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Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028036

COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... FEBRUARY 15TH 2025 Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse The Musk Show PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkrD22itxbg Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I have not watched Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse so stressed as they seem to be in this episode of their Coffee Klatch In my view, there is very good reason for their stress. Trump, Musk and a host of MAGA followers seem to be doing all they can and as fast as they can everythong they can possibly think of to end the economy and the society as we have known it for decades ... certainly all my lifetime (so far 85 years) ... in favor of their own idea of an optimised world! Trump, Musk and the MAGA followers do not seem to be at all well informed. I see them as very dumb egocentric fools who have succeeded in getting power on the basis of massive misinformation and very clever outrageous misdirection. I like Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse in part because I can relate to most of what they talk about. In this episode, I am able to relate to the stress they are showing. In this episode, I am particularly concerned that they have not been able to identify a path out of the mess that Trump, Musc et al are creating. I grew up in the UK, coming to North America in 1967 as an 'economic' migrant. People in the USA were enormously rich ... financially ... compared to people in the UK and Europe in 1967 but by most other measures quality of life in the USA was not so good! Without this foundational economic wealth, the United States would not amount to much! Trump, Musk et al are in the process of taking a wrecking ball to the myth that the world needs to 'kow-tow' to American wealth and power. In 3 weeks ... or is it 4 weeks ... since the inauguration Peter Burgess
The Musk Show \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich February 15th 2025 1.11M subscribers ... 123,865 views ... 9.2K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich The President of the United States took questions in the Oval Office this week as Donald Trump watched silently from the sidelines. On today's Coffee Klatch, we discuss how Trump 2.0 has morphed into The Musk Show. Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather loft house at yours truly Robert BR and Heather another week this is the fourth week of the Trump musk Vance regime or should we call it the Trump Vance Musk regime week number four does Vance deserve I mean he's been doing some stuff but he's made his name I guess let's cover the following musk prices the unfolding coup and how about the crooks of the week starring mayor Eric Adams I mean we have you know what I would I would like to make this a little bit of an uplifting I know it's going to be very hard but I'm going try let's do it I'm going try to aim because this is just it the headlines every day the news is just so disgusting and so awful and you want to start with musk that's fine uh my image of the week is musk in the Oval Office with his son named X how many who names their son x 1:00 with his son X right next to uh the the the you know Trump and sitting there in the uh who's sitting there behind the desk and and and musk is going off and on and on about federal workers and how fraudulent and how irresponsible they are and with no evidence at all I mean Heather I know these federal workers I know many of them I was Secretary of Labor I worked in the in the government for years I mean most federal workers the vast majority really are trying to do their jobs and muskus has no Authority how can he say this I know and now he's doing this Dad fluenc her thing where he's coming with his kid which I find very purposeful let's be clear and signaling to a lot of people that he's so amazing and he's so loving and he's so Pro family I mean it's it's not good I don't like that part of it either but it's also the the conflict of Interest 2:00 are extraordinary here uh I mean remember musk has not been authorized he hasn't been confirmed he has been unelected he I mean nobody has given him permission and these people he's working with he's brought in the government nobody even knows their names nobody knows their backgrounds they have not been vetted and they are worming they continue to worm themselves into all these data sets all of the information pools in the government and musk himself has so many conflicts of interest so keep in mind so when Trump was elected musk who has six corporations they were under continuing investigations there were 34 investigations that were going on across 11 federal agencies I mean that was when he was elected talk about conflict that's where we're starting from and then he's gotten so much richer since then think about this I like to think about it this way too so musk's net worth is currently around 391 billion 3:00 the total salaries of Civilian workers total is 271 billion I mean the amount of money that that individual person has and represents and has his tentacles moving throughout is astonishing but it's a connection as we've talked about before of of money and power and it's it's it's he represents that and he's doing it I mean the the conflicts of interest uh first of all the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that he is ENT closing down uh had a number of Investigations going of musk uh and his financial deals I mean one of the things musk wants to do he's made of a republic he wants to turn X into a consumer payments kind of uh y app I mean a kind of super app and and what is he doing well the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has already or had already a number of of Investigations of Musk because of problems with uh with 4:02 financing with Tesla you know people who had taken out loans to finance their purchases of Tesla got into trouble and musk and Tesla were not doing anything about it uh and then this week uh in fact on Friday he starts going after the education department I mean the education department Heather is basically a student loan program I mean it's one of the smallest departments in the federal government except it has a huge financial impact and can you imagine the conflicts ventr there in terms of musk wanting to get the data and also have some influence and start his own app with regard to Consumer Finance I know but it's more than that it's an assault but it's an assault I mean yes all of that obviously the financial side of it matters but it is an assault on education pure and simple I mean and all we've talked about this you've talked about it the authoritarians don't like having less information amongst people is beneficial 5:01 for them trying to confuse and manipulate we know this I mean the the Department of Education stuff is horrific and it's going to get worse and the cfpb was one of the few ways consumers had to to exert leverage right to say I can't all these overdraft fees are too much the financial there's systemic racism throughout the financial system that we need to fight junk fees shouldn't be there these are hidden or you know things you can't see un unknown to you I would say fees and all of these things it they got consumers like you and me 190 million consumers or whatever it was more than that I think almost $20 billion it got back for consumers over2 billion and you haven't even mentioned we haven't even mentioned the National Labor Relations Board which had 22 separate investigations going against Musk and the board has basically been 6:02 shut down because the chair was fired by Trump I mean again and and what has happened Trump trump does you know Musk's bidding and Musk does Trump's bidding and both of them get richer Musk's in you know musk income his his wealth continues to increase because he is the major shareholder and all of these six companies that are doing better and better because the other shareholders assume that there's going to be no constraint on them because all of these regulatory um bodies are are basically being shut down you know this this is uh well I don't even know I'm I'm running out of words to describe the outrage and I started this uh you know this coffee clutch wanting to be upbeat Heather and I'm getting more and more I am getting more and more Furious as we're going on about I think this is our new normal 7:01 just you and me shouting statistics at each other in out of overwhelm but it's not but but here's the thing it is statistics and people need to know the statistics but also how much law is being violated how many Norms are being violated uh I mean I hope we come back to this because I I mean our entire democracy is really at stake right now and I mean this is a yeah and you had a great subse SEC this week saying why AR AR we calling it a coup so I do want to talk about that but can we talk also about inflation and prices so we saw inflation Rose 3% According to some indices 4% According to some others what does this mean for everyone well do you think Trump was surprised putting in context Trump was elected largely because of the economy because people felt prices were too high uh grocery prices were too high energy prices were too high he said I'm going to get prices down and yet price inflation keeps is 8:01 actually now heading back up it was down to close to 2% which was the fed's target rate the Federal reserve's target rate and now it's moving back up again uh and what kind of responses uh what are what what's Trump talking about in terms of doing anything about inflation well basically nothing uh he's saying well we may have to it may take some more time to control inflation meanwhile he's talking about more tariffs on more Nations around the world reciprocal tariffs and those tariffs mean attacks on Americans it means that prices are going to go even higher and the Federal Trade Commission and the antitrust division of the justice department that are in charge of breaking up monopolies monopolies had also been responsible for keeping prices up those two are being shut down and he's put somebody he he fired Lena Khan who is chair of the 9:02 Federal Trade Commission put into her place this fellow named Ferguson who's a corporate stooge who's saying now more and more mergers now we can we can sort of free the world free corporations to merge like mad and mergers mean bigger and bigger companies and more monopolization which means higher prices so Heather the bottom line here is that Trump is elected on a promise to reduce prices he's doing just the opposite and prices are actually going up in anticipation of what he's doing and when his tax cuts are extended as we imagine they will be right which will also cost us $400 billion um that is going to be more corporate welfare going to these corporations right well that's that's right and that that that figure let's make again make it make very clear the estimate of extending the Trump tax cut that mostly benefits wealthy people in 10:01 big corporations is $4 to5 trillion uh and what what does that mean it means the federal budget uh just continues the deficit continues to increase uh the debt continues to increase uh it gives uh you know more legitimacy quote unquote to uh to musk and Trump to cut the federal Workforce and cut these programs that people in fact need while they're giving taxes and tax cuts rather to Big corporations and the wealthy uh everything is upside down it's completely upside down from what it needs to be what it should be uh inflation and the economy are suffering as a result and in terms of the tariffs so our neighbors our people who are allies we are we Trump is completely screwing over in many ways right but then on the global stage we have him 11:00 cozying up and fist bumping and being best friends with all of these oligarchs did you say talk to us more about that what's you know Bros bros who are like we're best we're best friends this is sort of a continuation of what we saw in the first Trump Administration I mean that he makes friends with authoritarians of Putin is you know he's giving Putin it looks like he's giving Putin exactly what Putin wants in terms of UK uh and meanwhile what is Trump doing to our best friends in the world Canada and Mexico and the Europe and Europe and the European Union and Japan he's raising tariffs against them I mean I mean what are we to make of this it the only way of understanding this is that it is not the old western Block versus the Soviet Union certainly not the not Russia it is uh in fact what oligarchs against the 12:01 people of the world global oligarchs against the rest of us I mean that's one way of explaining what is happening but that's such a shift in our geopolitical landscape I mean there so what what's going on right now is terrifying at every single level and I wanted this coffee clutch to be positive I mean I know you set out that intention I don't know what you were dreaming about I well okay uh so we've talked about musk and we've talked about uh you know the the the economy and and both of those are interrelated obviously because the more musk basically uh reduces undermines what is going on in terms of health safety Environmental Protections everything else that people need uh using his own inside knowledge and inside ability to make more money for himself uh you know the the the basically Trust in the economy Goes Down 13:01 And as trust in the economy decreases uh well we we can expect more economic problems in the future but so much of this this chaos as content as I read in the New York Times a great description of this just has people amped so when we talk about this is illegal I think people think I mean probably illegal isn't great but I still I'm feeling like people are fighting the system you know this is business is unusual and that feels good to me so how do we what do we do to fight back against this I mean and you said it's a coup why isn't the why isn't the mainstream media using the word coup it's interesting um Heather the New York Times editorial board and it's not all that common for the New York Times editorial board itself to write an editorial they wrote an editorial uh this week about how musk and Trump are basically ignoring ing Congress obviously by putting a freeze 14:02 on federal spending by doing things like saying Tick Tock even though Congress said you're out of business you can stay in business uh by essentially ignoring uh everything Congress is saying but not only that but Trump and musk are also ignoring the federal courts uh you know we have three branches of government under the Constitution we have the executive and we have the Congress and we have the federal courts the Judiciary and what musk and Trump are doing is saying we are not paying any more attention to Congress and we're not going to pay any attention to the federal courts even though you have judges now trying to enjoin stop put stays on a lot of the things that Trump and musk are doing but the response from Trump and bus and even Vance uh the the one person who you know he graduated from Yale law school what did he learn in law school he says Vance says no we are not not bound by the federal courts 15:00 well if they're not bound by the federal courts what check is there on what they are doing I mean this is this is the way so the New York Times says well we are this is very dangerous but even the New York Times doesn't call it a coup it should well is it a coup question mark I mean they like to put a question mark instead of period you know many people have in their heads that a coup has to be a military coup no a coup can also be uh an executive a so-called president or prime minister who ignores the rest of a government where there are checks and balances you know Netanyahu in Israel what he did with the courts there uh What uh Victor Orban in Hungary has done in Hungary with the other checks on executive power these are coups in terms of overwhelming uh a government that is supposed to otherwise represent the people waiting to use the term coup until it 16:01 gets worse I look at I don't know but I but the the advantage of using a term like coup to describe what's going on right now is it gets people sensitized to how dangerous what is going on is for our democracy that it's basically unraveling our democracy and it also enables people to wake up I mean so many people are overwhelmed Heather by the the flooding of the Zone there's every day there there more initiatives that so many people say that's outrageous you can't do that can they do that that's outrageous but if you see it all as part of a coup if you can put the label the coup on it then it's less flooding I mean then you actually have something to attach to you can say well this is all about creating a dictatorship in the United States that is not being controlled that is basically Trump and musk and Vance regime not not 17:00 Administration and not a country and a government of and by and for the people but a government of and by and for Trump and musk and Vance and the billionair behind them Y and the billionaires I know it um okay so uh so have I have I ended up on a positive note yet we have to find a positive note in this can we talk about mayor Adams oh good good positive well there is there is you're now really talking there is some positive about it though I mean we have Danielle Sassoon who was the Federal prosecutor who said I refuse I am out I am I am leaving and I am done I'm not taking this on so talk I this is I think I think this is very important because you've you've got uh you know Trump trying to use the justice department to get back at his enemies his so-called enemies uh it's all all about vengeance 18:00 vindictiveness uh and he puts Pam Bondi his lawyer I mean she was she used to be effectively his lawyer he made contributions to her when she was Florida attorney general and he put Emil Bo what's his name bo I think that's his name yes uh on as the number Emil the number two in the Justice Department who uh is also just a trump loyalist a Trum Trump flacky and both says to the justice department corruption Integrity unit and the attorney us attorney for the southern district of New York who's a US attorney who has a lot of responsibility uh this is Sassoon and he says we have to drop charges against Eric Adams drop the corruption charges and it's all politics because we need Adam's cooperation and we need his help and we want by the way immigration right and the 19:01 immigration Zar Tom Homan came out talking with Adams this the other day so but but but here is the here is the Silver Lining that we have been seeking because you have the US attorney for the southern district of New York uh she's been there what three or four weeks she's a trump appointee she's a trump appointee she used to be a clerk to Scalia Justice Scalia she's a she's basically a very very conservative right-wing the Federalist Society I know Republican and she says no I am not going to sacrifice this I'm not going to sacrifice my office and my Integrity I'm not going to allow the justice department to do what you Trump officials what you want me to do and she resigns Heather yeah I know not on my watch and not under my name I know it's very brave and then and then almost 20:02 right away there are four or five there are five other attorneys senior justice department attorneys in the corruption unit who say and public Integrity no we are not going to go along with this either we are resigning I mean this is important because it sends such a powerful signal to the public about where Integrity actually lies that there is still something called Integrity that I know the justice department cannot be turned into a cesspool of Vengeance which is what Trump wants it to be turned into I I think actually I mean this is I I I really salute uh you know Sassoon and the other lawyers in the Justice Department I mean they are really Profiles in Courage which reminds me of your substack you put out the other day one of many you know I like to tease you about that um where you put a number number of people there was Phyllis Fong 21:01 who was the Inspector General of the um US Department of Agriculture and she refused to leave she said I'm not leaving I haven't done anything illegal so many of these people are saying uh this is not illegal I am being fired um and it's wrongful termination and there are a lot of I guess it's a good time to be a lawyer I mean it seems like every minute I look up there's a lawsuit and someone suing but there are people who are saying this is not okay and it is very brave of them and here we have layoffs like it's going out of style thanks to Doge and Trump excuse me musk um but also federal workers resigning I mean I think about the fabric of our federal Workforce and all they do and it's horrible to watch it dissipate well it it is horrible uh and and I think that there are uh you know there are many people out in the country in America who say I don't trust the federal Workforce uh they don't work for 22:01 me they're part of the so-called deep State uh but uh I think this is going to change when people see that they are not getting the Public Services they need that their own fam's health and safety and the environment we all live in is being sacrificed because there aren't federal workers there uh when they see that a lot of people in their own communities you know 80% of the federal Workforce is outside Washington it's in small towns it's in States it's in Wyoming it's in uh you know in in Arkansas and in Alaska I mean a lot of the people in their communities are going to be losing their jobs as well this has an economic consequence I I think that people are going to think twice or three times or five times about uh about this this crazy uh you know slashing and burning and uh and and with with no no attempt to understand what it is that musk and Trump are 23:02 actually doing and and what they're sacrificing so we humans relate to things at the personal level right it's hard for us to process what's happening in democracy out there and this opaque federal government and it's all nebulous and I don't know where my dollars go but I think in their own in our own communities as we see you mentioned Wyoming 6,000 federal workers are in Wyoming 11,000 are in Alaska which is not populace of a state that's these are very tiny States I mean there they're more what cows in Wyoming and more more uh elk in Alaska than there are you know a lot of sensient human beings uh so the the yes it is of course it is U and so it it really does make a big difference not only in these states but all around the country everywhere uh and this direct assault on the federal Workforce 24:00 is again not just the federal Workforce it's on services and protections that we have come to take for granted and national parks I was reading about that and also when we think about the general Services Administration and how many people are frozen there and losing their jobs there I mean that's what makes government run it is in charge of procurement and it is in charge of real estate and it is in charge I mean we have a travel policy for the Federal government and how people can travel the GSA defines that I mean these are fundamental needs of a large organization bureaucracy or otherwise but that's the irony because you have here musk coming in and saying he's going to make it more efficient uh when what has Trump done and musk they' fired most of the uh inspectors General of the United States uh philis Fong at the agriculture Department was one of the heroes because she was the Inspector General of the of the Department of Agriculture she's fired uh she has some 25:02 investigations going on of musk I this this is why everything relates to everything else the the fundamental Choice here is do you have a government of laws or do you have a government that is a essentially a dictatorship with this this this clown called Elon Musk attached to it uh that's the choice before us uh and what gives me hope uh is you've got people people of great integrity uh that's it who are who are saying no to this regime uh and I want to salute them I want to salute them Heather I agree and so every example of Integrity including in the face of significant fights right um I think we have to be focusing on that there have been some local wins around special elections that are promising for democracy so I hang on to those but I remember you were on John Stewart and 26:01 The Daily Show now here we go again here we go how do you find these things I don't know I just okay um so you spoke to John Stewart years ago and I appreciated what you said and I'd like to watch it again if you'll let us okay so I'm going to say something that is I should not say publicly so keep it to yourselves all of you Democrats some of them drank from the same corporate trough as Republicans some of them a few of them three of them and and as a result some Democrats don't quite have the courage to take on power I mean to take on the people who are abusing their power in this country and some of them are heads of Corporations or used to be right and some of them are named Tom DeLay and some of them are you know there there's a lot there is a lot of corruption in high places and there's a lot of abuse of power and if they were to take on maybe that sort of activist cleaning out the corruption thing CLE the corrup absolutely clean the clean the no I 27:02 think this I think people in this country really John they don't know what to do when I take other points of they're but let let me just say I think people in this country they really do not the word liberal people don't like the word liberal but I think people do want a president and they want Congress who have integrity who say what they believe who are not in the pockets of any special interest not in the pockets of Corporations and will stick up for the little guy all right I get it that's a cheap visual gag a cheap visual gag John yeah it was and I loved every second of it oh but you've been saying this for so long and it's like I actually it shocked we're grateful to you that I was talking about I was talking about integrity uh and not being in the pockets of big corporations uh whenever it was that I had dark hair John Stewart and John Stewart in five well in any event um Heather uh we just 28:03 have to keep fighting you are a as well yeah but you're very inspiring so I'm grateful to be here with you and everyone who's watching with us drinking coffee and Michael Michael Lanes Calderon who is couldn't do it without Michael could not do it without Michael and uh it's a great team uh I want to thank you Heather and Michael but I also want to thank all of you at home uh the nobody predicted nobody predicted how bad it would get uh we have survived I suppose you could call it surviving a week four uh and I know how difficult it is for many of you some of you are federal workers some of you are in families with federal workers some of you care about the health and safety and the environment and the Department of Education and what the department of education does uh many of you are outraged appropriately by Elon Musk and 29:01 his conflicts of interest and the richest person in the world who is now making incursions into private data sources uh in the federal government I get it but I also want to emphasize to all of you that there are people in the federal government there are people in America there are Mo most of us in fact who have integrity who care about this country very deeply and who are going to continue to fight the good fight thank you all we'll see you next Saturday [Music]

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