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The Rick Smith Show 9-15-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_02]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_05]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes, this is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks so much for being here today on the big program lots to get to lots to talk about.
0:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Did everyone spend the weekend figuring out how they're going to spend their $5,000 Trump check?
0:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I had three conversations over the weekend with people going, can't wait for my Trump money to come.
0:39
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, I got a, there's part of me that was hoping they were being facetious.
0:43
[SPEAKER_05]: There was some, there was some part of me that held on to, they got to know this is not going to happen, right?
0:48
[SPEAKER_05]: Because the, the $5,000 dogey checked it and come, the tariff money never materialized, um, there are, there are lots of promises.
0:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I know the guy who told us, you know, I keep all my promises.
1:01
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, makes me wonder makes me wonder how how we're gonna get through it.
1:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Now he believes 100% it's gonna happen He said he knows exactly how they're going to pay for it Because he knows he's he's he's he's he's he's remember he's a stable genius Not he got my Johnson speaker the house going yeah, he's gonna need Congress to act to get this money I wonder if Mike knows he's not really in charge
1:29
[SPEAKER_05]: I got a wonder, so when I saw a Trump on Sunday, say that, you know, we'll ultimately get out unless we decide to stay and keep the oil like Venezuela, he's talking about Iran.
1:48
[SPEAKER_05]: So it got me, it got the wheels thinking, is it the plan to just go in and invade Iran?
1:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And look, there's other hair-bring schemes out there.
1:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe he's got money in the mattress somewhere.
2:00
[SPEAKER_05]: But I started thinking about this.
2:02
[SPEAKER_05]: He really think we're going to go into Iran, invade Iran, take over Iran, take the oil, and nobody be the bit wiser or angry about it.
2:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Does he really
2:20
[SPEAKER_05]: and is it going to be his kid who goes there because one of the things that I remember and I've talked to military experts for years about this and the one line that sticks in my head is if you thought Iraq was bad try Iran because they've got guns that fire and planes that fly and they have people who love their country just as much as you or me or anyone else
2:47
[SPEAKER_05]: but they love their country and if you go in and invade, they're probably gonna be a little, I don't know, maybe just a little upset by it.
2:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Just a thought.
2:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, the weird part is, is I'm sure there's somebody out there going, you know, if we could just take it over I ran, we could have all their oil.
3:06
[SPEAKER_05]: wouldn't that be great?
3:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And we wouldn't have to worry about diesel prices in my neighborhood 649 a gallon.
3:12
[SPEAKER_05]: I saw in California 999 a gallon for diesel.
3:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Social media is just full of people who voted for Trump whining and complaining that, well, you know, we voted for you, we've been loyal, but you're killing us.
3:30
[SPEAKER_05]: But of course, it's not Trump's fault.
3:33
[SPEAKER_05]: Remember, nothing's ever dear leaders fault.
3:36
[SPEAKER_05]: So I always say, somebody else, usually Joe Biden.
3:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm sure this gas crisis that was created by Trump's war and Iran and the idiocy that they continue to pull off, this two Joe Biden's fault.
3:51
[SPEAKER_05]: So on Sunday, Trump, I guess, had a plan to bring diesel prices down.
4:01
[SPEAKER_05]: The plan, I guess, is to accuse Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, it's his fault, he said that Zelensky has to do one thing.
4:14
[SPEAKER_05]: He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia.
4:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because it's causing a shortage of diesel
4:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Hypno cards, if this is accurate, if he's the blame, seems like a pretty big card, but it's not.
4:43
[SPEAKER_05]: This is the idiocy of the Trump policies, because that stuff was going on regardless.
4:49
[SPEAKER_05]: It's what's going on in the strait of her moves.
4:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It's what's going on in the pipeline.
4:52
[SPEAKER_05]: That's supposed to be bypassing that.
4:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is all because of Trump.
4:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hear your thoughts.
5:04
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
5:08
[SPEAKER_05]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1929.
5:12
[SPEAKER_05]: That was the day that LMA Williams was gunned down on her way to a rally of striking textile workers in North Carolina.
5:20
[SPEAKER_05]: LMA was born in the mountains of Tennessee.
5:23
[SPEAKER_05]: Her father was a lumberjack who was killed on the job.
5:27
[SPEAKER_05]: She and her brother had entered the textile mills to help support their family.
5:32
[SPEAKER_05]: She married another mill employee and they had seven children.
5:35
[SPEAKER_05]: When her husband left, Ella May struggled to keep her family afloat.
5:40
[SPEAKER_05]: When the great depression came, textile mill workers were subject to the, quote, stretchout.
5:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Owners demanded that fewer workers quick in their pace to produce the same results.
5:51
[SPEAKER_05]: In response, textile workers began to organize and strike in Gaston County, the heart of the Southern textile industry.
5:59
[SPEAKER_05]: LMAE became a local leader of the National Textile Workers Union.
6:03
[SPEAKER_05]: She advocated for organizing both white and black workers.
6:07
[SPEAKER_05]: She became known for leading the other workers in song.
6:11
[SPEAKER_05]: One of her most poignant songs was the Mill Mother's Lament.
6:14
[SPEAKER_05]: The lyrics told her personal struggle of a mother trying to support her children.
6:19
[SPEAKER_05]: On the day she was killed, LMA was in a truck heading to the workers rally.
6:23
[SPEAKER_05]: They were met by an armed mob deployed by the Mill owners.
6:27
[SPEAKER_05]: The unarmed workers turned their truck around, but the mob chased them and gunned down LMA.
6:37
[SPEAKER_04]: We live our homes in the morning.
6:40
[SPEAKER_04]: We kiss our children goodbye.
6:43
[SPEAKER_04]: While we slave for the bosses, our children scream and cry.
6:51
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor history and two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
6:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Our grocery bells to pay.
6:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Not a scent to spend for clothing.
7:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Not a scent.
7:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith show.
7:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
7:14
[SPEAKER_05]: So, wow, what a weekend.
7:16
[SPEAKER_05]: What a weekend.
7:18
[SPEAKER_05]: This was.
7:19
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the culmination of all of the had that clown show in Dallas.
7:25
[SPEAKER_05]: What happened on Friday, which
7:28
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, just nuts with it was sleepy, Trump and JD Vance and all of the attacks on Rudy Giuliani for having the audacity to shake the hand of a moose lumb.
7:40
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just been a crazy weekend and, of course, evidently we're taking Iran's oil, maybe we're going to go and stay, take the oil.
7:47
[SPEAKER_05]: And oh, hey, by the way, Zelensky, don't bomb.
7:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't bomb Russia because you're the reason diesel prices are up.
7:54
[SPEAKER_05]: It's just been, again, another weekend of
7:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, that's in here to share some thoughts and help us weed through some of the nonsense.
8:05
[SPEAKER_05]: I've asked my good friend Sarah Burst to come share some thoughts at Sarah's senior digital editor over there at alternate check out their work alternate dot org Sarah.
8:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks for taking time for us.
8:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Hey Rick.
8:15
[SPEAKER_05]: How are you?
8:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm good.
8:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I got to be honest.
8:18
[SPEAKER_05]: It's been a very entertaining couple of couple of days.
8:22
[SPEAKER_05]: If if look if you've
8:24
[SPEAKER_05]: I now know what George Carlin was saying when he said, look, when I gave up on that I could have any influence on the outcome.
8:31
[SPEAKER_05]: And I just witnessed the destruction and witness the chaos as an observer, and not objective, you know, trying to fix things position.
8:42
[SPEAKER_05]: It becomes a lot better.
8:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I kind of, that's kind of how this weekend worked for me, because I knew everything was going to be bad.
8:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I just sat back and I allowed myself to enjoy a little bit of it.
8:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, you didn't even mention what happened in Ireland over the weekend, like he got a rough response from the people of Ireland, but to study because there's a lot of footage of Joe Biden getting a very big welcome and, and Obama getting a lot of love from the Irish people, but yeah, it was Friday was weird that the thing about the shaking hands with the mandami and Giuliani.
9:22
[SPEAKER_03]: We don't even really know if Giuliani knows who he is, like I'm sure he knows the name and dummy, but does he does he actually know what he looks like?
9:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Was he clear on who this person was?
9:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Like the the guy's 900 years old.
9:37
[SPEAKER_05]: So, but I got to assume he's got a handler who's going to go, hey, you know, grandpa over here, you know, I got to assume there's about that trying to
9:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I kind of, I got to think there's a, there's a Natalie Harp for, for, for, for Giuliani.
9:54
[SPEAKER_03]: The thing is he would have to pay her and he owes so many people so much money.
9:59
[SPEAKER_03]: True.
9:59
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't, yeah.
10:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
10:02
[SPEAKER_05]: But there's got to be someone who's more concerned about his legacy.
10:05
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, you go back through history and there, there's always been that.
10:09
[SPEAKER_05]: that person that's been the the usher of the legacy.
10:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Someone's got to be looking out for Rudy's legacy because the handshake was really kind of a legacy thing.
10:18
[SPEAKER_05]: He was right when he said I didn't want to make a big scene and make it about about that even though the right made it about that.
10:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
10:26
[SPEAKER_03]: They did.
10:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I would think maybe his son would be one of those people, but the thing is his son is working for the Trump administration.
10:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't even know that his son was in New York for 9-11.
10:38
[SPEAKER_03]: He could have been, you know, in DC and God knows everybody from the White House just sounded, they're not going to New York.
10:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Evan, for bid, they show up and not be able to speak and talk about how amazing Trump is for whatever.
10:52
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's amazing that he wasn't Trump wasn't in New York because look, I think if there's a place for the president should have been there and no one's going to convince me that the fact that he couldn't speak is the reason he wasn't there.
11:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, absolutely.
11:11
[SPEAKER_03]: He was trying to come up with some excuse for that, where he told Fox News, no, no, no, it's not because I wouldn't, I wouldn't be allowed to speak.
11:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure if I wanted to speak, they would have let me.
11:22
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, no, that's the point, is that
11:26
[SPEAKER_03]: They've cut that stuff off, they've decided like this is not ever going to be about some politician having their moment, this is always going to be about the people that we lost, the people that they left behind and remembering.
11:41
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, good.
11:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Good try, I guess, I'm trying to Look, you know, to get from DC to New York is a long journey.
11:53
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, he needs his rest.
11:54
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, you know, he fell asleep during the middle of the one just across the street.
11:59
[SPEAKER_05]: So what would he have done in New York?
12:01
[SPEAKER_03]: I was really weird.
12:02
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the thing is is last year.
12:06
[SPEAKER_03]: The same thing happens and a lot of folks were so freaked out because his, his lip, you know, is now started to droop a little bit to the side and so folks thought, Oh, God, he's having a stroke right here on national television.
12:18
[SPEAKER_03]: For anybody who's seen their grandfather fall asleep in the recliner, I think it's just that your, your jaw goes slack when you fall asleep.
12:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think that's probably what's really going on with him.
12:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And I, you would have thought that after last year,
12:34
[SPEAKER_03]: somebody would have given him a five hour energy or something.
12:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, give him some fin fin.
12:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know anything, anything.
12:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And that didn't happen.
12:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, he was, he was definitely up all night.
12:48
[SPEAKER_03]: He spoke until late and then he had to fly back to DC in a plane that has a beautiful bedroom where he could have slept on the way there.
12:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but, you know, I guess he was sleepy.
13:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, what's interesting is, you know, he ran on, you know, the sleepy old guy.
13:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
13:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And his, and his now the sleepy old guy.
13:08
[SPEAKER_05]: And, and that, I got to be honest, you know,
13:11
[SPEAKER_05]: the argument that I made for for voting for Joe Biden is as I like the people that Biden surrounded himself with.
13:17
[SPEAKER_05]: I like the people who I thought they were I thought they had the mission of the agencies that they were overseeing at heart.
13:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I thought they were going to do the best job of of following through the on those missions.
13:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I look at the people that are surrounded by Trump or that he has put into these places and I see them as all destroyers and profiteers and people who are going to do so much damage or have already done so much damage it's going to take decades but still going to do more damage and they'll take even longer to for us to dig out so you know outside of just the appearance
13:55
[SPEAKER_05]: He's really put destroyers in charge of our government and is isolating us from the rest of the world The consequences.
14:02
[SPEAKER_05]: I just fear are so enormous going forward.
14:06
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think the average American gets it
14:09
[SPEAKER_03]: No, for sure, I think if he hadn't made that such a big issue in the campaign, then it wouldn't have been, you know, it wouldn't be so big now.
14:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Everybody would be like, oh my god, look at him now, you know.
14:22
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think particularly when you start talking about people who are in charge, who have very little experience, there was a story that I had heard from one of the military folks who was outstead a while ago.
14:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was Pete Higseff who told the president, now we don't have to worry about the straight-of-form moves.
14:42
[SPEAKER_03]: This is not going to be a big thing.
14:43
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to basically swoop into Iran and we're going to bomb so much that they're going to be completely freaked out.
14:49
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're going to, you know, that'll be it.
14:51
[SPEAKER_03]: That'll be it.
14:52
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll have this thing, you know, wrapped up really quickly.
14:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Every single one of the generals and the military advisors was like, no, that's not going to happen.
15:03
[SPEAKER_03]: This is going to be bad.
15:04
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to go on for a while.
15:06
[SPEAKER_03]: You're going to screw everybody over.
15:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And here we are.
15:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And now basically take that idea and apply it to every single department from housing and urban development to the department of ed to the department of
15:24
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, now he gets to hold the bag for it, I guess.
15:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, no, he's not going to hold the bag.
15:28
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
15:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if you've noticed but a lot of people are not happy as approval ratings aren't great his disapproval ratings are really high gas.
15:59
[SPEAKER_05]: I just saw again Diesel almost 6.50 now 6.49 a gallon for diesel and oh, I know we've got a new reason why diesel is so high It's not because we went into our red.
16:10
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, no, no, it's not because you know, he's screwing things up.
16:12
[SPEAKER_05]: It's because it's a lynx key
16:14
[SPEAKER_05]: It's the Ukrainians that are causing all this happen because they're bombing diesel refineries and Russia.
16:20
[SPEAKER_05]: That's the reason.
16:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's just so desperate.
16:25
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I'm starting to see more maga people respond to the gas prices thing because people I think are connecting the high diesel prices with that's what is fueling the trucking industry and when trucking, you will goes up that means that every delivery that we have is going to go up.
16:45
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a big reason grocery prices are going up and yada yada.
16:51
[SPEAKER_05]: and it's gonna get worse and this is where I was just watching a guy a small trucking company owner went on Facebook and I'm sure you saw it as well you know he was gonna put president I voted for you three times and you know I think you're doing a great job but hey we need some help over here because you know I'm going out of business and then you see the video of the farmer going hey you know I voted for you three times and I think you're doing great but hey send us money because we're about ready to go belly up and you just go through all this
17:21
[SPEAKER_05]: you voted for these policies you voted for this guy this is what we were telling you project 2025 was going to bring you and you didn't listen and now we're here and I struggle with this because I'm struggling like everybody else like you are and like everybody else who didn't vote for this idiot but there's part of me that goes you know what if you voted for it blank you man
17:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, God knows everybody went into the Leopard's pen and thought, surely the Leopard will not eat my face off, but then the Leopard ate everybody's face off.
17:55
[SPEAKER_03]: The FAA-FO is what the kids call it, right?
17:59
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I think we're in a point in our society where people starting to understand, like there's nobody coming to save them, we have to save ourselves.
18:12
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, no, no.
18:15
[SPEAKER_05]: We're all getting five grants, Sarah, fixed it.
18:20
[SPEAKER_05]: We're all getting five grants.
18:21
[SPEAKER_05]: All we have to do is keep the same insanity in place through the next election.
18:26
[SPEAKER_05]: All we gotta do is vote to continue all of this.
18:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Stuff we just continue this and we get five grand and I know look they always five grand from the doge money I'm sure that's in the mail.
18:41
[SPEAKER_05]: They always two grand from the tariffs.
18:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that's that's in the works The courts.
18:46
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure are holding that up, but this this five grand trust me.
18:51
[SPEAKER_05]: It's coming
18:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I saw a funny interview with a radio host who does call and so and and people were calling in, you know, who are, who are mega people trying to justify like, this is going to happen.
19:03
[SPEAKER_03]: This is going to happen.
19:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I was like, how much was your doge check when you got it?
19:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And they were like, what do you mean?
19:09
[SPEAKER_03]: He was like, he promised us that he was going to give us this doge check, right?
19:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, how much did you get?
19:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And they were like, well, I didn't get one.
19:16
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, hmm, what about the tariff check?
19:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, we not only had this huge promise of all of the money was gonna come into the United States, but then there was this massive Supreme Court case where the Supreme Court said you have to pay back all of this stuff, those corporations got all of this money so where's our money?
19:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, did you get that money?
19:37
[SPEAKER_03]: No, of course you didn't.
19:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So here we are again with,
19:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Empty promises of everything's going to be awesome.
19:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Everything's going to be fine.
19:48
[SPEAKER_05]: And it's just not see your client again, you're lying again, because according to him, and I heard him say it, he has kept every single promise he has ever made and a bunch of promises he didn't even tell you he was going to make.
20:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, remember he was going to end the war in between Ukraine and Russia, probably before even not there.
20:11
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, day one.
20:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Day one.
20:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Day one.
20:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, gas, the buck, eggs, buck, utopia, day one.
20:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, eggs definitely went down, but this is what happens whenever you go through time and all of the chickens who had avian flu died.
20:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Right.
20:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that was the reason everything was so expensive and by the time telling us, like, no, it's getting better, it's okay, it's okay.
20:35
[SPEAKER_05]: No, it was sleepy Joe.
20:36
[SPEAKER_05]: It was sleepy Joe.
20:37
[SPEAKER_05]: Sleepy Joe wasn't out there fertilizing the chicken eggs.
20:41
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know what the reason was, but they were blaming him for it, so me and my is will be that.
20:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And now we're going to screw over ranchers in an attempt to make beef cheaper and, you know, we've got significantly fewer USDA inspectors who, so we're going to bring in this foreign beef and not have enough expect inspectors to look at it, make sure everything is okay and got only knows going to wait for the fall man.
21:07
[SPEAKER_05]: If we had to explore some diarrhea over the summer, I can't wait to what comes in the fall.
21:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and freak fan.
21:15
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, don't mess.
21:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Don't mess up my beef man and me, man.
21:21
[SPEAKER_05]: It's it's awesome.
21:22
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, we're we're hadn't really really in it and it's such a such a such a what we're winning.
21:30
[SPEAKER_05]: we're winning.
21:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to talk about the convention.
21:35
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sure you paid no attention to it whatsoever.
21:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Like most people, pretty poor ratings for a guy who bases everything on what kind of ratings he got.
21:46
[SPEAKER_05]: He got some pretty crummy ratings, especially when you look at the fact that the interview that the FCC and Trump and the whole all the Republicans kept off of our airwaves with Jimmy
22:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo
22:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I just trying to figure out like where that sits, I started coming through the rest of Fox News figure out like okay what what does that mean?
22:38
[SPEAKER_03]: The Fox folks when they're watching television every regular Wednesday night.
22:45
[SPEAKER_03]: they get 2.5 million.
22:48
[SPEAKER_03]: So Trump got just a hair on top of that.
22:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the Talarico video, I was really curious to see how that was going to work.
22:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I've been reflecting every couple of hours on the weekend, right, trying to figure out where this thing was.
23:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And
23:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's docked on the door of nine million, it's over 8.6 million views.
23:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is exactly what happened with Stephen Colbert when this happened.
23:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Whenever the FCC said, no, I can't, you can't have tell or go on TV.
23:22
[SPEAKER_03]: God forbid, you have to tell or go on TV.
23:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no.
23:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think maybe that they really hate packs in so much that they're just trying to torpedo it?
23:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Honestly, it kind of seems that way.
23:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, the way that Trump gave that speech, it was like a roast where he's just like, ah, the guy he can't dress, he can't dress.
23:41
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't, I don't like what he wears, you know, I don't like the way he sounds.
23:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And then the, the, the piker thing.
23:47
[SPEAKER_05]: What, what, what, what was that?
23:49
[SPEAKER_05]: What, what's with that was, what's with the male fantasy porn there?
23:52
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm, I'm, I'm,
23:54
[SPEAKER_05]: What I saw that I said that has to be Photoshop there's no way the Republican party's if the parties come out of the closet there is just no way that happened.
24:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, everybody was calling it the the piker thirst trap, the one thing that I saw, I saw somebody saying, you know, making jokes about grinders going to shut down, it's going to be overwhelmed, which grinder is the the gay tender, but it's more, it tells you where people are so you can find out, like, oh, I want to hook up with you.
24:29
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really more of a hook up that it is for then like tender
24:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but folks are saying, all right, this is, you know, Grindr's going to go down and Grindr's going to go down.
24:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I identified it and look on down detector and there's like this big red spot right in Dallas, I was like, Oh, crop.
24:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It's real.
24:49
[SPEAKER_03]: This actually happened and sure enough, like you could see when you scroll down to the, the little line graph on it, it shows just a huge spike.
25:00
[SPEAKER_03]: once everybody started getting in town.
25:02
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and I gotta be honest with you, and this is I've set this for years because that's not new that happens virtually every time, uh, Republicans go into an area.
25:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I've often said, you know what, when we finally, when they can finally admit it, when they finally come out, maybe they'll be happy decent people.
25:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe they won't be the repressed
25:21
[SPEAKER_05]: polls that they are, maybe this will go, I don't be happy, they'll be happy, they'll be gay, they'll be happy, they'll be doing good things, don't want to feed children and take care of the old ladies.
25:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Maybe they don't want to do good stuff, I'm hoping I still have some hope that the Republican Party will find their way out of the closet and become decent people once again.
25:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, one of the big things that happened in the 2000s, my friend Mike Rodgers, I think you know, Mike Rodgers too, Mike Rodgers was basically doing this thing where he, if if somebody he knew was out in the gay clubs or, you know, basically.
26:01
[SPEAKER_03]: an out gay man, but was closeted at work and working for Republicans against LGBT issues.
26:08
[SPEAKER_03]: He was outing them throughout the early 2000s, and it was, they did an documentary about him forever ago that was called the most feared man in Washington.
26:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And but lately there's been these conversations where everybody's like, oh yeah, this is the worst kept secret in in Washington, where all of these gay Republicans are out there, and I'm like, we need another microadders to start like,
26:31
[SPEAKER_03]: We need to shove them out of the closet.
26:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And so what do you have to do with technology?
26:35
[SPEAKER_05]: They don't go to the clubs anymore, are they?
26:37
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, you know, you've got to have steams island, because I'm still waiting for the, the Epstein files again.
26:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And all right, wasn't there a promise about releasing the Epstein files?
26:44
[SPEAKER_05]: It wasn't one of those, one of those promises?
26:47
[SPEAKER_03]: They're still like what, uh, at least 12 million pages that we don't have.
26:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Just a little bit.
26:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's a lot.
26:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And the other thing too is the the videos like one of the things you hear all the time is that he had surveillance everywhere in every room including the bathroom and so I've been like where are the tapes these these tapes exist where are they why does the FBI not have them or maybe they don't.
27:14
[SPEAKER_05]: maybe they didn't even scrubbed.
27:16
[SPEAKER_05]: But again, you know, we can blame Biden for that, too, because you know, while Biden was sleeping, he was too in all of this nefarious stuff.
27:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm dancing.
27:24
[SPEAKER_05]: It's alter, you go.
27:26
[SPEAKER_05]: But Sarah, as always, great stuff.
27:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Keep up the great work.
27:28
[SPEAKER_05]: Hope folks to check out your work over at alternate.org.
27:31
[SPEAKER_05]: Sarah Burris, thank you so much.
27:33
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks, have a good rest of the week, everyone.
27:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Want to hear your thoughts?
27:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Did you watch the big shindig?
27:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Did you see the speech?
27:41
[SPEAKER_05]: or like the vast majority of America.
27:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Not so much, just clips.
27:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Just the really dumb stuff.
27:47
[SPEAKER_05]: I wanna hear your thoughts, Rick at TheRexMidship.com back after this.
28:00
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
28:03
[SPEAKER_02]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1917.
28:06
[SPEAKER_05]: That was the day, Illinois Governor Frank Loudon, hoped to meet with striking street carmen in an effort to end their strike.
28:14
[SPEAKER_05]: Transit workers in Springfield, the state's capital.
28:17
[SPEAKER_05]: had been off the job since July 25th, but the strike had gained so much support that Springfield had now erupted into a full-blown general strike.
28:27
[SPEAKER_05]: According to the Sandgammon County Historical Society, thousands of Union members shut down mines, railroads, bakeries, restaurants, laundries, and construction sites following the violent crackdown of a pro-labor march by state police and militia.
28:42
[SPEAKER_05]: The march had been scheduled for September 9th.
28:44
[SPEAKER_05]: The Union hoped to show support for the striking street carmen after a number of clashes between strikers and state militia.
28:51
[SPEAKER_05]: After they were denied a permit, many of the 50 or so unions decided to march anyway and were attacked.
28:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Some were shot more than 40 suffered bayonet inflicted injuries.
29:02
[SPEAKER_05]: By the 11th, most everyone in Springfield had walked off the job.
29:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Striking women's shoe factory workers stopped a street car pulling the scap drivers off by force by the end of the week as many as 12,000 members of 34 unions in the city were on strike.
29:19
[SPEAKER_05]: When telephone operators walked off the job, they paralyzed communications of the scap street car drivers and the state national guardsmen.
29:27
[SPEAKER_05]: The street car strikers refused to meet with the governor until troops were withdrawn from the city.
29:32
[SPEAKER_05]: The governor insisted disloyal, pro-German forces were at fault for the labor troubles.
29:39
[SPEAKER_05]: By the 16th, the street carmen agreed to negotiate and the general strike was called off.
29:44
[SPEAKER_05]: But the company refused to meet striker demands for recognition and higher wages or even
29:50
[SPEAKER_05]: take them back.
29:51
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smithsia for more information, go to LaborHistoryN2.com.
30:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Greg Evans, the right-wing hack who is Governor of Texas, probably doesn't know what a petard is.
30:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's now been hoisted by a big one.
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Hoist on a petard is a Shakespearean phrase, referring to a bomb maker being blown sky high by his own creation.
30:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Abbott's bombastic saga began last year when he noticed that high-tech billionaires were waving political cash at lawmakers who would help them build massive AI data centers across America, sniffing a quid pro-quobanenza.
30:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Abbott shoved his way to the front of that money hustle, loudly proclaiming that by gullies he would make Texas the quote,
30:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only did he pour massive taxpayer subsidies into the billionaire's pockets, but he even passed a law making it illegal for local officials to interfere with the profiteers.
30:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure enough, Texas has now the world's top location for these corporate invaders.
30:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So, wait a go, Governor!
31:01
[SPEAKER_00]: But oops, the governor's giveaway is now called Greg's Folly for the vast majority of Texans, especially rural Republicans.
31:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't just oppose his AI data centers.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: They despise, abominate, hate them.
31:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're now in angry grassroots revolt against the perpetrators, including Greg.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So, hoist on his own petard, Abbott has now flipped flopped from Heipster to reformer, comically demanding an end to the tax giveaways he created, frantically trying to regulate AI projects he deregulated, and crying that the rural voice he silenced must be heard.
31:41
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiter saying, sadly for him, those billionaires he corded so passionately are now laughing at him.
32:16
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's fun to point out that the 5K that we're all going to get in November if we're dumb enough to vote for the same policies that have gotten us into the nightmare that we're in right now.
32:26
[SPEAKER_05]: If that comes and if you believe that we're going to get that five grand if Trump and Republicans stay in power, I got bridges to sell multiple, but let's just for the sake of argument, say that it's possible.
32:43
[SPEAKER_05]: that this $5,000 check.
32:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And I know, forget about the $5,000 doji check and the $2,000 that was supposed to come from the tariffs and all the other other promises, forget that.
32:55
[SPEAKER_05]: But what if we got the $5,000?
32:57
[SPEAKER_05]: If I remember right though, it was the 1,400 that Joe Biden gave out that caused the massive spike in inflation.
33:06
[SPEAKER_05]: It was all Joe Biden's fault for the inflation.
33:08
[SPEAKER_05]: I got to wonder what five grand would do.
33:10
[SPEAKER_05]: any other share some thoughts on well maybe to walk through this exercise just a little bit I've asked my good friend Mattias for now go to come share some thoughts he's a director of bucknell's Institute for public policy also a professor of economics there Mattias thanks for taking time for us Thank you for having me Rick so five grand we're all getting five grand what could be wrong with that
33:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know, I wish we did get five, I mean, I'm not against getting 5,000, so if anybody out there wants to send me 5,000, you know, I'm happy to get 5,000 from Trump or for anybody else.
33:46
[SPEAKER_01]: The funny thing about this is that, you know, as you said, we're not getting it.
33:51
[SPEAKER_01]: The funny thing about this is that most pandits left or right, you know, at least in the, you know, in the traditional media and if you open your New York Times,
34:01
[SPEAKER_01]: say it's not feasible that we cannot do that.
34:04
[SPEAKER_01]: The Washington Post today has a very long sort of editorial page on but that they have been having, I should say every week, you know, on the weekends, editorial on how much art that has put us in danger and their point is we cannot have another war.
34:21
[SPEAKER_01]: The United States cannot
34:24
[SPEAKER_01]: you know spend you know enough you know we would be beyond our resources and we'll have inflation and our recession at home if we did you know this this sort of extra spending for a war
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: This would be sort of, so depending on how you measure, he wasn't very clear on who would receive this $5,000, but it's significant, something like between $800 billion to $1.6 trillion, the penino who gets this checks and that's obviously a humongous stimulus.
35:00
[SPEAKER_01]: From the point of view of
35:03
[SPEAKER_01]: of the ability to spend money, the important thing, on this I agree with, you know, there is a group of people that are referred to as modern money theory and one of the key figures in that group was profiled in New York Times, it's Stephanie Kelton, she was an advisor to Bernie Sanders.
35:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So just to give you sort of a sense of who are these people.
35:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't agree with them that, you know, there is a movie, people can go out and see that movie.
35:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We showed it at Bucknell and she came to the premiere of the movie at and Louisburg.
35:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called finding the money.
35:42
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we never have the money to do stuff that we need to do, but when a war comes, we do have the money.
35:47
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, we do have the money to do a war.
35:48
[SPEAKER_01]: If we need to spend a trillion dollars to do a war, we obviously have.
35:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And the resources to do a war if we wanted.
35:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not advocating that we go and invade another country.
35:59
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, is there.
36:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The issue is, you know, I forgot to spend a trillion dollars.
36:04
[SPEAKER_01]: We probably should spend it on something we actually need.
36:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And there are many things we need in the American economy.
36:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So Trump is not wrong that we could do this.
36:12
[SPEAKER_01]: He has no intention of doing it.
36:15
[SPEAKER_01]: But he knows he's in a difficult situation because he has not delivered, you know, to the American people, so people are feeling the pains of an economy that it's slowing down, that even though the unemployment levels are low, they don't reflect the difficulties of the labor market, in which people are suffering, in which prices have gone up and even in places in which wages have recovered and are winning against inflation,
36:41
[SPEAKER_01]: They are not winning over all so they they lost ground and that people are squeezed and I think that that I mean although it precedes Trump so I don't you know, let's be serious this has been for years of this that we talked about this but ultimately this has been exacerbated.
36:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, but ultimately our dad he's responsible for what almost all percent of it now.
37:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes.
37:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there is no doubt and I'm less concerned about the, you know, I'm not fiscalist.
37:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that we are in the US.
37:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think interest rates are high because of the fiscal deficits.
37:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that we are in any sort of fiscal crisis.
37:17
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we have space to do things.
37:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if we want it to, if you want to do something, that's to a Medicare for all.
37:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we can do it.
37:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at what I'm saying.
37:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we can do it.
37:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not saying that it has no consequences.
37:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if we do that, we'll have to use resources in certain ways, we'll have to pull from some other things.
37:34
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all, we have to discuss those things.
37:37
[SPEAKER_01]: But the idea that the American economy is constrained by the inability of the federal government,
37:44
[SPEAKER_01]: to spend money you know on certain things is absolutely preposterous that that's absolutely not true US government is not close to any kind of the US government is not Argentina.
38:00
[SPEAKER_05]: the top 10% of this country controls about 118 trillion dollars well enough to pay off our debt if we desperately needed it.
38:08
[SPEAKER_05]: But for me, I go back to, you know, being a 20-year-old college student taking an economics course, hearing a professor like you go, look, there's a difference between good debt and bad debt.
38:18
[SPEAKER_05]: We have run up during the Trump years a lot of bad debt.
38:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We've given a lot of tax breaks to billionaires We've spent money spending it's the spending it's the spending it's the kind of debt though I mean if you don't have the money you're not paying back sure that's that's are not Get to the point of that we will be able to pay we're not going to default on that unless we decide to I agree pay that 100% agree
38:42
[SPEAKER_05]: But for me there's not but for me there's the difference between the good debt and the bad debt I know we're gonna be able to pay our debt at some point down the road But the idea that we frivolously gave it away and we we've threaded it away where we could have had health care We we could have had universal education where we could have had better retirement programs
39:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But we can't have those things, that's the thing.
39:05
[SPEAKER_01]: The fact that we have the debt does not preclude our ability to have those things.
39:10
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not in a situation in which there is, so that's my point.
39:12
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not a situation in which you're not spending money.
39:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we're not in a situation.
39:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Interest rates are high, you know, people are confused.
39:18
[SPEAKER_01]: They think that it rates are high because of the fiscal deficit.
39:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the financial markets that have sort of, you know, the bond vigilantes that are sort of, you know,
39:30
[SPEAKER_01]: The man in high interest rates and in order to, you know, and because the bond nobody wants the bonds that the bonds are cheap and the interest rates are high That's not absolutely not true.
39:40
[SPEAKER_01]: It's that the thing is, you know, the Fed that it's managed by a person from Wall Street
39:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and the fed too, but I was saying the treasury that it's managed from a guy from from Wall Street and the fed have decided that they're not going to intervene or they said they're going to intervene but the interventions are this side.
40:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're allowing the interest rates to go up and they're going to go to the interest rate to go up for the same reason they have the short term interest rate up.
40:09
[SPEAKER_01]: It's something that benefits them.
40:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So financial markets, one high interest rates.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are, you know, around TA, somebody that leaves from, you know, your financial sort of, you know, assets, higher interest rates are a good thing for you.
40:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're happy with that.
40:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is a decision.
40:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a decision of financial markets to have an interest rate regime that it's, you know, a higher rate of interest.
40:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the point, and then they'll use it.
40:39
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the other thing that it's important in this.
40:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's rhetorically.
40:42
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why you see in every place.
40:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I'm a little bit against your discussion of the bad debt, because I think it's being used to God.
40:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, oh, you see, we accumulate a lot of that.
40:53
[SPEAKER_01]: That is bad, they go further than you.
40:56
[SPEAKER_01]: They say, all that is bad, all spending is bad.
41:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And what we need to do now is cut spending.
41:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they could spend in where.
41:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not the spending on interest rates for the people that are holding the bonds.
41:09
[SPEAKER_01]: There's cutting spending on social programs.
41:11
[SPEAKER_01]: They go and cut food stamps.
41:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They go and cut all of the social programs that allow people to survive.
41:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And so that's my fears that we are creating physical crisis.
41:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll take it to order to,
41:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the thing.
41:28
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
41:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I'll take a part of that.
41:29
[SPEAKER_05]: But here's what my premise says.
41:30
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it's a bad debt to give billionaires a massive tax break that we can't afford.
41:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't disagree.
41:36
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's been said from that perspective, that to be as a waste of resources.
41:41
[SPEAKER_05]: We could have done better things with that and I look at this $5,000.
41:45
[SPEAKER_05]: I think we could do better things with it.
41:49
[SPEAKER_05]: We're not giving it to billionaires.
41:51
[SPEAKER_05]: But so, let me ask you, is this, would this be a good way to spend five grand per person and to put, make sure, because we're not going to raise revenue on tax people, on rich people, is this a way, would we put this on the credit card?
42:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me put it this way.
42:09
[SPEAKER_01]: What will $5,000 do for most American people?
42:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Most American people receive $5,000 and they'll pay debts.
42:19
[SPEAKER_01]: They'll have some increase in little consumption and little things that they repress consumption that they couldn't have.
42:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It will give a short term boost to the economy.
42:31
[SPEAKER_01]: If we're giving it to everybody, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are receiving $5,000 that they don't need.
42:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, again, in terms of how you go about this, there are tons of people that, you know, that,
42:47
[SPEAKER_01]: that although they're not billionaires don't really need the $5,000 a good chunk of upper middle class doesn't need these $5,000 in order to survive.
42:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's obviously very inefficiently spent.
43:01
[SPEAKER_01]: This is, I mean, but as you said, this is not going to happen.
43:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So this, I think reflects the lack of any coherent program.
43:10
[SPEAKER_01]: to keep the economy going.
43:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a desperate measure at the last minute of an election that seems to be going in the wrong direction.
43:20
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like a blast.
43:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So let me ask you this because look, gas prices are up.
43:25
[SPEAKER_05]: We're reaching record levels.
43:26
[SPEAKER_05]: Diesel prices.
43:27
[SPEAKER_05]: I saw 649.
43:28
[SPEAKER_05]: I saw, you know, someone on Facebook put 999 a gallon in California.
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw that.
43:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is crazy in California.
43:37
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you know, when you start looking at all, this, you know, diesel is an input for virtually everything.
43:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Inflation hasn't gone through the roof yet, but are we looking to...
43:47
[SPEAKER_05]: It will spike a little bit.
43:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It will spike, I mean, the prices of oil went up again because we intensified again the the war in Iran and and he has gotten himself into, you know, a word that he has no
44:00
[SPEAKER_01]: no way of getting out.
44:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the prices are gone, you know, a brand toilet above a hundred dollars the barrel.
44:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So that again, we'll put pressure on on inflation.
44:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And less, you know, and labor markets are not tied.
44:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So
44:16
[SPEAKER_01]: This might have the negative effect of impacting negatively real wages.
44:20
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think this is terrible for working class people.
44:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Having said that, I think again, we're in the risk of this is going to be used.
44:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that wars, the person that he put on the central bank.
44:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Fed will reduce interest rates.
44:34
[SPEAKER_01]: The pressures on him, I read the financial press.
44:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So the Wall Street Journal, the financial times, the financial pages of the Washington Post and the New York Times, the financial pressing general, has been the economist magazine that it's in England, very influential even in the US, at least in circles of economists that read those things in Wall Street.
44:55
[SPEAKER_01]: they all are pressuring him to not only keep interest rates at high levels, but to increase them.
45:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think then we're talking the possibility of getting into recession.
45:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So interest rates are already high.
45:09
[SPEAKER_01]: There are many interest in Wall Street to keep them high.
45:12
[SPEAKER_01]: They're up to keep them
45:14
[SPEAKER_01]: in real terms positive, so the people that have financial assets don't lose money.
45:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that they very likely will push for a hiking interest rates, if inflation spikes.
45:29
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think that those are all sort of, you know,
45:33
[SPEAKER_01]: possible thing.
45:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So my fear and I'm not necessarily responding to you, but I'm saying what I see because I've seen this several times over, you know, my career.
45:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm, you know, 58.
45:45
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've been in this country for 30 years.
45:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've seen quite a bit of this thing.
45:52
[SPEAKER_01]: There is, again, you know, pressures to on the one side increase interest rates to say that we have a fiscal problem.
46:02
[SPEAKER_01]: The fiscal problem was used, you know, by Democrats to the Clinton's, you know, that we need to have balanced budget.
46:08
[SPEAKER_01]: That if we have to cut spending, that we have to cut, you know, reform welfare as you know it.
46:13
[SPEAKER_01]: So that the problem is the spending with the poor.
46:16
[SPEAKER_01]: and we end up in a situation that reinforces.
46:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the wrong policies of Trump would lead to the kind of adjustment.
46:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So if a Democrat wins the election, I'm not saying the midterms.
46:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say that we're lucky enough and democracy survive and we get it.
46:31
[SPEAKER_01]: whoever is the Democrat that it's going to be the winner and the primaries in two years.
46:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And we get with somebody that says, oh, they misbehaved, we're going to behave and we're going to do what's necessary to get the economy in order.
46:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And that will be control inflation with very high interest rates.
46:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And cut spending because we have a, you know,
46:50
[SPEAKER_01]: This accumulated bad debt, and we're going to do fiscal adjustment, doing it what?
46:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Cutting spending towards, yeah, and that would happen.
46:57
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very unpopular because it should be because those policies are against things, you know, working people, and we end up with a crazier, if it's possible.
47:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So, these cycles are what concern me.
47:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just the short-term consequences of doing the bad policies that you're pointing out, and I don't disagree.
47:15
[SPEAKER_01]: but it's the consequences in the long term of not being able to get in out of this recurring cycles and I'm very afraid because you know I don't see I mean what we taught several times if you don't give people a decent hope for you know for a better future.
47:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, how is the next generation going to go out and you know, and have a life even, you know.
47:44
[SPEAKER_05]: But I'm sure you've heard, you know, AIs coming.
47:46
[SPEAKER_05]: We won't have to work.
47:47
[SPEAKER_05]: It's the time of the period of abundance.
47:49
[SPEAKER_05]: We're going to, you know, money's going to be optional.
47:52
[SPEAKER_05]: Work will be optional.
47:53
[SPEAKER_05]: We'll have all we need.
47:55
[SPEAKER_05]: It's going to be, it's going to be utopia.
47:57
[SPEAKER_05]: It's going to be awesome.
47:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be fantastic.
47:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
48:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard.
48:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I've heard.
48:02
[SPEAKER_05]: No, but the other sad reality is you're you're not wrong.
48:05
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm that's when one of my great fears that they're going to screw this up so bad that Democrats do come in and tighten the belt and be the party of austerity again and and you know we're going to working people are going to hurt again because every time they crash the car we've got to fix it and never get to write in it.
48:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
48:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that's a good metaphor.
48:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's a good metaphor.
48:27
[SPEAKER_01]: That we fix in the car is not the fun part.
48:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot, you cannot do the fun things if you're just fixing the car and they're crashing the car.
48:38
[SPEAKER_01]: And then crashing the car is not fun.
48:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we've been in this cycle for too long now, and I think that that's a very dangerous place to be, and so I think we have to push against the rhetoric of we cannot do things.
48:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Having said that, of course, we shouldn't be giving $5,000 to people.
48:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We should be doing things like Medicare for all.
49:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I should say there are many people in the campaign trail now that there are proposing things like that.
49:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm hopeful that.
49:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that young, the younger generation is very much angry.
49:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
49:13
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
49:13
[SPEAKER_05]: You mean the socialists don't you?
49:15
[SPEAKER_05]: The communist and socialists, them.
49:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Many, my, I'm dumbies.
49:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
49:21
[SPEAKER_01]: They are, they are, you know, they use the
49:25
[SPEAKER_01]: that dangerous word.
49:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, you know, for this Trump has recovered the Macartite sort of red scare language, you know, that the communists are coming.
49:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so it's somewhat funny.
49:37
[SPEAKER_05]: We got something to look forward to.
49:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Mateus, as always, I appreciate the time, the information.
49:42
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope I hope we'll start to listen.
49:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I hope somebody does.
49:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for having me.
49:47
[SPEAKER_05]: My pleasure.
49:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm a good friend.
49:49
[SPEAKER_05]: Let me tell you a spring angle.
49:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I want to hear your thoughts.
49:51
[SPEAKER_05]: What should we be doing?
49:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you want the five grand?
49:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Do you think it'd help?
49:55
[SPEAKER_05]: Is that with that make your life better?
49:57
[SPEAKER_05]: It's an interesting point.
49:58
[SPEAKER_05]: What would you do with it?
50:00
[SPEAKER_05]: Rick at theworksmithsure.com right back.
50:10
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
50:14
[SPEAKER_05]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1959.
50:17
[SPEAKER_05]: The United States Congress had passed the Landrum Griffin Act, President Eisenhower signed the new law, which was also called the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act.
50:27
[SPEAKER_05]: The new law had lasting consequences for the way unions operated.
50:32
[SPEAKER_05]: One of the reasons Congress passed the law.
50:34
[SPEAKER_05]: was alleged abuses of power by some union leaders.
50:37
[SPEAKER_05]: The law aimed to protect workers by requiring secret ballots for union elections and protecting freedom of speech within unions.
50:45
[SPEAKER_05]: It also required unions to submit annual financial reports.
50:49
[SPEAKER_05]: to the Department of Labor, while these requirements protected members' rights, not all of the provisions were so positive.
50:55
[SPEAKER_05]: The law was passed during the 1950s Red Scare.
50:58
[SPEAKER_05]: It required that no one could hold a union-elected leadership position until five years after leaving the Communist Party.
51:05
[SPEAKER_05]: This part of the law was declared unconstitutional in 1965.
51:09
[SPEAKER_05]: The law also expanded the anti-labor provisions of the Taft Hartley Act.
51:14
[SPEAKER_05]: The Taptarly Act prohibited some union activities such as sympathetic strikes and secondary boycotts.
51:20
[SPEAKER_05]: The Landrum Griffith Act took this all a step further.
51:23
[SPEAKER_05]: It tightened the boycott restrictions.
51:25
[SPEAKER_05]: It also put limits on the Union's ability to pick it while organizing for recognition.
51:30
[SPEAKER_05]: It placed considerable new federal reporting requirements on the Union's.
51:34
[SPEAKER_05]: Despite these further restrictions upon labor unions, Union workers comprised a third of the total workforce in the United States during the 1950s, the highest percentage of Union workers in U.S. history, but the restrictive policy laid out in Taftartly and Landröm Griffin would help slow and eventually reverse this growth of Unionization.
51:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Today, less than 12 percent of U.S. workers are members of Union.
51:58
[SPEAKER_05]: Labor History and Tube brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
52:02
[SPEAKER_05]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintube.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on the Twitter's At Labor History in the Tube.
52:22
[SPEAKER_05]: So remember when Donald Trump fired in one of the fire of the last Fed Chairman Powell, to bring in his guy, I remember my red hat friend being gleeful.
52:33
[SPEAKER_05]: I remember them going, you know, he's going to day one again this day one nonsense.
52:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Day one, he's going to lower interest rates and an interest here is going to be lower it's going to help us and look, understand, Mattias is absolutely right.
52:46
[SPEAKER_05]: High interest rates help people with money.
52:51
[SPEAKER_05]: because they get higher returns on their assets.
52:55
[SPEAKER_05]: You've got a back account, you know, at the time when high-rinsures rates are high, you're getting a little bit better return.
53:00
[SPEAKER_05]: I know my CDs, we're getting a decent return for a while.
53:05
[SPEAKER_05]: Lower interest rates benefit people who want to borrow, or who own money.
53:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Perfect example, I took out a mortgage on our home to buy another house for my daughter.
53:15
[SPEAKER_05]: right after the pandemic when interest rates were lower and a 2.75% I'm never paying that off.
53:23
[SPEAKER_05]: I've never put an excess dime on it because I'm never going to get that kind of that kind of loan again.
53:30
[SPEAKER_05]: That's not I'm never paying it off.
53:32
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm making minimum payments.
53:34
[SPEAKER_05]: It'll in 30 years it'll be paid off in 25.
53:39
[SPEAKER_05]: But the point is, the thought was, he's going to, he's got a lower those, right?
53:44
[SPEAKER_05]: And right now, you've got Trump again trying to push the Fed for lower rates.
53:49
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm, it's an interesting kind of position because Kevin Worst, the guy that he was supposed to be, that guy is not.
54:04
[SPEAKER_05]: it's not it's interesting watching the Trump government and what comes out of Trump's mouth and what the rich people who are really pulling the strings, they let him be the buffoon that he is.
54:13
[SPEAKER_05]: But when it comes to the real important stuff, they know what they're doing, enriching themselves.
54:20
[SPEAKER_05]: Still believe the $5,000 is coming.
54:22
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is where, you know, I go back to my conversation here with Mateus and I'm still going to stand by my idea that there's good
54:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, there's some who believe debt is all bad.
54:34
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm not one of those people.
54:35
[SPEAKER_05]: There's good debt.
54:37
[SPEAKER_05]: When I bought my daughter's house, good debt.
54:40
[SPEAKER_05]: I was gonna make, I slept well at night knowing where she was, you know, built some, you know, gave her a place to be.
54:47
[SPEAKER_05]: How did I just go, you know, I'm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
55:01
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the difference being, you know, when you lose your job, you go, you take out a loan to maybe buy a suit, maybe, you know, take a class, maybe get a resume updated, good, good, got smart, an investment, something new, that's going to reap some benefits, as opposed to, hey, I'm 20, I lost my job, I can get a loan, I'm going to run off, I'm going to go to Hawaii for the week.
55:25
[SPEAKER_05]: not so good.
55:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Good experience getting your worth worth the time energy and effort and all that, but you know on the balance you, I still believe, not great.
55:33
[SPEAKER_05]: That said, I don't think giving billionaires more and then putting what we've given them on the public, on the public debt, I think that's bad.
55:42
[SPEAKER_05]: Awesome.
55:43
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm always going to stand by that.
55:45
[SPEAKER_05]: I am not in a position to say that I'm against all that.
55:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm just not.
55:50
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm never going to do that.
55:51
[SPEAKER_05]: And I think that the 40 trillion that we're in debt is a big number.
55:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And I do have a little bit of concern with it, but it's still looking at the average Americans debt load way down, way down the list of percentage debt to GDP ratio.
56:09
[SPEAKER_05]: It's a little over 100% right now, whereas most people are, I know, are in the 300 to
56:17
[SPEAKER_05]: Again, we can do some deficit spending.
56:21
[SPEAKER_05]: We can run up the debt a little bit, but again, I come back to what for?
56:26
[SPEAKER_05]: What is the purpose?
56:29
[SPEAKER_05]: And the purpose for me is what investments are we making in the future to make things better?
56:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And I look at the AI and the data centers and all of this.
56:38
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm going, I don't know the tax cuts or tax breaks or any incentives to build that out should come from the taxpayer at all.
56:47
[SPEAKER_05]: In fact, whatever money we spend that might have gone towards that should be spent on remediating the damage that it's going to do.
56:55
[SPEAKER_05]: And in fact, part of what should be in the community benefits agreements of any of these things being built
57:05
[SPEAKER_05]: When you screw things up, that there's going to be a fund of money that you supported, that you put into place that we're going to use, that we're going to use to fix your mass.
57:18
[SPEAKER_05]: And we don't do that.
57:20
[SPEAKER_05]: We give corporate America anything they want.
57:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I was watching a bit talking about guaranteed loans during the Obama years.
57:28
[SPEAKER_05]: When the collapse happened, a Obama came in and gave out a bunch of guaranteed loans to get a green economy moving.
57:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And we always hear about cylinder.
57:37
[SPEAKER_05]: cylinder got about a half a billion dollars.
57:39
[SPEAKER_05]: And they went bust.
57:41
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, we the taxpayers ate it.
57:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And the right lost their ever loving freaking minds.
57:47
[SPEAKER_05]: But remember, we also gave Elon Musk almost a half a billion dollars in guaranteed loans.
57:56
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and he did really well, you know, but did we?
58:01
[SPEAKER_05]: And this is where you go, should we have just given money away?
58:03
[SPEAKER_05]: Should we start thinking about, you know, when we make these investments that we reap some of it back?
58:10
[SPEAKER_05]: because all we did by giving him access to one government programs, two government loans, and three, you know, almost government guaranteed business, is that we made him a trillionaires.
58:25
[SPEAKER_05]: And we made us, well, more desperate.
58:29
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's the frightening part of where we are.
58:36
[SPEAKER_05]: We hear people right now and Matthias is not wrong when he says that the people who are saying $20 trillion a dead hair on fire, you just guys falling into the world.
58:44
[SPEAKER_05]: Those are the people who are going to go you the only way we can fix our debt, the only way we can we can pay it back is by screwing over granny by taking food out of the mouths of poor kids or kicking veterans or go down the list of any of the cuts that benefit working people.
59:00
[SPEAKER_05]: You know the tightening of the belt for the working class.
59:03
[SPEAKER_05]: for the for the toiling class.
59:05
[SPEAKER_05]: We should have tightened a little bit tighter.
59:10
[SPEAKER_05]: Right?
59:11
[SPEAKER_05]: We know that's coming.
59:13
[SPEAKER_05]: A sturdy for us.
59:15
[SPEAKER_05]: Generous welfare programs for our folks are elites sitting at the top.
59:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So yeah, I get his point, but I'm still, I'm still seeing my, but I want to hear your thoughts.
59:26
[SPEAKER_05]: You agree?
59:27
[SPEAKER_05]: Which of us do you agree with?
59:28
[SPEAKER_05]: You can email me, Rick at therixmithshow.com.
59:30
[SPEAKER_05]: Tell me your thoughts.
59:32
[SPEAKER_05]: Is 40 trillion too much?
59:33
[SPEAKER_05]: Should we be cutting off everything?
59:35
[SPEAKER_05]: Nothing until the debt's paid for.
59:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Or do you see good investments?
59:41
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks so much for being here.
59:42
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll see you back with a Rick Smith show.
59:48
[SPEAKER_02]: at ricksmitshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Until next time, this is Ben the Rick Smith Show.
59:57
[SPEAKER_02]: We're working people come to talk.