Season 3: Episode 2 of A View from the Left Side includes a variety pack of five segments.
The first three segments -- Musk's Takeover, White Men In Black Are Snooping on You and Deregulation Fever -- cover aspects of Elon Musk's takeover of the US government in just 17 days.
Segment 4 -- Melania Wore a Hat -- begins with a "you go girl" shoutout to the First Lady and her Inauguration Day hat and offers multiple reasons why you should consider adding hats to your wardrobe. It's good to have a chuckle and some lighter content during these dark times. (You can see the hats I describe by watching the YouTube version of this podcast @PowersForThePeople1969 on YouTube.)
Segment 5 -- Nodes of Destiny -- offers some astrological insight to the times. Even if you think astrology is bunk, hear me out on this one. The Nodes of Destiny recently shifted on January 11, 2025.
You can read the transcript of this podcast below.
Here is a link to the A View from the Left Side (AVLS)podcast website, where you can see all of the segments and hook up with AVLS via your favorite podcast network. A View from the Left Side is on multiple podcasting services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I Heart Radio, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Deezer and others. YouTube podcast videos and original Legislative update videos can be found on my YouTube Channel and Substack.
Podcast Time Stamps
Musk's Takeover 0:29
White Men In Black Are Snooping on You 3:15
Deregulation Fever 7:49
Melania Wore a Hat 10:24
Nodes of Destiny 15:42
Podcast Transcript
Season three, episode two of A view from the Left Side was recorded on February 5th, 2025. Also known as 02052025, that sounds like a combination from one of my old school locks.
Segment 1: Musk’s Takeover
Hello, this is Pamela Powers of Powers for the People. Welcome to my podcast, A View from the Left Side.
I know it seems like months, but it's only been 17 days since the inauguration of Donald Trump and his hatchet man, Elon Musk.
Elon Musk didn't need anybody's votes to gain control over the US government. All it took was $250 million in campaign finance donations, fawning compliments for an aging felon who was lusting for revenge and trying to stay out of jail, and endless social media carpet bombing of pro-Trump messages and disinformation.
With millions of dollars and a few months of intensive campaigning, Musk got access to the halls of power in Washington, DC, and to sensitive government databases.
Musk also apparently has carte blanche authority to cut the federal government in the name of “efficiency” and eliminate any signs of “wokeness”. You better not have a federal email address with your pronouns in your email footer because that is verboten now.
The pundits keep saying that the Trump/Musk media machine is flooding the news cycle 24/seven in order to keep us off balance and to keep us stressed out.
It's not just Harris supporters who are reeling. The whole world is reeling from the frenetic pace of executive orders, not all of which are legal; mass deportations to multiple countries; mass firings of government workers, including inspectors general, FBI leadership and investigators from the Department of Justice; steep tariffs on products that are made by our most reliable trading partners, including Canada and Mexico. (Am I the only person who's worried about high prices, supply chain disruption and global economic collapse? Come on, this is not a good idea.)
There's also been proposed land grabs from Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and now Gaza. What happened to the peace candidate? That seems to have gone out the window.
There's also been elimination of 8000 pages of content from U.S. government websites, including health warnings and health guidelines. Then there's also the lawsuits, so many lawsuits and retaliation against media companies and others who Trump believes have betrayed him. And that's just a partial list of what's going on [in the first 17 days].
Segment 2: White Men in Black Are Snooping on You
As if all of these actions weren't bad enough for our country, now Musk and his army of young white men in black are swarming the halls of government, harassing employees and perusing financial databases full of our personal data without security clearance and without any vetting.
What could go wrong? Well, you might remember that former government contractor Edward Snowden and former U.S. military personnel, Chelsea manning, leaked government documents.1 Those two were vetted.
We have an army of young men between 19 and 25 who are loyal to Elon Musk, who are going through our financial databases and our financial data and our personal data in the US government with no oversight. This is a bad thing for our country, and it's bad for us. It's not a safe situation.
When I observe erratic, aggressive and illogical behavior like this, I ask myself three questions. What is this person on? Is there an underlying diagnosis? And what is the end goal?
I don't know what legal or illegal drugs these very intense men, who don't seem to sleep, are on, but substances like ketamine and cocaine have been floated out there in the media. Who knows?
As for underlying diagnoses, let's not try to explain narcissism and a Nazi salute on neurodivergent or mental health issues.
These unelected and unvetted people who are mucking around in federal agencies and databases should provide health records, background checks, drug screening test results, and fingerprints. The state of Arizona, which is not known as a regulation state, requires background checks and fingerprints for many jobs, even bus drivers and school teachers.
It seems like database people who are looking around in our personal data and our country's finances should be vetted, and they should have background checks and fingerprint clearance cards.
Drugs and diagnoses aside, the overarching goal appears to be world domination. Let's get real. All they have to do is:
Neuter the Congress. Check.
Stack the Supreme Court. Check.
Destroy the US government by slashing departments, budgets and personnel. Work in progress.
Remove factual information and fill the room with disinformation and baseless accusations. Work in progress.
Pump up hatred and resentment against multiple demographic groups. For example, racial and ethnic minorities, non-Christians, immigrants, the disability community, LGBTQ folks, the obese and women. Work in progress.
Buy elections in a few other countries, also in progress.
Destabilize the world financially and geographically. In progress.
So they’re well on their way to that final goal.
Musk and his doggy [DOGE] army of young men -- I'm using Jon Stewart's pronunciation, doggy -- are moving fast and breaking things because that's the way Silicon Valley operates.
That's not the way D.C. has operated in the past, in order to protect our government and protect our country.
Meanwhile, what are the Democrats doing?
I see Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaking out, but the rest of the Democrats seem to be completely silent. Come on. Where is our leadership?
AOC said it's time to “stop playing nice”, and it's time to stop voting for these unqualified appointees.
It's time for Congress to be fighting for our rights, and it's time for all of them to be in D.C.2 and to vote for us and our country.
Segment 3: Deregulation Fever
A recent article in The Guardian reported that Elon Musk wants to eliminate all federal regulations.
Well, we all probably have a regulation or two that we find silly or inconvenient or the we just don't personally like. But most government regulations are written to provide a framework to enforce the laws that have been passed by our elected officials and keep us safe and protect the environment.
For example, you might not like helmet laws or mask mandates or smoking bans or speed limits or age restrictions, but all of these laws and regulations have been proposed to keep us safe and healthy.
Environmental regulations have come under fire not because they're unnecessary, but because they cut into the profits of the greedy. Dirty energy industries bankroll armies of lobbyists to protect profits, not our planet. Clean air and water regulations are important for our health and our quality of life.
Before the Environmental Protection Agency was created in the 1970s, factories around the Great Lakes dumped industrial waste into the lakes and the rivers. From the sandy beach of Lake View, we could see the smokestacks and the pollution.
Eventually, dead Lake Erie perch were strewn across the beaches. I grew up swimming in Lake Erie, when I was a kid, but by the time I was in high school, the lake was so polluted that you couldn't swim or fish in the lake because of it.
The factories also polluted the air. The houses and the skies around South Lorain were pink from the dust from the smokestacks from the U.S. steel plant.
My Dad, who was a member of the United Steelworkers Union and a factory worker in South Lorain, died more than 20 years before my Mom, and I blame exposure to pollution and the hard-driving, stressful lifestyle of an industrial worker on his early death.
Safe pharmaceuticals, safe workplaces, safe food supply, clean water and the right to organize -- all depend on regulations.
Blanket deregulation benefits corporations and the billionaires, like Elon Musk and David Koch, who own those corporations. Deregulation does not help the rest of us.
Segment 4: Melanie Wore a Hat
So, you might have heard that Melania wore a hat to the inauguration.
A lot of people in the left-wing media made fun of her in her hat. They said that she looked like the Hamburglar. Well, okay, a little bit.
Or they said that she looked like somebody from Spy Versus Spy. Okay, well, a little bit.
But you know what she really looked like -- with that angular hat and the striking coat and, you know, walking on the arm of a serviceman -- was a runway model.3
Melania was a model for many years, and that's what she looked like.
So it was a little funny when Trump couldn't get beyond the brim of the hat [to give her a kiss], and she had a little [haha smile on her face], but whatever.
Anyway, I want to say…
“You be you, Melania.” You might be the only person left in the United States who is not going to get sued or thrown into jail for being yourself.
I'd also like to put in a pitch for more people wearing hats. [Watch the YouTube video to see the hats.]
Here in Arizona, it's not uncommon for people to wear a cowboy or cowgirl hat to inauguration. Theirs are usually bigger than mine, but I have kind of a big head. So, if I wear a ten-gallon hat, I look like a Hoss from Bonanza or something.
But anyway, hats are very important in the state of Arizona. It shades you from the sun. A good cowboy hat can also catch the rain.
But sun protection and looking like a cowboy aren't the only reasons to wear a hat in Arizona.
A stylish hat and a leather jacket and a cool scarf can also make you look pretty hip on a cold night when you're down at Hotel Congress listening to music out on the patio. It can get pretty cold out there, but you can still look cool.
Don't be afraid to break out of the mold, you know. Don't wear a uniform every day.
This is one of the things that I think is really, really boring about the tech bros. It's like, “Oh, he has so many decisions to make. He can't make a decision about his clothes.” And so his wardrobe is all very expensive black t-shirts. How dull is that?
You might buy a hat because you happen to be at a really cool event and see other people in a cool hat and say, “I gotta have a cool hat like that.”
This is called a pork pie hat. I got it at the French Quarter Festival a few years ago in New Orleans, along with the matching beadwear. It's okay to buy a fun hat when you're at an event.
This is kind of a mash up of two different events because I have the Silver City Blues Festival on my head and Picking in the Pines in Flagstaff on my body.
So, get out and hear some live music and buy some souvenirs.
Every time I wear this hat, I think about what a cool event the Silver City Blues Festival is, and every time I see this shirt, I think about Picking in the Pines. Cool hats, cool clothes. They're not necessarily expensive, but they can remind you of the good times you had when you bought them and when you were listening to the music, and when you were going to this event with friends. [Building your own community and making memories are good for your mental health.]
And so branch out. Don't wear a black t-shirt every day, and don't wear a blue suit with a white shirt every day. That is boring.
You know, in some ways men could take a clue from women. We can wear whatever we want.4 And I think men need to, like, get out of their little boxes with their uniforms and branch out in their style.
Hats and matching shirts can also tell people what team you're on.
For example, I'm on the union team, and I'm a union member. So affiliation is clear when you wear a hat that tells people what side you're on. We see MAGA hats everywhere. How about a few more other types of hats out there, like union hats?
Again, this is my teamwear [Ohio State University cap and t-shirt]. And for a long time, actually, this was like the only baseball cap I had. And so, when I wanted to do my ponytail hat look, I wore this hat, and I would get a lot of comments from other Buckeyes who live in Arizona, when I would go to the store wearing my Buckeye pride. And by the way, Buckeyes, way to go on those postseason games. Woo hoo!
I grew up in the snow belt in a small town in Northern Ohio. In the wintertime, you pretty much couldn't get out the door without gloves and a hat and a good coat.
There's lots of reasons to wear hats. You can stay warm in the winter. It can add style to your wardrobe. It can keep you safe in the sun. It can make you look like a runway model. It can make you look like a hipster [or a cowboy].
Don't be afraid to be like Melania. Don't be afraid to step out of everybody else's comfort zone with what you wear … and try some hats.
Segment 5: Nodes of Destiny
At the end of my podcast, I like to bring you a little bit of something different. Last week I gave a little bit of a tarot reading. Today, we're going to have an astrology reading. [There’s a bit of dragon show-and-tell in the YouTube video version of this segment.]
I know not all of you are into astrology, but hear me out on the Nodes of Destiny.
The Nodes of Destiny recently shifted on January 11, 2025. They had been in the same position for roughly 18 months, from the summer of 2023 until January 11. That position for the Nodes of Destiny was that the North Node … which is also called the head of the dragon … the North Node was in Aries, and the South Node, the tail of the dragon, was in Libra.
And so what does that mean?
The North Node, the head of the dragon, is the energy you're supposed to take in. And so in the last 18 months, it was the energy of Aries.
Aries is the baby of the Zodiac. It's the first sign. It's about me. It's about what I want. And the heck with the rest of you. I am going to charge ahead into the future. I am going to be triumphant.
The tail of the dragon was in Libra, and Libra is the sign of the scales. It's the sign of justice. It's a sign of doing things that are good for the community and weighing the options.
Aries is the sign of me, and you saw that in the election, with the rise of the young men who were following podcasters and voted for Trump. They were talking about the Democrats and saying, “Democrats don't speak to me. Trump speaks to me.”
I'm a man. I'm going to be victorious. I'm going to tell the women what to do. I'm going to do as I wish. Nick Fuentes, for example, saying, “Your body, my choice.” That's the Aries. That's the “me, me, me”.
Donald Trump also. He was saying “me, me, me”. I'm the wounded warrior. I'm the one who was wronged by the judicial system. I'm the one who is going to have retribution in the future.
And what was thrown out at the end? The community. There was no … sort of … balance between individual liberty and social responsibility. Kamala Harris was talking about social responsibility, but she didn't win.
What won was the “me, me, me,” the bro energy.
The patriarchy won, basically.
And so now the Nodes of Destiny, as of January 11, are going to Pisces and Virgo.
So, Pisces, that's a head of the dragon. Pisces is the last sign of the Zodiac. It is the sign of the underworld. It's the sign of the two fishes swimming in the darkness, swimming down in the deep sea, not necessarily seeing where to go. It's the sign of dreams and illusion and disinformation.
And so that's the energy that's going to come into us over the next 18 months or so. It’s the underworld … a dreamlike world where we don't necessarily know who we can trust and who we can't trust or what's true even.
And we obviously see that happening with the rise of AI, which is not necessarily intelligent or accurate, and the rise of disinformation and on social media.
And so what's going out the tail of the dragon is Virgo. Virgo is the sign of the Virgin, the orderly homemaker, the rules, the bureaucracy. A place for everything and everything in its place. That's the sign of Virgo. It's the tidy home.
What we're seeing is disinformation in the head of the dragon and illusion, and not being able to trust what's going on and what's going out.
The tail of the dragon represents the rules, the bureaucracy, “the deep state,” our government.
And so you can see, this is a really, really scary time in many ways because we don't know who to trust when social media is flooded with lies. Like, for example, [the lie] that the fires in Los Angeles were caused by diversity, equity and inclusion laws and that the recent tragic plane crash in Washington, DC was somehow blamed on also the same thing … DEI.
Donald Trump was asked, you know, how do you know [that DEI was the cause of the fires and the plane crash]? And he goes, “Oh, it's just common sense.”
Well, there's absolutely no proof of these things [he is saying]. And it's kind of absurd [that DEI caused these tragedies].
And so again, we have lies being spouted by the president and by his first buddy Elon Musk on Twitter and Truth Social. And we're going to be a wash with this [into the future].
So, we really have to watch out during this time period of illusion and disinformation and not being able to trust what's going on.
And [we should] cling to whatever order we can bring to our lives. I mean, we're still allowed to do what we want in our own homes … for the time being anyway. And so, keep a tidy house. Control what you can control and don't get too upset and frustrated about what you can't control.
And be careful about deciphering what's truth and what's illusion.
Trust your friends. Trust your family members. Keep them close.
So, it's going to be a rough time.
We need to work together on this, so stay vigilant.
Be careful.
See you next time.
Closing Remarks
Thanks so much for tuning in to A View from the Left Side today. If you enjoyed the show, please consider liking this podcast on social media and becoming a subscriber. Until next time, please take care of yourself, stay healthy and stay vigilant.
Here is a link to the podcast website. You can also subscribe to A View from the Left Side on multiple podcasting services such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I Heart Radio, Podcast Index, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Deezer and others. YouTube podcast videos and original Legislative update videos can be found on my YouTube Channel.
I am not judging what Snowden and Manning did — just pointing out that even paid and vetted employees can go rogue and leak sensitive data. Who are the members of the DOGE army? We don’t even know. That’s dangerous.
I’m looking at you, Rep. Raul Grijalva. If you were well enough to run for re-election while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, you’re well enough to serve in DC. If you’re not well enough to serve, it’s time to resign. The Democrats need all hands on deck.
Melania looked like a runway model going to a state funeral.
Currently, most adult women in the western world can wear whatever they want, as long as they are not part of an oppressive relationship and not a member of an oppressive religion.
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