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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH - JULY 12TH 2025 with Robert Reich, Heather-Lofthouse and Michael Lahanas-Calderon The Cruel Incompetence of Trump PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PontEtl0sgs
The Cruel Incompetence of Trump \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich July 12th 2025 1.26M subscribers ... 12,288 views ... 2.1K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich The devastating flood in Texas. Elon’s third party (and racist AI chatbot). Trump’s cruel cabinet. There’s a lot to get into this week. Join me for a new Coffee Klatch. To find a screening and more info on the documentary film, visit: thelastclassfilm.com How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:01 And it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather Loft House in our outpost of Los Angeles today. Heather, how are you? Hello, Bob and Michael. I'm great. I'm here in Los Angeles doing Q&A sessions for the film The Last Class, which is so exciting. So, if you're in Los Angeles and want to be in West Los Angeles specifically, come to Landmark's New Art and see The Last Class film about Professor Rich's last semester of teaching. Well, I was there. I was there last night. Uh, and Michael, how are you? What are we going to do? What are we going to talk about today? Well, we've got a lot to cover today, and Heather will revisit more about the last class maybe at the end of the podcast. But, uh, obviously we're going to talk a little bit about what's happening in Texas with the floods, the federal, state, and local response there. Um, and then I think more broadly, we're going to talk about how Trump is reshaping government. You've got a couple things you want to talk about. Oh, yes. Yes, indeed. I I I I just want to actually start out saying because I hear from an awful lot of people and Michael, I know you do and Heather, I know you do as well, uh about how 1:03 anguished people are. Yeah. Uh and I want to validate that degree of anguish and that degree of upset and outrage because it is real. It is what people understandably, appropriately feel. Yeah. uh and uh the floods I think I think epitomize this in certain ways. It's a terrible terrible tragedy and nobody should try to make any political hay out of it obviously. I mean uh we have not seen a tragedy a natural disaster on this scale in the United States for quite some time. But I think it is important to look at the government response. Yes, definitely. And I think that it's a response that was uh I mean obviously it's ongoing but at the federal the state and the local level there were both complications and missteps and that's something we'll talk about a little bit more. Well I you know I I think that the larger frame on this Michael is that we 2:00 need government. Yeah. I mean, there is this uh kind of absurd right-wing crazy assumption that and and it was Elon Musk's Doge and it is Donald Trump and it is some you know a lot of a lot of this kind of libertarian nutso crazy approach that we don't need government at all and obviously we need government to protect ourselves to protect ourselves from from not just floods but from all sorts of hazards uh from corporate malfeasants and non-feasants from all of the things that we have understood for certainly the past hundred years that we need collectively collectively to pull our resources uh to make sure that we are protected but we weren't I mean these these people were obviously not also you've heard that Trump said we don't need FEMA anymore as such we can leave it to the states I mean the federal emergency 3:00 management agency uh has not been perfect, but the head of FEMA has been completely awol, noticeably absent. And this is somebody who also said a couple, you know, weeks or months ago that, you know, he didn't even know that there was such a thing as a as a defined hurricane season, which but but I mean, if it would be funny if it weren't so utterly awful and tragic, nobody has been able to find him. Yeah. My understanding is that right, he's not making any statements. He's not on social media. He's not on the news. He's not on site in Texas would need. I mean, he's not. But he he is literally gone. Yeah. Uh I mean, this is this is the quintessence of government not being there for the people if you don't have the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency there and he's not even answering questions and nobody knows where he is. I mean, what kind of government is this? And even the response, you know, from his higherup, uh, Secretary Gnome was hampered by a lot of the stuff that we're seeing downstream of Doge. You know, there were these mandates that no contracts over 4:04 $100,000 could go through without going through her desk and with her signature first, which well, she that was her idea. Yeah. She wanted to control the costs of, you know, of all sorts of things, but FEMA especially. Uh, and if she's saying everything has got to go through her her desk, you know, the eye of a needle, obviously, it's not going to get done. I mean, when you were labor secretary, Bob, that's not something that you ever did, right? No, I I mean, well, I guess just to frame it for our viewers, but but I I think there is a very important point here and cabinet officials have a responsibility to the public directly. Uh, and it's not just not to spend money. uh it is to spend money wisely and and appropriately and do it on time and do it when it needs to be spent. Heather, you were you were going to say rapidly rapidly. I mean, this is the kind of thing. Let's just put real numbers to this. There are over 120 people who have died. Many are young girls, young women. Um and over 170 are 5:05 still overacounted, I mean, un unaccounted for. This is horrific. This is when we need the best of the best, not the missing and the departed and the I don't know, clueless. And what what does Trump do? He goes out and he visits. Mhm. What is that? What does he what does he actually do in the visit? Well, I guess saying that even questioning the emergency response is something that only an evil person would do according to the press conference he had yesterday. Apparently, yes. somebody somebody some member of the press whose job it is to ask the president of the United States questions hard questions he says you're an evil person for asking that here with CBS News Texas several families we've heard from are obviously upset because they say that those warnings those alerts didn't go out out in time and they also say that people could have been saved what do you say to those families well I think everyone did an incredible job under the circumstances this was I guess Christie said a one in 500 one in 6:04 a thousand years and uh I just have admiration for the job that everybody did. There was just admiration. Uh the uh only a bad person would ask a question like that to be honest with you. I don't know who you are, but only a very evil person would ask a question like that. I think this has been heroism. You're an evil person for asking a hard question of the president of the United States. It's just astonishing. But that's his classic ploy. Look at you over there, you lowly journalist. I mean, he does that. He does the ad homonym attack and then he moves on. And I mean, that's not too different from the response he had to the the Jeffrey Epstein story earlier this week when somebody asked him about that. He's like, 'Oh, you're still on that Epstein thing? Come on.' You know, who's just a defensive mechanism over and over again to lash out? Why do we still listen to him at all? That's what I mean. Why do we give him the honor of calling him the president 7:00 of the United States? I mean, he doesn't think he's the president. I'm talking about I'm talking about we as we collectively we collectively in the United States, you know, you know, you and I and and and Michael, uh I mean, and we all we all kind of call him and assume he's the president of the United He's only the president of the people who voted for him and he's the king of everybody else. Yes. And maybe he maybe we should just stop calling him Mr. President. Even Musk has, you know, changed his tune and we don't even have to talk about him if we don't want to because I barely see him in the news except when his AI system is his Grock is being an Did you see this Bob earlier this week? I did. I did. I mean, Elon Musk was already in enough hot water. I mean, to for him to not only use his own AI system and abuse his own AI system, but use his dominance on X to broadcast 8:00 filth and bigotry. I mean, when are we all going to get off X? Why doesn't everybody just get off X now? Right now? Well, and maybe to connect these a little bit, I think that at the end of the day, this is all about wealth and power, right? The only reason we have to listen to either of these people is because of the sheer amount of money that went into the last election and the sheer amount of money that Musk holds and wields and influence uh as a result of him buying X and without big money in in politics or in the role that Musk has used it. I would certainly hope that I wouldn't have to listen to Elon Musk. Well, he's talking about starting a third party. Yeah, but the third party, he wants to have a third party about reducing the federal debt. The America Party, right? The America. Might as well call it the big money party. Well, it is the big bud money party. If he wants to reduce the federal debt, the best way of doing it is to raise taxes on people like him. You know, the people because there's so much money, so much wealth at the top. Raise taxes, have a wealth tax. You want to cut the federal debt down, do that. But instead, he's talking about what? Cutting more of government programs. 9:03 Yeah. I mean, if you could call whatever he's put together a platform, I don't know that there's much there. Well, I don't think there is. Uh but uh I I mean you you get you get these these people. I mean we the the week was filled not only with Christine Gnome uh and with Elon Musk but you had uh the secretary of HUD. You had the secretary of agriculture. Who's the Secretary of Agriculture? Quick. Brook Rollins. Brook Rollins. Yes. Very good. Michael, it's unfortunate that I know who she is because she had a real choice quote earlier this week about Medicaid recipients because uh and we might throw this clip up actually, but in the gist was essentially that there's all kinds of able-bodied people on Medicaid who can go work in the you know in the fields, but we must be strategic and how we are implementing the mass deportation so as not to compromise our food supply. Ultimately, the answer on this is automation. Uh also some reform within the current governing structure. And then also when you think about there are 34 million ablebodied adults in our 10:05 Medicaid program. There are plenty of workers in America. But we just have to make sure we're not compromising today, especially in the context of everything we're thinking about right now. So no amnesty under any circumstances. Mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way as we move our workforce toward more automation and toward a 100% American workforce. In other words, if we have a labor shortage, yeah, we should not turn to immigrants. Um, we should, in fact, uh, Trump should not think about possibly giving immigrants in the fields a little bit of a uh of a of a way out of avoiding ICE. uh we ought to she says we ought to have Medicaid recipients in the field and the idea that there are 34 million which is you know roughly the amount of people on Medicaid at all right able-bodied people ready to take up these jobs is absurd I mean these are 11:00 people who have jobs who work already who have dependents or who are disabled themselves it's just ludicrous but every all of these people who have been appointed and are running in these positions so we know that Trump is beyond extreme we know this. But it's amazing to me that he picks, first of all, he picks the same people to do multiple jobs. And that, you know, that's fascinating and we could talk about that for a while. But he picks these people who are such fanatics. It almost feels like they're upping the ante, doesn't it? Even more than he would do. I think they are, Heather. I think that, you know, the conventional view is that that that the people in the first Trump term uh tried to com contain him, tried to restrain and contain uh this man. And the problem in the second term, the reason he's so much more extreme is that the guard rails are gone because the people around him are not containing him. I think that that misses something very important. The people around him are egging him on. They are competing for his attention and for his approval. 12:04 They're more extreme, more radical, less competent even than he is, but more loyal. So that's the only thing that they are enormously loyal and they'll do whatever he wants. But they also will not constrain him and they will go out of their way. I mean, think of, you know, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Uh the thing just in a in a one week that he does that make the public health really much more vulnerable. He dismisses all sorts of people who have expertise in not only vaccines but in making sure that communicable diseases are contained. We have a measles outbreak. Yeah. In Texas and elsewhere, a disease that was supposed to have been eradicated by this point essentially. Well, it it basically was eradicated and then you have right people like like him. Uh uh you know this is this is we're getting back to the theme of protection of the public. You know this is we have we have 13:02 terrible floods. We have measles outbreaks. We have all kinds of things going on. Uh we have dangerous climate change. Uh and what is Trump doing about it? The the big ugly bill got rid of a lot of the subsidies for wind and solar. Well, and it's not just even the things we just mentioned. Obviously, there's a long list of horrible things we could go through, but I think it's worth mentioning, you know, on all of the immigration news that happened this week, you could point to the videos going viral of ICE agents in different cities, in the fields, um, obviously the show of presence, for those who didn't see this, you know, the border patrol marching on horseback through an empty park in Los Angeles. Heather, have you seen any ICE agents in Los Angeles? You are in Los Angeles. We put you in Los Angeles. You went there specifically. I'm on the streets. To be on the streets. On the streets. Well, I mean, this isn't even funny, but no, I haven't. But that's because I'm, you know, walking to a movie theater from a hotel. But it is atrocious what's happening here. But it is incredible how act how activists have been standing up um in in MacArthur Park 14:04 and here in Los Angeles and what they attempted to do was thwarted. And I think to me, I mean, that you can see that the public push back to a lot of these Trump, I mean, crony and Trump direct policies is growing stronger. I mean, we have new numbers just this week from Gallup about immigration specifically. Um, in 2024, we had uh 55% of the American public, they wanted immigration reduced. It is now just 30% today. And a record Wait, well, let me just make sure I understand that. So, in 2024, last year, 55% wanted immigration reduced. Correct. We're now down to 30%. 30%. Mhm. And additionally, a record high 79% of US adults say immigration is good for the country, including 64% of Republicans. Okay, now this is important. 64% of Republicans say immigration is good for the country. The Republican party is not quite getting the message, is it? No. And I mean, I think this is what you were mentioning. 15:04 That's an understatement to say the least. But I mean, in terms of how Trump is remaking government, I it's it's this personalist sort of dictatorship where public opinion doesn't matter. Congress doesn't matter. The the judiciary doesn't matter unless it's the Supreme Court, you know, writing off Yeah. signing off on his decrees essentially, right? Well, the Supreme Court is signing off on its decrees. But it is government by decree. This is this is what uh you know that keeps on amazing me. Uh, you know, Michael and Heather, uh, I don't know if you have ever seen or heard anything like this before, but I can tell you in my 120 years of observing, um, American politics, there has been nothing like this in terms of arbitrary and capriccious governance. I mean, putting a a tariff on Brazil, tariff on Brazil, it's 50% because he doesn't like what the new president is doing to the former president. They're 16:00 trying trying to hold accountable people who tried to coup the government. I think if we say that more explicitly, people who are in Brazil aligned with Trump, right? But let's be clear, it hasn't happened in America in the 120 years you've been watching, Bob. But we've seen this kind of dictatorship in other places, but that it's happening on our soil right in front of us. And you mentioned um the Supreme Court. What's been the latest this week? What's what are the latest decrees that they're signing off on? Wasn't there one about federal workers and it's e it's interesting Heather you use the term decree with regard to the Supreme Court because on the one hand you have Donald Trump who is you know issuing these orders these executive orders which are essentially decrees. He's not consulting with anybody. They are arbitrary. He's putting a 50% tariff on on Brazilian coffee. I mean, can you imagine the cost of coffee? Can you imagine the cost of coffee after that 50% goes into effect? 17:01 This is the coffee clutch. It's the coffee clutch. We ought to be we the coffee clutch ought to really initiate some sort of coffee, you know, tea party equivalent of of of what would happen. Make a note for that for next week. Okay, we'll do it next week. Uh but at the same time you have the Supreme Court uh instead of the Supreme Court issuing opinions which the Supreme Court traditionally has done, it's now using something called the shadow docket which is analogous to Trump's executive orders. The shadow docket doesn't require any opinions. It doesn't require it's kind of an emergency procedure. It used to be an emergency procedure, but most of what much of what the court is doing now is shadow dockets. So this week on the shadow do docket, the court said, 'Okay, it's perfectly fine for Trump to fire huge numbers of federal civil service workers. Uh at least we're not going to issue a preliminary injunction. Uh now, hello. Without any 18:01 reasoning, without any analysis, without any facts, without any findings, what what what is the Supreme Court doing? How can how can people in this country understand what government is up to if the president of the United States is arbitrary and capriccious and doing these kind of executive orders out of his head really out of nothing and the Supreme Court meanwhile is not even controlling him but issuing opinions on a shadow docket without any accountability. Yeah. It's ruled by, you know, a baker's dozen of people, if not less than that, essentially between six conservative Supreme Court justices and Donald Trump and maybe Steven Mueller, you know. Well, let's throw him in there, too. And but but and then you have, you know, the the complete empty-headed uh zombies in the Republican party and Congress. Yeah. And they've almost totally conceded their article one powers as, you know, the legislative branch. I feel like I learned about that in high school at some point that they're supposed to pass laws and the president is supposed 19:02 to enforce them. Right. Well, that's right. Well, so let me ask both of you a question. I mean, is this a perfect storm? I mean, in other words, will historians look back on this period and say, you just had this is an accident of of terrible accident of history. You've got Republicans who are uh now in charge of Congress, who are doing anything that Trump wants. You have have a Supreme Court that is not exactly a rubber stamp but basically putting out t kind of rubber stamp opinions and you have a president uh who we shall not even name as president. You have Donald Trump sitting there in the White House doing whatever he wants to do watching television and putting out executive orders. I mean is this is this a perfect storm or is there something worse going on? Can I go first, please? I I don't I mean we know it's not an accident of history, right? You've written your book that I'm I'm lucky enough to have read before it comes out coming up short talks about why it's the case that we have Trump now. So I don't 20:06 think it's an accident of history, but I do hope that it's a perfect storm. I long for the days when Congress actually legislated. I even remember lobbyists who could actually who came out of Congress and then got gigs as lobbyists and then went back to their buddies in Congress. That's not even happening these days. That's right. In fact, I I even long for the good old days when half of the members of Congress who retired became lobbyists because they actually were lobbying their old friends. I mean, I thought it was awful actually at the time, but at least you had some accountability. Right now, uh, all the lobbyists are focusing on Trump and the White House. That's where concentrated graveling instead of distributed graveling. Concentrated asskissing. Yeah. I mean, that's really what it is. And they're paying uh clients are paying huge amounts of money to figure out how to get on Trump's good side. Netanyahu this week, he's what what is the Israel 21:03 lobby doing? Netanyahu says to Trump, 'Well, uh, you know, I'm going to nominate you for a Nobel Prize.' And that's and Trump's face lights up. This is what he wants. He's talked about nothing but getting a Nobel Prize because, you know, after all, Barack Obama got a Nobel Prize. So, Donald Trump wants to get a Nobel Prize. Uh, well, he doesn't seem to understand. By the way, can I just say parathetically that the way to get a Nobel Prize, you don't get a Nobel Prize by lobbying foreign presidents and prime ministers. You get a Nobel Prize because there are five people in Norway. They are academics, five Norwegian academics who decide who gets the Nobel Prize. And by the way, for Netanyahu, you know, who some people consider a war criminal to nominate Trump is not going to ingratiate Trump with these five academics in Norway. 22:00 So, I wouldn't worry about that. I think a lot of people were mad that Netanyahu Netanyahu got to it first because he's kind of so high up and there all these lobbyists were probably like trying to build up people who were going to be able to tell Trump, you know, you deserve you deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. I mean there there there's only a certain number of things you can do to make him delighted. You can give him a jumbo airplane, you know, that's a palace in the sky. Sad that that still hasn't happened, but you know, where's the delivery going? And then you can you can you can say you're going to try to carve his face on Mount Rushmore. I mean, how many other things ways can you massage his ego? I mean, it's sad, honestly. I I think I mean, it was really sad. There were um a number of foreign dignitaries in Washington this past week, including the president of Sagal, who was complimenting, you know, God, God bless him. You know, I know he's doing what he's trying what he has to do as a foreign dignitary in this moment, but he's like, 'Hey, President Trump, your golf game is amazing. by the way, do you want to build a golf course in Sagal? It'd be awesome. Trump's like, oh yeah, it's a place I could show off my skills. Nice. And you're like, that's insane 23:05 that that's something that you're watching the president of the United States do publicly with another foreign leader. Well, also buying his his coins, his, you know, his all his tokens and his, you know, and did you see the Trump phone, the $500 golden Trump phone that's supposedly going to come out? I mean we have never seen in this country on this scale this kind of toying up and this kind of uh crass and it is really uh I mean it's illegal. It it is illegal. The constitution is very specific. There should be nobody nobody in an office should be able to take be taking imalments and gifts from foreign countries. Uh but it's also inside the United States because all these lobbyists in K Street uh in Washington uh who used to be uh paying uh you know for Congress uh for for elections and I mean it was bad enough it was dirty enough but now they are all turning 24:02 toward the White House and I think but I do I I am glad about the Trump Musk breakup. I still think about that when I'm like, 'Okay, find my gratitude list.' Still includes that one because he can't put his name all over space and Mars and rocket ships, which I feel like would have made him happy. Um, but it it marks the fact that I mean, even when Musk was in DC, it felt like no one was driving the car, right? Everything's just Trump's whims. And it feels like that even more without him. I keep thinking I know I'm naive but I keep thinking so are there adults who are going to show up but it's not right. Well I I think this is a very very important point. I mean and it question that a lot of people ask me all the time now. What can we do? What can we do? We've actually now tipped over into 25:00 uh a monarchy or a dictatorship. uh you know nobody ever thought it would come to this and certainly no nobody thought it would come to this this quickly this fast. What can citizens do? I mean Heather, you say where are the adults? Well, where are the leaders? Well, we are the leaders we've been waiting for, aren't we? I mean, all of us Americans. I mean, this is supposed to be our country. I don't don't we have any other means by which we can make sure that this man who I'm not going to call president is no longer in power. Well, I mean I think this is this is what's maddening to me is I agree with everything you just said, but I also know that you know the democratic path to uh you mean small D or big small D democratic path involves waiting another year, right? And I think a lot of people find it really frustrating that because if if we're talking about holding the president directly accountable through the Constitution, 26:03 right, you need a Congress that's actually willing to impeach him for something, right? Yes. Well, why why can't he be impeached? Well, because Republicans aren't doing their jobs. Yes. that all if all of us went to every Republican town hall Mhm. and screamed bloody murder and told and organized like hell in every Republican district and said to these Republicans, 'If you don't get rid of this this person who is pretending to be our president, uh we are going to make sure you are out of there.' And when you and and so you've got to you've got to you've got to impeach him. Well, it sounds like we're segueing into things people can do. Yes. A nice reminder that people should go to town halls when they're scheduled near them, whether they're Democratic, independent, or Republican representatives or members of the Senate. Um, that's one big thing. There's also another uh set of protests coming up July 17th, which is next Thursday. A Thursday. Is that a good day for a protest, Michael? It's tough. every day is a good day for 27:05 a protest. I think all the more reason for people to go and seek out other events beyond the reason it's this it's Thursday. It's because John Lewis, uh, the great civil rights leader and hero, he died five years ago. Correct. It's in remembrance of him. It's in remembrance of him. Five years ago, I Which is why these are called the good trouble demonstrations. The good trouble demonstrations. But I I want to make sure that everybody is understands that Thursday, it's going to be it's going to be a week from Thursday. Uh it's going to be Thursday, July 17th. But actually, I I do want to pause on this because this is, you know, a little bit before my time, but I learned about it in school. You know, what does good trouble mean to you because I know that's a phrase that was tied to the civil rights movement, but there might be members of our audience that are less familiar with it. Michael, you are so I don't mean to be patronizing, but you were very young. I mean, yes. You seriously don't remember good trouble? It was a little before my time, but I I remember watching speeches of Congressman Lewis when you know before 28:02 he passed that were very inspiring when he talked about it. But I was curious as someone who lived through it uh or lived through that era. What does good trouble mean to you? Michael, you're not helping yourself. Sorry. I mean I mean I I it it's true that I'm I'm Methusela. Uh but uh I mean good trouble meant that you it was a largely nonviolent civil disobedience. Okay. I mean, it was be being willing to be beat up uh by uh by racist cops uh you know, willing to uh put your life on the line. Uh but again, not violently because if you do anything violently, you are going to stir up uh public opinion against you and you're going to make it look like it's justifiable uh if the force comes down, if the forces come down on you. No, nonviolent civil disobedience. I mean, look at these raids that are occurring in Los Angeles and right and other places. Uh, well, a lot of Americans, and you referred to 29:00 this before, Michael, a lot of Americans are saying no, they're trying to protect the immigrants who are being rounded up and put in detention centers. Uh, they are trying to stop the ICE vehicles, the tanks. Uh, and I I watched just yesterday a film, a video of of Americans linking hands, linking arms uh around one of these ICE uh tanks. I mean, there's an extraordinary amount of of of good trouble going on right now. Yeah. And on that specific point, in terms of things that I'll encourage people maybe to research more about, um there's a bill in Congress called the Visible Act, which Senator Alex Padilla, who he himself was detained, um at Christine Gnome's uh press conference not too long ago, uh that would require immigration agents to well show their faces and identify themselves, which the fact that we are even talking about, you know, that they have to show their faces and identify themselves, it's absurd. This is like a this is like a banana republic. I mean you can't if you 30:03 have official uh power the idea that you are going to be permitted to disguise yourself and disguise your identity. And I mean just just to put a direct point on it. I I think the fact that this is stunning even to me that we can sit here and look on our phones and see, you know, lines, literal like marching lines of masked unidentified, you know, armed federal agents in camouflage uniforms piling out of unmarked vehicles. It's It's not America to me. Well, it's not it's certainly not America to me either. Uh, and I think we've got to stand up, all of us, and say this is not the America we want or deserve or it's not the America that is our country. This is a different America. We're not going to stand for it. Yeah. And uh I do feel that so many people are rising up. I mean, think about the no kings protest. So, I think we're right now we're speaking in the future. What can people do? But I we have to recognize 31:03 people are tuning into the gobby catch. are opening their laptops. They aren't giving up. They aren't giving in to cynicism. There are boycots have been working, right? We've seen them work for Tesla and for Target. And we have to remember all of these tools in our toolkit. Absolutely. Big lessons right now. I could not agree more. Um Heather, you're right. And a lot of the people out there who are watching us now, a lot of you, you understand how important this is. You are already out there. You are not just protesting, but you are actually protecting the vulnerable. You're protecting immigrants. You're protecting LGBTQ people. You're protecting judges uh who are being maligned by the Trump regime uh and are and are being threatened uh by, you know, Trump vigilantes. Uh you are you are taking responsibility for this country and I salute you for it. That's what we're all trying to do. You're not alone. You're here. 32:05 Definitely. You're here. The other thing is, I know I talked about it, but this movie, the last class that follows you, Bob, on your last semester of teaching, we told you we would make a short video that we put up on YouTube. Supposed to be a short video. This is bait and switch, Heather. The movie is called Bait and Switch. No, it's called The Last Class. You bait it on and it has been It is It's had a tremendous amount of people come to the theaters. It's been extended in New York for a third week. It's been extended in Berkeley for a third week. It's going in Los Angeles. All these new theaters are taking it on. And that's because people are showing up. The lastclassfilm.com is where you can go and see where uh it's playing. And we're updating it hourly because new theaters are taking it on. But it's so heartening to see community come together and watch a film that reminds us that public education is essential for democracy and that we can be human beings who are vulnerable and 33:04 processing and motivating and that the kids are all right. I mean this this movie shows all these students at UC Berkeley and it's really heartening. So, thank you to those who are showing up um for that in theaters and coming together because that's also important is coming together in community and again so you don't give in to cynicism. Yes. And relatedly, I'll add on the website we've also added a link to the course itself. So after folks if they've watched the movie are interested in taking all 14 classes in the course wealth and poverty and learning about the connection between wealth and power that we were talking about today. It's available online right now for free. Well I I think I think that all of this what we're talking about is the connection between education and democracy. The connection between activism and education. The connection between activism and democracy. Uh, 34:00 democracy is not a spectator sport and education is not a spectator sport. And Heather, let me thank you and the director Elliot Kushner for just your amazing work on this film and and your hard work. And that's why you're in Los Angeles and uh and this kind of work is is some is this it is education, but it is education in action. Um, and I want to just uh salute all of you. Michael, thank you for your help as well. Heather, your help. Uh, Jordan Alport, who is our master technician and behind the-scenes person today. Jordan, thank you for your help. uh we are all and you are also on the front line with regard to making sure that this dictatorship this fascist I'm using words that I thought I'd never actually have to use regime is constrained and 35:01 now ultimately it is dependent on us with regard to 2026 but the question I keep asking myself is between now and 2026 what else can we do and demonstrating is very important and boycotting as we have been talking about is very very important uh and helping the vulnerable and protecting the vulnerable and engaging in the kind of peaceful nonviolent civil disobedience that John Lewis was talking about when he said that we need more good trouble is critically important. It is a time now for all of us to rise up and we are doing it and thank you all of you for doing it. One final note and Heather has mentioned this and Michael has mentioned this has to do with not falling into cynicism. If we are cynical then they win. If we lose hope hope they 36:06 win. If we feel like we are doomed, the country is doomed, there's nothing we can do about it, they win. They want us to fall into cynicism and hopelessness and doom because if we do, then they win everything. It is our obligation, our responsibility as citizens. It is our duty to take action and constrain what is happening right now. Thank you all of you for doing that and we'll see you next week. [Music]

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