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COMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... AUGUST 30TH 2025 with Robert Reich and Heather Lofthouse An Escape From Fascism? PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5mmLwI_KmA
An Escape From Fascism? \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich Premiered August 30th 2025 1.31M subscribers ... 64,876 views ... 5.6K likes The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich On a special Labor Day weekend Coffee Klatch, I reflect on what I’ve witnessed during my time in politics and how it connects to our struggle today. We also discuss Trump’s continued occupation, not just of American cities, but the American economy. How this content was made Auto-dubbed Audio tracks for some languages were automatically generated. Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 And it is the Saturday coffee coming to you today from Pegasus Books in Berkeley and Oakland, California. So happy to be here at Pegasus. Heather, it's good to see you and you. I mean, Labor Day weekend. Houston, Texas was fun, but it's nice to be back and in a bookstore. I mean, so great. It's it's great. I'm I'm so I'm so glad you're here with us. Uh this is Labor Day weekend and it's a book weekend because what do people do right on Labor Day weekend? They read books and they go to the movies and they try to escape from uh the fascist world we know and take a break from work. Right. And take a break. That's right. Heather, what are we going to talk about today? Where do we begin? Let's start with the occupation of American cities. Oh, good. Very uplifting. The occupation of the American economy. And then I want to do a deep dive into your book which I have read. Um but I hope there's time also to talk about your movie. 1:00 Oh yes, of course. The last class. I'll give you all the updates. They're so good. 1:05 Um let me let me just say one thing about the occupation, Trump's occupation of America. We're talking about 1:11 Washington DC where he's now authorized the federal troops to carry guns. M 1:19 uh let's be clear, crime is down a third, 30% below what it was 2 years 1:25 ago. Uh there is no crime problem. He is using a pretext of nothing. He's making 1:31 this up. He's creating another Trump manufactured crisis. Uh and he is saying 1:37 that he's going into Chicago and into New York and into Oakland, California 1:42 and all these places and Baltimore. Heather. Um, this is what in the old 1:51 school used to be known as fascism. I know it. And you, so in your book, you 1:57 actually distinguish between authoritarianism and fascism. And you have five key elements, but I people 2:03 keep saying wouldbe dictator. He's not a wouldbe dictator would be. No, he's not would be anymore. I don't 2:09 know if you saw um the labor department. You know, I used to run the labor department stomping grounds for for over 2:17 four years. Uh, and I saw a picture. I want to I want everybody to see this photo. 2:23 Take a look. Uh, so you notice the banners. I mean, notice the banners. How do you not notice the banners? 2:29 On the right is Teddy Roosevelt. I think it's nice to honor Teddy Roosevelt. I don't quite know Teddy Roosevelt's 2:35 relationship to organized labor, but let's put that aside. Uh, but on the left you have a banner, a huge banner of 2:44 this fellow Trump. I mean, the last time I remember banners being held or really 2:52 held over the Labor Department like that was never. There has never been a time. 2:57 Never been a time. Uh, and it's not just the Labor Department. He has another banner over the uh agriculture 3:06 department, USDA. But you'll notice it's branded 250, right? So, he's doing a big push 3:12 around America's anniversary. He's bringing UFC fighters to DC. I mean, he has a whole plan around this. 3:18 And this is this is going to be next July. Next July 4th. So, between now and July 4th, 3:24 you know, we're going to have banners, Trump banners, Trump pictures, Trump photos everywhere. He does not see the 3:31 difference between himself and the United States. When he talks about me 3:36 and mine, he's talking about in his brain, he's talking about the United States. 3:42 And he refuses to acknowledge that he is not America. 3:48 That's malignant narcissism. We've used this term before. It's malignant narcissism. And it's 3:53 extraordinarily dangerous because he is now he the reason he's occupying these cities uh is because he wants fights. He 4:01 wants uh to create a a ground swell of opposition. There is already a ground 4:07 swell of opposition, but he wants the militia to be able his militia, his 4:12 police state to be able to go after Americans who are upholding democracy. U 4:19 because that's exactly what he is. He's he's that kind of belligerent. M 4:24 uh and I well I one thing that interests me is that over the last week we've had 4:31 not only uh the governor of California Newsome uh but we also have seen the 4:37 governors of Maryland uh Moore and also the governor of Illinois JB Pritsker uh 4:44 respond to Trump uh in extraordinarily powerful ways 4:50 very direct on camera they've gone all the clips have gone viral as they should 4:55 and they're talking about the constitution. They're talking about you know you Mr. President, you have no right. You have no no constitutional 5:02 right to come here. There is no pretext. There is no reason. Uh crime is down. We are doing a good job. You are 5:08 withholding federal funds that would make it easier for us to control crime. 5:13 But even so, crime is down. Uh and uh you are um violating um the spirit of 5:21 the United States. Not just the constitution but the whole reason we are together as an entity called our 5:28 American society uh has to do with our freedom. Yeah. Uh and you were violating that freedom. 5:34 Uh Pritsker was particularly powerful. Let's see if we can get a just a just a 5:41 a short clip of JB Pritsker. If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me, not 5:48 time or political circumstance, from making sure that you face justice under 5:54 our constitutional rule of law. Gavin Newsome is also doing the same thing. And u and again West Moore is 6:01 right is is doing it not only in terms of responding to the occupations of or 6:07 potential occupations of these cities uh but also responding to Trump's demand 6:13 for additional redistricting. That's it. So we had JB Pritz Pritsker who welcomed all these Democrats from 6:20 Texas. Then we have Gavin Newsome who's saying we're going to have a plan. If you gerrymander we will counter counter 6:26 gerrymander. Counter gerrymander. Right. Well, that's right. It's We're not going to have a race to the bottom. 6:32 We're not going to overjerrymander. We're just going to match what you do. We're make going to remove every every 6:38 incentive for you blue state governors, red state governors to try to find more 6:45 uh more seats in Congress. And you've seen Governor Nuome's social media game. It's great. He's his game is so good 6:52 because I'm sure you all have seen it, but he's he's mocking Trump style with the all caps and the short sentences and 7:00 signing it, you know, G, what's his middle name? GCN, I think, doing the initials. 7:05 The mocking is a very important. It's an important tactic. Yeah. And a very, very because because the way 7:12 you get under Trump's skin is you mock him, but also the way you show the 7:18 public Yes. how ridiculous and adolescent and juvenile Trump is is you you know you 7:25 you imitate you mimic what he's doing and it shows a kind of confidence that I 7:30 think people are looking for. I mean Donald Trump has been this strong man 7:35 and it's who can come out with policies, god forbid, that are sound and against 7:41 what he's doing and then who can beat him at his own game online and be sassier and funnier. He hates that. 7:47 Yeah. And and I think that it is very important for the public to right now 7:53 feel that there is some powerful ground swell of opposition particularly coming 7:58 from places where he is uh illegally and unconstitutionally putting his extending 8:05 his police state. Right. Can we talk a little bit about the occupation of American of the 8:10 economy? Well, that's all still going on. And he is uh you know he's firing one governor 8:16 of the Federal Reserve Board. Yes. Um and he is putting enormous pressure on the Fed and Jerome Powell. 8:22 Yeah. That's Lisa Cook, right? And Lisa and now interestingly the Supreme Court did authorize him and the 8:29 federal government to uh get rid of independent agency personnel but made 8:35 the exception for the Fed. It understands and the Supreme Court did understand that the Fed needed to be 8:42 independent. Uh but he is disregarding that part of the Supreme Court's decision. I mean this 8:50 of course he is Heather if you made this up. Um I'd rather I would have had a better 8:56 more imaginative it would have been it would have been story incredible. Uh but this is what he is 9:02 now doing. And as he takes over the American economy, it's not just the Fed, it's also these import taxes going by 9:10 the name of tariffs and uh and negotiated by himself. Uh 9:16 part of the negotiations are these countries are all saying we will make investments in the United States. Who's 9:23 going to be in charge of deciding how those investments are organized and where they go? Donald Trump. uh he's 9:30 he's taking a a a big chunk of Intel 10% of Intel as equity for the United 9:38 States. Uh I mean he's he's holding hostage all of these companies basically 9:43 saying unless you do what I want you are not going to be able to function very 9:49 well. And this is a hallmark of a fascist dictator. This is a this is a fascist state. The 9:55 difference between an authoritarian I mean look at China uh China has a vast 10:02 bureaucracy controlling its economy and deciding what companies can or cannot do. That's an authoritarian kind of 10:10 economy. Uh here we have emerging something that is not a vast bureaucracy 10:17 that is telling companies what to do. It is the white house. It's Donald Trump and the people immediately around him 10:23 who are deciding essentially what the rules of the economy are going to be. Right? It's arbitrary. It is 10:29 capriccious. It is one personality. That's no longer an authoritarian. 10:35 That's really a fascist economy. And you talk about this in the book. Can 10:40 we get into the book? I'm so excited about the book. I'm so glad you did. Did you read it? Well, most of it. Of course, I read it. 10:47 Um, but so what I love about it is that it's it feels like a historical take, 10:52 right? But it's through your eyes and where were you when you were processing certain things and here, you know, where 10:59 did you read the Powell memo and where where what did you learn about the hard hat right? What did you do about it? 11:04 You did read the book. I will. Well, uh, the book is organized around this double antandra coming up short. 11:10 I'm obviously Hello short. Uh but it's also about my generation. Born in 1946, 11:18 you know, 10 days before I was born, Donald Trump was born. Uh shortly after I was born, George W. Bush and then Bill 11:26 Clinton, uh then Dolly Parton. Wasn't Sher also born? Sher, you know that I mean this this was 11:32 a big year. U but uh and it was not just that. I mean, we have Clarence Thomas 11:39 born the following year and Hillary Clinton. uh there is a generation I don't want to tar an entire generation 11:46 with the responsibility but Donald Trump is the product not you know he's the 11:52 consequence the the culmination of many decades uh 11:57 in which people who should have been leading this country and I will take 12:03 you know some responsibility for this I tried but I I think I failed and this is a a mere culpit a mere culpa in many 12:11 many respects A mere culprit. A mere culprit. I mean, I uh 12:17 But you dedicated it to your dad. Yes. Which I love. And you talk a lot about who he was and the fact that World War 12:24 II happened, he came out of it, where are we as America? And then 12:29 you take us through this trajectory and the middle class is booming. And then you talk about this Uturn. Tell us about 12:37 the U-turn. Well, the U-turn started to happen. And again, I lived this. I lived through it. 12:42 This is not some abstract history. Um, I saw it. I was at the Federal Trade 12:47 Commission. Um, and I saw that uh no longer were American incomes rising uh 12:56 in tandem with the improvements in the in the productivity of the economy. uh 13:01 you know up from 1946 up until 197879 13:08 the every improvement in the economy was matched by an improvement in the median 13:13 wage now median we're talking about half above half below a good measure for where people are uh but after certainly 13:22 after Ronald Reagan the median wage started to stagnate uh although people 13:28 were still believing in most people were still believing in the social contract. 13:34 Uh you know that if you work hard and you play by the rules and you do everything you possibly can and you 13:39 raise your kids well uh you will do well, you'll do better through your lifetime and your children will do 13:46 better than you. Uh but that social contract began to unravel. 13:51 people began to notice that they were not doing better and better and and workers weren't taking in the 13:59 benefits in the same way that the higherups were. Right. No, the gap was growing. U I mean the 14:05 CEO pay uh when I started to look at this in the 1970s, early 1980s, CEO pay 14:12 was around on average uh 30 to 40 to 50% 14:17 uh or 50 times the typical workers pay. But you get to the '9s and then the 14:23 beginnings of this century and CEO pay starts to take on a whole new life. I 14:30 mean CEO pay now is about 350 times the pay of the typical worker. 14:36 And I are they that much more productive and are they that much more superior and are they no but I do I like reading all 14:43 of you know why did it happen and what where were the particular trends and trickle down economics. There was no 14:50 trickling down. Nothing trickled down. Uh this was the biggest hoax that Ronald Reagan 14:56 perpetrated. Uh and it continued because George W. Bush also big tax cut for 15:01 people at the top. And Trump won big tax cut for people at the top. And now the 15:07 second Trump administration, another big tax cut for people at the top. Uh and it it you finance these tax cuts by either 15:15 excessive deficit and then debts that become huge um or by cutting 15:22 uh programs that people need. Uh I saw this either at the start of the Clinton 15:27 administration. You know, I I knew Bill Clinton very well. He was an old friend. 15:33 We had met when we were 22. Uh and during his 15:38 campaign in 1991, I worked with him and his goal was to 15:44 invest in people in education and job training and infrastructure in all kinds 15:50 of ways that would help the average American adjust to what was rapidly becoming a knowledge economy. Uh but he 15:58 couldn't or he wouldn't. Uh because what happened then was Wall Street was 16:04 getting more and more powerful. Um an ambassador of Wall Street, Bob Rubin 16:10 became uh head of his national economic council. uh and uh Bill Clinton was 16:15 afraid to do this kind of investing uh this public investing for fear that Alan 16:22 Greenspan who was Fed chair at that time would basically say okay interest rates are going to go up and Bill Clinton you 16:30 are not going to become president. What's great about the book is you recreate these conversations that you 16:35 had with Bill Clinton and with Bob Rubin. You talk about financial entrepreneurialism versus product 16:41 entrepreneurialism. I mean, you get into it, but it doesn't read like a textbook. It reads like, well, it was my it really was my life. I 16:48 mean, I I the thing that as I wrote it, uh, I kept on coming back 16:54 to, and it was I honestly it was kind of heartbreaking is that I saw all of this unfold. Um and 17:01 I kept on saying in fact in 1994 um after the Democrats had lost both 17:08 houses of Congress. Uh I I tried to explain it. I said publicly that there 17:14 were so many people who were hurting. The typical American was not getting ahead. Uh there was a two-tiered 17:21 society. Uh inequality was widening. Uh people were angry. Uh and the Democrats 17:28 had to respond. If they didn't, uh, we the road we were on would lead to a 17:33 demagogue. You said that. They said people can be easily manipulated in this situation and 17:39 will be. And when you said it, you got in trouble for doing a speech that wasn't kind of cleared by everyone. 17:46 I I did. Is that right? I did. Uh but um the saddest and heartbreaking aspect to me is that um 17:55 the road we were on was and carried with it the inevitability of somebody like 18:01 Trump. If it hadn't been Donald Trump, it would be another demagogue. I mean, it was uh the Democrats were not 18:07 providing an alternative explanation for what was happening, right? They were not 18:12 saying to average working people, uh, big corporations and wealthy individuals 18:18 are abusing their wealth and power. Uh, and they are making life harder for you, 18:24 right? They're creating benefits for themselves. Uh, the tax cut, tax on labor unions, uh, and on and on. 18:32 And I I guess what I was left with uh in terms of trying not to be pessimistic 18:39 about the future is a sense that we couldn't have stayed on the path we were on. And 18:46 maybe we needed something like and here I'm saying 18:52 you know what I'm saying maybe we needed something like Trump to shake us up uh to to wake us up. uh we were taking 19:00 so much for granted. We were taking democracy, the rule of law of due process, uh uh the economy. We were 19:07 taking it all for granted. Uh and we can't and shouldn't do that. But you don't, this isn't just 19:13 complaining and throwing your hands up. You have concrete solutions about what we can do. Raising the min minimum wage, 19:19 Medicare for all, free public higher education, tax the wealthy in smart, 19:25 savvy ways. And so much of what you talk about is the structure of the economy needs to be made such that it benefits 19:33 the middle class and working people and the poor. That's right. And everybody should be everybody should 19:38 benefit. It's a structure. We have the it's not a free market way out there. No, these are all political decisions. Do this. It is it is policy. 19:44 These are all political decisions. These are policies. Um in other words, you 19:49 went to policy school. I know. You got your master's in public policy. Thank you. I taught you. 19:56 You did when we talked about one class. We we talked about all of this as being 20:02 political decisions that it's not as if the economy is is is out there somewhere, you know, that that it's in a 20:08 cloud that we have no way of doing anything. That that all of these ways in which the economy is organized and politics are organized, we have the power to change it. Yeah. One other section of the book that I love. So, you talked about serving. Oh, I'm so excited. You really did read it. I really did read it. Um, you talk about how you did one term, the first term of President Clinton's presidency. You were there and then you had to make a tough decision after that and you decided, I think I need to spend more time with my family and you talk a little bit about that and talking to your sons, but you had this phrase which is so apt. So, you have two sons and they were teens at the pre-teen at the time, Adam and Sam. And I have a 12-year-old boy. And you describe teenage boys as clams who are always shut except if they need to open for nourishment or to expel dirt. And then you talk about That's right. And they 21:04 and they and they Yeah. And so but if you're not there when they're those clamshells open for nourishment or to expel dirt, then you might as well be on the moon. I mean, you have to just let them open. I know. I love that. when they do, you see this beautiful, you know, this these these pearls, mollisk, I don't know, fleshy, you do. And so, Adam uh and Sam, you know, they got through their teenage years. I did come home. I But by the time I came home, they were late teenagers. And the thing is, you need to prepare yourself because late teenagers don't need you like early. They're late like they didn't come home from school early enough. They may not come from school at all. Late teenagers really do separate. They should separate. That's the way we are designed as human beings. Well, you did and you understand. Yes, I did. Uh but it's hard for parents. I remember I came home expecting that Adam and Sam 22:02 would go, 'We're so happy you're here. Done with that Secretary of Labor stuff. Here I am, boys.' And then and they said, 'Well, we're so glad you're home, Dad. We'll we'll take we'll see you around.' Yeah. I got to go. Well, I'm going to the movies, but I'd say I'll find you sometime. May I please come can see your game? Oh, yeah. You can see the game, but afterwards I'm heading off to dinner. Right. Exactly. Well, I wish I could. No dinner tonight. Sorry. And and I remember Adam at one point um saying I think he was he was a junior in high school. Uh and I said, 'Can we do this together?' And he said, 'Okay, but you better appreciate me while you have me because I only have one more year after this.' He was right. Uh the other thing you say in the book is that the media is our nation's classroom by which we're learning about democracy every day. True, but also scary. Well, it's scary if you have a president who sues the media uh you know with 23:00 defamation these crazy defamation suits against ABC and CBS. Uh and then he also at the same time uh threatens the media and he tells uh you know and we're talking about broadly speaking all the media and this is another hallmark of a dictator right absolutely a lot is that number eight on the list of whatever it is higher on the list I mean you look at the history of dictatorships or fascism or totalitarian regimes and going after the free media the free press is very high on the list. This is something that Thomas Jefferson and uh James Madison and u Did you ever go to Montichello? I did. Oh, it's great. Do you remember when he could get out of bed on either side in his bedroom? He could pick which side and it was right in between the two rooms. I don't remember that. That's interesting that you remember that. Well, you just mentioned Thomas Jefferson. I remember that they were they were slave owners. Oh, that's for sure. And you know the there is at the at the core of American 24:01 history this sin of slavery coupled with a second sin uh of uh basically wiping out native much of native America. Uh and Donald Trump doesn't want that taught. He is saying to the the colleges, the universities, the the museums, the Smithsonian, no, you can't show any of that. But if we don't know our history, uh well then we are as Santana said condemned to repeat it um we have to know our history of course and we have to remedy the wrongs and this is another aspect of fascism totalitarianism that is trying to change history. Donald Trump wants America to forget that there was a basically at his direction an attack on the capital on the 6th of January 2021. Uh he has uh 25:00 you know he has he has pardoned everybody who was part of that 1500 people and elevated them. I mean he's elevated them and then heroes fired all the prosecutors uh who prosecuted them. Um, rewriting history is something that again dictators, totalitarians try to do. He's not going to get away with it, I don't believe. Uh, because dictators always always fail. They always that dictatorships always end. They always overreach. Trump is overreaching already. But in the meantime, there are real dangers, right? And you you had a hopeful substack a couple days ago that was about the fact that the overreach around corporations and the private sector and this state capitalism whatever we want to call it is going to be an undoing of his because because when he owns the economy um you know whether we talk we're talking about his attack on the Fed okay well the Fed is now starting to reduce interest rates because I think in indirectly he is already having an 26:03 effect on the Fed that's what many people think And on top of that, he's got all his tariffs, uh, the import taxes. Uh, and on top of that, he's got his big, uh, tax cut for the wealthy, and on top of that, he's got all of these intrusions he's making in individual companies, well, he owns the American economy. If the American economy continues in the direction it's going, that is toward inflation and also recession um stagflation uh that's something that he is going to be tagged with. He can't help it because once you own the economy, once you take on that much blame Biden for that, you can't blame your your predecessor. We shall see. Well, I I think you know in the long run, Heather, I'm optimistic. I know. And I feel like, can I just pick this book up? Yes, do. I feel like if there's something you'd like to read out loud, please. Well, so what? Here's one of my 27:01 post-its. This was you summarized the great U-turn. America's great U-turn from a growing to a shrinking middle class, from upward mobility for most to soaring wealth for a few, from stakeholder capitalism to shareholder capitalism was occurring with very little public awareness. I think you have these great summarizing sentences and then these terrific stories. I also like that it's short chapters. Ah, you and Barack Obama. You and Barack Obama right there. Right there. It has some great photos and I kind of want to read the last line, but that's I think what's called a spoiler. I'm so pleased. I do like the book. I'm really pleased. Why did you think I didn't like the book? Well, I like your movie, too. Oh. Oh, it's going to This is what we're going to do. It's going to be Well, I want I just want to say I like this last picture of you teaching. You'll have to see it. You'll have to buy it to see it. Well, the teaching is the segue because I I think that u the movie The Last Class Elliot Kersner directed, you produced uh is just making record record 28:00 breaking showings around America. And I actually love the people. I just saw someone on Blue Sky say, 'I'm twothirds of the way through the book. I just saw the movie.' And I Rich, you know, says it like it is. It was like a very I like that the two pieces of content, as we say in the biz, were being woven together because that's kind of what is meant to be. I mean, it makes sense. Well, also the the movie is upbeat. Mhm. Um I mean it's there's a sadness about it. But as I watch it uh and watched it, I I kind of I felt that those students, my students, the students who are really now going into their senior year, um they are the future. They are the future of America. Um and they have the right values. They're dedicated to the right things by and large. I you know generalizations again generalizations about a generation don't don't make much sense but I have seen a difference I've been teaching for 43 29:01 years and uh the students in recent years are are even more publicspirited than they were uh decades ago there what does that mean more aware of the common good and fighting for it yes they're more aware of the importance of fighting for the common good and I think this again is a little bit of the silver lining of of Trump. Uh I mean he has made people so aware of uh the the actual benefits that we've gotten as Americans, the the structure uh of the economy, the structure of our politics, the the ways in which the system is actually organized u and why we have to preserve the good parts of it and why we have to uh basically change the parts that are that are hurting people, right? And uh and students get it. They they get it and they they um no generation I've taught has has understood it as profoundly and it's great. So what the film does is it shows you teaching. So we can see that also you can watch wealth and 30:05 poverty the actual course on YouTube. So that's available for free. But this shows you teaching the course and thinking about teaching the course. And that's what I think Elliot captured so beautifully is these the side processing you do around the classroom about when to retire and what the world is looking like. I mean, and there so this film is in 104 theaters across the United States and that includes DC and that's 34 states we're in plus two provinces in Canada. Um, it's an international film. Well, not quite yet, but so this is the model we're using. It's kind of like why we're here in Pegasus Bookstore on Solano Avenue in Berkeley. We are supporting independent local theaters with a theatrical run. We want it to be in these local theaters, show of vibrancy, have people come in and feel solidarity in person with other community members. Um, and so that phase of it is going so much longer than we expected. So everyone keeps saying, 31:01 'When is it streaming?' Well, if it weren't doing so well in the theaters and people weren't knocking on the door and wanting to see it again, so 90% of theaters that have shown it have extended it and offered it more than once. Wow. 90%. Cuz they said, 'Oh, people showed up. People are into it. Our community likes it. We're selling popcorn. Let's keep going.' Well, it's fascinating. I mean, independent theaters, I thought they were gone. Well, a lot of them are, but a lot of them are not. And a lot of them are nonprofits. Um, a lot of them do a range of, you know, music and um, movies. I mean, it's been f I didn't know anything about this, but it's fascinating. It's like independent bookstores like Pegasus. Um, you know, our communities depend on opportunities for people to come together to learn from each other, to to read. Um, and these independent bookstores and independent art theaters and other uh other arenas where people can come together are so critically 32:02 important. Social cohesion particularly at a time like this, right? When if we are just individuals, we're just atomized. Um, we don't understand what's at stake and we feel powerless and we feel alone. Yeah. People have to know that they are not alone. that they are not powerless. Uh that most people feel as they do uh and that they can exercise their power. Yeah. So you can go to the lastclassfilm.com to find a screening near you. The lastclassfilm.com. Uh also people are starting to bring the show the movie to their own neighborhoods. You can do that by hosting a screening. And I'll just tell you the next phase of things will be community screenings where people can host it for book groups, you know, at local um coffee shops, that kind of thing. So, that's coming next. And then after that will be video on demand where you can get it on your laptop. And then after that, we'll see if any streamers come knocking at the door. Well, streamers always come knocking at the door. Do they though? Well, I mean, some of 33:05 them you might have to slam the door in their face or not answer it. I'm not sure. Heather, I just want to tell you how lovely it is to see you again. It's so fun to be in a book. Where should we go next? Well, I don't know. Where do you think we should go next? I I just want to say a few things to everybody. Uh because um we've talked about some of the scariest stuff you can imagine in terms of the expansion of Trump's fascism, the expansion of his attempts to rob America of our freedoms, to impose martial law, uh to uh make it more difficult for people to learn what's going on, uh taking over our museums, our universities, and and and and every other aspect of of public life. Yes, that's going on. Uh and there is room to be absolutely appalled and outraged and depressed by all of this. But um 34:04 Heather, what we've been talking about is is is is opportunities for people to come together to understand basically what we are all in and up against. Uh and whether it's uh reading my book or it's seeing the movie uh or it's doing a thousand other things uh that recognize your power as citizens and our duties to one another as members of this same society. So rather than end on a downer uh I want to end on this upbeat note. Can I read the 10 things you put in your Substack? Well, you can. Sure. If Democrats got off their butts, here's what they'd be doing right now. And these are things we all can do. Don't let Trump get away with his lies. Plan and announce ways to catch up with what we've lost on the environment, human rights, voting rights, labor rights, and safety nets. Three, lay out a vision for 35:03 the future. Four, tell us what you do to prevent this catastrophe from ever happening again. This is going to be very important, I think, when it comes to the next election. Five, mount an independent investigation. Again, this is to Dems, but we can all be supporting all of these efforts, right? Number six, join the International Criminal Court. Number seven, create a digital safe haven for whistleblowers and defectors. That's a big one. Eight, aim at the real culprits. Who's that? The corporations. the big corporations and wealthy people that are basically using and misusing their wealth and power in ways that hurt a lot of other people. Hurt people and corrupts our politics. Um, and then number nine, was it nine, not 10? Take back Congress in 2026. Very critically important. Thank you, Heather, for all of that. Uh, and thank you all of you. We'll see you next Saturday. [Music]

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