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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... AUGUST 16TH 2025 with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse Robert Reich: Fascism 101: Trump’s Takeover of D.C. PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpT7AGkHAQo
Fascism 101: Trump’s Takeover of D.C. \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Aug 16, 2025 1.29M subscribers ... 82,632 views ... 7K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich A fascist takeover of an American city. An economy buckling under the weight of tariffs and chaos. A Project 2025 contributor in charge of government data. We break down the week’s biggest stories on a new Coffee Klatch. How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Learn more Peter Burgess COMMENTARY I enjoy watching / listening to the Robert Reich / Heather Lofthouse weekly conversations over coffee! While they are very informal, they are quite 'substantive'. Better ... I agree with most of what they have to say! I like that they are doing more than just 'talking'. Robert Reich's new book is aleady a 'best seller' and it has not yet been released. Heather Lofthouse is part of a team that is distributing a film which is getting rave reviews about Robet Reich's last term of teaching. I have been 'archiving' quite a lot of what Robert Reich has been publishing on the Internet going back several years. As my memory degrades, this archived material helps me to think about the past in a reasonably coherent way. A lot of what is 'in the news' on a daily basis is very depressing, there are a lot of things that are very exciting and very good but not well reported. I have managed to 'archive' a lot of this news that 'came and went' very rapidly in the mainstream media, but is really very 'good news' for the 'real world'. Trump is rarely part of 'good news'. Trump and the Trump administration are a huge disaster ... and very difficult to 'dethrone' even though they are clearly (in my view) a present danger to the USA and likely the rest of the world as well. As I write this today ... Monday, August 18th 2025 ... many world leaders are coming to the White House in the USA to meet with President Trump. This is unusual ... and could be very consequential for the USA and what I used to think of as the Western Alliance. It is not at all clear that the bilateral meering in Alaska between Trump and Putin was a 'success' but something else ... but we don't know what that something else actually is! Interesting ... dangerous ... times! Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 And this is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather Loft House and yours truly, Robert Rich. Heather, you are looking so happy tonight. Oh no, we're having I mean we are in the midst we are actually I believe inside a fascist state right now. I mean really I there there's no particular point at which you can say okay we're now there. We tipped but I think we did tip this week. By the way, Trump met with Putin yesterday. The big the big fear was that he is so intent on making a deal. Uh he wants to show that he Trump that is uh and remember in 2018 in Helsinki he met with Putin and Putin just you know just took advantage of him and everybody was very upset. You know Trump took the side of Putin against American intelligence and what American intelligence was saying. Uh so the the real fear uh is that Putin 1:00 is going to take Trump out to dry. But also we got to remember part of what's happening is Ukraine is under siege. Zalinski will have to be part of this deal. I hate to even use the term as it relates to Donald Trump because it will be a creepy deal. But Zilinski is part of what's called a democracy, right? Yes. And that means that not only does he Zinsky have to be part of a deal, but he's got to be able to sell it to the Ukrainian people who have sacrificed uh you know everything including their lives, many of them uh for their country. So this is not something that Donald Trump can ride roughshod over. We'll have to see. But talk about authoritarians. I mean this is his authoritarian streak that we are watching. Well, I have been using the term fascist. And I think there's a difference. Um, and the difference in a nutshell is that an authoritarian is someone who really doesn't believe in democratic institutions uh, and believes 2:04 instead in centralized power. But a fascist is someone who believes that he himself, and I'm going to use the gender term he because we don't know and we don't have experience with any woman in this position, uh he himself has all of the power and all of the power emerges and comes from he himself and that he is indestructible and he is in a sense the font of all wisdom and daring and insight. Which brings us to Washington DC. Uh the takeover and occupation of Washington DC without any pretext pretext at all. Oh fake pretext. I mean a fake pretext. It's just to me the essence of of fascism. I know it's a phantom pretext and but it's 30 days. So we can get into it. We'll we'll we'll we will get into it. But I just want to It's 30 days, but Congress can renew it. And you know that Congress 3:02 is just with the Republicans who are zombies. They will rubber stamp whatever he wants. Extended. I know. Well, we'll get into this. What else do you want to talk about? Okay. How are How are you? I'm Well, I have fluctuated this week. I've been um there there have been moments of triumph. There have been moments of sadness. There have been moments of uh real anger, but I'm trying to I'm trying to work on myself, Heather. I love this. Well, I'm being very Not that we all could be working on ourselves. No, we can all work on ourselves, but I'm trying to turn my anger Yeah. into something else into either action or sadness. How hard do you have to try to do that? Because some people I feel like go immediate like just channel and just whoom I am so angry and now I'm doing stuff and some people have to really say okay and kind of ramp themselves up. No I I'm pretty quick to turn my anger 4:04 into action. Seems like it or at least a Substack Substack. I mean I I put a lot of my frustration and outrage into Substack and a lot of the other things we're doing. Um but uh how about you? How do you handle your frustration? And I try to do if I'm super frustrated, I try to do something physical. Walk the dog, jumping jacks. You were always an athlete, weren't you? You were always No, it's not. That's true. You were always very very physical when you're out there doing stuff. Well, in high school, some people were real athletes in college and stuff. I I always even when I was a kid, I turned my frustration into sitting at my desk writing. I used Interestingly. and also doodling and cartooning and drawing. I was such a dork. I still am. No, it's it's fine. I mean, part of becoming an adult and an older adult and then a very old adult is accepting you who you are. Deorcified over time. Yeah, I have noticed this friend. So, what else? 5:04 Okay, so let's get to it for real talk about for real for real. So, let's talk let's talk about the occupation of DC. Okay. What's happened? What could happened? Why it's happening? Yeah. Well, I first of all, it's not as as large as Los Angeles. uh it's 800 National Guard but you have on top of that you've got some army troops you've got some ICE agents you've got I mean in total if you put together all of these various groups and I think one of the purposes uh that Trump is is actually in the back of Trump's mind if there is a Trump mind uh is that this is a this is a trial run I mean he wants all of these different groups homeland security uh and parts of ICE and parts of uh the police, the federal troops. Uh he wants them all to be working together under a centralized command because he wants 6:03 that reports straight to him that reports to him or to the people around him. Um and I Heather I hope I'm not being paranoid when I say this and I apologize if I am because you know I am not a conspiracy theorist. But I do believe that much of this is in anticipation of the 2026 election. Uh just like what he's doing in Texas and he's trying to round up additional seats for Congress for Republicans to so that he can control and maintain control of uh both houses. uh what he is doing is readying uh in case he wants to declare a national emergency uh under the uh I mean there are a number of acts that he could be using but you know my fear and this is just my fear and again it may be paranoid u but with Trump you can't be too paranoid no that's what I was going to say but what's the long-term play you think he'll have Vance running he'll he thinks he'll still be controlling from the back 7:04 Well, I think the long term uh I I think again I don't know how much of this is explicit. I don't I doubt it's been written down, but I think it's really an end to American democracy as we have known it. Uh the substitution refuse to stand for this. Well, none of us can stand for it. I mean, we cannot allow this to happen. And Americans across the country are doing huge amounts, right? I mean you you and we'll get to this. You are doing a huge amount right now and you're doing it well. You're doing it locally. You're doing it under the radar of the you know national media is picking up a lot of it but to the extent that it's centralized, right? Uh it becomes a target for Trump. Trump can do exactly what he did with Black Lives Matter. So it's very smart to keep this decentralized. But so here we are looking at the larger landscape and I'm watching Gavin Newsome. 8:04 It's been very interesting, right? He's going, he says, 'If you jerrymander, I'll jerry mander.' You know, it's a chess game. He says, 'I'm not going to move 10 steps ahead because that's not okay, but I will move one and match you.' But I think we are going to be looking for what who in the Democratic party is seeming like they might take on Trump. And it's interesting to watch him, don't you think? Absolutely. I mean, and the the most important thing that he's doing now, I used to be chairman of Common Cause, the citizenship lobby, the citizens lobby, uh that was very very intent on getting rid of gerrymandering. Uh but uh and so that in terms of my good government hat, uh I don't like the idea of California gerrymandering in response to taxes. But the way Gavin Newsome is doing it, I actually appreciate because he's saying, 'I don't want to do it. Texas, you could trigger 9:02 us in California to do it if you go through with your gerrymand is super gerrymandering.' That is getting additional five uh seats for the Republicans as Trump has asked you to do. Uh but we will only do it as much as you do. That is uh this is this reminds me of the old doctrine of mutually assured destruction right in nuclear yeah theory nuclear game theory uh because Democrats need to around the country Democratic governors Democratic legislators and legislators they need to respond to a counterbalance with Republicans so that it makes no sense for Republican governors and legislators to try to do super super Jerry mandering, but is this the first example of someone responding to Trump in a big way and his and his minions? I mean, not just him, but kind of feels like Well, absolutely. I mean, Gavin Newsome uh is lining himself up. I mean, it's it's a smart strategy, but it's also a smart strategy for Gavin Newsome. 10:04 That's what I was thinking because Gavin Newsome does want to be the major contender, right, of among the Democrats. Now, so in DC, this is very scary for people in DC and DC residents. We are seeing that this is normalizing violence in a way that is unbelievable to me in the United States of America. Some poor guy, you know, is angry and he throws a he throws a sandwich uh at one of the troops and he's arrested for throwing a sandwich. Oh, yeah. He said, 'Get the f out of here.' And he threw a sub his sub sandwich. I a sub sandwich is not it's mushy. It's kind of a I mean if he threw if he threw a you know a a rye bread sandwich rye bread or even you know like a a really well toasted BLT could have cut BLT is dangerous. I mean that's a weapon of mass destruction. Yeah. But a sub with squeaky turkey in it and and so it hit somebody. I mean a he was arrested and then he tried to say I'll turn myself in and then they did it again and there wasn't 11:03 this guy who threw the the sub that Wasn't he the sub sandwich? Wasn't he part of the Justice Department? Yeah. And then he was fired. But this is the point. They're making they're pulling it out. They're making these videos about it with all these people. It took thousands to take this guy down. I mean, they being the Trump administration. Yes. And the dramat it's this they're eventizing and dramatizing and then putting it on social media where everyone consumes. See, that's the second big theme here because not only are they try is this a trial run for 2026 uh in terms of national, you know, militarization, but it is also an attempt to try to uh bait the crowd, bait the public, bait angry Democrats. It's a Democratic city. Uh and bait them into taking some violent action like Subway sandwich. What do we say? Be careful. Don't Don't Yeah, don't do it. I mean they're protesting peacefully. 12:03 A peaceful protest. Yes. But but they are trying to go. This is your point. They are trying to get a reaction. So don't react. I mean I think I have talked to many of you some of you around the country. Uh some of you want to make this into a an opportunity for millions to march on Washington. Don't take the bait. This is exactly what Trump wants. M but protest peacefully where you are. I mean it's just I mean what he would love is we all descend on DC and then he gets to say told you so. But also can we talk about how racist this all is too? I mean come on. So much of this well he even announced that as Trump announced when he did this when he was going into Washington that he was going to focus on major cities like Baltimore, like Oakland, California. And you know that these major cities are number one democratic cities and number two they have a lot of people of color both black people and black mayors and black mayors. Uh and so you know 13:06 this is also either directly or indirectly subliminally appealing to the MAGA base. It's saying, you know, you white uh rural, you know, the people that hate cities, I am going to really get those cities under control. And he makes up complete complete fabrications. Oh, and they all go for it. I mean, you saw that Senator Mullen, I think it was from Oklahoma says, 'Listen, when I drive around, I can no longer wear a seat belt because I need to be ready for a carjacking and be able to sprint at any moment.' Well, this is the mythology uh in Did you hear what I said? Bananas. This is it's bananas, but this is the mythology on which Trump is building. Y and there is a deep fear, deep-seated fear, and it's not new of cities of large metropolises. Uh and crime is down, not that we pay attention to data. 14:02 Well, in Washington DC, crime is down 30% from its peak. I mean it is still a problem but it is not nearly the problem it was. The trend is in the right direction but what Trump wants the people to believe is that there is this national emergency. In fact he keeps on coming up with more and more fabricated fake national emergencies to justify his fascism. Yep. And Pam Bondi, everyone else just gets behind and says, 'Yep, we need this as an emergency and now we need to get ready.' And you saw the domestic civil disturbance quick reaction force. Well, let's stop right there. The domestic civil disturbance quick reaction force. This is something that he is preparing. I mean, this is in the planning stage. Uh again, put this into the context we have been talking about. This is a 2026 election coming up in which he wants to control Democratic cities. He wants to intimidate voters, Democratic voters. 15:00 Uh, and he also wants to do it in a way that most of the Maabase says right on. Yeah. I mean, this is Hello. No, it's a problem. And so, not but there's the And can we just talk a little bit about the fact that he's tough on crime supposedly as we're doing all this, but he's not tough on crime. This is this is the he is a criminal himself. I mean, he is I mean, how many presidents have we had who've been indicted criminals? How many presidents have we had who have pardoned 1,600 people who who who rioted at the capital yet who had criminal records by the way? Many of them. Many of them. Uh I mean he is the most criminal president in American history. But so what he's doing is he's saying okay we need to be ready. I have military. I need the National Guard. They need to be ready poised at any minute. We're going to have them in multiple places in the country. They're going to be able to zip wherever we need them to zip. Exactly. Zip and zap and and this is intimidation. I know, Heather. This is exactly the same 16:00 intimidation tactic. But can we just talk about the fact that it would could cost 100,000 100 million dollars if they're actually, you know, getting in helicopters and airplanes and that's just that's just Washington DC. I mean if again replicate this I mean it's hard to imagine and let's hope that we are being overly uh obsessively cynical here but imagine if he really followed through on every big city in America uh and conjured up some wave of crime or some wave of of illegal blah or or undocumented immigrants. I mean, he could possibly shut down the country at a critical instance and or make it make it make people afraid to go to their voting stations, you know, in 2026. Something's got to shift. I mean, also, you saw in DC that they're just doing the um pulling people over. You know, there's the required traffic stops and then they say, 'Okay, are you an immigrant? Did you do something illegal?' Maybe you did. you know, 17:04 they're well, unlike Los Angeles. Los Angeles, you've got these pockets where you can find immigrants and, you know, they went in, that's what ICE did. They went into places where they knew that there were a lot of new immigrants and took a chance that some of them would have been would be undocumented. Uh, but in Washington, there is not that kind of um centers of of immigration. So, what do they do? They go to the major intersections. They go to 14th Street and they go to K Street and they go to places where there are a lot of people uh and it's likely that some people are going to be upset enough to throw a soft sandwich. A soft sandwich. I don't What if it was toasted? I don't know. I mean I don't know what sub sandwich you're picturing. It's I mean it is easy to to make light of this and it is on some sense it's a cartoon but it's a it's also it's horrific. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare. It is a nightmare. 18:01 Um, okay. So, he's not really tough on crime. A little bit more on that. So, the people he has pardoned. I mean, they are fraudsters. They are white collar criminals. They are I mean, it was of the January 6, so 1500 people, you mentioned this, that he pardoned. Of those, they included dozens of defendants had past conv criminal convictions for charges including rape, manslaughter, domestic violence, and drug trafficking. Let's be clear, Donald Trump is not a law and order president. He is the opposite, but he is a non-law, a non-law. The rule of law is out and also there is no order. It's outlaw. It's outlaw. He's cha it's chaos. Uh and that's exactly what he's done everywhere. So let's don't fall for the law and order notion and the party of limited government. There is no limited government. God, it's everywhere. Well, but this is 19:00 important that because all of our frameworks, even talking about the political right versus left, I I think if I read once again that Donald Trump is right-wing or there is no I mean the right wing used to be as you just said limited government uh conserving what we have, not allowing Democrats to expand government. Donald Trump has put himself in the position of dictator of the United States and has expanded government to the point where he is in every aspect of our society. the Smithsonian institutions, all of our museums, the Kennedy Center, all of our art museums and all of our artistic kind of funding and all of our scientific funding, you know, National Science Foundation and the universities and going into the universities and trying to negotiate with the universities. How about news media? And news media and the law firms and uh and and now the you know the semiconductor industry. 20:03 Yes. Can we get into this? So state capitalism is this term I've read, you know, and keeps propping up. But what do you call it? What's happening right now? I think I mean I think it's fascist capitalism because state state capitalism would suggest something like socialism or at least uh you know where you have as in China when you have the government or the party uh in a very systemic way making deals with particular companies or interlocked with the private sector. Yes. Interlocked with the private sector. But you don't have anywhere in any system now until the United States under Donald Trump a president who is single-handedly directing the private sector to do this or that. And it's not just I mean semiconductors look he he's taken Intel the president of Intel and he's taken and he said you can no longer be president of Intel. He's now negotiating with Intel about whether its CEO can stay as CEO uh with advanced micro 21:02 devices. He's saying, uh, well, you can get an export license to take your advanced chips to China, but it's going to you've got to pay the United States 15%. Yeah. Cut us in. Uh, yeah. Where did he get the 15% from? I mean, who knows what that deal actually is. Uh, with with with minerals, you know, there is a shortage of rare earth minerals and those rare earth minerals are needed. So he has instructed his defense department to negotiate with the one company that is actually into rare earth minerals in the United States. Uh and they're negotiating some sort of a deal where the United States Donald Trump is going to be in charge of deciding you know all of that and all of his tariffs. I mean all of his trade deals. He has accumulated something in the order of $1 and a half trillion dollars worth of chits of of IUS right in which all of these other nations say we will invest 22:04 in the United States as part of our deal with you Donald Trump who's in charge of deciding what those $1.5 trillion where it goes what it is it's Donald Trump this is fascist capitalism and it's a singular man at the top. It is one person at the top. I mean, Nip on Steel, he says originally like Joe Biden, no, you can't take over US steel. And then he's president. He says, oh, yes, you can take over US steel, but you take over US steel in a way that gives the United States a a kind of a big a big part of the revenue. Where's the I'm sorry, where's the free in the free market? I mean, there's no free market. There's no free market. There's not even a there's But again, it's not even socialism. It's not communism. It is fascist capitalism. How about when he made some phone calls this week regarding the Nobel Peace Prize he wants. Well, this is again Do you remember 23:03 deals when you probably don't? It was before your time in try me in the 1990s. Okay. And I was here. Were you? Yeah. But you were little girl teenagers. But but you but you didn't remember. Do you remember that Donald Trump used to call up the press and he used to disguise his voice and he used to say something about, you know, how fabulous Donald Trump is or did this or did that. He does that to himself now. There's like a wave. But he but he calls up the the the finance minister of Norway and the finance minister of Norway is is kind of doing whatever he's doing, whatever a finance minister does in Norway uh just a few days ago. And um and he says uh hello uh is this uh whoever the finance minister's name is. Um this is Donald Trump. The finance minister did not expect is that what he says or does he say president from here Donald here or does someone text from his team first and say incoming we have incoming big way the way I heard it reported there was just a call to the finance minister cold call a cold call. So the finance minister story 24:05 is doing his you know is in his hand and he do you think the zip code is more mara I mean the area code is Mara Lago New York or 202 well I don't know what the finance minister saw saw Donald Trump and I think he said Donald Trump maybe did he say President Trump anyway minister this is Donald Trump I understand you have something to do with the Nobel Peace Prize uh hey I would uh you know I'm negotiating some tariffs with Norway right now Bob it's so bad this is this actually happened. He wants the Nor He wants the peace prize. He thinks that he can call up the Norwegian minister and threaten maybe tariffs against Norway uh as a bargaining chit to get the peace prize, you know. I mean, he's not all there. He really is not all there. The back of his brain is if he has a brain, I think he only has the back of the brain. I think that's the only part that's going to pops up. And there is a 25:02 reptilian part of your brain. It's kind of the inner inner it's the oldest part of your brain. It's the part that looks like that tail. Yeah. And it regrows if you lose it. That's right. It regrows. And I think that I think I think there is a reptilian brain inside our Donald Trump. I was going to say RFK Jr. who has the reptile in his brain. No, he does. No, he had a worm who ate part of his brain. Sorry. But no, I think Donald Trump has a reptile in his a reptilian part of his brain because how do you expect how do you explain this fascist capitalism and calling up to get a Nobel Pri peace prize? We can explain it. It's too Can we talk about to his the person he has picked to run the BLS? We'll see how long that guy lasts. This is another example. He he he kills the messenger, the former head of the BLS. We've talked about this narrowed labor statistics came jobs were down. We had to reassess because that's how data works and gone. He had to fire her. He fires her because he says that she is 26:01 terrible and she doesn't and he doesn't trust the numbers and nobody should trust the numbers. So he undermines the credibility of the most important source of information about the economy in the federal government. It's what everybody in the private sector relies on in terms of jobs and wages. I mean everyone in the Fed, I mean everybody. I mean, it's a monthly report. And who does he replace her with? EJ Anton. EJ Anton. Now, who is EJ Anton? Well, he has a PhD in econ. And he I mean, he was there January 6, but he was just like a bystander hanging out. Let's He was there. Let's Can we run? Can we just show this picture? There's a photo. There he is. You see that? You see the circle in the photo? He is there on January 6th. Awful. Bob, it's not clear that he's a by What do you mean bystander? How many He's claiming he's claiming he was a bystander. So, he is going to be put in charge, at least Donald Trump wants him to put be put in charge of the most important statistical 27:00 information we have about the economy. And do you I mean, I think the Republicans in in the Senate are going to say absolutely. Speaking of reptilian rights, absolutely, if you want it. But this this this person has no background. He has no justification. Even the economists on the right, the so-called right, you know, the KO Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, they're saying he is totally unqualified. He he wants to get rid of the monthly report and substitute a report that comes out quarterly every 3 months. I mean, Heather, we're the better to fix the numbers with the better to well, the better to fix the numbers. And also, if you have and again, there inevitably there are going to be revisions because as more information comes in hard, of course, you have to revise it. you're going quick at the end of but but if if it's every 3 months and you have revisions, you know, given given the the the shortterm memories of so many 28:03 people in the United States and I'm this is not insult given that many people in America are not really What were we talking about? Um you're Rob, right? I it's just it's overwhelming. Um if if you think about how absurd it is where we are right now. So is this the beginning of the number? We talked about this with the team a long time ago which was uh numbers. We have to be so careful about the government numbers because the government at least they're the numbers and we know that those are objective and they're still objective reality. But so now we have new numbers that are coming out which obviously the economy is slowing. It's not doing well. Well, this is this is actually uh I I apologize for interrupting you just but it's but it's really important that people understand uh it's not just that he fired the BLS commissioner and is replacing her with a hack. It is also 29:01 that the trend line uh on the basis of the revisions and the re revisions are based upon new information coming in. This is standard Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology. You get new numbers, you get more information, you revise the numbers you already had out there. It's fact based. It's fact-based. It's analytic based. And these people are very careful evidence. They're very careful of what they do. But the trend line was is toward fewer and fewer and fewer jobs. We are actually uh flirting with a recession. We're not there yet. But this is very I mean, if you're if if the economy is is heading downhill in terms of job creation that fast. But here's the problem. At the same time, you've got the tariffs going in, which are pushing prices up. Now, what happens if you get a trend line of jobs going down, which we have, and we have prices going up. What's that combination called? Terrible. Stagflation. Stagflation. 30:02 You You got an A. You've got an A minus in my class. Here we go. Um, but so fewer than a thousand jobs were added in the private sector in New York. I know that's an example that we look at and we say that's not heartwarming, right? No. And we know we we can we we know various right now. We know specific cities, but when the jobs numbers come out for uh for August, I'm going to be looking at those very carefully because I I'm I'm afraid I don't want to look at them. So you just tell us on I will but I'm afraid that we are going to see uh substantial drops. And again the reason is if you are a company and you were trying to make decisions about how much do I invest, how many people do I hire, uh do I really build this new factory, do I do this or that? Uh you need a certain degree of certainty about the future, right? But if everything is changing around you because Trump is putting tariffs here and putting tariffs there and taking tariffs down and doing this with regard to uh you know 31:05 antitrust and he's maybe changing his mind on this you have no idea what the future is going to bring. So you are not going to make those investments and that means no jobs or fewer jobs. And then we had so the two indices that you of course are looking at constantly are the CPI consumer price index and then the producer price index. And so this consumer one is what people are paying a you know consumers purchasers but then the production one is what sellers are are what prices sellers are using right and so you look at it's kind of two sides of the same coin and both of them right and they're both they're both going up because of the tariffs uh and and let's be clear corporations are pricing passing on the prices that they are facing on to consumers. This is what you said from jump. A lot of good people, groundwork collaborative, public citizen people doing the analysis. If corporations can do it, if they can pass on, they will. And if they are 32:04 powerful, they are have a big market share as most big corporations do, they will pass it on to consumers. Uh so consumers are paying this tariff. We call import tax. Import tax. Import tax. Tariffs are import taxes. Hello. Hello. So, yes, consumers are paying them. Uh, and if you I mean, look at look at coffee. I mean, this is I mean, this is so important. How's your late show with Look at you showing off with where did you do Steven Colbear recently? That's crazy. My god, this is this is the merch. No, keep keep this. This is Can you all see this? This is my late show with Steven Coar. If you're on the late show with Steven Coar, you get one of these mugs. Remember we did Morning Joe and I tried to get them and they were like, 'No, no, no, no, no. You can't take our mugs.' But is very generous. Well, he doesn't. 33:03 I mean, fireside show is not going to go on beyond me. Um but uh so coffee the prices of coffee uh are going to soar uh because you you have uh what are you have you have tariffs import taxes uh right now on Colombia scheduled to go into effect on Colombia and all of the major Brazil Brazil every major coffee producer only 1% of coffee that we drink here in America is made in America let's be clear where are you going where are you going to get coffee beans in America who's going to grow coffee beans In America, I mean, New Orleans, where do you buy coffee? Nola, on that one corner, there is a French corner. There is a there's the French French coffee being corner. The French press corner. Uh, you know, we're not we're not we're not making fun of New Orleans. No, of course not. But this we're just we're just First of all, we love New Orleans. I love New Orleans. Um, but but but every you know, everybody who drinks their coffee in the morning or relies on coffee in the morning is going to be paying 20 or 30% more. Already up 14%, 34:05 Bob. Already up 14%. Okay, so this is this is taking a huge bite out of the incomes of average working people. We're not talking about the billionaires. The billionaires don't care about paying a little bit more for their coffee. But remember the Boston Tea Party? I mean, we did it once. We Americans. We can do it again. We can do it. We get mad about our warm beverages. Import taxation without representation. Exactly. No terarification without without representation. That's exactly right. Now there was another the ve vegetable prices are also I didn't understand that. Can you tell us that Mr. former secretary? Well I can say to you and I I understand that vegetable prices are going up something in the order of what do we have 38%. I mean some something huge huge huge uh it's just vegetables now food prices are going up but the vegetables are going up. Why are vegetables going up that fast? Class you're asking me I assume it has to do 35:01 with labor. Well, f number one, labor. A lot of the people who the vegetable growers were relying on or have been relying on are people who are here, you know, they are undocumented and they are very afraid and they are leaving or they're being arrested and they're putting put in prison camps or they're being shipped to another country. Uh so the growers don't have a labor force or at least a labor force that is willing and able. What's another reason? fertilizers, maybe fertilizers and fertilizers are going up and the fertilizer is an import. It's an import tax and that's going up. Also, climate change. How about that? Well, climate change. And what is the Trump uh administration regime doing about climate change? Making it worse. They're making it far worse. They're they're accelerating it. I think that's the name of the Yeah. So we now we just are looking at vegetables but if you look at anything else you were also seeing I mean other things are starting to rise in price 36:05 and this is a huge problem for the economy and Donald Trump doesn't want us to know you know Walmart guess what we know Walmart was going to put on its really products how much an increase of the price was due to the import tax and the administration said Don't do that. And the same thing with Jeff Bezos. Amazon was going to put a little tag on how much you're paying more because of the import tax. Don't delete that. The administration said, 'No, don't include that. Don't in Don't include what? The little tag. Don't include the tag.' No, it's this I mean, he doesn't want us to know anything. This is the BLS again. But so in terms of the BLS, so often times you say you tell us what we can do as individuals, but what can Dems be doing? I mean, don't we don't do they can if any Dem approves, you're talking about Democratic AJ 37:02 members of Congress. Yeah. Capital D. The Senate Democrats should not give him one AJ vote, right? AJ Anton. Now, it is true that Senate Democrats are in the minority, but it might be that they can peel off three or four Republicans uh because again, there's so much opposition on the right of the of the you know established economics profession. I have not heard any single economist uh except maybe Steve Moore. Do you remember Steve Moore? Oh, should I? You should because he Do you have coffee with him? Well, He was he's a very right-wing economist. He worked for the Heritage Foundation. Uh he's come to the defense of Antony, but he's the only one. So this week, I'm transitioning. I can't take it another minute. Do you mind if I find something nicer to No. I mean, it's still grim. Don't get me wrong. It's so grim. I mean, I I I am myself. This week was the birthday. 38:05 Happy birthday to Social Security. 90. Let's let's 90. And actually the person who is most responsible for social security is my predecessor at the Department of Labor, Francis Perkins. But she wasn't your immediate predecessor. Not my immediate predecessor. I think she was there in the 30s, right? And and she was, you know, she was the patron saint of American workers. She came up with unemployment insurance. She was so cool. The 40hour work week with time and a half for overtime. Uh social security. Uh she actually created all of the worker prote I mean almost all of the worker protections we now take for granted. First woman in the cabinet. She was the first woman in the cabinet and she used to we used to see her in that little hat and her mink stow are all the pictures that I remember of her and she it's it's amazing story. You know I I when I got to be labor secretary I came into the office. It's a gigantic office. I mean the room is is 39:04 overwhelming. I I mean it's it's bigger than the house I live in. Uh and um and it's it's also beautiful. They're they're two walls are are glass glass from ceiling to floor and you get a gorgeous view of the capital of the dome of the capital. I read about that in your book. You talked about that. Yeah. I mean it's it's overwhelming. Uh but I couldn't find Francis Perkins portrait. No, I knew there had to be a portrait of her. Some because they do portraits of every Secretary of Labor. I mean, she I found every other secretary of labor. I didn't find I I looked and I had other people help me. We looked finally in a back room in a closet. There was Francis Perkins portrait. Did you dust it off? We uh pulled it out and and with a lot of help from other people, we restored it. It was very in bad condition. That's not nice. Well, there were Republicans didn't want to recognize her. No. 40:03 So, we did the best we could. Put her in the closet and put her right behind my desk. Oh, I love this. And every day I came into work as Secretary of Labor, I would salute Francis Perkins. Oh, Bob, I love that. Didn't she witness that horrific fire in New York? the um the the triangle shortwaist factory fire in in 1911 died and it was just there were bad working conditions and it was over 126 uh women young women who were working in this garment factory sewing uh and the fire engines they could only get their ladders up to the eighth floor and this was on the 11th floor and Francis Perkins was there she was on the sidewalk she was looking and the these these girls I mean they were they were girls uh and they were jumping out of the 11th floor window uh and killing and they all you know died 126 died uh and Francis Perkins at that moment said 41:05 to herself you know American workers uh not just men but women uh need protection they need a better deal and she went when Franklin D Roosevelt was elected she went to him and said Mr. President. Uh, I'm I'm so excited you are now president. I want unemployment insurance and I also want social security. I want everybody to be able to retire and have money to retire. Workers doing so they're so critical and I want to strengthen labor unions and their people and they Yeah. And she and and he said, 'Okay, so I I will make you labor secretary and you can do that.' That's so fabulous. Yeah. And I like that you brought her her portrait out. Um, okay. I have to mention a couple things. One is that your book, I know you're going to kill me for this, which is right here, coming up short, a memoir of my America, a memoir of his America. Um, was number 42:06 one on the New York Time bestseller list. Bob, it's so great. I love seeing that. Well, I mean, number one, okay, I don't want to talk. I mean, I know you don't want to talk about it, but also thank you to people who are reading it. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Heather. I mean, you helped. I mean, of course, but our inequality media civic action donors, they said, I want to be in a running for a book that's signed and people on bookshop.org. I mean, the system, I mean, they were backordered. I was shocked to hear backorded that it was number one. It's whenever one on the August 24th. It's starting on August 24th. Um I don't understand how that's in the print version, but right now if you Google it, I Googled it, by the way. I Googled it. I was like, I wonder if it made the list. And then I I mean, I basically did a double take. Well, somebody called me, you know, uh a few days ago and said, 'Did you hear the news?' But didn't I 43:02 mean, the when somebody calls you and says, 'Deadpan, uh you know, Heather is on the dead. Did you hear the news?' Yeah. No, I'm always I was always Oh my god, somebody somebody has died. Okay. And um and he said, 'Did you see the list?' And I said, 'What list?' He said, 'The besteller list.' And I thought, 'Could it possibly be?' And and I I just I thought maybe maybe we squeaked on. Maybe maybe. And he said, 'It's very cool. You're opening at number one.' And I started to tear up. Oh, I'm such a sentimental. You are you? No, I I'm I You're a perfect combination of sentimental and then analytical. You have it both. Well, I I just I never expected it, Heather. Well, I'm excited. I'm going to tear up now. Yeah, I know. Let's keep talking about it. Here, let me get it. Let me let me rip one of the pages. You can use it as a tissue. So, Heather, what's the story with the movie The Last Class? The Last Class. So, it is doing incredibly well thanks to you all 44:04 audiences going to see it, finding community in local theaters and artous. One person described it as the art documentary of the summer, which I think is so interesting because I don't think of it as an art documentary, but apparently when it's a small film that is going into artous, that's what we're calling it. But is it is it getting to red states? Is it getting That's it. So, it has shown in over a hundred theaters, which is so cool. across 34 states. It's also now in Canada. Um, and these are some of the states that it has been in that Trump won in in 2024 and that are considered red states. Some can sway purple. Um, Alaska, Florida. Wait a minute. Alaska and Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas. I feel like I'm Howard Dean that time. And we're going to Kansas and we're going to Kentucky and Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, 45:04 Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, Utah and Virginia. The movie has gone utterly amazing. It's very And if you want to know more about where you can see it, you go to the last class, all one word, the last film. The last film.com and you can also bring it to your city or your town. So, if you go to the lastclassfilm.com, first of all, put in your email address and then we'll update you sparingly. Um, and you'll get all the new stuff about when we're going to do the live watch along, which we've had to punt and thank you to all of you. Too many people were interested in it, so we're having to restructure it all. So, sign up at the lastclassfilm.com, where you can also see the current screenings, which I just talked about, and how to bring it to a theater near you. Now, you don't have to be in a red state to bring the be in a blue state. You can be in a hazy state. You can be in a fabulous state of mind. You can be in a depressed state of mind state. I was 46:03 going to ask you if if that's really but not a cynical stage. That's illegal. We don't do cynical, but it is watching the hearing from people in the form of comments, in the form of emails is incredible. people saying, 'I drove two hours to see this film and I have now seen it and I would have driven even longer.' There's one person who drove who literally designed their vacation around going to Santa Fe to see the film and they said, 'I mean, this is what happens when your love language is economics.' So, dragging the family to see it and then so happy and then people loop back and say, 'I can't believe it. I was so excited to see it and now I've seen it.' We had um a theater at the end of the I95, Interstate 95 at the top of Maine. They hosted it. They got 75 people on a warm Tuesday which they said was unheard of. Amazing. Absolutely. And people stick around for conversation and kibbitzing and it's just been incredible to see. It's amazing. And you deserve enormous credit. You are the producer of this 47:04 film. Elliot Kushner is the director, but you made this happen. Well, Heather Heather, I mean, some of us were the subject of it. you. So, that was easy. That was team effort and all that, the front guy. You made it happen and you deserve extraordinary appreciation and thanks and credit. Please go see it if you haven't and please put in the comments your feedback if you have seen it. The lastclassfilm.com. Okay, so that's that. But then we had this great I love seeing what people are putting in the comments on um this coffee clutch. So, please continue to do so. We had someone I thought this was so funny. Um, Cindy Streer 2020, you need a bottoms up toast at the end of your podcast. For those of us at the bottom, still fighting to move up. Love you both for what you do. I love that. I love that. Wait, and then I have one other Can we just The I have a lot of coffee in here. Bottoms up. Bottoms up. And And this is Cindy Streer. Thank you for your suggestion. And this is And that's what's the origin of bottoms up. Everybody at the bottom. Everybody feels that they're at the bottom. I think it was English. And obviously it 48:05 has to do with showing that the there's no By the way, I did. Have you done yours? Oh, I see. I did. Oh, showing the bottom the bottom of your cup. Hold on, I'm drinking. It's showing the bottom when it was a glass. When it was a pint glass, I'm sure. And then there was some story that it was everyone is going to correct me and thank you for doing so in the comments that I think it had to do with the military. And if you had a coin in your glass and you got to the bottom and you had a coin, then you were in the military or some Why would you have a coin in your glass? you had been selected something like that. I don't know. Can someone put it in the comments so I don't seem as but I think I think that that metaphorically and I think Cindy Cindy's idea is that metaphorically so many people today feel that they're on the bottom. I mean not just economically but but but kind of in terms of politics and the stresses that we're all feeling. We're all at the bottom. So we have to we have to say bottoms up. Bottoms up. Bottoms up. And then you hold Hold on. I'm almost done. 49:03 Well, we have to have save enough because we're going to do bottoms up at the end. I already I already did it. Okay. Okay. Um and then the other thing is this was so touching. So, someone reached out and here's what he's saying. He's saying um can you help me find a home for approximately 10 linear feet of boxed original documents, photographs, letters, memorabilia, publications, and internal records from core um from 1964 Mississippi. Freedomity. Exactly. So, this is from the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer, which you have spoken about about a lot, Bob, given your connection to Mickey Schwarner and these horrific deaths. Um, so basically, Edward Hollander, Edward Hollander was the Mississippi Corps correspondent, coordinator, photographer. They have original photos of a clan rally, a burning effigy of Lady Bird Johnson, telegrams from James James Farmer and others. And so what I think we can 50:01 contact UC Berkeley perhaps and their library and also if any of you out there knows of a good place uh to a university or any place affiliated or with an archive of some sort the civil rights movement um I think that this would be an Megar Evers university I don't know something if anyone has an idea we are going to find a place for it and we're going to help this person Jeff do that and thank you Jeff for reaching out to us. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, please keep it up with the comments. We do read them and we love hearing from you and we love when you correct us. We love when you correct us and we were actually right. We love your questions, your feedback, your humor. Um, and um, I love your humor and your feedback and it's keeping us going here. And thank you for everything. And I also want to thank Michael Lahannes Calderon uh who is behind the camera today. Michael uh we are going to be next week we're going to be in Houston, Texas. Uh 51:07 now you may wonder why Houston, Texas. Why Houston, Texas? Because Texas is the center of the struggle for democracy. uh as Greg Abbott tries to respond to Donald Trump's demand for five more seats, Republican seats, and super, you know, does this kind of super gerrymandering. Uh and so, uh we're going to be out there. We're going to do we're going to find a a place to do our on location on location. And um I can't guarantee that, uh all Texans are going to be happy with us being there, but we'll do the best we can. I also want to thank all of you. Um, and as I very often say, this is a stress test for all of us. It's a stress test for democracy. It's a stress test for us as individuals. Um, we cannot allow and must not allow 52:07 Donald Trump and this regime to cast us into despair and hopelessness and cynicism. If I have one important central message for you, it is that cynicism is a dead end. And that is what they want. It's what Trump wants. He wants all us all all to be so cynical and hopeless that we stop putting up a fight that we give up. But we will never give up. Democracy, social justice, the rule of law, and everything we care about in terms of our future and America's place in the world depends on keeping this fight and winning this fight. And we will, Heather. Bottoms up. 53:00 Bottoms up. [Music]

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