Podcast 136
By Jackalyn Rainosek, PhD
Introduction
Here are things that are in the news every day since Trump and his MAGA Republican Congress came into office. I think it is important to not miss the lack of respect for a governor, citizens of the U.S. that need healthcare, people dying in the world since we cut off vaccines, having vaccines available and nothing is being done about dispersing them, allowing uneducated people to have the power to question great scientists that are medically trained, scientifically trained and have years of professional knowledge and experience we in America depend on. It is outrageous that a president assumes he can take over the national guard of a state and refuse to talk with the governor. The “big, beautiful, bill” of Trump’s design has so much harm in it that people are screaming about it across the nation. This podcast will give short statements on some issues and more statements on others.
The Truth Behind the Lies: Deaths, Deceit, and Denial in Trump’s America
We all know Trump lies so you can never believe what he says; you have to watch his actions, since that is where you find the truth. When the Secretary of State Marco Rubio cannot tell the truth and we have evidence that all Trump’s cabinet or appointed head of our federal agencies will lie to support him then we are in serious trouble.
When lives in this country and throughout the world are lost or impacted then this leads me feeling angry, disgusted and dismayed. The Washington Post in its newsletter email@washingtonpost.com on May 30th, 2025, Friday, at 10:20 AM has the shout out about “Rubio’s false claim that no one died from foreign-aid cuts” is part of their Fact Checker each week. The reality is Rep. Bard Sherman (D-California) confronted Rubio about numerous accounts of people around the world dying because the Trump administration and Elon Musk dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and shut down many of its program. Rubio had the audacity to say that “no one has died because of USAID. HE LIED AND THIS IS THE TRUTH. From this article, “we dug into the reporting on this issue. There’s no question that people have died because of the U.S. aid suspension. One estimate tops 300,000 death so far. “ So, this “Christian” MAGA could care less about human beings. That is not the type of Christianity I was taught. The amount the U.S. was spending on the aides packages is minimal compared to the costs of Musk federal projects and anything that Trump does with his tariff game.
Aiding No One: How Trump’s Policies Threaten Global Health and Human Dignity
Do you know that “The U.S. bought $12 million in contraceptives and HIV medications for poor nations. Under Trump, the supplies may be destroyed,” which is the title of the article from The Washington Post newsletter on Thursday, June 5, 2025, 12:39 PM. Here is a comment that summarizes the article: “Aid organizations have been in talks about taking control of the supplies, but those negotiations have stalled amid shifting directives from the government, including demands that the groups pay for the materials and that any USAID labeling be removed, a Post examination found. Much of the material is already closer to expiration than many countries would typically accept.”
Mass Firings and Government Chaos: The DOGE Disaster Unraveling Federal Services
“Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE, fired too many people,” by Hannah Natanson, Adam Taylor, Meryl Kornfield, Rachel Sieger and Scott Dance in The Washington Post on June 6, 2025, at 6:00 AM EDT. This describes the understaff and overwhelmed agencies and how the courts will rule against the firings and then something changes. “Thousands of staff are returning in fits and starts as a conflicting patchwork of court decisions overturn some of Trump’s large-scale firings, especially his Valentine’s Day dismissal of all probationary workers, those with one or two years of government service from 20 federal agencies, although a few days later the Supreme Court—in a different case—halted another judge’s order to reinstate a smaller group.” What The Washington Post is doing in this article is to encourage any person that wants to convey information can do that by contacting investigative reporters, whose email, and phone number were provided in this article. The rest of the article is comments from people who want to remain anonymous. Here is the statement from the Post that is encouraging people to provide them information: “The Washington Post wants to hear form anyone with knowledge of the Trump administration’s inner workings, including the activities of the U.S. DOGE Service. You can contact our reporters by email or Signal encrypted message.” Barri Sue Bryant, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2809, describes the firings that occurred in the Social Security Administration’s call center in Pennsylvania, “IT workers were told by managers in mid-April that they needed to request a transfer or face possible firing. Nearly all 40-plus workers in that office did so. Bryant wrote in an email to leadership that “we are critically understaffed in all of our departments. Having systems and employees down is not contributing to the goals of this agency.”
The Legal Resistance: Lawyers Step Up as Defenders of Democracy
I am listening to a series in June from the American Constitutional Society that is very informative about the “power plays” by Trump and the next session, “Combatting a Campaign of Erasure,” will take place on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, starting at 2:00 PM ET. It does not matter if you are a lawyer or not. There presentations are excellent and even though I do not know the cases they are talking about that are in the courts now, I receive a recording where I can listen to the programs again and learn more. If you want to attend, you can contact Senger Joseph sjoseph@acslaw.org or go to the American Constitutional Law Society website https://www.acslaw.org/. There is no specific membership fee required; however, they do ask for donations, which you can decide what you can contribute.
In The Washington Post newsletter on Friday, June 6, 2025, 12:-4 PM they address “Amid fallout from Trump’s attacks on law firms, former Manhattan U.S. attorney leaves firm that made deal with the president.” “Damian Williams, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, is leaving the law firm Paul Weiss to join Jenner & Block, defecting from a firm that struck a deal with the Trump administration to sign on with one that fought it in court. Williams is the highest-profile attorney to join the exodus from firms that made deals with President Donald Trump this year.”
Distraction Theater: The Musk-Trump Meltdown Hiding Deeper Crises
Forbes always simplifies situations that allow you and me to say well I don’t have to read anymore articles on this issue, since it has been made clear what happened. In the Forbes newsletter on Monday, June 9, 2025, 12:-1 PM, “A Breathtaking Display of What Not to Do In Business,” they describe the fight between Musk and Trump. “When a CEO has a failing out with another leader, it’s usually not a huge news story. But when that CEO is Elon Musk, it’s another matter entirely. The CEO of companies including Tesla, SpaceX and xAI is known for his dramatic and mercurial management and personal style, and it’s amplified by his social media platform X. And in this case, the other leader is President Donald Trump, who is also known for a dramatic volatile personal style. Both men are widely considered difficult to work with, and the strength of the close bond they forged (with probably more than a little help from Musk’s more than $250 million in campaign contributions during the election) was widely questioned.
And last week, it all ended in spectacular fashion. From X, Musk began attacking Trump and the administration for the ‘big, beautiful bill”—featuring tax cuts and adding trillions to the deficit—and Trump hit right back on Truth Social, threatening to cancel all of the contracts Musk has with the federal government and pledging to sell the Tesla he bought earlier in the year when Musk brought several models to show off at the White House. And, because both of their social media accounts are public, the world watched, Jerred, laughed and memed.
The personal attacks have died down and, Forbes’ Jeremy Bogaisky points out, it’s highly unlikely that all SpaceX contracts will be cancelled, considering NASA relies on the company’s rockets and satellites. But Trump and Musk have again put on a breathtaking display of what not to do in business. It should be apparent that business leaders should avoid getting into an emotional fight on social media, but neither Trump nor Musk is known for doing things by the book. Musk’s Telsa and Trump Media and Technology Group –and erased billions from Musk’s net worth.”
They go on to say that it is unclear what will happen now. Musk was successful in getting some Republicans in Congress and ordinary people to start questioning the spending bill. “And though his net worth took a beating, he remains the world’s richest person. Musk role in the Trump administration as head of DOGE mercilessly went through government departments, bureaucracy and career employees, tearing away at many functions that had existed for generations and never found the “fraud” that he thought existed. Many of Tesla shareholders, including several union pension funds, are growing tired of Musk as the CEO of the company. They are pushing for his removal.
In this Forbes article, CEOs are not happy with the state of the economy and business opportunities. “CEOs’ responses were pessimistic about many business factors. A total of 82% said today’s economic conditions are worse than six months ago. Nearly seven in 10 said conditions in their industries are now worse than they were six months ago. And 64% expect economic conditions to get worse in the next six months. About 83% anticipate a recession in the next 12 to 18 months. The biggest concerns for CEOs in all industries are geopolitical instability, trade and tariffs, and legal and regulatory uncertainty. With all the issues, however, most CEOs aren’t anticipating a deviation from hiring plans. Just under half plan to maintain the size of their workforce, and compared with Q1, only 1% more expect a net reduction.
Authoritarian Overreach in California: Trump Versus State Sovereignty
The state of California and the governor’s association are suing Trump for his actions. The New York Times in their newsletter on Monday, June 9, 2025, 9:15 AM in “Breaking news: California will sue Trump over National Guard deployment, Newsom says.” “Gov. Gavin Newsom and other leaders demanded that President Trump withdraw troops from Los Angeles, after the police scuffled with crowds protesting the administration’s immigration crackdown.” Another article in the same newsletter you may be interested in is “President Trump jumped at the change for a confrontation in California over immigration.”
After reading a number of articles about the raids and Trump sending the national guard, threatening to send the Marines to L.A., and now Trump has gone on television to announce that the United States would now call for the arrest of a sitting Governor, Newsom. This is like spectator sport for how much Trump can get away with. Personally, I feel bored and afraid to have a president that reacts to everything he does not like by power grabs, threats and ignoring the constitution and amendments that allow people to protest. Many of the articles say that the Mayor Karen Bass issued a stark warning: She knows that everyone in this country has the right to peacefully protest. Bass made it clear that their will be no violence and destruction and those who are responsible for doing these actions would be held accountable.
The Public Citizen has filed multiple lawsuits that are in the courts related to Trump’s actions. They have an exceptional group of lawyers that are involved with this organization, and they have massive support for the actions they take. Public Citizen president@ccitizen.org Monday, June 9, 2025, 1:27 PM, “Authoritarian on the streets in Los Angelos” describes their view of what happened in this situation: Trump deployed at least 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles “against the wishes of the city’s mayor, Karne Bass, and California’s governor, Gavin Newsom. Newsom accurately called what Trump has done ‘purposely inflammatory’ and a serious breach of state sovereignty.”
- “This started on Friday, when the Trump regime raided workplaces throughout Los Angeles. Many people—rightly outraged at the regime’s ongoing campaign of militant xenophobia and unlawful deportations—took to the streets in a peaceful protest.
- Trump then used the peaceful demonstration against his own misguided raids as an excuse to send in the National Guard—an authoritarian overreach that is generating even more justified dissent.
- As is so often the case, Law enforcement has overreacted. According to news reports, peaceful protesters have been tear-gassed and shot with rubber bullets at close range. David Huerta, the well-known leader of the Service Employees International Union in Los Angeles, who was present at one raid as a peaceful observer—was arrested (and wounded in the process).
- Some ‘news’ outlets are going out of their way to show anything that makes the protests look unruly or out of control. The overwhelming evidence from numerous legitimate sources on the ground in Los Angeles is that demonstrators are committed to peaceful resistance and that law enforcement is instigating the vast majority of confrontations.
- Trump also said his Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, to use regular military troops ‘as necessary.’ Hegseth has already said that active duty Marines stationed just 100 miles from Los Angeles are ‘on high alert.’
- On Sunday, Trump refused to rule out invoking the Insurrection Act and said this to reporters: ‘We’re going to have troops everywhere.’ We should not be surprised—furious, but not surprised—if Trump uses all of this as a pretense to declare martial law. “
“It has been 60 years since a president deployed the National Guard to a state against the wishes of that state’s governor. The last time was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed the National Guard—to protect civil rights activists—against the wishes of Alabama’s infamously segregationist governor, George Wallace.
Along with California, 22 other states currently have a Democratic governor. All 22 of those governors signed an open letter standing with Governor Newsom and condemning what Trump is doing in Los Angeles, correctly declaring it to be ‘an alarming abuse of power.’”
Now, Epoch Times: Constitutional Ave <newsletter@theepochtimes.com, Monday, June 9, 2025, 9:15 AM, “LA Riots” which is an independent news media and have excellent investigative journalists that describe the events that occurred and the actions by Trump and the national guard as well as Bass and Newsom. Here is part of the story that they have added more clarity to:
“’I have formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command,’ Newsom said.”
‘We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,he said. ‘This is a serious breach of state sovereignty—inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.’
Bass, meanwhile, said that the deployment of guardsmen to the city was a ‘chaotic escalation.’
She said during an appearance on CNN that the Los Angeles Police Department ‘could control things happening here and …there was no need to federalize troops.’
Under the Posse Comitatus Act, active duty military can only be deployed in specific circumstances. The Insurrection Act—which Trump has not yet committed to using—lists these exceptions, which include things like suppressing insurrections, enforcing federal authority, and protecting civil rights when state authorities fail to act.”
If you want hear more of Trump’s comments on Truth Social, Epoch Times includes those as well. That is the reason that I read the Epoch Times, since I see what all parties to a situation have done.
I personally think it is fascinating the Trump cannot see that the mayor and governor of California are well aware how to deal with protests. I believe they have a deep conviction about protecting law enforcement. Tragically, Trump failed to call up the National Guard when it was actually needed –on January 6th – and then pardoned the participants as one of his first acts as president.
As I mentioned, the Democratic Governor’s Association’s legal counsel, Courtney Weisman, has some points of law to consider about Trump’s actions. She describes this in the newsletter for the democratic governors association info@democraticgoverners.org on Monday, June 9, 2025, 1:56 PM.
Voter Suppression in Disguise: Trump’s Executive Assault on Election Integrity
“The dangerous Executive Order contains harmful provisions which would:
- Invalidate state laws that count mail-in-ballots cast by Election Day
- Force federal agencies to reveal sensitive personal information about millions of voters to DOGE.
- Threaten to withhold federal funds from states to ensure compliance with this unlawful Order
- Require changes to a congressionally-mandated voter registration form, despite contrary guidance from Congress.
- Impose unreasonable burdens on overseas voters, including active duty servicemembers and their families.
It’s a dangerous power grab designed to add obstacle after obstacle for American citizens to make their voice heard. It would tip future elections in Republicans’ favor and punish states working to protect voting rights. While a judge issued a preliminary injunction to block multiple provisions of it, this is just a first step. In court, Donald Trump is losing more cases than he’s winning – and it’s no wonder why. He’s shamelessly attempting to violate the law and undermine our Constitution. That’s the reasons that the Democratic governors or suiting Trump.
This Is a Dress Rehearsal: The Atlantic’s Stark Warning About What Comes Next
All of you need to read the detail in The Atlantic article, “For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal,” by David Frum, On June 8,2025, 10 AM ET. Frum’s subtitle is “Ordering the National Guard to deploy in Los Angeles is a warning of what to expect when his hold on power is threatened.” Here is what a number of observers are concerned about with the midterm voting in 2026:
“Step 1: Use federal powers in ways to provoke some kind of made-for-TV disturbance—flames, smoke, loud noises, waving of foreign flags.
Step 2: Invoke the disturbance to declare a state of emergency and deploy federal troops.
Step 3: Seize control of local operations of government—policing in June 2025; voting in November 2026.”
They end the article with “Trump knows full well that the midterms are coming. He is worried. But he might already be testing ways to protect himself that could end in subverting those elections’ integrity.
Conclusion:
The world we live in today—under Trump’s tyranny and MAGA’s manufactured cruelty—is not the world we should accept. What kind of nation silences science, crushes protest, and punishes compassion? What kind of leadership cuts off medicine to the dying, wages war on its own citizens, and dares to call it strength?
Yet, through all of this, we are not powerless. We see the cracks in the illusion. We see the lawyers rising, the governors uniting, and the people resisting. We see truth fighting to breathe through the smog of propaganda.
This podcast is a call to wake up, to reject distraction, and to take action. It’s not just about Trump or Musk—it’s about whether we still believe in a government that serves people, protects rights, and values human life.
We must not let exhaustion become acceptance. We must name what’s wrong, and then—we must choose what’s right.
Let’s build the world we deserve. Let’s start now.
References for Podcast 136:
The Washington Post newsletter email@washingtonpost.com, May 30th, 2025, Friday, 10:20 AM, “Rubio’s false claim that no one died from foreign-aid cuts” (Where there are newsletters you will need to write to get on their list.)
“The U.S. bought #12 million in contraceptives and HIV medications for poor nations Under Trump, the supplies may be destroyed, The Washington Post newsletter on Thursday, June 5, 2025, 12:39 PM. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-us-bought-12-million-in-aid-for-poor-nations-under-trump-it-may-be-destroyed/ar-AA1Ga6oI
“Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE, fired too many people,” Hannah Natanson, Adam Taylor, Meryl Kornfield, Rachel Sieger and Scott Dance, The Washington Post, June 6, 2025, 6:00 AM EDT. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-races-to-fix-a-big-mistake-doge-fired-too-many-people/ar-AA1GcMct
American Constitutional Society have a series in June. Joseph sjoseph@acslaw.org or go to the American Constitutional Law Society website https://www.acslaw.org/.
Forbes newsletter <forbes@email.forbes.com on Monday, June 9, 2025, 12:-1 PM, “A Breathtaking Display of What Not to Do in Business.” The New York Times in their newsletter, breakingnews-noreply@nuytimes.com on Monday, June 9, 2025, 9:15 AM in “Breaking news: California will sue Trump over National Guard deployment, Newsom says.”
Public Citizen president@ccitizen.org Monday, June 9, 2025, 1:27 PM, “Authoritarian on the streets in Los Angelos.”
Epoch Times: Constitutional Ave <newsletter@theepochtimes.com, Monday, June 9, 2025, 9:15 AM, “LA Riots.” https://www.theepochtimes.com/constitution-ave
The democratic governors association, info@democraticgoverners.org on Monday, June 9, 2025, 1:56 PM.
The Atlantic article, “For Trump, This Is a Dress Rehearsal,” by David Frum, June 8,2025, 10 AM ET.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/06/los-angeles-dress-rehearsal-trump/683078/