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

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now, here is the voice of the working class, Rick Smith.
• 0:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is the Rick Smith show.
• 0:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for being here.
• 0:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: Today, on the big program, lots to get to, lots to talk about.
• 0:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is great to be back.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: little hideous as you know had a little surgery done.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: I got some new parts.
• 0:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know my moving towards being bionic one part at a time.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: And look, the reality is this is what a life of heavy physical manual labor will get you.
• 0:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Eyes you're pushing that that that that older age.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: The body starts to break down and look, the reality is, you know, all of those people of Dr. Oz pushing, we just need people to work in extra couple of years so we could not have to tax rich people to save social security.
• 1:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I'm the guy he's going after, but I want to thank everybody who sent well wishes, meant a lot, you know, it's one of those things where
• 1:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah, he kind of kind of gone maybe maybe I should know of but feeling better doing better so I want to thank everybody who reached out Even the one guy who who who who said he hopes I never walk again, which was a very bizarre thing to say, but you know, even you Thanks gave me some motivation to to again prove someone wrong Even while they're being mean and evil and and all of that and I gotta tell you this is the weird kind of space that we're in
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, with Labor Day and I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend, Labor Day to me is a huge, a huge holiday because I'm grateful for the Labor movement.
• 1:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm grateful for the people who came before me, the people who fought blood and died, so I could have a living wage, so I could have decent health insurance.
• 1:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that, you know, the $40,000 surgery I just had, I paid 80 bucks out of my pocket.
• 2:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: about 80 bucks, I think?
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: 110, if you consider the dog, but 110 bucks.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm grateful for the people who fought for that.
• 2:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm grateful for the sacrifices that made sure that I have the ability to have a security at work, that I have a pension that I can look forward to when I live long enough.
• 2:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, you look at the doctor's, this is the world, you look at the Trump administration, right now, pushing, we just need people to work longer.
• 2:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're also trying to raise the retirement age again.
• 2:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: They did it to my generation.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what's interesting is listening to people, my age gone, well, they do it to us.
• 2:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, screw those next generation.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you go, no, no.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a massive cut to a program that is vital for the working class of this country, especially at a time where there is such turmoil.
• 3:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Ganger is time for the working class of this country, and this is why I keep saying, and this is the time for organized labor to full tilt, buggy, start organizing people and drugs, and not just them doing the work of bringing people in, but people rushing to them.
• 3:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it was interesting, all of the people who hit me with the anti-union rhetoric that you get.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know what to pay union dues and, you know, seniority's bad and, you know, there's no meritocracy and you go, you know, how's all that working out for you and your job?
• 3:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because what we know is where unions have a strong union density, or more people are represented by unions, more people have better wages, better health care, better benefits.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And those industries that have very little union presence, those are poverty, desperation, exploitable jobs.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Seems to me, seems to me, we could, should, and would want to be fighting for a better
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it doesn't seem like that's happening.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: At least not the fast enough for me.
• 4:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, I come back to what I've said about but unions my whole life.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Union job better life.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Are there good unions?
• 4:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Are there bad unions?
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sure, there's bad everything.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: But on the aggregate, on the whole, from my cold dead hands, you will pry my union card because it made my life better.
• 4:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: reunite this country to share wealth better, you know, I just saw a study just a little bit ago that's where they're like 3,500 billionaires in the world.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: And a lot of them in countries where people are literally starving, they're hoarding wealth while people are literally starving.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: We've got 1,000 billionaires here and there are kids going to bed hungry and veterans going
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: We got to do better.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: But understand, you know, tax in the rich is kind of popular.
• 5:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, there's been a lot of money to say, no, no, we can't tax us.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: We'll just go somewhere else.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Not in sense.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Where are you going to go?
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I want to hear your thoughts.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: How was your Labor Day holiday?
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: uh... something that uh... something you want to share i want to hear it rick at the ricksmith share dot com go to take a quick break when we come back brin booker general president of la unio the laborers international union of North America going to be here to share some thoughts on labor day and well you know what we need to bring us together right back
• 5:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: The year was 1941.
• 6:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: The ravages of World War II had swept across Europe.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: German troops had invaded Norway in April of 1940.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: The conditions of the Nazi occupation grew increasingly harsh.
• 6:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Nazis began rationing milk, and in port and part of the diet of Norwegian children and workers.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: The rationing, however, did not apply to the German occupiers.
• 6:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Angered shipyard workers in Oslo walked off the job in protest.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Workers from other industries joined them.
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: 20,000 workers from 50 factories and work sites participated in the strike.
• 6:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Nazi response to the uprising was predictably swift and brutal.
• 6:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: 200 labor leaders were arrested and new Nazi chosen leaders put in their places.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: 27 of the arrested labor leaders and strikers were brought before a court martial trial.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: Ralph Wichstrom, a welder and union steward and Harold Vigo Hansstein, a labor lawyer, were sentenced to death for their involvement in the strike and executed.
• 6:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: The remaining 25 strikers were convicted and sentenced to long prison sentences.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: Ludwig Bullen, a union railway worker, died while serving his prison sentence.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: So did Harry Vesley, a factory worker, journalists were fired or arrested, even groups like the Boy Scouts were
• 7:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: were banned, listening to foreign broadcasts on the radio were expressly forbidden.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Then, radios were confiscated.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: In Sweden, trade unionists issued this statement in support of their fellow Scandinavian workers.
• 7:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: They wrote, quote, Norwegian trade unionists have fallen in the battle for Norway's freedoms.
• 7:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: and for the right of the Norwegian working class to decide for itself, its own actions with the limits of Norwegian law.
• 7:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: We honor their memory.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: In 1948, a memorial was placed to honor the deaths of Wickstrom and Hansen and the workers who stood up for their country.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, once again, happy Labor Day, and I thought, you know, interesting time to reach out to my good friend, Brent Booker and find out what his union is doing, and you know, why Labor Day means so much to the laborers.
• 8:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's why I've got Brett Booker, General President of the Lionel of the Laborers International Union of North America to come share some thoughts on this laborers holiday, Brent.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for the good time for us.
• 8:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me as always, Rick, good to see you.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, big day, good day.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is kind of the day we're supposed to, anyway.
• 8:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Think about our fellow workers, think about how we fight for better wages, hours, conditions, opportunities, all of that stuff, any big day, any big day messaging?
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think Laborty, it's a celebration, there's no doubt about that, it's a celebration of all the work that we have done to build this country, Canada, North America, the infrastructures taken, so there's a bit of a celebration, but for me it's also a reflection and it's a reflection of
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: the hard work, the fights that we've been at.
• 9:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Lyon has been around for 123 years.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's been absolutely nothing handed to us.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even when you have friendly administrations, even when you have friendly governments, we're still fighting to get a bigger piece of that.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: high or any piece at all.
• 9:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a reflection, a reminder that it's a lot of people that came before me that came before us that allowed us to have this celebration and celebrate our membership celebrate the American worker, the Canadian worker, and it's a constant reminder that if we sit back, if we relax, if we do
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: get complacent.
• 9:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: That all of those fights before us were for not.
• 9:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, last week, Liz Schueler, the president of the F of LCI, gave her state of the unions address and look, pointed out some very, you know, some some good realities.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Labor is very popular.
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Voters are looking towards labor and labor leaders with a more positive eye than either political party.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: It seems like it's a good time for unions to maybe make the case of, you know, why we should be organizing and joining and forming unions at record numbers.
• 10:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm curious if you got a thought.
• 10:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're popular, and that's a good thing.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: The American public trust labor unions, likes labor unions.
• 10:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people want to be a part of the labor movement and realize that that's their ticket to raise their wages to improve their working conditions to work in a safer environment, ensure that they have a healthcare, that they have a pension.
• 10:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I saw some of the statistics that she read off talking about the trust issue that labor unions are more than twice as trustworthy as the political parties.
• 10:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: and that they are a source of good information.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: The only people that are more trustworthy as people's neighbors is what she was quoted as saying.
• 10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we do our job right and as we organize and as we involve ourselves in the community, we become those neighbors.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's only going to increase our popularity and increase the attractiveness of joining a union, joining the middle class and then fighting for that job and fighting for that career throughout the labor movement.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: So now I've served you up the softball now that the hard question, you know, because I get this from my conservative friends.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I get this from the political right going to flavor.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: So popular if unions are so trustworthy.
• 11:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Why are we seeing droves of people joining unions?
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Why aren't we seeing the kind of organizing that we saw back during my grandparents generation where, you know, there was an explosion of of union activity and contracts and strikes and all of that stuff.
• 11:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: Or are we, are is it happening?
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: And maybe we're not seeing it.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: The short and the simple answer is is the people that make the rules have made the rules very hard to organize.
• 11:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as popular as unions are,
• 11:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: is the contrast to that is how powerful big corporations are, how powerful laws are at the state level at the local level, at the federal level, which is made it damn their impossible to organize bottom-up campaign, go to the NLRB, show a majority of cards, and then go negotiate that first contract in the first year.
• 12:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are so many opportunities for people to speak out against labor units, so as popular ways as we are,
• 12:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: The systems rig, the system stacked against the individuals who want to join a union and collectively bargain.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're making gains.
• 12:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Our organization's grown by 40,000 members in three years.
• 12:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm very proud of that.
• 12:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: People want to join our union.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have open arms policy.
• 12:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: We welcome new members in from all walks of life, from all races and nationalities.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then once they get here trying to get them across that finish line just shows that how powerful corporations are how many millions and billions of dollars you looked at that report that the corporate America spent a couple of billion dollars on union investing activities after they've already rigged it to make it damn they're impossible to bottom up organized so there are so many things stacked against the individual is so many things stacked against labor that it makes it hard.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we've grown by 40,000 members and that is a testament to that will of the people who want to join and if we could ever get better laws on the books, if we could ever pass some pro worker legislation, you're going to see those drugs of people who want to join union to actually belong in that union and build that power growth and solidarity.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, we, we most certainly need, you know, political change and political will, that's going to change our adequate labor laws.
• 13:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: We do need comprehensive labor law reform to make it, you know, like, my, my, my grandparents generation are able to join unions.
• 13:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: They said, we want a union.
• 13:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: We began negotiating if we didn't get a contract, they went on strike and other people joined in.
• 14:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: and as you've pointed out over the years, they've rigged the game, they've stacked the deck so badly that the stuff that my grandparents built, the most prosperous working class in the history of humanity with are now basically all illegal.
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so when I hear the Fox News folks and that crowds say, well, you know, if they're so popular, you know, why aren't people joining?
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, all of the roadblocks in the way that make that as you've pointed out, damn you're impossible.
• 14:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly right.
• 14:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm a third generation laborer, my grandfather chartered a local union in the early 1950s.
• 14:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: the way he organized is different.
• 14:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We can't organize the way he did back in the 1950s and think of that time favorite.
• 14:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Think of that, what was going on with the new deal of the industrialization of this country, post World War II, where we had to do great things.
• 14:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: We had to build great things.
• 14:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: We had to recover from two world wars in 20 years and that's that greatest generation of did it and they became so powerful, they became so power,
• 15:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: dominant in the industry and manufacturing and construction and throughout all sectors that people took notice and they gained power, they spent money, they corporations were spun out and that all corporations are bad, but a lot of them do a whole lot and spend a whole lot of money and a whole lot of time and have a whole lot of experts to do everything they can to keep those voices as the individual voices rather than that one collective voice.
• 15:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: that's a challenge for my generation for the labor movement today is to get back to those days and those times and build that power, build that strength and loud and narrow voice by bringing more people say in the same thing.
• 15:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, look, I argue all the time.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Had we the same union density that my grandparents generation enjoyed some 35% most of our problems in this country would not be a problem.
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: The affordability crisis would not be as bad because we'd have contracts with cost-of-living adjustments, like my grandparents' generation had, so that when prices went up, their wages went up.
• 16:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Social security wouldn't be in the situation as in because people would be making more money paying more into the system.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: All of the problems that we're being hammered with with a better distribution of wealth by having stronger contracts and more bargaining power.
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think most of that stuff goes away.
• 16:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: So on this Labor Day, one of the messages I want folks to take away is if we had the kind of muscular militant strong labor movement that the right claims we have
• 16:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: built for themselves and for us, a lot of our problems that go away and if we're going to reunite this country, the best way to do it is reunionize.
• 16:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: The best way to build a middle class is to have them in a union and the best way to make things more affordable is to have more money and the best way to have more money is to negotiate that and a collective argument to do that.
• 17:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So the ticket out of a lot of problems that we have is joining union and even in industries and in our industry, a non-union labor makes more money.
• 17:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: in a city or town because of what we have collectively bargained for the union labor so that rising tide that raises all ships that's that's not just the saying that's true and every economic study will show that when when you raise that economic
• 17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: value or that economic impact on a class of workers and you raise them up, everybody benefits from that.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then you have the economy that's humming.
• 17:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have people out and restaurants and stores and the mall and shopping and creating more jobs because they had a good job that they can go out and afford that.
• 17:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you're doing that by building our infrastructure, by building our energy infrastructure, by every dollar spent in our infrastructure that creates
• 17:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: that's how we get out of this problem and we it's up and come and upon us we have to convince the people who are making the rules that we should be at that table to be part of that rule because we're going to help all of the constituents in their area not just a select few hey man and in for me and i gotta tell you brunt this is where the politics comes in
• 18:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: because this is a huge political issue, who's deciding our labor laws, who's appointing people to the NLRB.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's stuff matters.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's why this is a political issue and why people should, I get it all done.
• 18:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: Why should unions be involved in politics?
• 18:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, because it's the political undergirding that keeps us having the ability to join in four mutants.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I go back to the Reagan era when really the acceleration of assaults on workers
• 18:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I looked back to that period to today and there's a straight line that takes us right right to the bottom of the barrel.
• 18:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Agreed, and that's where, you know, I think we are, we have leveled off and now you see at least the building trades.
• 18:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think most unions, they're in a growth trajectory now, even with the political time we're in today.
• 19:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when people talk and they tell me the same thing Rick that they tell you.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Politics don't matter.
• 19:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why are you involved in politics?
• 19:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, man, I wish I didn't have to, but unfortunately, that's part of the job.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's part of what we have to do.
• 19:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's how we can represent our members and why we do have to get engaged.
• 19:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the example I can point to is, go back to Gateway Tunnel.
• 19:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's something you and I talked about.
• 19:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have one politician who already had all of the project that was funded, it was permanent and because the train station and airport wasn't named after him, he pulled the funding.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't like how certain things were happening in states with blue democratic governors.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we got one politician who's taking money away, which literally put our members on the out of work list and in the unemployment line, and then you had a politician who we did back, who we did endorse, who we have supporters who has given us a seat at the temple that in Governor Cheryl that we don't agree with her on everything, but we certainly
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: are at the table and part of the conversation.
• 20:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And she stood up for her constituents in some of which were our members, who said enough is enough and sued the administration to make sure that that funding was reinstated for that major infrastructure project.
• 20:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was gonna have a huge economic impact up and down the East Coast.
• 20:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: and throughout the United States, and that's why politics matter.
• 20:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: You have one guy who is taking jobs away, taking money away, and canceling and killing a project, and you have another politician who stood up for workers and said enough is enough and used every tool in her toolbox to put our members back to work.
• 20:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's why politics matter, and I wish I didn't have to be in that game, but I am in that game, and I'm going to continue to stay in that game to fight for our members to make sure that they have the opportunity to go and do the work that they've been trained for, that then provides a an income, a healthcare and a pension for them and their families.
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Amen.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now, you'll look, you know, again, it comes back to the politics and I just saw last week, fortunately there may not be another government shutdown coming in the near future because I guess the house voted on a continuing resolution to fund the government.
• 21:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: I guess through the midterms, if I'm if I'm getting this right and with that some federal surface transportation funding that could avoid some disruptions, I would guess for your
• 21:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I had two Democrats who crossed the aisle to vote for it five Republicans who voted against it but still passed the house.
• 21:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Are you got any thoughts on this?
• 21:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's insane to me that we continue to have a debate on, and every time there's a political cycle or a deadline, we kick the can down the road for a month or two months until one side or the other side gets pissed off and the people who suffer, the people who suffer the consequences of decisions made in Washington, DC are our rank and file members, are every day Americans that
• 21:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: are under the threat of do they get paid or not?
• 21:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are they going to have a job to go to or not?
• 21:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, look, I'm all for the continuing resolution to keep the resolution to keep the government funded.
• 22:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm all for a fix in the transportation surface bill, but it's not enough.
• 22:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just keeping us funded through December means that
• 22:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're good now, but we've got three months and in three months, while Washington DC politicians don't worry about their next paycheck because that's guaranteed, the labor building that highway building that tunnel building that bridge, they're good for three months and then they're going to have to start worrying.
• 22:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And thanksgiving, leading up to Christmas, is there going to be funding for the project I'm working on that I can continue supporting my family.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we've got to get politician.
• 22:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to stop playing these games.
• 22:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got to stop doing short-term fixes.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: The $1.2 trillion that was passed and infrastructure was great.
• 22:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And having to do this continual resolution to keep that funded,
• 22:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a broken system.
• 22:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we have to fix it.
• 22:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm glad that we're through December.
• 22:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't get me wrong.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not, I'm not cheering for another shutdown, but can we do this for a year at a time, two years at a time?
• 23:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Can we put real money and real funding behind real infrastructure projects?
• 23:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what my message is.
• 23:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, it'd be great to invest in our country.
• 23:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think most average regular working class people are going, yeah, we should be investing in our home.
• 23:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: It seems same rational and logical, maybe that's why we're not doing it.
• 23:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Last question I've got for you later in the week, obviously, the 25th anniversary of 9-11 and the events in New York and across the country.
• 23:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wanted to get some of your thoughts.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: As you look back over the past 25 years, look, workers in New York and across this country sacrificed people ran into those buildings on 9-11, you know, and those were union members
• 23:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: I wanted to get your thoughts and maybe some some words.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Twenty five I mean it seems twenty five years seems like in some instances it was yesterday I think everybody can remember where they were and what they were doing when when they got the news and what they found out We all have our own personal nine eleven stories and and I look at the heroes of that day and and we we talk about the first responders obviously the firefighters the police officers
• 24:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: the EMS drivers, the people who ran into those burning buildings and many of which who perished that day and then I look at the second responders, the building trades, the operating engineers, iron workers, the laborers, the various trades who went on that pile.
• 24:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: and spent the next three months, six months, nine months.
• 24:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Quite frankly, who were training firefighters and police officers had a properly where they're the respirators and to keep them safe, because that's the training that our guys had done throughout in New York City and Washington, D.C. in Pennsylvania of keeping themselves safe.
• 24:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know, of all of the dangers that were in the air and and what they were breathing in.
• 24:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there were a lot of heroes that day.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's obviously a lot of tragedy that day and people have very personal stories of family members of friends who were lost that day and you have people who were permanently scarred by both physically emotionally mentally as to that day and the days
• 25:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: the second responders of the people who we represent, who risk, who have many of them have passed away themselves because of the exposures that they put themselves and standing on that pile trying to do a rescue mission and then a clean up mission and then a rebuild mission.
• 25:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a somber day, it'll always go down as that, but it's also, for me, it's a prideful day because of just how damn proud I am with the people who risks their, their own lives, their own family, their own security to go jump onto that pile and go help their fellow man or fellow woman out.
• 26:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's who we are, that's who the trades are, that's who the union movement is, that's who your neighbors are.
• 26:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you know, for me, that whole, the whole thing, it was, for me the last time I think the country was truly united.
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it didn't matter who you voted for in the last election or watch your beliefs where we were all, um, we were all together in that moment.
• 26:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's one of the things that I take from it.
• 26:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you're right, everybody remembers where they were.
• 26:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: I remember,
• 26:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: I remember the horrible scenes, but I also remember the fact that he took us, it's taken us so long to care for those folks who are harmed in the aftermath and I find that disgraceful.
• 26:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, agreed and there's always that constant push for the first responders, the second responders, I know some personal personal friends who either died of cancer, who have had cancer, who have had other respiratory illnesses because they did swim there and they did sacrifice and they did that and they went down there.
• 26:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: We should be honoring them, we should be honoring their sacrifice and thanking them and their family for the rest of their lives as a country because it was true acts of heroism that day and for the days to follow.
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
• 27:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: I say all the time.
• 27:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: The people that we put on pedestals and call heroes, we should treat them as such, not just not just name them.
• 27:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: the people who go off to war and we don't take care of them when they get them to come home the people who ran into those buildings and we haven't adequately taken care of them.
• 27:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I find that to be a national disgrace.
• 27:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: But you know, I'm hoping that out of this is a learning experience and we do better.
• 27:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: But Brent, I appreciate you taking some time for us.
• 27:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Share in your thoughts on this Labor Day holiday.
• 27:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much, brother.
• 27:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks,
• 27:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: What's the occasion?
• 27:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to hear your thoughts, work at therixmithshow.com, and maybe where are you on 9 11?
• 27:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Back after this.
• 28:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
• 28:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1965.
• 28:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: That was the day the Delano Grape Strike began in California.
• 28:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: The strike came a year after activists had forced Congress to end the Brissero Contract Labor Program.
• 28:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Filipino Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee led by Larry Italong, Philip Vera Cruz, and others called the strike against the Delano Growers and the Coachella Valley Grape Growers.
• 28:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It had been a record harvest.
• 28:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Farm workers demanded higher wages, humane working conditions, and union recognition.
• 28:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: When the Growers refused, thousands walked out of the fields.
• 28:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: A week later, the Mexican-American National Farm Workers Association led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores
• 28:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was a historic moment, within a year, the two unions would merge to form the United Farm Workers.
• 28:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Union sent strikers to the Oakland docks to persuade the Longshoremen not to load non-union grapes.
• 28:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Many of the Filipino workers in the San Joaquin Valley worked in the Alaska Fish Canaries, organized by the I.L.W.U.
• 29:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: in the offseason, and so the I.L.W.U.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: honored their union brothers request.
• 29:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thousands of cases of grapes were left to rot on the docks.
• 29:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: This initial victory led Chavez to organize a great boycott against Heavyweight's DeGeorgio and Shennley Industries.
• 29:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Six months into the strike, Union leaders marched 300 miles from Delano de Sacramento to bring attention to their struggle.
• 29:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: They hoped to pressure growers to the negotiating table and legislators to act on their behalf.
• 29:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: For five years, the strike and boycott continued with marches, organizing and picket line arrests.
• 29:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Gradually, the UFW began winning higher wages, union recognition, and hiring halls.
• 29:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: Finally, in 1970, a collective bargaining agreement covering 10,000 workers was reached.
• 29:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like what you hear, check out more at laborhistoryintu.com.
• 30:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Growing up, I received a wealth of working-class values from my parents, including this nugget about egalitarianism.
• 30:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nobody is better than you, they said, and you're no better than anybody else.
• 30:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's the ethical underpinning for where all in this together.
• 30:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's what Thomas Jefferson enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln consecrated in his Gettysburg Address.
• 30:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's our pledge of allegiance to liberty and justice for all.
• 30:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's what the statue of liberty welcomes.
• 30:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's what he Guthrie's anthem to the common good, and well,
• 30:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's America.
• 30:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: Unless, of course, your Elon Musk, Peter Teele, or other far-out plutocratic supremac who do indeed consider themselves better than the rest of us.
• 30:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: For this ilk of technocratic elites, government's role is not to promote the common good, but to protect their wealth from the common good.
• 30:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Their grandiose sense of self-esteem is as silly as it is dangerous, but it's not new.
• 31:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: And we commoners have risen up many times in our history to beat down such crushing arrogance.
• 31:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: For example, John C. Calhoun, a venerated statesman of the mid-1800s, led a national crusade to convert all workers to slave laborers owned by moneyed masters.
• 31:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in the Civil War, a family of profiteering bankers got one of their sons exempted from duty in the Union Army by a certain quote, there are plenty of lives less valuable than his.
• 31:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: And in the 1920s, a prominent anti-woke academic proclaim that races are inherently unequal, so quote, democracy isn't unrealizable absurdity.
• 31:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hi-Tower saying this is the legacy of moral and political failure that Musk Teele and Al are trying to ride to victory today.
• 31:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let's rise up again and crush them once again.
• 32:03
  [SPEAKER_04]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
• 32:05
  [SPEAKER_04]: Now here is Rick Smith.
• 32:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I gotta tell you, utter disgrace.
• 32:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: And look, this administration, of course, utter disgrace is, you know, it's, you know, it's Tuesday, utter disgrace, and on Monday, the president on his truth social account, put out a video, yeah, we've got this video of Trump and the U.S. hockey outfit, you know, beaten the crap out of, uh, out of the Canadian prime minister and in the go, you know,
• 32:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Are we, are we not better than this?
• 32:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Is this the best, is this the best and brightest that we've got running our country?
• 32:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, the reality is for me, am I surprised?
• 32:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, not a little, not even a little bit.
• 32:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've been here to share some thoughts.
• 32:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm the latest antics and well buffoonery.
• 33:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've asked our good friend Sarah Burst to come share some thoughts.
• 33:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: She's a senior digital editor over there at alternate.org, the website.
• 33:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sarah, thanks for taking time for us.
• 33:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hey Rick, how are you?
• 33:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm sure you've seen the video.
• 33:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Let me get your initial reaction to it.
• 33:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: What, what, what, what grabbed you?
• 33:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Well, as you can see, I'm wearing a Canadian shirt that my friend brought back from vacation because she went to Canada over the break.
• 33:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so it's funny to me, I've seen a couple of responses to that video that this, the trolling the AI trolling
• 33:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: escalated.
• 33:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, we've had Iran trolling the U.S. with a bunch of Lego videos.
• 33:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now there's like we're getting some good like back and forth between Canada and the U.S. And I got to say Canada's AI game, trolling Donald Trump is really good.
• 33:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: A lot better.
• 33:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, no, it's because, you know, they're not afraid of him.
• 34:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the reality is is, you know, the Republicans, the Republican machine is scared to death of his MAGA base, they're scared to death that he'll turn his eye on them.
• 34:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I got to tell you my reaction to that video was one, not surprised, you know, we're we're getting our hats handed to us in every arena because how stupid this guy is.
• 34:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it also for me as someone who grew up in an era where we like to tell ourselves, how much better we are than everyone else, we help people.
• 34:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: We fought world wars and we gave land back.
• 34:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, there's a kid, if you ever hit somebody while they were down, the rest of the group would beat the SNOT out of you.
• 34:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there we have the president of our country in animated form, clearly.
• 34:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Okay, I don't think you can stay at unscathes, you know, with a stick beat the guy while he's down.
• 34:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: I can tell you, I'm, yeah, I just, not not not not a good message bad, but that is totally what Donald Trump is.
• 35:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's what America first is, right?
• 35:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: It is, it is all about this idea of,
• 35:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: We are better than you, the idea of America coming to save everybody, coming to help everybody.
• 35:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: That is done.
• 35:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: That was our American identity for 200 years, 250 years, but
• 35:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Not anymore.
• 35:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, now we're living in the America America stage because I'm sure you saw the I guess Lake Ontario is no longer Lake Ontario.
• 35:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'll say it right once.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's no longer that it's not like America
• 35:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, and we got the Gulf of America and oh, by the way, he wants the name New Mexico, New America.
• 35:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I got a question.
• 35:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: Does he think the word America is some kind of hypnotic word that makes people even more stupid than his base already is?
• 35:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I, I don't get it.
• 35:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm missing something here.
• 35:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Help me.
• 35:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I don't know that I can there's just a lot of funny about it because it's it's a level of ridiculousness that But yes, there's legitimate problems going on in the rest of the country like nobody cares about this it's all What is it that Trump used to tell his staff that every post on social media needs to be just crazy enough like it has to meet that standard of just crazy enough
• 36:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: to get a reaction and yeah and so this is really just like it's the same thing that the Canada stuff like it is just enough troll
• 36:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: to keep people engaged and keep the click rate up.
• 36:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so that we're fighting and arguing about stuff over here, not worrying about everything that's kicking us, not out of us.
• 36:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, like the fact that I don't know, if you've noticed, diesel in my neighborhood, I saw a station recently six, six, six, forty nine a gallon for diesel.
• 36:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: What happened to a bucket gallon gas?
• 36:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: What happened to that utopia that we were supposed to be living on day one mind you?
• 37:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because you didn't even do it for one day, not even when they stole gas for the freedom gas stations.
• 37:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was still what, 347 far cry from a buck.
• 37:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, in Oklahoma, whenever I went to visit the folks, it would, I think Diesel got over $5.
• 37:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's where the gas comes from.
• 37:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right, like the strategic oil preserve is in pushing Oklahoma.
• 37:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: So it then have to travel that far for the rest of the country, you know, they have to travel a little bit of ways.
• 37:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, so in Oklahoma, our fuel isn't as much.
• 37:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, and then I got back to DC and, uh, unlettered I saw driving on the street in in the city, which is very different than their state found that it was like four, 36 or something for just for unlettered.
• 37:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: crazy crazy stuff but you know here's the thing again it's about you know it's about diverting us from the real problems keeping us pitted against each other and he doesn't match really which is why honestly I'm not outraged by anything he does on social media because as you point it out it's about it's about the distraction.
• 38:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: but I do find it interesting that there are some people talking about his neurological quirks I guess he seems to fall asleep a lot you know for a guy who pointed his finger at sleepy Joe Biden guy who sleeps a lot now interestingly enough I've heard from my conservative friends that he's not sleeping Sarah
• 38:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's playing, he's praying.
• 38:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I'm sure.
• 38:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And where was that argument when I was getting beaten by Nuns in Catholic school for sleeping in class?
• 38:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I, that's why I'm not president.
• 38:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Cause, you know, he's sleeping.
• 38:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: He's sleeping and I think one of the things that like even his cabinet official.
• 38:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: So I think it was Rubio who made some comment about You know, well, the guy calls me in all hours of the night.
• 38:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: So clearly he's not sleeping because he's got You know, a lot of stuff he's doing and things on his mind or whatever.
• 39:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like even Rubio was trying to come up with an excuse for why he's falling asleep because Rubio recognizes.
• 39:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, this looks bad.
• 39:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And don't believe he's actually making the videos himself but guarantee you he's like combing his social media looking for stuff and these all just read yeah like he's retruthing things and he's
• 39:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: addicted to the TV that if you can get to watch during the day because he was sleeping in the evil office or whatever.
• 39:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's crazy.
• 39:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's God chosen candidate.
• 39:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's God's chosen.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've had people tell me this and it's weird that you go really the guy who's literally taking food out of the miles of children and taking health insurance away from people and all of the stuff that's going on, you're still going to go with the god thing.
• 39:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I found it interesting when one of your stories was about a woman in Michigan who thought God was going to take care of everything.
• 39:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And
• 40:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um well, that's a bunch.
• 40:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh man.
• 40:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: So this is a really fascinating story but I can think the the whole perception about the tribe wife movement has been this internet sensation of women in like with be white dresses in meadows cooking things or carrying a baby on a hip.
• 40:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's it's weird.
• 40:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's like a whole movement.
• 40:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: those tradwives are making a ton of money off of these videos.
• 40:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: So for women who watch these videos and think, oh, I'm supposed to emulate that.
• 40:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's who I'm supposed to be.
• 40:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like this woman who basically is abandoned and movement and become
• 40:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: like a normal person and left her church and all of the things.
• 40:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Basically said, she bought into this idea that God would provide.
• 40:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Because she was told, God will provide.
• 40:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you just do the right things and you submit to your husband, and yet he got it.
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so she did all of those things and then God did not provide and then her husband was killed and then COVID happened and it was just like this this preponderance of horrible things that happened to her and finally she was just like
• 41:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: What the hell?
• 41:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, you know the answer, don't you?
• 41:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: The answer is, you just didn't pray hard enough.
• 41:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's the thing.
• 41:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's what these religious folks really tell people, like they figure out a way to blame it on you, like you're not doing enough.
• 41:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: You are not enough.
• 41:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Kind of true.
• 41:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: You don't have economics.
• 41:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: We just haven't done it enough for a door.
• 41:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right, right.
• 41:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: The sad thing for me, like reading her story, is that the wife of her pastor and her church basically said, well, this is really good that your husband passed away, because...
• 41:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, now you won't have like a non-Christian influence on your son.
• 41:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: And she was like, that was it for me.
• 41:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: That was like, that was, it's like, you're supposed to, you're telling these women to be transwives.
• 42:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And then you're celebrating when her husband dies.
• 42:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Really?
• 42:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
• 42:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Look, I've always said that extreme religiosity is a mental illness.
• 42:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: Look, I have respect for people who are religious and want to be better people and use religion to make themselves better and try and do good for society and all of that stuff.
• 42:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: But the folks who use it as a bludgeon, the folks who use it to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to press.
• 42:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, all of that, you know, I always think about the Michael Stanley band they had a song that had a line in it that the Lord uses the good ones and the bad ones use the Lord well the bad ones using the Lord and awful lot in these cases and look I'm not entirely opposed.
• 42:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: If women want to stay home and raise children, my wife did it all the years.
• 42:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm eternally grateful for what she did to, you know, to keep our home and to raise our children.
• 42:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that was our choice, it wasn't because God wanted us to do it, because we thought it was what was best for the kids.
• 43:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: This kind of stuff.
• 43:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
• 43:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is crazy.
• 43:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think the sad thing to me, particularly about her situation, is she really
• 43:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: And ultimately, she ended up completely screwing herself over financially and put herself in a worse place financially.
• 43:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I mean, losing a whole your entire income to a death out of the blue is bad enough as it is, but the financial consequences of that and and I think the good thing about her story is that she had before she ended up in this this very right wing Christian church.
• 43:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: was that she had gone back to school, she became a respiratory therapist, which is one of the reasons that COVID really kind of threw her for a loop because she was like, I've studied this.
• 44:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: I know all of these things that you're saying don't make any sense.
• 44:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, she's not, no, stop right there.
• 44:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I now know why she, God was angry at her.
• 44:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: She went and got an education.
• 44:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: You went and got an education.
• 44:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Can't have that.
• 44:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: Don't
• 44:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 44:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: The way she talks about it, she grew up very religious.
• 44:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: There was a big scandal at her church in her teens where her pastor and bezel-walledist money.
• 44:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: And so her family left the church.
• 44:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: She grew up when school.
• 44:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yaniana, it was when she got married and had children that she vacationed.
• 44:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: She liked really engrossed herself in the religion.
• 44:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's crazy.
• 44:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And they're like,
• 44:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: As I said a moment ago, I have respect for people of faith, who are decent people who want to, you know, again, you know, to make people's lives better, you know, they feed the hungry, help the poor, you know, lead a virtuous, like don't murder people, don't steal from people, don't, you know, don't do a whole bunch of stuff.
• 45:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Be greedy relax.
• 45:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, kind of, but I look at the other passing of Dali part and I don't know if you noticed for about 30 seconds, the right tried to claim her as a conservative religious icon, they were pushing, you know, pushing this narrative that, you know, she's, you know, this, this is great Christian and then it flipped and someone vandalized her walk of walk of her star of the walk of fame and I'm like,
• 45:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: What kind of horrible person does that?
• 45:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, how bad do you have to be to vandalize someone's thing after they've passed?
• 45:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And especially, Daly pardon, I mean, come on.
• 45:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, she was a music, but I love Dolly Barton.
• 45:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: She wasn't just American and American treasure.
• 45:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: She was like a treasure of the world.
• 45:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: The responses that I saw from around the world were amazing.
• 45:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: I never really knew the extent to it she was beloved overseas.
• 46:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I was just seeing like,
• 46:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: people in Germany, people in China, like all over the place who were sharing, you know, comments about her.
• 46:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I love this idea that the right wing really tried to say, oh, she's ours because she was a good Christian.
• 46:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Y'all got it, and then the feminist community and the LGBTQ community came in and just went boom, you know, it's like, oh, interesting.
• 46:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: Here's the trans person who worked for here.
• 46:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: All of the super feminist songs that she wrote, um, here are all of the super feminist things that she did throughout her life.
• 46:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: You know, the thing that didn't get talked about enough for me is that the Republicans who who tried to celebrate her, those same Republicans voted for the big beautiful bill which cut a ton of funding to her literacy program.
• 47:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: So all of these people who were like sharing all these memes and being like, oh, we love dolly.
• 47:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's like you beat you cut all the funding to her,
• 47:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: you know, her program.
• 47:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like she was basically bringing all of these dollars from herself and from other people to give books to kids all over the country.
• 47:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the U.S. was like, oh, yeah, we'll throw in a couple million for it.
• 47:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you couldn't even do that.
• 47:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Come on.
• 47:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: Now again, I go back to the Christian thing because, you know, as they're attacking James
• 47:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think he's he's okay.
• 47:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think his his brand of religiosity is not crazy.
• 47:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's about service.
• 47:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it's about the good things that I was taught as a kid growing up where we're on the right path.
• 47:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And he's running against basically the antichrist.
• 47:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the only attack that they can come up against him is he might be a vegan who doesn't eat barbecue.
• 48:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And if you remember Trump saying the other day, he now eats meat, but he throws up all over the place.
• 48:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Weirdest thing, where does the tack ever?
• 48:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, and Trump likes to make fun of the way people look.
• 48:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: He's made fun of John Assa for the way he looks and then all of a sudden, he started making fun of Kim Paxton for the way he looks.
• 48:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump went from Andores to Sky, you have to vote for this guy.
• 48:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: even though he looks really bad and he sounds really bad and like all of these things he keeps saying he's like tearing down and compacts in and and it just it doesn't help him and at the same time you've got John Coran who are like y'all basically built the boat that's same thing.
• 48:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: I tried to tell you this guy was bad fundraiser he's not going to win you're screwing yourself over.
• 48:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: And I think like the the best contrast that I think you'll see is later this week whenever they've got the midterm convention in Dallas.
• 49:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: While they're doing these, you know, a hundred million dollar, a plate, dinners and all this other stuff that Republicans are doing to try and raise money for ten packs.
• 49:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Tel Aviv is going to do this food drive called the love thy neighbor food drive to help Texans who are having a tough time and the crappy affordability crisis.
• 49:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: And you're just like, well done.
• 49:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well done, absolutely.
• 49:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a good PR move.
• 49:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
• 49:37
  [SPEAKER_02]: But I also think it's who we are.
• 49:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, something awesome for people.
• 49:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's just like, that's the way I wish more campaigns could be.
• 49:45
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's like the live your values.
• 49:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: you know show people who you are uh let's talk about the big the big mid term convention and we were at a mid term convention before there's no it's been one of those after well the whole purpose of a convention is to elect your nominee your nominee for president and so there's really no purpose that the uh that's a bigger convention this is Trump a Palooza you know this is all about dear leader this is yeah yeah this is I don't even know what
• 50:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Um, they're now having to give away free tickets because they're so worried.
• 50:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: Of course.
• 50:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: About about feats being empty.
• 50:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: When this whole thing first started, um, they told members of Congress in any candidates running, you have to pay $25,000 if you want to attend this.
• 50:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: And with that, you get two tickets.
• 50:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: to the convention.
• 50:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: We'll let you have some of the access to the block of rooms that we have at the hotel.
• 50:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: If you want to attend any of the other events, it's going to be $100,000 or more.
• 50:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: And now they're giving away tickets.
• 50:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: Can you imagine being the candidate who's like, God, I really want to do this, but I can't afford the time.
• 51:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: I can't afford the money.
• 51:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: This is
• 51:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: and look at all the favor of it.
• 51:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Save the sinking ship because maybe you'll take some dingy's along with you.
• 51:14
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right.
• 51:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the whole thing is just it's comedic and the fact that it's running up against football is going to be
• 51:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: funny.
• 51:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: You remember, so when I did the convention in 16, it was huge ratings, it was a big deal, and ever since then, it just seems like it's gone down from there.
• 51:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like 2020 sucked, 24 sucked, and now this is going to be even worse.
• 51:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's a legacy, I'm going to enjoy every minute of it because I'm going to watch the train wreck because this is what this is what it is.
• 51:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: If Rome is burning, we might as well get some marshmallows.
• 51:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Sarah, as always, appreciate the time, great stuff.
• 51:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: My pleasure, I have a great list of the week everyone.
• 52:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Our good friend Sarah Burris, wanna hear your thoughts.
• 52:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Email me, Rick at theworksmithsare.com.
• 52:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Did you see the videos?
• 52:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Set by them, did they matter?
• 52:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: or like most people that I know have just kind of tuned out.
• 52:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I want to hear it, Rick at theRicksmithshow.com right back.
• 52:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
• 52:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1901.
• 52:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: That was the day that Francisco Fur opened the Esquaila, Mardina, in Barcelona, Spain.
• 52:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Fur was an anarchist and educator.
• 52:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: He explained what he had hoped to accomplish with these new schools.
• 52:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: He said there must be co-education of the different social classes, as well as of the two sexes.
• 52:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: Spain's literacy rate was only 15% at the time.
• 52:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Catholic Church controlled the schools and the curriculum that was taught.
• 52:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: Fur's idea of co-ed secular schools caught on.
• 52:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: More modern schools opened in Spain.
• 52:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: 40 operated in Barcelona alone.
• 53:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Soon, other modern schools open throughout Spain.
• 53:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: the Catholic Church and the Spanish government were not pleased with these new educational institutions that stood outside of their control.
• 53:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: In 1906, after an anarchist threw a bomb at the king, fur was held responsible.
• 53:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: His schools were immediately closed and he was imprisoned.
• 53:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: When he was finally acquitted of the charges, he reopened his school.
• 53:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: In 1909, Spain began drafting soldiers to help control the colony of Morocco.
• 53:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Workers protested by striking in Barcelona factories.
• 53:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: The government responded with a crackdown that came to be known as the tragic wheat.
• 53:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: The government sent in troops.
• 53:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: Took over the city of Barcelona and killed perhaps as many as 600 workers.
• 53:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: After the strike was crushed, 450 workers were sentenced to prison, 5 were executed.
• 53:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: The last person to die was Francisco Ferra.
• 53:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: During the uprising, he had been on his farm outside of the city, despite this he was charged as being the leader of the insurrection.
• 54:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: When facing the firing squad,
• 54:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: His final words were reported to be, look well my children, I am innocent, long lived the A-Squail of Moderna.
• 54:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smithsia for more information go to laborhistoryintu.com.
• 54:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I would like to think that everyone would look at that and go, that's that's not who we are.
• 54:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I agree with Sarah, you know, the fact that, you know, kicking somebody while they're down seems to be America first, you know, hooray for me in the heck with you, the one who dies with the most toys, wins.
• 54:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: That seems to be where we're, where we go, we've been going.
• 54:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: I just, I
• 55:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think back to, you know, when I was a kid, now again, this is the 70s, it's a different era, completely different era, kids actually fought.
• 55:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, when someone said, I give up, they gave up.
• 55:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, if someone was down, you didn't kick them what while they were down.
• 55:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: We've become a more cruel society, I think.
• 55:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I,
• 55:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I look at that, and I know there are some red hats, go, yeah, get those connox.
• 55:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the, again, the, the, the distraction, the stuff that's supposed to outrageous, because, you know, of course, somebody responded with a video of, of carny getting up and knocking Trump out, and, you know, there's all kinds of now AI videos out there, just to stoke that anger.
• 55:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Just to keep us, you know, just all on edging, we've got to defend America.
• 56:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: You go, no, our leader did something really stupid.
• 56:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Really, really stupid.
• 56:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, and I got to wonder, when do we, when do we say enough to not fall ready?
• 56:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Do you think Republicans are gonna be the ones who save us from them?
• 56:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Do you think that's possible?
• 56:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't, I don't see any profiles and courage on that side of the aisle whatsoever.
• 56:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: And, and again, you know, I want to be, I want to be hopeful, I want to think that there's a possibility that we're better than this, but the sad reality doesn't seem
• 56:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And this is why, come November.
• 56:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: The hope is is that we do wake up, that we do start to think about, you know, what kind of a nation we want to be?
• 57:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Do we want to be the nation that, that lens of helping hand?
• 57:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Or do we want to be the nation that kicks people while they're down?
• 57:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I look at this whole trade fight with Canada as really, really stupid.
• 57:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm not a free trade guy.
• 57:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: the fight, the battle, the reality.
• 57:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you need to really get upset, it's China.
• 57:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what are we doing?
• 57:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's AI.
• 57:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what are we doing to deal with those things?
• 57:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: The answer is nothing.
• 57:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because, well, they don't have any plans.
• 57:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: They don't know what they're doing.
• 58:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: they have no idea what they're doing.
• 58:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: So it's distraction.
• 58:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's all about keeping us on our teams.
• 58:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, because it's music in America.
• 58:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's in America, Jersey.
• 58:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: We got, we got a vacuum.
• 58:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: Are we that simplistic?
• 58:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, as I've said, you know, the Labor Day just passed.
• 58:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: This should be something that you'd be unifying us because everybody I talked to is struggling You know to me.
• 58:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's the economy still stupid.
• 58:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: We should be focusing on that But it's this little stuff It's the it's the laser pointer for we the cats to go chasing around and Again when we we do this stuff They laugh all the way to the back and
• 59:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: allowing them to continue, and none of our problems are being solved, none of the real problems, and their robinus blind, and the billionaire class is lining their pockets at rates unimaginable, the guilty age is jealous.
• 59:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're living in a time almost as some
• 59:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: Want to hear your thoughts?
• 59:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Email me, Rick at therixmithshow.com.
• 59:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Miss any portion of the program?
• 59:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Grab the podcast and there's always.
• 59:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for being here.
• 59:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: We'll see you back here next time.