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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.
Welcome home, y'all. This is episode fifty eight of Native Lampod, where we give you all things politics, but a little bit of culture sprinkled in there for everybody's taste. We are your host Tiffany Cross.
Oh you don't want to go first, I'm Angela Raie.
And I'll go last. As always, I'm Andrew Gillen. We want to say welcome home everybody.
Let's get to it, y'.
So, y'all, what are we talking about today? We get to one being person, which.
Is I'm happy to see y'all.
I think these shows are so much better wear in person. I like it.
I definitely think they're a show.
I felt it.
What do you want to talk about today? So?
I think people are pretty checked out of politics, I really do. Everyone I talked to and I want to talk about how to curate pete. It's the time of year where people are with family and as we go into a twenty twenty five that is going to be hectic. How do we carry a peace?
I love that curating peace?
Angela well, if there's no justice, there's no peace. So we're going to stay in politics a little bit because it's it might not be bombs over bag Dad, New Jersey, but it's something flying over in New Jersey. And now they're saying it might be in Atlanta too. It's the drones. I was just laughing at my dear brother Leonard about this last week. Turns out, ah, hi, hell, it might actually be some there there.
Huh. Well, I can't wait to hear your theory of the case for me. A lot of talk about what's Kamala's next step, Madam Vice President. Obviously she's been at the height of government in this country. Could she go down now to one of the states to lead the great state of California as its governor. I'd love to hear y'all's opinions and thoughts on it. Okay, So let's get at it.
Let's do it. Okay.
So I think I might be the only one here that had a class running none security.
Clearance is all I'm trying to say.
But I was scared to go beyond a TS and get an SCI clearance, which is the one that goes through the CIA. Obviously, y'all know why I didn't want to go through the CIA. We have trauma with the CIA. But I am very curious about what is happening with the drones. When I did Breakfast Club last week, Secretary of Pete was on and Lenard asked him about the drones over New Jersey and I'm not gonna lie to you.
I literally was laughing because I was like, this is so ridiculous, Like because Leonard is always on my aliens, which is fine, they probably do exist.
I'm not, you know, shout out to the ets of the world.
But I just was saying, what was fascinating to me about this is the fact that everybody started.
Seeing them more the more they were reported.
Karen, who is me and Lenard share manager, Me and Lenard's share manager, but it's a good Karen was saying that she saw seven in her backyard there and I was like, were they in the yard or were they like she was like, in the skies, Like where are we sure.
They're not stars?
So I'm just I am very fascinated with the obsession, yes, and also what is fact?
What is fiction? What is a threat? And I'm just curious.
About where y'all are on it. I really don't have a thing. I just have heard from New Jersey. Now they're in popping up in Atlanta, and I want to know how much of it is our fear popping up?
What is legit about it?
And then also where some of our national security holes exist.
I want to talk about it.
Well, what is the government saying about it? I mean, what's the official line right now?
Well, here's the thing I changes and.
So initially the National Security Advisor said these are manned aircrafts. Joe Biden said it was nothing to worry about. Governor Hokel in New York and the Governor Murphy in New Jersey were like, we need more information.
So it depends on.
What level of government you're at, right and some of this is in response to your constituents. The state is like, we need to know what's really going on because this has happened for us and ain't happening.
In the nation's capital.
So they think that they're not they think that they're playing koy and even Senator Booker was like, we need more information.
Interesting, according to the reporting there, there is no definitive response on what these drones are. And I think to Angela's point, This is where you see local and state
government at odds with federal government. The federal government has come out and said that according to what they've seen in their investigation and they're talking to people, that some of these things are not even drones, Like some of these things are people seeing regular aircraft, or some of them are stars, or they have not met the definition of a drone. And honestly, if I saw something fly over my head, I don't know if I would immediately
be able to recognize it as a drone. I don't know if you remember this, Angela, when we were on vacation on Machete Vaka, there was a drone that flew over, or we were all sitting out by the pole and there was a drone that flew over. So I think we have to know drones or things that people get for Christmas, you know, like they could be teenagers operating these drones if they are manned. I wanted to get
my nephew a drone for Christmas. So we really don't know, but I think it is reminiscent of the spy balloon that it did turn up to be linked to China, and we do quite frankly have adversarial governments who are very curious about what happens here in the country. We as black people, have an innate sense of distrust with the government of people coming out to see and look for all the people who are concerned that the drones are spying on us and what are they, you know,
getting from us. I just want to let you know, this right here already has a lot right away. Basically, this is your drone and so you know, I don't want to speculate on what this is. One I don't know, and two you know, we have not heard official response yet that that everybody seems to agree on.
Three.
Uh, we we cannot link this to any particular adversarial government at this time. But I just want to re flex to people. I understand why you might be concerned when you see something flying over your home. A lot of times and we've seen these things, it comes out like, oh, the military was, you know, testing new equipment in this area, and that's been linked to a lot of the UFO sightings.
You know, So we basically we don't know. But I think that the question of homeland security is a legitimate one. I don't know if drones are the thing I'm most concerned about when it comes to homeland security, but that is definitely something that we should consider, even a drone.
Crazy that I'm like really too obsessed with this show that I'm watching right now that you and I both are watching well on television.
I know you're gonna say, lyon ass can I say, I'm three, I have not finish season two, so please don't want.
You should get it out the diplomat.
Should I were to believe what happens on this show, basically like everything from the government is a bit of up to huge and that there's always something there there, which frankly has turned out to be the case over the arc of history. Drugs, CIA, Connection, d DA, DA DA shows get made and then there's a big disconnect from it. What concerns me, I think is like the
absence of definitiveness from the government. Why can't we just say these are non threatening and while we may not be able to identify exactly what they are, what we can rule out is but they were very much so prepared to tell us about not only the spyplane but also the drones associated with it. They knew that there were an intrusion of another foreign government surveillance apparatus in the United States atmosphere. These drones fly at such a
low level. Do they evade detection? Can they be seen by American satellites that normally observes air traffic in this country? If air traffic could have been bought to a halt in this country after nine to eleven, if you bring air traffic to a halt right now, would drones be shot out of the sky? Would they still be allowed to move around again? At heights that are taller than some of the largest buildings that we know in this country.
So the absence of information, and again I will attribute this to the fact that I'm obsessed with television right now that talks about the undermining of of of what.
Happens and how they manipulate the news already known, Yeah, but they will literally plant something in the news story talked about the American.
Response to her as an evasion.
There's also a lot of right wing bullshit in that show that we can It's still a good show, but I'm like, I hear you that being said.
Bullshit or not, it certainly has my spidy senses up about whether or not what we get from the government is true, or whether there's more than me, like.
The Transformers is more than me.
Now, I just I'm just fascinated because I have been you know, I'm a church kid, y'all, and I've been saying it's the last and evil days like those things. So I'm like, are is there some arm again?
And stuff?
Like what are we on? Because it does seem like, by the way, you know, I'm not saying he's the Answi Christ, but it seemed like the anti Christ might just got elected.
Yeah. So I actually have a cousin who said that when Obama she wouldn't go for Obama because the word anti Chris Christ.
So she was not biblically accurate.
I would like to talk to you because it's very clearly a white man you could look at what we're part of the.
World's grandmother last days we were. When I was three, I remember being petrified that that was go come home and the war was going but it's.
Going to be caught up in the rapture or left.
Fine, yeah, and then I went again and then I was like, I'm here, what's going on? It was a big field.
Well, okay, all that to say y'all.
We don't know what the hell is going on with the els.
We don't know, But I shouldn't have laughed because maybe it is serious.
We literally, I mean, we literally have no idea, that's the quest.
But I should we be nervous that we're not getting more from the.
Yes, I think we should be nervous about the multiple threats that exist to the United States, which are not specific to drones.
That's right.
You know, we agree that we are in the cross of a lot of people and exactly, well, we talked about the phones songs, but also according to the US Intelligence under the Biden administration and under the Trump administration during his twenty sixteen years, the biggest threat to national security were white supremacists organizations. Yeah, so we have enemies to the north, enemies to the South, enemies domestically by the way, right, exactly, enemies within.
Like relations and Obama.
Okay, yeah, but but even like just individual bad actors who aim to sow chaos in the country, and also structural bad actors outside of the country, who you know, played a long game and have a long memory of things that America has done to them. When nine to eleven happened on domestic land. It was like the world stopped.
And I think we have to consider a nine to eleven is happening somewhere across this globe on a regular basis, from Gaza to the continent, to areas in South America to Haiti, and so I'm like braced all the time for what might be coming down the pike when it comes to our national security. And it's not it's not like I can't function, but it is. It is an awareness that I think a lot of us lack.
That's the thing too, I will just say androduces a quick point. I feel like we constantly and I'm saying we as a collective, not on this show, but we as a collective. We also don't understand this severe, this severity of miss and disinformation. Like part of I think the hysteria around the drone conversation is all of the rumors, all of what people are identifying with no you know, they don't have any background in this space to be
identifying these things. You ain't got it ain't even got a telescope and you gotta telescope.
But you know, to speak to to speak to eyewitnessing and the power of an individual experience is for instance, most crimes in this country don't get solved without eyewitnesses, people having given testimony to what they saw at the time. That may not have been significant on its own, but in the context of what's going on, it's like, oh, now,
this makes sense. And so I am slow to underestimate or undermine the experiences that we get, the stories that are told, the images that we see from regular everyday people, because quite frankly, it's been every day regular people that have bust the cap off of a lot of stuff that higher powers would have preferred, frankly to keep secret or to make sure is on. I mean, think about alien you know sightings, if you will, or foreign space and air traveling devices that we would not have known
otherwise about. They could have been military experiments, it could have been training exercises, it could have been any of that. But they're not broadcasting that to us. It's people who were there can lay witness to it, took video and then we got to see and then guess what. The government then comes out later and says this was going on, this was going on, that's going on the absence of transparency.
The government at least should know. In this example and in many others, I don't know, really, I don't know that it serves the country well for this many days to pass, for this many questions to be out there, And I think it can be instructive to an enemy potentially that no answers are being given. And so how long can I actually be in US airspace and conduct this kind of surveillance if it is or otherwise without it gaining the kind of alarm that you wouldn't typically
think something like this would gain. Again, I'm not a conspiracy theorist necessarily, but I do know that it's been people who had blown the top off of a lot of stuff through through bearing witness that we can credit for what we know today.
I just wonder about, Yes, transparency with the American people in our government is something we should demand at all times.
We pay for it.
I look at the dumbing down of the American electorate that we're dealing with, and I am a bit concerned about creating mass hysteria. But this is I mean, as it is happening now, But I don't know what creates. More like, let us figure out exactly what this is first, But if they have none.
But if the government doesn't know, I would beg the question for me, how it is that flying vehicles that are not planes wherever sanctioned in the first place, if you don't have a radar systematic track, is faster? It correct? But also regulation can slow that down quite precipitously if it chooses to. It could say.
Technology moves faster in legislation.
I agree with you, but I'm saying at this point, first of all, jones have been around long enough, and the fact that they are getting larger they can be.
And more sophisticated. Though, That's what I'm saying, like, maybe these are drones that are somehow new technology that's undetectable by you know, the most the fancies of America.
The reasons tell asking the questions do we believe.
I'm curious for both of y'all, do we actually believe that the American government does not know or do they know? And they're trying to manage perception.
And again, my Lioness experiences is that they.
Lioness fictional experience.
You got to watch.
Emulating art.
I'm going to tell you one of the things that Secretary of Pete said in the interview was that there are thousands of things in the United States like airspace every day, and so even if you do have the technology to watch them, what is the thing that signals that it's a threat?
And that I think is the backup.
Now, not to get too far in the weeds, but like Homeland Security, you know staff or not at the department, but on the committee, and the amount of rigamarole around how they're spending research and development dollars and what companies are getting these RFPs and who's writing the RFPs to even discover any of this, how they're working with schools and centers of excellence to determine what the next frontier
on research to be. So much of that money is wasted with government contractors that are just plugging their old friends from folks that they used to work with, rather than really going into the very thing that we need.
So it could be way behind the So could believe that congressional committees may be on the latter end of hearing about what is.
I wouldn't say that, no, I just can't share wholesale, We just can't share it.
I think that the executive operates in a way that I think there is a lot of range there, and I think there's also a lot of range to what the story ultimately becomes that gets told by the executive branch.
I think that's fair. But classified documents are classified documents.
And I will tell you I was surprised to hear National security advisors say that these are manned aerial vehicles.
I was surprised to hear that. So that means they know they know enough.
And maybe I don't know if that was something he disclosed that he wasn't supposed to, that was you know, that was originally classified.
But I'm just saying that alone. Says that you should have some type of ability to see.
And I don't believe that they don't. She says that, I think that they aren't saying, and there lies the problem.
Well, they need to classify it here and briefing something on it, and hopefully he comes they declassify it. Yeah, even declassification is decided up on above our pay grade.
There is also a possibility, maybe even a probability, that there are functions of this government that function outside of the right, outside of the parameter. It's like, perhaps the true power brokers are, you know, the people we don't know about that.
She's ye know what I'm saying, But this is true. There are so many people that are put like.
People are mad at President Biden regularly for things that his very senior staff are advising him to do.
Some things that he's never touching every day.
He can't the number of things that the president of the United States has to has to do, it is impossible for him to do that.
That is why the staff is so large. That is why the cabinet is so large.
Yeah, I think I think what you're getting at is that there are operations that are undertaken, very important and serious ones sledge of those who we elect to. The reason why we have an elected president is because we didn't want to leave.
It to politics.
There are quasi governmental entities that are venture capital funds for research and development purposes like they literally they have they have codified them, they were legislated. All of that exists, And that is true that that very rarely reaches the President's desk or the cabinet until they're ready to roll out there and.
Other things that are stricterranean that we may know anyway, So you have been exposed to at least part of a conversation that can lead us down.
A whole Uh showed him some money because.
But is bom uh tiff Yes, where we're going from here to a break? Break? That's where we're going, all right, So.
On the other side of the break, I there's you had a question about the electoral college, and Angela, I think you're gonna answer that. Yeah, So I want to hear that.
M hm.
Greeting's Native Land podcast.
What's going on?
Andrew Gillam my political correct brother. Hey, Tiffany Cross, my peace making sister, and to Angela rah, my militant sister. My name is Keith.
I'm from DC.
I got a favorite ask. I need you to help me.
How can I approach presenting an electoral college revision that I have idea that I have to the Congress. How can you help me get on the floor of the Congressional to make my case for the American people to change the electoral college from all a none situation to a percentage and to recalibrate how we do the per rep allocation as far as population, I think it should based on a smaller state, which is Wyoming, and that everybody should get a rep for every five and eighty
thousand population that they have in their state. Yes, this will increase the electorals across the country for a bunch of states. My name is Keith. I appreciate you taking my video.
Thank you. Be blessed Angela. This is clearly one for you. But I think Keith got our signs wrong. Tiffany is not a piece maker, Keith. I'm trying to figure them.
About.
Okay.
Well, first and foremost, Keith, we appreciate your question. This is the second time you've been on the program. We are grateful for your return. Inn Lpfam.
I would just say that I don't know of any way to get.
A person, not just you, but a person onto the floor of Congress to present such proposals. I will say that in order for the Constitution to be amended, it does take an Act of Congress, a supermajority of the House and the Senate, or state conventions.
Yes, state convention. So I think that that is a tall order.
I would say more than revising the electoral college, I think this group collectively agrees with abolishing the thing. One thing that may be working in your favor for any proposal around electoral college changes is the fact that Jamie Raskin is now the incoming ranking member for the Judiciary Committee, and before he was a member of Congress, he actually had a whole proposal for what should happen with the electoral college and it being abolished.
Yeah, I have to tell you, in all honesty, I just don't see any movement in that direction until both political parties feel that they're at a disadvantage to that system. Until that happens, which Republicans are not going to be close to app to doing because they're the ones who benefit most from the existing system. But unless they come together, there's no way you get to those of the legislatures in this country to move in that direction, even toward
a convention, constitutional convention, toward that kind of change. I do think that shouldn't squeil quail our advocacy to round what's right. I just think the change is likely to happen when both parties determine it to be a political disadvantage.
Do you guys think that, let's say that Donald Trump looks like he's getting rid of the FBI as we know it, they come together and say we actually want to abolish the electoral college.
What else do you do?
You think they would need to do to start lining up votes of the disadvantage the least of these some folks who are the people of color.
I think that if they start doing things that are bold.
Like that, where it looks like, oh, all the places where y'all have been locked out or been systematically disenfranchised or targeted, we're taking these.
Things out, I think they make some real big inroads doing that.
I don't think so, I could see it, but yeah, but I do think that that is a sweet spot if you have a change agent and the white host who's prepared to say, let's turn the table all the way over, and that person is able to bring historic opponents of ours to the table just by their person, people who disagree with the idea. But if you disagree with Donald Trump and you're in the Republican Party, that's an obituary, right, I mean, you're signing your death warrant
if you're an elective office. I think he's moved things that way, and I think potentially, should there be convergence on an issue where we can agree, change can't happen. I don't see it happening there again, because the political disadvantage is too much of a downside.
Yeah, like it wouldn't benefit him. I also think for us to really change democracy, we are going to have to tap into those folks who didn't participate, who didn't built disenfranchised. And the issue for a lot of the people who fall in that category is not the electoral college. Like when you start getting deep into policy and like the structure, it's like, look, I don't give a shit about that I'm talking about, Like my neighborhood has been
dilapidated my entire life. This is my grandmama house. We still hear and things look the same. So I don't know if that's what's I don't know.
If you can connection, we have to then make right, Like the reason why we can't get none of what we want, Yes, it is because the system is biased towards us. We have to break it.
Yeah, I agree. I think they would do better with something else other than the electro hall that they're trying to do that, But I don't it's such as.
I layered that in FBI, because FBI.
Is such a far fetched type ofthatical I can't even imagine them doing like they benefit from that, you know, So.
I don't see standard Democrats at this time, with this president being willing to change anything, I think they become apoplectic about change to an institution if it comes from Donald Trump. This is why I think Donald Trump has the potential to hit on some common cause with disenfranchised communities. Be it the right thing. It ain't going to be turning a federal military against Americans or people who were
happened to be brown. But if he found an issue where we could legitimately believe that the outcome will be better for us, I think there's some common cause there. I just justice, I have an ear. I just am not certain if his deconstruction of the Department of Justice as we know it only is to the end that it doesn't get to target him, but that the rest of us continue to be targeting.
There's nothing this administration can say to me that would dear trust or faith. You cannot say in one breath, I am going to turn the US military against American citizens, and then the next breath, I'm going to abol as Fatbi. It doesn't compute for me, it doesn't make any sense. And I think there are pockets of people in this country. We had a debate about this in our group chat about who's considered dumb and who's considered smart. And I have this debate all the time, and I'll be honest,
and sometimes the chiefe stands alone. I might stand alone the day we have to acknowledge there are dumb people in this country. Okay, there are dumb people who made dumb voting choices. Sadly, being ill informed or uninformed is
not a partisan issue. It transcends all socioeconomics. Even when Obama was getting elected, like after the election and pre inauguration, there were so many people who like in sound bites and say like, oh my god, like the streets outside my house are about to be smoother, and you know,
my grandmother, this neighborhood is going to look better. And I remember the Daily Show John Stewart like ransom clips and I'm like, Obama ain't got none new with any of that, you know, And it's okay to acknowledge, Like, yes, people, these things in particular have made us dumber and made us die. I know you may disagree, but it's not just these but everything has just made us dumber. And it's like we have to tap into that curiosity at least so you don't fall for the okie do.
What I would apply is not smart dumb to it, because I think the example you gave is an example of people being like blindly optimistic about the power of government and really the power of a person.
Is that because I'm saying it about Obama, though, what about these Trump people.
Would be the same, right? I think there is a vision, there's an optimism that they have for the change they want to see happen in their lives, which is without regret, which is without regard to what you may ascribe to that person. Obama had the benefit of when he ran that we all projected onto He was a whiteboard and
we projected our highest hopes, dreams, possibilities. He could have almost talked about nothing but hope and change, and we would have still said he is running on this issue, this issue, in this issue, because that's the kind of blind optimism. I think he was afforded, and I think that that exists without regard to partisanship that people when it comes to voting. I think it isn't so much
the ignorance. There couldn't be ignorance around the facts. But what I think there isn't ignorance around is a lived experience and whether or not you think somebody sees you, that's right. And if you think they do, I think we have a higher likelihood of ascribing to them the things that we think they're going.
To do for us.
I agree with that and are then wildly disappointed when that doesn't happen, even though he ain't. Never tell you that.
She did, and he still didn't have any intent on changing it. Like the prices of groceries which we saw recently, Donald Trump.
Completely chip no power over. I will say this, I think we.
Spent a lot of time calling folks dumb when they are smart or have chosen to use their brilliance in different ways, and I think this next question is a good example of that.
Sure.
Hello Native Lampind. My name is Sean Rouge Junior. I'm twenty three years old.
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, and I go to GSU.
I wanted to weigh in on the philosophical question because I'm learning and will continue to learn and truly experiencing that history will always repeat itself through moments of revolution and change, the Haitian Revolution, the Civil War, the Reconstruction, and the Civil rights movement. It has always been bloody. It has always been violence. I truly believe, as not only black people, but as citizens of that and stays, we will be kidding ourselves to not understand that this
nation has been built upon violence. Our freedom has been contingent on violence, and honestly, violence has been a necessity in freedom. The oppressor has always had the upper hand and the oppressed has always been late to the party. But once the oppressed come, we shut it down. It just don't get a little crazy. And what we have to also understand is that the oppressors have built an entire base who has been training their children to.
Be comfortable with guns since out the wound. So we have to be prepared and we have to understand it.
To me, this is about what people choose to use their brilliance on.
Like there are a lot of folks who are the proletariat who were like, oh, they just don't get it.
They just don't know. They just our podcast is above their head.
We're two in the weeds. But they can break down an entire GNX Kendrick Lamar album. They can rock with somebody who is a Pulitzer winning genius. They can figure it out. So you can figure out anything you put your time in your mind to and your energy to. I'm just saying he got a whole theory about why the violent take by force to use a scripture, a whole theory. I'm not calling him done by the way. I'm just saying, like, we use the yeah, how we want to. And so I'm just saying, it's not that
people aren't. It's that they haven't chosen to lean in in a certain way, or they haven't chosen our particular path or don't have our particular POV, either by experience or because lack of research or whatever. But to me, it was just an interesting, Okay, you got a whole theory about why this went down this way. I still don't support.
Because you said this before when we were talking about is it safer in the shallow or the deep? And I kept saying, like, you know, whatever examples I kept giving, you were like, this is the third time that you've like equated deep with like a certain level of intellect, you know, And I was like, oh, that is true. I didn't mean to do that. I think this might be a little different, to be clear, When I like
this man's like, I like what he's saying too. So we're just using him as an example to make a point about where people because he's clearly using his brilliance in a way like historically, Like he just dropped a whole word right there.
Even with his last question, like he's a very smart student, Like yeah.
I will still be the cheese that stands alone and say, yes, there are people who have brilliance in all areas. There are people like you know I've said there are people who can name every senator on Capitol Hill. I don't think they're brilliant, Like you didn't worked up there twenty years. Yeah, you ought to be able to name every center there, Like right, that's information, that's a muscle memory that you've you have the ability to collect information rights.
Right.
That's not where I'm saying brilliance to me. Curiosity is that's enough right there. Curiosity is enough right there for me to say, at least you are curious enough to care about something. What I'm seeing more and more people lack of curiosity to care about anything. It is the selfie generation. It is the generation that I can build an empire to myself because social media has democratized everything,
including who gets to believe they are his celebrity. It is the generation of I care more about my lashes than I do about policies that impact my life. And when I see that, I confront it, when I've interacted with it, when I've had conversations with it, and I'm just like, this is the continuing dumbing down of the American people. It's not because I don't even think if you didn't vote, you know, not smart. I don't think that, Like I completely acknowledge there are so many intellectual people.
Somebody who I think is so intelligent and has such interesting perspectives and things to say because I've spoken to him privately and I watch him publicly. It's plies like I know applies as like, oh, some silliness on. But when that brother starts talking about policy and things that he cares about, I'm like, that's a good ass point. Like some of the things he's saying is things that
I had not thought about. And I know that specific to politics, but there are other things that people can talk to me about that I just find them so like you're curious, like you've taught me something.
The cleverness of it is the ability to take because he doesn't exit his lane. He's still showing, and not just him. There are others. When she was talking about when she talked me about her, I was just like, holy, like she has social security because she took what is largely complex yes, with many layers to it, and went dead ass to the point yes. And people who do that,
I think that is a skill. Now, what I also think is the value judgment on positive, negative, smart, dumb, those sort of paradigms that we find ourselves is probably less helpful in trying to understand I think human experience. It sounds me, but I just mean I think in trying to trying to really understand where people are, where they're coming from, I think it's less useful in the sense that I used to. I remember as a mayor is will come in to contact with people who wanted
me to get there so security checks. They want me to solve this problem. So I'm thinking, now, this ain't got nothing to do with local government. This that and the third Now that didn't mean that we didn't activate to try to get in connection with the right people. So they were absent certain knowledge about the process, but
their need was very clear. And that's sort of how I've started to see most people as people activate from a place of need, what their need and what they want is, and even are asked for people to be curious. I hate to repeat this line, but it's also a bit of a luxury in the sense that most people time, attention effort is occupied by the thing that concerns them, confronts them the most, and most of those things are really basic in nature. But basic doesn't mean accessible, right
it is. So, for instance, I'm mostly concerned out my children, the kids they're coming in contact with, how to hell I'm gonna deal with these cell phones and their tablets right now from the standpoint of just negotiating, And I realize that even what I'm right now articulating as a really big key concern is very different than how somebody
else's more basic function or need might be. So I would say, when I refer to a more basic need that someone would have, it's Maslow's hierarchy, not whether my kid's tablet is going to drive them off in a direction to become awful humans and who they're being taught by that are not me and their mom and their teachers. But as far as I'm concerned, if you debase that, and you delegitimize that, then I can't hear you because you can't see me first. And I think that's where
we are with the larger public. If we delegitimize certain things, than anything we say following is of no sense and no importance because we haven't seen them first. And I think that our that.
Happened with the election in the economy, you know, like in a in a like an alarming way, So anybody who even had curiosity turned off, like you're telling me this economy is great, My eggs are eleven dollars.
You know, that's an area where I'm ignorant. I can't really always tell you what the economy is. And I would argue most people can't because right like what is the economy? And most people they were they were economy is the markets?
That's right.
There was a macro economy issue and versus a micro economy.
Issue, and there was a complete.
Blind spot by the people that we vote for on the micro economy. Speaking of being micro, we're going to be extra micro and takes.
A break out such a that connection is really important. Lost it getting up here talking about with the best economy, the highest value we navigating. We were doing that, No, not us talking about but we also didn't call it that in the moment.
I didn't.
We also didn't call it in the moment.
Which was we did sometimes I was just keep rolling.
I just I just think it was an important point you just brought out about the blind spot that happened there and the fact that none of us called I don't think we called it out as loudly and proudly as we should have in real time because you telling me how good we navigated COVID, yes versus other developed nations?
Is somebody still died in your family?
Were still are you saying that we rebounded quicker and faster and didn't go to the depth of my friend we.
Got that PPP loan is now facing prosecution because they just followed.
They listened to somebody who told them.
Everybody that got PPP loans and did it ethically or illegally didn't do that on purpose. Some of them were told that they could get this support its available to them.
Yeah, Ignorance to the law, unfortunately, is no defense, right defense exactly. And I have a lot of ignorance to laws, you know, And it's terrifying. Well, I mean for me, I, you know, having come from below the poverty line, and then you start getting checks that are you know, big,
and ain't no taxes coming out, you know. Even I'll tell y'all, when I first started getting checks and taxes were coming out, I had that mentality that I'm not paying this mortgage until I absolutely have to pay this mortgage. I'm not gonna pay this light bill until it's absolutely time.
In my twenties, I think I waited until if it was due on the fifteenth, I'm gonna pay it on the fifteenth, because the mentality was anything could pop off at any minute, and I might need this money, right, and if I got savings, you have, it's safer right here, right. And if I gotta choose between helping my mom with something paying his light bill, I'll light some candles to make sure that mom A's gonna be okay.
I'm gonna get enough grace with the company. They're gonna give me fifteen more days, and by then I'm gonna turn another miracle. Yeah.
And at the end of that fifteen days, I mailed the check I don't know what, and then another fifteen days like Okay, I'm gonna come down there, but I got a flat tire I'm paying for, you know, like you learn.
A when you have to.
I do want to be clear, I'm not talking about because I hear you, I hear your point. I'm not talking about people with access. I'm talking about privileged people who choose ignorance.
You know, their choices. I'm not gonna but I don't know you have the greater the luxury is.
And that is the part that's frustrating to me, because I listen to people and it's like, and I know I have ignorances.
You know.
I'll tell you somebody who I feel like he frequently talks over my head and I make myself watch him over and over. John Oliver. John Oliver. Yes, he's a comedian, but he's really smart from a global perspective. I have to watch his shows two or three times to understand it. Some of these are yes, yeah, yeah. The things he talks about, like and he dumbed, And I always tell people, dumb it down. For me, I learned that way. Dumb it put it in the most basic terms for me.
I'll even say, explain it to me, like you explain it to a five year old. I don't have no ego around that, Like, just give it to me the way I can take it. I'm talking about people who have access to all of that and you want to you know, post Jo, I'm voting sticker because it's cool and it's cute, but you don't really you ain't really
out here in this game. I'll say, Angela. A lot so many people, young people, but even like peers, I think they have a desire to do what you do, you know, And I'll ask, well, what does Angela do that? What are you trying to do that Angela does. They have a desire to be the exterior her, but they do not have the desire to do the work, you know. They don't have the desire to be up calling people, ask them to sign on to those legislations. They don't
have the desire to door knock. They don't have the desire to work on Capitol Hill when it ain't glamorous, you know. But they do have the desire to walk on the red carpet, to date who you dated, you know, to look how you look them anyway. But that's that is the thing they desire the business. And I can say that was never your desire. You know, your desire
wasn't to be like but right, your desire. You didn't want to become the governor of Florida because you want a private driver and because you you know, because you wanted like to live in the governor's.
Man and wife. When we were trying to talk to the State security about what life was supposed to look like, She's like, I'm driving my own kids to school. I don't know what they're driving right right, You're like, Jay, No, I'm like, there are other considerations here, but these were things I hadn't thought about. So you're right, those are the people.
Wasn't an ambition when I say dumb, like, those are the people I'm talking about, because it's like you just out here just even I don't know if I want to like y'all. Just don't like the word done. I don't think you know what it is.
It is.
It flattens nuance, and I think I think what bothers me the most about it?
Even when I say it it is late.
It's a lazy approach for me because now the same curiosity that you want them to use, we're not using about them.
I do use that curiosity, I probe. I ask people all the time, but where did you get that from? Where did you hear that?
She?
But I'm saying like when now? But now there's a blanket dumb. Right, let's say there's a blanket dumb attached to them. There may be other reasons, like maybe somebody said they wanted to do a carpet because when it was little, they Daddy told them they were never going to be nothing, and that was their way to show them that they were going to be something.
I'm not saying that that is the look at her face.
I mean, because I don't know.
It also.
Trauma that doesn't absolve you from the lack of curiosity and the lack of desire to do the work to do that.
Maybe they just don't know. Maybe the privileges we know, I don't.
Even have to.
I don't think we have to be that graceful about gracious graceful or.
Gracious grateful in her graciousness.
So I don't think we have to. I don't think we have to come up with reasons as to why people make the choices they make, because I think part of our curiosity has to be that they have a reason for I mean, we have to make allowance for the fact that there may be a reason for why this person is so obsessive becoming the next stephalopagus, not all of the lash of the lashes. It's a lot,
it's a lot to have to deal with. But but but as you talk about, can we you know, what about their earlier life experience would have led them to the value that I'm going to place on my brilliance and what I contribute is going to be on my exterior. And you can't read what's in my head, you know, you know, very few people have value for what's in my head. Yeah, And so I've now put value on these sorts of things, and that that choice is a
conscious one and not an unconscious one. I just hate folks moving around your life out.
That was the best way to say it. I just want a conscious choice, not an unconscious conscious choice to remain in a space of ignorance, as I myself have made that conscious choice before, which is not a good elections.
I almost make it you and a lotteral around elections that are lost because I'm going to make the conscious choice not to plug in.
I'm going to tell you where you plugged in.
I laugh at those of you who said this is going to be a forty five minute podcast, because no it is not.
And so now but we are at the forty five minutes, so we can say thank you for listening, we got more stuff. We are.
Only because I was the main one saying we're running out of time, but I push this question and we are okay for a few more minutes.
I appreciate us taking this welcome them home, no pun intended, deepening.
You know, I think it's so important for us to do this because in organic people permission to do the same thing and the thing that I seriously I love about y'all. I hate to say this all the time over and over again, but it's so true. I love that you will stretch me outside of my comfort zone same that it was like, you will push me to be like do we really need it's just done? It's
like I want that nuance. I think it's so important because there are folks dealing with this at home, at work, oh my god, at work after on the other side of it's inauguration. I feel so bad for folks, Like, I mean, it's going to be really brutal.
Sure, I wonder is there a takeaway on this conversation that we can leave I want to be leave it.
Yeah, yeah, I think this is an ongoing conversation. I'm sure y'all got y'all gonna drag me in a comments try. I have a lot of things to say about my thoughts on but I do want to be clear that because someone is and curious and intelligent and not an intellectual doesn't mean you can't be a good person, kind hearted people. And I will say some people I know who are so unplugged have the ability to be kind hearted.
Like sometimes I wake up angry because I know too much, right because I know too much, and I know after the election, even right now, I'm not as plugged in, and I feel less ankst. You know, I just don't have the luxury not of living in a space of ignorance forever. But I do try to understand those people. And when I say, like, you know, there's a lot of dumb people out there, it's not like you're dumb so you don't deserve anything. You're dumb, so you don't
deserve to know me or talk to me. You're dumb, so you don't deserve to have a life of safety and you know of even wealth if you want it. But it is frustrating because your comfortable ignorance makes it so much harder for the rest of us to who really want to do the work. And I'm offended at people who say I want to be like Angela Rye, but you really don't want to, you know, like you want to you want the glory without knowing the full story.
Or even people say, you know, I want to do what you do, and it's like, what do I do? People who think I was on TV given opinions, you know, or when I first got my show, I remember a lot of people saying I want to do that, like you's so lucky. Ain't no luck over here? Like I didn't work there. I've worked in every newsroom, did every shitty assignment, like work for twenty plus years on the right, been working for twenty I want to do what you do.
I want to be governor really you want to run for SDA president, you want to be.
I have a friend who says, Sean, y'all knowman, He says, when you all make it look so easy, everybody thinks they can do it. Yes, and I want to That's true, by the way, for across a lot of fields, a lot of folks look like they are effortless in their brilliance.
But that's also because it's a calling, you know.
I think that I think it's a calling. I also think that these people really really hard and guess what they're they're highlight reel doesn't begin to tell the fact that their overnight story began decades ago. That's right, that you know that this thing, whatever it is that you are are are complimenting at this point and wanted to emulate, didn't begin at the moment you discovered who I was.
Hours ago at least, however, right, but but.
But not now. And if I had a frustration, it is not around the willful ignorance. The wilf ignorance is very frustrating because you know better, my mamma say, you know better, you do better, you know better, and you chose not to do. But it is, it is, it is really reserved for those or for those individuals who
y'all are. I would just describe it as opportunistic and way in such a way that you can absolutely turn off your sympathy, your acknowledgement, you or whatever of this whole big thing that you won't you know, exists, they know better and do wors do worse, right, for opportunistic reasons, you have now turned off.
It's a whole Yeah, it's a whole bunch of frush.
And I'm seeing it now in Florida. And you know, we just had this one. Democrats are already at the bottom with clitical representation, gets elected from a Democratic district that has just switched to a Republican Party turncoat, right, and then you had all these others out there caping, repeating stuff that not only if you were honest about it, would embarrass yourself, but you know it's embarrassing to your mom and your daddy. Yeah, tripling because there's a check
on the other side for you. That that is that burns me. That level of optimism burns me.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I love this conversation because it was an organ it so I know we didn't get the chance to talk about what's next for vice president here is so that's gonna be the first topic when we come back. Yeah, and we'll save that for January. But I want to ask you guys, how you're planning on maintaining your peace because we I mean, buckle up. You know, twenty twenty five is going to be a lot Angela, especially for you, you know, everything you going through with your mom, just
the politics, you know, Andrew for you. I mean, I I was with a friend of mine and his three kids, and I was like, ain't no way, Like I couldn't, I cannot. Anytime one had to go to the bathroom, he would have to get.
All of them gone to take any time after one goes comes back, then the next one, Daddy all have to go.
But they're little, so they all have to go at the same time. And it was stressing me out and me and everything I have going on. So I'm just curious how you are. What is your plan to curate and protect your peace?
Guru of health and well being? You at least tell it you. I don't know how much of it you That's.
What I because the Anzel talks about it. But I'm like, how much of.
That are you really doing well?
I have asked my therapist. I was like, I need to go back to weekly therapy session stopped. Yeah, No, it wasn't on purpose. It was just like it was so so like crazy with like our schedule, it just was impossible to schedule.
So it's supposed to start today.
And speaking of schedule, because we decided to shoot for a full day, I couldn't do it today. So I'm gonna start next Monday. But therapy for sure for the rage that I'm feeling about this election, the betrayal by the country, my own frustrations would just like places where I feel like I shouldn't be, you know, Like I just want to come to terms with that and accept it, and I think the acceptance alone will quiet some of the rage.
I'm not there yet, honestly, Like I just am.
I still am like what if there was what if it was stolen you know, you know, or whatever else, or like why with my mom, I just feel like this time of the year. Last Christmas, we were gearing up for the first Christmas without my grandmother being here anymore. She died one hundred and five the February prior and her birthdays on Christmas, so we did a big Christmas celebration for her. But my mom also wanted a big Christmas because she'd just been diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer.
This Christmas, we were coming into my mom being completely whole and free and now coming back into well, now we have to do a liver biopsy to see if it might have spread. And the anger I feel to the system is like, why wouldn't you do a whole body scan without telling her she's clear, go to rehabilitation. So the thing that has been most joyful for me, and that is the moments for she's just like and I'm so glad you moved back home permanently and not going back and forth.
And that just feels precious. And what is what has been humbling to.
Me about it is for everybody who I couldn't understand prioritizing the election as the most important thing. The moment things shifted with my mom's health, I got it. The moment it shifted, I got it. And so it's it deepened me into compassion for people who it might not
be their parents, it might be their child. It might not be their child, It might be them, you know, it may it may have been a complete destruction on the other side of a hurricane, and we're like, why couldn't you just phoney up and get back home?
Like it just humbled me.
So I think that's where I'm at, just like tapping in with staying human, staying humble, staying available and open and accessible to perspectives and lived experiences that are completely different from mine. I feel like that's the only way to get to the other side.
You know, I'm sorry you feel like that might be where the piece is. On the other if I gotta listen to a bunch of foolishness like that, because that's going to disrupt my peace. No, you're saying you're open, saying open minded to listen to other perspectives. And it's like us is like that.
The suspending of judgment is where the piece is.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
When you suspend with the judgment, I think then you're not you're not let up or let down by what the person that has to say. It is just what they is. It's just what it is, is what it is. And I think for me, you know, early in couples counseling, you know, Jay would uh you know mentioned often to the councilor how you know, I would just sort of and fights, just sort of reserve myself, like not say a whole bunch and let her do the yelling at me.
And then and this, that and the third, and I remember the therapist saying that is still a reaction that even when you're in these fights, these heated moments where you know, maybe the person you're arguing with is is yelling, screaming, you know, looking like they're about to rip your face off. Your choice either not to meet them at that same energy, but you may be meeting them at a different level of energy. And what's your level of energy may be
is dismissal for indifference or all these other things. So you are having a reaction, and just because you may not be emoting that reaction doesn't mean you're not having one. And I think what I would and what that leads to, let me finish the thought. What that leads to is these explosive moments where I have a real big reaction, real big feeling. And it isn't that moment that I'm
dealing with currently that is causing it. It is the build up of all those moments where my choice of a reaction was okay, all right, and then that thing is through and over with because I know I'm angry. I know that there is a stirring in me, even at the point that I am choosing to keep it under wraps, and that's not helpful to my that's not helpful to my spirit, my physical health, it's bad for
your physical health. It's not helpful to me mentally in some ways because I never get allow myself constructive release. The release is almost going to when it comes, is going to be one that's explosive and likely not for the moment that I'm in. The reaction is not going to meet the moment that I'm in. It's going to
be explosive to the moment that I'm in. So in this conversation around sort of hire you better taking care of yourself mental and so for me, it's going to be trying to say the thing when I'm feeling it, and that still doesn't mean it has to be loud and explosive, but it could be a release rather than a bottling up, and that I think that will help me health wise, personal health wise, but also my mental
state as well. And trying to be as present as I can in these moments, which again they say with kids that the days are long, but the years are short. As I look at my daughter's skyrocketing in her height and my son, you know, having intelligent conversations. You know, as he's playing the game boy over the phone, I'm listening to them like way to ease dropping, And I'm like, god, wait, that's I'm proud of you. Good thought. You know that
that kind of thing. But that just in a flick a flicker of the light, that they'll be grown and gone right, and so that will bring me. I know that there's added piece to that as well.
I tell you real quick, just real quick, because you brought up physical health on this physical health moment and even talk about my mom, think about my mom. I am overdue of just being accountable to the NWP FAM overdue from mammogram. But I have one that I need to get scheduled. I'm doing a colonoscopy. They say that we don't need them until we're fifty. The devil is a liar that cancer is spreading at much younger ages.
We should do that. Then.
That's all because I went to a physical, got my physical, and that's those are the things they recommended.
So I highly encourage everybody to do that.
Also saw cardiologist doctor Puma in New York shout out to Lenard for the plug. My I was like, I'm worried because my my LDL cholesterol levels are high in these full lab panels, which I also understand is a privilege. So I'm acknowledging that it's not my cholesterol that's the problem. It's my very consistent high blood pressure that's the problem. So it's pre hypertension. So in the midst of us trying to protect our peace, there is a physical reasons why we have to protect our path.
Yeah.
I think that's what both of you guys said. It's so good, you know what you said though, that struck me most about judgment, suspending judgment, and I think I don't believe people when they say don't have judgment, Like I think we just judge maybe different things. I know I judge myself the harshest. So when you were saying that, I was like, yeah, I like, who do I judge?
It's like, oh, me, Like, I judge myself the harshest for sure, And so I think my piece has to come internally, like I you know, I don't believe, and I'm so angry and not having a response. You know, I was very angry this month at someone and I to me, it's like, well, don't even say anything. Like they don't deserve your response, Like to me, that's ego, Like if I don't get I have all this rage inside me and it needs to be positive. Somewhere where
is the dignity? And I'm just gonna walk away silently and not say anything like no, I want you to know. I think you're a shitty person for doing this thing, you know, and I want you to see the pain that you caused. I want you to see the trust you violated. I want you to hear it. And when you don't do that, I mean, it produces cortisole in your body, which causes inflammation, which causes illness, you know.
And so I think what I'm concluding is I have to curate spaces around me that do not invite toxicity and be responsible for that. I don't owe anybody my piece, whether we're blood related or not. I can cut off a relationship that doesn't service either of us, you know, all of those things on my phone, As y'all know, I've been on my phone a lot lately, and I
have felt it, you know. Again, I'm looking at puppy videos for hour, these vegan videos, and it's like you could be reading, you could be writing, you could be walking, so really trying to do better with that. I was doing well for a while. I'm not now, And it's like, just stay away when you want to. You don't owe anybody at peace. You don't owe anybody an explanation, like you grown like you were off the grid for twenty four hours and that's what it was. And then letting
the tears flow when they need to. My therapists keep telling me I have a problem with tears. I don't feel like I do, but she says no, like you like to talk it through and you try to like get it together. But that's because I'm paying for this session. I could cry at home. Let's get to this, you know, like let me swallow this, just get out what I'm gonna say. I'm gonna cry when I leave. So yeah, I haven't figured it all out, but those are things
that I'm thinking about, you know, twenty twenty five. Can I go and putting things in their proper context because I'm also very regimented. I'm very detailed, and so had you said today like hey guys, we need to push taping time back or we're gonna take Tuesday instead, that would send me like, oh, I'm like, my anxiety is through the roof now, and I plan my days meticulously. I even put on there, like from nine to twelve, I'm writing, you know, and so trying to manage that.
You know, with anybody, if you say, hey, let's meet at four o'clock and I'm there at four o'clock and you show up at four twenty, I got an attitude because I'm like, I could have sent that email, I could have done laundry, I could have done this, you know, all the things I was rushing to get here, so all these little things to seem to be eating away at my piece. So I don't know, I'm figuring it out. You guys gave some good input, but those are just
some things that I'm trying to do. But I'm open to suggestions.
I'm trying to contribute to your piece and be more on time this year.
Then well I was late today, so you were, yeah, But I don't even mean this like that can be you know, I'd be late. No, But that's like mildly frustrating. Frustrating is if you're like, tip, let's get something to eat, let's meet at four, and I'm sitting there at the spot and you ain't there at.
Four o clock. But I mean that too, I mean for the podcast, and generally I'm track it off. Why showing up, Probably.
Because were leaving together, even making me late. So yeah, that's good.
I try to.
But your point where you were was you were inviting other feedback I think from folks.
I want to hear from how other people are maintaining their peace.
Tell me you're going to get your mammogram and your colons. I want to hear about that.
And you can't know about the colon. I've never had a column.
I've never had one either.
You do it? Yeah, I will.
Why don't we all do them together? I mean not in the same moment, you guys, let's all get them.
We're broadcasting live on the podcast, all of us together.
No, And I think I'll keep my motey to myself, but I would like to say that we would.
We are.
I think we're all committing to doing that. We are going into Can we commit to the first quarter of the new year?
My daughter can get me on you look at it well, because I don't know for other reasons which I will share offline.
Okay, okay, all right? Heard, Well, we're gonna try.
Yeah, we'll try. I exactly. I'm not afraid to do like I want to. It's some other issues, understand.
All right, y'all, this has been a real episode. We should take a breath together when we're not recording.
Umb holding Umbo holding hold y'all, don't know that.
Peace be still. I know that that sounds like Tina also known as Angela Bassett.
Yes, that was Numbia holding Tina Turner. What's love got to do with it?
What?
Remember she was? She was talking about Laurence Fis versus. I don't do that, Jackie.
You don't know how many days is?
How many?
Oh? How about this? There are six hundred and eighty four days to the midterm elections. Y'all. As always, we thank you, thank you, thank you for being a community with us. During today's episode. I thought it was particularly special. It's specially always being with these two. We also want to remind you to please rate, review, subscribe to Native Lampard, which you can find anywhere you listen to your podcast,
follow us on social media. It makes it really really easy, by the way, when you become a subscriber for other folks to find us on thost various platforms, So do do do subscribe? We are Andrew Gillum Angela R.
With the gumbling tell me yes, no, no, but.
Mine was loud okay, and know we about to go chout down and we want to say again to you welcome home as well, y'all.
Thank you for joining the Natives. Attention to what the info and all of the latest regulum and cross connective to the statements that you leave on our socials. Thank you sincerely for the faces. Reason for your choice is clear. So grateful to execute roles for serve, defend and protect the truth. Walko home to all of the Natives.
Wait, thank you, Welcome, Welcome.
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