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The Rick Smith Show 10-28-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's time for the Rick Smith show!
0:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is the voice of a working class, Rick Smith.
0:14
[SPEAKER_03]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes, this is the Rick Smith show.
0:20
[SPEAKER_03]: That's so much for being here today, other big program lots to get to, lots to talk about.
0:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Donald Trump wants you to know he is ruthlessly working each day to cut your gas prices.
0:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And, and JD Vance, JD wants you to know that's well, I agree with it.
0:40
[SPEAKER_02]: But remember, in 2022, let's just talk about gas prices.
0:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember, in 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, and gas prices skyrocketed, they skyrocketed by the way, far higher than than they are today.
0:55
[SPEAKER_02]: They skyrocketed in 1979.
0:58
[SPEAKER_02]: They skyrocketed in 2001.
1:01
[SPEAKER_02]: They skyrocketed in 2007.
1:03
[SPEAKER_02]: They skyrocket every time some tin pot dictator decides to throw a tantrum.
1:09
[SPEAKER_02]: And we got to remember that the Democrat solution to this problem is to win and build a few winmills.
1:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Build a few winmills.
1:19
[SPEAKER_03]: So JD gets up in a rally on Monday and tells everyone, uh, gases prices are too high.
1:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And look, we all agree.
1:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Yep.
1:26
[SPEAKER_03]: Congratulations, JD.
1:28
[SPEAKER_03]: You've figured that without all by yourself.
1:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And then he goes in to say what you heard gas prices every time.
1:39
[SPEAKER_03]: And my mind is hold on didn't I just say that didn't we just write that down?
1:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we should frame it because the that's the vice president of the United States admitting in 2022 price begs and spikes came because Vlad invaded Ukraine.
1:56
[SPEAKER_03]: He said it.
1:57
[SPEAKER_03]: You heard it.
1:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Wasn't Joe Biden's fault.
2:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It was it was Poody.
2:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Poody did it.
2:03
[SPEAKER_03]: just seconds after blaming Biden inflation, JD handed Joe of the alibi.
2:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks, JD.
2:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess because even you know the truth.
2:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe somebody needs to check his campaign staff, cause that, but here's where it gets good.
2:19
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, just two weeks ago, JDT, the boss, got on the phone with the same tin pot dictator that JD's pointing the finger at and said, hey, thanks, booty.
2:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank them and for what, for diesel.
2:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Could be because according to Trump, it's diesel, which is what we want, what diesel?
2:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Trump, what did Trump do?
2:41
[SPEAKER_03]: He lifted the sanctions that he had signed.
2:44
[SPEAKER_03]: He lifted the sanctions.
2:46
[SPEAKER_03]: He himself had signed.
2:48
[SPEAKER_03]: One phone call with Pooody and our tough guy folds like a lawn chair.
2:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And what did we get for selling out Ukraine?
2:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, somewhere around four million tons of diesel spread out over months, which energy analysts say not going to make any real difference.
3:06
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a little bit, and on by the way, we export diesel.
3:10
[SPEAKER_03]: We make more than we use.
3:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Meanwhile, in my neck of the woods, diesel prices are over seven bucks a gallon.
3:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Regular gas, over 434 a gallon, and going up.
3:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know why?
3:22
[SPEAKER_03]: The war.
3:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I think everybody knows it.
3:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Not some democratic windmill in Iowa, a war of choice in Iran.
3:31
[SPEAKER_03]: this, this administration's war of choice.
3:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So by JD's own logic, when gas spikes, it's because somebody throws a tantrum and starts a war.
3:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Who's the tin pot dictator this time?
3:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I guess look in the mirror fella, because I look, JD ain't done.
3:52
[SPEAKER_03]: He goes out there telling you crazy to quit bomb and Russian refineries because it's raising our energy prices.
3:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Think about it.
4:00
[SPEAKER_03]: our vice president is telling a country being invaded to stop hitting back at the invader so putty can fill up his war chest so we can help that even went on fox and called Putin very deliberate and measured um you know and according to J.D.
4:20
[SPEAKER_03]: the Democrats plan wine and build a few windmills
4:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Hey, hey buddy farmers are paying seven bucks a gallon to run the combine.
4:29
[SPEAKER_03]: They ain't wine and truck drivers ain't wine They're getting screwed.
4:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They've done the math and hopefully come November 3rd They take it out on you with the ballot box, but here's the thing and this is the part where I'm struggling Because this is what the administration gets away with this is what Trump gets away with all the time
4:50
[SPEAKER_03]: He's able to remember what he said at the beginning.
4:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Anything good, he does anything bad they're gonna blame Biden.
4:57
[SPEAKER_03]: So again, all of the red hats, Trump included are pointing to the inflation that happened under Biden going as all Biden's fault.
5:04
[SPEAKER_03]: It was all of that, all the stuff he did.
5:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And you go, wait a second, didn't JD just say,
5:10
[SPEAKER_03]: that in 2022, the price spike was even higher than it is now and pretty much caused all the inflation that we struggled with.
5:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Isn't that what he just said?
5:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is why, you know, they can't even get their own lies straight.
5:28
[SPEAKER_03]: They can't even make up, they can't even get a good
5:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'll tell you, you know, the the faithful in the audience, they ate all of it up.
5:43
[SPEAKER_03]: They ate all of it up.
5:44
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the tin pot dictator is somewhere else.
5:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was all Joe Biden's fault.
5:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And our dear leader is fighting for us relentlessly.
5:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, one of your thoughts.
5:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Surprised?
5:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Not really.
5:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Rick at the ricksmithshow.com.
6:02
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
6:06
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1948.
6:10
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day that a thick yellow fog rolled over the town of Dinora, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh.
6:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Dinora was a mill town, nestled in a valley on the banks of the Mahongahila River.
6:22
[SPEAKER_03]: By 1948, the town had grown to 14,000 people who came to work in the town steel mills and the Dinora zinc works.
6:31
[SPEAKER_03]: For years, the local residents had complained about the pollution that spilled from the plants.
6:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Smog was a regular occurrence, but this fog was even worse than usual.
6:41
[SPEAKER_03]: A layer of cold air was trapping a noxious blend of nitrogen dioxide, sulfuric acid, and fluoride pollution, 24 hours passed and still the fog grew denser.
6:52
[SPEAKER_03]: The police and local doctors began to receive reports of people having difficulty breathing.
6:58
[SPEAKER_03]: The fog had become so thick that residents could not see to drive.
7:02
[SPEAKER_03]: For five days, the smog hung over the town until a rain began to break it up.
7:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Nearly half of the town's residents became ill. Twenty died.
7:11
[SPEAKER_03]: U.S. Steel refused to take blame for the fog.
7:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Even though they continued to run the plant as the deadly toxins continue to build.
7:19
[SPEAKER_03]: According to a 2010 article by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, despite the efforts of industry to cast the tragedy as an act of God, the fatalities in DeNora received national attention.
7:31
[SPEAKER_03]: The event changed the way air pollution was viewed, moving it rapidly from an aesthetic issue to a public health concern, and spurred local, state and federal officials to control toxic air pollution.
7:44
[SPEAKER_03]: In 2008, a smog museum opened with the motto, Clean Air Starts Here.
7:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Labor History and Two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
7:55
[SPEAKER_03]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's At Labor History and Two.
8:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
8:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
8:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So you don't last week we talked about federal agents, armed, masked federal agents going door to door checking voter registrations, cause we don't want any, any unsavory types voting under the guise of work we're going after illegal's, you know, because there are so many, there's so many illegal's.
8:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you listen to Greg Bavino, we talked about this yesterday on the Daily Jolt.
8:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, he believes there's a hundred million illegals here in the country, almost a third of the country, Greg Bavino, former Trump border guy believes almost a third of the country are illegals.
8:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Imagine, imagine if he were still in charge, because as we talked about yesterday, he thinks it was a surrender in Minneapolis.
9:00
[SPEAKER_03]: He would have gone harder.
9:02
[SPEAKER_03]: and probably gone harder on this this voter intimidation scheme that that Republicans are moving on on here to share some thoughts on just how bad it's gotten and well maybe what we can expect to come November 4th January 3rd I've told you a circle on your calendar but that's why I've asked David David Janovski to come share some thoughts with us David is the acting director of the Constitution project they're at the program project on government oversight you can check out their
9:33
[SPEAKER_03]: It'd be back with you, right?
9:34
[SPEAKER_03]: So, um, I told this to someone, no one believed me that literally we have Ice Agents, federal agents masked with guns, knocking on people's doors, going papers, please.
9:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I was told this could never happen, and yet, yeah, it's happening.
9:54
[SPEAKER_03]: it has been happening but now we have a federal judge he says it needs to stop and that's a good sign where can be watching that case closely but hoping that the federal government complies and that's the thing hoping the federal government complies hoping the people who are supposed to enforce the law the top cops of the country are going to listen to the well to the mechanisms of government because look I look at this in the reality is is the folks that I was talking to with
10:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Over this couldn't believe it.
10:24
[SPEAKER_03]: There's this would never happen.
10:26
[SPEAKER_03]: They all they all my red hat crowd all believed it was Democrats who would be coming for their guns And I'm like, no, no, it's it's not it's not Democrats coming for your guns.
10:34
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Trump coming for your vote
10:38
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, what we're seeing at the moment is really you can look at the efforts I think to interfere with the with voter turnout both at this micro level, you know, federal agents kind of intimidating individuals Over their voting status, and then you can zoom all the way up and look at the Justice Department leaning on states across the country to try to do these whole scale purges of voters, but the Justice Department says may or may not be properly registered to vote.
11:06
[SPEAKER_03]: may or may not, but ultimately, and this is where again, let's say they let's say they catch no one.
11:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's say there's no one out there that's undocumented, that is registering to vote.
11:17
[SPEAKER_03]: There's let's say there's no one knocking on doors and intimidating people.
11:21
[SPEAKER_03]: I still think puts a for kind of a chilling effect on people who are here legally, who are here able to vote.
11:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I think just like you know in Philadelphia when they put, you know, well,
11:31
[SPEAKER_03]: dark, you know, Chevy caprices with dark windows out in front of polling places.
11:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So people stay away.
11:38
[SPEAKER_03]: This I think has that same kind of effect.
11:41
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, that's exactly right.
11:42
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that's one of the reasons why it's so dangerous.
11:44
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's one of the reasons why the federal court did step in.
11:47
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, it's it's not legal to intimidate voters.
11:52
[SPEAKER_06]: And
11:54
[SPEAKER_06]: it's a pretty well-established fact that the federal government doesn't know if the people it's going after our citizens or not citizens.
12:00
[SPEAKER_06]: And so if you are a citizen and you might get a knock at the door, that's going to have a pretty chilling effect, too.
12:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, now it's weird to me.
12:08
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I looked at some of the places this is happening on.
12:11
[SPEAKER_03]: like Florida for instance, we're using ice agents to, you know, outside of early voting side side.
12:17
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it seems, it seems like these are places that, you know, you would think we're kind of, kind of, kind of Republican strongholds, Alaska for instance, they're going after, I get going after California, I get going after Washington DC because that's where the enemies are.
12:33
[SPEAKER_03]: But, you know, in their own, in their own house, it seems a little, seems a little over the top.
12:39
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, the good news is, so obviously, good news is, the good to find these days, but there is the good news is, I think, you know, we've spent a lot of months now thinking about how things could go down around Election Day and what we're not seeing is some of the,
12:56
[SPEAKER_06]: Most, you know, we aren't seeing, there have been reports, you're absolutely right, you know, ICBP vehicles, wintering places, they have no business being, you're pulling places.
13:07
[SPEAKER_06]: But, you know, so far there's a lot of early voting going on and, you know, we're not seeing widespread intimidation at pulling places across the country.
13:13
[SPEAKER_06]: We're not seeing certainly the military involved.
13:16
[SPEAKER_06]: And so, you know, for a lot of folks out there, voting is going to look exactly like it does every year and that is a good sign.
13:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
13:23
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you know, because my concern is, you know, I brought up Greg, but if you know a moment it goes, guys, we talked about the story of him, you know, kind of, you know, double and down on it.
13:30
[SPEAKER_03]: We would have gone much harder in Minneapolis.
13:33
[SPEAKER_03]: We would have done, we had arrested many more people, we would have done, we had a double triple quadrupled down.
13:38
[SPEAKER_03]: and wanting the military to be involved.
13:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And that kind of stuff scares me because first, you know, you know, look, the pastor and Emoiler quote, first they came for, and I said nothing, but by the time they got to me, there's nobody left.
13:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So if you allow one group to be targeted, eventually, eventually, they don't stop.
13:59
[SPEAKER_06]: Now that's exactly right.
14:00
[SPEAKER_06]: And that's why this pushback we're seeing, you know, in the courts is again, going to be crucial.
14:06
[SPEAKER_06]: And so in addition to the case, we've been talking about with the individual agents going out and kind of targeting individual voters.
14:13
[SPEAKER_06]: We've also gotten out the Justice Department leaning on LA County and Alaska over, you know, particularities.
14:21
[SPEAKER_06]: We can get into the details about the local races there.
14:25
[SPEAKER_06]: And it's going to be absolutely essential that those get dealt with quickly so that they don't become a viable template for the local government to try elsewhere.
14:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, let's talk about Alaska, you know, obviously, you know, they're afraid that they're going to lose a couple of seats, a Senate seat, perhaps, walk me through what's happening on the ground there.
14:45
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, so the odd thing in Alaska is there are two candidates named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
14:49
[SPEAKER_06]: Even strangers that in Alaska is that the Justice Department came in a few days ago with
14:59
[SPEAKER_06]: certify the election if Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent senator, lost by an era margin.
15:07
[SPEAKER_06]: The theory is that there's going to be widespread confusion about having two solvents on the ballot.
15:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it kind of takes me back to 2000 to be honest with you with all the talk about confusion and hanging chads and you know, I'm that argument.
15:23
[SPEAKER_03]: The confusion argument, you know, because there were lots of little Jewish women voting for Papukana.
15:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm certain of it.
15:30
[SPEAKER_03]: They were just tons of them out there.
15:32
[SPEAKER_03]: They were just were confused by the fly ballot.
15:36
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, this would be like if, you know, I guess the parties would be different.
15:45
[SPEAKER_06]: in October of 2020 to say, hold the election because these chads may not punch out of the ballot.
15:51
[SPEAKER_06]: There's just no world in which this is something the federal government is actually entitled to do.
15:58
[SPEAKER_06]: And so the fact that they've gone ahead and done it, reportedly on President Trump's direct instruction, is a really concerning sign about what's going to come in the days after the election from the Justice Department.
16:09
[SPEAKER_03]: No, absolutely.
16:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And you look, I've been saying for the longest time.
16:12
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, go back to Project 2025.
16:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Go back to, as that was being, you know, people were beginning to pay attention.
16:18
[SPEAKER_03]: But for at least the last decade and a half, I've been going to look, the think tank world spends an awful lot of money on really smart people to dream up really bad ideas.
16:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And right now is their Super Bowl, Project 2025 was part of the playbook, but we have no idea
16:35
[SPEAKER_03]: what November 4th is going to bring us and ultimately what January 3rd brings us because you know the thought of you know January 6th you know happening back in 2021 I don't think anybody would have dreamed up that scenario actually being something anyone would advocate other than a couple of cooks in a think tank and yet we've got a president with a willing ear to hear even the craziest stuff I think
17:02
[SPEAKER_06]: You know, we're certainly seeing stuff that agendas has no basis actually in law and yet federal courts are going to have to deal with it one way or another in these lawsuits.
17:11
[SPEAKER_06]: I think, you know, again, a little bit of right spot is we're seeing election officials across the country being ready for this, you know, they're they're ready to go when these challenges come and, you know, they're pointing out that they're baseless, you know, elections at the end of the day are run by the states and there's been a lot of great thinking, I think at the state level of how to
17:31
[SPEAKER_06]: respond to some of these scenarios where the federal government tries to come in.
17:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, no, I remember, back when the argument over voter ID was going on here in Pennsylvania, back in 2012, one of the things that the right kept saying is the mastery of our electoral system is that it's decentralized, the mastery of how our system is so superior, the states run the elections and that you can't possibly,
18:00
[SPEAKER_03]: fix all of them and now it seems the argument is as well the the our system is so badly broken because of the states it seems like we've done a complete one eighty on what was the message just a little over a decade ago until today where the conservatives are pushing this idea well you know the states can't be trusted they might let me hope illegal vote because they've got people on their voting roles it seems odd to me
18:28
[SPEAKER_06]: Well, I think, you know, perspectives on federalism are one of those things in American politics, maybe, where you stand depends on where you sit.
18:38
[SPEAKER_06]: But the facts remain and the law remains.
18:39
[SPEAKER_06]: And, you know, at the end of the day, regardless of who's saying it's a good thing or a bad thing, states do run the elections.
18:45
[SPEAKER_06]: And so it's going to now be up to the legal system and all the players in this system to respect that fact.
18:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but the reason I bring that update is because I've got a lot of my red hat friends go what's wrong with you know the federal government having the voting rolls and making sure and having providing the oversight this so that isn't packed with with undocumented people or dead people you know what's wrong with that so I guess the question I'm going to ask you what's wrong with the federal government getting that do you have a problem with with them having access to the voter rolls in every state?
19:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, fundamentally, the problem is they're very specific laws that say they can't have that information.
19:22
[SPEAKER_06]: So that's the problem.
19:25
[SPEAKER_06]: These are highly sensitive collections of information about people, better the states and for the states to do the state's own job of administering their elections.
19:38
[SPEAKER_06]: The second order problem is, once the federal government has gotten this information in some instances,
19:44
[SPEAKER_06]: They're cross-referencing against databases that weren't designed for this purpose, and they're just not accurate.
19:51
[SPEAKER_06]: So that's why we see these enormous claims, hundreds of thousands of people wrongly registered in the state.
19:58
[SPEAKER_06]: I think Nevada's the best example, you know, you went from tens of thousands of people who the government was saying shouldn't be voting to thousands to like 150.
20:08
[SPEAKER_06]: And then the state looked in and said, they're all citizens.
20:13
[SPEAKER_06]: the losses the federal government shouldn't have it and once they do, they're using it irresponsible.
20:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but even even let's say there were a bunch of people registered.
20:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Is that a big deal?
20:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause I gotta tell you, I think Mickey Mouse is registered in every state.
20:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I think Jesus Christ is registered in every state.
20:29
[SPEAKER_03]: I was registered in a couple of states.
20:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know, West Virginia and Ohio.
20:35
[SPEAKER_03]: I've registered in the vote in those states.
20:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And if they hadn't purged the voting roll since I lived there, I never requested the be off of it, but I never voted outside of the district that I was supposed to.
20:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So this idea that there are people on the on the registration that are registered to vote is a huge leap forward to saying that they actually voted and that's my problem with this kind of what seems to be you know dishonest kind of promotion of all their illegals and dead people on voting rolls.
21:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, maybe there are, but did they actually get up and vote that's where my that's where the rubber meets the road for me.
21:10
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, and you know, this is.
21:14
[SPEAKER_06]: the nuts and bolts of election law aren't my greatest area of expertise.
21:18
[SPEAKER_06]: But this dressed as department spot something like a hundred cases in the last few months of people who they accuse of actually voting irregularly like all the available data to your point says, sure, there is some isolated voter fraud.
21:33
[SPEAKER_06]: It's inevitable with.
21:35
[SPEAKER_06]: how many tens of millions of people registered to vote.
21:38
[SPEAKER_06]: But it's a vanishingly small problem and it's certainly nothing on the scale that the government's alleging now on the eve of the election to throw sand in the works.
21:46
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I mean, that's one of those things.
21:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And I look at California, which there's another lawsuit.
21:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the federal government wants to go and purge the voting rolls.
21:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And again, I don't care about the voting rolls.
21:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I care about the people who voted.
21:58
[SPEAKER_03]: So what's going on in California?
22:00
[SPEAKER_03]: Walk me through that lawsuit.
22:02
[SPEAKER_06]: Yeah, so this is another strange one.
22:03
[SPEAKER_06]: But I'm concerned that it's not the last of this type we're going to see this year.
22:08
[SPEAKER_06]: So the federal government about two weeks ago now sued Los Angeles County trying to get it to sequester.
22:15
[SPEAKER_06]: So set aside about 20,000 ballots from people who the government says, again, may or may not be improperly registered to vote.
22:23
[SPEAKER_06]: They don't even know.
22:26
[SPEAKER_06]: And at the moment, it's bogged down in all sorts of procedural nonsense.
22:31
[SPEAKER_06]: The federal government keeps saying, oh, you're not ruling fast enough, even though they asked for a ruling by election day.
22:38
[SPEAKER_06]: And last, I try to not there yet.
22:40
[SPEAKER_06]: But the fact of the matter again is this is in exceptionally unusual, if not genuinely unprecedented, intervention by the federal government on the eve of the election.
22:52
[SPEAKER_06]: Based on facts, they don't even know or facts.
22:55
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all about creating the appearance so that when I see this is where my viewers and maybe you'll agree My view is you know, this is a Fox news president This is a talk radio president they want they want to feed some you some red meat to the base so that they they're always looking for always looking for trouble always angry especially if they lose
23:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
23:18
[SPEAKER_03]: They can play the victim that there was all this nefarious activity.
23:21
[SPEAKER_03]: So that when they don't certify in January and my great fear is Mike Johnson isn't Mike Pence and they say yeah, we're we're not going to certify that the winners of this this new Congress and and we don't see a peaceful transfer of power because they're gaming the system you're going to have a portion of the population go, wow, of course not because there's all this cheating and and.
23:45
[SPEAKER_03]: There's, just see, do you see where I can go with this?
23:49
[SPEAKER_03]: I hate to sound conspiratorial, but it just feels like we're laying some groundwork.
23:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think there's any, any rationality to that fear?
23:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Or, because like I'm thrilled to hear your, you say the intimidation hasn't been wrapped up for most people, it's gonna be voting as usual.
24:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Again, my concerns, well, what's behind the curtain?
24:09
[SPEAKER_06]: No, I mean, I think there is reason to be concerned and you know what we have to be particularly aware of here is this is the federal government, you know, this isn't candidates filing lawsuits, this is the justice department of the United States filing these lawsuits, so there's a level of sort of official involvement here that's concerning.
24:28
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think you're absolutely right that, you know, it is going to contribute to a narrative of nothing else that something was fishy and sort of laundering these things through lawsuits may seem more normal to people.
24:39
[SPEAKER_06]: We're used to lawsuits over everything in this country.
24:44
[SPEAKER_06]: So it's absolutely going to be a narrative.
24:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So let me ask you this, Kevin, because you know, I was reading something other than the federal monitors are going to be in all the states and that the states are going to be monitoring the federal monitors and and look, I'm not, you know, as well first on election law, I don't remember they're being this kind of
25:01
[SPEAKER_03]: this kind of this chaotic situation are they're normally federal monitors overseeing states where states are then pointing state monitors oversee the federal monitors where there's all these people looking over everyone's shoulder I always thought it was just you know representative of of both parties was there to make sure things got done on the up and up and we trusted the
25:30
[SPEAKER_03]: on the up and up.
25:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Is this normal?
25:33
[SPEAKER_06]: So yes, and now, I mean, federal monitors are something that
25:39
[SPEAKER_06]: happens in elections, that's not in itself unusual, but typically what a Justice Department monitors there to do is just to observe and make sure that everyone who's entitled to vote is able to vote.
25:50
[SPEAKER_06]: And I think what people are concerned about now is that they're going to be federal monitors trying to prevent people from voting.
25:56
[SPEAKER_06]: And so that's where you have to monitor monitors all the way down, right?
26:00
[SPEAKER_06]: But you know, the important thing to remember is they're just monitors.
26:04
[SPEAKER_06]: They don't have any special role over the state.
26:07
[SPEAKER_06]: And so I think, again, it's going to really come down to state preparation and know what they're entitled to do.
26:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So last time I question I've got for you because like I'm hoping you're right, I'm hoping election day is like any other day.
26:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, Donald Trump himself is now saying vote early, vote by mail, vote to absentee surprisingly over the weekend came out.
26:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And even though for months, we would say he's been saying it's illegal and it's all rigged.
26:29
[SPEAKER_03]: It's now I guess it's been deemed okay.
26:32
[SPEAKER_03]: We've given it the seal of approval.
26:34
[SPEAKER_03]: I can now happen.
26:37
[SPEAKER_03]: What if someone is, you know, what if they feel they're being intimidated?
26:40
[SPEAKER_03]: What if they feel they're their vote is being blocked?
26:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Any any advocacy?
26:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Any any ideas on what folks should do?
26:48
[SPEAKER_06]: I think that's a situation where it's really going to be, you know, people should look into their local resources.
26:52
[SPEAKER_06]: I know there there will be resources across the country for for people who need help voting or for people who run into trouble voting.
27:00
[SPEAKER_06]: But I'm not positioned to, you know, to tell someone where they can find that help.
27:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I've been pushing people towards vote for one one dot org lots of information there if you're being I'm assuming there're going to be lots of lawyers around especially in this election as this administration has made it quite clear there's going to be a lot of shenanigans but David I appreciate you sharing some thoughts with us scary times, scary times
27:25
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes indeed, well, thanks very much.
27:26
[SPEAKER_06]: I appreciate the opportunity.
27:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Always great talking to David Janowski, acting director there of the Constitution project at the project on government oversight.
27:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Check out their website, pogo.org.
27:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to hear your thoughts.
27:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So you can certainly, worried you're wondering if the election day, like David says, going to be normal or are we going to see masked, armed thugs out in front of your polling place?
27:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And not ice people could be my local militia guys around here.
27:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Rick at the ricksmithsyour.com, right back.
28:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History In Two.
28:03
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1933.
28:07
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day Detroit anarchist Labor leader Joseph LeBody died.
28:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Born in Poppa in 1850, Joe was born to descendants of French immigrants and grew up among native Potawatami peoples in southwest Michigan.
28:21
[SPEAKER_03]: He became a printer, joining the local typographical union number 18, and worked for the Detroit Post-Entribune.
28:28
[SPEAKER_03]: He was an early leader of the socialist labor party.
28:31
[SPEAKER_03]: By 1878, Joe organized the first nights of labor assembly in Detroit.
28:36
[SPEAKER_03]: He served as the first president of the Detroit Trade Council and founded the Michigan Federation of Labor.
28:42
[SPEAKER_03]: He wrote tirelessly for a number of labor and socialist newspapers across the country.
28:48
[SPEAKER_03]: He embraced anarchism and soon produced a popular column titled Cranky Nochins.
28:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Labadi enjoyed the company and correspondence of radical labor leaders like Emma Goldman, Albert and Lucy Parsons, Eugene V. Debs, Benjamin Tucker, Terence Powderley, and others of the Progressive Era.
29:05
[SPEAKER_03]: He was often referred to as the gentle anarchist for his insistence on non-violence and distancing from those anarchists who advocated the use of violence as an acceptable tactic.
29:17
[SPEAKER_03]: LeBody was also known to never throw out any printed material relevant to labor or radical causes.
29:24
[SPEAKER_03]: His biographer
29:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Carletta Anderson notes that, the story of his life, deeds and thoughts is abundantly revealed through the treasure trove of letters, periodicals, clippings, manuscripts, booklets, photos, and circulars once stored in his attic, and now housed in the LeBody Collection of the University of Michigan.
29:43
[SPEAKER_03]: His stockpile of documents of social protest has proven a boon discolors enabling them to study the early labor movement in detail.
29:52
[SPEAKER_03]: When he died at the age of 83, he considered this to be his legacy.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a hunter's nightmare in which a group of them flush some rabbits out of the brush.
30:06
[SPEAKER_00]: But rather than scampering away, the furry bunnies turn toward their stalkers.
30:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Run, shouts one of the hunters, run for your life, the rabbits have guns.
30:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Arming animals would make the sport of hunting a bit more sporting wouldn't it?
30:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what if we did give all wildlife a fighting chance against the destructive firepower of profiteers who so carelessly ravaged their habitats and killed them off?
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we can't arm nature with guns, but we could recognize that other species and ecosystems are living creatures with intrinsic legal rights to exist in flourish.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Thus giving nature, it's day in court to defend its own well-being.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like us humans, the lakes, forests, wildlife, etc.
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: could have legal status to sue and be represented by lawyers to protect themselves from mindless exploitation, injury and death.
30:55
[SPEAKER_00]: This rights of nature concept is already being applied in such countries as Ecuador and New Zealand.
31:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And more than three dozen U.S. cities and towns have passed ordinances acknowledging that various natural resources in their areas have inherent rights to take polluters and other dispoilers to court.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Ironically,
31:14
[SPEAKER_00]: The corporate powers, who have perverted law, logic, and nature to have their lifeless profiteering entities declared persons, are a gas that mother nature can have rights that can counter the corporate claim that their right to profit is absolute.
31:28
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Heiteauer saying, at his core, the rights of nature movement is asserting the obvious.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Earth's biosphere is not a free candy store for our taking.
31:37
[SPEAKER_00]: We're one with a natural world and must find ways to cooperate fully with it for our own survival.
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more and connect to action, go to Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, www.celdf.org
32:12
[SPEAKER_03]: So seven days I mark your calendar seven days where we're on the run the back we're the back seven This is the back stretch this is this is the home stretch this is I hope you've got your plan already I hope you've already registered.
32:27
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope you've checked that registration maybe twice
32:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Because there's going to be a lot of shenanigans going on, want to make sure that when you go to cast your bowler, if you've sent it in, you're tracking it, do all of that stuff because this is a big one.
32:41
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a big one and here to share some thoughts on.
32:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I think what I think is really important and that is labor voices getting out in the front of this election cycle.
32:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Because boy, wouldn't it be great if we had Democrats?
32:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe even a Republican or two cared about working people
33:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And here to share some thoughts on well what that's going to look like as John Logan to come talk with us, John's a professor of labor and employment studies there at San Francisco State Universities, also the director of their labor and employment studies program there.
33:15
[SPEAKER_03]: John, thanks for taking time for us.
33:16
[SPEAKER_05]: Hi, Rick, let's be on.
33:18
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is this is a big deal.
33:19
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a big election.
33:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and and there's some there's some some some chaos going on a little bit I know this is gonna be a blue wave But it could be the wrong blue wave if we choose the wrong blue if you well because there's this kind of an internal battle isn't there
33:38
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I mean, so I think there's two separate things going on, I mean, if you look at what's happening nationwide, I mean, everyone knows there's half a dozen, you know, maybe 10 key Senate races that are going to determine, you know, whether the Democrats can win back the Senate.
33:57
[SPEAKER_05]: And some of them, you a lot of them are very close, you know, if you look at the races in Michigan, Ohio, Maine, New Hampshire, Alaska, you a lot of Texas, of course, a lot of these races are really, you know, going to come down to the wire.
34:16
[SPEAKER_05]: and several of them are in states where labor, you know, historically has had significant influence in state politics.
34:25
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, we're going to see how much influence it still has.
34:30
[SPEAKER_05]: But, and you know, I mean, you know this and you know people listening know it, there's so several parts to labor's participation in politics.
34:38
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, first, of course, is the endorsement, you know, which candidates to labor this labor endorse, you know, both at, you know, statewide level national level individual unions.
34:49
[SPEAKER_05]: And labor is not all was, you know, united on this, you know, so you can have a candidate where, you know, they get the vast majority of labor of the state's unions endorsing them.
35:02
[SPEAKER_05]: But then you have some big outliers, you know, you've got some some big unions,
35:06
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, like, give a grump swammy in Ohio getting the Teamsters and Dorses, or Marshall in Kansas getting the Teamsters and Dorses meant kind of a big deal.
35:19
[SPEAKER_05]: No, absolutely a big deal, but so that's but you know, second part of it, of course, is in terms of member education, like you know, actually explaining to their members why they're, you know, so solidly behind particular candidates or so much against other candidates.
35:38
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, these candidates, they are our people.
35:41
[SPEAKER_05]: They will protect her in trust.
35:43
[SPEAKER_05]: they represent her values, these other people don't.
35:46
[SPEAKER_05]: And then of course, you know, there's the get out the vote effort, you know, leading up to elections.
35:52
[SPEAKER_05]: There's the phone banks.
35:53
[SPEAKER_05]: There's the door knocking.
35:54
[SPEAKER_05]: There's the handing out of the election materials.
35:58
[SPEAKER_05]: And that, again, historically, that is where labor has a big advantage over the billionaire class.
36:06
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, they have all the money in the world, but they don't have a dedicated group of people.
36:12
[SPEAKER_05]: They can pay people for sure, but they don't have people who genuinely believe in what they're doing, who will turn out election cycle after election cycle after election cycle.
36:24
[SPEAKER_05]: So, that is where labor support and union's political activities can prove absolutely decisive in new states, like especially in the upper Midwest.
36:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Of course, places like Ohio, places like Michigan, super important Senate races, you
36:48
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, he is still, you know, someone who could potentially, if he were to win, we could be talking about him as a potential candidate for president in 2028.
36:57
[SPEAKER_05]: No, no, thanks.
36:57
[SPEAKER_05]: No, okay.
36:58
[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,
37:06
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, no, never gonna happen.
37:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Okay, I agree with you there.
37:11
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, Sherrod Brown has shown, you know, until the last time that he was capable of winning no matter how much money they threw at him and so on.
37:20
[SPEAKER_05]: But I love Sherrod.
37:21
[SPEAKER_05]: Just a word of these things.
37:22
[SPEAKER_05]: I would love nothing more than a president, Sherrod.
37:25
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, and you know, he represents the kind of blue color progressive populism that the Democrats need, you know, if they're going to be up against fans, if they're going to be up against one of these people, they're going to need someone who can speak the language of economic populism and shirt brown can do that.
37:43
[SPEAKER_05]: And as you said, you know, they're the practical reasons why it might not.
37:48
[SPEAKER_05]: But you know, that is true in other places.
37:50
[SPEAKER_05]: True.
37:50
[SPEAKER_05]: That's true in Georgia.
37:51
[SPEAKER_05]: That's true.
37:52
[SPEAKER_05]: And like, you know, whatever it is anybody.
37:54
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, so there's that you're getting out to volatile election day.
37:59
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, so that's the nationwide picture.
38:02
[SPEAKER_05]: And you say, since they're so close and since the new these are states, even in Texas.
38:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Even in Alaska, I mean, there are lots of union members in Alaska, as you know, very well, there are 650,000 to I believe union members in Texas, no, we don't think of Texas as Texas as strong union state, but because it's so large, there are a lot of union members in Texas.
38:29
[SPEAKER_05]: So, you know, if they can, you know, and they're not all supporting the same candidates, but the vast majority of them are
38:38
[SPEAKER_05]: In fact, you'll be behind the Democratic candidates in these very close states.
38:42
[SPEAKER_03]: No, that's important, John, because look, the argument is, and I get this all the time, and it sounds like I'm beating up on the teamsters all the time.
38:51
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Because look, I'm a card carrying teamster, I have been for decades.
38:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I think huge mistake in Ohio, huge mistake in Kansas.
39:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought a huge mistake, you know, here in Pennsylvania,
39:06
[SPEAKER_03]: because you did not do a full rollout.
39:09
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a whole bunch of things here.
39:11
[SPEAKER_03]: But one of the things that Sean O'Brien has done, as he said, look, you know, the Democrats suck.
39:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's not entirely wrong.
39:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, you go back to, you know, the 1980 the Motor Carrier Act.
39:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, Democrats suck, but Republicans were worse.
39:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and this is one of those moments where you go, okay, I'm going to vote for a Democrat, what kind of a Democrat are we talking to a corporate Democrat or someone that as a labor person, a shared brown, someone as a labor person that I want, and I think that's the fight that we have to be having, it look California is part of that.
39:46
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, yeah, and yes, I'll come to talk.
39:49
[SPEAKER_05]: I think you're absolutely right about the Republicans.
39:51
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, in a way that the decline of the union movement has, in fact, reshaped the Republican Party as much as it's reshaped the Democratic Party.
40:02
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, we think as unions have declined then these sort of corporate Democrats
40:08
[SPEAKER_05]: have become more and more powerful within the party, but it's actually also had a profound effect on the Republican party because you used to get these moderate Republicans who were kind of pro-labor.
40:21
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, they didn't like, you know, labor people who were intensely political.
40:26
[SPEAKER_05]: But if it was labor people who were just focused on bread and butter issues, there were lots of people in the Republican Party who said yes, I can partner with those unions.
40:37
[SPEAKER_05]: However, because labor has declined so much and no longer has the kind of influence that it has, particularly in places where Republicans tend to win, there are so far fewer of those Republicans left.
40:51
[SPEAKER_05]: and the people who dominate the Republican Party now, almost without exception.
40:56
[SPEAKER_05]: I know there are a handful of exceptions, but they really are a handful.
41:00
[SPEAKER_05]: The vast majority of the party is absolutely opposed to labor's interests.
41:06
[SPEAKER_05]: And
41:06
[SPEAKER_05]: you know, if the Republicans keep in power, we will have a much diminished labor movement.
41:12
[SPEAKER_05]: But as you said, Democrats have been very, very far from perfect when it comes to, you know, they get a lot of support from labor and labor, you know, at the best gets like whatever, you know, a nickel or a dime on every dollar that it spends to get these people elected.
41:31
[SPEAKER_05]: And that's true even in California.
41:33
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, labor movement, you know, for the last few decades have it has been incredibly influential in terms of who gets to Sacramento, not just with the governor, but, you know, with the state Senate and the state assembly.
41:48
[SPEAKER_05]: But what we're seeing now in California is a few races I'm going to mention just a couple.
41:54
[SPEAKER_05]: And by the way, Teamsters have been very good at certainly in my part of California in terms of nominating the right people in terms of coming out
42:03
[SPEAKER_05]: in terms of supporting, you know, legislation that will rain in the tech companies, rain in AI and workplace in California.
42:12
[SPEAKER_05]: I know that's not true everywhere, but you know, I should through saying California, my experience is that they've been very good.
42:18
[SPEAKER_05]: So we have two lessons of just mentioned very quickly.
42:21
[SPEAKER_05]: One is Nancy Pelosi's house seat.
42:24
[SPEAKER_05]: Of course, everyone knows or most people know Nancy Pelosi is retiring.
42:28
[SPEAKER_05]: and is put us are very much a centrist pro-corporate Democrat, a guy called Scott Weiner, who is in Sacramento, versus Connie Chan, who is a supervisor in San Francisco.
42:43
[SPEAKER_05]: Chan has almost all labor support.
42:47
[SPEAKER_05]: There are, I mean, there are handful, maybe like six or seven unions of endorsed winner, but there are 60 or 70 that have endorsed Connie Chen.
42:56
[SPEAKER_05]: So it's not even close.
42:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I mean, like, you know, there's a, but all of the billionaire money, all of the AI money, and we're talking huge amounts of money here is going behind Scott winner.
43:08
[SPEAKER_05]: And so why this is
43:14
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, started with a huge advantage in terms of name recognition, in terms of money, in terms of establishment support, in terms of billionaire support, but now it's very close and it really will be a test of like how much power does an organized labor have and San Francisco today.
43:35
[SPEAKER_05]: And, you know, we know it doesn't have the power that it used to have, and we know that the tech industry and the AI industry and the crypto industry are just spending, you know, millions millions of dollars.
43:50
[SPEAKER_05]: They're spending on this one.
43:52
[SPEAKER_05]: They're also spending enormously, literally over 200 million dollars to defeat a ballot proposition, which is known as Prop Forty, is the billionaire wealth tax, so, you know, because Trump's big, beautiful bill involves massive cuts in federal support for healthcare
44:21
[SPEAKER_05]: coverage in the state over the next five years, to make up for that, Dave Reagan, who's the President of SEIU UHW United Healthcare Workers' West, you're championed this ballot proposition.
44:38
[SPEAKER_05]: It was written by these very smart economists at Berkeley and law professors at Berkeley and other top universities.
44:46
[SPEAKER_05]: So they know exactly what they're doing.
44:49
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not as typical, you know, people say, oh, it's written badly.
44:52
[SPEAKER_05]: That's all bullshit.
44:53
[SPEAKER_05]: Um, so it would be a one time 5% wealth tax imposed on the 200 richest people in the state, a billionaire wealth tax.
45:05
[SPEAKER_05]: And it would be that back dated to people who were legal residents of California, January 1, 2026.
45:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So just to take one case, Mark Zuckerberg, who's worth 220 million would pay approximately $220 billion would pay approximately $10 billion in this one-off wealth tax.
45:29
[SPEAKER_05]: But he would still
45:33
[SPEAKER_05]: And in fact, there was a story in the New York Times today that when he went to Meta, his company and said, you're going to have to, if this thing passes, you're paying for it.
45:44
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm not paying for it.
45:45
[SPEAKER_05]: And they agreed to that arrangement.
45:47
[SPEAKER_05]: Frankly,
45:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't care if the corporation pays or if Mark Zuckerberg pays as long as someone pays.
45:54
[SPEAKER_05]: But anyway, you know, the billionaires searching for in the co-founder of Google personally has now donated over a hundred million dollars to defeat this ballot proposition.
46:08
[SPEAKER_05]: and your others have chimed in with 20 billion with like 10 to 10, 20 million, 10 billion etc.
46:16
[SPEAKER_05]: So that's the second race.
46:17
[SPEAKER_05]: The third one I've just mentioned very quickly because I know the people involved is just a local, your sacramental race, it's for the state assembly.
46:27
[SPEAKER_05]: These races don't typically, you know, attract the mega box.
46:32
[SPEAKER_05]: So you have this very progressive, very pro labor educator who is married to a well-known teamster.
46:41
[SPEAKER_05]: She has massive labor support again.
46:44
[SPEAKER_05]: But once again, the crypto billionaires, the tech billionaires,
46:48
[SPEAKER_05]: are supporting her opponent to a level that, you know, you just don't see in these kinds of racist races.
46:57
[SPEAKER_05]: Now her opponent, again, they're both Democrats, but her opponent was actually a Republican in Tully stood for elected office in Marin County, where this race is, and knew that he didn't have a chance in hell of getting elected as a Republican,
47:15
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, and he's, you know, extremely, you know, things that public sector unions are to blame for everything that's wrong and Sacramento really you're opposed to the interests of unions of working people in every way, but has gotten a huge infusion of money from a handful of individuals.
47:36
[SPEAKER_05]: Now, you know, again, these handful of individuals, so it's finished on the start, sorry.
47:41
[SPEAKER_05]: I know, I actually know one of these people, but I, you know, I read and I listened to what they say.
47:48
[SPEAKER_05]: I followed very closely.
47:50
[SPEAKER_05]: And again, they say that, you know, the problem is that unions and California spend on elections.
47:58
[SPEAKER_05]: and their their election cycle after election cycle, just what I'm saying.
48:02
[SPEAKER_05]: They don't give up.
48:03
[SPEAKER_05]: They're there every time.
48:04
[SPEAKER_05]: They're people turn out every time.
48:06
[SPEAKER_05]: They're saying, we have to match them.
48:09
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, we have to, you know, represent all of the people who are not in these public sector units.
48:14
[SPEAKER_05]: We have to match them.
48:16
[SPEAKER_05]: The trouble is, of course,
48:17
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the public sector unions represent hundreds of thousands of people in California, millions of households in fact in California, the billionaires individually represent one person, two people, three people, that's all that's who they represent.
48:36
[SPEAKER_03]: But they're the most important people because they're the ones who have all the money, and they can spend hundreds of millions of dollars.
48:42
[SPEAKER_05]: They can look at how they are, they are spending it.
48:45
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah.
48:45
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I guess the last line of questioning in this because, you know, this is something that my grandfather had talked about, you know, 40, 50 years ago to me.
48:55
[SPEAKER_03]: which is, you know, if a rich guy is going to pull a buck out of his pocket that you don't need something, you better spend two to get it.
49:01
[SPEAKER_03]: So when you look at this, when you see this kind of money going in, out of the pockets of Elon Musk or any of these tech billionaires, they understand, return on investment, they understand 100 million they're going to spend.
49:13
[SPEAKER_03]: It's going to save them billions on the
49:18
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
49:20
[SPEAKER_05]: And what I was saying today to someone, you know, I was saying, you know, I, you know, I, you know, people tell me I'm the pessimist, I don't know if I'm the pessimist or realist, whatever, you know, I tend to, I think that Prop 40 is going to fail because, you know, when you have $200 million spent in a campaign of disinformation against it, it's just incredibly difficult to
49:48
[SPEAKER_05]: a few years ago, back in 2020, they put a ballot proposition on the ballot in California, spent over $200 million, basically bought their own labor law.
50:00
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, California had passed the law saying most of these independent contractors are actually misclassified.
50:07
[SPEAKER_05]: They should be employees.
50:09
[SPEAKER_05]: Uber and left said, no, we want an exemption to this.
50:13
[SPEAKER_05]: So they put this
50:16
[SPEAKER_05]: and said they basically paid $200 million and they got the run labor law.
50:21
[SPEAKER_05]: So the prop 40 is really up against it.
50:26
[SPEAKER_05]: But what I was saying is that irony is you could not get a more clear cut sign of why prop 30 is necessary than the campaign itself.
50:39
[SPEAKER_05]: because if we don't tax billionaire wealth, we're just proceeding very, very quickly at an accelerating pace, down this road where wealth and political power becomes concentrated in fear and fear hands.
50:56
[SPEAKER_05]: It's not only going to wreck her economy and wreck, you know, people's chances of a decent living and their kids chances of a decent living is going to wreck her democracy, too.
51:07
[SPEAKER_05]: And so, you know, yes, they might defeat this measure, but the reason, again, is like the boss spending, you know, Amazon spending millions to prevent its workers from forming a union.
51:20
[SPEAKER_05]: The reason they're spending 200 million on a campaign of disinformation is because they know, and we know, but they know,
51:30
[SPEAKER_05]: that if people were given a free and fair choice, they would support this overwhelmingly.
51:37
[SPEAKER_05]: If they were just given a piece of ballot paper said, do you want to tax billionaires?
51:43
[SPEAKER_05]: 200 people in the whole state?
51:46
[SPEAKER_05]: 5% one time only so that three million Californians don't lose their health insurance.
51:53
[SPEAKER_05]: It would pass
51:55
[SPEAKER_05]: by you know a landslide.
51:57
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope.
51:58
[SPEAKER_05]: I hope it's true.
52:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It should pass.
52:01
[SPEAKER_03]: But we'll see.
52:02
[SPEAKER_03]: I tend to agree with you.
52:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I think Gavin Newson came out and said he's not in favor of it.
52:07
[SPEAKER_05]: I think the Democrats have tied with the billionaires too.
52:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I think there's a bunch of problems there.
52:12
[SPEAKER_03]: But John, as always, I appreciate the insight, great stuff.
52:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for the time.
52:17
[SPEAKER_05]: very happy to be on rate.
52:19
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
52:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Our good friend John Logan.
52:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts, especially if you're on California.
52:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that that motion has got a chance.
52:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe shouldn't we be taxing billionaires?
52:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Brickethworksmithshow.com right back.
52:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
52:40
[SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1951.
52:44
[SPEAKER_03]: That was the day that the United Negro Labor Council held its founding convention.
52:49
[SPEAKER_03]: African American workers had made significant gains in the American workforce during World War II.
52:55
[SPEAKER_03]: The National March on Washington Movement led by a Philip Randolph head-led president Franklin
53:06
[SPEAKER_03]: But as the war ended, these gains slowed, and in some cases were even reversed.
53:11
[SPEAKER_03]: In 1950, 900 African Americans gathered in Chicago to discuss the problem.
53:17
[SPEAKER_03]: They decided the former new organization, specifically focused on issues of black employment.
53:23
[SPEAKER_03]: By the next year, 23 chapters of the United Negro Labor Council had been established throughout the country.
53:29
[SPEAKER_03]: More than 1,000 white and black labor activists attended that first convention in Cincinnati.
53:35
[SPEAKER_03]: One third of the attendees were women.
53:37
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the first goals established by the organization was to get fair employment practice clauses into every union contract.
53:44
[SPEAKER_03]: The first person to speak at the convention was Vicki Garvin, one of the convention's lead planners.
53:49
[SPEAKER_03]: She declared, we are making history today.
53:53
[SPEAKER_03]: But that history was cut short.
53:54
[SPEAKER_03]: The National Negro Labor Council faced accusations from the mainstream labor movement that it was a communist front.
54:01
[SPEAKER_03]: One of the organization's leaders, Coleman Young, was brought before the House Committee on on American activities.
54:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Young had worked for Ford prior to World War II, but lost his job due to his union activity.
54:13
[SPEAKER_03]: He fought in World War II as one of the Tuskegee Airmen.
54:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Coleman refused to give testimony against his fellow national Negro Labor Council members.
54:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Young would eventually go on to become the first black mayor of Detroit, but the National Negro Labor Council would be dissolved by the Red Scare, dissolving in 1956.
54:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
54:49
[SPEAKER_03]: So I go back to that.
54:49
[SPEAKER_03]: My grandfather always told me, look, if a rich guy's gonna take a buck out of his pocket to tell you you don't need something, you better spend two to get it.
54:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Simply because they understand return on investment.
55:00
[SPEAKER_03]: They didn't get to be rich by being stupid.
55:02
[SPEAKER_03]: They know by denying you something or taking something from you, they know they're going to benefit.
55:09
[SPEAKER_03]: So when, you know, luck, when Amazon spends a couple hundred
55:15
[SPEAKER_03]: It means, you know, more profit for them less wages for the workforce.
55:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It's what it means.
55:21
[SPEAKER_03]: It's that simple and the weird thing is is, I don't know that the working class in this country understands that anymore.
55:29
[SPEAKER_03]: If I, you know, recently I just had someone tell me, how come we never, anybody talk about, you know, inflation being caused by wages going up?
55:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And the simple answer is, because wages haven't kept up with inflation.
55:41
[SPEAKER_03]: If wages were exceeding the inflation rate, then you could go, yeah, it might have some bit of a driver.
55:48
[SPEAKER_03]: But the weird thing is, especially this person, it's always punching down.
55:53
[SPEAKER_03]: It's always looking downward.
55:56
[SPEAKER_03]: It's always the guy economically below them.
55:59
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the guy who works at the gas station, the guy who works, you know, wait for the fast food restaurant or the retail shop, it's never the billion air, it's never the CEO, it's never the greed monsters at the top who just want more.
56:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And the reality is our inflation problem, as I pointed out at the beginning, JD Vance was not wrong when he said, look, you know, every time
56:29
[SPEAKER_03]: of fuel prices, which is why when Biden was trying to move to more alternative energies, stuff that we controls, that's renewable here at home, get us out of that.
56:39
[SPEAKER_03]: You think we would have learned from the 70s.
56:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You think that maybe possibly we have to go on hey, there's got to be a better way.
56:50
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know, drill baby drill, we do drill baby drill, we are a net exporter of energy.
56:57
[SPEAKER_03]: We export more than we use and yet somehow the weird thing is somehow our prices keep going through the roof Corporate profits are right there, baby.
57:09
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, you know what our oil companies are the most profitable they've been in in decades
57:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's us who keeps getting hit.
57:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is where the frustration is.
57:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Every election cycle will be go through this.
57:22
[SPEAKER_03]: We're forced fed nonsense.
57:24
[SPEAKER_03]: We're forced fed.
57:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, the terrorist are coming.
57:26
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, if someone sent me a thing, you know, if you're grandfather, if you're a World War II, what would he think about a Muslim being a senator?
57:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going, I don't know what he would think to be honest.
57:38
[SPEAKER_03]: But I got to tell you, I think he would be questioning the fascist that we've got in the White House.
57:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I got to think he'd be questioned in that.
57:48
[SPEAKER_03]: He didn't fight fascism to go, oh yeah, let's have a corporateocracy run the country.
57:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is the frustration that I find in this moment because as a working class, there's some universal truth is that we should be holding on to.
58:07
[SPEAKER_03]: that we should want to be able to put food on our table.
58:10
[SPEAKER_03]: That our wages should be able to keep up with inflation.
58:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And maybe, you know, just maybe a little ahead, maybe.
58:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's all unions are fighting for.
58:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Just to keep a standard of living, so that working people get a share of the wealth that their labor creates.
58:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And yet, our oligarchs are billion in our class, the Republican Party, and some Democrats,
58:36
[SPEAKER_03]: look at labor as well, you know, that's the problem.
58:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Those, those greedy workers, they want health care.
58:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you believe it?
58:45
[SPEAKER_03]: They want pensions.
58:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you believe it?
58:47
[SPEAKER_03]: They want a living wage.
58:48
[SPEAKER_03]: How dare they in yet?
58:50
[SPEAKER_03]: We've got a billionaire class.
58:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Second the none.
58:57
[SPEAKER_03]: The history of humanity has never seen the kind of wealth that our billionaires enjoy today.
59:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And we did that.
59:04
[SPEAKER_03]: That was our sacrifice.
59:05
[SPEAKER_03]: That was our labor.
59:06
[SPEAKER_03]: We did that.
59:08
[SPEAKER_03]: We created that for them.
59:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And then when it's like, hey, you know, we should
59:16
[SPEAKER_03]: We should be able to share in that.
59:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And how do we do that?
59:19
[SPEAKER_03]: We do that by having strong unions who sit across the table from a guy making a gazillion dollars a year.
59:25
[SPEAKER_03]: God, sorry, that quarter, just too, too much.
59:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Crazy.
59:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
59:31
[SPEAKER_03]: We're going to get the ricksmithshow.com.
59:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for being here.
59:35
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Email REC at REC at TheRixSmithShow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, this is Ben TheRixSmithShow.
59:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people, come to talk.