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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... APRIL 20, 2024 with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse The Trials and Tribulations of Trump PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3sZRug5Ogw&list=PLOLArO56vjuoDxbdMWMFEdWfVCsHc2X7W&index=50 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY As I write this, it is three weeks into Trump's second term as President. It is almost a year since this video was originally distributed. Slowly but surely I am catching up on the many loose ends and incomplete sections in the work I have been doing as my own effort better to understand the many issues that need to be addreessed ... and effort that is ongoing and way too slow ... but the best I can manage! It is evident that Trump is way better prepared to implement his own very dark vision of a 'better America' than he was 8 years ago at the beginning of his first term. At the same time, both the 'loyal opposition' in the USA and the opposition to a Trump dominated world around the world is better organized than last time Trump had hold of the US levers of power. Both Trump and the world leadership are better prepared than last time ... and I am very optimistic that Trump will soon be 'toast'. That does not mean the winning against Trump and his followers is going to be easy ... but my impression is that Trump has now figured out how to win in the environment of 2016 while the world opposition has figured out how to win in the actual reality of 2025. I hope I am right. Peter Burgess
The Trials and Tribulations of Trump \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Premiered Apr 20, 2024 1.09M subscribers ... 94,654 views ... 4.5K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Sleepy Time Trump goes to trial… The Kennedys troll RFK Jr… And how I like to celebrate 4/20… Heather Lofthouse of ‪@imcivicaction‬ I discuss all this and more in this week's Coffee Klatch. Please pour yourself a cup and join us. Transcript 0:00 Intro and it is this Saturday coffee clutch with Heather loft house and yours truly Robert R and we are delighted to be here delighted to be back Heather what is on our agenda today on our agenda for the day the Trump trial and what to expect this coming week the uh Israel's retaliation against Iran uh the fact that the Kennedy family has endorsed Joe Biden not their own and more let's go by the way this is The Good Life cafe in mend California look at this plug just want look at this plug this is my mug but I do want to get into it okay so the Trump The voter deception trial 0:37 trial in New York the voter deception trial not the money yes it's that's it's important because the the media keeps calling at the hush money trial it is a is is a trial about voter interference voter deception uh you know if this had been simply a sexual de you know uh event in Trump's history that he covered up that he covered up would be not there 1:00 would not be a federal crime here right uh or even a State Crime this is a this is a a a very important contextual understanding and it's and the media is blowing it and what is happening with The jurors 1:13 the jurors so we have the jurors but one quit but one left but one's out you cannot separate the issue of the jurors from Trump's intimidation of jurors and the gag order uh and the judge is going to have to deal with Trump's violation of the gag order what Trump wants to do is obviously delay the trial one way of delaying the trial is delaying the jury selection one way of delaying jury selection is that the jurors feel pressur they feel that their families are not safe and why are their families not safe because Trump keeps on this drum beat of uh you know the the trial is is setting me up it's uh this is all about trying to oppress and prosecute and persecute me uh and uh the jurors are are are nervous and that's what 2:02 happened on on you know last week uh the jurors became nervous it was very hard to put a jury together and I think that's going to continue Heather well People are scared 2:12 also it's so easy to get doxed in this day and age right so we find out details you know this person lives on the upper west side and is in finance and you know I it's people are scared so I think people are going to leave because they are terrified for their lives and their family's lives which is real well this is a test of our entire court system our Judicial System our Criminal Justice System uh I salute the jurors who have already agreed to do this but uh over time as this trial drags out the Press is going to want to find out who the jurors are and Trump is going to want to put pressure on those jurors right now I've been impressed with the speed I feel like it's moving quickly Monday is going to be arguments this is I hope it moves well it should move quickly but 3:00 again uh and the judge judge judge bch is uh is intent on making it move quickly but uh Trump wants to delay remember everything about this trial is about Trump's delay strategy right right Presidential immunity 3:14 right right um so the other thing I wanted to mention on this oh scotus so scotus next week the immunity case is still in the midst being decided on so's the Supreme Court is going to hear arguments yep uh about immunity uh presidential immunity does a president have immunity for I mean this is absurd can we just make sure everybody understands going into this this should never have got to the Supreme Court uh presidents are not above the law a president cannot murder people while President and expect not to be nobody was in the White House you know I mean this is it's a crazy Theory to begin with uh and uh you know Richard Nixon came up with this interestingly 4:00 uh in uh in after he after he was pardoned by Gerald Ford Nixon said uh I am not a criminal because nothing I did was criminal in fact it couldn't have been a criminal because I was in the White House and the president cannot be a criminal for anything he does this people have got to remember this was the start of what Donald Trump then picked up I know it's so scary and didn't we learn from that we learned absolutely nothing nothing I mean we should have learned I mean Gerald Forge should not have pardoned Nixon I mean let's let's be we are living with that Legacy I know Intimidation 4:37 one thing I thought in terms of the intimidation of trump this week you saw I think you saw um and I don't know if everyone else saw but basically anyone that the Trump campaign has said look if you are mentioning Trump you're showing his likeness there's some b-roll of him we would really ask that you contribute 5% of anything you make from Grassroots donors up to the Trump campign grifting 5:00 campaign I mean this entire it's un Trump is selling stakes and he's selling you know he's selling sneakers and he's selling this speaking of tithing he is so demeaning of the presidency and his what he did uh in terms of the office he held uh and even of the judicial system I mean the um it's it's it's it's pathetic and it's funny but it's not it's David Hume Kennerly 5:30 horrible now um one thing you put in your substack this week that I thought was so interesting was this case that some of us saw or this incident where this photographer retired from the Ford foundation and his name was David Hume kenerly and so tell us about that well it wasn't a Ford Foundation it was The Institute it was a foundation that was for the purpose of awarding a um a kind of courage and Leadership award uh to somebody who exemplified the qualities that Gerald 6:01 Ford had does anybody remember Gerald Ford it was my you know he gave me my first job in government I know a republican I was a republican I wasn't a republican but he gave me my first job in government uh and uh interestingly uh kenerly who was part of this Foundation that gives this award on behalf of the memory of Gerald Ford uh he left the board and he left the board because the Foundation was going to give the award to uh Cheney Liz Cheney and uh and the foundation then decided not to because the foundation presumably was worried about retaliation from Donald Trump maybe uh and other magga Republicans I'm sure and maybe losing its tax status and other and so and and so Kenny said this is absurd this is uh you know the courage that that Liz chain 7:00 showed is exactly the kind of Courage that this Foundation was set up to reward right uh you know it's it's interesting Heather I I also wrote about uh last Sunday's interview uh George stefanopoulos on uh ABC this week uh he had um sonunu Chris sonunu governor of New Hampshire uh and he asked the Republic and governor of New Hampshire uh whether anything that Trump has done incl and whether if any any conviction uh will shake sununu's uh support for Trump and he said no yeah and um and Stephanopoulos said well this is I'm asking a question about right and wrong and suu said it's not a matter of right and wrong it's a matter of politics yeah uh to me that exemplified the end of the rep Republican party I mean the complete absence of any Integrity of any courage of any willingness uh to be on the side of really the institutions that made this 8:02 country and continued to make this country a democracy and morality uh and public morality absolutely uh I I think that the Republican what I wrote is the Republican party is is dead under Trump the Republican party is over uh remember I got my first job under Republican president uh and uh it saddens me I know of course it does I think it saddens everyone but it's also a tragedy this country needs two governing parties uh we are set up for a two-party system I know uh and that is uh if one of one party is anti-democracy uh and really Proto fascist or authoritarian uh we can't exist as a democracy it's Grim I know well people Middle East 8:49 are fighting the fight right November's around the corner people are fighting the fight and you are fighting the fight I'm sure uh and it is worth fighting it is the most important fight we can possibly be in it is the stakes are 9:01 incredibly high now what happened in the Middle East in the past however 48 Hours has been very scary right so Israel has retaliated against Iran who had retaliated and so where do things stand well the issue is escalation I mean um the the Middle East has been a Tinder Box for years uh but uh are we going to see and I think actually Hamas had this in mind you know on October 7th this is this was one of the things that drove Hamas to the atrocities of October 7th was trying to create a origional configration that would consume Israel uh and uh Israel and Iran are now at the beginning stages let's hope not let's pray not of that kind of a configration What does modest mean 9:50 now so when you look at the news so many people called this modest right this was a modest attack what does that mean well it's a good question we don't know enough uh but certainly the media are 10:02 trying to play it as a modest attack trying to uh do what the Biden Administration is trying to do and that is to contain this potentially escalating conflict right can it be contained uh is is Iran so is Israel so stupid is Iran so stupid as to actually escalate uh we you know if you escalate a conflict like this yeah uh what is the end point there is no end point and it's potentially well it could be uh some sort of a nuclear endpoint oh it's so scary is it stupidity or is it power hungriness or is it well they're driven Netanyahu is obviously driven by uh wanting to stay in power and he knows that a war uh against Hamas and even against Iran uh will keep him in power right uh the people the heads of Iran it's very hard to know what's driving that right uh but uh unfortunately uh we are facing and Biden is facing 11:02 this is this is happening all at the same time obviously that Ukraine is happening and Ukraine is not that far away I mean we we tend to think well Middle East is over here and Ukraine is over here no in in terms of actually a mileage they are not that far away and um and Russia has an interest in instability that's it now I want to get Columbia University protests to Mike Johnson in a minute but I do want to talk about these hundred people who were arrested on the Columbia University campus this week related to Gaza and Israel and they were protesting Israel's uh really Israel's killing Israel's uh decimation of the Palestinians in Gaza over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed uh 12, 15 12 to 12 to 15,000 children uh and uh they were protesting it and they were 12:00 arrested uh now on a college campus on a college campus and the uh in fact the president uh of Colombia uh went in front of Congress and said proudly yes this is what we're doing we are not allowing this kind of protest yeah Heather this you know I feel strongly about this I've been on a professor uh for 45 years on and off college campuses I believe that students should be allowed to Express themselves even with unpopular views how does anybody learn anything on a college campus if they are not exposed to unpopular views right uh and this is the essence of what learning is about how can Colombia justify not allowing students to protest I know I know and also yeah peaceful protests um Peaceful protests 12:53 what are we do we're talk we're talking about peaceful protests we're not talking about violent protests I mean uh at Berkeley I mean we are sitting in not 13:01 inside Berkeley but very close to the University of California Berkeley uh where the Free Speech movement found were you in the 60s when did you get to Berkeley I'm not that old I mean I did late in the late 60s I did work for Ford but that was after I'm really no I did get to I was at Berkeley in 68 and' 69 right and free the Free Speech 64 I think is it was 64 but there was still it was still going on and Ronald Reagan used the Free Speech movement uh as a kind of red herring a kind of strong man to get himself elected president he was and State Governor right U and in fact even become governor in the first place he he he made those students and those student activists into the the kind of Nemesis uh of uh of Law and Order I mean that was his that was his thing yeah wait you talking about Ronald Reagan 14:00 reminds me of a joke it's a joke about trickle down economics but you won't get it oh you know Terri that's really kicked out of the coffee you don't know this about Heather she she tells jokes and we're going to have a joke period on yes we are you're going to tell you're going to tell jokes every week I don't have another one I don't have another one I'll spare everybody Mike Johnson 14:23 but can we okay back to business and the for real you know what we're facing in reality so Mike Johnson is braiding together different things and trying to come up with a mix that he he's an a Mal I mean what is he doing he's a magician over there is it going to work is he going to be here in a week well he's speaker of the house he feels some justifiable I'm glad he does responsibility to move very important legislation uh all the evidence is that he you know he understands that Ukraine is running out of Munitions ukine Ukraine desperately needs additional Munitions from yeah and uh and he does 15:00 not want Vladimir Putin to be able to expand his territory and be encouraged to go into Europe uh so his position is very different from Trump's and that is causing a rift in the Republican Party they're covering it up uh Marjorie Taylor green obviously and the freedom caucus the crazies are on the side of trump because that's what they do they are just uh they are just you know loyalist y uh I think it's it's uh it's potentially very dangerous um for the country but also for even even the Republicans uh because speaker Johnson needs Democratic votes he's needed Democrats to get and to move uh this uh this Democrats 15:49 package and he's getting them I mean Democrats are being pretty classy I mean I think as far as these things go I mean they're showing up and they're not smearing and they're not they're not I 16:02 don't know they're not thumbing their nose and they're playing along uh they are doing their Duty right and they're doing it in a bipartisan way and and speaker Johnson is trying to do his duty in a bipartisan way in fact the irony here Heather is we are seeing uh the House of Representatives which has been the most partisan place in government actually suddenly become bipartisan I know well we'll see and we'll see if he lasts well it's not clear he will uh but uh who's next well walk to walk the plank because remember he only now has he's down to one uh one Republican right that gives him a majority so he's got to rely on the Democrats I know uh but it it's driving the freedom caucus the the extremist crazy that he is depending on on the trying to play ball um so Kennedy Family 16:54 obviously the Kennedy family came out and said let's be clear we support Joe Biden not Robert F 17:02 Kennedy Jr in Philadelphia uh on Thursday they made it very very clear in fact even Robert F Kennedy Jr's brother and sister uh they were there endorsing Biden uh and they all but said uh you know our brother is a crackpot they didn't say that they didn't but it was it was it was as CL as you could get um RFK Jr 17:25 and we did a video about RFK Jr and what he has said in the past getting the truth out which is something we do at inequality media Civic action um and it was taken down by Tik Tok and called misinformation which is very interesting it was interesting because they didn't give any reason why if anybody out there is a is has some responsibility for Tik Tok uh maybe you ought to let us know why you took it down I talk about freedom of speech of course freedom of speech doesn't apply to these big massive media platforms they did they Substack 18:01 gave us a generic note that was like in the community that when there's stuff there's stuff and we pull it down well well that was not very helpful uh but um so I put it on on substack I put our video on substack yeah my substack yeah uh and we'll see whether people I mean it's it's very important that people understand that number one Robert F Kenedy Jr has no chance of becoming president he's there only because he is a spoiler he's being supported by Republicans that's where Republican money is going big money is going uh and um also he backtracks he is against Maine Joins Interstate Compact 18:45 vaccines he has been anti-semitic he's a he's a fringe politician and a fringe character uh but he was encouraged by Steve banon and Roger Stone to get involved in this election for Trump now 19:01 a good thing of the week Maine has joined the interstate compact for the popular National vote no I want to make sure everybody understands this because the only way of circumventing the Electoral College uh and permanently circumventing the Electoral College is if states that have 270 electoral votes uh which is what you need to become president if they pledge that if every other state that has the total equivalent of 270 votes will give those votes to whoever comes in as the candidate for the state y uh and that is a well it's it's ingenious it's important Maine has joined the Compact and that's very impressive it it's not going to get there unfortunately by this Caitlyn Clark 19:51 election I know but this is how you fight a fight you push and you push and then when it doesn't God forbid it doesn't happen again we keep pushing and 20:01 then we get there right and it's it's it's an ingenious a very important idea and it's time has come the interstate compact and they're the 17th state we're hoping Michigan joins anyway that was good news of the week and then I'm sure you saw this but Caitlyn Clark who's the Rockstar basketball player played for Iowa she was first round in the draft for the WNBA d d d she's going to be making $76,000 a year the top pick for the NBA the male equivalent is making 10 million a year I think that is not only prejudicial and not only should be uh should should not be allowed right uh the equal opportunity commission ought to be in the middle of this but I think basketball itself is prejudicial against short people oh how how how is she how tall is she she's over six feet I'm pretty sure 61 I don't what are the chances chances of me actually being a center do 21:02 you want I've always been honest with you yes it's really not good well hello I know I mean I I I could play basketball you want to know what's funny I could dribble I'm a very good dribbler I was captain of the varsity girls basketball team in high schol you were oh I love basketball but so but this is Britney Griner 21:17 why remember Britney Griner who went to Russia to make more money and we talked about this early days and people you know didn't want to hear about it but it is a problem now people say oh but the you know the deals are better and the the views are more and the tickets are more for the male side of things for the to males for the tall males but it is sexism pure and simple the salaries up people seism and sexism and when you put is now unionized and that was the first 22:01 college athletic conglomerate I salute and may I salute Dartmouth Dartmouth College don't sing the song don't sing the song For The Love um I think that's it did we cover it all um I think we have but I you tempted me to sing the song no don't do it man of Dartmouth give a rouse for the college on the hill Today is 420 22:27 okay it was good the last thing we should mention actually is that today is officially 4:20 which in cannabis culture is celebrated as a day of weed I don't know exactly how I want you to know that I was in Oxford University with Bill Clinton and I did not inhale with Bill you too I we did not inhale together together bill and I anyway 420 for people he congratulations on what on 420 oh thank you we will see you next Saturday at and in the meantime all of you have a safe and happy and a good week

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