The Rick Smith Show

May 9, 2024 On today’s show, we start with a discussion of child labor in America. In its never-ending search for cheap exploitable workers, corporate America has used its stable of GOP legislators to weaken child labor laws in many states and find ways to get around existing laws in order to force kids into dangerous industrial jobs. We discuss this and more with our guests: Greg Regan of the Tra...

May 8, 2024 We’ve done it. We’ve finally done it. For the first time in American history, the wealth class now pays a lower tax rate than the working class. Now we just have to wait for all the wealth we simply give the rich to “trickle down” to the rest of us. Unless it was all just a big lie … Our guests today are Julie Hedrick – President of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, an...

May 7, 2024 Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota and wannabe Trump VP-pick just released a new book, and it appears to be full of carefully chosen lies. In fact, so much of what comes from the right these days is just carefully chosen lies. On today’s show, we discuss why this is the case, and what we can do about it. We also spend some time with Will Bunch of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and our r...

May 6, 2024 Apple just announced a $110 billion stock buyback plan. That’s billion with a B. We discuss this, and also get into a new plan in Congress to protect warehouse workers, which will surely be attacked by corporate Republican and corporate Democrats alike, and then we talk about disinformation with Carlos Alvarez-Aranyos of The American Sunlight Project, and then break down the week with...

May 3, 2024 Simply put, America is getting tired of the Trump sideshow. As he whines about being held accountable for crimes he thinks only the rest of us should pay for, and as he grifts ceaselessly because he needs the cash – most of us are simply tuning out. And that’s dangerous, because if he wins, it’s going to be much worse that it was last time. This and more with journalist Shaun Richman o...

May 1, 2024 Some of our richest citizens gathered last week to game out ways to defeat Joe Biden and restore the guy who will keep the tax cut gravy train going. They have the tax code they like, and they’re looking for ways to keep it. And if a dictator will make them richer, then a dictator we will have. We discuss this and more with guests Jean Ross of The Center for American Progress, and Iowa...

May 1, 2024 It’s official – the top 1% in America now own more wealth than the entire middle class, or what’s left of the middle class, that is. Turns out buying government is a great way for rich people to get a lot richer, and many of us are either standing by as it happens, or actively helping the rich steal from our families. This and more on today’s show with guests Scott Paul of The Alliance...

April 30, 2024 Are we becoming accustomed to corruption in our politics? Are we so divided that we can no longer make judgements based on our values and sense of right and wrong? Given the fact that the last administration survived literally hundreds of scandals that would have ended the careers of any politician that came before, it appears that we no longer care if we elect criminals. This and m...

April 29, 2024 America is just beginning to pull itself out of the Reagan era. We now understand that trickle down economics doesn’t work, and the jobs that were given away to China need to come home again. But how do we do it? We discuss these issues against a backdrop of rising divisions in America, and how we can bring people together around the idea that one good job is all a family should nee...

April 26, 2024 The Biden Administration just changed the overtime rules in a way that will make millions of abused workers eligible for overtime pay that corporations had previously stolen from them. It’s a small change with massive impact, and it will most often affect lower wage workers who often work way over 40 hours in a week without any overtime pay. We discuss this change, and also get into...

April 25, 2024 A short time ago, several prominent Republicans posed the question, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Ever since, we have been answering that question by going back four years and sharing a few headlines. And today is the four-year anniversary of that special day when the President of the United States told us to drink bleach and shove a blacklight up our bums...

April 24, 2024 The Supreme Court is considering a case that would essentially make homelessness a crime; New Hampshire Republicans are trying to make polio great again, and Texas is going to try to cut all property taxes so they can completely eliminate public schools. This and a discussion about Sherrod Brown’s call for a full ban on Chinese cars in America with guests Scott Paul of The Alliance...

April 23, 2024 Late last week, workers at Volkswagen voted in a union for the first time, joining the UAW. It was a historic vote for a number of reasons; over 70% of the employees chose to vote Union Yes, and they did so in one of the most union-hostile places on planet Earth – the state of Tennessee. Could this be the beginning of a labor resurgence in America? We think so, and today’s guests th...

April 22, 2024 The Silver Tsunami is here, and baby boomers are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day. But unlike previous generations, this one isn’t “really” retiring, with 62% staying in the workforce due to the fact they don’t have the financial security to retire fully. One in four have nothing at all saved. This is not an accident – it’s the result of policy and greed. We discuss this and mor...

April 19, 2024 Earlier this week, a whistleblower testified to Congress about massive and deliberate safety violations in the manufacturing process at Boeing, and how these violations boosted profit at the risk of American lives – lives that were lost when two planes crashed for reasons that were certainly preventable. Also, Elon Musk announced a 10% cut to its global workforce, prompting many to...

April 18, 2024 In the last election, the American voters, in their infinite wisdom, gave a majority to Republicans in the House of Representatives. Since that happened, things have … well, been a bit of a zoo. The House GOP has expelled one Speaker and is on the verge of doing it a second time, all because the ex and the soon-to-be ex Speakers dared to compromise with Democrats to get something do...

April 17, 2024 The Trump trial is off and running as lawyers from both sides begin the jury selection process. Trump, like any other criminal defendant, is required to be in the courtroom, but no one told him he had to be awake. Several reports have him nodding off several times during the day. We talk about the day’s events, and much more, with Ian MIllhiser of Vox and one of our friends from the...

April 16, 2024 It’s Tax Day, America. And by Tax Day, we mean it’s the one day of the year when we do more for the wealth class than we do on any other day of the year. As we pay, they dodge. As we dig deep, they pop champagne. And as we scrimp and save, they buy yachts with tax cuts that used to pay for schools, roads, and a better future for all. Now that better future belongs to a handful of ri...

April 12, 2024 The American economy is the strongest in the world, and every indicator says we are doing well … so why don’t Americans feel optimistic about it? There are a number of reasons, and many powerful entities involved, and on today’s show, we talk not only about the numbers and the positive effects of Joe Biden’s policies, but also about the incredibly powerful forces that shout doom and...

April 11, 2024 Today we have a special guest - Michael Harrison of Talkers Magazine. With decades of experience in the industry, Michael has been a witness to massive changes over the years, yet no matter how many new forms of media emerge, talk radio manages to keep a substantial audience, and in political circles, it holds tremendous power. The demise of talk radio has been greatly exaggerated....

April 11, 2024 At election time, we tend to forget that a president is not a single person, but an entire team, not only when they campaign, but when they actually govern. For working people, a president is who he appoints to critical roles that govern labor relations, trade, and the agencies that reign in corporate greed and lawlessness. So those choosing between Trump and Biden are actually choo...

April 10, 2024 The American economy is booming. Huge job numbers. Record-breaking unemployment. But with how we funnel all the profits to the immorally rich, working people are seeing very little of this success. Instead, we are making a small number of billionaires, and those billionaires are taking everything and leaving nothing for the rest of us. We discuss this and more with Employment Lawyer...

April 8, 2024 Over the weekend, Trump held a fundraiser, and he claims he raised $50 million (which just happens to be twice what Joe Biden raised at his fundraiser last week). And true to form, our media covered the claims as if they were true, or as if they could be true, as they typically do when Trump is obviously lying. Even the left-leaning outlets just couldn’t resist platforming the lie, a...

April 8, 2024 Many of the right-wing attacks on everything from education to democracy itself, can be traced back to a foundational document called The Powell Memo, which is a document written by a former Supreme Court Justice and designed to “save capitalism” by using the power of corporations to control everything from the courts to media to what we teach to how we govern. To put it lightly, thi...

April 5, 2024 In red states all over America, strange things are happening. Schools are being crippled and replaced with scam voucher programs, child labor laws are being rolled back, and Republicans are openly attacking Social Security and Medicare. Generations of gains for working Americans are being clawed back, and we may just be looking at another Gilded Age in the near future, where the rich...