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Commentary The Coffee Klatch ... January 11th 2025 Robert Reich, Heather Lofthouse and Michael Lahanas-Calderon The First Felon President PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5c3-zaVzU0 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
The First Felon President \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich 997K subscribers ... 124,711 views ... 8.4K likes January 11th 2025 ... Premiered 14 hours ago The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Deadly L.A. wildfires. Trump's get-out-of-jail free card. The revenge of the tech oligarchs. We're looking at the week that was — and what's ahead — on today's Coffee Klatch. Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather loft house and Michael Lanes Calderon and Robert rurs truly uh Heather what's on today what what are we doing this week there's so much to cover the LA fires which are horrific Trump and the fact that he seems like he's already taken office and how about the Revenge of the oligarchy the Revenge of the oligarchy but uh on the fires I I tell you I all of us here in Berkeley have friends family Associates colleagues uh who are down there and uh or who have had to evacuate I mean it's a it's a terrible terrible terrible it's just not just a disaster but it's it it strikes home it is people's homes there's something sacred about your home and when your homes are under assault or gone I mean can you imagine it's so scary it really I feel like it's unbelievable in the true sense of that word and I'm from Los Angeles raised not born there but raised from from 2 to 18 and I have so many good family and friends who are directly or indirectly affected by this it's horrific um we have obviously the 1:11 Palisades fires but then the eastn fire and then the Hollywood fire looks like they're all kind of kind of all around 1:18 La and they're starting to come into LA and they're still uh you know as of 1:23 yesterday in fact as of this morning still not contained oh I know you see the percentage of containment I haven't 1:29 studied fire science I don't know exactly what it means but it seems Grim it seems so scary cuz you think it's 1:35 kind of you get through a phase and it's so quick when it happens I mean that's what so many on the ground people have 1:40 said so what's the significance here um I mean what can what can we draw what 1:46 lessons can we draw from all this well first of all the fact that I was I'm sure you all too were looking online as 1:52 this was happening and the amount of disinformation and misinformation for me that I personally saw on Twitter I mean 1:57 I saw the Hollywood Sign burning the Hollywood Sign did not work I know it didn't it was AI but this is the kind of 2:04 stuff and I just and the and just all of the kind of conspiracy the theories and 2:10 the negative thinking and all this stuff that is happening online and radicalizing people but and then I did 2:16 there was such a gap for real science I mean the fact that when you have hurricane force winds and you have 0% 2:25 humidity I mean non-existent humidity and these dancing ambers right scorched 2:31 Earth it's one little tiny Ember will go 2 miles in a nanc but no nothing says 2:37 that online you know it doesn't talk about the science or the reality everything that moves and it doesn't really talk about any relationship with 2:44 climate change I mean I I'm sure you know climate change it it cannot be that the worst fire in Los Angeles history 2:51 and these things have happened before but the worst in history is unrelated to climate change it has to be that there 2:58 is a climate change story there but I haven't well this is why you should get off of X and go to your local journalism 3:05 Outlet because a lot of people I saw on X I mean this is you know there have been a number of natural disasters since 3:11 the transition in ownership if if we can call it that um and the quality of you 3:17 know late breaking or quick breaking information about disasters has been declining ever since and people on Twitter were saying wow or sorry X were 3:23 saying I actually have really benefited from going to my local radio or listening to my local radio station my 3:29 local newspaper my local digital outlet and they are on top of it Comm you mean in Omaha or in Minneapolis in LA in La 3:37 so you go how do you go if you are in Minneapolis or Omaha how do you find what's going on the problem in certainly 3:44 well I kept looking at the LA times but the problem I mean Twitter let's we can argue about it for days is very fast now 3:52 the problem is it's fast with a lot of non- truths but it is hard to beat in 3:57 terms of being able to search for a trending term Hollywood Hills and have a million but if it's all I know 4:03 that's the problem what's the I I'm going to confess I actually went to Tik Tok wow and I got I got a lot I don't I 4:11 don't know how moderated it is I don't know how controlled it is but I got a lot of information it's not that 4:17 moderated controlled no no well I yeah and I think that it certainly speaks to 4:22 the idea that people are craving that as a reliable source of information um that 4:28 you know these local Outlets are picking up the slack to some degree and people are turning away from X but I mean when you go on to X just to get 4:34 back to the place that most people still look like yourself and me like I was looking as well there is a lot of crap 4:40 frankly frankly floating around there were you say that's perfectly fine you'll say it for me um there's a 4:47 lot of you know spin that almost instantaneously happened on that platform you had uh right-wingers saying 4:53 that uh you know this is because of Dei in the LA fire department that they're not wa wait wait what's the connection 5:00 between Dei and the Los Angeles Fire Department I have I mean who could conceivably come up with that I mean I 5:07 think that's kind of the point I they simply took it as yet another opportunity to push their talking points 5:13 and the platform enabled that to spread very quickly and very widely which is not what would have been the case before 5:19 and nastiness you know like ah the Hollywood Elites deserve it and just so much just snark and well look at I mean 5:27 it is becoming a cesspool under musk of bigotry and hate and everything else 5:35 that we don't want to spread like far like like a forest fire and that's what happens bigotry and hate are spreading 5:41 like mad in this country and abroad this is the x is having the same effect in Britain and in Italy and all over the 5:49 world and also you don't see it's just so kind of binary or kind of surface 5:55 what's happening is there's a difference between the Palisades fire and who's affected and the eastn fire and who's 6:02 affected there are a lot of workingclass families who have lost their homes in the East fire yes in Altadena and 6:08 otherwise and there are I mean everything is horrific but it's there's subtle differences and you see different 6:13 stories coming out of each Community but online it's just California Burns you know there's this sense of there's a 6:20 lack of granularity and nuance and of course empathy hether let me just ask 6:26 you as an LA uh Native almost uh what it what's the future of of big 6:33 cities uh that are subjected regularly to natural disasters that are getting 6:38 worse and worse and worse in other words uh you can't even ensure a house in Los 6:44 Angeles anymore and in the future it's going to be even harder and if you can't ensure you can't get a mortgage and if 6:49 you can't get a mortgage you can't buy and if you can't buy the housing stock which is already uh in trouble uh is is 6:56 in Greater trouble I mean what what is what can we say about the future of 7:02 these these places in America well I think we have to be wary about the 7:08 inequality that's going to be exacerbated by this clearly I mean if you have cash to buy a house good on you 7:14 go go ahead and buy a house everyone else I don't know what you're going to do um and also of course when you're on these coasts I mean now that all this 7:21 scorched Earth is happening then the rain's going to come then the mudslides are going to come I mean this is serious and the floods and you have also on the 7:27 East Coast hurricanes I mean if this country doesn't really respond in a very 7:32 very big way uh to climate change and yet we have a president uh coming on board who thinks he's already president 7:40 who thinks climate change is a hoax who wants to get rid of windmills I mean he saying windmills kill whales did you 7:46 hear that that that news conference on Tuesday was nuts he is out of his mind 7:52 and yet we are suffering all sorts and will probably suffer more natural dis we got to build up the public coffers in 7:59 terms of having the funds to fund fire departments and fund everyone else you have to do at the local level you have 8:05 to do at the state level I mean the federal level I don't even want to talk about but can't stop if I can just 800 8:12 prisoners 800 prisoners are now helping to battle those fires in Los Angeles 8:18 they are making as little as $5.80 an hour uh and these are prisoners 8:24 right a day I think I think it's five bucks a day is that right I thought it was $580 an hour a a day it's it's quite 8:31 low and now I want you to think keep that in your mind all these prisoners who are fighting fires 800 of them and 8:38 you have Donald Trump who was convicted on 34 counts of felonies in New York and 8:44 he was just released I mean he did no prison no fine no penalty nothing get 8:50 out of jail free card I mean is this what happened don't we have something called rule of law don't we have 8:56 something that is about about equal J Justice yeah I didn't even know there was such a thing as an unconditional 9:03 discharge that could I mean to let alone to have it apply to someone who has as many charges on you know on the books is 9:08 this it's crazy the Majestic equality of the law punishing rich and poor alike 9:15 for sleeping under bridges and stealing loaves of bread remember that no anatol 9:22 France oh you didn't study anatol France God the lacking education well it's no 9:28 but it's it is it is for everybody to see but this is the first president to go to office as a convicted felon yes 9:35 and I'm and he's going to talk about that a lot oh he's going to lead the week before he's inaugurated 9:41 and what do the Democrats Democrats are not going to say anything why don't the Democrats say that why why is there no 9:47 Democratic Leadership saying okay yes he's going and yes we respect the Office of the President he obviously doesn't 9:53 because he's a convicted felon and he's going to become our president I know and comparing that to 10:00 the felons who are working the prisoners I should say who are working in sent out to the front of 10:07 the fire 800 people a week from Monday Donald Trump takes office again now 10:14 there are a lot of people who are listening to us and watching us who feel very much probably as we all do I'm pres 10:22 I'm assum making some assumptions about the two of you I trust you I feel like it's it's not only an outrage it's 10:27 depressing as and I mean how did this happen how is it possible well we 10:34 ignored the 14th Amendment we ignored the 14th Amendment uh you know twice impeached he tried to he conducted a a 10:42 cou data on the United States an attempted couet and he's still and he's still going to be president and 10:49 unrestrained in fact worse than before all of the signs show that he is going to be worse than he far worse than even 10:57 just his press conference the other week he was worse than he ever has been but we're going to keep I keep looking down 11:03 to see if we've hit rock bottom but I'm not sure no we Haven not president yet I 11:08 mean this is the thing he's acting as if he's president he is not even president yet Joe Biden I mean there's no one but 11:17 Trump well there's musk but I mean Joe Biden haven't heard from I mean yes it um President Carter's funeral it was 11:24 nice to see all the people there but I mean kamla Harris you don't hear from and even JD Vance who I mean it's just 11:31 the Trump show and and by the way you mentioned Jimmy Carter whom I work for you know talk about a man of character 11:38 and decency and morals and morals it's quite a contrast to I mean what a what an unbelievable contrast to the person 11:45 who's just about to become president could you if you lined up every president or even every human 11:52 being on the earth Jimmy Carter would be you know in terms of decency to indecency Jimmy Carter would be on the 11:57 decency end and indecency guess who I mean I think he would just tumble off 12:03 the S he wouldn't even make it outlier as an understatement it would just and you've got everybody who is you know 12:09 already kind of kissing his Dairy air oh here we go this is it all of that's what 12:15 oligarchy is all about you have these strong men and then every everybody else around them just does everything you 12:22 know genu flick yep that's it he was bragging about that this week he was saying oh yeah you know Bill Gates came 12:27 over and Elon Musk came over and Jeff Bezos came over you know everyone came over they came over and they did more 12:33 than come over they actually changed their uh you know their their algorithms 12:39 I mean look at what what look at what Zuckerman Zuckerberg did I know this week has been incredible so he has 12:44 announced new changes to the algorithms and he is no longer going to require on Facebook on instam Instagram on it's all 12:53 the meta platforms no longer requiring thirdparty factchecking Michael tell 12:59 well yeah so he's replacing uh third party factchecking with a system similar to what x has which is community notes 13:06 which are driven by individuals on a volunteer basis a volunteer you know is 13:12 community notes I mean what baso what what what Elon Musk did with Community 13:17 notes during the election campaign of 2024 when Elon Musk is putting out lie 13:22 after lie against kamla Harris and for Trump there's no Community notes I mean 13:28 no Community notes it's I they the the notes themselves are capable of driving misinformation surprise and not only 13:35 that he's also rolling back a lot of their policies on hateful conduct on these meta platforms so there are things 13:41 I won't say on this podcast that you are fully capable of saying on meta platforms from this point forward things 13:46 that are not only offensive but you know potentially dangerous I'll do some I'll say some but I'll say no wait but there 13:53 I'll say it about about them the oligarchy but but was there new training 13:59 manual well yeah they had a bunch of these examples in their new training materials for meta employees and to the 14:04 degree that some of the meta employees looked at that and said no I'm not working here anymore because it's such it's not just genu genuflecting or 14:11 deference to Trump I mean it's a complete surrender to the far right essentially and to say we're going to 14:16 let not just misinformation but hate spread on these platforms without restraint so some rated G examples are 14:22 women are allowed to be called property and transgender people are 14:28 allowed to be called reaks and mentally ill among other things I mean this is truly what's on there and that's the 14:33 beginning this is the beginning this is hate and bigotry and it's licensed hate and bigotry well it's free speech Bob I 14:40 don't know and it's baloney free speech I mean let's be very clear about this we 14:45 have they're not it's not as if it's two sides to you know on here one side is 14:51 hate amb bigotry and lies and over the side over here is decency and so we're going to say oh well I don't know I I 14:57 own this these these big platforms forms I'm not sure hate lies and and uh and 15:02 and bigotry and decency well I think I'll do Free Speech hate lies and and 15:08 bigotry that is that is outrageous that some individuals called Elon Musk or you 15:16 know Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg those individuals should have the power to decide what information people actually 15:24 get and whether disgusting when they've Gob they've gobbled up all of the big 15:30 platforms right this is significant this is we're looking at Twitter The Washington Post all the meta platforms 15:37 this is a lot of where people get their less so the Washington Post sorry Jeff Bezos and I'll add as well I mean just 15:43 having been on X a lot partly because I get to work with you both um and just in my own time it's amazing to see just the 15:51 tone and how it's changed over the last two years and even just the frequency of farri and Nationalist and xenophobic and 15:59 fascist content that regularly appears in people's feeds without them asking for it and I think that that's the other 16:04 concern you're normalizing a bunch of this stuff it's not just that the speech itself is bad but you're making you're 16:10 introducing the concept of you know well now teenagers are going to become Francisco Franco officient AOS because 16:15 all of a sudden all of these weirdos are going on X and saying well have you thought about you know falangism or 16:21 fascism isn't that exciting these are ideas that are inherently dangerous dangerous to a democracy and to a stable 16:27 Society right Bob they're not dangerous to a stable society and they undermine democracy and they make it you know 16:33 instead of free speech it's actually is an assault on Free Speech because ultimately uh these voices of hate drown 16:41 out uh voices of decency and moderation uh and and that how how can you conduct 16:47 a democracy if you can't have uh decent conversations and when the algorithms 16:54 are pumping certain things it's not an even playing field but see this is exactly where the oligarchy comes in I 17:01 mean people don't realize or haven't until now maybe they will start realizing it that there is a very small 17:08 number of people with huge amounts of money I mean Elon Musk is the richest person in the world and Jeff Bezos is 17:15 the second richest person in the world and you have people like that and Zuckerberg and others who have a 17:23 monopoly on the information we get and they have turned their money their 17:29 fortunes into political power that's what an oligarchy is that's it uh and 17:34 you know Trump is their vehicle Trump is their their their their kind of uh their 17:41 their way in their way they their vehicle for taking more and more and more power and the loop just goes 17:48 between them so Trump gets into office after Elon helps him with all his money and then Jeff Bezos says congratulations 17:55 I'll give to your inauguration fund and how about we pay on Amazon Prime Melania 18:01 $40 million for her documentary and then how about I stream for free the inauguration on Amazon Prime for a first 18:08 time ever Mr Trump so they competing for his Goodwill and they're competing to 18:14 see who can kiss his backside effectively and who is the loser here 18:21 the loser is the public but the siop fancy did I say that right sick fancy 18:27 siop fancy there sick ofans but it's they're sick sick offense yeah it's astronomical I mean it's so blatant but 18:34 this is this is the the essence of oligarchic power in other words Trump is 18:41 their frontman but they are actually in power I mean Elon Musk puts a a quarter 18:47 of a billion dollars to get Trump elected what kind of a country are we what kind of a democracy is this where a 18:54 quarter of a billion dollars from the richest person of the world can get somebody elect and then that richest 19:00 person in the world becomes the head of uh the department of efficiency and can go through and make recommendations to 19:07 get rid of programs that people really desperately need and Zuckerberg just put um Dana White 19:14 right onto wrest yes who is very close with Trump and then he announces this 19:20 video to the world about how he's rolling everything back in favor of free speech with a almost $1 million watch on 19:26 his arm and and taking the few people left who were in charge of moderation the very few and taking them and moving 19:32 them from California where he says they're going to be biased because California is much too liberal and 19:39 putting them in Texas I mean which is a musk move well it's it's it's just the 19:44 whole thing you've got to connect the dots people have got to see what is 19:49 actually happening here the power move the power elite has gone you know the 19:55 only good that can come out of any of this is that the American public actually begins to see what's happening 20:01 because much of this has been hidden before and now it's not hidden I it's so 20:06 blatant it's blatant it's absolutely out in the it's out in the open um and and I 20:13 think that that's you know people ask me sometimes do I have any is there Sil a silver lining here do I have any hope uh 20:20 going into you know one week uh from uh Darkness with the darkness of the Trump 20:26 Administration and I say yes good tell us more okay well it's because 20:32 when you see the oligarchy in action when you actually press the reveal code 20:37 and everybody sees the power that has been taken and is in control in in the hands 20:45 of a few multi-billionaires uh it is outrageous this country doesn't want 20:51 aristocracy we were founded in a revolt against uh you know centralized 20:56 monarchical power uh people people will see it and my hope and expectation is 21:03 that this it's like lancing a boil lovely image right do you like that 21:10 I mean you can't ignore it because the boil gets bigger and bigger and bigger certainly I mean I I have been involved 21:18 in Democratic administrations and those Democratic administrations are better than the Republican administrations but the 21:25 Democrat administrations still have allowed inequality to Wi and more and more corruption and 21:31 legalized bribery and all of these things to happen uh and you know payoffs 21:37 to Big corporations and the bailouts of big Banks under Democratic administrations so didn't we finally 21:44 need to see this all for what it is and we are front row seats well people are 21:51 going to get hurt in the process and that's what I mean big conern yeah big time you've said this before too and I 21:56 think it's important it's not that rich people are inherently bad it's not 22:01 that the system isn't always going to have some people have more than other people but the abuse of that much money 22:09 is where the problem lies it's turning the money into political power that's where the abuses we cannot have this is 22:16 the old uh Chestnut the old quote from Lewis brandise uh the great jurist we 22:21 can we have a choice America has a choice we can either have great wealth in the hands of a few or we can have a 22:28 democ ocracy but we can't have both I know and we are now we are now turning 22:33 that quarter and seeing and that that that reveal that we can't have both and 22:39 Trump in I mean it's unprecedented unprecedented that he is taking office 22:44 before he's taking office is it surprising no but I mean here we have him doing these press conferences 22:51 getting all this Ridiculousness out there all these billionaires just chomping at the bit to gain his favor 22:58 and I think it was important this week all of his I sat and watched his press conference it was horrible I don't know 23:03 why I had that on the television for 45 minutes he's he's out of his mind he's out of his mind and so can we talk a 23:08 little bit about how he's taking over not just America but the world so they're and they're genuflecting much of 23:14 the rest of the world is genu the leaders of the rest of the world are thinking oh my gosh we we have to deal 23:19 with this crazy man so how do we deal with him but I mean some hopefully some won't I mean Greenland we'll have to see 23:25 what happens Canada Panama I mean these were places that he was disparaging he was disparaging America's record in 23:32 terms of you know foreign relations with these countries take over Greenland yeah 23:38 and he's going to come in and the Danes you know he doesn't know about the Danes let you know let me just tell you tell 23:44 us about the Dan you don't you don't want to you don't want to fool around with the Danes I mean we know that from 23:51 Hamlet right and the Vikings I mean the Danes when they get when they get angry 23:56 who knows but isn't this I mean just to connect back to the last point one of the many distractions that the Trump Administration presumably has if not 24:03 pre-planned down the road will make up some to keep hiding that oligarchic 24:09 control that you're talking about right this is to throw people off balance more than anything or is he serious that's right you talk about taking over 24:15 annexing Canada and taking over Greenland taking over the Panama Canal 24:21 renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and people go and it's all over 24:26 the newspapers meanwhile the actual oligarchic takeover America goes on 24:32 quietly and nobody is seeing it but we do we see it and we are going to broadcast it are and you you see it too 24:40 but so I mean it's so interesting to watch watch it all this is classic Trump 24:45 where he just creates a fog we've done a video on the fog of trump he creates a fog and he comes in and he does a news 24:52 conference where he throws so much spaghetti at the wall of Mayhem where it's like they can't get to it quick 24:58 enough so what is he is he just a he always wants the Limelight we know that but what is he specifically deflecting 25:05 from this week because he's smart at marketing oh he's he knows the news cycle he is deflecting I mean the 25:10 biggest threat right now is that he's got some Bonkers cabinet choices and 25:16 they have to go through the Senate and they're going through the Senate this week and next week uh there are hearings 25:22 on people like telsey gabard and presumably the Senate Republicans are going to try and Rush those as as 25:28 quickly as they can so people don't notice too yes and the Dem what the Democrats ought to do if they were Democrats if they really cared to be the 25:34 opposition party is they would scream bloody murder about you know cash Patel 25:40 and what the things that he has said that the the nominee for the head of the FBI uh what he has said about getting 25:48 Trump's enemies and what he said about the media and Robert F Kennedy Jr and 25:53 Robert F Kennedy Jr and by the way there could be it's possible please God 25:58 another pandemic of some sort what do we do when Robert F Kennedy Jr is there saying oh no oh no we can't we can't 26:06 have vaccines that's what Trump wants to avoid he wants to get these people 26:12 through and so he's going to talk about taking over Greenland I mean what a what 26:17 a wonderful crazy idea to deflect attention from his actual administrative 26:24 picks and the sad part is even if it is just a distraction it's also still empowering other far-right leaders 26:31 around the world to make similar claims and say even more outrageous things and do I mean creating many trumps all over 26:37 the globe essentially I think that's an important Point Michael well look at South Korea I mean the this South Korean 26:44 uh president former president who declared martial law uh and the legislature said you can't do that that 26:51 is illegal unconstitutional uh he was impeached and he says no I'm I'm not I'm 26:57 not leaving the election was stolen and his supporters are surrounding his his 27:03 pal or his his enclave and they're saying no you can't you can't take them take them away and they saying stop the 27:09 steel they're literally exact phrases from in fact they're using the they're even in English his supporters are 27:15 putting up placards in English stop this deal and I saw today that they were also I mean if you want to talk about old 27:22 authoritarian movements you know coming back either because of social media or just this new rise in the far right 27:28 people dressing up as you know police officers from you know when South Korea was an authoritarian State back in the 27:33 1970s and 80s and saying we're going to protect the president I it's just you're seeing versions of that everywhere 27:39 whether it's Brazil South Korea all over Europe and it's terrifying and I'm you have people I don't want to devote more 27:46 time to musk but musk is supporting the right-wing Neo-Nazi group in Germany he 27:52 hosted the leader on an X space just this week too yeah and the election is coming up in a few weeks in Germany uh 28:00 and he is supporting the right-wing uh head of Italy uh and he is making life 28:07 very difficult for the uh St in the UK yeah in the UK and he is supporting I 28:14 mean he here's he is this is why Trump and musk 28:19 need each other why it's really we ought to be be talking about uh trusk or MP 28:26 right yeah no I want to be talking about trus and mump trus and M because it's that they're they're becoming the same 28:31 person they are they are dependent they're codependent on each other am I allowed to be talking about this maybe 28:37 not um I have gotten to read an advanced copy of your upcoming book coming up 28:44 short wait a minute coming up short is that a double on Tandra of course it is 28:49 a generational Memoir and so but you talk so much about this and the idea of 28:55 multiple trumps is terrifying and you take us through the history of and your 29:00 history and where we've gone and through World War II and how did we get to where we are today it's been so fun to read 29:08 well you're going to get acknowledgement for reading it and for giving me very good feedback and it's coming it's not 29:14 coming out till August okay back to school and August is you know no nothing happens in August that's why the 29:21 publisher said well since nothing's happening in August why not put your book in August yeah but so you've been 29:27 it feels like then oh well we have something to share with the audience as well and yourself because you appeared 29:34 on page one of the New York Times this week big surprise with uh and for those of us listening uh the headline on this 29:41 is how the Democrats lost the workingclass vote and the first few paragraphs describe a speech by one 29:47 former Secretary of Labor they note the very liberal labor secret very liberal 29:53 ventured into hostile territory to issue a prophetic warning and it talks about the speech you gave uh about how we were 29:59 becoming a two-tiered society and do you want to tell us a little bit about that remind our audience well I'll try to well here you 30:07 speaking to the Democratic Leadership Council okay today what is it what did I 30:12 say oh yes we're becoming a two-tier Society uh with a few winners and a 30:17 larger group of Americans Left Behind whose anger and whose disillusionment is 30:24 easily manipulated preent today the targets of that rage are immigrants this is 1994 I 30:33 know today the targets of that rage are immigrants and Welfare mothers and government officials and gays and IL 30:40 defined and an il- defined counterculture but as the middle class continues to 30:49 erode who will be the targets 30:54 tomorrow H took me 30 years to have someone read it to hear it hear it no 31:01 but and you also called um this working class the anxious class the anxious class by the way does anybody actually 31:07 read paper version I have to admit I did have to go out of my way to find a physical paper of the times as as a 31:14 digital native I saw it on my laptop it is nice to hold I will admit it's there is something about I am still a 31:20 newspaper person well you can use it to you know you know you you open the paper like this you anybody and you snap it no 31:27 you take sections out oh first first thing and then you open it up like this you snap it some good ASMR for the 31:33 people listening yeah yeah and then you use it to and if you're ones if you're 31:39 on the subway of theor yeah this is great for people listening this is very good see yeah we're getting all the 31:45 crunches in I smell it and can get ink all over your fingers you can wrap your 31:50 French fries in way we used to absorb news absorb literally well then I that kind of raises a question to me because 31:57 there were this past week a lot of Centrist pundits or traditionally Centrist pundits coming out and making a 32:03 similar case that well the Democratic party should be embracing populism all of a sudden uh changing their tune kind 32:10 of interesting and the fact that this is now on the front page of the New York Times what listen there really are two 32:15 kinds of populism the the the rightwing the Trump trumpists trumpers uh have 32:22 been embracing for years cultural populism and that means going after the 32:27 the symbols of elitism many of them made up uh I mean uh 32:33 transgender people uh you know you go after them go after immigrants go after 32:39 the Deep State go after all sorts of symbols uh that people can get riled up 32:45 again but the alternative to cultural populism is real and that's economic 32:51 populism that's going after the muses and the people who abuse their their 32:58 wealth uh and and and turn it into political power uh that's what's happening in this country and this is 33:04 why I am optimistic just to repeat my myself uh that as we descend into the 33:11 horrors of the Trump Administration people will actually see how important 33:17 economic populism is Democrats will find their voice and if they don't we'll have 33:22 another party that will replace them and find its voice but it's hard because 33:28 part of cultural populism is there's a faux economic populism hidden in it 33:34 that's convincing for some people so you really got to tease out if you're doing the real economic populism yes you got 33:42 go after the big you got to go after big money in politics you've got to go after 33:47 the ways big corporations are getting subsidized and changing the rules of the game uh you've got to go after how 33:53 wealthy people are dodging taxes uh you've got you've actually got to look at the system in detail and see how the 34:01 rules of that system have been warped and and changed by those in power with a 34:08 lot of money one thing that has made me feel both negative and positive which is 34:14 a lot these days it's like a magnet you're just going around I am there's a lot of spinning but these numbers and 34:20 there have been a couple different numbers but basically the people that there is not a Maga mandate this is not 34:26 a TR Trump did not win by a huge landside I have to believe that America 34:32 has not all gone Maga and when you look at the numbers and the farther we get from the um election we get more and 34:39 more data right that millions of people and some people have said it's up to 19 34:44 million and some people say it's closer to seven or eight million but people who voted for Joe Biden four years ago 34:52 stayed home and didn't vote for kamla Harris so if we're talking 7 million of them right and Trump won by under 3 34:58 million votes it it's important to remember that those people who sat home I can only imagine don't all of a sudden 35:06 have Maga hats on and aren't all of a sudden saying I've switched my views on abortion this is a very important point 35:12 right there's a disconnect and well it's important that people in this country understand uh if there are people who 35:19 don't like hate don't like bigotry don't like some of the stuff that the trumpism 35:25 actually represents uh and certainly don't like the policies that are associated with it uh they're not alone 35:32 they are the majority of Americans uh they you know the fact that a majority of Voters went for Trump doesn't mean a 35:40 majority of Americans are magas right uh in fact the majority of Americas 35:45 probably I doubt they are this is why again when people see what we are up 35:51 against in terms of the oligarchy they will actually take action they will say 35:56 in 20 in in 2026 we are going to take back both chambers of Congress in 2028 36:02 we're going to have a president that cares about working people and the common good and we are going to get away 36:08 from these crazy bigoted Notions right and may we and the most marginalized 36:15 people survive in the interim well that's that's the issue that to me you 36:21 know protecting the vulnerable over the next few years is critically critically 36:27 important it's all our responsibilities uh listen Heather Michael thank you uh 36:33 Jordan alport thank you there uh and all of you uh it's look at we are very close 36:41 to a week until the darkness comes in 36:46 fact for many of us it's already coming uh those of you in Los Angeles uh our 36:54 not only our hearts are and sympathies are with you we know many you uh and we 37:00 really hope desperately that you do okay 37:05 that you survive that your houses your families your loved ones your uh 37:11 everything about home uh maintains itself to the extent possible uh if 37:17 you've escaped from there when you come back I hope it's recognizable uh and if there's anything 37:24 the rest of us the rest of the country can do uh I hope we do it because this 37:30 is a time when we all need to come together and recognize that we are all in it together so on that 37:39 note of sadness see you next week 37:45 [Music]

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