Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 10/20/23: Breaking Points Atlanta Focus Group On Israel Palestine, Biden's Age, Kamala Harris, Democrat Voter Issues, and More

Episode Date: October 20, 2023

The full Breaking Points Atlanta focus group with Democratic voters on range of topics from Israel Gaza, Biden's Age, Kamala Harris, Issues, and more.To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show uncut and 1 hour early visit: https://breakingpoints.supercast.com/Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Guys, hello. You've got patients of saints. Thank you so much. My name's James. You may have noticed I've got a British accent, as do some other people in this room. But don't judge me. I'm not going to ask you anything about Harry and Meghan or anything like that, I promise. We're going to be talking about politics. We're going to talk about a range of things. And these things happen for lots of different things.

As I was saying, food tasting, TV adverts. We're going to be talking today about politics and some of your views on politics in general and things that are going on in the world. The key ground rule is it's not a test. There's no right or wrong answers. It is just getting your view on things. If you don't know something, don't know much about something, it's completely fine to say so. If you agree with somebody, say so. If you disagree with somebody, please speak up. Each of you in this room represents lots of people outside of it. So it's really important that we hear your voice. If you're sat there thinking, I don't think that's quite right, please come in. It's a conversation, so just come in. We don't want you to sit there and bottle yourselves up. Having said that, I'll sometimes broadly go around and structure the

discussion. When I'm doing that, it should be pretty obvious. But otherwise, just come in and come in with a conversation. We want to foster interaction between everybody. A couple of other ground rules. If you're too quiet, I will pick on you. So you can't just sit here, I'm afraid, even though that's what I've made you just do for 20 minutes. And please don't take offense if I tell anybody to just be quiet for a moment if anybody's speaking a little bit too much. Give some other people a word in. It's first names only, but as you know, we are recording it. You've signed the permission slips. So I think you all should be entirely aware of that. And we have been delayed starting. See how we do on time. If at the end, if we go over a bit, I won't keep it for any more than 15, 20 minutes, and I will personally pledge to give

you each another $50. So apologies for the time and making your way around. So guys, introductions, and also so these guys can shout out if there's any mic issues, but we'll start proper. What I want to know is your first name, what you do for a living, and where you tend to get your news from. And it can be a particular website, particularly TV channel. It can be a couple of different things, but that's what I want to know. First name, what you do for a living, and where you tend to get your news from.

So we'll start with you, sir. First name, what you do for a living, where you get your news from. My name is Daryl. I'm an auto total loss claim adjuster, and I do my news from usually CNN or NBC. Great stuff. Hello. My name is Emery. I'm a financial analyst for 401k plans and I mostly get my news from NPR. Great stuff. Thank you, Emery. Howdy. My name is

Anna. I'm retired and I get my news from a variety of sources. I watch Good Morning America on ABC. I watch local news, WSB, and I also get news, you know, just news break things sent to me on my phone. So I get news from my phone too. Gotcha. Thank you, Anna. Hello. Hi, my name's Adeline. I'm a nurse. I mainly get my news from CNN and I am of that generation, also from social media. Okay. Any particular social media? Instagram. And was it Adeline? Adeline. Great stuff. Hello.

I'm Russ. I'm a retail manager of a bottle shop. I get my news primarily from just whoever I speak with. I don't watch a lot of news because I don't like a lot of news. Okay, good answer. Thanks, Russ. I'm Mary, and I'm retired, and I watch all the news channels, ABC, CBS, Channel 5,

and I also get alerts on the Internet, Facebook mostly. Facebook, great. Thanks, Mary. I'm Amy. I'm an assistant kindergarten teacher. And I get my news from CNN, local news, evening news, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Great. Is that a paper website? We get the paper in our driveway. Nice. Thanks so much, Amy.

Actual copy. Very good. Hello. Hi. My name's Aminata, and I get my news from the local news, Newsbreak also, Facebook, Instagram. And I'm retired. Is it Aminata? Yes, it's Aminata. Friends call me Amy. Amy, okay. I'm sure some of you have seen in the news

or something that's been dominating the news recently is the events that have been happening in Israel, in the Middle East, obviously in Gaza as well. How closely, if at all, are you following this? I was interested to see, because I thought this could be the first of a lot of bad things that could happen in the Middle East, especially, like Amy was saying, with Russia and Ukraine.

And I feel like a lot of things are often uneasy. And I was also worried to see if this would lead to any kind of anti-Semitic or anti-Islam sentiments, both in Western Europe and the U.S., outside of what was going on in the Middle East. I try to look at both sides because it seems like each side has been kind of hammering at the other one for so long that it's hard to take sides. I just feel really sad for the humanitarian crisis. I mean, 1.1 million people being forced to leave their homes and they have 24 hours to do that. Where are they going to go?

For me, I needed to educate myself more about the history before, you know, trying to choose a side. Because I know throughout, especially on social media, a lot of people are taking sides. So I took more of the stance of just trying to educate myself about the history of both countries to kind of get a better understanding of like, how did they get to this point today? Probably innocent victims would be number one for me. Some concerns for America and also sadness for my Jewish friends. I was watching and they was talking about all the people that had died and how they did the children and how they cut the babies and children heads off.

It was like kind of really disturbing. You know, what's going on in the area is terrible. When is it going to end or will it? What do you think Israel's response is going to be now? Well, I fear that we're going to escalate so that more countries will have to get involved. And so it will end up being something much more major and a lot more people are going to die.

Well, I feel like Israel is always really hardcore when it comes to defending themselves. And so they're going to just blast the Palestinians. Retaliation was the first thought that came to my mind. That's scary. and so they're going to just blast the Palestinians. Retaliation was the first thought that came to my mind. That's scary. I'm worried that there's going to be a weird situation where Israel's going to say that they haven't committed any war crimes because they tell the people of Palestine they have 24 hours to move out

when they don't have the ability to do that. And then when civilians do die, Israel's going to say that they didn't commit war crimes. Obviously Palestine's going to say that they didn't commit war crimes. Obviously, Palestine is going to say that they do. And it's going to be a weird situation because Israel has the support of the UN and Palestine doesn't. But Palestine does have the local support of the entire region other than Israel. And so I think it's going to end up with even worse relations between the Western world and Israel versus all of the rest of the region. If there is now an invasion of Gaza by Israel,

which is being talked about, I think it's being referred to as a ground invasion, an occupation, is that a reasonable response? Is that an unreasonable response from Israel? And why? I mean, how do you feel about that? That's so hard for me to say, because I don't want anybody to be fighting. I don't want anybody to be losing their lives.

But you also have to... People have to protect their citizens too, so. I think there's a reasonable response. You should have stayed in your place and left us alone. I don't think you can go to another country's land and, you know, do that and not expect a response back. We got to protect ourselves. That's not just for them, that's for everyone. And Israel is just trying to stand up and protect their peoples, you know? They've been invaded. So what do you do? Do you do nothing and just die? Or do you fight? Thinking specifically about how President Biden's responded

to the crisis so far, how do we feel? Is he doing well? Is he doing badly? I saw they put the biggest warship we have in our Navy movies, the Air Force. The largest battleship I saw that they have, they put it in the Mediterranean. And I think that's a really good sign that we're there to support. I wouldn't want him to take action against the Palestinians, but I like that he's showing that the US has a presence.

I agree that I don't want him to take action. We have our own issues to deal with. My opinion is he doesn't quite know what to do yet or what to say. He's maybe still thinking everything through and the options and doing a wait and see. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? To me, it's a good thing. What role should the U.S. play now? Should they be trying to break a peace?

Should they be supporting Israel militarily? Should they be doing something else? What should the U.S US do in response now? Continue to protect Israel, because I think the majority are blessed, and I'm spiritual a lot. More than me, it's kind of natural. Because I've been praying for Israel

ever since, you know, God saved me. So I say he's going to be full force to protect Israel at all costs. All costs? All costs. It's no answer what he's going to do to protect Israel. I think the U.S. now should also do what they can to protect the innocent victims in Israel.

I mean, there's so many children. Yeah. And it's heartbreaking. What does that mean, though, Amy? Does that mean... Yeah, Amy? Does that mean? Yeah, well... I know you're not president, but what does that mean?

See, that just goes back to my whole... I just don't want there to be any war, and I feel like if we take a super strong stance, it's not going to stop, and it's going to get worse. If we go over there and, like, step in, it could be a lot worse. I think they should maintain the original borders that Israel had to protect Israel,

but also not have them push a ground war into the Gaza Strip. If they need to have a military presence to protect Israel, I would get behind that. But moving anything into what currently, or as of two weeks ago, was Palestinian land, I think is too far. I don't think we should get involved militarily. I think you mentioned something about brokering peace. I think that's important. I think probably we would provide humanitarian aid for those who have been displaced, help with the refugees, and kind of dovetailing off of what he said, I think providing intelligence and targeting Hamas, because there's so many innocent people who are involved.

And just like in this country, everybody wants to live a happy, peaceful life. And these folks' lives have been disrupted by this terrorist group. So just like we targeted al-Qaeda, we need to go out, you know, target Hamas. I mean, the role that I would like them to play is just to kind of just be like that mediary, like for both sides, so they can just get to some type of peace or resolution. Because in a sense of like all these innocent lives on both sides that are dying, they have nothing to do with this war

and this conflict that's been going on for years. So it's just unfair to the general population on both sides of what's, you know, happening to them now. I just think that when you start getting involved and then it's just going to escalate and they may bring all of that here. It's like, what's going to bring peace? What's going to bring peace?

I think that we should provide some humanitarian aid, try to broker peace. But I also think we need to pay attention to the other regions of the world because I think they're watching us closely to see what the response is going to be. Who would support, in principle, U.S. military involvement? I think the U.S. needs to just go and get in there and just wipe them out and be through with it, you know? Wipe who out? The people that's fighting against Israel.

I think he should be for Israel at all costs. I guess. Because right now what's going on is just innocent civilians on both sides that are dying. So does that turn, just to clarify, who the white people are? Yeah, but we got to recognize we didn't start the war. You know, and we wasn't really a part of the war. The war wasn't for us. But by the United States standing for Israel,

I think they need to stand full force. I'm just for peace. I just feel like, what would bring peace? Nothing. You said nothing? No peace. But I don't agree with people dying. This is just the beginning of wars and rumors of wars.

I mean, more stuff going to happen that we don't see going on with Israel and the Palestinians. I would support military involvement as long as they stay within the current borders of Israel. Don't go to West Bank or Gaza Strip. Anyone else? I would just support sending in peacekeepers. I'd rather stay out of it, but if we had to, then we have to. I'm thinking that a defensive posture for Israel would be okay. I wouldn't want to see us take any offensive action.

I think the rest of the world is watching to see what we're going to do. Joe Biden. When I think of Joe Biden, I mean, he's experienced. Is he the best candidate to represent the Democratic Party? Eh, that's kind of questionable for me still. Competent, not outstanding, sufficiently capable and knowledgeable about how the political system works. For the Democrats, he's a safe pick, and I like that he's always willing to take

the best opinion in the room, even if it's not his own. I think he's a fair president. I think he's loyal. And I think he's caring and compassionate. Not a knee-jerk politician and no ego. He is a huge step up from what we have. Some of you aren't super enthusiastic. Is that fair to say? I agree with all of those.

I think he's safe, but I don't think he's outstanding. I agree with all of those. I think he's safe, but I don't think he's outstanding. I agree with whoever said safe. I mean, he's the face in the sense of Democratic Party, right? So thank God he's not the only Democratic representative. You know, so we have our congressmen and our senators and everything else. So I want to know why. Why? Thank God. god why is that why are you pleased he's not the only one he's oh i mean what worries you what worries me now i think it's statements that he made years ago what kind of thing you're gonna make, yeah, yeah. I know that he said some things in regards to just African-Americans in the U.S. at that time. So it always just made me question him as a person in a sense.

Even though I think he's a wonderful human being and he's done great stuff, I think he needs to step aside because his age does concern him. Yeah, his age concerns me too. And I hate to say that, but it does. I think sometimes when you're getting a little older, it's time to step aside and let somebody younger come in. And maybe he's a little softer, because I think that as you get older, you get a little softer. He's frail.

Yeah, and not taking him seriously because of that too. No, he get a little softer, so. He's frail. Yeah, and they're not taking him seriously because of that, too. No, he's not doing this by himself. No, he got a whole lot of people helping him. So I think long as he got good backup, he gonna be a great president. Is Joe Biden too old to run again? Or is Joe Biden the right age?

It doesn't matter. It's fine for him to run again. I don't think age should be, you know, like the determining factor for him to run or not to run. I would prefer that he not run again, not because I think he's incompetent, but when you get to be 80, you don't know what's going to happen with your health.

You could have a stroke. Something else like that could happen. My concern is primarily physical health and less mental health and competence. I don't think it really matters. As long as he wants to run, he's going to be the favorite for president. He's too old. He should go sit down somewhere. Go on, tell us more.

I think at this point, you're kind of out of touch. People getting my age, we're thinking about sitting down, playing with our grandkids, things like that. It's like there's some things that need to happen that you don't have the ability to do. Let some of these young, bright stars that we see day after day in Congress do what they do. And while I'm thinking about it, there should be term limits immediately for everybody

so that we don't have people sitting in Congress for 40 years grabbing a paycheck on a gravy tray. He can run again, but why? people sitting in Congress for 40 years grabbing a paycheck on a gravy tray. He can run again, but why? When you get to a certain age, you're getting dementia, you can get Alzheimer's, just things that's out there can affect you being, making your decisions. And do you really want somebody in office

where sometimes they don't believe that they have those problems? And you might not't believe that they have those problems. And you might not even see that they have those problems until they have what? A debate and he can't catch his words or he can't remember. I just feel like they look at that as a sign of weakness. Maybe it's time for him to step down. It doesn't matter to me right now, right now, because I put, you know, he doesn't have limited mental capabilities. He has not shown that yet. That would be absolutely horrible if he was in office and did.

But right now, it doesn't bother me. So come the next election, he'll be 82. If he completes his second term, he'll be 86 in his last year. How do we react to that? Well, I know some very competent 88-year-olds. My mother's 94 and she's sharp as a tack. You just never know. I think nobody knows his health and his desire

to work four more years than Joe Biden does. And I think if he didn't think he had the ability to do it for four more years, he wouldn't run. And so I feel like him wanting to run is a sign that he's healthy enough to run. Should someone challenge Biden for the nomination? To make it fair, yes. To make it fair?

Yes. I wish that Biden would just anoint a successor. That doesn't have to be a challenge. I think that's a bad signal of weakness for the Democratic Party, and it could cause a divide. I think an advantage you have when you are the returning candidate is you don't have to have a primary where the six or ten candidates all tear each other down and then have to pretend that they wanted each other. I think it would be an invitation for the Republican Party to pounce and try to divide us more.

And that's despite you saying Biden needs to go and have a lie down. Well, yeah, he does. He's too old. But I don't want anybody to challenge him because of that reason. So he's the president. So he's going to be the president until he can't be the president anymore. And that's at the end of his second term. So that infighting point is more important to you than the... Yeah, it's more important. If he ran again and I would vote for him because I don't know anybody else that I would think can challenge him and would win.

I'm scared about dividing the Democratic Party as well. It'd be nice to have another option, but... It ain't Trump. I like where he's at. I like where we're at. I mean, there's a lot to gamble on. Kamala Harris. Well, she's experienced. She's knowledgeable. I did not feel like she lived up to the expectations

because I was so excited when she became the vice president. I think she's a wonderful person. I don't think she's been given an opportunity to really shine and grow in her position, and I'm not impressed overall. I think she's competent. Everything she has done has been domestically, so I don't think she's had much of the opportunity

to work in international affairs. Intelligent, fierce, strong sense of right and wrong, and fearless. I think she does a lot of backup for Biden. I think that she's in that air, and that is where he makes those decisions. Believe it or not, even though he's president, he confers with her a lot, and they make decisions together. I do think she's experienced, but she also gets very nervous during interviews. I don't know whether it's insecurity or just nervousness that I sense sometimes, but I think she's hidden. I think we'll fail if she was president because she's not active enough.

On the down low, I don't even know why she's my vice president. I don't really, really know a lot about her. I don't. Would Kamala Harris be good president or bad president? I think she would be a capable, good president. I really wish that there was some sort of initiative she could be in charge of that is seen by the general public. I don't think there's been a situation that Kamala Harris has been able to kind of show that she's a good leader. I do not think she would be a good president. I don't get a strong sense of leadership from her

when I see her speak. I think she's somebody who knows how to speak. I just don't feel that I would have confidence in her as a leader. I don't think if she wasn't able to do her job and wasn't capable, so they had to see something in her as a leader. I don't think if she wasn't able to do her job and wasn't capable, so they had to see something in her for her to get that position. Push came to shove and she had to do what she had to do. She'll fight.

She would do it. Can she beat Trump in the election? I don't think so. Yeah, I think he would eat her lunch. I hate to say it, he'd tear her to shreds. Put your hand up if you think she could beat Donald Trump in an election. Put your hand up if you think Kamala Harris could beat Donald Trump. Not in a million years.

Thinking about Trump, there's this question about whether he should be taken off the ballot, disqualified from running because of the events of January 6th. Do you think Trump should be disqualified from running again because of January 6th or not? If you think he should, put your hand up. Wow. Not just January 6th, all the mess that Trump did. Just because he did. We will never forget. The world will never forget.

And it ain't the march on the Capitol. It's just—he's just a crazy idiot. You know, he do stupid stuff. He even in court in Atlanta. So that's the opinion. He shouldn't even be on the ballot. He really—they really need to just lock him up and throw away the key. I don't think he's competent, but I'm not under any illusion that he's going to jail.

So they're going to have to fix that to keep him from getting on the ballot. There's a question about disqualify from the ballot. Oh, I mean, yeah, definitely. I mean, just everything that we've seen, not just him being president, but before then. I mean, he was Donald Trump, right? So he was, I mean, he made a name for himself, and it was a part of his name. Excuse me. So, no. Amy, I mean, he made a name for himself, and it was a parapodic name, so no.

Amy, you put your hand up. I agree that he probably will never go to prison, but I still think what he did is a felony, so I think he should not be able to run. No. I agree. I don't care if he goes to prison. I just don't want him to be running for president again.

That's all I care about. So Emery didn't put his hand up. Emery, tell us why. I think using something like the courts to block someone from running for election is very anti-democratic. I think it's a bad look when other countries, if they were to talk, if we heard about, say, a country that we might have a bad rap about, whether legitimate or not, so say some South American country, and we heard that they ran for election and they had a small run in the Capitol where no one thought the country was going to be overthrown, and the other

party forced him off the ballot and made him ineligible so he couldn't run for re-election, we would say that government is corrupt. And so I think it's a really bad look if we block someone from trying to run for president. I think if we make his resume stand against another capable person he's going to lose, I'd rather do that than block someone from running in a democracy. That's my argument to you guys. The argument back, Emery's point, it's not very democratic, is it? I think they need to just take him off the ballot. I don't know if they can, but I'm saying that that's my opinion, you know, of what we know

about him and the way he presented himself. You know, he just messed up. Some might argue, and people have said this when these debates have happened, you know, online or in the press or whatever, in the media, that people have said, you know, that might cause real division, even possibly violence in the country. What would you say back to that? I agree. And I agree that it's not that he caused it because I feel like this.

However, people feel they felt that way all along. They just needed an outlet or someone to stand up for. Has there ever been someplace where no one speaks and then when one person speaks and everybody will speak or someone's dancing and then nobody's dancing, but that one person on the floor and everybody's dancing. He only awakened what people were already feeling. We already are divided. We already have a lot of racism, but we try to pretend like it does not exist. And it does. Some people have said that if Trump is re-elected,

then it could even mean the end of the union. It could even mean the end of the US as we know it, a country torn apart. Others say if he wins again, it'll be another Trump term, but it will pass and it'll ultimately be okay. Where are you guys on that? And I just want, if you think it's that first one, if you think, is the union in danger if Trump wins or not?

Put your hand up if you think the union is in danger if Trump wins. Mary? I say yes because of what we already know about him. You know, that one thing about the character you present before people, people don't forget. So I don't know. I think if he runs, he might win. I'm not saying that he will not win because, you know, they said money talk. He got a lot of money, so he can pay his way in.

They're like he had the people to have the capital. So I think if he runs, he will win. Darrell, very quickly, starts the union. We know that he has people that have the capital. So I think if he run, he will win. Daryl, very quickly, Secretary of the Union. We know that he has people that follow him blindly. So it's not a very big stretch to think that he can convince people to do stuff that would destroy what we know as democracy now.

We're going to do a lightning fast round now. I'm going to show you some pictures. I'm going to say the name. And I want one word. One word. And if you don't know them, say don't know. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. RFK. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And he's running as an independent. He was running as a Democrat first,

but he's now running as an independent to be president. RFK Jr. I saw one negative report on him, so I'm not certain. What was it? I don't remember exactly, RFK Jr. I saw one negative report on him, so I'm not certain. What was it? I don't remember exactly, but I just recall that it was something that was a little bit too wacky for me. Conspiracy theorist. Unstressworthy.

Wow. When you said the name, I just thought about the family. It's a popular family. It's a popular family. It's a family that's been there. And especially through slavery and being fair. So I don't know too much about him. But he comes from a great family. I think he hides things.

I think he just, he look crooked. So I don't think, I don't know too much about it, but he looked crooked. He don't really look like the Kennedy. He look like the day they had a baby on the other side of town. No, he looked crooked. Established with a name. But I just, I have no idea.

Next one, guys. Alexandra Acacio-Cortez. She is the voice of the people. I'll no idea. Next one, guys. Alexandra Acacio-Cortez. She is the voice of the people. I'll say that. She's very outspoken. Outspoken. Good ideas, but I'd say invites conflict. Courageous.

I don't know too much about her. Divides everybody. I don't know her at all. I've never heard of her. Marianne Williamson. I recently heard of her name, but I'll be honest with you, I don't know much about her at all. I just know a little about her as an author of, like, I think self-help books. I don't know much about her at all.

I don't know her. Don't know who that is. Neither do I. I don't know her. No, don't know her. No clue. Gretchen Whitmer. First time I'm hearing her name.

I don't know who that is either. I don't know anything about her. I don't know her. Competent. Who are these people? Don't know her. No idea. Gavin Newsom.

Gavin Newsom. I don't know enough about him. I think as a California governor, he would be very competent. Yeah, and I don't have anything negative to say about him. I feel like the people of California are liking what he's done. Fair. Not a clue. Liberal and Californians love him.

I don't even know who he is. Don't know. Never heard of him. Cornel West. Has anybody heard of him? Cornel West. Put your hand. Never heard of him. Cornel West. Has anybody heard of him? Cornel West. Put your hand up if you've heard of Cornel West.

Never heard of him. Any thoughts on him? I did hear he's one of the candidates to run. I didn't take it too seriously, I'll be honest. Just seeing his name. Someone else put their hand up.

That was me. I've heard of him. Intelligent, competent, trustworthy. Some are saying that there might be a third-party candidate in the next election. Could be no labels, it could be an independent who gets, you know, pick up. Would you consider voting for a third-party

candidate or not, if it was Biden versus Trump, say? That scares me. I would consider. I guess it just depends on the candidate that's running and, you know, what they stand on. Anna, shaking head? No, I think it would dilute,

and it might be damaging if you don't want Trump to win. It might dilute the Democratic vote. I think whatever party splits, loses, if we don't have ranked choice voting. Yeah, I don't want to see that at all. Guys, serious question. Crime. Has crime in your neighborhood gone up or down, and why do you think that is? Big question, I know, but we're going to quickly riz round again. Gone up or down in your neighborhood or stayed about the same? Let's say over over the last i don't want to make it political

let's say six years you know um just as a benchmark um up or down or stay the same and why i haven't noticed any like rise and climb in my area same for my neighborhood stayed about the same it's gone up a little bit i I think the local police are low on their budget. I've moved in that time, so where I moved from, it's gone up, and where I am now, it's pretty stable. I'm going to say that crime has increased, and the reason why I think so is because everything has changed since the pandemic. People are struggling to pay their

bills. They're struggling to eat. I'm seeing more homeless people than ever in places where they were never before. It's crazy right now. So I'll say it's increased. It's gone down. We became our own city and broke away from the city of Atlanta. so we have our own police force with more officers, better trained officers, our own 911 operators. What city is that? Sandy Springs. a lot of shooting and when you call 9-1-1 I think the police just take their time and just continue what they're doing before they react to the call. It's slow response or no response. If you go online and you look at what's happening around Atlanta, it's increased a lot I think. The police buzzers need to be increased or decreased, stay

the same. Where are you on that? I think in the city of Atlanta as other areas incorporate it's usually higher wealth areas and then they take their property taxes with them and so the areas like Atlanta where it need a lot of help a lot of like I think I was anti-Buckhead even though I live in Buckhead. But if Atlanta lost all that property tax, they'd really be suffering. And we have high value places because we live near Atlanta and we should pull our weight, which makes it hard for the police forces to keep up. You know, even when you look at the news and stuff, they always begging for more people

to come in, you know, come and join us. And the one that we got ain't doing what they're supposed to do. If they prioritize what is more important, which everything is important. But if they prioritize 911 calls, they probably wouldn't be so on the down low. But they need to speak up and get up. Quicker one, guys. Big issue, but we're going to do it quickly. Roe versus Wade, the overturning of that and the abortion issue. Thinking about the next election, how important is that to your vote?

And I want you to answer on a scale of 1 to 10. So 1 is it's not really that important at all. 10 is it's going to be the only issue I'm thinking about. It's my issue. It's going to be the only thing I vote on. I would say a five for me. I'd have to look at all the issues in order to make, you know, a conform vote. So it would be a five. I'd also give it a five just because I think there are other more pressing issues now that we've kind of adapted to what's happening, what's happened with Roe v. Wade? I'd say it's an eight, but I think it it isn't as difficult to do that

because I think the majority of candidates are pro choice. So I think it can be an eight and still not limit me between who I choose. I give it a seven just because I think it's outrageous that we should be thinking about telling other people what to do. We're not taking care of the kids that are here. I'll say it is not really that important to me.

So I guess three. Quick reason why? It doesn't affect me. Maybe because I can't have more kids. It's a three for me, and I'd rather not say why. I would say a five because people should be entitled to make

their own choices. Who want to be in control? I don't want to be in control of you. And I ain't going to never let you control me. So it should be people's own choices.

USA to Ukraine. Put your hand up if you think it's been too much. About right? Yeah. Hands up, nice and big. And not enough? So two people not putting their hands up. Let's quickly go on the people who did put their hands up.

Why is it about right? We have to stand up and support them. I mean, it's our role as a world leader, and also it's the right thing to do. I don't know about the answer to that question. We have a tendency to look at everything else around the world, but we refuse to look at what's in front of us. So walking in here today, how many people that I see needed help but we're not helping them but we'll help people 10,000 miles away I don't understand

that what's the biggest economic hurdle that you face personally so you know financial in your life what's the biggest kind of hurdle in your life at the moment when you're thinking financially, when you're thinking economically? Student loans and planning. Just thinking long term planning, what's going to happen with Social Security when I reach that age in 40 years. Health costs. For you or family?

For me. And I'm going to say for me, I've been handicapped now for three years. And I used to work for the Postal Service for 20 years. And because I worked for the Postal Service, I went on SSDI, disability insurance, right? And since I've been on that, I can't get help for anything because of my job. But a person who has not worked or who came here from someplace else can come right here, get housing, stamps, health insurance. There right now, I'm originally from New York City.

They got a lot of people that came from Ukraine, brought them to New York City. They're living in hotels for free. They're sending them out. They're making $3,000 a month. And on top of that, they're still allowing them to be able to get stamps and everything. And here I am, born and raised an American, and I cannot get any type of help. And when it comes to handicapped people, I know I can't possibly be the only one who has a gripe. Handicapped people get a bad rap and it's just, it's awful. It's awful. So when, even right now, they got in Georgia, I came to, I moved to Georgia because

Georgia was a place to come to where you didn't have to spend a whole lot of money to have a good life. Now they want you to pay 3.5 times the rent to get into a place. If I had 3.5 times the rent, why would I rent? I would buy a home. You know, so use your common sense. People are out here struggling. You think it's a war in someplace else? Oh, the war is going to be here in a minute because people are homeless. They don't have food to eat.

And when they see you and they think that you have something that they don't have, you're going to be the target. So now I'm worried about that, that I can't walk, I can't run, and I'm a target for someone who thinks that I may have something, which I don't. So, yes, I got a lot of gripes. I could gripe all day. I just got a $32,000 medical bill for doing one procedure for them to check my heart last week. What is that? And I have Medicare.

But they told me I can't get it because guess what? I don't have Medicaid, so I can't get help. Jesus. Amy? Adjusting to my husband's recent retirement and my possible retirement and how does insurance, medical insurance play into that? Mary? My life is cool. I just paid off my automobile. I'm great. Some of those stories are quite tough, right? Can you vote to change that?

The reason we can't get any change in that is because we have career politicians that are blocking everything that happens. If we have term limits that will prevent the corruption that is inherent in somebody being in office for 20 and 30 years. Anne-Marie? I think a lot of the price change is inflation we don't have any control over. It's a lot of the Federal Reserve which we're not going to vote for. And I think that you have the most control in your household by you controlling your household and then by your local government and then state government and federal.

We don't have as much day to day. I mean, Arda, your, you know, real frustrations there, not just frustrations, life affecting issues. Can you vote to change it or not? I was just talking about this earlier. I said, until we all band together. So you know what the problem is? The people that are doing well or don't have problems, they don't see it's a problem. Just like I'm going to say this, if you're not handicapped, you have people all the time say, oh, I understand. You will never understand. And it's a difference between a person being born handicapped and becoming handicapped. But the point being is that until we all stand together, united, there will never be change.

Brian Kemp, the governor here, has banned transgender athletes competing in sports of the other gender. So, you know, if you're a man, you transition to be a woman, then you can't compete in that athletic sport. I want you to put your hand up if you think that's the right kind of, that's the right decision or the wrong decision. I say the right decision. Okay, right decision.

Hands up nice and clearly. Clearly. Wrong decision? My understanding of that issue is that you were born that way. There's like a discongruence between the brain and the body. And so you're saying that that didn't happen. So you're saying that that person is not who they are, but that's who they are.

Right decision? I think it's the right decision because guess what? A man is still a man. And if a man's body is different from a woman, so if he's running in a sport where there's more women, he may be able to, let's just say, beat the woman. Yes, because of his strength. It's different.

I want you to draw two animals for me. On the left-hand side, I want you to draw what animal would Joe Biden be? And on the right-hand side, you guessed it, guys, what animal would Donald Trump be? It doesn't have to be art I want you to do a you can also

you can write the word under the drawing nice and big I want you to hold it up and I want you to say who you've drawn and one quick reason why you've drawn them in that way Okay I got Biden

he's a lamb because he care about everybody else and I got Trump as a tiger, because he always try to keep up stuff gone. We need to put him in the zoo. I have Biden as a dog because he's intelligent, he's kind, but he can also be tough. And Trump is a snake. Why snake? Because he's a snake. He's mean as a snake. Why a snake? Because he's a snake. He's mean as a snake. I said Biden is a

bitch, he's a teddy bear. And then I put Trump is a bad dog. Tell us why for each. I feel because he's a teddy bear because he's compassionate, he's kind, you know, he's one of them people you just want to hug. And of course I put Trump is the bad dog. The one that he like, he like a pit. There's this grub on his ear. Don't want to let it let go. Biden as a kitten because he's docile. Donald as the horse's ass.

Because he's an ass. That's the point. For Biden, I had an owl because I think he's wise. And I also think an owl is not like the strongest thing. But the owl is trustworthy. And then for Trump, I had a owl because I think he's wise. And I also think an owl is not like the strongest thing. But the owl is trustworthy. And then for Trump, I had a snakehead fish. It's an invasive species in Florida. When they get caught, they kind of go crazy.

And they kind of, they attack anything that's nearby it, whether they want to eat it or not. And it wreaks havoc on the wildlife in Florida. Biden is a German shepherd, but basically because they're dog commander. But I think he's loyal, you know. And then Trump the skunk, because I think he stinks. For Biden, I said a cat. I mean, I have a cat, so I thought of a cat. So, I mean, they're independent, they're loving. And for Trump, I know you said an animal, the only thing that came to mind, it was a roach because nobody liked roaches. Camp Shane, one of America's longest-running

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Hold up. They could lose their family and millions of dollars? Yep. Find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover? I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now.

Let me hear it. Listen to VoiceOver on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.