By Bob Hennelly

It’s 48 days until former President Trump drops the former and just becomes President Trump again on Inauguration Day, which ironically coincides with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King holiday. And On this episode of We Decide: America at the Crossroads with Jenna Flanagan: LIVE from WBAI and the Pacifica Radio Network, we look at what that all means for the nation.

Two days before the coming inauguration, organizers of the massive Women’s March held the day after Trump first got into office, will again be on the streets in Washington, D.C. and New York City on January 18. Lead organizers include Abortion Access Now, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.

The second Trump administration continues to take shape with a flurry of controversial cabinet picks. Last week, the former president announced he was appointing Charles Kushner as the U.S. Ambassador to France. Kushner is the New Jersey businessman who is the father of Jared Kushner, former top Trump aide who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka. The elder Kushner was convicted in 2005 on multiple federal corruption charges and was pardoned by Trump in 2020. 

This week, we examine  with Donna Lieberman, NYCLU, how immigrant rights and civil liberty groups will try to prevent the family separations that will occur once Trump’s promised mass deportation of undocumented residents goes into effect. We will also examine the broader public health ramifications from Trump’s targeting of migrant families with Dr. Ed Zuroweste, founder of the Migrant Clinicians Network.

In the second half of the show, we take a deep dive into the deepening national healthcare crisis  which appears to be  particularly acute in both rural and urban communities post-pandemic.

Work-Bites veteran Steve Wishnia and Jenn Kiehle, NICU RN from NYSNA who works at  the Albany Medical Center, help us tackle the issues head on. As it turns out, it's only America’s healthcare unions that are sounding the alarm. 

We close out our weekly get together with the sampler  of radio features from several of the 200 plus non-profit, community-based Pacifica Radio affiliates. 

Listen to the entire show below:

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