TrueValueMetrics ... Impact Accounting for the 21st Century

Date: 2026-03-04 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00029297

COMMMENTARY THE COFFEE KLATCH ... DECEMBER 13TH, 2025 with Robert Reich, Heather Lofthouse plus Vishal Shankar and Katie Milm Trump’s Rats Flee the Ship PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8av0BowDjA
Trump’s Rats Flee the Ship \| The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Robert Reich 1.4M subscribers Premiered 2 hours ago ... December 13th 2025 The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich The Republican revolt. More Epstein revelations. A corrupt mega-movie merger. Join us on this week’s Coffee Klatch, featuring two special guests, to dive into the week’s biggest stories. Support Inequality Media Civic Action today and get your very own Coffee Klatch mug: https://store.inequalitymediacivicact... The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess Transcript 0:00 And it is the Saturday coffee clutch with Heather Loft House. Hello Heather. Thank you for being with us. Uh and yours truly Robert Rush and two special guests today from Inequality Media Civic Action. Vishal Shankar. Nice to be here. Vish, good to have you. Vish is from Madison, Wisconsin. And we have also Katie Milm. Katie, great to have you here. Thank you. And Katie is from Austin, Texas. We thought we'd kind of fill up the ranks uh in this holiday season of the country, right? the middle part of the country. So you guys are representing everybody else. We're representing real Americans. It's a lot of pressure. Not the coastal. Um so Heather, what are we going to talk about today? Well, first of all, so excited to have these terrific colleagues on and get your brain on things. Your brains on things. So what a difference a year makes. Let's talk about what has changed in the past year. Um let's talk about the Republican crackup. what's happening. Uh, and Trump is losing his control over the Republican party and reality. We know that. And then let's talk about the 1:04 economy and what people are able to afford this holiday season. And also how we're all feeling. We are to do that. I'm okay because as I'm thinking about what a different what the year a year ago Trump had just been elected. We were having these thoughts, you know, is this going to be forever? Is this what America is like? Look at the Latino vote. Have we lost? You know, the Dems have lost all these things. And now I see cracks. We see cracks. And it's it's it's the crack up. It's the Republican. It is a bigger crackup than I expected, honestly. Um I mean, the Republicans in Congress had been so loyal to Trump and were so afraid of his abilities to primary them and to intimidate them and and every other way. and they're now in revolt. Yeah. And there are a few examples from this week. Which one do you want to start with? Well, this is this was a big week in terms of the history of the Republican 2:04 party, Vish. Yeah. I mean, we can go to my favorite topic of all time, which is elections. This is our election correspondent over here. Um, another banner week for the Democrats. Uh, they flipped Did you say Bannon week? Oh god. We'll get to that later. Um, banner week for the Democrats. They flipped the mayorship of Miami. Uh Miami has not had a Democratic mayor in close to 30 years. I believe longer than I've been alive. You know, we don't have to get the age issue already. I mean, you guys are are what generation Z. I'm I'm by technicality Gen Z. I'm I'm still a millennial. I'm still I made it in at the very last cut off. But the point is that it's 50 years difference between you and me and you and me and only 30 between us which means 10 between no 20 Wait a minute. Back to Miami. We have a 3:00 Democrat elected mayor in Miami. I mean this is staggering given Miami's history. Given uh you know the the Cuban Republicans. Yeah. This this is Dantis land. I mean, this should be setting up a five alarm fire for the Republicans, not just Miami. We had in in Georgia, right? New swing state, Georgia. State House seat that Trump won last year by 13 percentage points went to the Democrats. Wow. Well, there does seem to be kind of a 13% uh gap, right? I mean, the the Democrats are moving toward uh the Republicans. Uh voters are moving toward the Democrats. uh a lot of these places where where Trump had been uh you know way way ahead in 2024 the Democrats are closing that gap and 13% seems to be kind of the the median right in terms of what Democrats are doing. What does this mean about 2026? I mean this is capping off a horrible year for the Republicans at the ballot box. I mean I'm from Wisconsin. I 4:03 remember very well in Where are you from? The greatest state in the country. Jeez. Cheese. Exactly. Um, yeah, in April, I mean, we had that big Supreme Court race. That was really the big first time you saw this backlash to Trump manifesting at the ballot box. Remember Elon Musk spending ungodly sums of money to try and win this race. That feels like forever ago. We have another one coming up next year, by the way. Stay tuned. Election season never ends in Wisconsin. That's all they do. They It's cows and elections. Yep. We just love voting. It's a national past. But but this is a big big deal because if the 2026 elections follow the pattern that we are we are seeing and it's not just the elections this week obviously it's a it's been the pattern the entire year. Uh that 13point margin is going to deliver both the house and the senate. Now this is a big if but it could very easily deliver both houses of congress to the democratic party. It puts a lot of key swing seats in play. Maybe even seats previously 5:03 thought to be safe red or leaning red. Uh I mean there are probably a lot of Republicans panicking right now that oh you know even states like Texas gerrymandered. Could this be a dummy mander? Could a blue wave come in and and wash all these people out? Well, this is this is interesting because it's the Republican panic and even the panic of Republicans in Congress that may explain what has been happening in Congress, right? And also, can we talk about Indiana two days ago? Indiana two days ago. Vish, take it away. So, I think a lot of people thought that Indiana, the state senate was going to rubber stamp what the state house did, pass these new gerrymandered maps. Uh, very surprising development. They did not. Uh, the state senate rejected it. This is after enormous pressure from Trump, the national Republicans, even the governor, Republican governor of Indiana. Uh, and I mean I think it goes back to how you conceive of politics a lot of times, Bob, is it's it's about bullying. A lot of these state Republican senators looked at this pressure and said, 'I'm tired of being pushed around by the bullying chief.' 6:03 But that begs the question, why haven't they been rebelling against the bullying up till now? I mean, we've had 10 and a half months of bullying. I I think I have an answer, which is that for a lot of these Republican senators, they are fine with the Republican agenda. They're fine with Trump until it affects them personally. What does that mean though, their constituents? So, there was one state senator from Indiana where uh she was talking about uh she has a grandson and her grandson and his friends were getting text messages talking about their grandmother and saying that oh, she'd better vote for the new maps. There was another state senator who did not like the way that Trump was talking about Tim Walls when he went on his infamous rant because he has a daughter with Down syndrome. uh for them it it really doesn't become real until it hits home for them personally. So it hit home. We're talking again this is Indiana. These are state senators, Republicans and Republicans. But we also saw a revolt in Congress among Republicans 7:01 this past week. I mean are they revoling against the same bullying? And if so, is it hitting home for them personally? And how much is Epstein? Epstein too. Yes. This is the key. I think for them they're looking at a lot of the polling and the special elections and they are saying Trump is unpopular across the board. His economy is flailing. He's losing GOP base support on the Epstein stuff. So, you know, if I'm in a swing district, if I'm someone like uh like Mike Lawler, I'm saying I I need to break away from this guy. I need to save my own ass in 2026. Saving your own ass in 2026. There it is. That's the personal that's the personal connection. Also, Marjorie Taylor Green, interestingly, I mean, she broke. I would not have predicted that. And do you think she is allowing other people to break away? I think so because obviously you have these like big names like Thomas Massie collaborating with Roana for this Epstein discharge petition. And then Mike Johnson has totally lost control of the House and it's almost like the body 8:00 is governing by discharge petitions, not passing bills. I mean, just yesterday, um, the Republican controlled House passed one about restoring union rights to 1 million federal workers. Very bipartisan. There's another one Thursday, right? Yeah. Just earlier this week. There's another one about banning congressional stock trading floating around. I mean, there's so many. So I think exactly what you're saying, Vish, they see the writing on the wall with, you know, the New Jersey governorship with the um the other Virginia governorship and and Florida and the and all of the all of the cities. But here's the thing, they are abandoning ship because they feel like Trump is not going to deliver for them in 2026. What is Trump's response? I think he's just doubling down on lying and being insane. I mean, he was just in Pennsylvania earlier this week talking about how affordability is a hoax. It's a con job, which is how all of the Democrats won by talking about the cost of living crisis, affordability, 9:02 electric bills, where his policies are making all of these things worse. And so, he's just doubling down and saying, 'Oh, I get my gold ballroom, but you don't need dolls. You don't need pencils.' So, I think he's just going to dig in even more. So, I wanted to ask you, Heather, about this affordability business because I mean, if if this is the core reason that Trump is losing ground and the Republicans are bailing out at the state level and at the federal level, uh, is this real? I mean, is it I mean, how Trump says it's not real. Trump says no, there is no affordable. Well, there isn't for him. So, it's not real for him. But I think now we are seeing where I mean the doll's comment is is so cynical and disrespectful and I think so much is happening this week in terms of the ACA and the fact that premiums are going through the roof. People are not renewing. But people already know that their premiums are going through the roof. 10:02 Right? This is December. The premiums don't start in until January, but they're already signing up and they already see for not signing up for not signing up. Right. And this week, the Democrats did try uh in the Senate to get uh those subsidies back, right? They couldn't get enough votes, but I was struck by how many Republicans joined the Democratic senators. Yes. And getting that and I mean, they couldn't get the 60. They needed 60 to overcome the filibuster, but um they uh it it was very interesting that the Republicans, a number of Republicans really did join the Democrats. Um, but they couldn't get anything through the house either. Right. Right. Can I ask you though? So, here we are. I feel like we can all get so myopic and I've been so anxious as has everyone or a lot of people over the past year. But you've been more experienced and I mean that with all respect in terms of watching power shifts, right? 11:04 Yes. I've watched it since really McKinley and Right. I mean, it's it's that shift. I mean I was amazed but I think we were and this is we are not out of the water and things are still terrible but it's so watching this is it a blue wave that's coming. Do you have examples in the past where you've seen the electorate look to be going one way every midterm election every midterm election is a referendum on past election and on the president who won in the past election. Uh but this one is even a bigger referendum because you have Republicans in control of the House and the Senate and the White House and arguably the Supreme Court. So if things are not going well for average people and the major issue for most people all the time in every election is how much are things costing and how are my wages doing in terms of what's what the price 12:00 of living is and the cost of living is then the party who has power is going to be blamed if people feel like they are in trouble and that's exactly what's happening now. I mean I think that's the the big story. Uh, you know, we can a lot of people don't like Trump's personality, but that's not it. A lot of people are upset about his, you know, his foreign policy. A lot of isolationists don't like the fact that he's what he's doing in Venezuela. Uh, but that's not it. The real issue is prices and wages, but so much has needed to be done around inequality. We haven't reckoned with everything yet. And this is an example where we get to, right? I mean, speaking of immigration and there when is the last big immigration policy that was passed? Is it Reagan? Uh, well, we had the biggest one was 1965, right? But so, you remember that? Yes. I the reason I stay hopeful and I love these coffee clutches is because it's a reminder 13:01 that there is that there we can get out of this and longer longer trends and that he wants us to feel powerless and he wants us to feel like there's no way out and he's you know he was it was a mandate. It was not a mandate. We've been saying this for a year and we're seeing it. But this is also the emperor's news new new clothes phenomenon. I mean, no. Emperor Emperor has no clothes. Emperor has no clothes. Phenomen because you've got you've got you've got a president who really created and desperately created the impression and he certainly felt it in his head that he was uh indomitable, that there was nothing that could conquer him, that he was, you know, he was the king. Uh and I think it's all you all this week especially you see uh the little children around America saying the emperor has no clothes. I mean the Trump really doesn't have anything. Uh he he he's just blow a blowhard bloating. 14:02 He's a bloating blowhard. Um, and as a result of that, and particularly when you get to prices and wages, the stuff that, you know, kitchen table economics that people really are worried about, you can't you can't get away from it. If Trump says people are terrific, people are well off, you know, but people prices are going are not, you know, prices are going down. People know that that's a lie. On average, know it's a lie. Yeah. And on average, these items that everyone want to buy buy for Christmas, so Century Foundation, EPI, and Groundwork Collaborative, also data for progress, they're doing all these studies and all this polling and all this reporting. Prices are up by 26% on the most of the average stuff we we want to buy for the holidays. Since Trump was elected, now remember, he was elected on getting prices down. his biggest criticism of the Biden administration that stuck, including a 15:01 lot of people who were independents and and a lot of people who were Democrats who changed their their voting patterns was pricing prices and wages. U I think another big piece of this is that if prices went up, but wages went up faster than prices went up, right, people wouldn't be as concerned. But the fact is that wages have gone almost nowhere for most people and healthcare is going through the roof and everyone can afford stuff. We're being told to buy fewer things. I mean, and so interestingly, so this past Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so a year ago, the wealthier families were spending less and the poorer families were spending more. And now that has switched. So, I think people are feeling the squeeze and they are saying four out of five people are saying nearly four out of five, this is Trump's fault. This is Trump's fault. And so, people are going to pull from their savings, which is horrific. They're going to buy fewer things. They're going to have fewer people over for the holidays. They're going to buy fewer fewer people gifts. I 16:05 mean, they're just having to adjust in all these ways. this like this shift where the economy is starting to depend on the wealthy spending. It's actually really dangerous and fragile because 70% of the economy relies on consumer spending and wealthy people, they have all this wealth and money, but they still only buy like the same amount of groceries, the same amount of mattresses, the same amount of this. So, it actually makes our economy really weak and fragile and susceptible to totally collapsing. Katie, this is a very important uh point because uh in years past, I mean the the old standard was that the richest 10% were responsible for about a third of total spending. Now the richest 10% are responsible for half Oh wow. of total spending which makes the economy very fragile because that richest 10% the reason they feel confident enough to spend even though the economy is not all that great uh is because the stock market has done well but you guys know as well as I do the 17:05 stock market is doing well because of what AI fumes I mean that's basically it y um also you can only buy so many jets Gulf Streams right one would hope one would hope I mean I Three. I'm I'm hoping for a fourth. Yeah. Could you guys pitch in? No. Fewer pencils, fewer jets, fewer dolls. Maybe. It's interesting you say that because the super rich are doing better than ever. And it's funny that maybe a reason that Trump thinks everybody's doing better is because he's making life better for his super rich friends. I mean, a key example of that is everybody's talking about this proposed Netflix deal with Warner Brothers, $72 billion, and then also Paramount Sky Dance proposing their hostile bid that Trump, who Paramount's run by his his bestie, Larry Ellison, and now he's saying, 'Oh, I'm going to be personally involved in this. CNN needs to be totally overhauled, which Bob, have you 18:03 ever seen this level of like blatant interference in independent regulatory agencies?' No. Which is why it's very it's very interesting that this week the Supreme Court had arguments about whether independent regulatory agencies should basically stay independent. I I think it's all coming together. Um and it's coming together in a way that is revealing to the public uh that it's about power and it's about the power of the people at the top. Uh Donald Trump wants to control not just all of government. Mhm. He wants the control of all of the economy because he wants to be able to basically penalize those companies and those media corporations that are criticizing him like CNN. That's really a key factor in the the the contest over Can you imagine? I mean he's so narcissistic and selfish. Also, he wants to control the world. Also, he wants to control women. I mean, the list is long. 19:01 I mean, he wants to control everything. we are dealing with a a a cockeyed you know malicious narcissist but when you're dealing with malignant narcissism there is no end there there's no end so instead of but what encourages me quite honestly is that uh Trump is not going to change I mean he he's shameless but what is changing is all the forces around Trump right uh now the Supreme Court unfortunately I can't count on the federal courts under the Supreme Court are doing a terrific job, right? Uh and Congress, Congress, particularly the Republicans of Congress are beginning just beginning to stand up to him. But on these mergers, the whole way we've defined the rule of law and governance is that this one man is not supposed to be able to say, 'I'm going to help make that dec I'm in on that decision.' I mean, there has to be a nonpartisan interpretation. Exactly. And you've been FTC, where have you not 20:04 been? I've been everywhere. You've been but I for 5 years I was, you know, head of policy at the Federal Trade Commission. Uh this was in the last century. But uh you know the the point is that unless you have independent regulatory agencies, uh there is no check. Uh unless you have a Supreme Court that is willing to check the president's power uh but this Supreme Court has given him basically a a pass. uh you know there what what he wants is total power. What the Republicans are beginning to do beginning just beginning. Let's not assume that they're going to really be in revolt against him. But they're beginning to say no we have got to establish our own power base because we can't count on him in the midterms. This is the this is the key. This is the key to everything that's going on right now. Now we also have Larry Ellison 21:02 and a centa billionaire. Let's remind everyone that's a hundred billion dollars to become a centillionaire. But he has over 200 million. The richest man in the entire world. Well, the I know the richest man. Do you know? Oh, yes. Elon Musk, your bestie. Oh, but you know you know him. Well, I don't know him personally, but we one would hope not. Coffee clutch next week. We correspond. We correspond. Um, but I I think the point is that the billionaire class is the other factor in all of this. Uh, and the billionaire class got behind Trump obviously because he promised to reduce their taxes and big corporations got behind Trump along with the billionaire class because he promised to reduce corporate taxes. But right now, I think the billionaire class is nervous. So, can I just remind everyone that the Washington Post this past week, this White House has a net worth of 390 billion, wealthiest in modern history. Now, that's 12 billionaires, not including Trump, have held roles in in the Trump 22:02 administration. That's crazy. 12 billion. Billionaires. Now, remember, a billion, what did you say? Centillion is a hundred billion. Yeah. A trillion is a thousand billion. Well, we're not talking about trillionaires yet. Yeah. momentarily. Musk is on the way. Uh, but you know, all of this seems to be catching up with Trump. Are we being too optimistic or is Trump going to pull some big deflection strategy, some big diversion? Yes and yes. I mean no and no. I mean no and yes. We're not being too optimistic. And yes, he's going to pull a big How big a deal is Epstein in all of this? We haven't mentioned it. I'm glad you're asking me. Um, oh, I think it's a huge deal. I think it's a huge deal. It's actually even bigger than I thought it would be. I mean, I knew that people said we kn we've talked about this, right? There are QAnon theories. There's pedophilia is the one of the I mean, a horrific, if not the most horrific violation of humanity, 23:03 right? And I think it's been played up. And so now the man who said, 'I'm releasing the Epstein files and went in with, you know, Dems or pedophiles and blah blah blah.' And now he's being called out and he had to flip-flop. He had to say, 'Well, you don't need the file. Okay, fine. We'll let out the files, you know, even though they're all going to be redacted.' This is hurting him and it's great. How is it hurting him? I mean, the files have not been released yet, but something is being released. I mean the there is this undercurrent and the and congressional committees oversight committees are releasing pieces uh and this peace meal approach to releasing the files is it's great. Yeah. They're like drip drip drip. It keeps the story in the news. It's scarcity. You're like there's 95,000 photos and we were just shown 40 new ones this week. And so what else is there? And what's does the emperor have no clothes? Like what is what is he hiding? And then 24:03 was naked. I mean I mean for sure. Um but oh I think this is a big problem and it'll be interesting to see if Gilen Maxwell is pardoned. I think there are more pieces of it that are going to come up obviously in the coming months. And I do think that a lot of Republicans So I think it's um Did you mention the um dis discharge position about federal workers too? Yeah. So I think people are constituents are mad about a lot of things right now. I think they're mad about federal employees being shafted. I think they're mad about the economy and I think Epstein is on the list for a lot of people about it feels disingenuous from the most disingenuous person. But if you thought he was genu genuine on a lot of stuff and including this and then he moves on this particular one. So let's let's talk about just Michael Johnson for a second. Uh why is he still there as speaker of the house? I mean if he's facing a revolt by all these members of Congress, you know how many people want that job? 25:05 Can you I mean it's been bad in the past. No, but but we we are hearing from more and more Republicans in the House that he's not listening to them, that he's not consulting with them, uh that he's bas basically rubber stamping everything Trump wants. And what we've concluded is that a lot of Republicans are worried about the midterms. They don't want to be dependent on Trump. So why is Michael Johnson still speaker? Because Trump wants him there. Yeah. Done. Do you have any thoughts? Um perhaps we're being a bit too confident that Mike Johnson will still be speaker. Oh. So, what do you have any predictions? Yeah. What's our timeline? Oh, um, well, I mean, the key thing is just how razor thin this House majority is. It's what, like five seats. I I mean, again, they've got to be panicking. I I wanted to to to quickly say on the mergers and all of these crackups that we're seeing in the Republican party as we head into the midterm year, this is an opportunity for Democrats to show not only what they are 26:04 against, but what they stand for. Are we going to have more of the same corporate Democrats who brought us into this mess? Or are we going to have people who boldly stand against APAC, crypto, the AI industry who fight for Medicare for all and progressive priorities? Well, this is interesting because uh it seems to me that not only is the Republican party crap uh cracking up um but also the Republic the Democratic party has a civil war going on, which is an old one. I've been part of this civil war for many years. You do have the corporate and Wall Street Democrats and then you do have the let's call them the Zoran Mandani Democrats for the sake of you know bringing it up to date. Uh what what what are we seeing? What is going on in the Democratic party and if the Democrats are going to really that is the non-corporate Democrats the progressive Democrats are going to 27:00 prevail what would they be doing now? What would they be saying now? I think a huge one is taking on corporate power. I mean, something that kind of gets lost in the affordability discussion is you can't just bring people up from the bottom up and increase their power from the bottom up. You need to decrease power from the top down. And that starts with curbing corporate power. Because when these giant mergers go through, workers lose power. They lose bargaining power at the table because they can't just leave and go find another job because their whole industry is owned by one or two companies. Consumers lose power. I mean, if this Netflix deal or the Paramount deal goes through, you can bet that all of our streaming services are going to get shot up. We're going to lose a lot of amazing shows that we love, we're going to have no control over like what we want to watch. So, I think something that is key is taking on corporate power. And Lena Khan was so fantastic at doing this at the Federal Trade Commission. Exactly. So taking on corporate power, what you're saying, I think, is that what the Democrats should be pushing is antirust, anti- monopoly, of really 28:04 busting up these big corporations at the same time as other things, right? Pro-worker policies. Well, pro- labor union policy. This is something, you know, I remember in the Clinton administration, I was secretary of labor. Very hard to get. Oh my gosh, I had no idea. Well, it goes back. This was early 19th century. Uh but you know, labor uh organized labor is something that the Democrats used to be very much behind, but they don't talk about it anymore. I mean, you know, the the Democrats, the corporate and the financial, Wall Street Democrats don't want to talk about labor unions. And I know and all our consumer financial protections are right. Look, look, I look, I'm sure Larry Summers will chime in on it anytime. Oh, God. Thank you very much. I do these days. Thanks for that. But but let's stick to this and I think it's a very important issue right now. Katie, you're saying what the Democrats want to do is not just be opposed to Trump. They've got to have an 29:04 affirmative, let's call it a an affordability uh pledge, an affordability message, an affordability platform. Y uh and one key plank is labor unions. Another key plank is anti- monopoly, antirust. What else? How about a minimum wage going up? Anybody? Well, last federal minimum wage wage increased was 2009. The minimum wage is still $725. $7.25 an hour. Yeah. How can you How can anybody live on $725 an hour? You can't. Obviously, you can't. So, yes. Raising the minimum wage to what what should the Democrats be advocating? I think at this point with inflation especially how it's increased in so much I think at least 20 maybe even 25 especially in certain cities where the cost of living is soaring I mean but 30:02 obviously higher than $725 even a latte in Berlin exactly it but it needs to be phased up right and it needs to be carefully designed policy where it's more in certain certain places and it's phased up higher in certain places I mean it's not one sizefits-all so $25 5 or more increasing overtime. Okay, those are so we have three planks of the Democratic platform. But what do we do about Trump's tariffs? Get rid of them. Get rid of all the tariffs. Well, tariffs can be used to increase American manufacturing and bring jobs back on shore, but not when they're enacted so chaotically and through like a personal vendetta, you know, just on a whim. Oh, slapping ch tariffs on China, but oh, Apple, you're exempted because you brought me a gold statute, you know. Well, manufacturing employment, let's be clear, has not increased under Trump. In fact, it's decreased under Trump for all this discussion about tariffs or the reason he wants to do it is to bring back manufacturing to America. What he has to show at the end of well 10 and a 31:06 half almost 11 months is zilch. Bupus as you would as you like to say. Um, one thing though, and I'm sorry I keep bringing it back to this, but I think what we're seeing with all the elections that Vish was talking about is that I know we are hyperartisan in a way we never have been. We can look at, you know, you can talk about yourself being hyperartisan, right? I'm so hyper and also partisan. Um, and that's with decaf, but I think what matters is we are seeing that it's actually thinner than Trump wants to make it. It's actually people do there is a common fairness that we are returning to in the voting booths, right? A sense people want better wages. And so that is what I'm hopeful for for the midterms and beyond is that it's not we can't give in to so much that he's trying to make reality and trying to say is inevitable and is trying No, not at all. Not at all. I think people are like this is not fair 32:03 and fairness matters. I think you're right. I think there is a basic deep American value with with with point with with Yes. Yes. Yes. You know what we have these from? Sorry to interrupt. These are from when we did the live watch alongs of the debates of the presidential debates which this one PTSD. I think Kla Harris did a fabulous job in her debate. You're talking about the Biden Trump debate. Look, I I think this is this is this is critical and fairness is bedrock. Um, but I think that behind the notion of fairness is also help. I mean, I can't afford a house. I mean, you guys, your generation, we're screwed. Do you want to be more specific about it? I mean, I mean, I talk to people who are in their 20s. Uh, and you are, you know, you guys, how are you ever going 33:02 to afford a house? How are you ever going to afford really a family? I mean, seriously, I'm I'm I I think that this is the kind of issue that if the Democrat Democrats have got to talk about. We have never had so much wealth at the top. We have never had a middle class that is so squeezed. We've never had a working class that is actually declining going down the true the tubes. If the Democrats say this is what we're going to do about housing, this is what we're going to do about about health care. This is what we're going to be about we have paid family leave. Look at the contests around the country where Democrats have won and the Democrats are saying affordability, affordability, affordability. Look at look at Mumani. You know, here's what I'm going to do about housing. Here's what I'm going to do about transportation. here's what I'm going to do about child care. He's talking bread and butter issues. This is what the Democrats need to be doing coming up to the midterms. But if so on but I hate to keep thinking 34:04 about this, but so this is the most egregious, disgusting, corrupt presidency I think we've ever had. So if Paramount goes through, Jared Kushner, who is his son-in-law, is one of the big investors at the table, right, for this and Trump is deciding to make his family wealthier, wealthier, not only is he and you know where some of the money is coming from. Again, we're talking about the Ellison's and we're talking about Saudi Arabia Saudi Saudi Arabia and I mean these are this is all the money that is going into the Trump family business. But so if that passes and happens people and we explain it and I think people already are getting it but that is the most egregious. You cannot have that done. That is some real regal tyrannical corrupt ridiculousness. Well, the the question we're now talking 35:03 about, we're debating is whether the abstract notion of corruption and unfairness is more important to people than they can't afford to have a house. They can't afford to have child care. They can't afford the basics that they need. I think the affordability or not be able to afford I think that's the biggest issue. I don't think I don't think it's an either or. I think it's an and both. I mean this corruption feeds into the affordability crisis because everybody is watching these billionaires get richer and richer. I mean the 10 richest billionaires added 700 billion dollars to their wealth since Trump has been back in the White House. And people see that. They see Elon Musk getting this massive pay package to become the world's first trillionaire. So, I think it's not a matter of, oh, should we focus on corruption? Should we focus on affordability? It's one and the same because if this Paramount deal goes through or if the Netflix deal goes through, workers are going to lose their 36:02 jobs. Unions are going to lose some of their bargaining power, consumers are going to see their streaming prices grow up go up. So, it's the corruption is feeding the affordability crisis. So I think uh combination of those messages can be really powerful. Tell us about the time you went across the country and asked people who they were going to vote for in 2016. Oh, in 2016 I was in Missouri or Missouri depending upon where you are in the in the state and in the Carolinas. I was in Dakota. I was in all actually all over the Midwest uh and the rust belt. And people said to me, and I had these kind of informal, you know, discussions with lots of people. Um, and I was writing a book at the time, as I always am. I know. Um, and people I I kind of asked people, well, who are you interested in? Now, this is actually at the end of 2015. This is be before the election uh year. 37:00 And people said, well, we're interested in two people. Uh, one is Bernie Sanders and I said great. And the same people who said Bernie Sanders also said Donald Trump. And I remember sitting there in these, you know, free floating focus groups. I'd say, why Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump? Why are you even putting them in the same sentence? And a lot of people said, because they they'll shake things up. They're not typical politicians. They're authentic. They they say what they mean. So to me that means it's both affordability. It's the economy stupid kitchen table blah blah blah but also the fairness issue big time the larger picture. It's both and I think you and Katie I'm coming around to your point of view. Thank you. Cheers. Um because yes maybe you can't separate you can't separate the two. No I think you have to separate the two but I think it's both critically important and it's I think they are different just the economy. Um okay what else? Have we covered all this? This has been 38:00 so fun. But this our biggest coffee clutch. Well, then it is a big coffee clutch, but I think we there's another big issue and that is your movie. Oh, thank you for that segment. I mean, that's top of the news. Can I show So this So the East Bay Express got Don't do that. No, I'm doing it because it's selfish for me. They um Lou Fanter, who's a great um uh journalist, did an article on you, but they pulled um they pulled the poster from that's you teaching your class. It's so great. So, this past week, I want to say thank you. I think we all do. For everyone who showed up, where am I talking? There showed up to watch with us, which was real nerdy fun. Our film, The Last Class. Elliot Kersner directed it. I produced it. Inequality Media Civic Action funded it and it was so fun. 37,000 of you at one point were watching with us and we were in a little corner in upper square and the movie was going. So many of you watched it on your phone. So many 90 year olds watched it. We did 39:04 a survey of how old were you? 90y old including 90 90 year olds. But so we had the full gamut. We had um 11 to 99 were the the ages of people that watched it. and it was so heartening and inspiring to have people writing in. So, thank you all for joining us. It's still in theaters. I think we should do another watch along. I think we should just watch along everything. It's a Wonderful Life. What else can we watch along? Well, if you believe that we should do or if you if you are in favor of doing another watch along of Heather's movie. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, it's not my movie and Yeah. The lastclassfilm.com is where you go to sign up and you the lastclassfilm.com is where you go. Give us your email address and you'll get we don't we don't bombard you too much. Well, Heather, I want to thank you for all of your work. What about that? We also one other thing we got this we had this fabulous video come in from this group of people that 40:03 watched the wealth and poverty course. They rented out their local libraryies classroom and they watched it for 14 weeks. Wait a minute. Did they watch the movie? They watched the movie as well, but we got the video yesterday that said, 'We just finished the class. We feel like we graduated. We should send them a certificate, I'm sure.' Um, and they said, 'It's free online. We got a whole bunch of people together. We've had discussions after every class. So, now we've not only seen the movie, but we've been able to take this class, and we can't believe it was free online.' And so, Wealth and Poverty, you Google it. It's on YouTube. It's on Substack. It's on inequality.org, or the website and so the offering the course I think is so important because the movie focuses more on education teaching your feelings about retirement and it's that angle but then the course is available right now for everyone to take 14 classes 14 sessions each of them an hour and a half and it's completely free this is this is free higher education 41:02 it is and the syllabus is on our website um as well inequality.org So you can do the readings. Listen, again, I want to thank Heather. Let's toast Heather for her leadership, inequality media and inequality media civic action. Um, also I want to thank Vish and Katie for joining us today. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for coming. Nice to be here. And and Naomi and be behind the camera, Naomi Bradford. Uh, and also Michael Lahan Lahannes Calderon. Um, and I want to thank all of you out there. Um, because I know how stressful everything continues to be. Um, this was a very upbeat session today, an upbeat clutch. uh because there's a lot to be upbeat about the crackup of the Republican party and the Congressional Republican party and all the election news and very good news. uh and also the 42:06 suggestions that Democrats are are finding their mojo in terms of a progressive message that is a message about kitchen table economics, what people really need, which is basically the old Democratic message going back to the 1930s. This is all important. This is all good. uh and sometimes I think to myself, we had to go through this horrendous period in order to rediscover our principles, rediscover our roots, rediscover what's important, as Heather was talking about in terms of fairness and Katie was talking about in terms of fairness and these basic issues of affordability and making a living and the unfairness of so much of our wealth and income being in the hands of so few people in this country. So yes, there's still a lot to be 43:05 stressed about. We are not at the end of this nightmare and it's a daymare. Uh Trump is still in power. The Republicans are still in power in Congress, both houses. The Republicans and Trump are still in power effectively in the Supreme Court. Uh but I think what we all see is the green shoots of change. The green shoots of this country becoming aware of what it was and what we can do to get back on track. The green shoots of this nation rediscovering its principles. not making America great again because we never were great. But those principles, those aspirations, those goals were and are great. And that is where we as a 44:06 nation, as a people are beginning to move toward again. Thank you all. We will see you all next Saturday. in a week. In a week. Thanks. Take care.

SITE COUNT