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The Rick Smith Show 9-30-2026 · The Rick Smith Show

0:00
[SPEAKER_04]: It's time for the Rick Smith show.
0:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is the voice of the working class, Rick Smith.
0:13
[SPEAKER_04]: And welcome, brothers, sisters working class heroes.
0:17
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the Rick Smith show.
0:19
[SPEAKER_04]: That's so much for being here today.
0:22
[SPEAKER_04]: On the big program, I must get to lots to talk about big announcement from the White House yesterday.
0:28
[SPEAKER_04]: And I gotta be honest, I gotta kick out of some of the commentators today's gonna resign.
0:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Today's the whole thing.
0:35
[SPEAKER_04]: It was all this crazy and this is my problem with a lot of hot-take news media items.
0:40
[SPEAKER_04]: It's all about, yeah, I gotta get someone to pay attention to it and it wasn't any of that stuff.
0:45
[SPEAKER_04]: And I actually had people reaching out, do you think he's gonna resign today?
0:48
[SPEAKER_04]: and I had to go look he's never going to resign it's never going to happen no matter what he is he go will never allow him to resign please stop never now i got to be honest i i hope the the 40 minutes i wasted watching him blather on actually comes to fruition
1:11
[SPEAKER_04]: because the announcement turned out to be a steel mill.
1:16
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to get a steel mill built in the US and Indian company.
1:22
[SPEAKER_04]: They say that they're going to possibly, they say it's a done deal.
1:26
[SPEAKER_04]: But I'm going with possibly build a steel mill in a South Eastern Iowa town.
1:32
[SPEAKER_04]: uh... the biggest ever the most tremendous ever you know all of that uh... fifteen billion dollar investment they said uh... they say it's gonna create seventeen hundred fifty permanent jobs in six thousand construction jobs wages are going to be like forty nine bucks an hour not sure where they got that from uh... but it's gonna create some jobs and it's gonna in io with a desperately needs it because deindustrialization is killed that state it would be a good thing
2:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I just seem to have some real questions about the timing.
2:05
[SPEAKER_04]: It's interesting timing because, well, it's going to be put in Iowa's first congressional district where Mariana Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, Meex, where she's probably, as of right now, she's losing in the polls.
2:25
[SPEAKER_04]: She only won the last election by less than 800 votes.
2:29
[SPEAKER_04]: So she's on the list of, I think this is about a crystal ball put it, put it at, now her district got flips, that leans democratic.
2:38
[SPEAKER_04]: So this seems like an opportunistic moment to go, hey, look what we brought, look what she brought.
2:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And it was, it was a campaign event more than it was a rollout of something that I think would be terrific if it happens.
2:53
[SPEAKER_04]: If it happens, and that's, and there's a lot of ifs here for me, but you know, if this, this really comes to fruition, good on Trump for being able to broker it, this is the kind of stuff he should be doing.
3:09
[SPEAKER_04]: This is the kind of stuff we should be as a country moving towards, you know, bringing home our supply chant.
3:15
[SPEAKER_04]: building stuff, thinking about national security steel being at the heart of it.
3:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, in my thrill with the fact that it's an Indian company, my thrill with the fact that U.S. steel is owned by a Japanese company, and my thrill by that, not so much.
3:30
[SPEAKER_04]: but we need to build it.
3:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Now Trump did not waste the opportunity to go after Democrats.
3:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Again, it was a campaign stop.
3:39
[SPEAKER_04]: It just happened to be in the White House.
3:42
[SPEAKER_04]: He did not waste a moment to go after Tim Walsh, the governor of Minnesota, saying they have one of the worst governors in history, a real stupid guy, but they do have good iron ore.
3:53
[SPEAKER_04]: which is more important, I guess, because understand in Minnesota, you know, they've, this, this company's got an, an iron, they're, they're mining or what you need for steel, which, you know, great, we need to be doing this.
4:07
[SPEAKER_04]: He goes out to say that about Minnesota, they have a lousy governor, but they got great or I called Minnesota one of the worst, worst run places that he's ever seen outside of the old office.
4:22
[SPEAKER_04]: Uh, no, the part that caught my attention out of all of it was the fact that, you know, for a political party that supposedly believes in state's rights, Trump was was was all out in front, you know, asking if if federal law superseded state law, and he said, if we can supersede the state, that's it's good.
4:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Otherwise the state will never be good because
4:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, the weird thing is, the weird thing is I think it was the economist, Jeffrey Sachs said basically, you know, Trump contradicts himself in every sentence.
5:04
[SPEAKER_04]: So you had the CEO of Massabi who said, we have greatly appreciated the support of Governor Walls and the work of the DNR and the M-M-P-C-A to successfully permit the first new iron mine in Minnesota in 50 years.
5:19
[SPEAKER_04]: But, you know, again, Trump said it's the worst run state.
5:22
[SPEAKER_04]: So it just was an interesting moment and it really was all about the campaign stop and he actually did say you know we're going to get you guys elected we're going to rally we're going to do all this stuff.
5:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's it's what it is.
5:39
[SPEAKER_04]: But I'll tell you, if we get a steel mill out of it, we need it.
5:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm in favor.
5:44
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear your thoughts, email me, Rick at theRicksmithshow.com.
5:47
[SPEAKER_04]: I do want to know if it's going to be a union mill.
5:50
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to know if the steel workers are going to have a new charity check in there.
5:54
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear that right back after this.
6:00
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Inter.
6:04
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1789.
6:08
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day that the United States Congress officially created the United States armament.
6:14
[SPEAKER_04]: Not everyone agreed that the US should have a standing armament.
6:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Two years earlier, at the meeting that drafted the US Constitution, James Madison warned against a permanent
6:25
[SPEAKER_04]: federal army.
6:26
[SPEAKER_04]: He told those at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, quote, a standing military force with an overgrown executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.
6:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Since Madison was a strong proponent of a centralized federal government, his caution about the army was not worth it.
6:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Perhaps these warnings
6:46
[SPEAKER_04]: is why it took Congress until the last day of their session to finally approve the measure.
6:52
[SPEAKER_04]: In fact, President George Washington had to write Congress not once, but twice to get them to act on the issue.
7:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Once it was approved, the first standing Army had about 800 members.
7:05
[SPEAKER_04]: By comparison, in 2015, the Army had just under a half a million active duty soldiers.
7:13
[SPEAKER_04]: To supplement the small army, Congress also made a provision for the President to call up troops from state militias.
7:20
[SPEAKER_04]: The stated purpose for such columns was, quote, protecting the inhibitants of the frontiers of the United States from hostile incursions of the Indians.
7:30
[SPEAKER_04]: While in federal service, the state militias were supposed to receive, quote, the same as the pay and substance as the regular arm.
7:38
[SPEAKER_04]: One time, various state militias were used for the forced removal of the Cherokee people from the southeast on the trail of tears in the 1830s.
7:48
[SPEAKER_04]: State militias were also deployed to break up labor strikes, such as the case in the Homestead Strike in Pennsylvania in 1892, like what you hear, check out more at LaborHistoryInto.com.
8:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show, now here is Rick Smith.
8:11
[SPEAKER_04]: So a new state by state fact sheet from the folks over at the Economic Policy Institute show immigrant workers are a central part of every state's economy.
8:23
[SPEAKER_04]: We say that again, a central part of every state's economy.
8:26
[SPEAKER_04]: They fill a big share of jobs, drive economic output, anchor key industries, and you know what?
8:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Even start businesses according to the fact sheet, Trump's mass deportation policies are doing.
8:39
[SPEAKER_04]: just the opposite according to EPA's documents.
8:42
[SPEAKER_04]: As they looked at job losses that have already happened since the 2025 enforcement surges, including jobs held by U.S. borne workers.
8:51
[SPEAKER_04]: That means us and projects deeper losses in jobs and tax revenue.
8:56
[SPEAKER_04]: If and when Trump continues his target, workers holding TPS and DACA protections also are at risk.
9:04
[SPEAKER_04]: EPI says a path to citizenship would instead raise wages and strengthen the economy for every bond and that's why I've asked Daniel Costa to come share some thoughts with us.
9:14
[SPEAKER_04]: Daniel is the director of their immigration law and research policy research program there at the Economic Policy Institute.
9:21
[SPEAKER_04]: You can check out their website EPI.org.
9:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Daniel, thanks for taking time for us.
9:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks for having me on Rick to pleasure.
9:28
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm reading through this and everything that we've been told, you know, for years, that immigrants take jobs from Americans drive down wages, it's all the immigrants fault, it's all this, your fact sheet says something maybe a little bit different.
9:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
9:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, a lot of people will try to, you know, scapegoat and immigrants for political gain, but the reality is that the numbers don't match up with a lot of what's said out there, I mean, the reality is that immigrants are about 15% of the population, but they represent 18% of the income created in the United States and they're about almost 20% of the workforce.
10:09
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
10:10
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, imagine that one out of almost every five workers is an immigrant.
10:13
[SPEAKER_03]: So you think about that, that's that they're pretty integral.
10:17
[SPEAKER_03]: They're a huge part of our labor market.
10:19
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's almost doesn't matter which state you look at there.
10:22
[SPEAKER_03]: There's obviously more in some states and many fewer in others.
10:25
[SPEAKER_03]: But overall nationwide, the real trend is that they're just a really important part of the economy.
10:31
[SPEAKER_04]: But the calculus was, this was supposed to open up jobs.
10:36
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to send all these people home or doing jobs at Americans would do if they weren't there.
10:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Your report is saying that Americans are losing jobs as well.
10:46
[SPEAKER_04]: So walk me through how that's possible.
10:47
[SPEAKER_04]: All these jobs are open.
10:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Therefore Americans to take, why isn't this a boom of employment?
10:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, if you think about it, you know, one study which we cite and which is my colleague at EPI, wrote Ben Zipper, he's calculated that if the Trump administration reaches their target of four million deportations over four years, the US will lose about six million jobs total.
11:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And those wouldn't all be jobs lost by immigrants.
11:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Almost half of them, 40% would be jobs lost by US foreign workers.
11:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's because you're taking out, you know, if you take out people from, you know, construction company,
11:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Then if you lose three or four workers at a company of 20 people, then you don't have the people who can do some of the essential elements of the construction job.
11:35
[SPEAKER_03]: So that means that there's less work for the US workers if those immigrant workers can't be there to do the job.
11:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's why you know taking immigrants out of the labor market.
11:46
[SPEAKER_03]: you know, makes the, makes the economy shrink, essentially.
11:49
[SPEAKER_04]: And it does seem to be kind of a curious time to be doing it, especially when there's all this talk of housing affordability being a crisis and we're not having enough housing.
11:57
[SPEAKER_04]: It seems like the people who have been building the houses, you know,
12:01
[SPEAKER_04]: We might want to hold on to those folks because look you know everyone I talked you said no no I'm not against all immigrants just the the ones that Donald Trump says are all rapist and murderers and which have turned into a whole wide net of people you know like the women who cleans the hotel room I I'm not sure we're on that list Trump's lifts.
12:20
[SPEAKER_04]: She would fall but we're doing a lot more than just going after the bad guys so to speak
12:26
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right, the latest stats show and the German administration has not been great about putting out good data on its deportation, but we know that many more than half of the immigrants who are being detained and arrested have no criminal records other than coming into the US without authorization, which is.
12:43
[SPEAKER_03]: sometimes depending on how it sends, sometimes it's considered like a misdemeanor or like a traffic they forget it's a civil violation.
12:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So they don't have criminal records so they're really going after everyone, which is why you're seeing stories of
12:57
[SPEAKER_03]: people being caught up who have done no other crimes or even people who have legal status there they're really just not respecting the legal protections that the previous administration has given out and then when it comes to construction which you mentioned you know the ours our study shows that if Trump reaches the deportation targets it's going to be about 18% of the construction workforce could be could be gone and just imagine that imagine how hard it is already now to get a
13:25
[SPEAKER_03]: take out, take it almost a fifth of the construction work for us to see what happens.
13:28
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, when did all this become, you know, because we've been doing, we've been going back and forth with this, you know, there are illegals thing for a long time.
13:35
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, and I talked to my wife and her family, she grew up in Southern California.
13:40
[SPEAKER_04]: They were, they lived on a avocado ranch and, you know, people would come back and forth across the board of the 1970s.
13:47
[SPEAKER_04]: So this is a while ago.
13:49
[SPEAKER_04]: But people used to come back and forth across the border to follow work.
13:52
[SPEAKER_04]: They would take the money they went and they would go back home for the non-growing season or they would move in a different direction.
13:58
[SPEAKER_04]: It didn't seem like it was this kind of this crisis.
14:02
[SPEAKER_04]: And I know during the Reagan years, they gave Amnesty to some 3 million folks who were here.
14:07
[SPEAKER_04]: When did this become this kind of a political football where it's a life or death?
14:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Instead of having a rational conversation of what is good for our economic policy, what's good
14:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know, grapes and strawberries and lettuce on our tables at a cost that isn't going to be, you know, we need to pick out a loan for.
14:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Is there a moment where you look back and you go, this is kind of when it went at all when it arrived?
14:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's been a multi administration effort.
14:34
[SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of the criminalization of immigrants and really criminalization of the immigration system started with Clinton administration with a law that's the acronym Zyra Ira.
14:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And then you had really 9-11, which is another turning point.
14:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the Obama administration really
14:49
[SPEAKER_03]: really ramped up enforcement at the border and deported about a million people without status.
14:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's taking place over administrations.
14:58
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the thing to know is that all the administration, all the all the enforcement really made it more difficult for people to leave and get back into the country, or which is something you reference.
15:09
[SPEAKER_03]: So that, you know, ironically meant that people were more likely to stay in the country rather than go back to their home country.
15:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And then that's when he started to see the size of the, uh, I'm talking with the population really start to increase.
15:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Because the conversation that hasn't really been had, and when I talk to my red head friends, because I'll be honest, my red head friend, my red head friend is just heard, you say, it's all the Democrats fault.
15:31
[SPEAKER_04]: That's what they heard you say.
15:33
[SPEAKER_04]: And then I'm going to get that back, but looking at what you guys are talking about about state revenues and all of this, we haven't had the discussion of what the immigrant workforce puts in and doesn't really get out because there's this belief, maybe you've heard it, that every, every undocumented immigrants get it collecting welfare, they're getting housing subsidies, they get free health care, they've got all of this, the stuff that they're getting that's well, you know, we're not.
16:00
[SPEAKER_04]: how much of that is reality and how much of it is.
16:02
[SPEAKER_04]: We're actually screwing ourselves by throwing people out.
16:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I'd say where's the evidence?
16:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Where's the evidence that people are are getting these benefits that they're not entitled to?
16:12
[SPEAKER_03]: The law is already states very clearly that many people who are immigrants, even those who have status are not entitled to to most public safety net benefits either some.
16:24
[SPEAKER_03]: exceptions in some states, but those are really small exceptions in general, and there's plenty of research out there showing this, and you can just look at the laws, even people who have green cards have to wait five years before they can get any type of benefits.
16:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's very difficult, even for a US citizen to try to get public safety in that benefit, it's trying navigating that that system, it's not easy, it's very difficult and it's often designed to make sure
16:52
[SPEAKER_03]: We haven't seen the evidence to the contrary not as a labor god because I'm a union guy.
16:57
[SPEAKER_04]: I want every job to be a union job.
16:58
[SPEAKER_04]: I want every job to have good wages benefits all of that and the argument for my some of my red hat union friends or well, you know, they're undermining the union work.
17:08
[SPEAKER_04]: They're taking our work, they're crushing wages, they're doing all of these things, and I'm like, well, if we all had union contracts, they wouldn't be able to do that because the wages would be what they are, and I've said before, I don't care.
17:20
[SPEAKER_04]: But here's more of my problem is on this.
17:22
[SPEAKER_04]: by having an underground workforce and undocumented workforce that's pushed deeper and deeper in the shadows by the kind of assaults we're seeing by this administration you give so much outweighted power to the bosses to be able to threaten to call ice on a worker who may you know may not want to work for crummy wages or may be angry that their victims of wage theft or they got hurt.
17:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's one of those things that I do think destroys the ability for workers to get better wages to have safer workplaces for these jobs to actually be living wage jobs by having that underground desperate economy.
17:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you guys look into any of that or come across any of that?
18:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, there's a lot of research out there and I would just say that in general that no, I agree that it's not good to have 5% of the entire USA remark it made up of people who don't have rights who can't complain to labor department when their wages are stolen when employers break the law.
18:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's also a barrier to unionization, not having status because you're afraid of retaliation, you're reasonably afraid of it.
18:24
[SPEAKER_03]: So, but let's, let's, I don't, what I don't understand is why people are blaming immigrants for this, for this situation.
18:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Employers are the one who are violating the laws and not paying them what what they deserve.
18:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Employers are the ones that are using anti-union tactics so that people can't can organize.
18:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And being undocumented
18:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what the solution is pretty simple, it's just to give people status, once they get status, it's pretty clear that they get a wage boost and also there's a unionization boost because they're suddenly able to to organize and not be worried about being fired because of their status.
19:05
[SPEAKER_03]: So put the blame.
19:06
[SPEAKER_03]: where it should go or write on the implores.
19:08
[SPEAKER_03]: The sister taking advantage of a system that has really allowed them to do this and even when they get in trouble, say, I just does a raid on them.
19:17
[SPEAKER_03]: The remedies, you know, what they have to pay the penalties, is almost nothing and usually the penalties that they would pay, they can negotiate them down.
19:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And if they end up paying something, it's much less than the wages that they still have.
19:29
[SPEAKER_03]: So it becomes a business model.
19:31
[SPEAKER_04]: but it puts out for them but there is Daniel the dreaded posted note they have to post a notice promise in the never do it again so you know they they promise or until next time
19:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, until the time after that, even if they pay a bigger fine, it's still less than the wages of this.
19:50
[SPEAKER_04]: So why don't we lock them up?
19:51
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it seems like, you know, it seems like the demand side is where you might want to go after it.
19:59
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I'm sure there's a white guy sitting in a white color shirt with a tie.
20:04
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, in an office somewhere going, yeah, let's hire, let's not just hire, but encourage people to come from places, desperate places, pay them poverty wages and then lining their pockets.
20:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe we should be going after them because ultimately what we know is it costs all of us.
20:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Lower wages, it means lower tax revenues, that get paid, lower wages brings everyone down.
20:26
[SPEAKER_04]: It seems like maybe having the open conversation of how we get to a
20:31
[SPEAKER_04]: an immigration policy that gets us the labor force that we need to bring people in that that want to come here and that we want to be here.
20:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe it seems like I don't know something we should entertain.
20:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'll say this about when it comes to going after employers, what I think we've done is we've focused and invested heavily in an immigration enforcement system, which has to do with deporting people and there are some sanctions for employers, but they almost never get in trouble and the system was designed to fail because employers had a lot of input in the system that was created in 1986.
21:07
[SPEAKER_03]: But the reality is that we should be investing in labor standards enforcement.
21:11
[SPEAKER_03]: We should be going after employers, and we should be having a surge of labor standards enforcement to get back wages and back pay for workers.
21:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Before the Trump administration, this is something I've tracked and written about a lot over the years, we were investing about 14 times more in immigration enforcement than labor standards enforcement.
21:28
[SPEAKER_03]: is around 30 billion a year we were doing for immigration enforcement versus 2 billion a year for labor standards enforcement so that shows where the priorities are and now since the Trump administration has come in they've got 270 billion dollars for immigration enforcement.
21:43
[SPEAKER_03]: while labor standards enforcement is still around 2 billion and they're trying to make deeper cuts to it.
21:47
[SPEAKER_03]: So the focus is all wrong.
21:49
[SPEAKER_03]: Go after employers, go after, you know, the wage law is wage an hour laws and force those.
21:54
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what will raise the floor and make make conditions fair for everybody.
21:58
[SPEAKER_04]: But if they were to do that, they would have to admit that over the last 40-50 years, the economy for working people.
22:04
[SPEAKER_04]: It's really stunk.
22:05
[SPEAKER_04]: And that the policies of the Reagan era forward, the whole neoliberal agenda, you know, all of the, all of that trickled down supply side, Voodoo, Reaganomics, that we were sold.
22:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Crush those unions, deregulate, give rich people more.
22:18
[SPEAKER_04]: That's really the problem.
22:20
[SPEAKER_04]: And not desperate people coming from desperate places, just trying to support their families.
22:25
[SPEAKER_04]: That would be a much harder conversation to have.
22:28
[SPEAKER_04]: I think.
22:28
[SPEAKER_03]: That's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, you know, that it creates a slogan that they can use and they've been winning elections with it.
22:38
[SPEAKER_03]: So, um, but, you know, employers, many employers recruited undocumented workers or studies about this in places like, you know, in meatpacking and other industries where that they're the ones who are hiring them, you know, and underpaying them.
22:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So,
22:52
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, a real, the system that is fair is going to focus on labor standards, enforcement and make sure to the plane feel this love for everybody.
23:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's talk about a path to citizenship, because according to your work, you found that a path to citizenship would raise wages and not just for the undocumented, but for everyone across the board.
23:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Walk me through how that happens and and maybe maybe we could flip the script a bit and start talking about why we need More more workers to come in and take some of the jobs that aren't being taken like I don't know if you've noticed But we're heading towards the need for a lot of care workers that we seem to not be able to find this seems like an opportunity to maybe fill some of that Any any thoughts
23:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, there's a number of studies going back all the way to the 1986 legalization that showed that there's a wage boost of around, you know, on average about 15% for workers who get status.
23:50
[SPEAKER_03]: And so if you, you know, you, you, you, you just, uh,
23:53
[SPEAKER_03]: project that out across the entire economy, those are major gains, so we have the numbers kind of by state that a low-age typical low-age worker would get the boost to get in a year from legalization.
24:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And for Texas, for example, it'd be about $5,700 per year for getting this
24:14
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's numerous studies that show that you get a big wage boost and why is that?
24:19
[SPEAKER_03]: That's because workers have status, they're able to change jobs more easily, they're able to enforce their rights, they're actually able to have workplace rights in practice.
24:28
[SPEAKER_03]: That's one of the big things people don't talk about is that having status means having workplace rights.
24:32
[SPEAKER_03]: If you don't, you really just don't have any rights.
24:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And so yeah, I think there's a lot of debates about what the numbers should be and where we should set the methods plenty of room for policy discussion about that and different methodologies and how we should determine if their shortages are not in certain occupations.
24:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I think what's important is that people need to come in with status.
24:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that we do need people and those people need to have rights and status and a path to citizenship so they can fully participate in political and economic life.
25:01
[SPEAKER_04]: So I got two quick things left.
25:03
[SPEAKER_04]: First one being, it's ironic to me that the red states who voted for this are the ones who are crying the loudest because they seem to be the most affected.
25:12
[SPEAKER_04]: So do you have any hope that maybe we do get to have a conversation about sane and rational immigration policy now that it's the red states
25:20
[SPEAKER_04]: The people who wanted this real waking up to the reality that, oh, maybe I didn't really want this, and then, you know, after that, you know, what do we do about it?
25:29
[SPEAKER_04]: What's what's the, what are the marching orders?
25:31
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you want people to take from this, this fact sheet.
25:35
[SPEAKER_03]: I think there's more and more evidence out there in polling that people are not happy with the enforcement that they're seeing and also that they feel to see that they did not, they didn't believe this was the level of enforcement that was gonna happen.
25:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we can have a separate discussion about that.
25:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I think a lot of us understood that this is what Trump was campaigning on.
25:54
[SPEAKER_03]: The reality is that people are seeing what it's like in the real world and they don't like it.
26:00
[SPEAKER_03]: They're seeing their friends and their neighbors and their family members being taken even when they have legal status to be in the country.
26:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So I do think that the the winds are changing.
26:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And I hope that people understand more and more data coming out, you know, there was a one study that was recent that showed from, you know, from 2025 until now over 700,000 jobs have been lost because this is not helping the economy.
26:24
[SPEAKER_03]: U.S. born employment rates have dropped the number of the share of U.S. more workers who are employed in the labor market that has dropped that has not gone up compared to the previous two years.
26:36
[SPEAKER_03]: So people are starting to see the the impact of this and and I do hope that that that changes things.
26:42
[SPEAKER_03]: What should people do?
26:43
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I hope that they continue to be aware and speak out about this and and make sure that you know, that people know how they feel about it and how their leaders, their leaders know how they feel about this.
26:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Unfortunately, the Trump administration has that $270 billion to use through the end of the Trump administration.
27:02
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's.
27:03
[SPEAKER_03]: little of the commerce can do in terms of clawing that money back, although they can take a past legislation to do it, then they could, but that will be difficult with Trump's veto, but every policy lover should be used to try to scale back the human impact of
27:19
[SPEAKER_04]: a lot of work to do and a lot of reasons why elections have consequences.
27:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Daniel Costa, I appreciate you taking time for us director of immigration law and policy research there at the economic policy.
27:29
[SPEAKER_04]: It's through EPI.org.
27:30
[SPEAKER_04]: The website, if you want to take a look at the work Daniel, thanks so much.
27:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Thanks so much for having me on really appreciate you bringing attention to this.
27:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Want to hear your thoughts?
27:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Anything surprising?
27:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Anything shocking?
27:40
[SPEAKER_04]: Anything, oh my, I didn't know.
27:41
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear it.
27:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Rick at the Ricksmithshow.com.
27:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And also, do you think maybe we'll get some sanity?
27:47
[SPEAKER_04]: Touch?
27:49
[SPEAKER_04]: I know, not in a near future.
27:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Rick at TheRixMithsio.com right back.
28:00
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History Into.
28:03
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1929.
28:07
[SPEAKER_04]: That was the day a mistrial was declared in the case of 16 textile mill unionists in North Carolina.
28:19
[SPEAKER_04]: textile mill workers at Gastonia's Lowery Mill had been on strike since April 1st.
28:24
[SPEAKER_04]: They demanded higher wages and shorter work hours, union recognition, and an end to the hated stretch-out system.
28:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Soon, textile workers at Bessamer City's American Mill walked off the job in solidarity and joined the National Textal Workers Union.
28:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Elamay Wiggins was one of the strike leaders at American Mill.
28:43
[SPEAKER_04]: She was known for her militancy, but also for organizing black workers into the union.
28:48
[SPEAKER_04]: As the strike war on, mill owners evicted dozens of families from company housing.
28:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Wiggins helped set up a tent city.
28:56
[SPEAKER_04]: On June 7, sheriff's deputies attacked strikers who marched to Laurie Mill to call out remaining workers.
29:02
[SPEAKER_04]: The police arrived at the tent colony later that evening to disarm them.
29:06
[SPEAKER_04]: And Gastonia's police chief, wound up dead.
29:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Immediately, more than 70 textile union members and leaders were rounded up and arrested.
29:15
[SPEAKER_04]: 16 stood trial for the murder of Chief Atterhold.
29:19
[SPEAKER_04]: The anti-union committee of 100 smashed up the N.T.W.U headquarters in Gastonia and Bessomer City.
29:26
[SPEAKER_04]: They kidnapped, beat, and threatened to kill several union members.
29:30
[SPEAKER_04]: The rampage continued as scab forces moved on to Charlotte to raid the offices of the international labor defense, who had handled the striker's case.
29:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Five days into the terror, Wiggins was killed on her way to a union solidarity rally.
29:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Outrage over her murder forced mill owners to improve conditions and wages, but the fight to organize would continue for years.
29:53
[SPEAKER_04]: For more information, go to laborhistoryn2.com, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter at LaborHistoryn2.
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: What's wrong with us?
30:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Her nation's moral compass, I mean.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like being a downer just focusing on wrongs, but some wrong standout is morally abominable, such as this one.
30:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about hundreds of thousands of our low-income elders who toured the end of life when frail and most vulnerable.
30:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Find themselves cast into a part of the Medicaid system that has been deliberately structured by Congress to subject them to needless deprivations and daily indignities.
30:29
[SPEAKER_00]: These are our loved ones with serious health problems who need long-term care in nursing homes, and two-thirds of them rely on Medicaid to cover their costs.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: To get this benefit, they surrender all of their income, which goes to defray their nursing home expenses.
30:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, for a decent existence beyond mere survival, we all rely on a few little things that are basic to our humanity.
30:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So Medicaid authorizes each state
30:55
[SPEAKER_00]: to set a monthly personal needs allowance, so their elderly patients can cover hygiene and grooming products at book, or CD, a small gift for grandchildren, a chocolate bar, etc.
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Good, but then Mr. Minji walked in.
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1987, Congress set the minimum for this allowance at a maker $30 a month under $8 a week.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Congress has not raised it in the decades since, and most states still provide only a patents, despite inflation and monopoly price gouging on practically everything.
31:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So our state and national leaders who freely do loud massive corporate subsidies and tax giveaways to billionaires, are leaving ill seniors with so little spending money that they must ration their toothpaste and scrimp pennies to buy a rare treat from the vending machine.
31:44
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jim Hi-Tower saying,
31:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I know this is small in the global scale of human and dignities, but that makes it an even bigger moral failure for our society.
31:54
[SPEAKER_00]: It would take so little to do so much for so many.
32:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to the Rick Smith Show.
32:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, here is Rick Smith.
32:13
[SPEAKER_04]: So yesterday on the program brought up a sentence from a friend's sub-stack article that I just thought just tickled my fancy.
32:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Here's one of those things that made me go, yeah, you know, the reality is is the people who voted for Trump did.
32:28
[SPEAKER_04]: quote sentenced a lot of us to suffer the inevitable disaster of an 80 year old sociopaths some downing regression back to his childhoods, sadistic tantrums, and catterwalling his he fits.
32:41
[SPEAKER_04]: And that got a response from a lot of folks going that is perfect.
32:44
[SPEAKER_04]: It explains where we are now, but I also didn't go into what the article said and it's what I've been saying
32:57
[SPEAKER_04]: We're gonna have to live through it.
32:59
[SPEAKER_04]: We're gonna have to figure out a way to get through, learn the lessons, and all by the way, the fives, we gotta let them go.
33:07
[SPEAKER_04]: And I've got a little pushback that, you know, no, no, we can, they can be saved.
33:12
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I don't think so in here to share some thoughts about his most recent sub-stack post.
33:16
[SPEAKER_04]: That's my good friend Keith Poechek, to come share some thoughts.
33:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Keith is an author, author of the book, a tickled soul, an educator, and a recovering ER doctor.
33:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Keith, thanks for taking time for us.
33:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I always enjoy being with you.
33:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for having me on.
33:31
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm going to tell you, that line just grabbed me, made me laugh.
33:34
[SPEAKER_04]: It was one of those things, kind of needed.
33:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Needed the, uh, need the gallows humor a little bit, I guess.
33:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's a bit of a run on sentence, I guess, but so has, that's exactly what this whole era has been.
33:50
[SPEAKER_02]: It's been a run on era, you know, when does it end?
33:54
[SPEAKER_02]: And it just, it gets more absurd every day.
33:56
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, we see things just being destroyed and eroding,
34:04
[SPEAKER_02]: around us and are holding on to hope that maybe this segment, this worst piece of the ride is coming to an end and I think is that full-ish or is that just an old-fashioned American optimism and maybe it pays off and maybe we can learn something from it but
34:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I've always been just a hard and optimistic person.
34:29
[SPEAKER_02]: And so because I figure what's the point otherwise.
34:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, good point.
34:34
[SPEAKER_04]: And the article's titled, Survive the ride, learn the lesson.
34:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And we've got to hold on, as you look, what choice do you have?
34:42
[SPEAKER_04]: But learn the lesson is the important part and I don't think we're there I mean because I'm looking around the country and I look at Alabama Alabama for me Texas is another place, but I look at Alabama the guy running for governor their Doug Jones is an incredible human being Civil rights champion, just an incredible guy Running against literally the dumbest guy in the US Senate
35:05
[SPEAKER_04]: Who thinks that our airplanes are being flown by by plushies and furries and is couldn't you just concerned about what people do in the Confines of their four walls and oh by the way said that he doesn't read anything because he doesn't want to change his opinion or What her is beliefs and that guy that guy is winning by I hit at last boy.
35:25
[SPEAKER_04]: So I was like ten points What does that say about us?
35:31
[SPEAKER_02]: It does, I mean, I think that in a lot of these instances, you can look at things like that.
35:36
[SPEAKER_02]: and just lose hope, but I think that there's still some bright spots all around, I think that living here in North Carolina has sort of, there's always been a carrot dangling just out of reach, being a purple state like we are, and there are things that will
36:04
[SPEAKER_02]: and governor, and then somehow can't quite get over the hump when it comes to presidential and Senate races.
36:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think finally, you know, finally this year, hopefully at least it looks like it, is that we, you know, we replace a Trump rubber stand with a with a solid strong Democrat candidate.
36:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's, it's, it comes back to the politics and we need good leaders.
36:28
[SPEAKER_04]: I've been saying for too long.
36:29
[SPEAKER_04]: We've got bad tools.
36:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't look at politicians.
36:31
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know how you look at it.
36:33
[SPEAKER_04]: But I don't view politicians as saviors.
36:35
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't view them as anything more than tools to get the things that we need.
36:38
[SPEAKER_04]: And we've had some really dull tools.
36:42
[SPEAKER_04]: over the last several years and and I look at I watch Trump every day and the one thing I'll give him credit for is he's the ultimate optimist you know the economies better than it's ever been with the envy of the world nobody's ever seen anything like it it's incredible it's tremendous it's you know it's it's all of that and and that and more and never fails to continue to regurgitate that at nauseam
37:04
[SPEAKER_04]: And to the point where people who are struggling are going, well, it's not so bad.
37:08
[SPEAKER_04]: And you go, yeah, it kind of is.
37:10
[SPEAKER_04]: So for me, I don't think it's going to get any better until it gets much, much worse.
37:16
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm curious if you have a thought.
37:19
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I don't know.
37:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think that, you know, obviously this is that this could be an inflection point coming up in November.
37:32
[SPEAKER_02]: what ends it, you know, like you said, I think that we have, what looks like two more years of this, it's hard to think that you're going to get any sort of majority or two thirds, super majority or core to get them out of office.
37:52
[SPEAKER_02]: But I think that, you know, the next
37:59
[SPEAKER_02]: which can fulfill its sworn duty to act as a check on the president, because they've completely advocated that.
38:07
[SPEAKER_02]: The only thing that Mike Johnson is good at is calling a recess.
38:13
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, can we at least get to the point where they take their responsibility and their job seriously?
38:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And hopefully, hopefully, we can get a glimmer of that as early as the first we
38:29
[SPEAKER_02]: heads this way and passes.
38:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, it's desperately needed, but you know, the sad reality and I keep coming back to this.
38:35
[SPEAKER_04]: My view has always been, it's got to get much worse.
38:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, it's getting bad.
38:40
[SPEAKER_04]: I've seen a lot of the red hats coming off.
38:43
[SPEAKER_04]: I've seen a lot of the bumper stickers, you know, being, you know, maybe just brushed over a little bit.
38:48
[SPEAKER_04]: There's still some, and as you point out in your article, we're probably never going to recover.
38:53
[SPEAKER_04]: If you're still wearing the red hat today, if you're still out there flying the Trump flag,
38:57
[SPEAKER_04]: They're probably beyond being reached and maybe we just let them go and deal with you know bringing
39:04
[SPEAKER_04]: the reachable, as I've said, if we can make four or three and three stews, great, you're never getting the fives.
39:11
[SPEAKER_04]: We should be moving on because there's so much it needs to be done.
39:15
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's the frustrating part here because I do see people struggling.
39:18
[SPEAKER_04]: I do see workers having a hard time putting putting food on the table, keeping it on roof over the road.
39:24
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm in the healthcare system all the time.
39:26
[SPEAKER_04]: I see nothing but desperation and depression and it's
39:33
[SPEAKER_02]: It is, and it's not just from the people accessing it, you know, and a lot of instances to people who are working there that are there in the struggle.
39:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, these are majoring workers at a lot of levels.
39:50
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, it would be great if there was, if we could give them a sense that the, that not only is there a light at the end of the tunnel, but
40:00
[SPEAKER_02]: that that that light's not a train that's that that's that's had in their way.
40:05
[SPEAKER_02]: And so I mean, I still have a soft spot for people who have been able to put in years and decades in that industry is draining as it is.
40:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, and you like, you know, like you said, you you see it every day on on on on on on that side and on the other side of it.
40:24
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you know, we're in incredibly tough spot and I think that the reality for probably 70% or so of Americans has settled in.
40:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of us were there far earlier than others.
40:42
[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, not everybody realizes that the that the emperor's not wearing any clothes at the same time.
40:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, sometimes it's the kids who notice it first, and sometimes the people who are the last to acknowledge it are the ones that are either ashamed for the emperor or ashamed for themselves.
41:02
[SPEAKER_02]: That's an excellent point, but they haven't seen it.
41:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, I use you an awful lot, you know, as kind of a thought example, and you know, because as you said, you know, the folks who are administering the care, the workers in that environment, their workers, that's, you know, yeah, it's a calling, it's a passion, it's all of that, but it's still a job.
41:21
[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, I think about some of the CNAs and I think about some of the nurses, especially the folks who are the hands-on direct folks, and the thought that just keeps coming in my head, I can imagine going to work every day, knowing that I'm going to fail in so many different ways, because the structure is set up that there's no way I can do everything that's asked of me.
41:43
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no way I'm going to be in three or four places at once, and that I'm just so overwhelmed,
41:49
[SPEAKER_04]: and and so much expected.
41:52
[SPEAKER_04]: So I think about that all the time and you know, I use you as an example, you know, you were an ER doctor who decided, you know, what I've had enough of this system.
42:00
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to go do something I love and good on you for being able to do it, but I don't think it's a story that's too often enough.
42:07
[SPEAKER_02]: No, it is.
42:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, and every day, especially if I have a
42:18
[SPEAKER_02]: to use a 90s person phrase off the chain or out of control.
42:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And I can step back and say, you know what?
42:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, look at this opportunity that I have that so many people who were in healthcare just couldn't even consider.
42:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You know doing something like this and how fortunate I am and it it resets me every time and I look at my my transition in my new job in a completely different way and you know hopefully also hopefully that Compels me to to set an example for the for the for the for the younger kids Who are who are there with me?
42:59
[SPEAKER_04]: No, but, you know, the thing is, I tell people like, I got a friend who was using the yard doctor.
43:03
[SPEAKER_04]: He's a doctor, he now teaches middle school.
43:06
[SPEAKER_04]: And they're like, no, I'm like, yeah, not there's there's more to life than title and status.
43:11
[SPEAKER_04]: There's some bit of happiness, there's some bit of calling, there's some bit of, you know, you've got to have passion and love for what you do, I guess, right?
43:19
[SPEAKER_02]: definitely.
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: And I mean, I feel to to to to to be near me.
43:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm nearing 50 to be nearing 50 and to feel renewed.
43:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I think is it is very rare.
43:34
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's another one of those things where sure it's great and it was bold and I took you know took a chance when I wasn't sure exactly how it was going to go.
43:45
[SPEAKER_02]: But also I had the
43:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess the safety net there to be able to step off the cliff and trust that everything was going to turn out okay.
43:58
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think that just re-examining it every so often from that lens gives me a renewed kind of kind of burst of energy or confidence or optimism that you know
44:16
[SPEAKER_04]: So to pull this back and look at the entire country, we've been stumbling along in the sad reality as I don't care what comes out of Trump's mouth.
44:25
[SPEAKER_04]: The reality is we're falling behind China as we speak, the rest of the world that we've caught, we've picked fights with is trying to figure out how to work around us.
44:36
[SPEAKER_04]: There's gotta be a coming back together.
44:38
[SPEAKER_04]: There's gotta be something that re-energizes us, re-invigorates us, take a wanna come together.
44:45
[SPEAKER_04]: So do you have any thoughts?
44:47
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you see any hope going forward?
44:49
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think that it starts with, I've said this to my wife maybe a few months ago.
44:56
[SPEAKER_02]: If, if, an anti-corruption platform can't win,
45:02
[SPEAKER_02]: then we're cooked as a country because I think that that's one thing that every at least working person can rally around.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: When you see people who are gaming the system and are stealing and are grifting and are insider trading and are just enriching themselves on our backs.
45:24
[SPEAKER_02]: If we can't rally around that,
45:26
[SPEAKER_02]: to bring in something new that works for us, then I'm not sure what could win if that can't.
45:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you look at examples, like, you look at examples, like Hungary, I mean, there are some more, I'm not a super well-versed geopolitical person, but even in Ukraine, I guess a few decades ago,
45:52
[SPEAKER_02]: when all of the blatant corruption was exposed in the population just became just had this righteous indignation about what was going on that it turned to tide and can that happen here.
46:14
[SPEAKER_02]: the one thing that could could rally.
46:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I used to buy that 80% of American.
46:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I was right there with you for a bit.
46:22
[SPEAKER_04]: And then somehow we put our faith that, you know, half the country put their faith in a billionaire.
46:27
[SPEAKER_04]: And you go, how is that possible?
46:28
[SPEAKER_04]: A billionaire who's got a track record of being a con man and a grifter.
46:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Somehow there's a large portion of the working class in this country that looks at him for gives all the sins and goes,
46:44
[SPEAKER_02]: twisted.
46:46
[SPEAKER_02]: The reelection, I agree, the 2024 reelection was very demoralizing.
46:52
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think obviously there were a lot of factors and play there that couldn't have been necessarily predicted or could have been played better, especially on the democratic side.
47:00
[SPEAKER_02]: But at the end of the day, you had someone who was qualified, was certainly seemed trustworthy.
47:13
[SPEAKER_02]: And had kind of been there, done that.
47:15
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you had someone who was a proven failure and a proven liar and a proven grifter and we chose him again.
47:25
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, how exactly that happened.
47:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you could dissect that, I guess.
47:30
[SPEAKER_04]: So we can spend days on that.
47:32
[SPEAKER_04]: So last line of question I've got for you because this comes back down to mental health and just trying to survive this this period and I get this from a lot of people, you know, how do you get up every day?
47:44
[SPEAKER_04]: and still stay engaged and still stay positive that tomorrow is going to be better because I do believe tomorrow will be better than than yesterday.
47:52
[SPEAKER_04]: I believe you know the day after is going to be better.
47:55
[SPEAKER_04]: I got to believe that.
47:57
[SPEAKER_04]: How how do we work through that and not be the deluded once everything's great.
48:03
[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to get better.
48:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Our guys winning.
48:06
[SPEAKER_04]: How do we make it through the next little over two years?
48:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, for me, and this, I mean, my reality is my reality, and but to be able to work with young people and see that integrity still lives and honesty still lives and kindness still lives and you know in a lot of these things are.
48:33
[SPEAKER_02]: not just taught by parents and teachers, but also to a degree or baked into human DNA, you know, over millions of years for us to look out for one another because it was beneficial for our entire species, for us to learn how to be compassionate and share ideas,
48:51
[SPEAKER_02]: and work together.
48:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And so to be able to see that in the in the young generation despite what they've been through over the past, you know, 10 or 15 years.
49:00
[SPEAKER_02]: When you look back at a snapshot of what my kids grew up through, yeah, going through the Trump air and through COVID.
49:07
[SPEAKER_02]: And to still understand that like sure these kids are perfect and they have a lot of issues and a lot of challenges and a lot of them have mental health problems, but you get in the classroom and you just see how they can still just enjoy each other's company, they can still teach each other, they can still share things, they can still be a pathetic and kind.
49:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And you realize that like a single person or a single movement has no hope of undoing that.
49:33
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I mean, that has been persistent across generations for thousands of years.
49:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, that this, just this sense that the cause overall is an internal one, you know, it's going to, it's got, it started way before us and it's going to outlive us.
49:50
[SPEAKER_02]: for centuries.
49:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And so that sort of just brings me a sense of not just my place in it, but the fact that it's going to continue and to be able to just kind of foster that environment as, you know, it puts me in a much better mindset and much better spot to spite the things burning around me.
50:11
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I get it, you know, the what I was just thinking about it's easy to focus on the on the elephants behind instead of the entire elephant because right now that's basically what we're focused on on on the elephants behind and and because I've had so many people tell me that it's never been worse than it is now things are terrible.
50:31
[SPEAKER_04]: I go, no we've had we've had bad times in our country's history and this is just our time to rise to the moment and I guess if that gives me hope
50:43
[SPEAKER_04]: maybe.
50:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we will.
50:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's a, it's a, it's a win and not, not yet.
50:50
[SPEAKER_04]: There you go.
50:52
[SPEAKER_04]: There you go.
50:52
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not, I, I love the optimism.
50:55
[SPEAKER_04]: I hope folks check out the sub stack page.
50:57
[SPEAKER_04]: You can find that.
50:58
[SPEAKER_04]: The article saved the, survived the ride, learned the lesson.
51:02
[SPEAKER_04]: You can find that over a K-po check author dot sub stack dot com will get links out.
51:08
[SPEAKER_04]: But Keith, great work.
51:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Keep it up.
51:10
[SPEAKER_04]: I'd love to have
51:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Any time please reach out and I love chatting with you good stuff.
51:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my good friend Keith power check make sure to check out his sub stack page Want to hear your thoughts though email me Rick at the ricksmith show dot com do we let him go do we let the bives just kind of yeah click rap Post it the corner Rick at the ricksmith show dot com right back
51:37
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Rick Smith, and this is Labor History in 2.
51:41
[SPEAKER_04]: On this day in Labor History, the year was 1931.
51:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Canadian coal miners, their wives, and children marched through the streets of Estevan, Saskatchewan.
51:50
[SPEAKER_04]: The miners were on strike for Union recognition and better pay and working conditions.
51:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Safety was a major concern for the 600 men and boys who worked in the mines.
52:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Water collected in many work areas.
52:03
[SPEAKER_04]: To often, the mine companies failed to replace Rodding Dimper, so roof caveins were frequent.
52:09
[SPEAKER_04]: In adequate ventilation, let the high concentrations of carbon dioxide.
52:13
[SPEAKER_04]: For braving this dangerous underground work, the miners earned only 25 cents for each ton of coal.
52:20
[SPEAKER_04]: The miners had joined the Mine Workers Union of Canada earlier that year.
52:24
[SPEAKER_04]: They called the strike in September, but coal mine operators refused to meet their demands.
52:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Miners and their families decided to demonstrate in the town of Esteban to gain community support.
52:35
[SPEAKER_04]: The mayor banned the demonstration and called upon the royal Canadian-mounted police to crush the march.
52:41
[SPEAKER_04]: The Mounties met several hundred miners and their families and attempted to block the procession.
52:46
[SPEAKER_04]: They opened fire on the unarmed crowd.
52:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Three striking miners were killed, and many others were wounded and arrested.
52:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Finally, on October 6, the miners finally agreed to an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $4 a day.
53:00
[SPEAKER_04]: But, they refused to recognize the union.
53:03
[SPEAKER_04]: It was not until the end of World War II that the United Mine Workers finally won recognition
53:10
[SPEAKER_04]: The strike remains at controversial event in Esteban, the three miners who were killed, have the inscription murdered by RCMP on their headstones.
53:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Over the years, locals have alternately erased and restored these inscriptions.
53:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Labor history in two brought to you by the Illinois Labor History Society and the Rick Smith Show.
53:30
[SPEAKER_04]: For more information, go to laborhistoryintu.com, like us on Facebook and follow us on the Twitter's At Labor History in two.
53:40
[SPEAKER_01]: You're listening to the Rick Smith show where working people come to talk.
53:50
[SPEAKER_04]: So the reality is, how do you survive?
53:53
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's good to talk to Keith.
53:55
[SPEAKER_04]: I haven't talked to him in a head-in-a-man the show and some time, cause I think he's one of my favorite people.
54:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I'll be honest, I always optimistic.
54:04
[SPEAKER_04]: One of those really bright guys who I value is his opinion and the idea of surviving the ride, but also learning the lessons.
54:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean,
54:14
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, as I went through, you know, yesterday a little bit, you think about some of the climbing that's been going on by this administration.
54:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Some of the stuff that they've gotten away with that desperately needs investigation.
54:26
[SPEAKER_04]: And, and I do think that the, the, the massive people, once you start talking about all the, the, the, the graph, and all of the, once, once the, if Democrats do do what they say they're going to do, and that is investigate stuff.
54:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, I do think you're going to find a more receptive here.
54:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Are you ever going to get all of the, the, the, the, the, the, the Trump world.
54:47
[SPEAKER_04]: No, you're, you're not, you're not, you're not all going to get all of them.
54:51
[SPEAKER_04]: There's going to be a large portion of them that are, they're going to be there forever.
54:57
[SPEAKER_04]: But I'll tell you these, these ads that are being run right now.
55:02
[SPEAKER_04]: They're political ads and even Republicans are going, yeah, I'm uncomfortable with this because we got to go home and we got to run and we got to we got to justify this insanity Now the administration saying it well their public service announcements, but they sure look a lot like the 2024 campaign ads With a paid for by the US government disclaimer at it.
55:26
[SPEAKER_04]: They sure look a lot like that Just kind of throwing that out there
55:32
[SPEAKER_04]: And understand, the hope is the hope is that we don't bury our heads.
55:40
[SPEAKER_04]: One of the things that I learned in 2011 and Republicans learned this as well is that you can beat people into submission.
55:50
[SPEAKER_04]: You can just harass them the no-one and when they tried to recall Scott Walker and they went out, it was just a constant barrage
56:02
[SPEAKER_04]: People will just, that I talk to or just going, hey, I just want it to stop.
56:07
[SPEAKER_04]: I just want to be able to go to my kids' game and not have to worry about my phone ringing.
56:11
[SPEAKER_04]: I just want to be able to, you know, political season should only be a couple of weeks, shouldn't be a year, two year process.
56:18
[SPEAKER_04]: And Trump understands that.
56:20
[SPEAKER_04]: They understand that the spaghetti theory if you just keep bombarding people, you keep throwing stuff against the wall.
56:26
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, maybe an idea sticks?
56:29
[SPEAKER_04]: Or maybe people just get tired of cleaning up and this is where I'm hoping that you look at all of this naming nonsense get to put his name on the Kennedy Center, you know, the talk of putting it on the Ford on the Ford theater, you know, you just the the plaques of past presidents or you you you replaced one with an auto pen.
56:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Clinton's plaque notes that Hillary lost the Trump, I mean, this is childish stuff.
57:02
[SPEAKER_04]: The kind of stuff that you wouldn't allow your own child to get away with, let alone tell your child that they should emulate that person.
57:10
[SPEAKER_04]: But you go through the money stuff.
57:12
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's incredible, you know, demanding that the DOJ pay up to $30 million because the federal government investigated what I would argue were, you know, things, things that any one of us would have had to answer for.
57:30
[SPEAKER_04]: But this administration, they seem to get away with all of this and none of it ever sticks.
57:37
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's because, well, the base doesn't care.
57:41
[SPEAKER_04]: So when I talk about immigration, as we did a little bit ago, I know people who say exactly what he is doing is what we want to do.
57:51
[SPEAKER_04]: We want to go and we want to make people miserable.
57:53
[SPEAKER_04]: We want to throw people out of the country in the belief, the belief that those those jobs that they're abandoning or being taken from are somehow going to become family sustaining jobs that they're going to be willing to take.
58:09
[SPEAKER_04]: And unfortunately, look, as a union guy, I want to believe that.
58:13
[SPEAKER_04]: It just hasn't played itself out.
58:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, I know some will say, whoa, we just haven't done it enough.
58:21
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm listening to some red states.
58:24
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm listening to some red states squeal right now.
58:28
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm listening to some farmers and some dairy farmers.
58:33
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm listening to some cattle people.
58:38
[SPEAKER_04]: They don't seem happy, they don't seem optimistic, they don't seem thrilled by what's going on because I believe they all thought it was somebody else.
58:47
[SPEAKER_04]: I believe they didn't think it was going to be them.
58:51
[SPEAKER_04]: So this election cycle is gonna be interesting because with all the nonsense, all the con games, all the climbing, all the stuff that
59:04
[SPEAKER_04]: is almost so much that the average person just isn't going to pay attention to and just throw their hands up and go, I don't know, it's, I gotta tell you, it's scary times.
59:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Want to hear your thoughts?
59:17
[SPEAKER_04]: Email me Rick at therixmithshow.com.
59:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Miss any portion of the program, grab the podcast and as always, thanks so much for being here.
59:24
[SPEAKER_04]: We'll see you back here next time.
59:42
[SPEAKER_01]: you've been listening to the Rick Smith show.
59:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Email Rack at Rick at RickSmithshow.com.
59:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Until next time, this has been The Rick Smith Show.
59:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We're working people, come to talk.