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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... MAY 17TH 2025 With Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse Corruption in Plane Sight PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LHCQ1WHeZc&t=2s Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Trump is turning out to be way more of a 'crook' than I expected. Trump's recent 'jolly' into the Middle East was an extreme display of corruption at work. I have done a fair amount of consultancy work in the Middle East. Mainly I worked in a 'British bubble' and was protected from the bribery excesses that were everywhere!\ This was ot how Trump operated ... he encouraged what is essentially 'grand bribery' with him the beneficiary receiving tribute from some of the wealthiiest potentates on the planet. The 'gift' of a Boeing 747 from the Emir of Quatar valued at around $400 million is thought provoking! But the deeper problem is the total lack of moral compass in President Trump, his family and his administration!. Peter Burgess
Corruption in Plane Sight \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Premiered May 17, 2025 1.21M subscribers ... 174,583 views ... 8.4K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich A flying palace and new crypto bill take Trump's corruption to new heights. Republicans struggle to get their austerity budget across the finish line. And signs of hope in states and cities across the country. We break down this week's biggest stories on today's Klatch. To learn more about Inequality Media Civic Action's new documentary, The Last Class, visit: https://www.thelastclassfilm.com/ The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Transcript 0:00 and it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather Loft House and yours truly Robert Brush Heather what are we going to talk about today let's get into it How about Trump's big beautiful bamboozle of a bill that is a really and and his flying palace They're both bamboozles They they both are And much more I think we just make this a bamboozled session Yeah Everything we talk about has to start with a B and and the bill the bill the beautiful the big beautiful bill the bamboozle bill uh has hit some big big headwinds Yes So five Republicans voted with Dems in the uh the critical this is the budget committee Yep And it's got to get through the budget committee in order to and it's then goes through the rules committee and then it goes to the House floor and then it's going to be voted on by the House and it's got to go to the Senate And all of this is about getting his big big bill through uh the tax bill and the immigration bill combined Right That's it And there are a lot of other sneaky things that are hidden in it 1:05 Let's be clear The bigger a bill is I have a a rule of thumb from my vast years of experience in Cong in and around Congress The bigger the bill the more hidden things are Oh for sure I mean big bills are really are are just the the lobbyists salivate over big bills And there all kinds of things in this bill And in this day and age do you think someone try to sneak something in what's in this bill so in this bill lots of stuff deregulating AI which is very scary Well not in other words the the AI the artificial intelligence piece of this says what states cannot regulate AI and the federal government is going to kind of take a a very soft approach Right so I think a lot of what I would say the trend is these days is carefully even with the crypto bill which we can also talk about in a minute is sewing 2:00 the seeds for deregulation Yeah And setting up for success to not be regulated So in other words if Elon Musk is not just taking your regulation away and the entire regulatory apparatus and the whole agency uh these bills just sort of seed the deregulation That's it um other things that are but wait but excuse me I'm I'm sorry to interrupt but but deregulation some people love deregulation they say well deregulation that's too much regulation but let's be clear regulations and the regulations we're talking about are protections health safety environment fraud and this is particularly true with regard to all of the other things we're talking about and AI artificial intelligence I mean a huge potential uh problem on so many levels I mean it's consumers it's national security it's our infrastructure of all of our finance and everything else I mean and so you've got these these giant companies right 3:01 mostly American They are investing billions in artificial intelligence with the expectation they're going to make far more And they want to eventually get to the point of what we're these machines are smarter than us allegedly and then they take over everything I mean I think it's that but I think it would just be they want to have a dominance I mean we talk about trying to avoid you know anti- monopolies you know we don't want too many monopolies I mean this would be a monopoly of machines This would be a monopoly of monopolies right this would be I mean this is what artificial intelligence really is uh scary in that if there are no controls no regulations no health and safety or any anything else we are inviting a future that is basically the equivalent of Frankenstein right and it can be used for evil that's the point so you set it up so let's make sure that the we have you know guard rails and let's use it for good Stanley Kubri remember what was his name Stanley 4:06 Kubri the but the computer the computer that took over was it wall Michael how thank you Michael you almost got it with it right so other things that are hidden in the big beautiful bill is um the IRS free file that was happening that would be gone so wait a minute the IRS pre-file the IRS free was was allowing people to to file free of charge through a yeah through a helpful system they set up but the all of these filing companies these companies that that helped you help you They don't like that free file right and Turboax you know all that But Heather this is a key to a lot of what's going on because as the federal government is is is stripped of all these responsibilities and all these protections and everything else Uh the goal I assume is to give them over to profitm private corporations Not just 5:02 Elon Musk's profitm private corporations but all kinds of priv private profit-making corporations Yes exactly For example selling off of public lands to big oil in the bill In the bill In this bill Yeah This is the big beautiful bill we're talking about There's the um carried interest loophole Something you've been Let's go give it to us I want to I just want to say I saw you that the private equity and hedge fund industries they've been salivating for years they already get the hedge fund loophole which means that they pay less income these managers private equity partners and others then they pay less income tax a lower rate than you do or I do and why do they do that because they have gamed the system well it's redefined you know they've redefined the income they say oh no no the income is really uh coming in for these private equity deals it's not oh yes it's our income but it's not really 6:02 our income So they make it into a business at a lower tax rate Uh and they've fought tooth and nail this lobby you know the crypto lobby uh the the the private equity lobby APEC I mean these are these giant lobbies in America that are really there for well not quite the right things Yeah But so it is scary Corporations mostly Yeah Corporations mostly But it's scary to watch what's being snuck in and how it will deregulate certain things and silence other people and disproportionately affect you know the marginalized and the poorest of the poor in many ways Well it's it's it also I mean you look at at the you know they want to create enough space in the budget uh to allow them to have this big tax cut predominantly for the very wealthy uh and they're doing that they they have to create enough space uh that is enough cuts uh and 7:05 they're so the bill does create cuts in Medicaid I mean I what worries me the last figure I saw was about somewhere in the range of 600700 billion in cuts billion in cuts in Medicaid uh you know half of the nation's children depend on Medicaid uh one in five adults depends on Medicaid uh these states depend on Medicaid uh and what do you do if you're if you're cutting Medicaid in order to give the wealthy a big tax cut There's something wrong with this picture Heather is there yes of course And but then there's the Republican ruse that I feel like we've been suffering at the hands of for eons now which is Speaker Johnson says 'Well we have got to do something about this debt.' The debt Oh the debt It's the biggest existential crisis we're facing Hello If you just added up the Ronald Reagan tax cuts all 8:03 of the money that went to the rich that they no longer have to pay in taxes and corporations and then added the George W Bush tax cut and then added the first Trump tax cut you wouldn't have a huge problem with the deficit or the debt I mean that that's where this stuff is coming from I know And you've said too the way it works and the interest and who's getting wealthy off the debt actually is part of the problem Well I mean it's important to know you know I don't want to sound too pedantic about all this May I may I be a little pedantic when's the quiz i just want to make sure that I'm ready tomorrow Okay Um so you you can study tonight Okay I'm taking notes Okay the the wealthy Americans u as far back as Eisenhower you know Dwight Eisenhower Vice President Eisenhower they were paying a marginal tax rate under the Eisenhower administration of 92% Now that doesn't mean they were paying 92% of everything but marginal at 9:01 the margin at their highest incomes 92% of that was going to the federal government Uh and of course they had tax co you know credits and they had tax deductions But now the wealthy are financing the government not through their tax payments They're financing the federal government through their lending It's the bonds It's the tea bills Uh and so you and I and almost everybody else we are paying interest on the federal debt to largely the wealthy in this country Now there are foreigners obviously international uh debt holders creditors but it is you know it's amazing this switcheroo you know from uh originally paying taxes if you're extraordinarily wealthy to now letting you know just lending the money to the United States and collecting interest that we all pay The combo of the 10:00 bamboozle and the switcheroo The bamboozle switcheroo that's what I call it It's the bamboozle on your quiz tomorrow Yeah bamboozle switcheroo That's what I'm going to ask I'm going to put that on for 4 A Can we talk about the tariffs a little bit because I have whiplash from us going back Well we have them but we don't have them But we do Talk about a bamboozle switcheroo I mean Heather Yeah I know these tariffs So where do things stand i mean we still have a huge tariff average rate going on right now that will impact us almost 500 billion for households and corporations That's right The tariff is now on average even with the go you know Trump retreating uh it's 14.5% on almost all goods coming into the United States which is a tax It's a regressive regressive The poor pay a bigger portion of their income and will be Uh and uh even Walmart went on record this week as saying everything is going to be we're we're going to put up our prices We have to because of the tariffs because of the 11:01 tariffs which is interesting because has Trump called them yet as he called Bezos when he they started putting transparency around the pricing I expect it I mean Amazon Yes The White House went ballistic when Amazon would even dare dare have the affronttery to put on its price on its price listings how much the tariff was costing and they backed off But Walmart has made it public I mean Walmart is saying everything all the prices are going up Uh and Americans are not stupid They're going to see they're going to pay more And one of the reasons they gave in exit polls for voting for Donald Trump in 2024 was he'd bring prices down There is a little bit of cognitive dissonance here Sure Now when is all this change going to show up in our financial reports that we're looking at right because it hasn't yet No no it hasn't yet but it's going to show up uh in June all the June reports because if Walmart is you know sort of a leader here If Walmart pushes its prices 12:04 up given Walmart's market power everybody's going to put their prices up Okay I can't wait another second I'm sorry to be a sensationalist Can we talk about Trump's trip to the Middle East in the midst of this exciting economic quiz that he just keep thinking about him the pictures of him going over there bamboozle It's another bamboozled switcheroo because because he goes to the Middle East and he says you know I'm going to make all this diplomat I'm I'm going it's my first major trip as of my in my second administration So I'm going there and I'm going to I'm going to do important things Well why including not diplomacy There was no diplomacy I mean you have real tinder boxes all over the Middle East Uh he didn't deal with any of the ongoing issues Uh he went to these little kingdoms kingdoms King Trump kingdoms He loves kingdoms And he was treated magnificently I mean with a gold and the 13:03 and the parade tissue sir in a gold Yes Would you like please yeah And then but he's he's he loves it Then they need and then he's the Qataris Qatari um they they give him a $400 million $400 million luxury giant giant plane that that is that it's a kind of castle It's in the sky which PS has been on the market um trying to be sold since 2020 Yes Well but but it's still it's still Trump saw this Trump saw this in January uh at Andrews Air Force Base and he fell in love He's salivated He just you know he wants obviously he loves gold and he loves gold leaf and he's put it all over the White House but if he can have a flying a flying palace Yeah I mean he like a piece of gold bullion with insane He's insane I mean the last one the 14:00 Qataris gifted was to Erdogan Oh great Well so Erdogan and Yeah Air Erdogan But yeah so that is very scary And of course he's saying 'What this is a gift for everyone and it's not for me personally really I mean we'll see.' And blah blah Well it's not not for me personally It's just I treat everything personal and everything that goes to me In fact there's no difference between me and America He says that again and again But also let's be clear this plane is is intended as a gift for him to be used by him after he leaves the White House right and this is not for the United States right and it's different than Reagan's library hosting a plane Yeah Reagan Reagan took Air Force One It wasn't a foreign gift It was Air Force One It was an old Air Force One and he put it in in his library and it's still in the Reagan library Right No this is actually a gift It violates the imalments clause of the Constitution You cannot if you're an officer of the 15:01 United States you can't take a foreign gift Hello I know And to watch him over there So I have a lot of feelings and I know you do too You know anger I don't have any feelings Disappointment depression I know I I'm jubilant But so watching him in the Middle East love these autocrats and just say 'Do you want our AI what can I give you what can I get i don't want to control you going forward.' You know and I feel like when he's here on our soil I mean there's disdain But to watch him worship these people because we America let's face it I mean he's trying to he thinks we're a hole He really does I mean he would love to be you know one of these kings over there with all this wealth this oil wealth I know but it's so depressing to watch this tour And we haven't even talked about the crypto where he's just patting the pockets of his family Well before we get to the crypto though I think it's important to understand that he made a lot of personal deals on this 16:01 trip for his family I mean it wasn't just the the 400 million airplane Uh it's also you know the the Trump organization is building and developing uh these luxury hotels in all of these kingdoms uh and uh you know it's it's a source of uh all these quid proquo going on and the money that's going into the Trump tokens the crypto tokens from the Saudis Y I mean it's Yeah Heather this is corruption We've talked about this a little bit before but this is on a scale we have never seen It's colossal cranked up corruption It's cranked up corruption It really is and and it right in front of all of our faces Well I think you know I have this theory You want to hear it please This is the sleeping giant theory Okay America is like most of the time 95% of the time we are like a sleeping giant It takes a lot 17:01 to get the sleeping giant to wake up you know and even when the sleeping giant is awake you're sort of not fully there But to get the sleeping giant awake and incensed is a lot It doesn't happen often But I think when people see a $400 million basic bribery and all of these other bribes coming from foreign governments uh and they see that Trump is giving the Saudis whatever they want I mean you know high-tech chips these these AI chips AI chips that are that are very I mean national security has has been very careful to guard them and he's giving them out you know to the people like cards over there to in the Middle East and and you know there are all kinds of relationships between the Saudis and the Chinese and the you know what I mean the United States in other words we are getting played as suckers in terms of Trump getting these big windfall bribes 18:04 and paying off in terms of our national security But back to the giant So is the giant waking up and then what happens i think the when the giant wakes up all over No I think I think you get a a huge and we will get I am sure a huge blowback a huge it's it's in fact it's starting It's not just Democrats not just progressives A lot of people uh you look uh even even in Congress several Republicans are saying this plane this $400 billion plane it's wrong It's wrong I mean US taxpayers are going to have to pay for the fuel the fuel and changing over the plane Yeah Shining all the gold into But we have to make it into an Air Force One That's not easy to do That's going to We're all paying We're all paying Okay So um bamboozle The bamboozle One thing that I found fascinating this week was on Monday got to work opened the laptop looking and 19:04 there is RFK Jr talking at the White House and he mentioned you Oh sweet of him It's pretty great But it is just on topic of what we're talking about and what Trump is doing and what this country has become He mentioned me to Donald Trump Mhm Let's take a look Lovely There's writers like the Lord Elizabeth Warren or Robert Reich who are saying that President Trump is on this side of the oligarchs There has never been a president more willing to stand up to the oligarchs than President Donald Trump And I'm very very proud of you Mr President for your courage uh for I'll say because I don't want to be crude your intestinal fortitude uh your stiff spine and your your willingness to stand up for the American people Wow Elizabeth Warren and Robert Reich No he's Robert Reich Who's Robert Reich i don't know You know I mean Bob 20:04 And Trump stands up to the oligarchs I mean what what what what world planet is RFK Jr i mean I you might have asked that a long time ago But I the worms have eaten some of his brain I know And you go on that plane and it's very unoligarchic I mean no that's plain It's just it's just it's gold leaf but it's just gold leaf leaf It's not gold But I mean so truly I'm not even sure there's a gold toilet in Of course there is Oh okay Of course there is Well it's getting a little oligarchish Um but so you we have talked about this is the power of you know it's a few it's a few people at the top It's usually tied to wealth Hello It's been happening since Athens and a long time ago in Greece I mean this is clearly what's happening We look back at to his swearing in right and who was standing in the front row all these all the oligarchs individual American oligarchs and he's off on this Middle East tour and that is and some of the oligarchs American oligarchs went with him on the Middle East tour I mean you know you 21:04 might as well get to know the oligarchs The world oligarchs need to know each other So it's like a you know a little bit of a mixer I know your sarcasm today is great because it's usually me who's sarcastic I'm feeling great about I'm just you get to a level a level of outrage and then I'm sorry I do get a little bit I know sarcastic but okay but we are doing I mean so a couple things are being done there's the genius act that's coming through the stable genius act which has to do with crypto and it is problematic but people are fighting it right Bernie Sanders is out there fighting it this act basically says big tech you go ahead and issue currency or be in charge of currency or Trump You you have you have stable coins You have the Trump coins You've got your um your Liberty you know financial financial thing Great You know foreigners the Saudis can invest in it What a wonderful So not only does Right So it greenlights a whole bunch of things but then also it 22:03 doesn't include any provisions around the Trump family benefiting from it all as though the bill isn't a stable genius bill The genius bill Well it is designed to allow the oligarchy to make even more money uh and without accountability And remember this is I mean just follow the money Heather This is the the the crypto industry put a huge amount of money into Republican coffers but also into some Democratic Senate The crypto lobby is no joke The crypto lobby you know they've made a lot of money through crypto What do they do when you make a lot of money through whatever you made a lot of money through you then use it for entrenching your power And that's why you had a number of Democratic senators supporting this rotten bill Okay So we'll have to see what happens with that In terms of the silencing you wrote about this on Substack I always love to read your Substacks Thank you There are a lot of them Well I I just like to 23:05 write I know and I do I think we like to hear from you so I appreciate it But so in terms of the silencing that's been happening and also just the intimidating um one story I was following this week is about this Russian scientist named Petrova Cassenya Petrova and she had she was a um worked in a lab at Harvard and she was here on all the proper visas as a student researcher and she went to France and came back and she had frog embryos in her pocket or hoodie something that you should not carry frog embryos in your pockets I mean it's just it's not done right but so especially if you're a Russian right well so so she did this right and she normally when this happens and someone finds some kind of I don't know what biological contraband I don't know what you call embryos um technically but you know slap on the wrist You can't have that You pay a fee But instead it's been incredible to watch what has happened to this poor 24:01 woman So they changed her visa status and then they took her to a detention center and then they moved her around and then she has had a hearing and then the people have been changing all around her and now there are criminal charges and it is Kofka-esque because she she fears going back to Russia that she will be signaled out and murdered Well in fact she was given a visa in part because of her fears about Russia and she is also a very very valuable researcher Oh it's their research is incredibly important around cancer and other things They go into cells in a way that we can't with a normal microscope This is a story that is not only a story about silencing and intimidation It's also a larger story about us losing brains around you know there has been a brain drain into the United States of students and professors and now these people are leaving or they're not even coming here anymore It's so sad It's the breakdown of science I mean we're watching it It's all these departments all these sc even though RFK Jr says no scientists have gone anywhere It is 25:05 unbelievable America was I mean what we have given to the scientific endeavor and to medicine and to all of it and to watch who was it oh it was in France the other day where they had bring science we welcome science I mean literally people are like sorry suckers come over here And they are they are I mean I I have talked to potential international students and international professors uh here at Berkeley coming to Berkeley and they're saying no we don't want to come anymore uh or we're leaving We don't feel safe Um and uh in fact I was just talking to somebody two days ago day before yesterday a professor who said he's always looking over his shoulder He doesn't want to live like this He's leaving This is this is silencing Yes Because they are afraid to make any criticisms but also as in the case of Prova it's a it's it's a loss for us of 26:00 intelligence It's and and it's um no matter how much you want to build up the American economy or make America great again you're making America poor again You're you're reducing the capacity of this country to invent if all these wonderful brilliant people around the world are not coming here I know And it's making us start from ground zero again And it's making us you know infectious again to take to get rid of all this stuff and the NIH and the CDC and all the research Science is iterative You build You can't lily pad across the pond if you remove half the lily pads That's actually true Yeah and the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Science the you know the all of the scientists uh the money that that these these funds have had to in turn uh make sure that scientists in this country and in our universities have the research capacities that they've had You know our great research universities have been the seed corn for all kinds of things every major 27:02 invention And why are we doing it why are we eating our seed corn why are we Why are we doing this um again I don't think most of the public knows Back to my sleeping giant When the public starts learning knowing what's happening I think people will just rise up Okay Well let's try and get them to know soon We'll try and describe it in ways that is just crystal clear But the silencing part of this uh Heather which is very very important wherever you look in America right now you find that institutions and people um who otherwise could be critical of this nation particularly uh the critical of the Trump administration uh feel intimidated They worry they don't want to be um I mean university presidents I remember university presidents used to be the conscience of the nation Clergy used to be the conscience of the nation people who had positions of responsibility in the nonprofit sector in the private sector they used to they 28:04 used to give talks They used to with Vietnam civil rights they were there They were they were they were they were touching the conscience of the country Now everybody is afraid I know everybody is afraid You saw that Dr Khan Suri who was at Georgetown he was released this week So that was a win of sorts But the courts You mean the courts yes So the courts I feel like have really been they're still an obstacle for Trump Not the best not perfect but I'm holding on to this concept Well exactly I mean the Republicans in Congress and too many Democrats are willing to just pretend that they're dead Yeah Um but the courts have been the major um push back and now we're moving into territory where the courts are now instead of just temporary restraining orders and injunctions they are actually looking at the merits of these things and saying no you can't do 29:00 that Donald Trump you can't do this you can't do that but what the Trump administration is doing is now starting to attack the judges and attack the courts um the judge in uh Wisconsin Wisconsin Uh who hannah Dugan Hannah Dugan You are so good with names I mean sometimes you have a young brain I have an old brain I don't this old brain doesn't remember names Hannah Dugan Judge Hannah Dugan I remember obviously she's she's concerned as she should be as a judge about the sanctity of her courthouse And I mean she doesn't want to deter people because they they fear that they're going to be arrested from coming into her courthouse She wants and and that's why when there was a a a defendant in front of her uh who uh apparently ICE was trying to get she let him out of the the back way I know because she wants to protect her courtroom That's what every I mean 30:00 that's what the Supreme Court said about Donald Trump that if he's doing something in the course of his own office the presidency uh that he should have presumed immunity Well so should judges have presumed immunity if they are doing something in order to carry out their judicial responsibilities like Hannah Dugan U but she was indicted this week Um I mean and Pam Bondi you know oh you know nobody's above the law Nobody's above the law Hello Right Well so who some other courageous people from the week I do like on your substack where you do a an award a Welch award My Joseph Welch award Yes But so other people this week So you saw in Omaha there was a big win for mayor Yeah And that's actually Omaha's a bellweather for the country because not only is it in the middle of the country um but it's a red state Omaha is a little blue dot in that red state and but it's a very it's not blue It's actually more purple than blue Uh and so it's had a mayor that was that's been a Republican but uh 31:05 this fellow uh just knocked it out of the park I know he's their first black mayor John Euing Jr Junior So that was a big win So this is on the list of things happening at the local level I think she beat the incumbent uh Republican by 15 points Uh and that is it quite extraordinary I know I know Um and then Allison Riggs in North Carolina justice justice Justice Riggs So she was able to rightfully get her place back on the Supreme Court there North Carolina Yes And interestingly a Trump judge in North Carolina made it clear that he was not going to change the rules as uh Allison as her her opponent wanted Um and uh and he said 'You have won this Supreme Court um justice position that she was an incumbent.' She had already been there right um North Carolina like Wisconsin 32:04 and this reminds me of the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in that North Carolina is you know has extraordinary I mean the the the district the shapes of these districts uh in an effort to uh really make it almost impossible for black people and for liberals and progressives to have any voice at all Uh that um she's going to have a role in correcting that Yeah it's a big deal It's a big deal So in other news oh we have an intern at Inequality Media Civic Action who is a finalist for the University Medal at UC Berkeley So that was Yes Mia Rosenthal So congratulations to her But also today is Mia Congratulations Congratulations Mia Today is UC Berkeley's graduation day And I know you've said this many times but young people continue to give you hope I feel like we need some more seeds of hope representing what youngsters are doing out there you know registering voters things like that I I say this very often I mean what has kept me as hopeful but also as young as I am I mean 33:08 I'm 120 I don't look at do I no And the what's kept me so young is these young people Um I was I was meeting with a some of my students I think uh sometime last week for lunch and we got up and I saw our reflection in the window of the restaurant as we were leaving on the sidewalk And I for a minute I said to myself who's that little old man in the midst of my students because I feel I know I feel for a moment like I'm one of them like I'm not one of them but I'm their age Well I have that not in those same terms little old man but I do think you look young You do look but you can still have a thing Hello Doesn't Doesn't she look like she could be a student yeah I am a student of life But really you have those moments and there's such a disconnect between who am I inside versus who am I outside I know it gets worse I know 34:03 And so something that I'm very proud of and so excited to announce is that we followed you around for some of your last semester teaching and we I know this week you're speaking at the education commencement at the school of education at UC Berkeley but in general you have given up your teaching of your giant course And I know this because I made a movie about it with a director named Elliot Kersner And he and I and a great team said 'Look it's here last semester We're just going to get a little footage We might make put something on YouTube I don't know what we're going to do A little series a little something.' And so we got 37 hours of footage And it is so incredible to be able to watch you and be part of your classroom and experience it in a different way Can we can I You know I haven't seen this this documentary I'm and I'm a little bit scared I'm a little bit Well you I understand that feeling but I am a little bit excited because I have seen it and it's wonderful and you're so candid in it But let's take a 35:03 look at the trailer and then we can talk about it after that Okay My name is Robert Rich This is Wealth and Poverty What we are going to be talking about is happening now I've been a teacher for 42 years One two three I'm beginning my last semester I've done a lot of other things That's when we got a minimum wage increase through a Republican controlled Congress I was economic adviser to Barack Obama I was secretary of labor But I've always come back to teaching and I can't imagine not doing it I still feel that excitement that energy What do we owe each other as members of the same community so many people have come up to me and said 'Are you still teaching or are you retired?' And I resist the urge to punch them in the nose One of the best ways of learning is to discuss something with somebody who 36:01 disagrees with you Can I do what I love to do as well as I should be doing it the wealth is held by the richest 400 Americans Do you get the picture we have to all engage their curiosity Democracy is not a spectator sport It's active You can't reach their intellect if you don't reach their emotions I began to see bullying all around Economic bullying racial bullying the bullying of anybody who's different If there are enough people who feel bullied they begin to have power For them it's not ending it's beginning And this is the connection between teachers and students It's about the passage of time This is our final class You made it And at a deeper level the arc of one's life A true leader helps people overcome cynicism I believe in your capacities I believe in your 37:01 commitment I believe in you It's going to be a wild ride Thank you for joining me Ah that makes me you know the the the the pictures of the students Yeah I mean it just that's what really moves me you know I miss them I miss them I miss you And their faces It's so gorgeous And the seas of them and the close-ups You have no idea I mean maybe you do because you made this movie Oh you're tearing But I'm a little bit because because I just miss those kids I know Um but they're graduating today So happy graduation Go out and get it Happy graduation all of you guys I mean really you did it You did it And you use your use your degrees and degrees from the best public university in the world Uh use them for the good of humanity you know use them to make this country and this world better You know um Sam my son right 38:05 emailed me yesterday He said he had seen the trailer Just saw the trailer and he said it was very moving Oh that's so sweet And Sam you know Yeah And did you say I haven't seen the trailer yeah Great Great response Anyway thank you for this movie and thank you for everything you do Of course Well so I just we so enjoyed making it because we get to say I mean there's so many important points and it really is nonpartisan I mean so much of it is about your pedagogy and how you see the classroom and that's one thing which I think is helpful and I think teachers will like it Um but also I think these ideas the themes in it protecting dissenting voices Well you say it's nonpartisan and it is in the old way we used to think about partisansship democratic or republican But when we are fighting for democracy in the face of overt fascism uh it is I'm proud to say it is on the side of democracy Education 39:02 and democracy are two sides of the same coin You know the tyrants what they love is ignorance Ignorance is the handmaidaden of tyranny I know And what I'm excited is to try and get this into different people's eyeballs and screens um and try and use a new way to distribute where we can actually get individuals to bring this film into their local theaters How can they do that oh it's a long story I'll be but basically you go to a website you'd be shocked to know And you say 'I want this movie.' And it's kind of like a Kickstarter and a Netflix had a baby and you bring it to your local theater So we will be announcing more and if you want to know more it's you can sign up at the lastclassfilm.com the lastclassfilm.com So but I am so excited to have people see all the student faces if nothing else I it is so moving to see them I'm still a little shaky Thank you Thank you Are you kidding on behalf of all the students and all of us and uh thank all of you Michael thank you Michael Um and uh we will see all of you next week

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