we transform our economy and social structure into a new order of AI dominance.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Piously chatting those of us who are angry about AI's destruction of our jobs, communities, water, farmland, and democracy itself.
31:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Tut-tut, the Gavey in their schools, you petty people must quote create new social norms to advance AI.
31:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's the little-known hauncho of soft bank, a multi-trillion dollar Japanese tech powerhouse, trying to impose AI supremacy worldwide.
31:17
[SPEAKER_00]: He's now asserting a corporate morality of wealth.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Calling people who question AI foolish.
31:24
[SPEAKER_00]: He philosophizes that tech war all quote will transform our lives completely, and do so in a way that generates profits.
31:32
[SPEAKER_00]: For whom?
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: For billionaires, of course.
31:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So there you have a clear statement of the values and goals of AI profiteers.
31:40
[SPEAKER_00]: More for them, no matter the cost to everyone else.
31:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Soft banks imperious boss laughs at those of us who dare question his vision of an AI plutocracy.
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Calling us fools who are spitting upward.
31:53
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hi-Tarr saying, no sir, look again.
31:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We are spitting straight at you.
32:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:06
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm going to tell you, I was oddly, oddly interested in the next story I want to talk about.
32:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Because, you know, you don't often see
32:23
[SPEAKER_04]: you know often see education in porn come together I guess you just don't really see that very often but evidently a company that made like like sex dolls I think it is kind of the way I'm getting this decided that well those weren't selling which I can't believe but let's use those to then make
32:46
[SPEAKER_04]: and then we can use AI to put it somehow do that so we can have sexile teachers.
32:50
[SPEAKER_04]: And then my immediate mind went back to the old van van Hale and the song Hot for Teacher.
32:55
[SPEAKER_04]: And then it's not the future, it's we're now going to be...
33:00
[SPEAKER_04]: I, uh, I got lots of questions and that's why I've asked my good friend Michael Sinada to come share some thoughts.
33:06
[SPEAKER_04]: He's a labor journalist over at the Guardian.
33:09
[SPEAKER_04]: He told me about this story a couple of about a week ago and then it broke and then well, almost immediately it unbroken.
33:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Michael, thanks for taking time for us.
33:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, any time, Rick.
33:21
[SPEAKER_04]: So I gotta tell you, when I first reached out to you, I saw your story, I'm like, hey, let's talk about sex dial teachers, you know, why not?
33:29
[SPEAKER_04]: It'll make sex ed easier, I guess, maybe, but that almost immediately with me reaching out and a piece story keeps it, no, they've kind of, they've squashed this and I find out, well, it was you, it was you who did it.
33:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take the blame on that one.
33:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, basically what happened.
33:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I told you, I was working on it.
33:53
[SPEAKER_01]: This story kind of popped up a couple of weeks ago, but the reporting on it was really bad.
34:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just you heard from the company, the superintendent as school district, which were basically indistinguishable from one another.
34:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know,
34:12
[SPEAKER_01]: outlet that initially broke the story cited someone's Facebook comment to cite the opposition.
34:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I did some research and found out, oh, that there's a teacher's union at the school.
34:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder what they have to say.
34:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So, I reached out to the Solomon Kateshers Association through the American Federation of Teachers.
34:33
[SPEAKER_01]: That's their parent union, the state teachers union.
34:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I also reached out to them.
34:39
[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as I interviewed the president, Melinda Person, and after I spoke with her, they put out a statement, and that's kind of when the kind of snowballed the opposition to this plan.
35:00
[SPEAKER_01]: a Las Vegas based sextal company a couple years ago and a few weeks ago that came out with the press release that this company is partnering with the Salamaka School District which is a small city, you know, 6,000 people in Western New York that's actually on a set of canation.
35:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So around 30 to 40% of the student body
35:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I got a tip about this story and that was one of the concerns and I actually spoke with, you know, a couple residents and members of the Santa Cornese who were, you know, critical of this pilot program of, you know, their children being used as an experiment given the whole, you know, history of what this country has done to the native American.
35:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Well there is that.
35:54
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, but but I gotta be honest.
35:56
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'm looking at Sally the porn doll and I'm going I don't I don't know that that as a parent Especially of young kids you go.
36:03
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know that the the The stereotypical porn doll Image that you get I don't know that I want that at the front of my click kids classroom let alone being taught by AI Which is a whole another discussion who could possibly be against this Michael
36:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It was very creepy and shocking to see that connection and to see just renderings of what the doll was supposed to look like.
36:31
[SPEAKER_01]: She was supposed to be named Sally with lawn brown hair.
36:36
[SPEAKER_01]: That company claimed that the sex doll company has different employees and is a different part of the company, but there really wasn't any transparency on it.
36:49
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the educational background or credentials of, you know, the people who are involved in developing this, they had no answer.
37:08
[SPEAKER_01]: teacher at the high school there, and, you know, she even said this is happening too fast, you know, and they were calling for a pause.
37:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And I also saw the Board of Education meeting, the superintendent on July 21, claimed that the New York State Department of Education was working
37:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I hadn't seen any statement put out or anything like that, so I reached out to them on Wednesday Thursday the end of the day they gave me a statement completely contradicting what the district was saying that they were working along they were saying that they have concerns about privacy and you know the issues with.
37:56
[SPEAKER_01]: this program.
37:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the next day, they halt the program and give it to the New York Times and the New York focus group or whatever story that small outlet and still never told me anything.
38:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
38:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They were clearly not happy that I was doing the story and I think Insighted, you know, further opposition and, you know, I was the only one.
38:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Only reporter who actually talked to teachers and only reporter who actually talked to people who live in the district about their criticisms and concerns with this pilot program that was being sold by the district and this company as just nothing but good and positive things,
38:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, you know, not the case.
38:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Look, I see nothing good about AI teachers.
38:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's start with that.
38:51
[SPEAKER_04]: First, I see nothing good with that at this moment.
38:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I still want an actual human in the front of the classroom.
38:58
[SPEAKER_04]: But, you know, the mockery being part of this, the dull.
39:02
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, everything that you go, come on.
39:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you be any more misogynistic in your choice of who of what AI you're going to put at the front of the classroom?
39:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, and they were claiming adamantly that does was not a plan to replace teachers, but the fact in the matter, they spent 57 grand on this doll, they could have put that towards putting an actual teaching assistant in the room.
39:30
[SPEAKER_01]: So, and also, if you didn't want it to replace humans, why are you making it look like a human?
39:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So, clearly, that argument doesn't make sense as well.
39:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And they were basically defending it and defending it to the point where they were claiming none of these things were going to happen.
39:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't going to record or things like that.
39:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But it provided, you know, it was just...
39:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, accept what they're telling you.
39:56
[SPEAKER_01]: If there's no verification, you know, what are the guard brails, you know?
40:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So, lots and lots of red flags from the marketing.
40:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think ultimately they paid in themselves in a corner and had no choice after the New York State Department of Education sent them, you know, an angry letter telling them that they were really upset about this program going forward.
40:23
[SPEAKER_04]: because somebody actually bothered to reach out to the Department of Education.
40:26
[SPEAKER_04]: I know I don't Trump's trying to destroy the federal department of Education, but at least on the state level, they're fairly responsive.
40:32
[SPEAKER_04]: I got to think, you know, you go, hey, my school district wants to put a $6 at the front of this school, they're going to at least look into it, right?
40:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
40:40
[SPEAKER_01]: This would have been the first case in the country to have happened.
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was for a good reason.
40:50
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot of attention on this story and this pilot program.
40:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And clearly it was just being oversold as to what it was when it was even they were calling it.
41:09
[SPEAKER_01]: every teacher union obviously doesn't want this, you know, a New York state and just around the country, educators are pushing back on, you know, they're pushed for too much technology in the classroom, too much screen time, you know, that it's, you know, not good for kids.
41:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It was one of the criticisms during the COVID pandemic that
41:33
[SPEAKER_01]: kids weren't in the classroom working hands on they were doing remote learning so there was learning loss curve.
41:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So just this program, this pilot program, this proposal was just completely ignoring all of that and not even engaging with it.
41:50
[SPEAKER_04]: No, look, I look at a lot of the Scandinavian countries, and I'm sure you've seen this before, a lot of them are moving away from the technology, and going back and printing books again, because it hasn't worked.
42:01
[SPEAKER_04]: All of this screen time hasn't helped make critical thinkers, and I got to think that an AI teacher is going to do even less of that, because my fear is, as we go deeper down this AI rabbit hole, as we do more chat this or that,
42:16
[SPEAKER_04]: the less critical thinking and the more regurgitation we're going to get.
42:20
[SPEAKER_04]: And for me, education is not just about regurgitating facts.
42:23
[SPEAKER_04]: It's about becoming a critical thinking citizen who can participate in self-governance.
42:28
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the bigger part of this.
42:30
[SPEAKER_04]: And I fear something like this just kills it an awful lot faster.
42:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the big concerns too is, you know, like claim that the robot wasn't going to record kids, but it was also claiming that it would remember kids' names and details.
42:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So how is it, you know, storing that information, those interactions with minors?
42:54
[SPEAKER_01]: That is, you know, something that shouldn't be done.
42:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, see how this is something I haven't even, I didn't even give that a thought, you know, that they would be collecting that kind of data and that kind of information.
43:06
[SPEAKER_04]: That's another layer of crazy that, you know, I got to think your parents should have, so this is one of those moments where I go, because I grew up in the 70s when Busting was a thing and parents were basically rioting before they had to put their kids on buses.
43:21
[SPEAKER_04]: This seems like one of those things that I don't know, I think people should have been basically rioting over.
43:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I think to an extent there was, but there was also, you know, fear among speaking out against the superintendent in the district, you know, they were kind of, I think using kids at the high school as a shield from criticism for the, for the program, you know, claiming they chose, you know, had input into what the program was using the free labor project.
43:54
[SPEAKER_04]: No, but what they did is they focused and I think you hit on it right at the very beginning.
43:58
[SPEAKER_04]: They focused on poor people.
44:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's see if we can kick poor people a little bit more.
44:02
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's what this looks like to me.
44:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Speaking of kicking poor people, you got another story yesterday of that caught my attention.
44:08
[SPEAKER_04]: New survey on US farm workers.
44:11
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, I think the number that stood out to me was 90%.
44:16
[SPEAKER_04]: of farm workers, said that the raids and the deportations have affected their employment and they're whole lives and I would go, that's exactly what the Magical World wants.
44:28
[SPEAKER_04]: That's mission accomplished in their world, so that's got to be music and Trump seers, but not good for consumers of people who want to buy food from farm workers.
44:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely not.
44:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And you have these business groups that have actually supported immigration reform for farm workers because such a significant amount of the farm worker populations over half are you know undocumented immigrants so.
44:56
[SPEAKER_01]: They entire food system in the United States relies on immigrant workers, on immigrant labor and even in reaching out to the Trump administration they won't even say the word far more if they want to engage with it.
45:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know if you remember last year that those horrifying videos of ice agents chasing immigrants in the fields and you know one of the stories where
45:25
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, there were someone fell off a roof and was injured, you know, that was a significant chilling effect, and the United Farm Workers had a farm worker who is a DACA recipient kind of, you know, explaining that, you know, her husband is also undocumented.
45:43
[SPEAKER_01]: They have two daughters to our U.S. citizens and they've just been living in fear.
45:49
[SPEAKER_01]: They are just hiding out.
45:51
[SPEAKER_01]: They can't live like they normally would.
45:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the she mentioned her daughter had an 11th birthday party birthday recently, and they couldn't celebrate it because they can't risk going outside and being out in different parts.
46:07
[SPEAKER_01]: arts of their community because they're so afraid of ice grabbing one of them or both the parents in separating the families and you know under this administration even with you know bond and
46:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, those those court proceedings, you know, we're seeing, you know, people who should have pathways to you know, staying in this country are just being detained.
46:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, you know, the most in immigration detention, you know, ever, you know,
46:44
[SPEAKER_01]: we've sought earlier this year of how ice and even recently with more killings, just the depravity, the over racism that's driving the policies of this administration and it's harming these communities.
47:00
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I mean, you can't have a birthday party.
47:01
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you think the employers are doing to these people?
47:04
[SPEAKER_04]: If they can't feel confident enough to have a birthday party for their kids, you think they're not stealing their wages.
47:10
[SPEAKER_04]: You think they're not creating unsafe work conditions.
47:13
[SPEAKER_04]: You think they're not using ice as a tool to keep wages down.
47:16
[SPEAKER_04]: So their profits can be higher.
47:18
[SPEAKER_04]: But I also got to think that the employers can't be thrilled.
47:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Because it's got to be harder to get people to come in and do stuff, isn't it?
47:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, and you know, I think you're going to see, you know, we've already seen reports of just how worker shortages are going to be impacted by these Immigration policies because, you know, immigrants for like such as whether it's farm workers or home care workers in the healthcare industry.
47:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, so many vital essential industries rely on immigrant workers.
47:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's also a symptom of why you're seeing with the economy sputtering under Trump.
48:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw, you know, growth just slowed down.
48:08
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, data came out today.
48:10
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, it's not going well.
48:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, you know, and Trump keeps that in the White House keeps saying, uh, it's the golden age, um, by, by what metric show me one.
48:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Because he said so.
48:20
[SPEAKER_04]: That's what it is.
48:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Because I said so, uh, but you know, here's the weird thing.
48:25
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, my mind goes in this place.
48:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
48:26
[SPEAKER_04]: We're kicking out farm workers, but we want sex dolls teaching kids.
48:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe we have the sex dolls picked the crop crops.
48:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Would that work?
48:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And you know, here's the weird thing, I mean, the sad reality is is we are in such a screwed up place because of well one this administration and two you got all of these people were trying to figure out how they can they can get there they're they're billion off the backs of kids or taxpayers or whatever and how to replace us that we come up with all of these schemes and we're not really making lives better look I I was told when Trump was going to we took it took office it was going to be utopia.
49:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly, none of this is good for workers.
49:15
[SPEAKER_04]: I got to tell you so last question I got to go back to the sex style thing is this is this done I mean, is this company done or is this they're going to find another poor group of people to maybe maybe maybe it makes some modifications Make her look more like a librarians that have a porn star.
49:31
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know what to look because look I know they use AI teachers in places like South Korea But I don't want to see it here, but I'm curious what you think the future of that is
49:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's done for the time being, but I don't think it's dead.
49:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I think, whether it's this particular case or just a different company, I think it's just going to be a concern that's going to pop up down the road.
49:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so last, like you concerned, because you're the guy who killed the porn star teacher.
50:03
[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, I teach her, there's got to be, it's got to be some, you're looking over your shoulder.
50:08
[SPEAKER_01]: No, not, not, not yet.
50:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Although, if I look over my shoulder and see a sex doll a robot, I'll be pretty such a pride.
50:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Michael, as always, great work.
50:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I appreciate your time, brother.
50:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, thanks Rick.
50:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks so much, Michael Sonato, labor reporter there at the Guardian.
50:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Check out his work over at the GuardianGuardian.com, the website.
50:28
[SPEAKER_04]: I got a, I got to know, pro 6dL teacher, anti, or pro 6dL.
50:34
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear your thoughts, Rick and the Rick Spitzer.com, right back.
50:46
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
50:50
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1981.
50:53
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day the long Major League Baseball Strike finally came to an end.
50:59
[SPEAKER_04]: The issue that motivated the strike was a dispute between players and management over free agency.
51:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Day after summer day slipped by on the calendar with no end in sight.
51:09
[SPEAKER_04]: As a result of the strike, a total of 713 games were canceled in the middle of the regular season.
51:16
[SPEAKER_04]: And on this day, players and owners reached a compromise, which ended the lengthy strike.
51:22
[SPEAKER_04]: In the settlement, a team that lost a free agent could be compensated by drawing from a pool of players.
51:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Players agreed to restrict free agency to those who had six or more years in the major leagues.
51:33
[SPEAKER_04]: Because of the long strike, the all-star game was pushed all the way back until August 9.
51:39
[SPEAKER_04]: When you go to the ballpark, you're likely not thinking about labor issues.
51:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Nonetheless, the players are unionized and had to fight hard to win free agency and other protections.
51:50
[SPEAKER_04]: There have been eight workstoppages in Major League Baseball.
51:53
[SPEAKER_04]: 1981 held the record as the longest, until 1994 that is, the strike started in August, and resulted in the cancellation of the whole postseason.
52:04
[SPEAKER_04]: It was the first time a major sport had its postseason wiped out by a work stoppage.
52:09
[SPEAKER_04]: The strike was not settled until the following April.
52:12
[SPEAKER_04]: But the good news today is, there are only balls and strikes on the field.
52:16
[SPEAKER_04]: So, play ball!
52:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Me as to the Lord, me as to the Lord, Me as to the power, my dear, dear, dear, dear, my dear, dear, dear, I know there is my heaven and heaven, Earth is one of the Halls, and you'll never be the same, Earth is one!
52:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society, and the Rick Smith Show.
52:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So think about that plan.
52:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Think about it for a second.
53:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Ah, yeah, poor kids taught by a shiny Robo gimmicky sex toy.
53:08
[SPEAKER_04]: While the rich kids get actual humans actual attention and oh, I don't know an actual education.
53:14
[SPEAKER_04]: It's fairly amazing.
53:16
[SPEAKER_04]: The future evidently is here, and surprise, it's a budget cut with a face, and This is how capitalism talks when it gets caught robbing the school system.
53:28
[SPEAKER_04]: It puts on a lab coat calls it innovation And then waves a robot around like a magic trick a sex doll robot You know, and my mind goes to this place where where are my Maga Puritans now?
53:44
[SPEAKER_04]: But what this really is selling is the same old scam.
53:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Strip mine public education, dump the cheapest possible substitute on poor and working class kids and call it equity because, well, the brochure has a smiling avatar on it.
54:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's be honest, AI isn't coming for critical thinking.
54:08
[SPEAKER_04]: It's coming for thinking, period.
54:12
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't teach your kid how to reason.
54:14
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't challenge your kid.
54:16
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't debate.
54:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Teach your kid to debate.
54:19
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't teach your kid how to get through struggle, adversity, to revise the, actually it can't teach your kid to understand anything.
54:28
[SPEAKER_04]: It can spit out polished nonsense all day long, but that's not education.
54:36
[SPEAKER_04]: That's auto complete in lingerie.
54:40
[SPEAKER_04]: And the class hypocrisy here is completely obscenem.
54:44
[SPEAKER_04]: The kids of the wealthy are still gonna get small class sizes.
54:48
[SPEAKER_04]: Handholding, lab time, reading groups, mentors, counselors, librarians, oh, and real human adults, highly qualified human adults who actually know their names and notice maybe when they're struggling, when they're falling behind, maybe,
55:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Meanwhile, what porn working class kids get is a pilot program, the beta test, the, let's see if this thing can sort of pass as a teacher test.
55:20
[SPEAKER_04]: And if it flops, two bad, oops, oh well, we tried, shrug the shoulders and move along to the next group of guinea pigs, and the children are just collateral damage.
55:34
[SPEAKER_04]: That's the whole rotten point here.
55:36
[SPEAKER_04]: The kids of the rich and famous in the powerful, they get the premium package.
55:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Everybody else, educational disruption, which is Silicon Valley for, we found a way to make your kid cheaper.
55:52
[SPEAKER_04]: In spare me, the personalized learning nonsense that I hear out of this.
55:56
[SPEAKER_04]: A chat bot, let me very, very clear.
55:59
[SPEAKER_04]: A chat bot is not personalized, the tension.
56:03
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just a machine that guesses.
56:07
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't tell when your kid is anxious, hungry, ashamed, bullied, or one bad week away from... Who knows?
56:16
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't build trust and can't inspire.
56:18
[SPEAKER_04]: It can't even care enough to fake it cares.
56:23
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a glorified answer-vending machine with long legs.
56:28
[SPEAKER_04]: What it is, and eyelashes.
56:32
[SPEAKER_04]: And if this school district had the money for a robot teacher, then obviously it would have had some money for, I don't know, things like things that we know work, that we know work, like smaller class sizes.
56:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Teachers who are paid a little bit better, so they can spend more time doing what they do instead of having to go to work at the hardware store at night.
56:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe more counselors, maybe a librarian, maybe an actual library, maybe a nurse,
57:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, maybe having humans who have the time to care and get to know each child, maybe that.
57:08
[SPEAKER_04]: But that would actually require some kind of investing in kids instead of investing in the illusion of an investment.
57:16
[SPEAKER_04]: This is what the ruling class calls progress.
57:22
[SPEAKER_04]: automated mediocrity for the poor, human excellence for their kids in the rich, and a press release, pretending that there's not a two-tier education system in this country.
57:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and the truth, the truth is fairly simple and brutal.
57:39
[SPEAKER_04]: If they wouldn't put this, this, this, this sex doll robot in the front of a classroom in a private school full of donor kids,
57:48
[SPEAKER_04]: then they shouldn't be shoving it into a public school that's already struggling full of poor and working class kids seems seems pretty same seems pretty rational seems like maybe a functional democracy would demand that and i'm glad thanks to michael senado's article that someone said hey uh... maybe we should look into this and then new york department of education jumped into the middle of this because this is what
58:18
[SPEAKER_04]: inform.
58:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Educate, activate.
58:24
[SPEAKER_04]: So we've stopped it for now, but understand where there is a profit motive, there will be another scheme.
58:30
[SPEAKER_04]: There will be another palm greased and who knows maybe as we started today's show off, maybe with a big enough donation to Trump's fundraising juggernaut, maybe we're going to have to fight that.
58:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Because after all, they are trying to do
58:48
[SPEAKER_04]: deep professionalized teachers.
58:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe this is of the future just a little bit sooner.
58:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Want to hear your thoughts?
58:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Would you be happy with a sex doll teacher in front of your kids?
59:03
[SPEAKER_04]: A.I.
59:03
[SPEAKER_04]: teacher.
59:04
[SPEAKER_04]: The sex doll part is just for the appearance.
59:07
[SPEAKER_04]: Got to give the boy something to look at and something to shame the girls with.
59:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Did I say that out loud?
59:13
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I kind of did.
59:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, but ultimately, it's about stealing your kids' brain.
59:19
[SPEAKER_04]: And are we surprised by that?
59:21
[SPEAKER_04]: No, we gotta keep them stupid.
59:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Why don't your thoughts?
59:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Work at therixmytheshow.com.
59:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Mississippi portion of the program grab the podcast and as always, thanks so much for being here.
59:31
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll see you back your next time.
59:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Email Rack at RackAtRackAtTheRicksSmithShow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Until next time, this has been The RicksSmithShow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_03]: We're working people, come to talk.