McMahon and Rollins

In this episode, we grapple with balancing staying informed without falling into despair from constant news consumption. We then delve into the roles of Trump's nominated cabinet members such as Linda McMahon for Secretary of Education and Brooke Rollins for Secretary of Agriculture, scrutinizing their qualifications, histories, and the potential impacts of their appointments on education and agriculture policies in the U.S. The discussion covers issues like tariff implications, agricultural labor reliance on undocumented workers, and the broader consequences on food supply and farming subsidies.

00:00 Introduction and Catching Up

00:28 Balancing News Consumption and Mental Health

04:20 Impact of Cabinet Members on Daily Life

05:53 Linda McMahon's Background and Role

12:50 Brooke Rollins and Agricultural Policies

18:13 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Mandy: 0:07

We're back. We're doing another one. be the only get out,

Katy: 0:13

ha It's good. I know we do have a long list of actual episodes we need to to so it's don't worry, it's happening. And I am very grateful to you because I do not want to dig into the news still. I'm still in a self imposed everything but basic headlines moratorium because it's, again, I feel guilty about it. I don't know if that's the right thing to do right now. But. I just am trying to pay attention to local stuff that's happening and

Mandy: 0:48

Well, there's just such a difficulty balancing not getting completely overwhelmed and crushed in this despair of Everyday news cycle information, not getting distracted by all the little bullshit things that go on so much so that we can't actually mount a response to anything that matters and keeping your sanity. It's hard to find what the healthy

Katy: 1:12

I think for me it is to focus on just like the same way that performative justice work doesn't really do much to be like, I changed my profile picture, like I, I, the flip side of that is just consuming tons of news and being angry is also not helpful to anyone. So just trying to stay really anchored in being informed enough to know where to show up and when to show up and then like actually showing up and being part of. Movement work and organizing and being informed so that my organizing is strategic and makes sense. Does that make sense?

Mandy: 2:00

Mm

Katy: 2:00

Cause it, you can just doom scroll and then start to just, feel awful. And that doesn't do a whole lot. And I'm in a position where no one in my immediate. family of four, plus my dog that I'm not planning on murdering in the backyard, unlike Kristi Noem. That because none of us in this exact moment are on like heightened alert for our own physical safety, then I feel like, okay then I will be broadly informed with the organizing work that I want to do. And go from there. I don't, it, that all sounds like, oh sure, easy to say but hard to do. I just like, I don't, I guess I want to read enough news and stay informed enough to know, but not start to get sucked into these deep dive despair hand wringing, like that just doesn't do any good. It doesn't do any Do that. Okay. And it pretends, by the way, that like everything was super awesome two weeks ago.

Mandy: 2:58

Or for the last four years,

Katy: 3:00

Or for the last

Mandy: 3:01

also

Katy: 3:02

years like it not so it's okay, stay focused on that and go, even though course, there are some like very immediate, terrifying concerns. I was just working on this resource for teachers about how to inform educators about what their rights are and what they don't have to do in order to protect undocumented students and families. so just

Mandy: 3:29

for healthcare workers. I've things that have come out because now there used to be protections, for where ICE could go. And there were certain protected places like schools and hospitals, and those have been taken away. So now ICE can go into schools, they can come into hospitals. And so there are resources out there about as someone who works in those places, what your responsibilities are, what you. Don't have to do, the way you should respond if you're asked questions And I think that those sorts of things are super

Katy: 3:59

Super super, super helpful. And in fact, we can link to those in the show notes because like that, again, that's the kind of work I would rather be invested in is like spending my online time, looking at those resources and putting those together and disseminating them. And, then another op ed piece about why this is all shit. It's yeah, I get it. I'm moving on. Anyway, tell me about

Mandy: 4:20

one of the things I feel like these cabinet ladies interestingly Will impact our everyday Operations and so they are more important than what you would think Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, obviously if you have kids in schools or you care about your community educated, this makes a difference. So her impact I think is more noticeable maybe, but one that I've never thought of, not once before in my whole entire life, but I think that will be very impactful in this current situation is the agriculture cabinet member.

Katy: 4:56

so interesting. You never thought it because you are from Iowa.

Mandy: 5:01

a farm state, I I've never, I mean, can you name one past Ag Secretary?

Katy: 5:06

Tom Vilsack, our former governor. but I also,

Mandy: 5:10

I failed as an Iowan, I've

Katy: 5:13

also from Iowa. The only two I can Iowans, by the way, but I have

Mandy: 5:17

course, are the only two that matter.

Katy: 5:19

there. Yeah obviously, but it is actually fascinating the programs that are housed under the Department of Ag that you wouldn't necessarily think are like

Mandy: 5:27

Like SNAP.

Katy: 5:28

Yes, SNAP, exactly,

Mandy: 5:29

mm hmm,

Katy: 5:30

and the also regulations about sustainable farming or the lack thereof, and so I think like our food supply, yeah, for sure it definitely matters. So I can't wait to hear about the horrors that await us.

Mandy: 5:41

it.

Katy: 5:41

The hor, horrors.

Mandy: 5:42

I thought, I was like, what?

Katy: 5:47

horrors. Yes.

Mandy: 5:51

Yep. Okay.

Katy: 5:52

Mm hmm.

Mandy: 5:53

Linda McMahon, you said that she may be the only one you know a little bit about. What little do you

Katy: 5:59

I, just that she has some ties to like world wrestling and I don't know, WWE, WWF, I'm not like up to speed on the distinction, but just that she was somehow involved in that

Mandy: 6:12

Yeah. Yes, so yeah, I'm not sure. It used to be WWF, but I think they had, there was like some sort of name lawsuit, whatever, where there's also like some wildlife,

Katy: 6:25

yeah. The World Wildlife Fund.

Mandy: 6:27

World Wildlife Fund, and they had WWF first, and sued the wrestling WWF, and so then they had to change to WWE,

Katy: 6:35

Oh, interesting. Okay. Okay.

Mandy: 6:38

Linda McMahon was married to Why am I blanking on his name

Katy: 6:43

I want to say Ed McMahon, but I know that's not right. He's one who's like sweepstakes guy.

Mandy: 6:49

that up at your door.

Katy: 6:52

I've not thought about that guy in a long time.

Mandy: 6:55

Not a long time. Vince McMahon. That's who it is. So he was like the. wrestling promoter for WWE. And when Trump was doing The Apprentice, they had some part of The Apprentice show in 2007, where they were working with Wrestlemania with the contestants. during that season, Trump went on to A WWE event and shaved Vince McMahon's hair in the middle of the ring, was the big thing the two them and then they were best friends from there

Katy: 7:32

That's how we met, actually, in elementary school was. In the middle a wrestling ring, shaving each other's heads.

Mandy: 7:38

So Linda was also involved in the WWE. She was like one of their executives too but she left the WWE to get into politics, and I'm not really sure what her motivation in that was, but she did run for U. S. Senate twice in 2010 and in 2012. She was, this was in Connecticut, and she was defeated both times by the Democrats in that, so she never actually held a Senate seat. And then she moved on after she lost those to running PACs and conservative think tanks and raising millions of dollars to help Trump get elected. So in 2016, she apparently was responsible for a 6 million donation to Trump's candidacy. And then it's like even more this time because there's a conservative think tank that she actually founded. With Brooke Rollins, who is the Ag Secretary nominee that we're going to talk about these two are very close with each other. She is nominated now for Secretary of Education. And you may ask, what are her qualifications?

Katy: 8:49

I do have that question actually. Like at least Betsy DeVos is heinous, but at least she has like a long track record of trying to influence school policy through her, what foundation or whatever to the DeVos family has tried to influence charter schools for a long time. So it's I think her policies are garbage and I think, that's, that all sucked, but at least there's. Like a semblance of a connection.

Mandy: 9:15

Yeah, so the only things that McMahon has in her background is that she was on the board of trustees for several years for a private religious university called Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, and then she was appointed in 2009 to be on the Connecticut Board of Education, but she was only on that board for a year, and then she stepped down. So she was some private school trustee

Katy: 9:45

Ugh.

Mandy: 9:45

a while. One year on the Connecticut Board of Education, and then she told lawmakers when she was nominated for the Connecticut Board that she had a lifelong interest in education and at one point had planned to become a teacher. And then she got married and that goal went by the wayside. To me, this sounds like if you put me as I don't know, some sort of I would even say like Surgeon General, which actually

Katy: 10:10

you have PS I would vote for you, confirmation. Craig, you are a medically trained professional who's worked in hospitals for almost two decades. Yeah,

Mandy: 10:19

say, okay, so say it'd be like putting us on like the board of like space exploration or something, if that because when we were a kid, we wanted to be an astronaut.

Katy: 10:29

yeah. But then you got

Mandy: 10:31

equivalent, but then I got married and that, then, of course, all career aspirations went away

Katy: 10:37

No, it's,

Mandy: 10:38

anyway. That's

Katy: 10:38

I, it's

Mandy: 10:39

That's it.

Katy: 10:40

sure. That's what you wanted. Don't say that at a hu like. It offers nothing and actually makes me think you're very stupid.

Mandy: 10:48

Yeah, I wanted to be a teacher. That's it. all she's got. It's Yeah, she wasn't Trump's first presidency. She was involved, like I said, donated a bunch of money. But then Trump also appointed her to be the leader of the Small Business Administration.

Katy: 11:05

that makes more sense. It still is not awesome, but it makes more, it attracts a little bit harder. I, probably because he has promised to get rid of the Department of Education, maybe at a certain level it doesn't matter. But we'll see what happens. I'll be super fascinated because so many parents were posting in the aftermath of the election wait, what? My kids special education services are being threatened because of the Department of Ed potentially going away, which I would say that's something you should find out before you vote when that is a pressing concern for your family, especially so well, it's one of those campaign promises that I'll be interested to see what actually happens because I just, I think there could be a lot of his supporters that Think that wouldn't be good for them. So who knows but if you are going to abolish an entire agency you could put Baron in charge of that who cares or what's the daughter's name that he doesn't care about? put her Who cares?

Mandy: 12:13

We will see what happens with her. She, so the PACs that she ran was first in 2020 in the re election that he lost to Biden. He lost. people he lost.

Katy: 12:25

Allegedly

Mandy: 12:28

she was the chair of the America First Action Super PAC. And then for this last election, she helped to start the America First Policy Institute, which has been called like the White House and waiting and is basically all the people who are. really going to be running the White House and Brooke Rollins, who is our next one, and we've five

Katy: 12:49

Great. Good.

Mandy: 12:50

her as United States Ag Secretary. So she is from Texas. She, her parents, or at least her mom is in politics. Her mom's elected to the Texas House of Representatives just this last

Katy: 13:04

Oh, wow. How old is she?

Mandy: 13:06

Rollins was born in 1972. So her mom's to be like

Katy: 13:12

like late 70s at the

Mandy: 13:15

seventies. I think I read something that said that she was the oldest freshman representative in the

Katy: 13:23

so now I'm very curious about her mom. I can go down that rabbit hole later, but interesting. Okay.

Mandy: 13:28

So she went to Texas A& M University. She was the first woman to be elected student body president at Texas A& M. Interesting. And she was an attorney. She graduated from law school. She's worked at a law firm.

Katy: 13:44

so far by the way I totally get Ag. She is reading

Mandy: 13:48

coming across. She grew up on a farm.

Katy: 13:50

4 H

Mandy: 13:52

what it She

Katy: 13:53

She thought about being a farmer one time.

Mandy: 13:56

Yeah she worked, she's worked with a lot of Republicans in Texas. She worked a lot with Rick Perry.

Katy: 14:05

About him.

Mandy: 14:06

I know, right?

Katy: 14:07

Yeah. Yeah

Mandy: 14:12

She's done a lot of like conservative think tanks kinds of things. In 2011 she was named one of the 25 most powerful Texans. Which is saying something because there is a lot of rich

Katy: 14:25

Yeah, and I've never heard of her but I'm not like, the who's who of but yeah, okay

Mandy: 14:31

So in Trump's first presidency, she was acting director of the United States Domestic Policy Council there was some involvement or some statements that she made at the George Floyd murder,

Katy: 14:44

That we're insightful and

Mandy: 14:45

to like, yeah, of course, yeah, of course, just trying to bring the country together She did say everyone needs to rise above the division and divide and come together working bipartisanly, because that happened after And then she founded the America First Policy Institute. She's leader of the Save America Coalition. And then she just got nominated for Secretary of Agriculture. So the interesting things I want to point out from her hearing really quick It's just that her job may become pretty difficult because of the tariffs that Trump is imposing and because of the mass deportation he has do, both of which hugely affect agriculture. Last time Trump was in office and he imposed tariffs the countries that he imposes tariffs on retaliate by imposing tariffs against us, which mainly affects our agricultural community because that's one of our main exports is ag and so in order to make up for those tariff retaliations, then we had to subsidize farmers and had over like a billion dollars in subsidies that went to farmers because they were Affected by these huge tariffs that other countries put in which is bound to happen again one we're just gonna have to pay out more and more money to farmers to subsidize them And then it came up in the hearing that we know that at least 40 percent of America's agricultural workers are undocumented and percent and a number that she did not dispute and when people are asking so what is gonna happen to the agricultural industry When 40 percent of the workers could get deported and all she came back with was just that she supports Trump's deportation efforts and people have to come into the country the right way quote unquote and you know that this will just make America stronger and We'll

Katy: 16:44

So what hear saying

Mandy: 16:46

and avocados and strawberries go down

Katy: 16:49

canned goods just stockpile canned green beans right now is what I

Mandy: 16:54

yeah, it'll get it should get interesting. So we will see how she Manages that.

Katy: 17:02

It's also just one of those things that I don't understand. I guess people, have like different reasons that they vote for candidates, but that was such a clear campaign promise, like a very consistent platform that he ran on. And then to have people whose livelihoods and pocketbooks are going to be very negatively affected, like whatever your xenophobic, racist ideas are, like at the end of the day, you would think that would Track for people, but maybe not. That's a lot. That's a lot of people.

Mandy: 17:35

yeah, so we'll see how the ripple effects of all of that come down to everyone with our grocery bills with our foods chain supply. And then, of course, like you were saying, there's also a bunch of other things that this department does set standards for school meal nutrition does provide programs like WIC and SNAP.

Katy: 17:54

The FDA?

Mandy: 17:55

things are not

Katy: 17:56

No, I'm also wondering if the FDA is part of that agency or like food like regulations of food safety.

Mandy: 18:04

a good question. I think, I mean it has to

Katy: 18:07

I'm gonna go eat a giant meal that will last me several years and hope for the best,

Mandy: 18:13

and we'll get into more of it next time. our quick little wrap up.

Katy: 18:17

thank you for those. I know I don't have anything pithy and quippy to say about these two, but they just they're all so sad and bad. where I'm at.

Mandy: 18:26

Yep. All right, guys. Talk to you soon.

Katy: 18:30

a good week. Love you. Bye.