 On today's show, actress, comedian Judy Gold and Alice from The Brady Bunch and political activist and comedy writer Henriette Mantel. And then we talk with Robin Jurevik from Capital in Maine as well as Newsweek, her new investigative piece about labor violations committed by Donald Trump's pick for Secretary of Labor. This is the David Feldman Radio Network. All right, we're rolling, welcome to the broadcast, I'm David Feldman, DavidFeldmanShow.com. Please friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, do all your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman Show website. Well, this is the best show of the month. Former President Barack Obama sits down with me for the hour to talk about life after the presidency and when President Obama said that he was going to come in, I got a call from Woody Allen and I've been trying to get Woody on the show since the beginning. He didn't want to do it. Slayton almost got Woody to come in, but Woody wouldn't, it was impossible. But when Barack Obama said he would do the show, Woody said he would come in and talk comedy with Barack Obama. So that's our show, I'm real, I've got a family emergency. It's my sister calling. Hang on, I got to take this call. Susie? Yeah, David. Hi. I'm in the middle of my show. Right. I'm back in New York. Oh, from Washington. Oh my God, it was great. It was pretty much really pretty great and Mom marched with all the great panthers and I was so proud of her. They were all marching together and I was kind of behind them. It was good. It was really good. It was really good. And she, you know, at her age, did you take care of her? Because that's a big thing for her. Oh my God. Oh, so, no, I took care of her. I had her depend there. I had her water bottle. I had extra pants for her. I had everything. It was all good. And then people were all excited. Yeah, people love her. She's just a real. They were all excited. Yeah. I'm sorry? They love her. She's great. No, they love her. She's great. They're really all excited to be there. But, you know. She's filled with fire and brimstone, right? Yeah. Well, yes and no. At one point she thought she saw Daddy and she kind of meandered a little bit off to the side even though she's been, you know, for a long time and she thought he was there and she thought he was. I've often seen the Washington Monument and it reminds me of Daddy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I should know that. But, I mean, I think. What do you mean? What do you mean you should know that? She just thought he was on the stage with the president at one point and she kind of, you know, meandered that way and. Tell me the good news. I need good. I'm really depressed about Trump and I'm really proud, Susie, that you and Mommy made your voices heard. Yeah. And you went down there and you stood up for democracy. So tell me. I just need good news. Just tell me. I'm so, I'm so sad right now. Exactly. It's all good. She got on. She got on the podium. She got on the stage with, with all the Republicans and Trump and I couldn't get on because I didn't have an idea and I don't know why she talked her way into it. But next thing you know, you know, it was really crowded down there and, you know, David, to make a long story short, have you heard from her? No, I, I, I, I only talked to her once every three months. Well, okay, so I came back to New York thinking that, you know, she would come back with all her friends, all the great panthers on that bus and I couldn't find her. So I just hopped on another bus thinking that she would be on the other bus and then when I, then when I got here, she didn't get off the great panther bus and I've not seen her. I don't know. What do you mean you haven't seen her? Do you're supposed to? I don't know. You brought my... I saw her. I gave her a clean pair of pants and she put them on and she went to the podium and I never, I haven't seen her since. She went up on the stage. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I wanted to talk to her. Wait a second. Mommy? Oh, so if I were to call, I mean, I'm not scheduled to call Mommy for another 48 days. If I called her, if I called... If you're trying to get a hold of her, I don't know if her phones work and it doesn't really understand her phone. So she kind of doesn't really get it when it goes off and stuff. So I don't know. But you talked to Mommy... This is what I've done. I called the park police and they have a picture of her and they're looking for her. And they said there's a lot of old people that got disoriented that day. Susie... A lot of people that have marked her a long time and they all got disoriented. So she's not the only one missing. Susie... So I feel positive that we're going to be able to find her. I think she just probably is with a group of people that she probably doesn't know who they are. Wait a second. You call Mommy six times a day. That's our agreement, right? I know. Right? Yeah. And I told you... Since my mother... What? You call her once in a while. I do. Every three months. You're the beloved son. She likes you better than me anyway. Okay. It's... Come on. I don't know where she is. She thinks Daddy's down there working for Trump or something. I don't know what her problem is with that. She's hallucinating. And I don't know what else to say. I can't find her. Okay. First of all... First of all... Everybody's out after her right now. Okay. I've given everybody my phone number. Hopefully she'll be calling. Susie, first of all, it was your idea 20 years ago. Not to tell Mommy that Daddy died. I went along with that. So she's looking for him. That's... I mean... Yeah. Okay. Hey, I got a call. Hang on. Can you stand the line, Susie? Yeah. There's another call. Hello? You're not even worried. Hello? Hello? Hello? Who's this? Who's this? Who's this? Who's this? Who is this? Do you have to ask who it is? Do you have to ask who it is? Mom, mom, mom, mom. It's Susie. I'm here. Oh, don't even... Don't even... Is that Susie? Is that Susie? Oh, it's Mommy. It's my mother. Where are you? Oh, where am I? Oh, now you're worried where I am? Now you're worried where I am. I have been wandering. K Street, K Street, Dem Street. I turned around. I turned around one second and I looked back. She's gone. I don't even know. Thank God I have a credit card. Mom, last time I saw you, you were walking towards the stage and you were talking some secret service guys were letting you go up because you said Dad was up there because he was going to be back in this area soon. Obviously you have dementia because I don't understand where you would get that story from. I'm in some lobby of some place and the phone's ringing. I don't even know where the hell I am. Let me tell you something, Susie. I did everything for you. I did everything for you. Everything. You weren't invited to anyone's bar mitzvahs. You cried. I sat there with you telling you that you only need one friend. Okay? I have done so much. And I taught both of you, David as well, about how important it is to stand up to your right and to be loyal and how disloyal you are, believing me and watching. I don't even know where the hell I am. Thank God for the Holocaust Museum because I went in and they gave me a place to sleep in one of the trains. I mean, thank God. You slept on one of the chairs in the house. I slept in whatever, the cattle car, the cattle car. Were the paper clips there? No, it was the shoes. It's the shoes. Thank God I took some shoes. I mean, first of all, who eats their mother? How long has it been since you've seen me? What is today? Today. Sunday? Tuesday? What is today? It's Friday. It's Friday. I've called the hospitals. Excuse me? You called hospitals? Hospitals. Yeah. I don't know where you were. That's where you called. I've been telling you. As if I did. Did I branch? Yes, you did march with you. Did I branch? Where are you? I've fallen and I can't get up necklace. I've fallen and I can't get up necklace. I've fallen and I can't get up necklace bracelet. When I'm around hundreds and thousands of millions of people. Why? You've got to get me up, but it's not going to be my daughter. Is it? It's not going to be my daughter. And that's what I'm talking about. And you and David. David calls me once. What? What? Once every three months? Yeah. Once every three months? Yeah. He's horrible. That's why he's a bad son. Why protected him? Protected him. All right. I'm in the. I know. You protected him. So he's a little spoiled. Baby that never does anything. Okay. He never even comes to see you. He never. You know, I'd rather have someone who checks in once every three months and is pleasant to me. Thank you. And to be with someone. Thank you. Who is. Obviously you don't care. How many days later is it now? What is it? February? Three, four, five. Friday? No, it's not already February. It's six days. You thought dad was on the new secretariat state. What was I supposed to do? Oh, that was a joke. I was joking. All right. You can't tell but I'm joking. All right. Listen. I suppose you were joking when you told me. I suppose you were joking. You told me that you were marching with Rosie O'Donnell, too. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. I don't even understand this, David. You understand this? None of this makes any sense. All I know is that I'm in Washington, D.C. All right. I'm going over to Union Station. I'm going to get you an Uber. I don't want a bad damn car. I will get a train ticket. I will come home. And you know what? Both of you. You can both go shove it up your ass. All right. Susie. I don't need it. I don't want to go and get them on one of those trains again. Okay. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. Susie. but they are poise they are called poise okay not diapers I have leaky ever they're called I was carrying my age I'm marching and marching and marching if I'm gonna go with you but I know you were having a good time all right Suzy decided that daddy was on the podium Suzy why are you why are you you go Suzy you go out of your way to make mommy angry it's just absolutely right that's so not true he called yeah every three months I call you every single day to make sure you're doing well except for the past many days except I've been trying to get your phones out of battery really did you know that you're going to get up oh I did you say oh why is she's not answering the phone maybe that's a problem meanwhile I'm walking around the Washington DC you know there are some areas of Washington DC that are not safe so Suzy why don't you see Suzy why don't you just I'm in the middle of my show can you just apologize to my David why don't you shut up that's what I say why don't you just shut up David I have to say over you and God damn Jeff every month oh that's a big deal well you know what you can't buy her love by sending a check and calling her every month you know I must say I must say he is a very busy with his show and you know and then I asked him Suzy Suzy I agree with you on that what that he he has this sort of you know this show yeah where do you listen to the show do I put on the television there's no show do I put on the radio there's no show I have no idea what this no no but I was and on the crazy one and I'm the guy I can't come I have a show what show what show I put on the show well yeah David nobody listens to your show it's a waste of time so why don't you come take Suzy I have asked it must be every every time I speak to him every three months where do I hear the show what where do I go to watch the show my friends what's David doing what's David doing I was doing the show what show what show that's a good question that's a good question exactly David David what are you doing masturbating in the corner instead doing a show don't even bring that up remember when you bring that you know what the amount of time I walked in there do you know that you know what Suzy I walked in one day they're mute can you because it was every single day at 430 I know every single day and I walk in really embarrassing can you turn her down Suzy Suzy I haven't told you the worst I walked in of course he's doing it and he is looking at a photo of come on me when I was younger oh you were beautiful he was holding a photo of me oh my god it was Betsy it was Betsy was in the lacking off to you no no Betsy was it Betsy was that your friend Betsy was in the photograph with you I wasn't looking on my hand to Betsy you were attracted to mom can we get back to how mommy can you see it's been it's been you know it's been years years of this I've been holding this in that my son has an issue he has an issue oh no and you know no kidding and it's horrible for a parent there I guess that yeah can we get back to how Suzy Suzy abandoned you in Washington Suzy abandoned mommy Suzy Suzy abandoned you in Washington DC and left you there for five days at the Holocaust Museum you abandoned her and she had a sleep in a cattle cart the Holocaust Museum let's get back to that you know what she was sitting in the lobby at the Mayflower she was very happy I am she was at the Holocaust Museum Suzy Suzy Suzy the goodwill that we've uh we've gotten to some goodwill and I would stop right now so are you okay I'm gonna stop right now all right mommy you're okay you know what no one listens to am I okay hang on mom who's gonna pick me up an Amtrak okay who's gonna pick me up an Amtrak today I'll be there I'll be there I'll be there thank you Suzy well I'm sure fine fine that'll be perfect and uh what do they call it now the show yeah they call it the pump to the pump club block block radio it's no one can even find it you Google and McFly code there's like eight million you don't even know I have to wrap it's such a way you're waiting you can't even pay him to go to Columbia was the biggest waste of money where'd I go don't bring that up I will have a stroke do not bring that up I will have a stroke okay I got money I said I have to wrap it up mommy I'm scheduled to talk to you I think in 44 days but since we've already talked I'm gonna bump that up to 62 days in 62 days I'll check in on you okay David if she has a stroke your name is not David if she has a stroke it's your name on the gravestone okay Suzy I will be in a stroke Suzy I will be oh god damn it both of you listen to me I'll tell her god damn it David Suzy I'll be in 717 the 717 the 717 I will be at the 717 okay I'll be there I'll pick you up you're gonna pick her up because if you don't pick her up David you're gonna pick her up you're too busy doing your fake radio show that no one listens to you that I have to listen to this shit and I have to still listen to the two of them fighting and fighting and fighting you think after it I understand that Suzy I will see you at 717 David I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you mommy I love you mommy I love both of you I love mommy you love me unconditionally mommy yes I love both of you unconditionally equally that was great let me stop did Henriette wait what about how what about how I slept in the car that was good Henriette hung up this is Judy Gold by the way to my listeners that was great thank you Henriette's calling me right now oh tell her okay that was Henriette Mantel who is an activist as well as an actress she played she played him what oh my god oh my god it was perfect it was perfect oh my god okay well that was fun oh my god how about when I sit up here and you die for fun oh my god you're gonna pick you up with yourself oh my god okay I gotta go back to birth thank you I owe you jokes right yeah you owe me yeah I'll let you know in a day or two I'll let you know where when how I gotta go to work I'm trying to punch up the show I'm doing not my show a different show and I need three jokes I'll talk to you later that was great Judy you're still there yeah yeah hello did she hang up yeah okay that was Judy Gold and Henriette Mantel coming up we're gonna talk about Donald Trump's cabinet pick for Secretary of Labor Andrew Puzder Teresa Holcomb Gammon I hope I'm pronouncing that name a comedian who started about ten years after I did in San Francisco a young friend Holy City Zoo very inventive comedian she said something really funny that I just have to quote she gave me permission to use this I had made a joke that Donald Trump keeping Martin Luther King's bust in the Oval Office and she said yeah cause he needs some place to hang his now that is just such a great joke isn't it cause it's the image of Donald Trump you know walking into the Oval Office taking off his toupee and putting it on Martin Luther King's bust what a great joke that is a perfect image Teresa Holcomb Gammon I hope I'm pronouncing her last name the women's march we were talking about that earlier the numbers were amazing I got so many numbers it was it was incredible looks like Donald Trump is about to give Callista Gingrich a job but not the kind of job Callista used to give Newt while Newt was still married to somebody else I'm absolutely appalled by what's going on in this country and I would stop paying taxes but I'm afraid then Exxon Mobile would make me president the same way they did with Donald Trump we gotta get rid of Donald Trump I don't really want to wait till he's 500 pounds before we throw him out I just want to see him balloon up cause you know he's not having sex with Melania you know the secret service is watching him so he can't assault anybody so he's just gonna eat and eat and eat this is a man who can not only dish it out but dish it in as well so you gotta respect him for that why is that unfair cause I've been told you can't make jokes about Melania I said something like well at least Melania will be safe because the secret service can witness any abuse and somebody said no you cannot make fun of Melania she's a woman and jokes about domestic abuse are not funny they're not but I do think she's a victim of abuse you can't make jokes about Melania and you can't make jokes about Barron Trump his 10 year old kid this writer from SNL got suspended maybe fired because she tweeted on a personal account a joke that Barron Trump is gonna end up being the world's first homeschool shooter there was a petition on change.org 400,000 people signed it for SNL to fire this female writer her last name is Rich I don't know if she's fired but I know she's been suspended suspended for tweeting something in her own personal account my response to that is first amendment and secondly hey there's an opening for a writer at SNL no that is she has to be given her job back I love the way that more press has been devoted to that tweet and how president's 10 year old kid is off limits and people are wringing their hands and how bad it is for Barron Trump to have jokes made about him no mention that 23% of American children live in poverty that we don't talk about the third rail when it comes to children is we have to protect Barron Trump yeah of course it's wrong to make that joke but she shouldn't have been fired or made that joke and we shouldn't be talking about Barron Trump nobody should be talking about Barron Trump we should be talking about 23% of American children live in poverty because we are a third world nation you don't know it because they won't tell you that on TV but we're a third world nation and now we have Donald Trump who has been any banana republic dictator from the 70s and by the way Paul Krugman five years ago in the New York Times wrote that the gap between the wealthy and poor in America the gap exceeds any Latin American country during the heyday of banana republics we used to talk about the income inequality that was going on in Latin America it's worse in America than it ever was in Latin America we were talking about income inequality in this country and the rise of Donald Trump and I remembered a book by Naomi Klein called I believe it was called The Shock Doctrine Milton Friedman and the Straussians from University of Chicago in the 70s came up with this idea called The Shock Doctrine to take advantage of a crisis like hyperinflation or a coup d'etat seize control of the finances you privatize all government services this is what Milton Friedman and the Straussian iron-rand economists from the 70s invented and they practice this in Chile with Pinochet when Pinochet over through Allende Milton Friedman was called The Shock Doctrine which said privatize public services privatize the railways turn them over to private companies the post office, the water give it to private companies because they can run it better that's what the economic wing of the republican party believes in they believe in privatization of government services the last way to implement that to get that rammed through is to use a crisis they use 9-11 for tax cuts to privatize social security the problem that the republicans have had for the past 8 years is that Barack Obama did a pretty good job and there was no crisis whole idea of The Shock Doctrine is during a crisis we're so overwhelmed we don't notice what's being taken away from us Donald Trump is The Shock he is inheriting a pretty good economy bad jobs but you know relative in our bubble relative relative piece Donald Trump is The Shock every day he is going to continue to shock us because that is why he was put there by ExxonMobil by the dark forces who have once again installed a president the same way they installed George W. Bush and all Donald Trump has to do is shock us we are supposed to be shocked and overwhelmed by all this so that we can't think straight and then the dark forces ExxonMobil they move in they grab it all Milton Friedman Strauss they invented this take advantage of a crisis when the system has been shocked the citizens their guard is down you can take what's yours Obama did a pretty good job we're in good shape so they gave us Trump who is supposed to continue to shock us and overwhelm us it explains what the shock doctrine is and my advice to you is not to be shocked because that's Donald Trump's job his job is to shock you instead of being shocked go to 5calls.org and methodically call your congressperson and your senator each day 5calls.org each day 5 minutes that's all you have to do to make your voice heard you go to 5calls.org punch in your zip code they not only tell you who your congressman is who your senator is they give you their phone number and a script they tell you what to say and you can paraphrase it or just read it word for word the David Feldman radio program is made possible by listeners like you the war against the planet and the working man continues Donald Trump who as we all know lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 3 million votes announced on Tuesday that he will reverse President Obama's decision and will instead go ahead with the keystone pipeline a 1,179 mile pipeline that would carry 800,000 barrels a day from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast and the national pipelines to be built America needs the approval of our State Department which conveniently is about to be run by Rex Tillerson or as I call him Rex Spillerson the CEO of ExxonMobil again go to 5calls.org you'll be provided with a script along with the phone number of your congressperson or senator they'll give you a script and they'll tell you what to tell your congressperson that you cannot be approved for Secretary of State so while Donald Trump was signing the executive order authorizing the keystone pipeline he says that he's doing this for jobs Obama before he said no to the keystone pipeline estimated that about 2,000 jobs would be created on the construction of the pipeline based on the State Department report that had to be false far fewer than 2,000 jobs would be created by the keystone pipeline and here's the really incredible thing after construction the pipeline would employ probably 50 50 people 50 jobs 50 long term jobs coming from the keystone pipeline 50 jobs unless you count all the guys in hazmat suits cleaning up the spills or people in the healthcare industry pay to take care of long related issues stemming from carbon based pollution jobs, Donald Trump is promising us jobs but what kind of jobs well we're going to talk about his pick for labor secretary and why he's a disaster this is the David Feldman radio network according to the New York Times Donald Trump is planning to have the whitest cabinet filled with the most mail since Ronald Reagan Trump's picks are all confirmed only 5 low level cabinet positions would be filled by a woman or a person of color Andrew Pudser is Trump's pick to run the Department of Labor mandated to protect America's working people Pudser is the CEO of CKE Restaurants which owns Carl's Jr and Hardee's along with Red Burrito and Green Burrito shops according to the investigative online website capital and main quote racial discrimination and sexual harassment claims filed in federal court against Pudser's company and its franchisees read like stories from the 1940's or 50's before civil rights laws were ever enacted joining us is the author of those words Robin Yurovich whose latest piece for capital and main is entitled under Labor secretary nominee Puzder company hit with race discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits you can read that over at capitalandmain.com Trump's pick Andrew Puzder is the CEO of CKE do you know when his confirmation hearings are scheduled? as far as I know it's February 2nd it's been changed a couple of times what is the Department of Labor and why was it established who's it set up to protect the Department of Labor is set up to protect workers it's set up to enforce laws like occupational safety OSHA wage and hour laws unemployment insurance there's a women's bureau there's a part of the Department of Labor that's set up to enforce discrimination laws capital and main has done a pretty detailed investigative summary of Puzder and his company to get to that in a few moments but where does Andrew Puzder stand on minimum wage on sick leave Obamacare where does he stand on the rights of labor? Andrew Puzder opposes Obamacare he opposes the $15 minimum wage he has not been specific about what kind of wage that he would recommend he opposed a federal sickly provision that would provide sick leave to federal employees he seems to be very opposed to regulation of all types he's called regulation attacks those seem to be his positions why would you put him in charge of labor when you put him in charge of commerce where does he stand on enforcing the laws on the books? we don't know about that but that's one of the reasons why we looked into what his record was at CKE restaurants in terms of those things well I can detail for you a little bit about what my piece found out it's pretty exhaustive research I'll get to that in a second fast food in general has a lot of problems with wage and hour laws and Puzder's companies do too but when you line them up against other fast food companies in terms of wage and hour laws they don't fare that badly but the record is still not good you write though that when it comes to violations in the fast food industry his company is the worst of the worst when it comes to employment discrimination yes when we looked at burger chains that did a billion dollars of business annually he was the worst his company was the worst I mean when I say he was the worst that's not exactly correct but his company had more lawsuits against it when you looked at it as a percentage of sales than any other burger company that had a billion dollars in sales or more okay before we get to that what is the EEOC the EEOC is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and it's a federal agency that enforces civil rights laws and civil rights laws against workplace discrimination those include racial discrimination nationality, religion sex, age, disability gender those sorts of things the EEOC is an agency that one goes to if you have a complaint about discrimination they don't do a lot in terms of enforcement but they don't go to court very often they go to court in less than 1% of cases usually what they do is they issue what's called a right to sue letter and the person is exhausted all their administrative remedies so they can look for relief in the court but in some cases where they want to send a message to an employer or where they feel like the allegations are very very egregious they file a lawsuit themselves so they're run by lawyers I think Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas worked over the there was a consent decree for CKE is that correct several consent decrees I wrote about two EEOC cases but we looked overall at half dozen or so handful of EEOC cases that were filed against those companies the numbers are so little but there were more in the years since Andrew Puzder became CEO which was the year 2000 there were proportionally more EEOC complaints against those companies Carl's Jr. and Hardy's and any other burger chain except for Sonic Drive-In which had more I remember the Los Angeles police department was working under a consent decree what does a consent decree mean it's where the party settled a case short of going to trial in some cases here the company had to say that they would not discriminate that they would set up for example sexual harassment training or anti-discrimination training they had to pay out a settlement to the employees a consent decree with a fast food franchise what does that mean and the ones that I looked at it looked like they were answering to the EEOC for a couple of years they would set up a period of time in which they had to show that they had provided the trainings that they had agreed to provide and they had to show that they had a complaint procedure to show when employees came forward with complaints that sort of thing that would be supervised for two years if the company complied if it didn't comply then there was an option to extend the hearings are coming up he's going to claim plausible deniability he's going to claim he ran CKE but he can't control the franchise so what is a franchise I know that McDonald's owns but some of those other restaurants are owned by franchises what is a franchise and that's the same thing with CKE a franchisee is a person who says well I'd like to I'd like to run a Carl's Jr. myself and you sort of borrow the business model you know you have to use the logo you have to use the uniforms you have to run it sort of like all of the other corporate stores you're a nominally independent business person now there have been there was a national labor relations board case that held that the parent company or the franchisor was responsible for labor policies and the courts have come down on different sides it's not a matter that's settled like I said in my story the Obama administration was a supporter of the joint employer role essentially saying that the franchisor also had responsibility because they could dictate policies to the franchisees the national labor board what is the national labor board Trump is going to pick somebody to head the national labor board under Obama you're saying that they issued a ruling that said a corporation can be held responsible for the labor violations franchisees and while the national labor relations board is not related to the allegations in this store the national labor relations board oversees unionization efforts this is still tied up in the courts one court ruled that the national labor board was correct in holding corporate headquarters accountable for the activities of the franchisees yeah I'm not sure that court rulings in the case that this is something that's not settled and it's still going on and other judges and not exactly coincidentally but when I was looking at lawsuits in other areas for this story there was an accident where a person was badly hurt at a Hardee's restaurant in West Virginia and the judge in that case would not dismiss the claims against the parent company saying that they were a joint employer so different kinds of in different types of cases this has come up and like I said it's not settled but it's definitely true that a franchisor can dictate a lot of policies to its franchisees but he's going to say it's a states rights plan I think they're going to say that what I'm saying is that he's going to say you know as the CEO of this company we can't dictate exactly they're going to say that these are independent business people and they've touted this model as something where a person can kind of pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and have their own private business and that kind of thing well they say the fish rots from the head down how bad is the culture over at CKA what is your exhaustive investigative research over capital and main well I wish I knew a lot more about the culture from the inside and I think that that's something that I'd love to hear more about if you have anybody in your audience who knows but one of the things that we did do was we did do a very exhaustive look at federal court cases against a company in the area of employment discrimination and those were the ones that I focused on were mostly racial discrimination cases and sexual harassment cases that were filed in federal court since Andrew Puzder became CEO and were they filed against CKE or were they filed against individual franchises well the cases that I wrote about with the exception of two of them were filed against the company the first one that I wrote about was filed against CKE and Carl's Jr the others were against Hardee's those are corporate owned restaurants that I wrote about there were two cases that I wrote about that were cases where managers alleged that they were told to discriminate for example there was one manager that had been with the company for 21 years and she's African American she said that her boss came to her and told her that she would have to hire 90% white workers because most of the restaurants clientele were white and she refused and then she said that in retaliation she was sent to manage another Hardee's and then later she was also fired or let go from the company what was the final disposition of it that was also settled so we don't know the settlements are confidential so we don't know what the final disposition was the company didn't go to court and instead settled out of court that's the case with a lot of these cases with the exception of the ones that had a consent decree with the EEC because those are public and there was another one against a franchisee that's very similar where another African American woman who was a pretty long time manager was told that a white guy was going to make decisions at her store and then she was pushed out altogether and the white guy took over and managed her and she said that the reason why that happened was because she was objecting to a new practice at the store of hiring white applicants and ignoring the applications of African American the majority of cases that I wrote about were against corporate stores and those two happened to be against franchisees like for example in this case it's a pretty horrible case in Sacramento a lot of the workers were teenagers and the EEC had a a program to protect teenage workers and they felt like that was one of the reasons why they filed in this case near Sacramento the cases you described were kind of mild like the Saucet red burrito and green burrito and he's sorry I was just telling what I found really surprising and maybe I'm naive but was the way that workers discussed their treatment especially in terms of racial discrimination there was this case in 2000 that happened in Alt Grove California right outside of Sacramento there was a young woman who was a teenager at the time and she alleged that she went to the EEC the EEC filed suit on her behalf alleging that a company supervisor used the N word he bragged that he had a confederate flag that flew over his house and he showed his swastika tattoo and other white power tattoos he bragged that he planned to get another tattoo on his forehead that would show a lynching victim that was African-American and when this young woman complained to a manager he apparently told her that he himself was racist and so imagine how a young person like that would feel so she did go to an attorney she went to the EEC she and her co-workers got a $255,000 settlement and the company had to agree to a no discrimination policy but I should say that in this case as well as in the other cases there's a pattern and that is that a person suffers some pretty bad discrimination like there was other allegations at a Hardee's restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee where a young man was initially working the takeout window or the drive-thru window customers yelled out the N-word at him and other racial flers and his supervisor said, hey are you going to take that and then soon after that Paige alleges in these core papers that this guy the boss would call him the N-word and calling him blacky and repeatedly insult him he would say get your black ass back to work that's a quote from core papers there was an allegation by this gentleman that the general manager of the restaurant sent him a text first she asked him if he could get text on his phone and he said yes and she sent him a picture of what appeared to be KKK lynching there was a black man that was running from people who were dressed in white robes and there's a cross burning in the background so this guy endured this and then he I didn't detail so much of this in my story but he complained to a trio of upper management and then he alleged that he was retaliated against for reporting it that is the pattern also in some of the sexual harassment cases that I wrote about that kind of retaliation for reporting of course means that people are less likely to report or they're going to lose their jobs and according to people who I've talked to attorneys who are experts in sexual harassment that's exactly what you're not supposed to do and you're supposed to create an atmosphere that feels comfortable reporting so that you can root out the behavior that's illegal but in these cases at least it seemed that what was done was to minimize what was going on with these people and then to punish them for reporting the people who work at a fast food restaurant they can't afford to eat where they serve the $15 an hour is not universal well it doesn't even exist really only in a few cities so in these cases now people are making just a little bit more than minimum wage probably the EEOC and the Department of Labor was set up to help people who can't buy justice well yeah, yeah and what's remarkable too in some of these cases I'm sorry but what's remarkable in some of these cases is that people actually did go to court and found lawyers to represent them because people here don't make a lot of money so say someone is sexually harassed and then eventually either constructively fired or fired there's not a lot of money at stake so you know a lawyer might not take that case on a contingency basis they might or they might not but there's not a lot of money in it so the fact that these people made it to court is pretty remarkable in itself to my listeners who are victims of a corporate climate that condones harassment do you have a dropbox how would people contact you ah, let me try to if you could if they could email info at capitalandmain.com and they could also leave a message at three two three three one five seven five seven eight well this is part of a I think a three part investigative series being conducted by capitalandmain specifically going after Puzder and the department of labor looking at Puzder and you wrote one of the pieces there are other pieces out there about Puzder yeah, my colleague Dean Kuypers wrote a piece also about employment about workers that were unfairly terminated it looked like that we're alleging unfair termination at a bunch across junior stores and you can read that over to capitalandmain and then the other piece is that piece is a summary of what we found out and what the data showed capitalandmain is an award winning online publication you're out of California you do investigative journalism and cover the intersection of power politics and money when did you join capitalandmain? well I'm a contributor, I'm a freelancer just as most of the writers are and I'm relatively new I just wrote a piece for them before this in December I will link to your article which is very readable it could be dry but the way you wrote it infuriating and factual what are your reactions to Trump's assault on reality I would assume you think that's a bad thing I think realities and facts are pretty important so you're pro-reality in facts what about alternative facts? I'm pro-fact and I think that's why we have a lot of work to do in the next little while to try to make sure that we get the facts out there it has been suggested that Trump may be a gift to journalism you know subscriptions have gone up to the New York Times, the nation all these national magazines people are now paying for journalism you know we used to get it for free we didn't think it had any value people are scared and they're paying for journalism are we about to embark on a golden age of journalism? well I think we can only hope and I think there's so much to be investigated of course there always has been but now more than ever I think there's a lot that we need to look into and I think we need to combat efforts to try to keep facts and actions away from the public teach our children internet literacy real news and fake news Robin I know you're staying on this and that you would like to hear from people who work in the fast food industry who are victims of corporate condoned harassment how can people reach out to you anonymously and give you information and leads? well people can write to info at capitalinmain.com we'd prefer if they don't reach out anonymously and we only speak to them about whether or not they want their name used or not that would be a good way to contact us what are your recourses if you're working in the fast food industry what can you do if you feel you're being harassed well people can go to file a complaint at the EEOC and in California you can go to I believe it's called the Fair Employment Practices Commission and file a complaint there there's also you can go to the Labor Commissioner if you feel like you're not paid overtime what wage is that you're due? that should take care of it in California you don't really need to go to the federal government in California right? at least with Jerry Brown as our governor you definitely can probably get a decent response at the Labor Commissioner mm-hmm and I can't vouch for any of those other agencies but I think it's definitely worth filing a complaint I'll link to your article about Labor Secretary nominee Puzder and the race discrimination sexual harassment lawsuits that were generated under his rule over at CKE Robin Yurovich writes for capitalinmain capitalinmain.com it's an award-winning online publication that reports on the most pressing environmental and social issues of our time and I thank you for taking time to talk thank you I really appreciate it this is the David Feldman Radio Network all the way back to 2009 and it's all free DavidFeldmanshow.com and while you're over there I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter now they accuse the liberals of being in a bubble maybe we are in a bubble you know some of us think politics is fun great way to work out our anxiety great way to work out our rage great way to treat people like crap and then say hey but you know I voted for Hillary some of us are in a bubble the republicans are in the real bubble they tend to live in rural areas where they don't have too much contact with other human beings that's the ultimate bubble so this is sent to me by one of our listeners I'm not going to tell you what his name is but this is what he said about the climate that Donald Trump is creating a climate that I don't feel because I'm a white male he writes David growing up Mexican you just kind of get the feeling that white people are constantly questioning your quote unquote legality judging you harshly if you say hold up the line at the market or speak Spanish to your child it's always just a nagging suspicion that some white people do this to hear this suspicion confirmed by none other than the president of the country that I was born in is beyond the pale where there's not really happening I would call it a nightmare so if you live in a bubble you're not aware of the suffering the suffering and the fear that Donald Trump right now is creating among the children of undocumented Americans this is not who our country is it's just shameful meanwhile Donald Trump is married to a Slovenian who may or may not have come to this country legally Peter Teal the billionaire Donald Trump's supporter from Silicon Valley he helped create PayPal turns out he's seeking citizenship in New Zealand just as a backup plan good for him I'll pay for the airfare Peter why don't you leave right now they've installed these young kids to run Voice of America now Donald Trump is controlling the propaganda machine for Voice of America NPR which is basically a disgrace as is the PBS they frame the narrative and they don't color out of the lines they are corporate sponsored NPR did some hand ringing about reporting on Donald Trump Mr. Oreskes I guess he runs NPR said well you know the New York Times is calling Donald Trump on his lies and they're using the word lies but he says quote the minute you start branding things with a word like lie you push people away from you NPR they don't want to push people away from them like they're corporate underwriters thank God for the New York Times thank God bless the mainstream media right now they are reporting to Donald Trump statements as lies that these are inaccuracies because Donald J. Trump is such a pathological liar the J stands for pathological liar meanwhile on inauguration day the Guardian is reporting that six journalists were slapped with felony writing charges six members of the media reporters photographers videographers a producer were detained along with 200 other people on inauguration day they've all been released but they are facing felony charges six journalists the administration is a weak old and so far six journalists are facing felony charges makes sense considering that Stephen Bannon from Breitbart News is now one of Donald Trump's top political advisors he's working in the White House he gave an interview to the New York Times yesterday in which he said the media should keep its mouth shut Bannon told the New York Times he said I want you to quote this the media here is the opposition party they don't understand this country they still don't understand why Donald Trump is the president of the United States he goes on to say that the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while yeah that's the purpose of the media to listen he literally says the democratic party is not the opposition party you're the opposition party the media is the opposition party unquote he then went on to say that he's been reading the New York Times for as long as he could read let's get back to fivecalls.org fivecalls.org you got to call your congressman you got to call your senator not to vote for Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services there's been reports now that as a congressman he traded more than $300,000 in shares of health companies while sponsoring legislation that would benefit those companies he's from Georgia he is also a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and that sounds like a reputable organization they were founded in 1943 their former leaders were all devotees of Ayn Rand they were members of the John Birch Society the lead counsel for them is Andrew Schlafly he's Phyllis Schlafly's son they believe in their statement of principles the Association of American Physicians believes quote it's immoral for physicians to participate in Medicare and Medicaid if you look at their website they claim that taxing tobacco harms harms public health that electronic medical records are an idea invented by the East German secret police as a form of data control this is the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons congressman Tom Price Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services belongs to AAPS an organization on their website they accuse Barack Obama of winning the presidency by hypnotizing voters using neurolinguistic programming according to the website the people most vulnerable to neurolinguistic programming would be writers, young people, educated people and possibly Jews so Tom Price is a quack he's a doctor but just because he's a doctor doesn't mean he's smart he's a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons who believes that Barack Obama won the presidency by hypnotizing young people, writers, educated people and possibly Jews and he's going to run Obamacare into the ground go to 5calls.org what to say to your congressman or senator to tell them not to confirm congressman Tom Price because he's an idiot and so is Betsy DeVos this is somebody who says guns are okay in a classroom because you need one in case you get attacked by grizzly bears she has no idea how to implement the individuals with Disabilities Education Act which requires public schools to provide free and appropriate education to all students with disabilities you think those kids go to private schools? no I know firsthand my ex-wife was a public school teacher when rich people have a child with a disability they don't send that kid to private school they dump them into a public school and say teach them it's not that overwhelming folks go to 5calls.org the number 5calls.org and each day you'll get an assignment from 5calls.org and they will tell you which congressman or senator to call for example today because of 5calls.org I am calling my senator Chuck Schumer I have a script that is sent to me by 5calls and I get the email from them and it's so simple Senator Ron Wyden said today the most effective way to affect change in America is protest and calling your congressman so if you go to 5calls.org they will tell you not only who to call but what to say hi senator Chuck Schumer I'm a concerned US citizen from New York I'm calling to express my deep opposition to the confirmation of Scott Pruitt to lead the environmental protection agency. Scott Pruitt is a science denier who is in the pocket of the oil and gas industry he has a long history of protecting corporate profits over the health and safety of the American people allowing companies such as Devon Energy to write letters in his name on his letterhead the EPA's role is to protect human health and the environment. Scott Pruitt would be dangerous to this scientific agency and to the American people please tell Senator Charles Schumer to oppose the confirmation of Scott Pruitt. Thank you and the switchboard the people will take this down apparently according to Republican and Democratic congressional employees calling your senator or congressperson calling their office and leaving a message is the second most effective way to make your voice heard the first most effective way is to protest and then the third is to vote but as we all know in America it's really hard to vote people of color are pretty much not allowed to vote so once again fivecalls.org it will simplify your life five calls five minutes a day you can take back our government without resorting to violence and nonsense and getting angry at people and working out your mental illness cannot stress this enough politics is not the arena for you to deal with your mental illness for example Sheila Buff a very troubled actor and artist was arrested yesterday Thursday morning on misdemeanor assault and harassment charges while protesting Trump in Queens he was doing an art installation and was live streaming it Mr. LeBuff, Sheila has been arrested before I guess he's a good actor but he's been having issues mental health issues this is not the first time he was arrested three years ago he went to a performance of Cabaret on Broadway and was arrested for disorderly conduct and criminal trespasses a lot of liberals are just as guilty as Republicans of working out their rage issues and anger issues through politics knock it off if you're mentally ill go get help but don't bring your mental illness don't bring your paranoia your rage issues into politics because you're hurting the cause and you're exploiting you're exploiting people who really do care about what's going on that's our show I want to thank the great Judy Gold and Henriette Mantel Robin Jurowicz from Capital in Maine thank you for telling us all about Donald Trump's pick for labor don't forget to go to 5calls.org five minutes a day they give you the phone number they give you the script call your congressperson or senator and just read the script and make your voice heard please friend me on Facebook follow me on Twitter for only five dollars a month you can gain access to our premium content by becoming a monthly subscriber please do that I have a YouTube channel not too many subscribers not too many views but this episode will be posted on YouTube show virally if you like today's show if you like today's information please copy and paste the link and send it in an email to all your friends please spread this around our show notes we have show notes over at David Feldman show.com every article we mentioned is on my website in a very easy to read easy to access file that it's free while you're over there you'll see some Amazon links please click on those if you want to help out do all your Amazon shopping via the David Feldman show website I've been through that a million times with you you should know how to do that from the show brist studios in downtown Manhattan that'll do it for us