The Rick Smith Show

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: We don't deserve to be on the chopping block because a bunch of rich white people got together & came up with a plan that's absolutely sinister to everybody except them.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: We've got a guy running for the presidency who doesn't care about the military, who doesn't care about the people. He's not running because he wants to help people find better jobs. Trump's running for president to avoid prosecution because he's a criminal.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: Project 2025 is going to be damaging to every single person in this country, period. It's also going be very damaging to the elderly, the poor, to people who aren't lily white. We've got to stand up & fight against this.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: If the military were easy, everybody would do it. It's not, it is a hard life.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: If you're going to try to chip away at the benefits we have in the military, you're going to find yourself not being able to make your numbers. Are they going to do a draft again? Because that's what will happen.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: Arlington National Cemetery should come out right now & say that Donald Trump is no longer allowed to visit Arlington National Cemetery. He shouldn't be allowed to be buried there. He is a disgrace, & Arlington should call him out & ban him.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: When the veteran in a wheelchair, I believe he sang the Star Spangled Banner, Donald Trump walked over, gave him a hug like "we're with you." Then he turned & looked at General Milley & said, "Don't do this again. Nobody wants to see those people." Let me tell you, those people are the best this country has to offer.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: Every single person who's ever served in the military should be absolutely livid at the fact that Donald Trump used Arlington National Cemetery as a photo op.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: You cannot use Arlington National Cemetery as a political backdrop, period. There is a line that you do not cross & they crossed it. They were told, do not do this. You can't take photographs here, it's against the rules, & they went ahead & did it anyway. That's unacceptable. You don't get to use the graves of our fallen warriors for your political backdrop, & that's exactly what Donald Trump did.

08/30/2024

Rich Ojeda: I want to state that the moment Donald Trump was adjudicated as a ra**st & then was also found guilty on 34 felony counts, he should have been removed from any list of people we work with to do things like place wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

08/30/2024

Rick: There are a number of veterans organizations condemning Donald Trump & his campaign for their recent attempt to exploit fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 60, by using it as a backdrop for one of their political ads. Trump has gotten away with so many distasteful comments & behavior that I'm a bit surprised it's still having some blowback.

08/30/2024

Rick: Joe Radosevich has a piece out, Project 2025: The Plan To Seize Power by Gutting America’s System of Checks and Balances: https://buff.ly/4e5Ftn2

Project 2025—and the budget plans it has spawned—would erode Americans’ personal freedoms and harm the middle class, starting by consolidating power in the presidency just as authoritarian governments have done in other countries around the world.

08/30/2024

Joe Radosevich: What Gov Walz was able to do in Minnesota, my home state, is often about providing more stability & growing the middle class, like making sure kids can eat when they get to school so they can learn, paid family medical leave.

08/30/2024

Joe Radosevich: The American people wouldn't want to get rid of the Dept of Education or Head Start but if the right takes total control of the gov't, gets rid of the civil service, puts in a bunch of loyalists, they'd be able to do those things.

08/30/2024

Joe Radosevich: The right knows what the Labor movement's been able to deliver, incl building a middle class. These are all the things they want to chip away at. They've they put all of this in one place, in Project 2025.

08/30/2024

Joe Radosevich: Pg 586 of Project 2025: They want to get rid of all the protections for child labor & allow kids as young as 14 to work inherently dangerous jobs.

08/30/2024

Joe Radosevich: There's a plan that would get rid of overtime protections for about 4 million people all across the country. The right tried to get rid of those when Trump was in power before. I'm not sure how much he knows or cares about every piece of the plan, but the harm is still going to hit all of us.

08/30/2024

Joe Radosevich: I think Americans already know this is what Trump wants to do [Project 2025]. A poll from last week shows 51% of Americans believe this is Trump's plan. Does Trump know all 920 pages? I'm not sure that he does, but his past admin tried to do a lot of these things.

08/30/2024

Rick: I think it's fairly cute that Donald Trump is running away from Project 2025. I don't think he has any idea what's in it. I don't think he reads anything; I don't think anybody's really told him anything.

08/30/2024

Today's guests are:
~Joe Radosevich, VP of Campaigns & Outreach for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
~Rich Ojeda, Host of Ojeda Live.
Join us on https://buff.ly/4bYEeVL at 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
RickSmithShow.com

08/29/2024

Will Bunch: All articles about Trump should start out, "Donald Trump, a convicted felon,..."

08/29/2024

Will Bunch: We're not just here to give people what they want, we're here to give them information they need. Today it's like if you're not producing what people want to read, you're going to go out of business.

08/29/2024

Will Bunch: I've seen almost no articles about what either candidate would do. We know Trump wouldn't do anything, but what would the Harris campaign do about health care? That's just one issue.

08/29/2024

Will Bunch: We're a 24-hour operation & don't write daily stories, we write hourly stories because every little incremental development is going to be a story. Once you get into that mindset, you never take a step back to say, for ex., the health care situation in this country is a disaster--we've got medical bankruptcies that no other country in the world has.

08/29/2024

Rick: Will Bunch has a column out about the decline & fall of America's political news media in such a pivotal election:
Critics begged the media to rise to the occasion of the 2024 election, but it’s hitting new lows.
https://buff.ly/3YZ150d

Plus, does America really need the world’s 'most lethal' military?

08/29/2024

Jordan Barab: There's a separate website for written comments, which you'll be able to find through the OSHA website. OSHA absolutely needs everybody's story there.

08/29/2024

Jordan Barab: Back in July, the heat proposal was announced. From what I hear, it'll be published tomorrow in the Federal Register. Then the 120-day comment period, which is fairly long, will start. That would be followed by hearings. If there's a Trump admin, that will all probably grind to a halt.

08/29/2024

Jordan Barab: The Occupational Safety & Health Act says in no uncertain terms that it is the employer's responsibility to establish a safe workplace, period. It's not a matter of workers being lazy or careless or irresponsible. It is the employer's responsibility to establish a safe workplace.

08/29/2024

Jordan Barab: An important part of the heat standard when OSHA issues it is training for supervisors & employees, plus an emergency response plan so that when someone is affected by heat, they get help as soon as they can because it can kill you pretty fast.

08/29/2024

Jordan Barab: The Biden administration did start working on a heat standard but even though they've made some great progress, it won't be out for a couple of years at least. CA, OR, WA have heat standards & MD is working on one.