October 30, 2024 • 50 mins
Pattie Fong, retired Yolo County Deputy District Attorney & editor of Currents, an AAPI community newspaper, urges voting for Freedom & basic Rights that are in danger this election. Ready to turn the page on the negative,insulting, authoritarian, extreme candidate who threatens to terminate the US constitution? Then vote for VP Harris’s practical, inclusive, ethical, economic plan, a tax code to benefit hard working families, her anti-price gouging plan, & a return of control of our own bodies
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It's Your Voice is broadcast live Wednesdays at 8PM ET Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). It's Your Voice is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
It's Your Voice Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
Logic, Let's speak, show.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
In Lot, Let's breach in lots, in Lott's Lot, Let's a.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Lot, Hello, and welcome to It's Your Voice, the show
that hosts enriching conversations and diversity. My name is Bihia Yaxan.
I am a diversity educator and a Corolamic coach, which
means I support organizations and their staff and individuals and
(01:14):
identifying patterns of behavior that do not serve anymore, particularly
around biases, and helping not only identify them, but practice
stepping out of them by cultivating new patterns that serve
everyone far better, that are far more inclusive and create
(01:34):
greater belonging. I have a website if you want to
check out my programs to know what you want.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Coachingwordpress dot com.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Today I have a guest named Pattifong, and we titled
this show our Responsibility to Protect Democracy and the Constitution
an Asian American Pacific Islander Perspective. Patty Pattifong is a
retired Yolo County Deputy District Attorney and editor of Currents,
(02:07):
an Asian American Pacific Islander community newspaper. She's here to
talk about our responsibility to protect the democracy and the
Constitution from an AAPI perspective and to help promote voting.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Patty, come on out. So I'm so happy to have
you here.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Appreciate I appreciate your valuable time. I know you're a
big community organizer and I always value any anything you've
organized that I get to attend.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'll just mention it's possibly we'll.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Have another guest be able to join this program today
before we end. But he's a firefighter. He's been a
firefighter for many years and he was called out on
incident just a few minutes ago. And if he miraculously
gets back in time he might join us and at
(03:05):
that time introduces him with more fully.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
But he also wanted to.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Pitch into the conversations we've been having on it's your
voice that are encouraging voting and helping people think about
those last minute undecided voters, which I do think there
really are helping people consider what matters to them, what
they value, if there's still some confusion about who to
(03:32):
vote for.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And also just to say you might know, but make
sure you go out and vote.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
So, Patty, I love the title you suggested, and I
would just would like to let you start and before
we close, I want to actually let people know that
you're working on a book that's really important.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
We'll have another.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Show about the book later, but I thought maybe we
could start talking about.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Why you want to promote voting and what.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
You know, what is our responsibility to protect democracy as
citizens and to protect the Constitution.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
From your perspective, you know, America is great, despite what
Trump says. We are a great country. People want to
come here. We have freedom of religion, we have freedom
of speech, We've got job opportunities for people who want
to work, and we need to protect democracy and Trump
(04:31):
says he does what he promises. He wants to be
a dictator. He already told us that on day one
he's going to pile on a bunch of executive orders
to suspend the Constitution and undo federal civil service and
basically put his political lackeys in control. He promised that,
(04:56):
and he comes through. And so people need to realize
that this decision that we're making is really important. The
whole world is watching. The whole world is nervous because
if we let him take control, he and his buddies
from Russia and North Korea, they're going to dominate the
(05:20):
world and it's going to be unsafe for a lot
of people. And he's also told us, and he comes
through with it, that he's going to retaliate against anyone
who doesn't believe him when he believes in And so
people who are out there who think, well, I'm not
going to vote because I'm so confused, that's your decision
(05:42):
right there. If you're not going to vote because you're confused,
it's because you're actually choosing to let someone else vote
for you. And so the consequence of what we get
at the end, it's going to be on you. So
you need to look at what is happening, this kind
of hate that's happened, I mean among the Conservatives, this
(06:02):
whole thing about Project twenty twenty five. It's very clever.
They're recruiting people who are loyal to the conservative platform.
They're not loyal to the US Constitution. They're loyal to
the Republican conservative values, and the recruiting of a resume pool.
(06:25):
They've got a planned to dismantle education and other departments,
and they are going to carry it out. In fact,
Trump actually started doing it in October of his last
year as a president. He actually signed an executive order
to dismantle the federal civil service system so that he
(06:49):
could put in people who were loyal to him. But
when Biben took office, he undid that executive order. We're
a real critical point, and we need to have a will.
Even in California, we need to have people out there
voting because after next Tuesday, we know Trump's going to
(07:12):
challenge the election. He's you know, even before the ballots
went off, he said this election is being stolen. We
need to have a van slide vote to show what
the people wanted, and we need to have votes all
over the country, even in California, even though we know
that our electoral College electors will go Democratic. We need
(07:36):
to have a big number so that when it gets disputed,
we've got a showing of a general population that wanted
a better world. And it's not Trump's vision.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I really like the way you said that we need
to show a general population that wants to keep freedoms,
and that it's so important to we do need big numbers.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Landslide.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
I've been envisioning a landslide so that we cannot avoid
the sort of like hair raising, completely nerve racking situation
of counting close votes. I don't think anybody in America
went to that. And I appreciate you're also mentioning like
(08:28):
we just really can't take take anything for granted, even
the like so so many different examples are coming to mind,
but and I know we'll talk about reproductive health. But
I was just thinking when you said California, like this
idea that some states may have some freedoms and some
(08:50):
rights now, but every state can lose them if the
MAGA Republicans win.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Now, we need to we need to have a strong
showing because those people who are now setting fire to
ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington. They need to be
We need to have government in place that are going
to go after and not pardon. I mean Trump promises
(09:19):
to pardon everyone who is involved in January sixth. Just
imagine those arsonists who are burning up ballot boxes. He
wants them to go free too, and we just can't
have that happening. We need to protect our democracy. And
everyone's got their vote and they need to go in
and tell show the rest of the world that we
(09:44):
are behind democracy. And remember, if you don't think you're
registered to vote, you can vote on election day. You
can actually vote in the polling place or at the
election's office and your vote won't be counted until your
registration is this process, but you can vote. You can
register a vote at the last minute, or you can
(10:05):
update your registration at the last minute. So there's no
reason not to get your voice heard in this election.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Thank you, Patty. I was just thinking for I think
for a lot of people like me.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
There may be a number of our listeners and viewers
who like me, have to have more than one job,
maybe have a full time job and a couple of
part time jobs.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
And for whom like being able to pay all of.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Our bills take so much time When you're tired, it's
hard to do all the research, Like I never get
to do as much research as I went to. But
I was thinking, maybe you could help us make it
more concrete what it means by because it can sound
pretty abstract, you know, like we're going to lose our democracy.
(11:01):
I think it's really helpful to kind of break it down,
not to insult anyone's intelligence, but just because it's helpful
to say, Okay, what.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Does that mean exactly? But I think.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I mean, I feel like I can ramble a few thoughts,
but you can perhaps clarify or an ad But.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I just want to.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Spit out a few things that I've been thinking about,
like what does that mean to lose freedom? Well, first
of all, like I wouldn't how can I vote for
someone who denied the results of the last election.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That, over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Was judges over sixty judges, right about sixty judges overturned
all the allegations that there was fraudulents, there was no
widespread Like that's kind of a number one reason for
me to worry that democracy would be threatened if an
(12:01):
election denier is elected again and the like.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And to add to your point, if he's.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Promising to pardon all the people who literally stormed our
capital and injured and attacked police officers, and you know,
people were lost and injured in there's still people suffering
from PTSD, to like to deny that reality, that's that's
not that's not a safe that's not a free and
(12:29):
safe country, and help and his threats to like work
with like you said, dictators and you know, not having
bodily autonomy for over half of the population, because if
you don't have freedom over your body, not only is
that cruel and barbaric, but it also means you don't
have freedom about you the choice of family, like when
you have family, who you have family with, how many
(12:50):
you have in your family, which it totally impacts your
economic life, you know, And and economy is so tied
to like how we live, the family we have, how
many people we can feed, if we can rent, if
we can buy. So I'm just wondering what kind of
things that come to your mind when we think about
(13:11):
I didn't want to focus long on what will be
lost because I really want to spend time thinking about
what we can have, you know, the alternative like not
just to not vote for someone who's threatens democracy. But
I think there's a lot of even though no one's perfect,
there's a lot of much more hope and joy and
practical since coming from Kamala Harris, there's a lot of
(13:32):
positive reasons to vote for her. But let me just
listen to you. What's coming to your mind about why
we need to protect the democracy and you know where
the constitution is so important.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Well, it's really important for us and the world to
have a US president who is ethical and kind. I
mean in the last few in the last years or so,
he spent from the Asian perspective, he did the China
virus thing, and he continues to do it to rile
(14:06):
up hate among his followers against Asians, and so over
the last few years, we've had a lot of violence
and assaults on Asian on innocent Asians walking the streets
just being knocked down, and some of them so and
he's he's he's fomenting that. He announced to us that
(14:30):
he was going to be a dictator on day one.
He is riling up. Okay, given that we do have
an economic competition with China. It's he's it affects the
Asians in America when he does ravel on about his
(14:51):
you know, his distress of China. He even even if
they about eating cats, eating cats in Ohio. They need
a lot. They admitted that was a lie, but they
have kept it up. And that kind of stuff we
(15:13):
just don't need in a leader, because we have greater problems.
We've got yeah, abortion rights, we've got global warming, We've
got wars that we need to assist on in the
world that need resolving. He's creating hate within ourselves and
(15:34):
he does that as a distraction and to divide us.
But we we're actually better than that. This country's not
I mean this make America great again. Well, it's made
America great again for white males unfortunately, and take us
(15:56):
back to the nineteen sixties. But America is great and
we have lots of freedoms and we need to protect them,
and we need to show ourselves that we can rise
above this hysteria that he's created among his followers and
(16:16):
they're inter ranting. I was just reading some review that
the Madison Square Garden event people were just in there
to cheer for him, regardless to what he said. So
even if he said something that was not like, they
were cheering him on. And he claims that you remember,
(16:38):
in the old days, he claimed that he won the
election because look at my rallies and all the people
who attend night rallies. He thinks that the people who
call go the rallies are the number of votes that
he has. Well, no, sorry, it's the votes that end
up in the ballot box. So he's delusional. I'm sorry,
but he's got a lot of followers, and we need
(17:01):
to get people out because we're better than that.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
We are.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
And I really appreciate your emphasizing that America is an
amazing place.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
We certainly have our challenges.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
We have our problems, but I do really think the
majority of us, over time, we are making a.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Better and better union.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I'll, i'll, I mean, maybe not more perfect, but working
our way to becoming more and more inclusive. And you know,
we we have serious backlashes, then we keep moving forward.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
But this time it's more than a serious backlash.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
It's a threat of moving the infrastructure that allows us
to make progress and to have freedom of speech and
to I mean the threat to end the the close
of the Department of Education, like what.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I've been in education for years, like this is a.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Very necessary, fundamental right to have education provided publicly.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
And it's so hard.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
There's so many different needs, there's so many so much
time has been invested in setting it up of courses.
People can complain about education and schools forever, but I
cannot imagine if the department gets wiped out and know
nothing else. I mean, that's just one of the absurdities
and it is hard to see that.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, I think you use the word Lackie's I think
all the people.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Surrounding him and supporting him wanted to win, and I think,
like him, they don't care about other people. I think
they're using him, frankly to get.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Into more power themselves.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
But my father was an immigrant, and he was always
so grateful for America. He was always said, you have
no idea how many rights you have. You have no
idea how privileged and how lucky you are to be
born here or to come here and to become naturalized
as citizens as he did. And I remember when I
was in my twenties and I wanted to join the
Peace Corps. He was like, what what you're gonna You're
(19:09):
going to go to another country that has less infrastructure,
less resources, less uh, less lots of stuff, less rights
that you know, there was a king in charge of
the country I went to. And I've lived in countries
that are seriously authoritarian, and I have experienced what it's
(19:30):
like to live in a country that is not free,
and I think maybe it's hard for people to imagine
not having the freedoms that we have here.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
You know. One thing that's important, though, is that Trump
has this power, and he's really scaring a lot of people.
I mean, we look at what the Washington Post and
the La Times did refusing to endorse and there are
sort of are a source of facts. But he's got
(20:02):
this power that we got to take away from him.
And some of that power is his technique of repeating
his lies. There's this hope of psychology. If you repeat
the lie, people think it's true. It's like when he
keeps on saying that the illegal immigrants come across the
southern border are the drug addicts, the killers, and the rapists. Well, sorry,
(20:27):
there was something in the news the other day that
it's like sixty or seventy percent of the drug dealers
caught on the border with drugs are American citizens. So
he creates these lies, repeats them repeatedly, and has these
people who are following him, and yes, we have and
(20:50):
for him to be threatening these editorial boards or the
owners of these newspapers so much that they're concerned about retaliation,
We're not like that. America's not like that. We're not
here for get the information out there and get people aware.
(21:15):
Have be able to research your own. But you know,
if you don't have time to research, I think what
you have to do is think, well, now it's Trump
someone that you really want to invite home for Thanksgiving dinner?
Could you actually live with that guy? We had him
for four years, and you remember that period of time
(21:36):
where some of us just quit reading, listening to the
news because we were scared that he was going to
push the button for a nuclear war, and we were
just scared of what he was doing. I mean, he's
actually got more skills now and he's got more knowledge,
and it's going to be worse than the next time around,
and so we cannot let him be president again. And
(22:00):
we're very lucky that we've got this young, energetic vice
president's who's pounding, pounding the states to bring out the vote.
But we've got to support her and the values that
she's promoting, for truth and honesty and promoting the benefit
for the majority of America's not just millionaires.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, the contrast does seem stark. It does seem very
clear to me, But I think often that depends on
what you're exposed to, you know, what you know, what
channel you have, on who you tune into. And I
really appreciate your point about the psychology of repeating the
same phrase.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
If if you're only hearing.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
That voice and only believing that voice, then you've already
been sucked into a worldview that's very limited and focus
on negative and so cruel and so mean, and so
many so many untrue it was so many lives.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's it's it's unbearable.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's unbearable, and I feel bad for the people who
believe them and who are he's lying too. He's using
his own voters through deception. What kind of what kind
of a relationship is that between a voter and a candidate?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
You know, I think we have to be prepared for
what happens after election day, though it's not going to
be pretty we're going to have to be prepared for
another January sixth, and we're going to and there's gonna
be a lot of lawsuits, and they're gonna be election
officials who refuse to certify things. But actually there was
(23:41):
something in the news the other day that it was
just a misdemeanor, but someone actually got convicted. Some election
official got convicted of failing to certify by the due date.
So there are laws in place to get our democracy
on track, but we need to have to know. I'm
just there to justify a big win for Harris and Waltz.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
And they appreciate what you said also about that he's
intimidating the media. It's incredible how many people are scared
of this person when he does truly seem I mean,
there was so much criticism about President Biden's age and
perhaps some slow decline, but Biden was still is still
coherent and makes sense, and Trump was just like, like,
(24:29):
what a little bit younger than Biden does not make sense.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
He's not coherent.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
He really knows, he's very adept at using emotional persuasion
and intimidation.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Well, and also he really has not come up with
any programs or policies he's going to promote other than
dismantling the federal government. You know, last time around, he
said he was going to dismantle Obamacare. Never came up
with a alternative, but he had enough votes to stop
(25:07):
He had enough. He had enough votes too to control
the Supreme Court nominations. And we're gonna have to live
with that for a long time. But he his what
he does lasts a long time. They're they're very good
at planting things and and frankly, the Democrats need to
(25:34):
be a little bit more cohesive.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah we do, we do. Yeah, Well, what are some
what are some of the policies that you like that
Kamala Harris is promoting.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
You know, the whole thing about leaving abortion rights to
the states, We really need to just talk about the
logistics of that, because it's unfair for women to have
to travel to other states to have control over their
medical care and their bodies, and there needs to be uniformity.
(26:14):
And so you know, they're saying, Okay, we're gonna let
education being controlled by the states. They are going to
have health care and abortionized be controlled by the states.
But it doesn't make sense because we are such a
mobile society. People move in and out of states all
the time, and why should your rights to do certain
(26:36):
things be tied to the state that you happen to
be living in at the time. And her idea to
expand you know Obamacare. I mean remember remember when obamacat
rolled out and their and their enrollment programs didn't work. Well,
you know, that's to be expected.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
I mean.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
It was that's a big way. But we can always
improve upon it. And there's no reason to dismantle something
that's working with just keep on improving on it so
we can get more healthcare to more people, versus Trump
wants to just dismantle it. And and there was something
(27:20):
on the news today that you know, we spend the
most money, but we have the worst health outcome because
actually we have this whole layer of insurance brokers who
are making it more expensive. That was seemingly the bottom
line of that news article. I think that I think
(27:47):
Harris has better plan for protecting our interests overseas. I mean,
we have to be thankful that the Ukrainians are fighting
the war so we don't have to do it. Yeah,
I mean, if Ukraine falls, it's gonna be like a
Domino Hall set over there, and they're they're putting in
(28:11):
the effort to defend their own borders. And Trump he's
gonna let them fall. He's just gonna let Russia to
take Ukraine. And that's but actually what's scarier is that,
you know, if North Korean soldiers are going into Ukraine
(28:31):
to fight for the Russians, that's stepping up this conflict.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I'm so glad you mentioned the like international.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Relations like policy, Like her vision for working with allies
would it's so much safer than his vision for working
with dictators.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
I mean it sounds so.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Like I'm simplistic, but it's like terribly, terribly true. The
difference between the picture of working with our allies or
working against their allies, it will make all the difference
and impact all of us. I mean, we've been like
relatively safe when this island, this big island of America,
(29:27):
for so long, but that could change. And I appreciate,
I appreciate her relationship and her leadership, but she seems
she's so strong. I mean, she seems strong, stable, intelligent,
extremely experienced, has so much more irrelevant experience versus a
failed a man who's failed in business. But how many
(29:48):
times has he had had bankruptcies? At six times? Yea,
and did not ever actually work at McDonald's.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
And she's called for ceasefire in the gaza's room. Think
enough that we know that she is committed to stopping
this guzza genocide. I mean Trump, God, I don't know,
you know, we don't know where he'll go on that one.
(30:18):
But actually as proof of remember how Trump in the
old days he wanted military parades, perfect dictator stuff, having
your patters mark and march and lockstep and having your
tanks go down and your and your cannon's parade. I mean,
(30:41):
it's just so much, so much a dictator autocraft sort
of mentality. But he's told us, and so people can't
deny it. He told us that that's what he wants,
and everything he said is consistent, and so people who
(31:02):
are confused about his character, no, that's who he is
and that's what he promised to be. I mean, we
you know, he wants to parade military parades in our
country and we don't do those things. We don't need
to flex power that way.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
And right, and in contrast to Kamala, who's thinking about
like home health care, like being a part of of medicare,
like getting help with people taking care of our parents
at home or or elderly people and childcare and the
(31:44):
you know, not not increasing taxes for people under four
hundred thousand and and taxing untaxed billionaires to help reduce
the deficit, which I think went way up when when
Trump gave a huge tax cut to I don't know
what's billionaire's level, maybe millionaires. Again, I'm not an economists,
(32:07):
but that really increased our deficit during his time, and
I don't think that's that's a well known.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
And you know when she said that she was going
to work on inflation and like food prices, I mean
we all saw, I mean eggs, egg prices like double
or triple, and you know something's going on there because.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
It was.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Not you know, do not make eggs go up that much,
but the egg prices dropped suddenly when someone said, oh,
let's be uh, we must keep outing something. No, there
was no explanition when the prices came down.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
So yeah, I love hearing her talk about She addressed
price gouging, and she the fact that she's been a prosecutor,
she knows how to prosecute and she's been really she
has a really successful record of prosecuting fraud, fraudulent banks,
fraudulent colleges that we're trying to rip off students and veterans.
(33:21):
And I love, I love having a leader saying they're
going to go after price scouting because I I.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
It is amazing how the economy.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Has recovered post COVID.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
So much better than so many economists predicted, And the
same economists are now saying, it's kind of amazing we
are where we are now, and I sure wouldn't want
that to be disrupted.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Yeah, Trump keeps saying about our economy has collapsed and
is horrible, and we've never had more people working. And
and when he makes those lies about FEMA going into
the south's sad. That's so mean, and he repeats it
(34:09):
repeatedly and people believe it. It's just it's just so sad.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
But it's so messed up for the people who need
FEMA to build distrust when they you know, and confusion
about being able to ask for help, not that it's
you know, I'm sure it never feels like it's delivered
fast enough. It never feels like it's enough. But to
go in there and confuse your own co citizens to
(34:41):
get them to blame the government, hate the government instead
of working with the government. Is just so disrespectful and
mean and cruel, cruel to the victims of all the storms.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
Yeah, but actually we saw good things happen. You know,
there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors during those storms.
I mean, we cannot rely on government to come there
with the boats every time. Neighbors have to talk out
each other. You know. The other thing we need to
consider those the billions of dollars that Trump supporters like
Elon Musk is throwing into this campaign, and add that
(35:16):
to the misinformation that's coming in from Russia and China.
It might be good for our economy. But on the
other hand, I think it's confusing people. I think it
might be distressing people. And people need to realize that
it's intentional. They want people to stress so they don't
(35:37):
go and vote, or they want them to be confused
so they don't go and vote. And so we need
to be stronger and and not get bulled over by
all this that information that's coming in, and it's just money,
moneyed information, and and and Elon Musk wants to be
(35:58):
a dictator just like Trump. I mean they're close bodies apparently,
and we can't let money control who are leaders and
we need to check have leaders who really care about
this country.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
And yeah, yeah, I mean we can't deny Elon Musk
is like brilliant and in one arena, but him getting
mixed up with Paul Government, who he has contracts with,
it's just it's not ethical and that's that's not his wheelhouse.
(36:35):
It's really sad because you can't you can't deny where
he is brilliant, but he's unfortunately attaching himself to a
serious uh lack of an ethical leadership vision and and
to like support like in contract like I appreciate Mark
Mark Cubans in contrast, so very truly actual successful, this
(37:00):
man who's out there helping people understand that how Trump's
Trump and Elon and his their people are talking about
this great idea of tariffs, and I think, you know,
I was thinking, wait a minute, tariffs. Doesn't that like
that's increasing our price on items we pay for that
(37:20):
are imported.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Like that's not good for us. We'll pay the increase,
and it's like.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
That's like we can easily doubt ourselves, Like, am I
understanding right? Like yeah, and actually they're saying something that's
not intelligent economically and not true and men misleading.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
Yeah, we will all end up paying more. The refrigerators
and dishwashers and computer parts and car parts will all
end up costing more, and we'll end up paying it.
So the tariff war is not something you re I mean,
we are so our world is so economically tied to
each other. What one does would be reacted to by
(38:06):
others and it won't help the American people or the
development of the rest of the world.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Yeah, and if people are concerned about the economy, just
it's really it's really true. Where we are now is
much better than it was expected.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
And.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
I and getting better with Kalmmonness plan than the alternative.
Speaker 6 (38:40):
You know what's really to make sure. You know what's
really interesting though, is that remember during the end of
the COVID, people didn't want to go back to work,
and so there was so many jobs out there, and
and but finally that time frame of not having any
income come in is like laps so that people are
(39:01):
actually going back to work. But yeah, no, we're actually
in pretty good shape. And this whole thing about immigrants
coming up, illegal immigrants taking away the black and brown jobs.
Like what is he talking about? They're doing our our
construction and our housekeeping, and they're doing jobs that Americans
(39:27):
don't want to do. I mean that's always been the
way that immigrants subtorted this countrye doing the jobs that
native born you know, and superior tup too. And they're
willing to work for less than lesser wages and.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
A key, a key layer of our economy even and
exploited it. We we exploited. But if without it, boy,
a lot of a lot of things would be missing
at grocery store?
Speaker 6 (40:00):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (40:00):
All all the places where those of us who can
shop shop.
Speaker 6 (40:07):
Actually Also you look at other countries who need immigrants,
like Japan they have to have immigrants because they're population
is aging and have no workforce, and other in other
countries like that. Or it's like during COVID, we brought
in we had a lot of Filipino nurses who actually
(40:28):
died during COVID, but they parted. They subplanted our need
for nurses in this country. We encouraged them and brought
them in to help us with our medical services. So
we are built on the labor of immigrants.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Built on that's right, built on the labor of immigrants.
And as far as border policies and the Kamala, Harris
will go back to the bipartisan agreement.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
Hopefully we will have it'll.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Pass this time through Congress. It was blocked by Trump's
call to his friends in Congress, which is like strict
and firm, but not cruel, not the family separation. So
if you care at all about families, and you can
be concerned about the border and care about families, and
know that her plan is much better and still strict
(41:29):
and bipartisan.
Speaker 6 (41:31):
Actually, that was a piece of misinformation that keeps on
going through this campaign of what Harris and Invited weren't
able to do, but they weren't able to do it
because they didn't have congressional support, and lack of congressional
support was being controlled by Trump, because Trump was being
treated like the facto behind the scenes president, and people
(41:56):
would go and consult him, and he would decide whether
he was going to run on people are not and
allow things to pass or not. And so this whole
thing about saying Biden and Harris couldn't get things done,
it is because Trump was behind the scenes controlling the
(42:17):
votes because he's got this control where no one wants to,
you know, speak out against him because they're fearful of
their jobs. Why why are these elected officials so fearful
of their jobs. They should be more protective of the
country and the prosperity of our country than their own jobs.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
What'sheartening is so many actual real Republicans that are distinguished
from the MAGA Republicans, So many of them just cannot
and will not vote for Trump because they similar to
what we're sharing here is they can't vote for someone unethical, manipulative,
you know, who's intimidating, threatening, threatening to take away democracy,
(43:05):
threatening to terminate, terminate the constitution of the US.
Speaker 5 (43:09):
Like, then what country would it be.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I'm just really really pleased by how many Republicans are
standing up with Kamala Harris and even you know, how
many celebrities are saying, you know, who have a voice
and have a platform, are giving really good, concrete reasons.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
For people who are confused, like that, this.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
Really matters if you're gonna hurt someone, say today, if
you're just kind of vote once, if you're someone who's
not oh, I know it was Stevie Nicks, who has
this wonderful low song.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
Check it out if you have not Lighthouse.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
It's an incredible kind of dire warning about what can
happen when we lose freedoms, and this could be a
moment time.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
And you know, I do actually feel hopeful. I believe.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I believe Kamala here. I believe more people want Kamala Harris.
And I believe that's why we keep asking people, if
this is only time you vote, do it this time,
because the freedom and the ability and the right to
vote could seriously.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Not be possible.
Speaker 6 (44:11):
It won't be there next year.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, and he's even said that, he's even said, oh,
you won't have to vote again.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
Yes. Actually, actually looking at the people, the Republicans who
are supporting Harris, it's so amazing. Military people who were
in the president cabinet and coming out putting a target
(44:37):
on their own backs. So they're very brave, but they're
willing to speak out because they know that this is
a disaster. But the breath of experience and the talent
of these brave Republicans who are coming out to say no,
he's dangerous and he's demented, and we can't have him.
(45:00):
That actually should convince a lot of people who are
on the on the fence as to whether the vote
or not or how to vote. These are insiders who.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Worked with him, literally saying his behavior fits the definition
of a fast fascist.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
That he, whether he.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Knows it or not, the.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
It's fascism that will result from following that his author
authoritative stock of leadership.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
And I think.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
That's slowly striking more and more people in waves. So
we just got hit the big wave and keep envisioning
a landslide.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Yeah. Yeah, And there's time for people to get to
the election office and vote and vote early and vote once.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Well, Patty, I would love for people to hear I'm
going to let folks know that you will be back
on this show when we schedule it in possibly December January,
to talk about a book that you're working on. We
have just four minutes left, so I'd love for you
to let people know what it's called, what it's about
before we have to wrap up.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
My auntie was March Foung you the secretary of State
for twenty something years. She is rolling, actually she's rolling
over in her grave because pack money, I mean hiding
people behind packs, the money that's flowing the line, the cheating,
(46:42):
the intimidation of Secretary of States, the promises of some
of the secretary of States not to certified votes, this
whole thing about handcounting ballots in Georgia. She was totally
in her job as Secretary State to get people to
vote and be educated, it's smart, and be ethical. She
(47:11):
was a politician for many years. And so yeah, her
book's coming out. We're picking it up from the printer's
next month and we're going to be just promoting it
so that people can see how she did it. From
a person who grew up with parents who mean at
a hand laundry in the Central Valley to a major
(47:34):
constitutional officer in California. That's pretty amazing. So yeah, that's
my next project.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
Awesome, And I don't know if you would just want
to shout out for people too who are thinking, Okay,
how do I find out if I'm registered? How to register?
One source I know from my guests recently was a
League of Women Voters. It's a website that people can
check out. It's for everybody, and their main job is
to make sure everybody doesn't take voting for granted. And
(48:06):
can find that way and how to vote and to
have a choice to vote, which we do have now
and we want to use. And we have to exercise
our right to keep our right. And I, Patty, I
want to give you the last minute before I thank everybody.
Speaker 5 (48:20):
Do you have one last closing thought before we have
to wrap up.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
I actually went to Woodland too. I made a mistake
on my ballot, so I went to Woodland to change,
surrender my old ballot and gusts a new one. The
electure off workers are ready, willing able to help you.
They're very effish shit even though in some states they're
(48:46):
being threatened by people, but they're brave enough and to
support democracy. And so go out and vote and register.
If you haven't registered, just go and do it.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
Thank you well and vote register if Richard, just go
and do it. And thank the election workers who are
very courageous. Right now it can be risky, sadly, which
should not be. And thank you so much Patti Fong
for joining us. We really appreciate you. Can't wait to
have you back. I want to thank the listeners and viewers.
I think Rebel our engineer, and Dean Pipe for our
(49:25):
producer and maybe we all have a fantastic job using
our right to vote this week until the very last day,
November fifth, maybe we all have enriching conversations and diversity
and a good time enjoying being able to vote.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Thank you, Thank.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
You's gets speech in arispeech in Lots preach a lergic
(50:02):
gallet which enlargic gaallets which on a high
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W four c Y Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's employees are affiliates.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four
c Y Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions
or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank
you for choosing W four c Y Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Logic, Let's speak, show.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
In Lot, Let's breach in lots, in Lott's Lot, Let's a.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Lot, Hello, and welcome to It's Your Voice, the show
that hosts enriching conversations and diversity. My name is Bihia Yaxan.
I am a diversity educator and a Corolamic coach, which
means I support organizations and their staff and individuals and
(01:14):
identifying patterns of behavior that do not serve anymore, particularly
around biases, and helping not only identify them, but practice
stepping out of them by cultivating new patterns that serve
everyone far better, that are far more inclusive and create
(01:34):
greater belonging. I have a website if you want to
check out my programs to know what you want.
Speaker 5 (01:39):
Coachingwordpress dot com.
Speaker 4 (01:43):
Today I have a guest named Pattifong, and we titled
this show our Responsibility to Protect Democracy and the Constitution
an Asian American Pacific Islander Perspective. Patty Pattifong is a
retired Yolo County Deputy District Attorney and editor of Currents,
(02:07):
an Asian American Pacific Islander community newspaper. She's here to
talk about our responsibility to protect the democracy and the
Constitution from an AAPI perspective and to help promote voting.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Patty, come on out. So I'm so happy to have
you here.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
Appreciate I appreciate your valuable time. I know you're a
big community organizer and I always value any anything you've
organized that I get to attend.
Speaker 6 (02:36):
Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 5 (02:39):
You're welcome.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I'll just mention it's possibly we'll.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Have another guest be able to join this program today
before we end. But he's a firefighter. He's been a
firefighter for many years and he was called out on
incident just a few minutes ago. And if he miraculously
gets back in time he might join us and at
(03:05):
that time introduces him with more fully.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
But he also wanted to.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Pitch into the conversations we've been having on it's your
voice that are encouraging voting and helping people think about
those last minute undecided voters, which I do think there
really are helping people consider what matters to them, what
they value, if there's still some confusion about who to
(03:32):
vote for.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And also just to say you might know, but make
sure you go out and vote.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
So, Patty, I love the title you suggested, and I
would just would like to let you start and before
we close, I want to actually let people know that
you're working on a book that's really important.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
We'll have another.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Show about the book later, but I thought maybe we
could start talking about.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Why you want to promote voting and what.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
You know, what is our responsibility to protect democracy as
citizens and to protect the Constitution.
Speaker 6 (04:08):
From your perspective, you know, America is great, despite what
Trump says. We are a great country. People want to
come here. We have freedom of religion, we have freedom
of speech, We've got job opportunities for people who want
to work, and we need to protect democracy and Trump
(04:31):
says he does what he promises. He wants to be
a dictator. He already told us that on day one
he's going to pile on a bunch of executive orders
to suspend the Constitution and undo federal civil service and
basically put his political lackeys in control. He promised that,
(04:56):
and he comes through. And so people need to realize
that this decision that we're making is really important. The
whole world is watching. The whole world is nervous because
if we let him take control, he and his buddies
from Russia and North Korea, they're going to dominate the
(05:20):
world and it's going to be unsafe for a lot
of people. And he's also told us, and he comes
through with it, that he's going to retaliate against anyone
who doesn't believe him when he believes in And so
people who are out there who think, well, I'm not
going to vote because I'm so confused, that's your decision
(05:42):
right there. If you're not going to vote because you're confused,
it's because you're actually choosing to let someone else vote
for you. And so the consequence of what we get
at the end, it's going to be on you. So
you need to look at what is happening, this kind
of hate that's happened, I mean among the Conservatives, this
(06:02):
whole thing about Project twenty twenty five. It's very clever.
They're recruiting people who are loyal to the conservative platform.
They're not loyal to the US Constitution. They're loyal to
the Republican conservative values, and the recruiting of a resume pool.
(06:25):
They've got a planned to dismantle education and other departments,
and they are going to carry it out. In fact,
Trump actually started doing it in October of his last
year as a president. He actually signed an executive order
to dismantle the federal civil service system so that he
(06:49):
could put in people who were loyal to him. But
when Biben took office, he undid that executive order. We're
a real critical point, and we need to have a will.
Even in California, we need to have people out there
voting because after next Tuesday, we know Trump's going to
(07:12):
challenge the election. He's you know, even before the ballots
went off, he said this election is being stolen. We
need to have a van slide vote to show what
the people wanted, and we need to have votes all
over the country, even in California, even though we know
that our electoral College electors will go Democratic. We need
(07:36):
to have a big number so that when it gets disputed,
we've got a showing of a general population that wanted
a better world. And it's not Trump's vision.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
I really like the way you said that we need
to show a general population that wants to keep freedoms,
and that it's so important to we do need big numbers.
Speaker 5 (08:07):
Landslide.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
I've been envisioning a landslide so that we cannot avoid
the sort of like hair raising, completely nerve racking situation
of counting close votes. I don't think anybody in America
went to that. And I appreciate you're also mentioning like
(08:28):
we just really can't take take anything for granted, even
the like so so many different examples are coming to mind,
but and I know we'll talk about reproductive health. But
I was just thinking when you said California, like this
idea that some states may have some freedoms and some
(08:50):
rights now, but every state can lose them if the
MAGA Republicans win.
Speaker 6 (08:58):
Now, we need to we need to have a strong
showing because those people who are now setting fire to
ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington. They need to be
We need to have government in place that are going
to go after and not pardon. I mean Trump promises
(09:19):
to pardon everyone who is involved in January sixth. Just
imagine those arsonists who are burning up ballot boxes. He
wants them to go free too, and we just can't
have that happening. We need to protect our democracy. And
everyone's got their vote and they need to go in
and tell show the rest of the world that we
(09:44):
are behind democracy. And remember, if you don't think you're
registered to vote, you can vote on election day. You
can actually vote in the polling place or at the
election's office and your vote won't be counted until your
registration is this process, but you can vote. You can
register a vote at the last minute, or you can
(10:05):
update your registration at the last minute. So there's no
reason not to get your voice heard in this election.
Speaker 5 (10:17):
Thank you, Patty. I was just thinking for I think
for a lot of people like me.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
There may be a number of our listeners and viewers
who like me, have to have more than one job,
maybe have a full time job and a couple of
part time jobs.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
And for whom like being able to pay all of.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Our bills take so much time When you're tired, it's
hard to do all the research, Like I never get
to do as much research as I went to. But
I was thinking, maybe you could help us make it
more concrete what it means by because it can sound
pretty abstract, you know, like we're going to lose our democracy.
(11:01):
I think it's really helpful to kind of break it down,
not to insult anyone's intelligence, but just because it's helpful
to say, Okay, what.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Does that mean exactly? But I think.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I mean, I feel like I can ramble a few thoughts,
but you can perhaps clarify or an ad But.
Speaker 5 (11:26):
I just want to.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Spit out a few things that I've been thinking about,
like what does that mean to lose freedom? Well, first
of all, like I wouldn't how can I vote for
someone who denied the results of the last election.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
That, over and over and over and over again.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Was judges over sixty judges, right about sixty judges overturned
all the allegations that there was fraudulents, there was no
widespread Like that's kind of a number one reason for
me to worry that democracy would be threatened if an
(12:01):
election denier is elected again and the like.
Speaker 5 (12:05):
And to add to your point, if he's.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
Promising to pardon all the people who literally stormed our
capital and injured and attacked police officers, and you know,
people were lost and injured in there's still people suffering
from PTSD, to like to deny that reality, that's that's
not that's not a safe that's not a free and
(12:29):
safe country, and help and his threats to like work
with like you said, dictators and you know, not having
bodily autonomy for over half of the population, because if
you don't have freedom over your body, not only is
that cruel and barbaric, but it also means you don't
have freedom about you the choice of family, like when
you have family, who you have family with, how many
(12:50):
you have in your family, which it totally impacts your
economic life, you know, And and economy is so tied
to like how we live, the family we have, how
many people we can feed, if we can rent, if
we can buy. So I'm just wondering what kind of
things that come to your mind when we think about
(13:11):
I didn't want to focus long on what will be
lost because I really want to spend time thinking about
what we can have, you know, the alternative like not
just to not vote for someone who's threatens democracy. But
I think there's a lot of even though no one's perfect,
there's a lot of much more hope and joy and
practical since coming from Kamala Harris, there's a lot of
(13:32):
positive reasons to vote for her. But let me just
listen to you. What's coming to your mind about why
we need to protect the democracy and you know where
the constitution is so important.
Speaker 6 (13:44):
Well, it's really important for us and the world to
have a US president who is ethical and kind. I
mean in the last few in the last years or so,
he spent from the Asian perspective, he did the China
virus thing, and he continues to do it to rile
(14:06):
up hate among his followers against Asians, and so over
the last few years, we've had a lot of violence
and assaults on Asian on innocent Asians walking the streets
just being knocked down, and some of them so and
he's he's he's fomenting that. He announced to us that
(14:30):
he was going to be a dictator on day one.
He is riling up. Okay, given that we do have
an economic competition with China. It's he's it affects the
Asians in America when he does ravel on about his
(14:51):
you know, his distress of China. He even even if
they about eating cats, eating cats in Ohio. They need
a lot. They admitted that was a lie, but they
have kept it up. And that kind of stuff we
(15:13):
just don't need in a leader, because we have greater problems.
We've got yeah, abortion rights, we've got global warming, We've
got wars that we need to assist on in the
world that need resolving. He's creating hate within ourselves and
(15:34):
he does that as a distraction and to divide us.
But we we're actually better than that. This country's not
I mean this make America great again. Well, it's made
America great again for white males unfortunately, and take us
(15:56):
back to the nineteen sixties. But America is great and
we have lots of freedoms and we need to protect them,
and we need to show ourselves that we can rise
above this hysteria that he's created among his followers and
(16:16):
they're inter ranting. I was just reading some review that
the Madison Square Garden event people were just in there
to cheer for him, regardless to what he said. So
even if he said something that was not like, they
were cheering him on. And he claims that you remember,
(16:38):
in the old days, he claimed that he won the
election because look at my rallies and all the people
who attend night rallies. He thinks that the people who
call go the rallies are the number of votes that
he has. Well, no, sorry, it's the votes that end
up in the ballot box. So he's delusional. I'm sorry,
but he's got a lot of followers, and we need
(17:01):
to get people out because we're better than that.
Speaker 5 (17:08):
We are.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
And I really appreciate your emphasizing that America is an
amazing place.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
We certainly have our challenges.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
We have our problems, but I do really think the
majority of us, over time, we are making a.
Speaker 5 (17:26):
Better and better union.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
I'll, i'll, I mean, maybe not more perfect, but working
our way to becoming more and more inclusive. And you know,
we we have serious backlashes, then we keep moving forward.
Speaker 5 (17:38):
But this time it's more than a serious backlash.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
It's a threat of moving the infrastructure that allows us
to make progress and to have freedom of speech and
to I mean the threat to end the the close
of the Department of Education, like what.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
I've been in education for years, like this is a.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Very necessary, fundamental right to have education provided publicly.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
And it's so hard.
Speaker 4 (18:10):
There's so many different needs, there's so many so much
time has been invested in setting it up of courses.
People can complain about education and schools forever, but I
cannot imagine if the department gets wiped out and know
nothing else. I mean, that's just one of the absurdities
and it is hard to see that.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
Yeah, I think you use the word Lackie's I think
all the people.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
Surrounding him and supporting him wanted to win, and I think,
like him, they don't care about other people. I think
they're using him, frankly to get.
Speaker 5 (18:44):
Into more power themselves.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
But my father was an immigrant, and he was always
so grateful for America. He was always said, you have
no idea how many rights you have. You have no
idea how privileged and how lucky you are to be
born here or to come here and to become naturalized
as citizens as he did. And I remember when I
was in my twenties and I wanted to join the
Peace Corps. He was like, what what you're gonna You're
(19:09):
going to go to another country that has less infrastructure,
less resources, less uh, less lots of stuff, less rights
that you know, there was a king in charge of
the country I went to. And I've lived in countries
that are seriously authoritarian, and I have experienced what it's
(19:30):
like to live in a country that is not free,
and I think maybe it's hard for people to imagine
not having the freedoms that we have here.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
You know. One thing that's important, though, is that Trump
has this power, and he's really scaring a lot of people.
I mean, we look at what the Washington Post and
the La Times did refusing to endorse and there are
sort of are a source of facts. But he's got
(20:02):
this power that we got to take away from him.
And some of that power is his technique of repeating
his lies. There's this hope of psychology. If you repeat
the lie, people think it's true. It's like when he
keeps on saying that the illegal immigrants come across the
southern border are the drug addicts, the killers, and the rapists. Well, sorry,
(20:27):
there was something in the news the other day that
it's like sixty or seventy percent of the drug dealers
caught on the border with drugs are American citizens. So
he creates these lies, repeats them repeatedly, and has these
people who are following him, and yes, we have and
(20:50):
for him to be threatening these editorial boards or the
owners of these newspapers so much that they're concerned about retaliation,
We're not like that. America's not like that. We're not
here for get the information out there and get people aware.
(21:15):
Have be able to research your own. But you know,
if you don't have time to research, I think what
you have to do is think, well, now it's Trump
someone that you really want to invite home for Thanksgiving dinner?
Could you actually live with that guy? We had him
for four years, and you remember that period of time
(21:36):
where some of us just quit reading, listening to the
news because we were scared that he was going to
push the button for a nuclear war, and we were
just scared of what he was doing. I mean, he's
actually got more skills now and he's got more knowledge,
and it's going to be worse than the next time around,
and so we cannot let him be president again. And
(22:00):
we're very lucky that we've got this young, energetic vice
president's who's pounding, pounding the states to bring out the vote.
But we've got to support her and the values that
she's promoting, for truth and honesty and promoting the benefit
for the majority of America's not just millionaires.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
Yeah, the contrast does seem stark. It does seem very
clear to me, But I think often that depends on
what you're exposed to, you know, what you know, what
channel you have, on who you tune into. And I
really appreciate your point about the psychology of repeating the
same phrase.
Speaker 5 (22:41):
If if you're only hearing.
Speaker 4 (22:42):
That voice and only believing that voice, then you've already
been sucked into a worldview that's very limited and focus
on negative and so cruel and so mean, and so
many so many untrue it was so many lives.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
It's it's it's unbearable.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
It's unbearable, and I feel bad for the people who
believe them and who are he's lying too. He's using
his own voters through deception. What kind of what kind
of a relationship is that between a voter and a candidate?
Speaker 6 (23:18):
You know, I think we have to be prepared for
what happens after election day, though it's not going to
be pretty we're going to have to be prepared for
another January sixth, and we're going to and there's gonna
be a lot of lawsuits, and they're gonna be election
officials who refuse to certify things. But actually there was
(23:41):
something in the news the other day that it was
just a misdemeanor, but someone actually got convicted. Some election
official got convicted of failing to certify by the due date.
So there are laws in place to get our democracy
on track, but we need to have to know. I'm
just there to justify a big win for Harris and Waltz.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
And they appreciate what you said also about that he's
intimidating the media. It's incredible how many people are scared
of this person when he does truly seem I mean,
there was so much criticism about President Biden's age and
perhaps some slow decline, but Biden was still is still
coherent and makes sense, and Trump was just like, like,
(24:29):
what a little bit younger than Biden does not make sense.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
He's not coherent.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
He really knows, he's very adept at using emotional persuasion
and intimidation.
Speaker 6 (24:43):
Well, and also he really has not come up with
any programs or policies he's going to promote other than
dismantling the federal government. You know, last time around, he
said he was going to dismantle Obamacare. Never came up
with a alternative, but he had enough votes to stop
(25:07):
He had enough. He had enough votes too to control
the Supreme Court nominations. And we're gonna have to live
with that for a long time. But he his what
he does lasts a long time. They're they're very good
at planting things and and frankly, the Democrats need to
(25:34):
be a little bit more cohesive.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
Yeah we do, we do. Yeah, Well, what are some
what are some of the policies that you like that
Kamala Harris is promoting.
Speaker 6 (25:52):
You know, the whole thing about leaving abortion rights to
the states, We really need to just talk about the
logistics of that, because it's unfair for women to have
to travel to other states to have control over their
medical care and their bodies, and there needs to be uniformity.
(26:14):
And so you know, they're saying, Okay, we're gonna let
education being controlled by the states. They are going to
have health care and abortionized be controlled by the states.
But it doesn't make sense because we are such a
mobile society. People move in and out of states all
the time, and why should your rights to do certain
(26:36):
things be tied to the state that you happen to
be living in at the time. And her idea to
expand you know Obamacare. I mean remember remember when obamacat
rolled out and their and their enrollment programs didn't work. Well,
you know, that's to be expected.
Speaker 5 (26:56):
I mean.
Speaker 6 (26:58):
It was that's a big way. But we can always
improve upon it. And there's no reason to dismantle something
that's working with just keep on improving on it so
we can get more healthcare to more people, versus Trump
wants to just dismantle it. And and there was something
(27:20):
on the news today that you know, we spend the
most money, but we have the worst health outcome because
actually we have this whole layer of insurance brokers who
are making it more expensive. That was seemingly the bottom
line of that news article. I think that I think
(27:47):
Harris has better plan for protecting our interests overseas. I mean,
we have to be thankful that the Ukrainians are fighting
the war so we don't have to do it. Yeah,
I mean, if Ukraine falls, it's gonna be like a
Domino Hall set over there, and they're they're putting in
(28:11):
the effort to defend their own borders. And Trump he's
gonna let them fall. He's just gonna let Russia to
take Ukraine. And that's but actually what's scarier is that,
you know, if North Korean soldiers are going into Ukraine
(28:31):
to fight for the Russians, that's stepping up this conflict.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
I'm so glad you mentioned the like international.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Relations like policy, Like her vision for working with allies
would it's so much safer than his vision for working
with dictators.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
I mean it sounds so.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Like I'm simplistic, but it's like terribly, terribly true. The
difference between the picture of working with our allies or
working against their allies, it will make all the difference
and impact all of us. I mean, we've been like
relatively safe when this island, this big island of America,
(29:27):
for so long, but that could change. And I appreciate,
I appreciate her relationship and her leadership, but she seems
she's so strong. I mean, she seems strong, stable, intelligent,
extremely experienced, has so much more irrelevant experience versus a
failed a man who's failed in business. But how many
(29:48):
times has he had had bankruptcies? At six times? Yea,
and did not ever actually work at McDonald's.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
And she's called for ceasefire in the gaza's room. Think
enough that we know that she is committed to stopping
this guzza genocide. I mean Trump, God, I don't know,
you know, we don't know where he'll go on that one.
(30:18):
But actually as proof of remember how Trump in the
old days he wanted military parades, perfect dictator stuff, having
your patters mark and march and lockstep and having your
tanks go down and your and your cannon's parade. I mean,
(30:41):
it's just so much, so much a dictator autocraft sort
of mentality. But he's told us, and so people can't
deny it. He told us that that's what he wants,
and everything he said is consistent, and so people who
(31:02):
are confused about his character, no, that's who he is
and that's what he promised to be. I mean, we
you know, he wants to parade military parades in our
country and we don't do those things. We don't need
to flex power that way.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
And right, and in contrast to Kamala, who's thinking about
like home health care, like being a part of of medicare,
like getting help with people taking care of our parents
at home or or elderly people and childcare and the
(31:44):
you know, not not increasing taxes for people under four
hundred thousand and and taxing untaxed billionaires to help reduce
the deficit, which I think went way up when when
Trump gave a huge tax cut to I don't know
what's billionaire's level, maybe millionaires. Again, I'm not an economists,
(32:07):
but that really increased our deficit during his time, and
I don't think that's that's a well known.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
And you know when she said that she was going
to work on inflation and like food prices, I mean
we all saw, I mean eggs, egg prices like double
or triple, and you know something's going on there because.
Speaker 5 (32:35):
It was.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Not you know, do not make eggs go up that much,
but the egg prices dropped suddenly when someone said, oh,
let's be uh, we must keep outing something. No, there
was no explanition when the prices came down.
Speaker 4 (32:58):
So yeah, I love hearing her talk about She addressed
price gouging, and she the fact that she's been a prosecutor,
she knows how to prosecute and she's been really she
has a really successful record of prosecuting fraud, fraudulent banks,
fraudulent colleges that we're trying to rip off students and veterans.
(33:21):
And I love, I love having a leader saying they're
going to go after price scouting because I I.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
It is amazing how the economy.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
Has recovered post COVID.
Speaker 4 (33:33):
So much better than so many economists predicted, And the
same economists are now saying, it's kind of amazing we
are where we are now, and I sure wouldn't want
that to be disrupted.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
Yeah, Trump keeps saying about our economy has collapsed and
is horrible, and we've never had more people working. And
and when he makes those lies about FEMA going into
the south's sad. That's so mean, and he repeats it
(34:09):
repeatedly and people believe it. It's just it's just so sad.
Speaker 4 (34:18):
But it's so messed up for the people who need
FEMA to build distrust when they you know, and confusion
about being able to ask for help, not that it's
you know, I'm sure it never feels like it's delivered
fast enough. It never feels like it's enough. But to
go in there and confuse your own co citizens to
(34:41):
get them to blame the government, hate the government instead
of working with the government. Is just so disrespectful and
mean and cruel, cruel to the victims of all the storms.
Speaker 6 (34:51):
Yeah, but actually we saw good things happen. You know,
there are a lot of neighbors helping neighbors during those storms.
I mean, we cannot rely on government to come there
with the boats every time. Neighbors have to talk out
each other. You know. The other thing we need to
consider those the billions of dollars that Trump supporters like
Elon Musk is throwing into this campaign, and add that
(35:16):
to the misinformation that's coming in from Russia and China.
It might be good for our economy. But on the
other hand, I think it's confusing people. I think it
might be distressing people. And people need to realize that
it's intentional. They want people to stress so they don't
(35:37):
go and vote, or they want them to be confused
so they don't go and vote. And so we need
to be stronger and and not get bulled over by
all this that information that's coming in, and it's just money,
moneyed information, and and and Elon Musk wants to be
(35:58):
a dictator just like Trump. I mean they're close bodies apparently,
and we can't let money control who are leaders and
we need to check have leaders who really care about
this country.
Speaker 4 (36:15):
And yeah, yeah, I mean we can't deny Elon Musk
is like brilliant and in one arena, but him getting
mixed up with Paul Government, who he has contracts with,
it's just it's not ethical and that's that's not his wheelhouse.
(36:35):
It's really sad because you can't you can't deny where
he is brilliant, but he's unfortunately attaching himself to a
serious uh lack of an ethical leadership vision and and
to like support like in contract like I appreciate Mark
Mark Cubans in contrast, so very truly actual successful, this
(37:00):
man who's out there helping people understand that how Trump's
Trump and Elon and his their people are talking about
this great idea of tariffs, and I think, you know,
I was thinking, wait a minute, tariffs. Doesn't that like
that's increasing our price on items we pay for that
(37:20):
are imported.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
Like that's not good for us. We'll pay the increase,
and it's like.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
That's like we can easily doubt ourselves, Like, am I
understanding right? Like yeah, and actually they're saying something that's
not intelligent economically and not true and men misleading.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
Yeah, we will all end up paying more. The refrigerators
and dishwashers and computer parts and car parts will all
end up costing more, and we'll end up paying it.
So the tariff war is not something you re I mean,
we are so our world is so economically tied to
each other. What one does would be reacted to by
(38:06):
others and it won't help the American people or the
development of the rest of the world.
Speaker 4 (38:17):
Yeah, and if people are concerned about the economy, just
it's really it's really true. Where we are now is
much better than it was expected.
Speaker 5 (38:29):
And.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
I and getting better with Kalmmonness plan than the alternative.
Speaker 6 (38:40):
You know what's really to make sure. You know what's
really interesting though, is that remember during the end of
the COVID, people didn't want to go back to work,
and so there was so many jobs out there, and
and but finally that time frame of not having any
income come in is like laps so that people are
(39:01):
actually going back to work. But yeah, no, we're actually
in pretty good shape. And this whole thing about immigrants
coming up, illegal immigrants taking away the black and brown jobs.
Like what is he talking about? They're doing our our
construction and our housekeeping, and they're doing jobs that Americans
(39:27):
don't want to do. I mean that's always been the
way that immigrants subtorted this countrye doing the jobs that
native born you know, and superior tup too. And they're
willing to work for less than lesser wages and.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
A key, a key layer of our economy even and
exploited it. We we exploited. But if without it, boy,
a lot of a lot of things would be missing
at grocery store?
Speaker 6 (40:00):
Is it?
Speaker 4 (40:00):
All all the places where those of us who can
shop shop.
Speaker 6 (40:07):
Actually Also you look at other countries who need immigrants,
like Japan they have to have immigrants because they're population
is aging and have no workforce, and other in other
countries like that. Or it's like during COVID, we brought
in we had a lot of Filipino nurses who actually
(40:28):
died during COVID, but they parted. They subplanted our need
for nurses in this country. We encouraged them and brought
them in to help us with our medical services. So
we are built on the labor of immigrants.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
Built on that's right, built on the labor of immigrants.
And as far as border policies and the Kamala, Harris
will go back to the bipartisan agreement.
Speaker 5 (41:01):
Hopefully we will have it'll.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
Pass this time through Congress. It was blocked by Trump's
call to his friends in Congress, which is like strict
and firm, but not cruel, not the family separation. So
if you care at all about families, and you can
be concerned about the border and care about families, and
know that her plan is much better and still strict
(41:29):
and bipartisan.
Speaker 6 (41:31):
Actually, that was a piece of misinformation that keeps on
going through this campaign of what Harris and Invited weren't
able to do, but they weren't able to do it
because they didn't have congressional support, and lack of congressional
support was being controlled by Trump, because Trump was being
treated like the facto behind the scenes president, and people
(41:56):
would go and consult him, and he would decide whether
he was going to run on people are not and
allow things to pass or not. And so this whole
thing about saying Biden and Harris couldn't get things done,
it is because Trump was behind the scenes controlling the
(42:17):
votes because he's got this control where no one wants to,
you know, speak out against him because they're fearful of
their jobs. Why why are these elected officials so fearful
of their jobs. They should be more protective of the
country and the prosperity of our country than their own jobs.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
What'sheartening is so many actual real Republicans that are distinguished
from the MAGA Republicans, So many of them just cannot
and will not vote for Trump because they similar to
what we're sharing here is they can't vote for someone unethical, manipulative,
you know, who's intimidating, threatening, threatening to take away democracy,
(43:05):
threatening to terminate, terminate the constitution of the US.
Speaker 5 (43:09):
Like, then what country would it be.
Speaker 4 (43:11):
I'm just really really pleased by how many Republicans are
standing up with Kamala Harris and even you know, how
many celebrities are saying, you know, who have a voice
and have a platform, are giving really good, concrete reasons.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
For people who are confused, like that, this.
Speaker 4 (43:29):
Really matters if you're gonna hurt someone, say today, if
you're just kind of vote once, if you're someone who's
not oh, I know it was Stevie Nicks, who has
this wonderful low song.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
Check it out if you have not Lighthouse.
Speaker 4 (43:42):
It's an incredible kind of dire warning about what can
happen when we lose freedoms, and this could be a
moment time.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
And you know, I do actually feel hopeful. I believe.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I believe Kamala here. I believe more people want Kamala Harris.
And I believe that's why we keep asking people, if
this is only time you vote, do it this time,
because the freedom and the ability and the right to
vote could seriously.
Speaker 5 (44:08):
Not be possible.
Speaker 6 (44:11):
It won't be there next year.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
Yeah, and he's even said that, he's even said, oh,
you won't have to vote again.
Speaker 6 (44:17):
Yes. Actually, actually looking at the people, the Republicans who
are supporting Harris, it's so amazing. Military people who were
in the president cabinet and coming out putting a target
(44:37):
on their own backs. So they're very brave, but they're
willing to speak out because they know that this is
a disaster. But the breath of experience and the talent
of these brave Republicans who are coming out to say no,
he's dangerous and he's demented, and we can't have him.
(45:00):
That actually should convince a lot of people who are
on the on the fence as to whether the vote
or not or how to vote. These are insiders who.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
Worked with him, literally saying his behavior fits the definition
of a fast fascist.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
That he, whether he.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
Knows it or not, the.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
It's fascism that will result from following that his author
authoritative stock of leadership.
Speaker 5 (45:35):
And I think.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
That's slowly striking more and more people in waves. So
we just got hit the big wave and keep envisioning
a landslide.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Yeah. Yeah, And there's time for people to get to
the election office and vote and vote early and vote once.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Well, Patty, I would love for people to hear I'm
going to let folks know that you will be back
on this show when we schedule it in possibly December January,
to talk about a book that you're working on. We
have just four minutes left, so I'd love for you
to let people know what it's called, what it's about
before we have to wrap up.
Speaker 6 (46:16):
My auntie was March Foung you the secretary of State
for twenty something years. She is rolling, actually she's rolling
over in her grave because pack money, I mean hiding
people behind packs, the money that's flowing the line, the cheating,
(46:42):
the intimidation of Secretary of States, the promises of some
of the secretary of States not to certified votes, this
whole thing about handcounting ballots in Georgia. She was totally
in her job as Secretary State to get people to
vote and be educated, it's smart, and be ethical. She
(47:11):
was a politician for many years. And so yeah, her
book's coming out. We're picking it up from the printer's
next month and we're going to be just promoting it
so that people can see how she did it. From
a person who grew up with parents who mean at
a hand laundry in the Central Valley to a major
(47:34):
constitutional officer in California. That's pretty amazing. So yeah, that's
my next project.
Speaker 4 (47:42):
Awesome, And I don't know if you would just want
to shout out for people too who are thinking, Okay,
how do I find out if I'm registered? How to register?
One source I know from my guests recently was a
League of Women Voters. It's a website that people can
check out. It's for everybody, and their main job is
to make sure everybody doesn't take voting for granted. And
(48:06):
can find that way and how to vote and to
have a choice to vote, which we do have now
and we want to use. And we have to exercise
our right to keep our right. And I, Patty, I
want to give you the last minute before I thank everybody.
Speaker 5 (48:20):
Do you have one last closing thought before we have
to wrap up.
Speaker 6 (48:24):
I actually went to Woodland too. I made a mistake
on my ballot, so I went to Woodland to change,
surrender my old ballot and gusts a new one. The
electure off workers are ready, willing able to help you.
They're very effish shit even though in some states they're
(48:46):
being threatened by people, but they're brave enough and to
support democracy. And so go out and vote and register.
If you haven't registered, just go and do it.
Speaker 4 (49:02):
Thank you well and vote register if Richard, just go
and do it. And thank the election workers who are
very courageous. Right now it can be risky, sadly, which
should not be. And thank you so much Patti Fong
for joining us. We really appreciate you. Can't wait to
have you back. I want to thank the listeners and viewers.
I think Rebel our engineer, and Dean Pipe for our
(49:25):
producer and maybe we all have a fantastic job using
our right to vote this week until the very last day,
November fifth, maybe we all have enriching conversations and diversity
and a good time enjoying being able to vote.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Thank you, Thank.
Speaker 3 (49:41):
You's gets speech in arispeech in Lots preach a lergic
(50:02):
gallet which enlargic gaallets which on a high
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