Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Let me talk about talk.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Here we go, he said, he live in life as
a ringo, where you question where you fit in. Every
time you mingle, they say you do this with not
of that my rape ingo.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yes, hello, and welcome to another episode of Life as
a Gringo. I am Drambos, of course, and it's Thursdays.
I mean it's time for our Thursday Trends episode flying
solo on today's show. But man, what a a week
of events that it's been. I think, as is typical
unfortunately in the news cycle, the world that we live in,
(00:47):
I guess life in general, you can have these beautiful
moments of celebration, or at least a lot of people
are celebrating in the former. One of the stories that
we're going to be talking about today with President Biden
dropped out of the upcoming presidential election, him not seeking
re election and endorsing his vice president Kamala Harris as
(01:09):
the potential Democratic nominee, and a lot of great responses
around that, which we'll get into. And then one of
the other stories, unfortunately, on the flip side of it,
a story that has been far too common is a
unnecessary death at the hands of police and is a
(01:36):
stark reminder I think of the world that we still
live in. As much as we get these little tidbits
of progress, and they are beautiful moments, there's also just
so much work to be done. So we'll dive into
both of those and then on a positive note, and
(01:58):
Aurmi hint. That said, we'll talk about a new short
film that apple Is is bringing out that is based
on I guess a. I'm not Mexican, so I'm not
completely verse on this, but based on a Mexican game
that a lot of people play growing up. Either way,
great representation for our communities as a whole, so we'll
(02:22):
honor that. And then for our ask a Getting segment,
I'll get y'all's take on one of the topics at hand.
But before that, man, let's let's just try dive into
the nonsense the bs as we always do in a
segment called for the people in the back say a lot.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
For the people in the say a lot of the
people in the say a lot of the people in the.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
All right, so we'll start in a lighter place here.
One of the big stories obviously coming out of this
last week. It happened over this last weekend, you had
President Biden announcing that he would no longer be seeking
reelection and that he was putting his endorsement behind Vice
President Kamala Harris. Now, if you've been listening to this
(03:15):
podcast or even just obvious on the Internet in general,
a lot of people yours truly, were calling for Biden
to step down and to stop seeking reelection, especially after
that debate performance, but even before then. And it sucks
that it took this long, because you know, really there's
(03:38):
only weeks left in the campaign trail. Essentially, if I'm
not mistaken, early voting begins at the end of September,
so really not much time to kind of formulate a
campaign for the Democrats and do all the things necessary
and needed to potentially win this upcoming election. And I
(04:01):
think part of that blame is both on Democrats and
Joe Biden as as a whole, who were not listening
to their constituents, the people calling for something new, something different.
And I think the reaction we've seen from Kamala Harris
being announced as Joe Biden's would be predecessor, potentially the
(04:24):
excitement and energy has completely sort of flipped on its head,
and the momentum has gone in favor of the Democrats.
I mean, Kamala Harris has raised one hundred and twenty
six million dollars in donations since Sunday, and this includes
eighty one million dollars in just the first twenty four
hours since Biden's exit, making it the largest one day
(04:47):
fundraising hall for any candidate, according to the campaign. And
I think that really speaks to how frustrated people were
that the Democrats were were wheeling out Old Joe again
and how he was really digging his foot his toe
(05:07):
or whatever the saying is into the dirt and not
wanting to bow out gracefully. Right, and again, the will
of the people having been done, and we're seeing this
(05:28):
positive reaction to it for the most part. Right, obviously
it's gonna be the naysayers, but for the most part,
it's re energized the Democratic base, you know. And on
the other side of that, I have to give respect
where respect is due, right, I mean, let's be real,
we all have egos, and to publicly have to sort
(05:51):
of admit defeat in this manner and to publicly have
to step down if you were so adamant that you
weren't going to and that you were the best person
for the job. Joe Biden put his own personal ego
aside and put the country first, and to that I
really do respect him. I can only imagine how difficult
(06:11):
it was to make that decision, to understand the ridicule
that is probably going to come as a result of that,
and also maybe the question marks that some may place
on your legacy. But truthfully, I think this sort of
is a differentiating factor between Democrats and Republicans as a whole.
(06:34):
And I'm speaking generally here, but the Democrats, when push
comes to shove, and they're not perfect by any stretch
of the imagination, by any metrics, really, though, when push
comes to shove, they have proven they will not only
respect democracy, but they're going to put the best interests
(06:55):
of the country first. Donald Trump, without a doubt, would
never have done this right. In fact, many could argue
he sort of held his party hostage and beat them
into submission of having to back him, essentially, And I
think that's the glaring difference, you know, And I hear
(07:16):
other people's sort of arguments on the this whole thing, right,
the Democrats that other Democrats who maybe Kamada wasn't your
first choice, And to be quite honest, she wasn't my
first choice either. At Gavin Newsom would have been my
first choice, and I get how you could have wanted
to have a regular process. And technically speaking, she is
(07:40):
not the official candidate just yet, although according to a
AP survey, they're saying that she has secured enough support
from Democratic delegates to become the party's nomination. But I
do understand the frustration that maybe some people on the
left who tend to vote that our feeling where it's
(08:01):
like you're getting this candidate pushed on you. And I
think a lot of people also pointing to the twenty
twenty election where she dropped out of the race fairly early.
And I hear that, I see that. I think we
have to keep two things in mind here. A what's
(08:22):
at stake for our country in this election. I mean,
there's already been tons of talk about that project twenty
twenty five and you can look that up, and so
many scary things and ideals that are being pushed within that.
I mean, shit, the R and C, the Republican National Convention,
scary ideals being pushed, a lot of hate still being
(08:44):
pushed I can't remember the congressman's name, but one of
the Republican congressmen talking about a potential civil war. Just
a lot of really negative rhetoric, obviously a lot of
anti immigrant talk happening from the Republicans, and I think
(09:06):
we have to really take into consideration the repercussions of
this election. And I'm not saying we have to be
happy about it right, happy about the position that we
find ourselves in, but I think, as in anything in life,
you can't be fixated on the idealized version of how
you want things to be. That doesn't mean you don't
(09:28):
do the work, it doesn't mean you don't do your
best to try to get there, but you also have
to live in the real world and make decisions based
upon real world circumstances. And the real world circumstance here
is that the Republican Party has gone off the rails
(09:49):
and are really trying to push forward an incredibly hateful
agenda that would set this country back and maybe not
even leave us with a real country moving forward. There's
already in a lot of acknowledgment and you know, backpadding
(10:09):
of dictators throughout the world and implications of Donald Trump
loving that idea right him him celebrating people like Putin
from Russia, and that's really what's at stake. And I
think what is happening with the Democratic Party because of
the time constraints, any would be potential Democratic candidates are
(10:37):
kind of just falling in line because they understand that
for the greater good of the mission of this country,
of this experiment that is United States of America, the
best thing to do in this sort of time constraint
we find ourselves in is to all get behind Kamala
(10:58):
Harris and do our best to get her into office,
because again, we've already seen what happens with a radicalized
Supreme Court like we have. You know, we have a
split between the House and the Senate of one being
controlled by Democrats, one being controlled by Republicans, and just
all the chaos that has happened, even with women's reproductive rights,
(11:21):
you know, there's there's so much more on the docket.
Then I think we can even really wrap our brains
around potentially, And I'm not trying to fear monger or
anything like that. I just think this is the reality
of the situation. And again she's not my first choice,
but also with that said as somebody who said, you know,
(11:41):
that's not really who I wanted. Watching her over these
last few days, she feels very presidential and seeing the
obvious the donations and all that stuff happening, people are
rallying behind her. You could feel the excitement, the energy
(12:02):
I felt personally that could just a weight was lifted
off my shoulders when that when this was announced, and
she gets it in a way that the Biden led
campaign didn't. Right her. Whoever is doing her marketing and
her social media and all this stuff, like they are
(12:25):
tapped into the younger generation, and that's what gives me hope,
because they're getting the younger generation excited, right. They're doing
like the whole Brat summer, like like Kamala as a Brat,
which is a thing. It's the name of Charlie XCX's album,
and it's like this just theme of like you know whatever,
(12:45):
women's empowerment and freedom and fun basically. But it's like,
you know, as a DJ in the club, I recognize
like it's a movement. I'm always getting people requesting her
music from that album. It's it's big in the queer community,
it's big with the younger generation, and we saw it.
There was I was watching MSNBC last night and there
(13:06):
was a statistic they reported, and if I'm not mistaken,
it was something like there were forty thousand new registered
voters as a result of of Kamala Harris's announcement, eighty
percent of them being between the ages of eighteen to
thirty five. And that's what we want. We want an
energized younger base to begin to push out this older
generation that keeps doing things to set us back, or
(13:28):
is holding us back from progressing into the country that
we need to be moving forward, the one that looks
out for people like you and I. And I think
also the other narrative that I hate that is being
pushed around is this idea of Kamala Harris being like
(13:49):
a DEI hire or it's like identity politics, or whatever
the case may be. Let us not forget this is
a highly educated woman, a highly decorated attorney, and successful
attorney at that. I mean, you know, if this was
(14:10):
like my daughter's sister, wife, cousin, anybody, I would be
so fucking proud of her accomplishments. I mean, and then again,
you know, rising to the national ranks to be a
(14:31):
a presidential candidate and then being the vice president and
also being Attorney general of the state of California, which
is the I believe, it's the third largest economy in
the world, Like you know, it competes with every other
country basically, you know. And for a presidential candidate. She's
(14:55):
fairly young, she's fifty nine. She's got a lot of energy.
She is great on the mic. I've seen a lot
of growth, I feel like from her speaking. I was
watching her speak, watching her riff and play off of
the audience. I couldn't help but make a comparison to
someone like President Obama, who is incredibly charismatic and great
(15:17):
on the mic, and great at ad libbing and riffing
and following the energy of the crowd and being enthusiastic
in that manner, and even her campaign slogan that's seemingly
kind of fell into her lap from the crowd of
it being We're not going back if I'm not mistaken.
And I think it's all a great sort of perfect
storm for Democrats to potentially win this election in a
(15:42):
sort of must win situation when you talk about the
future of our country. So I think that's what we
have to kind of take into consideration. And again I
get the frustration if she's not your first choice as
far as candidate goes, but we have bigger fish to fry,
as they say, right, and to be quite fair, she
is a very impressive human being and candidate, and I
(16:06):
think one can't argue with the lived experience that she's
had over the last almost four years working beside Joe Biden,
someone who's been in office for whatever, like one hundred
years at this point almost it seems like and I
(16:29):
think you're seeing that. I feel like, you know, I
was privied when I was when during the last election
campaign that I was working at the breakfast club, so
we had all the candidates as far as Democrats go
on the on the show. Not many Republicans wanted to
come on, but we had Comma there in person. If
I'm not mistaken, she was there twice and I always
(16:54):
liked her. Again, it wasn't my first choice even in that,
like I was Team Bernie for a long time. But
I feel like I've been closely sort of watching and
I can't help but feel like I've seen a lot
of growth in her sort of taking on the ho
(17:15):
don't they call it like looking very presidential. Her presidentialness
that I feel like is exuding from her right now
in this moment, and that's exciting to me. And again
the fact that younger people in this country are now
energized about this election, people of color being energized about it,
(17:38):
And regardless of your politics or specific issues you may
agree or disagree on with her, we should never be
putting down. Also, like that other narrative, I see a
lot of people of color on the Internet trying to
put her down in different ways of color, cop and
all these different things. This is an impressive human being
(18:03):
or people saying I don't see the country wanting to
vote for a black person, or a woman or a
woman of color. This represents so much, I think, is
what I'm trying to get at. If elected, the sort
of I feel like doors that would just break down culturally,
(18:23):
societally in this country would be epic is the word
that comes to mind to see not only a woman
holding title of president, but a woman of color. Like
the optics alone are incredibly inspiring and can't sort of
(18:53):
help but make you feel like the future of this
world can be far brighter than maybe it's it's felt
like for the last few years. So that's sort of
my my take on it. And you know, anybody who
is a little flustered by this whole process, I hope
(19:14):
that maybe bring some new ideas to your head. And
not for nothing, but like this administration has been doing work.
In the second quarter, the US economy grew two point
eight percent, right, all this talk about the economy, and
it's like something they're doing is working. And I get it.
(19:35):
It's it's like the everyday person, it doesn't feel like it.
And and I do understand that frustration. I think a
lot of that, my opinion is corporate greed, greed in general,
and that does need to be reprimanded. But there are
a lot of things happening. I'm I'm riffing now off
off of a podcast I was listening to, but even
(19:59):
things like airlines, right, Like, I complain a lot about airlines.
I don't know if I've done as much on the podcast.
In my personal life, it's one of my biggest s
gripes because I feel like they take advantage of us
because we have very few options. But even within that,
you have you know, Pete bou Judge, his job is
to look over transportation in this country, to oversee it.
And he's you know, past a a mandate on the
(20:25):
airlines as far as them reimbursing people. And again I'm
riffing right now off of the top of my head
of remembering what I was listening to on the podcast,
but basically making it so people have to be reimbursed
quickly for airline failures or cancelations and things of that nature,
like really trying to hold them accountable. And he's publicly
called out airlines like Delta who have been slow to
(20:46):
recover after the the tech outage that happened last week
and all these planes were grounded. Right, So again it's
not perfect. Again, we're still being hit where it hurts,
it feels like constantly, but it does seem like attention
is beginning to be placed in the right places. And
(21:06):
for that you have to be a bit excited or
even if you're not excited, at least borderline optimistic of
the potential future we all could be living in. And
I for one, am excited about this. And again as
something as stupid as like the Charlie XCX brat thing,
that is proof right there that her campaign is meeting
(21:32):
people where they are, and that's what we need most people.
And I'm not shaming anybody. A lot of people don't
even have the time or space to really dive into
politics and to you know, sit around watching it all
day or whatever it might be, or there's just so
many other things going on and you know, your brain
(21:52):
is just going to other places. You're looking for relief
and release and other places. I get it. So it's
up to politicians to meet us where we are right now,
our language, and that's the only way you're gonna get
us activated, enthusiastic and involved. And again when I see
things like that, you know, embracing the brat thing that
is her meeting people where they are so that they
(22:14):
can be energized and now have a seat at the table.
And I think that's sort of what has been missing
before in one of my bigger critiques, and it's why
somebody like AOC was able to you know, run a
grassroots campaign and become the figure that she is because
of her ability to speak to the younger audience the
(22:36):
future of this country and get them energized and excited.
And that's what Wa Kamo is doing right now. And
that's what has me excited about this, this moment right
here now. Warning bring it into a triggering story, a
dark story. So we're warn you right now before we
do that, we'll take a quick break and then we'll
be right back. All right, we are back, and again
(23:02):
warning on this story. It's it's not a fun one
for me to talk about, but it's a necessary one
to talk about. And that is the fatal shooting of
a black woman in Illinois named Sonya Massey. And you know,
I mean to be fair because I'm like thinking to
(23:25):
myself the George Floyd movement. A part of me is like, man,
we're still going through this event after all that happened
with George Floyd, an incident after incident, But there is
I think some progress being made as far as accountability. Now,
obviously there's a ways to go, and we'll kind of
get through the I want to. I'll get through the
(23:47):
story first and then I'll kind of spin back into that.
But there's there's a little bit of a silver lining,
as much as there can be when you have a
story of a woman losing her life unnecessarily, a person
losing their life unnecessarily, And I'll touch on that at
the end, but the story at hand, right, So you
have a thirty six year old black woman named Sonya
(24:07):
Massey who called nine one one for assistance at her home.
You had Sean Grayson who is fourteen months into his
career as a deputy sheriff for the San Gammon County,
and he's being charged with murder in Massy's death. And
(24:28):
this I'm reading from an Assoia Stated Press article. They say,
the latest example of law enforcement officers shooting black people
in their homes across the country. Now the silver lining
him being charged quickly if you were called the George
Floyd case, literally, George Floyd was murdered, and it took
months and months, and it took it for the video
(24:48):
to be leaked on the internet, for public outcry to
happen in order for this man to be charged. The
Derek Chauvin And that's another talking point that I feel
like we forget about a lot, right, Just like a
pause here for a second, because I was seeing like
the rhetoric of people on the right is like, you
know this idea of well, look look at it. They
(25:12):
took to the streets and burned it down, you know,
that's how they decided to have their voice heard, and
it's like, bro, that's the only thing that made you listen. Unfortunately,
I'm like the last person who supports violence in that manner.
But literally, this was like a closed case. The report
(25:35):
was filed months later, all of a sudden the video
comes out. Then all of a sudden people are like,
oh shit, we should probably look back into this. And
it took rioting in the streets and all these things
for these officers to be to be arrested. They spent
months at home, and if that video never hit the
internet at the pandemic hadn't happened, where we're all sitting
(25:55):
around board and looking for things and constantly you know,
checking social media more than maybe we would have otherwise.
Had it not been for that, that story probably never
would have gotten the national attention, and these guys would
still be walking around the streets not being responsible for
the murder of George Floyd. So unfortunately, that is what
(26:17):
happens when you ignore people and you don't give them
their proper rights. Now, I don't know why, I like,
I got some of the times you like, look at
TikTok comments on things, and it's just like, man, can't
people really be this fucking stupid? So that was me
discussing that. Anyway, back to this article. So they're gonna
(26:37):
give us the timeline and kind of what they know
about the shooting thus far. So twelve fifty am on
July sixth, mess You called nine one one with her
fears about a prowler around her home in an unincorporated
neighborhood of Springfield, two hundred miles southeast of Chicago. Video
(26:57):
from the body cameras warned by Grayson and another deputy
show a search around Macy's house and in surrounding yards.
They found a black suv with broken windows in an
adjacent driveway before Massey came to the front door. When
Massey opened the door, she said, quote, don't hurt me.
Seemed to be confused and repeated please God, and said
(27:19):
quote I don't know what to do. Grayson asked her
for her name to include on a report. As the
deputies prepared to leave, Macy was searching for her purse
for her ID when Grayson pointed out a pot of
water over a flame on the stove. Macy quickly went
(27:41):
to the stove, moved the pan towards a sink and
asked Grayson, where are you going? He had stepped back
and remained in the living room of the small home, separated
from her by a cluttered counter. Grayson and Macy chuckled
as he replied, away from your hot, steaming water. Macy
then un expectedly said, quote, I rebuke you in the
(28:03):
name of Jesus, prompting Grayson to pull his nine millimeter
pistol and tell her you better expeditive, not or I
swear to God, I'll expeditive shoot you in the expeditive face.
He repeatedly yelled at Macy to put down the pot.
She apologized and ducked before Grayson fired three times, striking
(28:26):
Macy once in the head. Let's just pause for a second.
This woman doesn't have a gun in her hand, doesn't
have a knife, has a pot in it that apparently
has boiling water. Okay, I could get why you are
(28:47):
being a bit careful of that. That's fine, being aware
of your surroundings. I can understand her yelling out or
rebuke you. The name of Jesus being a strange thing
for somebody to yell at you and to sort of
put you on high alert. Even pulling out your pistol.
I can try and see it. If you really felt
(29:08):
she was getting ready to lunch at you and you're
trying to scare her to stop, I can try to
see it. But from there, if you are telling her
multiple times to put down the pot, why not instead
of standing in the same exact spot. If you're that concerned,
why aren't you making your way out the door or
(29:32):
out of the range of this potential water being thrown
at you if that's what you're so scared of. Instead,
you chose to stand your ground and scream at the person,
when again, you could have easily de escalated by just
moving out of range of this. And then if she
(29:56):
runs at you in some that it's like, okay, maybe
there's a conversation we had in some sort of way,
but no, nothing about this is a logical response. And
then also shooting her in the head a kill shot.
(30:19):
And I know the counter argument to that is, well,
in the heat of the moment, you're just aiming to
hit a body part, but the largest body part you
could possibly hit on a person would be the chest.
But you're aiming for a guaranteed almost kill shot in
(30:42):
the head. You can't argue against that. Now, grand jury
has indicted Grayson on charges of first degree murder, aggravated
battery with a firearm, and official misconduct. If convicted, he
faces prison sentences of forty five years to life for murder,
six to thirty years for battery, and two to five
(31:03):
years for misconduct. He's being held in Menard County Jail
without bond. He pleaded not guilty, and his defense attorney
has declined to comment on the case. Now, when I
talk about silver lining again, the George Floyd murder took
months for anybody to be arrested and indicted. It took actually,
you know, riots happening the street and public outrage around
(31:26):
the world. Here at least, he's been indicted immediately being
held in jail without bond, so he's not getting to
sit in his comfortable home as the other officers did
in that George Floyd case, and he's being brought up
on serious charges. On top of that, he was fired
(31:49):
the day that he was indicted. So while we very
obviously have a problem with pick your angle you want
to take with this, any of them probably fit people
who being police officers who shouldn't be police officers, lack
of training, racism inherently ingrained in them, whether it's conscious
(32:12):
or subconscious, whatever it might be. But at least there's accountability,
right that part we're beginning to get better on again.
For the family of this poor woman, Sonia Massey or Macy,
I apologize, I'm messing up her name. For her family,
(32:33):
I'm sure that's not much of a constellation. They lost
somebody love. You know, she is a mother of two.
And again, all this could be avoided. And if we're
getting better at solving the problem of holding these police
officers accountable when they commit misconduct and blatant murder in
(32:56):
this case, that's great. But where are we on the
very glaring problem of be it lack of training, be
it lack of character or blind hatred. Where are we
on the vetting process, the training process. And I think
that is the glaring question that continues to repeat itself,
(33:21):
you know, four years after the murder of George Floyd
and case after case unfortunately, and also I mean also,
can you imagine you called the police because you're fearful
that like somebody's breaking into your home and you end
up dead, Like the just sounds crazy to even say
out loud, yeah, I called the police, and then I
(33:43):
ended up you know, and then you end up being
the one shot. Just just wild to even think about.
And again lack of training. They they did mention that
she's actually somebody who had struggled with mental illness and
had actually undergone treatment. So again lack of training as
(34:06):
far as mental health concerns or just education in general. Right,
perhaps if this officer had training in dealing with the
people with potential mental health issues, he wouldn't have taken
those words of hers as such a threat. Now moving
(34:31):
on in the article I say. In last week's court hearing,
First Assistant States Attorney Mary Beth Rogers said the distance
between Grayson and Macy negated any perceived threat, and he
had quote a lot of options aside from firing his
weapon if he believed he was in danger exactly. Quote
at no point did this defendant show anything but callousness
(34:53):
towards human life, adding that Grayson quote clearly dismissed his
training as a law in officer. Now on the video,
Grayson has heard justifying his actions by saying, quote, what
else do we do? I'm not taking expletive boiling water
to the expeditive face. He's also heard telling arriving officers
(35:14):
that Macy quote came at me and called her quote crazy.
Now again, this is the bullshit. She came at me, right,
that's the famous thing that they love to sort of say. Now,
thank god body camera footage is available, that the other
(35:37):
deputy had their body camera footage on, had a clear
view of what happened. But again, what if we didn't
have social media for all these stories to be shared?
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (35:46):
What if George Floyd hadn't happened that perfect storm of
COVID and boredom and just social unrest, someone like Grayson
potentially would have walked away from this with a slap
on the wrist, would have written a report that stated
his life was in danger, and everybody would have moved
on with their life, except for the innocent victim who
(36:10):
was killed, Sonia Macy, and her family who are now
mourning a loved one unnecessarily. So it's I guess it's
a stark reminder that there's still a lot of progress
to be made when it comes to police interactions, and
(36:33):
I think policing in general in the United States.
Speaker 4 (36:38):
And.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
I bring up this case, I talk about it, and
I appreciate people sharing it on social media because I
think what oftentimes happens with a lot of this stuff,
we begin to normalize it and we get numb to it,
and we don't give it the attention it deserves because
(37:04):
we don't perceive it as egregious as that actually is.
And then what will happen is the same old shit
will just keep happening because we become numb to it. Sadly,
similar to what happens with school shootings and how people
are justifying, you know, having guns and all these things.
I mean, shit, I was just you know, off the
(37:26):
cuff here, was listening to a news podcast, I think
it was yesterday. They were talking about how there's now
bullet vending machines and how the vending machines don't do
background checks, so anybody with a driver's license could get
these bullets. Basically, even if they have, you know, no
(37:47):
license to have a firearm or anything like that, as
long as they have a driver's license, they can buy
bullets from a local grocery store. I believe it was
in Texas that was the first one to have this
venuing machine. So just a weird dystopian society we live
in where we're numbing ourselves to tragedy. And that's why
we can't just ignore stories like this when or we
can't not speak about them. It's important to continue to
(38:12):
recognize how gregious situations like this one are and how
much change and progress is really still needed in the
realm of law enforcement and it's interactions with the everyday people,
particularly black people and and and people of color in general,
where the statistics are just staggering. Now, with that said,
we're gonna shift into some positive stuff here in our
(38:36):
Mihenthe segment, but for us to take a quick break
and then we'll be right back, all right. So we
have a new short film from Apple called And And.
(39:00):
It follows Mexican American singer songwriter Yvonne Cornejo, twenty years
old as he travels to his ancestral land in search
of musical inspiration. While there, he is confronted by a
horde of unlikely characters, the devil, a fish, a mermaid,
a skeleton, and a frog. Cornejo's dreamland is actually a
game of Mexican Loteria come to life, where he and
(39:22):
each card's character help twenty year old find Kora soon
in his song writing. Now it's crazy about this, I
mean a amazing love to see it get the platform
it deserves and an artist who has a vision like
this Yvonne Cornejo being able to see his vision come
to life. And he's also a actual singers is a song,
(39:44):
a real song of his attached to it. So beautiful
to see him get the platform and partnership in somebody
like Apple, which I've dip my toe into the world of,
like you know, film and television, and it's not easy
to get shit made by big studios. So that's why
I make it a point to celebrate when things like
(40:05):
this happen and to try support with my viewership. And
what's actually really cool about this and even more inspiring
and why I always sort of harp on the idea
of like, don't overthink your goals or your dreams or
the things you want to do and feel like you
know you have to wait for the perfect moment of
way to the perfect equipment. He actually shot this on
(40:27):
an iPhone right and again in the articles We Are
Me Too, they talk about how this shows you the democratic,
how democratic present day filmmaking can be right something all
of us could do. Almost all of us are lucky
enough to have an iPhone. Now. They go on to
say the movie is a notable celebration of Latinidad while
making no pomp and circumstances of work, or Neho grew
(40:48):
up what language he mostly speaks, or where the film
is set Corneho born in Riverside, California to Mexican parents,
is neither aki ayah right. The idea of being from
neither here nor there. That's what the premise podcast is,
living comfortably in English and Spanish within and across the border.
It's what they may be set in Mexico, but it
equally traversus the singer's dreamscape. That's quote the Lottia Lands,
(41:11):
I think I pronounced that land yeah. As the films
Mexican American directors Pasquagoz R. J. Sanchez otherwise known as
Glica put it, quote, it's crazy to see these ideas
that we came up with actually happening, as in a
hotel elevator that makes Quota Nejo underwater to sing with
a mermaid played by Maria so Doya from The Marias
(41:34):
as his fish vesties not along. So it's got like
some animated elements to it or character elements obviously just
cool man. I just I love people being able to
do their creative stuff. I love being, you know, seeing
our culture and the various aspects of it being put
out there by big companies and people being able to
(41:55):
get a check from this, people being able to bring
attention to their art and for us to be able
to see our more and more I think is amazing.
So definitely gonna go and check this out. I want
to get a chance to sit down and watch it again.
It's to be an Apple and it's called The a Twell.
I think it's twelve like a twelve minute short film,
so obviously an easy watch, easy for all of us
(42:16):
to go out and support. Now, with that said, I
want to get y'alls take on one of the stories
we talked about today, and we'll do it in our
Ask a Gringo segments. Ask a Kringle.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
Question.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
All right, So for this Ask a Gringo segment, I
want to cover the the Biden drop out and Kamala
being the presumptive Democratic nominee for president or or i
should say, the candidate for the Democratic Party for president
in twenty twenty four this year, and I simply just
ask thoughts on Biden out and Kamala in. I got
(42:53):
a bunch of responses. I'm gonna try to get to
asmuny as we can hear.
Speaker 5 (42:59):
Let's see at calidot boy dot Off says, I hope
she brings some much needed heat to the debates hashtag FDT.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Same. I think she's gonna if Donald Trump even shows
up for a debate and doesn't try to get his
way out of it, I think she's going to wash
the floor with him in a way that Biden wasn't
capable of. And she's gonna put her experience as a
high level attorney prosecutor to good use. I mean, she's
(43:40):
she's already been on like the campaign trail talking about
how like going at this dude like she should. He's
a you know, a convicted felon. She made a career
of going after convicted felons. He is somebody who's found
liable in civil court for for sexual misconduct. She's made
(44:01):
a point of going after people who commit sexual crimes, right,
So she's gone at him in that way already, and
I just can't see how he could have even hold
a torch to her on a debate stage honesty. So
(44:21):
it is exciting, and I think that another reason why
people are fired up is like we don't have to
sit through another debate like that last one, which is
fucking Jesus bad at you ain't underscore thoughts. He says,
we are fucked either way with the peace emoji, respectfully,
(44:45):
I disagree, I think. I I first want to say,
I get why people might feel disenfranchised as a whole,
particularly if you are one of the many, many, many
(45:07):
people in this country who are struggling to really find
like solid footing, right. I get it, and quite honestly,
I personally get really mad sometimes and frustrated about the
state of the country and where we are as a society.
I was reading a book the other day while driving
I was listening to the audio version of a book.
(45:30):
I was kind of talking about sort of everything that
has gone into making kind of this world that we
live in today, this ultra capitalistic world, and I found
myself getting really frustrated to turn off the book actually
because I was just getting annoyed and angry. So I
get feeling disenfranchised with that said sort of checking out
(45:54):
and not participating or just sort of saying whatever, we're screwed.
Either way, I don't see how that's going to get
you where you want to be, right. I talk about
this a lot. It's like we take the hands that
we're doubt in life, and then we have to act accordingly.
If we are unhappy with circumstance, it's us take some
(46:16):
sort of action to try and push back on that circumstance.
It's not always easy, it's not always a direct thing
that we can change right then and there. But we
still do have a choice. You sort of checking out
and not voting, not caring, or not taking your time
to sort of here where Kamala would potentially be standing
(46:41):
on issues that you care about. You're not participating in
the system that you're a part of, whether you want
to be a part of it or not. And I
say this with love. By not participating, you don't deserve
a see to the table. You don't deserve to complain. Right.
(47:06):
It's kind of like, do you ever go on vacation
with people or whatever? Like you plan a night out
with your friends and I end up being the planner
A lot of times, I'm like the idea guy. So
I'll plan the whole night out and like, all r
we're going out blah blah blah. And of course sometimes
do you go and like things don't go according to plan.
(47:28):
The bar you plan on going to, the club, it's
kind of a dud. It's like a dead night for
whatever reason, right, or the restaurant you planned on the
food wasn't as good as you hoped, or like something
happened on vacation plan blah blah blah. And then there's
that one person that has the nerve when they literally
were like a passenger princess on the entire process, has
(47:48):
the nerve to complain when they did absolutely nothing and
contributed nothing and they just showed up. That's essentially what
you become when you choose not to participate in the
process of democracy, i e. Voting for your elected officials.
That's what you become. And I think we all can
(48:08):
agree if you've experienced people like that in your family
or your friends. After you've you know, taken it upon
yourself to try and plan things out for everybody, and
they have the nerve to complain. It's frustrating and really,
whether you tell them or not, you're kind of like
then you fucking plan it next time, right, Sure, we
(48:28):
all say that out loud. Then you tell us what
you want to do, and they never have an answer
because they just want to complain about things. But that's
what you become when you don't participate at the end
of the day, and I implore you to have your
voice heard, because there are people who have died for
that right for us each to have our voice heard.
(48:48):
And on top of it, there are people who are
going through a very long and difficult process just to
have that right. Right, those who are immigrating here and
going through the process of becoming citizens, they're spending a
lot of time, money, and energy just to have that
same basic right that many of us were born into
(49:10):
or currently have. And if it's really a shame for
us to not appreciate that privilege and to not make
use of it. All right, last one here at cross
Underscore Soul says, I'm hoping they let others get a shot.
She got no voids votes last time. Yangyang all the way,
(49:30):
And I touched on this I know earlier a little
bit about kind of where we are in the process,
and we're kind of in like a very consolidated campaign trail,
and the smartest tactic is to get behind who has
the most momentum and the strongest candidate from that angle,
(49:51):
and it's Kamala Harris. Again, I know that's a bit frustrating,
especially if you're a fan of other people. You mentioned
someone like Andrew Yang. Go To be honest, I was
an Andrew Yang fan, you know, when he first made
his presidential run. But I mean, in the scope of
the conversation, he's somebody who didn't get the votes right.
(50:11):
He ran for mayor of New York City and lost,
and I actually got his ass whooped. He wasn't even
one of the top people. And I actually I want
him to be mayor of New York. Technically, I'm not
a resident of New York, so I couldn't vote in
that one, but I would have had if I if
I still lived in New York. So yeah, so I
tout degree. I get what you're saying. I think again,
(50:33):
we are in an unfortunate situation where it's like us
versus democracy and we need to ride the hot hand,
and that is Kamala Harris. And I understand again the
argument that in twenty twenty she couldn't even you know,
beat out some of her other competitors, But that was
like four years that was legitimately four years ago. Four
(50:55):
years ago. Quite honestly, I was living paycheck to paycheck,
So I don't know about where you were, but I
was in very different place four years ago. I'm a
very different person. I've learned a lot since then. I'd
imagine the same is true for her, having gone through
that experience than having been vice president under a very
experienced politician in Joe Biden. Her energy feels completely different
(51:20):
than it did in twenty twenty. The clarity of her campaign.
I think the marketing attacks we've seen already in just
the last week, she gets it now, I think, and
I think that's the difference. And I think as a whole,
we have to look at it as look how energized
people are. And yes, part of that could be just
because they were so de energized by the idea of
(51:41):
Trump versus Biden that literally anybody could step in there
and it's more exciting and we feel like, you know,
life is worth living again. But I also think there
is something to the fact that, again the woman has
raised one hundred and twenty six million dollars in the
last week, eighty one million of it being in just
the first twenty four hours of her being announced as
(52:02):
the favorite or being endorsed by Biden after him dropping out.
You gotta go where the momentum is. And she has
people talking about this upcoming election in a way that
wasn't being spoken about just last week. People are excited
once again, they are energized. Memes are going off in
a good way rather than a negative way as we
(52:23):
saw with Biden. I really think this is good. And
again I've said this, She wasn't my first choice, but
I really do think she is the best choice right now,
the momentum she has, and quite honestly, I know every
basic Oh it's identity politics because she's a black woman,
blah blah.
Speaker 4 (52:43):
She is an incredibly successful person prior to this, right,
she is not just somebody who was pulled up out
of nowhere. She is a successful prosecutor again attorney general
of California at one point, right, Like, you know, I
(53:08):
think we're ignoring.
Speaker 1 (53:12):
So much of her accomplishments and you know, demeaning them
based on really nothing against you was senator and then
she was the fucking Vice president. I mean, nobody was questioning,
(53:33):
you know, Al Gore's capability of becoming president after Bill Clinton,
you know, when he was vice It's just sort of
what happens, right if the vice president in a normal
campaign cycle is sort of gonna always be the favorite.
If if the you know, past president hasn't you know,
(53:55):
isn't running for reelection or can't because they've served eight
year term. And obviously Biden didn't work out for him
in obviously in the twenty sixteen election. But I just
think we're discrediting her unnecessarily when she really does have
a great deal of credentials. And again I understand you
(54:16):
may want somebody else, or the argument of you know,
she wasn't a strong candidate in twenty twenty, but again,
four years changes a lot, and I don't think she
wasn't a strong candidate because she wasn't qualified. Much of
the conversation if you really dive into like people who
have analyzed that campaign, they feel like she never had
(54:38):
clear messaging right, and that is more so about strategy
of running the campaign rather than qualifications, because let's be honest, Also,
it's not simply about who's best for the job. It's
also a popularity contest of who you can't you know,
who people like and see themselves in or or feel
(55:02):
like gets them right. It's not always just qualifications. I mean,
it really never is. If it was Donald Trump, wouldn't
have become President the United States. So I think we
have to keep all of that in mind and talking
about this stuff. But again, we're all entitled to feel
how we feel. I think again, just greater vision of
it all. Understand what's at at risk here, what's at stake,
(55:26):
and and sort of allow that to be a bit
of your your compass and your your north star, if
you will. That'd be my opinion, my take, or or
my advice for anybody. But that said, thank you so
much for participating in that conversation at DJ Dramos on Instagram.
You want to be a part of these conversations. And
with that said, let's tiere everything we talked about today
in a neat little boat in a segondently called conclusion
(55:47):
stew time. Come all right, So this episode I know
was running I think a little bit long, so I
have to everything. Biden dropping out, Kamala coming in. I'm ecstatic.
I genuinely felt a sense of relief when it was announced,
(56:07):
and I think the general excitement and energy around this election,
the momentum has shifted in favor of the Democrats, and
I think because of that, you have to ride with
Kamala And again, she's a qualified candidate. This isn't somebody
who was pulled out of obscurity.
Speaker 3 (56:25):
You know.
Speaker 1 (56:26):
I think we really have to get rid of that narrative.
That is a narrative of the other side. They're trying
to push that shit, and you know, it's just not real.
It's not based on reality. And I think that that's
something we need to keep in mind here right now.
This really tragic story in Illinois with Sonya Masi, a
(56:47):
black woman losing her life at the hands of a
police officer unnecessarily. Again it's a horrendous situation. On one hand,
you have the officer being held accountable very quickly, being
held without bond, so he's sitting in jail right now
as he should be. Was fired right away when the
indictment came down, So on one hand, that's progress. I
(57:11):
think again, when you compare it to something like George
Floyd's murder, where it took months and it took the
video being leaked onto the internet in the perfect storm
of us sitting at home in COVID for anybody to
be held accountable for that. So again, that's progress right there.
On the flip side of it, the fact that this
is still an issue, the fact that this is such
an egregious overuse of power and negligence on the hands
(57:36):
of this former police officer, Sean Grayson, showcases there's still
a glaring issue in this country, lack of training, lack
of quality police officers, and probably underlying racism as well,
if we're being honest here. So on that hand, it's
very disheartening, but it's a stark reminder that there's a
lot of work to be done and we need to
(57:57):
keep talking about it and keep applying press sure, because
the worst thing we can do is become numb to
these things and sort of normalize them them happening, which
I would I would hate to obviously see. And then
on some positivity, man, love seeing artists from our community
getting their shine apples new short films is really just
(58:17):
a great concept, I think, and just exciting to see
more and more of our voices being propped up there
and showcased well deserving people of that. I think it's
just it's amazing. So I'm gonna go and definitely support this.
And it's inspiring. Again the fact that they shot this
on an iPhone, Like, it's like, dude, it's you vers you,
(58:40):
there's nothing holding you back. You you have to just
go out there and fucking do the idea that's in
your head. There's a means to an end. If you
really want it, you're gonna figure out way to do it.
You mean, shooting it on your phone. So just think
about that. And that's it. Man. Thank y'all so much
for tuning in crazy, crazy times that we are living in.
That's all I really could say about it. Again. The
(59:00):
new just Be Social Club free subscription, our our master
my Mastermind group that I'm leading. You're looking for inspiration
your life, whatever it might be. Man Like, you want
to feel like you're a part of something. It's an
extension of this. That's a way for all of us
to connect. Just DM me at DJ Dramos. You could
just say just Be Social Club and I'll send you
the link to join the community and that's it. I'll
(59:21):
catch you on Tuesday with a brand new episode, so
then stay safe and we'll talk soon. Pace Life as
a Gringo is a production of the micro Tura podcast
network and iHeartRadio