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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... MARCH 1ST 2025 with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse The Trump-Putin Axis of A*holes PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq9SPqHA9Xw&list=PLOLArO56vjuoDxbdMWMFEdWfVCsHc2X7W&index=1 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Something that Trump said: '... that Biden wasn't a smart person' then OUCH!!! ...if Biden wasn't a smart person, then Trump must be an absolute moron ... which of course he is. There are, of course, many varieties of smart ... but not much appreciation of what this really means. I was a 'smart' kid ... but that was a long time ago. In fact, when I was 10 years old I took the so-called 11+ esam in the UK, and was graded #1 in the county (Devonshire). Some time after the exam results were out, some experts came to our home and did some one-on-one testing. The investigators bombarded me with questions for quite a long time ... maybe more than two hours ... asking more and more difficult questions. The last question was something like 'What is the result of muliplying 745129 by 832146? I failed to do this ... and broke down crying! Apparently I had done better up to that point than anyone ever in the county. My Father, who was himself a teacher, and the headmaster of the local Secondary Modern School did everything in his power that I got the education I deserved. The 11+ exams gained me entrance into the local Grammar School ... I had passed the 11+ exams with flyng colors ... but this school had limitations, and would not likely have gained me entrance to a top university in the country. In part, this was because they did not teach latin, a requirement at the time to gain entrance to Oxford or Cambridge, and maybe some other top universities in the UK. My father stepped in and home schooled me in Latin. When I was 13, I took entrance examinations to go to a 'public school' ... that is a private fee paying baording school. I remember Blundell's School and Taunton School but cannot remember a third ... maybe Sherborne. My parents chose Blundell's and were somewhat gratified that I got a scholarship. It turned out that it mainly because of my considerable knowledge of Latin! Blundell's also had a strong Rugby tradition, and the fact that my father had played for the 'Barbarians' in his rugby playing days was probably an important factor in the entrance process and scholarship! Five years later it was now time to take entrance examinations into the university world. Blundell's had a historic connection with Balliol College at Oxford and Sidney Sussex College at Cambridge. For some reason I had a preference for Cambridge, so took the Sidney Sussex entrance exams ... successfully. I even got a modest scholarship ... a Blundell Exhibition worth 50 pounds a year! More important though, my exam results from school had earned me a State Scholarship which paid almost all my academic and basic living expenses at Cambridge University. I mention this, because I was able to get a world class education without getting into massive student debt ... one of the abject failures of the economies of most rich countries including both the UK and the USA. Now, another 65 years or so have passed and Trump has been elected President of the USA. How can that be? And of course, the reality is that Trump is a world class con artist and a bully with a very mean streak! Is America ... the USA ... over? It is hard to say five weeks into the new administration ... but the free world has not been looking facorably at the Trump saga in his first Presidency and will not do so a second time around. My own view is that America is going to have to brace itself for some very rought times ahead. Trump brags about having all the cards relative to Ukraine ... but maybe Trump will get to show that America itself is really not much more than a rather flaky 'house of cards! Peter Burgess*
The Trump-Putin Axis of Aholes \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich 1.13M subscribers Premiered March 1st, 2025 The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Trump's disgraceful attack on Zelenskyy. Musk's Cabinet meeting takeover. Republicans' reverse Robin Hood budget. A lot happened this week. We get into all of it on today's Coffee Klatch. The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Transcript** 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather loft house and yours truly Robert R uh Heather another big week what are we going to talk about we are going to talk about uh zelinsky's visit to the office and Trump to the Oval Office and Trump Advance berading him the musk Trump slash and burn that continues the GOP budget chaos and then how about some Seeds of Hope Oh I want Seeds of Hope please let's let's come to Seeds of Hope start there um Heather how are you how I mean I haven't seen you in a week are you doing okay I know well we've seen each other but we haven't coffeed in a week right I'm okay I mean are you it's not great do you really want to know I mean it's not great it's not having you to meet even though I know it's a podcast and lots of people are listening but I still the idea of meeting you Robert Rice for coffee makes me happier how are you well good May the feeling is mutual but I I'll tell you you know we don't want to wallow in our own kind of sense of uh of how difficult 1:05 this is this period and we'll come back to it but I I really I don't I mean I've been around for 78 years uh I remember politics from what when I was four years old I met vice president Henry Wallace former vice president Henry Wallace you sat in his lap didn't you yes but I but so that's maybe 74 years of sentient political discussion or politics I I don't remember anything close to what we're going through right now uh not in America I never expected I never expected it I know anyway U so uh yes Trump and Vance berated seninsky in the overall wow wow say thank you said a lot to American except that there are disagreements and let's go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American Media when you're wrong we know that you're wrong but you see I think it's good for 2:04 the American people to see what's going on I think it's very important that's why I kept this going so long you have to be thankful you don't have the cars you're buried there you're people are dying you're running low on soldiers listen you're running low on soldiers it would be a damn good thing and then you then you tell us I don't want to cease fire I don't want to cease fire I want to go and I want to this I look if you could get a ceasefire right now I tell you you take it so the bullets stop Flying and you meant stop getting killed course of course we want to stop the war saying you don't want a ceas I want a ceas guar because you'll get a ceasefire faster than it agree ask our people about ceasefire what they think that wasn't with that wasn't with me that was with a a guy named Biden who was not a smart person that was with ob it was your pres excuse me that was with Obama who gave you sheets and I gave gave you javelins yes I gave you the javelins to take out all those tanks Obama gave you sheets in fact the statement is Obama gave sheets and Trump gave javelins you got to be more thankful because let me tell you you don't have 3:16 the cards with us you have the cards but without us you don't have any cards I mean watching the the clips of it was sickening it is sickening because zinski remember this is for more than three years he has led the resistance to Putin's aggression I mean zalinski is probably one of the bravest uh most really tenacious leaders we have seen his ability to keep his people together to keep their spirits up uh to actually negotiate with Europe with the United States in terms of what he needed uh to maintain this to lose huge numbers of ukrainians in the process uh I mean and and to to maintain his dignity and a 4:02 plum is extraordinary and what does he do what happens he comes to the Oval Office and Trump yells at him and Vance yells at him uh I mean this I've never seen anything as inappropriate as demeaning as I'm I'm I'm struggling for words here as I often do when I try to describe what happens with with Trump but but this really did take the cake well so why does Trump set this up in front of the cameras two against one and it was like you said it was humiliating I mean he did this on purpose so what is his goal well it I mean it's a very clear goal um he wants to settle this war on Putin's terms uh he is on Putin's side but the American people are not quite happy with that uh they don't want to see Putin Victorious they don't want to see the United States join Putin so explicit L and so Trump feels like he's 5:02 going to take down zalinski he's going to he's got to humiliate him he's going to make zilinski he's called zalinsky a dictator he has said with with absolute I mean it's an absolute lie obviously that zalinski and Ukraine started this War I mean he's doing everything he can uh to basically in the Public's eye and Trump is always thinking about the American public and what the American public is is seeing on television this is staged very carefully uh and he knew and Advance knew in advance what they were going to do uh and the purpose again is to uh make zalinski less of a hero figure for the American people so that when Putin wins the territory that he's going to win the terms that he's going to win when Trump allows Putin to basically declare Victory uh there's not much of a blowback and also it's sound 6:00 bites of lies right so he not he's saying I'm not on Putin's side I'm on the United States side I'm on the world side and so it's these sound bites of lies that he also can't wait to get out there on the internet onto people's phones but zalinski was so calm I mean Vance and Trump were elevated and zalinsky I don't know how he did it I mean he not easy no I mean it's an impossible position for him to be in um and uh it'll be interesting I mean a lot of the headlines newspaper headlines were talked about a shouting match in the ovla office well I didn't hear zalinsky shout zalinski was very moderate the shouting was all from from from Trump and from Vance uh and uh what an inappropriate place I mean to you you're you have a foreign leader uh who is a heroic figure uh in as your guest in the White House Our Guest he's not just Trump's guest the 7:04 White House is the people's house Heather I want to just emphasize and remind everybody that that that that when a foreign president comes to our people's house uh our white house uh that's he should be honored uh that's a that's a that's an opportunity for us to to show our respect and we did we did through Trump from just exactly the opposite and Vance and he was there was more of Vance than we've seen in a while which was interesting and he said exactly the opposite right you're being disrespectful I I hope there there is really uh blowback against Trump for how he treated zilinski and remember zalinski is we know the Trump zalinsky relationship between because in uh in the Trump's first term uh Trump really tried to get zilinski to dig up dirt on 8:02 Joe Biden on Hunter Biden uh in anticipation of the 20 uh 2020 election and uh he held him hostage I mean you get no money unless you deliver for me yeah talk about diplomacy talk about diplomacy well so so we have this visit I mean it's just the Round the Clock having to watch what's happening in DC so this is after Elon mus musk attends a cabinet meeting and dominates it standing up didn't have a seat at the table didn't have a name card but dominated you've been in the cabinet I mean this is unbelievable right yeah this is not a cabinet meeting a cabinet meeting uh if it's a working meeting you know is you don't you don't have the Press there for one thing uh and everybody is is quite you know you you try to be as candidate as possible because you are working together you're working for a president uh but no this was a Show and Tell uh this was Donald Trump's opportunity to put on another show 9:07 before the Press uh and showing that the cabinet really despite words to the contrary despite reporting to the contrary the cabinet is 100% in favor of what musk is doing this is uh you know musk probably wanted this uh Trump probably conceded yes we will do this uh and the cabinet were just Stooges they were just props that's it and musk was able to say we've made a few mistakes I mean this is inevitable big deal and so I think it was kind of a cya as well uh right yeah yes and it comes at a at a particularly awkward point for musk because Doge uh his so-called Department of government efficiency is making mistake after mistake after mistake uh and the Press is picking up many of those mistakes even though a lot of what Doge does is in complete secret but there are enough we're beginning to get 10:05 enough reports from enough people inside ins certainly inside departments and inside agencies uh that are telling uh the repor is actually what a absolute Fiasco this is right I have to say this is so overwhelming and so depressing to be living right now March 1st 2025 but it's helpful sitting with you and having you break it down and thinking about what's really happening I mean I do think that there's value I was telling my kid this we have to learn from all that's going on and so I just want to say that that uh as we go through and I have more on my list for you that grateful that we're talking about it well there is a big I mean the the danger here uh talking about it just between you and me and also everybody who's watching is that we get pulled down by the reality it it's so dark and 11:04 it's so you know despairing in many ways uh and that's why it's I'm very eager to get heather to the portion of our little discussion that you said is going to be green shoots positive positive news but but you're right we have we have to go through what is actually going on and we've got to be clear about it so the Doge meltdown I mean it was kind of amazing to watch so they say we're saving all this money and then they delete things from the website the wall of receipts where they're saying all the money they're saving I mean there was some real backtracking this week not to mention I mean the funds that have stopped the court orders that are being ignored and the real people American and across the globe who are being hurt by these decisions what were some of the things that you saw that stood out well I think that this is a very important point because most people in the United States don't love the bureaucracy don't 12:03 love you know federal workers simply because they're federal workers uh so and for years since Ronald Reagan said government is the problem and then Bill Clinton went on to say the era of big government is over uh and then uh Donald Trump started talking about the Deep State uh all of this cumulatively kind of uh emphasizes and underscores public distrust of of these vague bureaucrats uh so people are not going to get terribly upset about the fact that an agency is shrinking or uh Trump is firing people uh but what they will get upset about is when very important public services that they count on are not available are not there uh when for example uh there is uh more concerned about Aviation safety and we know that the uh FAA is is cutting back dramatically uh when there's more 13:04 concern about getting your Social Security checks and we learned this week that what is going on and musk and Company have have basically told the Social Security Administration that 50% of all of the Social Security Administration Personnel are going to be fired well what does that mean in terms of getting your Social Security checks or having somebody on the other end of the phone answering the phone when you need help if you are uh trying to get Social Security or Medicare and they're they're very closely alied um and uh we know we learned this week that uh Congress the Republicans and Congress are going to be cutting 880 billion dollar from Medicaid a huge slice of Medicaid uh and I think this is part of the discussion too because it's all you know cut cut cut for the purpose of what generating a huge and creating the opportunity for Trump to generate a huge 14:06 tax cut mostly for very rich people in this country that's it and this week we've started to see the health implications of all of these Cuts right we have an ebola outbreak starting right and we've cut off all funding to support Ebola mitigation and Ebola treatment overseas and watching what's happening we've seen me a death from measles for the first time since 2015 happened here in Texas we've seen the 911 um survival's health program cut so we're starting to see people are going to start to feel this directly and sadly more stories are going to be breaking through right well that's right and and the the the downside of waiting until the public actually sees the consequences of these Cuts is that a lot of people are going to be harmed a lot of people are going to be hurt some people are going to die 15:02 as a result of the incompetence uh malfeasance non-ant and and treachery uh that we see in this Administration and the wild part is you see all these usaid Cuts so people who are being treated and who are being hopefully prevented from getting malaria tuberculosis HIV AIDS but part of the problem is we're cutting the people that are tracking how the programs are doing how the people are doing whether it's deaths or um morbidity and you know different kinds of measurements the measurement part of stuff has been cut so we won't even know the impacts well we will know when it starts to actually take a toll um and I this is actually a good a good note to to stop on for a second Heather and that is that Donald Trump seems to think that the interest of the United States and at the official borders of the United States uh what he doesn't understand understand is that some of the most important challenges we face as a nation 16:04 uh having to do with climate change having to do with disease that moves around the globe uh all of these things are are not within the borders of the United States you can't keep uh things from affecting what is going on in the United States if they are outside in the rest of the world and the same thing goes for Putin's aggression Donald Trump's view of of America is a 19th or 18th century view of territory uh but that's not what America is and it certainly has nothing what we need it has nothing to do with the ideals of this country uh I remember I worked in global health and one time I was traveling I was either at London Heath or maybe I was in Frankfurt in Germany and at the airport and some an older gentleman next to me tossed his coffee all over himself and so I handed him my napkins and I saidif you watch my stuff I'll run get you some napkins and I came back and he said you have to be American 17:02 because no one else helps someone so quickly with no questions asked um and he wasn't I mean he just kind of commented on I mean it was not it was a compliment of sorts but it wasn't but where is that I mean that feels like a time of the past right that this is our reputation as helpers globally well it it was our reputation certainly I mean if you go back to the late 19th century uh when we were the last refug for the world's poor and suffering Emma lazarus's you know poem on the Statue of Liberty uh I mean even in terms of immigration uh what Trump is doing is so violative of the fundamental principles of the United States uh and uh and by the way on that issue of immigration it's not that he's just trying to eliminate or Deport undocumented immigrants he's stopping immigrants he's stopping legal immigration into the United States unless you pay for a gold 18:05 card which costs something like what $500 million I mean this is not this is so inconsistent with the ideals of this country I think it was 5 million yeah the gold card and he's like we're going to get thousands of people to come in and I'm going to raise so much money in this way can we talk a little bit about the GOP budget so this week um all me all Republican members save one save one I think um voted in favor of this continuing resolution tell us about the budget and what we should be worried about as it stands well there actually two things of there is a March 14th deadline uh after that point the government runs out of funding so it's another one of these uh you know kind of we we get into these periodically more and more often um but uh we get out of them through continuing resolutions basically continuing everything as it is right now we haven't really had an effective government budget for years uh Donald Trump and the Republicans want to 19:04 use the budget process and actually have a budget uh as a pretext for pushing through what's called reconciliation in the Senate uh with no filibuster with no opportunity for uh a a 60 vote requirement U and that reconciliation bill is primarily going to at least in Donald Trump's mind and in the The house's mind uh going to be about a tax cut a gigantic tax cut 4 and a half trillion dollars uh going mainly to the wealthy and big corporations uh a larger version of the tax cut that he did in the first Trump Administration which again mainly benefited the rich and big corporations but in order to do that and this is what's happening right now uh the budget that Congress the house has just passed and we'll go to the Senate 20:01 Cuts critical programs for children for Child Nutrition uh for food stamps for Medicaid uh the people who are being uh sacrificed for the sake of a big tax cut for the wealthy are some of the most vulnerable people in our country uh including a lot of seniors if it turns out that they're attacking Social Security uh and it looks like they are beginning to do that uh in terms of what musk is up to uh then it's reverse Robin Hood I mean it's it's the most flagrant example of reverse Robin Hood engineering that we've seen in this country I know it and so here we have let's talk a little bit about the conflicts of interests that are coming up right and who's actually benefiting so we know that hundreds of millions are going to go to several Republicans who are voting in favor of this of of course let's look at where the money is going follow the money 21:02 you've taught me this for years and years and years um so who is benefiting from this budget as it's going to be you know enacted so it's going to be musk himself so let's talk about that but then are there a number of Republicans who have voted in favor who are going to get money back into their pockets based on how they're structuring everything uh because they are wealthy and because many of them are going to get huge tax benefits uh out of thex tax cuts musk is also getting an additional set of benefits because musk is a major government contractor uh in fact uh what's come out is that musk has got $38 billion of government contracts over the last few years uh that have come to him subsidies loans contracts that have come to him particularly at moments where his businesses have been most threatened U so when musk says he did tweet on X uh he said that people who are dependent on 22:03 government are parasites use the word parasites to describe people who are dependent on government he's the largest parasite of all in terms of this 38 billion dollars going to one big parasite and this is current dollars and future potential contracts right there was a new one between the FAA and Verizon that was announced that he would benefit from and reap bilon well he's fighting that he doesn't want the FAA to contract with Verizon Verizon is his competitor he wants the FAA to contract with his starlink division of SpaceX uh and he's putting a lot of pressure on the FAA uh and the FAA is is trying to resist uh but the FAA is not really you know is is uh there there's more and more pressure coming from the top Heather this is another example of conflicts of interest that that musk is taking advantage of his closeness to 23:00 Trump and his dominance over this whatever this doge is uh to make sure that he comes out on top that he gets more Federal contracts and the contracts are going to him and not to his competitors and let's that's exactly it so he has you know his hands in all the pies but think about too how much corporate welfare how many handouts he's already benefited from over his lifetime and now he's coming and trying to get more or I mean it's wild we should add up that number you know past present and potential future and and also consider the most obvious fact that this is the richest man in the world and he's running for all intents and purposes the federal government of the richest Society the richest nation in the world um I mean the the it it boggles the mind that this one single individual has as much power as he does have but as you 24:02 have been pointing out on your substack and otherwise his popularity is not through the roof and it's declining right people are concerned about his personal economic interests in terms of what doge is doing they're not a fan of his on average so that gives me a little hope but don't get too excited we're not at the Hope portion yet right I mean I like seeing his popularity I mean it makes me feel little serer and a little more secure to see people not happy with what he's doing well his popularity and also Trump's popularity are are diving uh and the economy uh the the you know the the United States economy is Al also showing signs of real strain There's real worry uh about uh the number of people who are being cut off of the payrolls uh worry about all of the contractors much larger number uh that who are being cancelled and who are losing jobs uh and also 25:03 Trump's talk of tariffs and his uh organizing the federal government to uh for Mass deportations I mean you put all of this together the tariffs the mass deportations and Doge uh and you you wonder how the economy can maintain what's called aggregate demand I mean you're going to have a major economic problem and at the same time you have potential uh inflation uh and that's we we see those signs all over the economy right now uh consumer confidence is down people are worried about the future uh and uh a lot of companies are holding back Investments because they are worried and the Federal Reserve board is not reducing interest rates because it is worried about inflation so there's economic power I I you've you've talked about power for since you were four and on the lap of 26:04 the vice president right I mean there's also there's the power of there's physical power and there's hard power and there's Force so this week we've seen and you had a great substack on this Trump is not only consolidating you know so much economic power and so is musk but also what has he been up to as it relates to the Monopoly on of on force and actual physical power and with the hirings and firings of the week it's important that we focus on this because U As Trump tries to take more and more power remember he's already taken power away from Congress in terms of the article one Constitution power of the purse uh he's saying no Congress I can decide what's being spent no you're not going to decide that's that's illegal under the Constitution but he's doing it anyway he's also taking away article 27:00 three of the Constitution power from the Judiciary saying no I'm not going to follow if the lower courts say something that I don't agree with I'm I'm simply not going to do what they say U but he's also at the same time Staffing the parts of the government that really are and should be neutral with regard to acting in the uh in in terms of shows of force uh having the force of the nation um the military uh the federal courts the FBI uh the justice department places where uh people really and their lives are potentially at stake in terms of what the government does um what he's doing is putting people into those key positions who are not loyal to the United States but who are loyal to Donald Trump uh we've got to understand Heather that 28:03 this is a very critical and disturbing technique of a dictator uh this is what uh dictators do this is what they you know Putin did this is what um hungary's uh Orban Victor Orban did uh this is you take over the military and the investigative arms of your Judiciary your Judiciary itself you put your personal loyalists in those positions uh what he's done for example The Joint Chiefs of Staff The Joint Chiefs of Staff is supposed to be there to not only provide a president with good solid neutral advice uh but also guard the military from a president's personal uh desires or or or craziness or or 29:00 whatever the president wants to do he wants yeah whims whims is the right word uh but the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been headed uh for the last several years by uh a fellow who was very respected by many people in the military uh Q I think his name is CQ Brown uh Trump without any War morning without any reason fired Brown and put into Brown's Place uh a man uh who goes by the name of Cain the his nickname is raisin raisin kanaine Trump thought that this was very funny when he met this Air Force Lieutenant years ago uh but what Trump remembers most about this meeting and repeated to the conservative political action convention uh is that this man is 30:00 totally loyal to Trump raisen Kane said to Trump and Trump quoted this he said uh raisen Kane told him uh sir uh I love you uh I admire you I will kill for you this to Trump uh is the qualification to be the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and look at the FBI the people that Trump is putting in the FBI cash Patel uh as FBI director knows nothing about the FBI has been a conspiracy theorist uh who is totally loyal to Trump uh the deputy that Trump just put into the FBI borino uh who is he where does he come from he comes he's a commentator on Fox News uh he's a conspiracy theorist he has a popular podcast uh and and he's a total Trump loyalist uh these people should not be where they are remember they should be 31:01 working remember when President Biden pardoned his own son and everyone was so appalled I hate to even bring it up but I mean it feels like he knew what was coming I mean yeah I I think Biden knew exactly what was coming uh because cash Patel has maintained an enemy list y uh for Trump of of of all of the people that the FBI ought to to be investigating and the justice department ought to go against uh so if we find ourselves in a short amount of time uh in the same position this country felt itself under under Richard Nixon who had his own enemies list uh nobody should be surprised right so I'll repeat it again but it does make me feel slightly better to be describing what's happening even though it's miserable this Monopoly on force is part of the larger picture of tyranny and dictatorship and so we have 32:04 to be paying attention to it and calling it what it is right and I'm so glad you continue to do that Bob I think that this is important because if you just read the paper every day listen to the news every day there's so many bits and pieces if you don't see the hole if you don't see the large theme if you don't see that we are drifting very rapidly toward dictatorship uh then it's hard to summon the courage and the tenacity and the will to do something about it I think the American public needs to see the whole picture uh if we are going to have any hope of stopping this and what do you think we can expect so March 4th is a big date because first of all it's his um Trump's non-state of the Union State of the Union where he you know holds a joint session and speaks to everyone but then also tariffs kick in on March 4 right what's going to happen well he says tariffs are going to kick in March 4th but remember he has delayed 33:04 tariffs every time he has talked about them uh and part of the reason he's delayed them I believe is because every time he says the word tariff the stock market reacts negatively uh and the one metric that he pays a very very close attention to is the stock market and secondly the bond market and if stocks and bonds react negatively he gets worried a lot of his uh oligarchic friends uh start calling him and saying what's going on stop doing whatever you're doing uh so we may see uh that those tariffs never come to be that they are only a bargaining strategy yeah and that's part of his he loves to do this right it's threat and to hold it over and then to push and then to delay it feels like yet another Power tactic assuming it's that orchestrated um and then so the State of the Union 34:00 that's not the State of the Union I mean we shall see do you think the Washington Post will cover it I mean that happened this week too we didn't even talk about that Jeff we should we should hop let's talk about that for a minute Heather because that's part of the large scheme here uh what happened at the Washington Post was that uh Jeff Bezos uh the second richest person in the United States I third I think he's third isn't he oh in the United States glob I think he's third yeah he may be third he's in the United States he's second Jeff Bezos who purchased the Washington Post in 2013 um well je for yeah Jeff Bezos said to The Washington Post and to and he admitted this publicly uh no longer will there be any opinions expressed by the post's opinion page uh that are not compatible with free markets as I Bezos Define free markets uh and freedom as I Bezos Define Freedom obviously this is 35:03 uh this is a sop to Trump uh because Bezos has a lot of other businesses that depend on the Trump administration's Goodwill uh he's got a rocket business he's competing with the first and richest person in the world Elon Musk uh he's got uh you know other businesses Amazon obviously um he's got to make sure that he is in the good grace of trump and so this is a pattern and we've seen this pattern Bezos uh basically defangs the Washington Post he didn't allow the Washington Post even to put up a wraparound advertisement that was critical of trump uh he did not allow the Washington Post just before the election to have endorse kamla Harris as the editorial board wanted to do in the Washington Post he is basically doing what Elon Musk did to Twitter uh that is turning it into a uh 36:02 a mouthpiece uh another propaganda vehicle for Trump uh this is another thing that dictators do they intimidate the Press they intimidate the oligarchs they make sure that the oligarchs are working for them rather than for the people in general yes okay I think we've got a transition to what you would call reasons for moderate optimism is that what you're calling it modest optimism I mean modest optimism again there are not too many green chots of of positive uh the boycott the economic boycott yesterday you announced um that you would be boycotting things other people chimed in there was a lot of Engagement around this online it was pretty impressive to see it all happen so that is an example of the power of people coming together and deciding to do something and 37:02 withholding their power to show they have power right that's exactly right I and I think one of the biggest dangers to our democracy Now is not just Trump's Galloping toward dictatorship but Americans feeling that we are powerless to do anything about it uh the kind of sense of uh Despair and cynicism uh that a lot of people feel so when there is a a kind of economic mobilization even for a day uh where people don't buy from big companies particularly companies that have collaborated with Trump on uh ending Dei initiatives diversity Equity uh and inclusion initiatives well uh people feel a little bit more emboldened a little bit more empowered uh and uh this is all important this is all you know uh there's been a big uh kind of uh boycott uh of Tesla um and I think for the same reason because people just feel 38:01 like they don't want to be Associated uh with a product that is part of the Trump musk uh regime it's not even Administration regime stock is down right Tesla stock is way down the the stock is way down uh even we have labor unions who are asking uh big asset managers what are you doing about the the Tesla stock you have I mean because it's it's way down and and why should labor union people be investing in Tesla I was just going to say we've seen what we meant we mentioned a little bit earlier which is the opinion polls right so musk not doing well but neither is Trump so that's a reason for some modest optimism yes in fact more people now disapprove of trump than approve of trump uh and that is a turnaround because when he came in we're still in what is called typically the honey Moon PE period the first 100 days uh but 39:01 Trump has managed to alienate so many people cause so many people to be fearful of what he is doing with for good reason uh that his negatives are now exceeding his positives the trends for Trump are all in the wrong direction for the rest of us they're in the right direction and you saw that Bernie God love him Bernie Sanders at 83 is going on a national to to fight oligarchy and he went to he went to Red States Heather uh and and this is really you know God love him I mean Bernie is out there fighting uh and he wanted to show and he did show and he's going to continue to show that even in bright red America people are fed up with oligarchy they're fed up with big corporations that are ripping them off they're fed up with a government that collaborates with the oligarchs that's run by the billionaire oligarchs uh and and and Bernie continues he's not going to run 40:02 for president again but he just he's out there making the case right and being left behind is one thing but watching the cycle go in this reverse Robin Hood as you said earlier he's so good at pointing it out and getting people to listen so good that he's doing that any other Seeds of Hope uh well that's also the case with uh you know Elizabeth Warren has been attracting a huge crowd uh and um other U people in Congress who are more Progressive the progressives you know U started out really very to be very popular under the beginning of the Biden Administration uh then we didn't hear all that much from them but Progressive voices are now on the rise again and I think it's because many Americans have come to realize that the fight is not be between the left and the right it's not Republican versus Democrat it's not conservative versus Progressive or liberal the fight is 41:03 between democracy and fascism and and Trump is taking us as fast as he can uh toward fascism but people so people are showing up at Town Halls we've got groups like indivisible and other ones where people are getting organized and getting coordinated and their voices are being heard and they are speaking up and that is encouraging and I think is happening more and more and more and we have because you know I love to do this to you an archival clip here we go wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute what is this what is what is this about so this is you talking about the importance of staying engaged when you did a town hall when you were running for governor in 2002 of Massachusetts politics is the applied form of democracy and if we are engaged in politics if we are engaged in democracy 42:04 then we are taking back something that is rightfully ours if we simply turn our back on it if we engage in kind of resignation if we kind of throw up our hands and say well nothing will ever change we can't do anything about it it's an insiders game then we are in deep trouble we are in deep trouble resignation cynicism that means the end and right now we living through a Time in America where there's a sense that the Insiders are in control whether it's the public sector or the private sector or it's it's it's corporations the Insiders the people who are self-dealing who are dealing with their friends and cronies the cronies are in control you look at Enron and Global Crossing and and Worldcom and the cronies the people who are the best friends I'll scratch your back you scratch my back I'll give you a break you give me a break well let's all make each other rich and the hell with everybody else that attitude whether it's in in companies or in government is dangerous unless people rise up and let 43:04 themselves be heard and stop it because otherwise we are all going to live a much more precarious existence and our livelihoods and our Commonwealth will be in Jeopardy so good well that was 2002 Heather 23 years ago but um I sound like a really broken record uh no but you are you are the best broken record I will listen to you every day all day because democracy is not a spectator sport it's active you say that and the other thing that I I often say is that we are the leaders that we have been waiting for uh in other words don't wait for leaders uh we if this is a democracy if this is a 44:02 an experiment started 250 almost 250 years ago in self-government uh well that experiment lives on self-government requires people to take responsibility and to be the leaders um a lot of people say 2025 is not really all that important the big election year is 2026 well obviously that's important in terms of the midterm uh but this year alone in 2025 there are over a 100,000 elections if you're looking at every level of government U there are going to be and there already have been special elections for congress but there are also many gubernatorial elections there are elections of all the way down to your city council uh there are opportunities for everybody to get involved so I hope everybody does and on that on that and also State Supreme Courts I mean there are very important ones happening oh yes Wisconsin uh everybody 45:04 out there from Wisconsin pay a lot of attention Elon Musk is trying to buy that Supreme Court position uh and don't let him don't let the Wisconsin Supreme Court succumb to Elon Musk and Donald Trump uh this is too important for that to happen listen Heather thank you I know you've been working very hard you've been traveling I really really appreciate uh you joining me and joining all of us everybody out there keep the faith we are going to prevail The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Heather

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