Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
This is what the world needs now: two free-thinking “seasoned” Black women speaking their truth and inspiring others to do the same. Shaped by 45 years of friendship that began at the prestigious Brooklyn Technical High School through the Ivy League, medical school, marriages, divorces, triumphs, parenting queer children, life-threatening illness and many many amazing adventures. Each week, besties Leslie Osei-Tutu and Angella Fraser will push against boundaries in love, culture, careers, faith, politics and out-dated assumptions about women of a certain age. Remember, you’re never too old to change your mind…or your hair! (but more on that later :-)All views are our own and do not reflect the views of our institution/company. Information provided is not intended to serve as medical advice.
Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn
Get Ready and Get Registered: This Election Won’t Be Regular Degular
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Back in the day (that’s in the mid-70s for Leslie & Angie), Saturday mornings meant cartoons interspersed cereal commercials and Schoolhouse Rock. Schoolhouse Rock is a series of educational cartoons with catchy songs that made learning things like science, math, and civics fun and made the information stick.
As political discourse increases around the impending 2024 election, The Besties recall a childhood where knowing civics was expected, and made easier by ditties such as “The Preamble” from Schoolhouse Rock.Those foundational lessons continue to influence their understanding of civics rights and responsibilities, and why voter suppression is a particular pet peeve.
The goal? To inspire proactive engagement and vigilance in the electoral process, emphasizing the critical role it plays at the state and local levels.
Reference links:
“The Preamble” from Schoolhouse Rock
Allen Lichtman's 13 Keys to the White House
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Civic Responsibilities and Political Pet Peeves
Speaker 1I learned so much from Schoolhouse Rock . So so much About math and English and conjunction yes , 369 , 12 , 15 , 18 . What's your function ? All the things , all the things , hey Ange , hey Liz , how are you ?
Speaker 2Double thumbs up . Actually I'm still on vacay so I'm in casual mode and it's winding down , but it's good .
Speaker 1Excellent , excellent . I'm happy for you . I am not . I am not so welcome to Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn . We are Angela and Leslie there , leslie , there , we are two 60-something-year-old besties for almost 50 years , omg . And we created this podcast to allow you to think deeply and act boldly . If you are an inquisitive older woman , or if you love one , or if you want to become one , we would love for you to stay with us . Today , we're going to be talking about civic responsibilities and our political pet peeves and all things political , and we welcome you to join us for the entire episode .
Speaker 2So , ange , you called me this morning . I think you know we have this thing that even flows through the air between us . But as soon as you called me , right after I said hello , I started singing . You did , we , the people , in order for the perfect union establish something domestic tranquility Provide for the common defense Promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty . Promote the general welfare at hand . Secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our prosperity .
Speaker 1Do ordain and establish this Constitution for the .
Speaker 2United States of America Wow .
Speaker 1That is what we sang , this morning , an eight-part harmony . We do not claim to be singers .
Speaker 2I can't carry a tune across the street . Leslie has a much better singing voice than I . However , that just came it just spontaneously . I can't carry a tune across the street .
Speaker 1Leslie has a much better singing voice than I , however , that just came , it just spontaneously I started singing the song .
Speaker 2And it's funny that you said that that was really telling , because you were calling me to tell me of some things that you were thinking about and we thought that it would be great to start recording and talk about it .
Speaker 1Yeah , I'm telling you , we are like this .
Speaker 2This is what 48 years of bestiehood does .
Speaker 1This is why we were visionary champs multiple times , because we're in each other's heads and we know .
Speaker 2But today we want to talk about something seriously and it is about the 2024 election . It's not just the 2024 election . It's talking about our civic responsibilities . It's talking about elections in the United States in general and our thoughts about what we see is going on , and I see that there are going to be some problems ahead going to be some problems ahead , yeah , so first of all we just want to give a shout out to Schoolhouse Rock .
Speaker 1We grew up listening to Schoolhouse Rock . Saturday mornings were when we were in front of the TV listening to cartoons , and in between all of the cartoons there was Schoolhouse Rock . So that actually .
Speaker 2I learned so much from Schoolhouse Rock , so so much About math and English and conjunction yes , 369 , 121518 . What's your function ?
Speaker 1All the things , all the things serendipitous about Leslie calling to sing that to me this morning is because , as she mentioned , I'm the podcast producer and I'm thinking about okay , what would I like for us to talk about ? We have to make a statement about another statement , because we kind of infuse politics in our conversations often , but we obviously were thinking about how much our civics was a part of our childhood . We grew up in a time that we were taught physics in school .
Speaker 1I'm not sure if that is as much of a kind of thing that is taught on the basic this is elementary school high school level , middle school , high school level and we were infused with this type of information in our Saturday mornings , Along with Tom and Jerry and all the other cartoons that we were watching . We were being taught about the Constitution . I'm just a bill here on Capitol . Hill , yeah , yeah , we were learning things like that , and so we did want to talk about how we still feel , in our 60s , this importance of being understanding our civic responsibilities and participating in that right , and how vital .
Speaker 2It is , it's , almost it's . Not only is it your right to participate in civics and voting , but it's your responsibility to generations behind you and in front of you
The Power of Voting and News
Speaker 2. And I think that if people were more aware of the reasons why voting is important and the power of your vote , if people died , literally laid their lives down to have a right to do something , don't you think that they understood how important it would be . This is worth me sacrificing my entire being .
Speaker 1Yeah , and often their families , because when they were the ones who were going to register and things like that , their whole families were intimidated by people who didn't want them to do that . Sure , so I mean what is ?
Speaker 2it that they knew that the people that sit out elections and people that I know personally in here , oh , it doesn't affect me , I don't think it's important , oh , it's not going to make a difference in my life and I'm like what ?
Speaker 1Yeah , yeah , not voting is voting . When you don't vote , you're actually making a statement that affects the election . Yes , so it is a farce to think that if you sit it out , you're not having an impact . You absolutely do . Your default to not vote is having an impact on the election , so stop it . It's foolishness . Stop , stop it now . Stop the foolishness . Stop it now . Stop it now . But what that ?
Speaker 2also carries is not just the responsibility to walk to the polling station or get to the polling station and bring others if you can , but also to understand what it is that you're voting for and not listen to a lot of the noise and the mess and propaganda that's out there . But what does it mean for me , these particular candidates , and what could it mean down the line for my loved ones and people I care about ?
Speaker 1Yeah , so one of the things that Leslie and I squabbled about before we started recording I wanted to be really transparent around where I get most of my news Right , and so she was like , well , I don't know if that's important and you know , I don't want people to . I want to not only preach to the choir . Basically was was her point of view ? To not only preach to the choir , basically was her point of view . I want people to believe that I get my news from a broader spectrum than just kind of left leading news .
Speaker 1And I said wait a minute , leslie , that is not something that you have to put on , that is what you do all the time . I am much more of kind of the malcolm ilk than leslie leslie .
Speaker 2I would say , yeah , it's kind of more on the presenting , and I'm a little bit more of a centrist leslie is more um martin and I'm more malcolm , just by nature .
Speaker 1So I Les , you don't have to do any kind of any gyrations to become that . You are already that and it drives me nuts sometimes , but I love that about you . I love that about you . Who wants to be in an echo chamber ? I do not . I am glad that my bestie is not that .
Speaker 2And I'm interested in not just preaching to the converted , but I really want to be a change agent and listen to and have people really try to understand and then , if they need to do some research on their own , I would encourage that .
Speaker 1And here's what I said to that , leslie we are change agents , period . We don't have to try , we don't have to . We started the podcast knowing that we were change agents and sometimes my dear , beloved best friend needs to be reminded of her power , needs to be reminded of her power . I would not have engaged in this with you If you were not already that .
Speaker 2Wow .
Speaker 1If you were not already that you are already . You're showing up because you are , not because you want to become serious , serious , so we're going to get into it , but we did want to share with you some of that stuff that was going on , some of the pre-talk that we had , right .
Speaker 2This is why I keep her around , just to remind me .
Speaker 1This is why I keep her around Just to remind me . So I get most of my news from NPR and my local WNC , local public radio . I listen to Democracy . Now I listen to C-SPAN , and you know , of course , I still like my hit of gossipy stuff , so I will listen . Oh , and I also started listening to Alan Lichtman oh , wait till I tell you about him and so those are my primary sources of news that I can generally say that I trust . Um , it used to be things like New York times and um , um , cnn , places like that . I listened to them , but I don't . I listened to them in a much talking about , but I cannot , I don't spend a lot of time there to be , to be to be honest .
Speaker 1So I wanted to be . I wanted to share that with you because there may be some of these may be new to some of you . Like democracy now . They are not like . They had a lot of critical perspectives on the Democratic National Convention , as well as the Republican one , of course . But some people think that you know , everybody on the left is the same , they don't challenge each other , and so on and so forth .
Speaker 2Left is the same , they don't challenge each other , and so on and so forth , and that we left-leaning people , we don't have some conservative ideals . Exactly . And beliefs , and desires or things that are important to us . Right , right , right , right , right .
Speaker 1Nobody's a monolith not even a person , let alone a whole culture of people or a race of people or whatever .
Speaker 2It's like even me . Every day I wake up and it's like who is Les today ?
Speaker 1Who do you want to be today ? Exactly , who do you want to be today ? So one of our pet peeves we share this pet peeve is around the right to vote , as Leslie mentioned before , but also about voter suppression and the things that are going on around that . I just read an article to Les that just popped up this morning , who has over the last few years , been kind of looking at the changes that are happening on the state and local level around the things that affect the presidential election that are happening at the local and state level , and what we wanted to kind of focus on today is around some of the changes . You know that everything that goes up to the federal level right , each state has its own , basically its own set of elections and regulations .
Speaker 2I'm so glad that you said that , Ange . I won't cut you off . I'll let you finish your thought and then I'll jump in .
Speaker 1Okay , but don't forget . Okay , I will forget , but okay , stick up , don't forget . So they each have their own set of rules , and then they have to certify results , and then it kind of goes up local , state , federal , so all of these certifications happen under state rules , but by I think it's December 11th . That is the deadline for all the certifications to be kind of formalized , officiated , and then it rolls up , and so there have been a lot of things happening on the local level , which may not be big news , but it's something that I've been following and I brought it to Leslie's attention . It turns out that , you know , voter suppression has been something that she's been watching also , but because of all of the challenges that came in the 2020 election , I'll talk about Georgia , for I'm going to pause here . Did you want to jump in , les , before I continue ? Go ahead .
Speaker 2These challenges happened on a state level , so I'm going to insert a pet peeve that I have when I hear the majority of people
Local Elections and Voter Suppression
Speaker 2.
Speaker 2Many people say I only vote in the national election or every four-year presidential election and why it tells me that you're civically and politically ignorant . Is that what Ange is trying to say right now ? Is that the things that affect the presidential election , they start out in your local and state levels . So the people that certify the number of votes that go toward the electoral college to choose who your president is , those people like Raffensperger of Georgia or the Arizona or every state has their board that certifies the numbers that contribute to the state counts those people get elected . Yes , these people get elected .
Speaker 2Another example unrelated to elections is how people will say well , I don't like the way that Biden did such and such . He didn't put forth the relief for student loan borrowers . Well , the people that make laws are not in the executive suite . The lawmakers are Congress on the congressional level . So when we say I am not going to vote for Trump because he didn't do such and such , it's not his responsibility or he has no power to do such and such . It's your state and local level folks that you sat out in and did not vote for .
Speaker 2So when these fights I'm going go to the state Supreme Courts . Who elects and puts the courts in ?
Speaker 1order .
Speaker 2And not just for four years , but these Supreme Court seats are lifetime seats . So what one of my ? I'm inserting a pet peeve right here is one , because we need to learn a little bit more about how our government works so we know who's responsible for letting us down and who we need to litigate and speak to when we have grievances . That's one thing , but also , if we take some concern about things that are on the state level , we see , we can see how it impacts on the executives branch . Every four years .
Speaker 1Right Good .
Speaker 2Back at you , Pam .
Speaker 1Good point . So I want to talk about two things . I want to just get back to Ravensburger in Georgia , two things . I want to just get back to Ravensburger and Georgia since you mentioned him . And then the other thing don't let me forget . I wanted to talk about equivalence and false equivalence and why things . We have to kind of be a little bit more astute about the way that we create equivalence . Okay .
Speaker 2Yeah , okay .
Speaker 1Ravensburger . So , if you remember , he's the person who who Donald Trump called to . Ask correct me if I'm wrong , liz , if he could find he was he was the secretary of state .
Speaker 2Republican state secretary yeah .
Speaker 1Right , okay , who was the person in Georgia who certifies the election results ? And so that is why he was a person that was called to say find these 11,000 plus votes , because that was the number , that , if that number was exceeded , georgia would have gone to Trump and Trump would have won the presidency based on that , and so that's why he was looking OK . Why is this important now ? This is important now because , as you would imagine , raffensperger has been kicked out of that position and just recently , in Georgia in particular , they have been making some changes to make the person , or persons responsible for certifying that vote okay . If they had that right in 2020 , they would have flipped it and the presidency would have gone the other direction .
Speaker 1So what they have recognized is these local elected folks have such power over the call . And so , at the local level , you guys need to really look at this . At the local level , especially in Georgia and I'm calling out Georgia because it's been the most egregious in Georgia they have now set it up so that a single person can simply there's a term , I'm going to forget the term , it starts with reasonable , but , let's say , can cast reasonable doubt and put all of the federal election in jeopardy . Right , because every state has to certify . In jeopardy . Right , because every state has to certify .
Speaker 1And if they don't certify because there's reasonable doubt , or if they don't certify by December 11th , which is the cutoff , it affects everything . Right , because of the way that the electoral college and how each state has a certain number . If a state like Georgia does not certify , it means that there is going to be a delay , a delay , a delay to say who the president is , as it goes through all of these legal wrangling , legal appeals and things like that . So really , really pay attention on what is happening at the local level and , and I would say , don't assume that this year you're going to have the same experience that you're going to you know , go and vote and then you're going to be watching your , your whatever news program , and you're going to be watching your whatever news program and you're going to be watching the countdown . And , oh , this state . That's going to happen for many states , but for the key swing states it may not be so , In fact .
Speaker 1I think it's going to be very different .
Speaker 2Let me remind people of what happened in 2024 in one of the key swing states , in Arizona . Remember , yes , there was an alternate election board , a fraudulent fake board of people that went and put forth certified election results results because the actual votes , I suppose , did not go in the Republican candidate's favor , so he created , or someone created , a whole false board to put forth election results . The majority of those people at this point are in court or have been convicted of voter fraud and that you can look up . That's the 2020 Arizona fake board .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean it's like this is crazy stuff .
Speaker 2So when we are in middle school and high school learning about civics and how , why our one vote counts and you have to vote and all of this . It's like I think you got to do a little bit more than just vote , because your vote may not even be , you know , be counted . Let me tell you what's going on in in texas that I read about recently this was on the local news station , but it's everywhere now that in Bexar County , texas , the county attorney general has taken the county to court . Why ? Because the county commissioner sent out packets of voter registration to unregistered Texans , wow , ok . And so apparently he took a voter , looked at some of the voter or the rolls of people who are unregistered in Texas , and they , as a county , decided to send out mailings encouraging and allowing people to register to vote . Got it .
Speaker 1Got it the attorney general ? You're not registered . Hey , we noticed that you didn't register Exactly .
Speaker 2Go register , go register so you can vote in November Got it , and this is nonpartisan , because we don't know how they're going to vote . We're just saying we don't know , right , they don't know .
Speaker 1Right , right .
Speaker 2Well , texas Attorney General Paxton said oh no , this is going to introduce fraud . We don't want people , unregistered people , to register to vote and sue the county . Wow , I'm not really . What would be the advantage of not allowing citizens or wanting citizens ? You don't ?
Speaker 2know , how they're going to vote in Bayer County . To vote Right , right , the suppression , voter suppression tactics and behaviors are galling because they're not something that normal people are prepared
Getting Involved in Local Politics
Speaker 2for . I'm this do-gooder and I think the best of people , to my chagrin , I , you know . I'm like why would anybody want to do such and such ? What's wrong with just one let's ? Why can't we just be fair ? One person , one vote . May the best person win , right . Those days are long gone , long gone .
Speaker 1Long gone . So this is a perfect time for me to talk about my political crush has been for years now Stacey Abrams . Stacey Abrams listen , y'all need to get into that woman . Right there she is . I've seen her speak in person twice now , speak in person twice now . She's one of the most brilliant minds that I have encountered . Because , number one she is brilliant because of the family . She grew up in a large family . Her parents were not well-educated formally , but brilliant people and just pushed their children to become their best community-minded selves . And so I mentioned her because she is credited rightfully so for the success of Senator Warnock , the Democrat , being in the White House , because of how much she has been fighting against voter suppression in Georgia . Because of how she fought against voter suppression , her organization is called Fair Fight .
Speaker 2I think it's fairfightcom and I'm just going to mention here , and she's the former Georgia state representative .
Speaker 1Correct and she ran for governor of Georgia . I think she ran twice and lost both times and sorry , so much that I want to say I'm just going to come back . One thing that I want to say about that is some of you may have heard of Stacey Abrams in the context of oh , she's saying that the voting was unfair for her , just like how Trump is saying that the voting was unfair to him . It's the same thing . It is not the same thing . Right , you can have two people who are accused of murder . One of them could be a murderer who says I'm innocent . The other one could be innocent , saying I'm innocent . Just because two people say that they're innocent , it doesn't mean that one wasn't wasn't guilty and the other one .
Speaker 1Right Just because . And so she actually proved . This is the point . Proved . This is the point legally proved voter suppression in during her run .
Speaker 2Against Kemp right .
Speaker 1Correct against Kemp who was running against her , and he was also the I forget the title , but he was also responsible for the election , for certain .
Speaker 2And he was running .
Speaker 1In what universe .
Speaker 2Is that ? What world do we live in ?
Speaker 1What world Anyway . So that was just an aside that she legally proved that there was voter suppression . It was just that it was too short a window for them to overturn it , but she proved it . The other group who said that there was voter suppression went to court 50 million times and were not able to prove any significant Not in one jurisdiction .
Speaker 2Not in one jurisdiction . Was there shown Not even one , not in one . Was there shown that there was any voter irregularity or white voter suppression ?
Speaker 1So we have to be careful . That , to me , is a false equivalence to say two people said the same thing , therefore it's the same . It's the same . It's not the same , just because the same language . It's not the same , and so sometimes we have to dig a little deeper and I know that there's a lot of information out there . Using your own experience and your own kind of spidey senses , find the person , persons , organizations that you mostly trust .
Speaker 2There may be some things that , but you mostly trust right , Because you should go in anywhere with skepticism ?
Speaker 1You're a little bit cynical . You don't want to believe everything , but you can't say democracy is a participative sport . Right , it is not a sidelined existence , and it's not something that other people can impart on you .
Speaker 2Well , my mom believes this , so I'm going to believe that also , you know ? Oh well , she believes this , so I'm . You know , these people are flat earthers . I don't want to believe that , you know . It's like , yeah , do your ? Don't want to believe that ? You know , you know it's like yeah , do your own , get your own way .
Speaker 2And the things . The things that are important to someone else may not be important to you . I am very much a person who believes in a good social structure , community wellness and overall mental health and physical health and well-being of my community . Not everybody cares about that . I am much less concerned about how much is in my 401k than others . Others , you know I think that I'm going to be okay , but I really , if I'm eating , I don't want the guy on the street not to be eating . I don't want them to be hungry . So if you call me a socialist in that regard , I call it , you know , a Christian who loves my neighbor , you know . So you got to come up with the ideas that are important to you and then see who best fulfills that , and not just on the executive , presidential level .
Speaker 2I'm talking about your state legislators , your community people . I would say , especially those people you know , these are the people that make the laws on you know how much taxes you have to pay , how much this in your , on your local level . Those are the things that hit you day to day , right , right .
Speaker 1So take some action . Take some action to participate in the , in your civic responsibility . Right and responsibility , those are two different things . Your rights are things that are that you you kind of deserve have earned , and your responsibility is the stuff that you now have to do . You got to do . The right is , yes , I'm allowed to do this , but the other part , the responsibility , is you taking action .
Speaker 2What you're going to do about it . That's why you see rights and responsibility . Yeah , it's not just responsibility .
Speaker 1You may have the right to open the door , but if you don't turn the knob , you're not accepting your responsibility to execute on that right . Yeah , right .
Speaker 2So find your way In the little time that we have left . Oh why ?
Speaker 1is it so little time ? No , I'm the timekeeper . I don't like it . What are you going to do ?
Speaker 2about it , ange , as the great , late , great Joe Madison says , what are you going to do ?
Speaker 1about it ? What are you going to do about it ? So I have become a volunteer . I've gone to Fairfightcom I think it is notorg Um . First of all , I have been a precinct chair for my local precinct . Um , uh , but what I have done in the last few weeks is I went on to fair fightcom and I volunteered .
Speaker 1I donated a small amount . Right , because I one thing you can do if you , if you don't have a lot of money to donate , you can just set up a recurring donation of $5 every month or $10 every month , something like that . It doesn't have to be a whole lot of money , right , but every time I see that something comes through , I feel a little good . I'm participating , I'm helping . I don't feel this , you know , need to do more . I do what I can and I feel good about it .
Speaker 2And I think that's the thing . I think that people one we often don't know what we can do , but when we do whatever it is that we can , we don't realize what a difference it makes . We don't realize that there are whole elections that have been turned on 100 votes or 30 votes or whatever I know . Well , I'll tell you some of the things I've done to finish .
Speaker 1And then the other thing I wanted to say about Fair Fight . You may be thinking about volunteering as you stories , because when voters go to the polls and they see that something has happened like , you think you're registered and you realize that you have been taken off the list because there's so much we could talk about . But there are actually people who are contesting other people's voter registration . So you may think that you're registered but in some states anyone , any citizen , can say I am contesting this person's right to vote and that will put you in a situation where you are not formally registered . So people have been having these experiences . So one of the ways that you can volunteer through Fair Fight is to help people to tell their stories , so recording their stories . So there are different ways is what I'm pointing out , other than the typical canvassing and being on the phones that you can participate through fairfightcom we will put the link in and again , stacey Abrams , if you have an opportunity to even listen to some of her .
Speaker 2Plain and simple . She's no hype . She is such a pleasure to listen to and to learn from , and I volunteered to do not only door knocking , but I did some phone banking . First of all , I don't know who , but I was tasked to call a list of registered Republicans either who had not voted in a while or who have no history of ever voting Democratic . Why would they give me this task ? First of all , you know me , the type of person I am . I'm not used to hearing no right . I mean , I'm used to getting my way on all fronts , From my professional life to my whole life .
Speaker 2So many people hung up on me as soon as I mentioned the candidate's name and I didn't even get out Like ah , I'm like this can be demoralizing . I'm glad I have a good .
Speaker 1There are different people that you can , there are different kind of banks , because when I've done it , I have actually been given and maybe it's because you're independent that they did that but I've been given a list of Democrats who hadn't hadn't voted recently .
Speaker 1But , sometimes they get it wrong . And I remember I went canvassing and I rang the doorbell and the guy was this big time Trump supporter and we're not supposed to get it , but he had an issue with Auntie Maxine . Oh , we did not . It did not go well , it did not go well , but anyway , it's a great experience . It is Absolutely . If nothing else , it makes for a great podcast conversation .
Speaker 2But the other thing I want to show an organization . It's called Vote ER Sounds a little medical I wonder why .
Speaker 2That's why you would like it I was made aware of this organization I'm just going to read something really quickly in from their website is vote-erorg . In every clinic and hospital across America , there's untapped potential to strengthen our democracy . Vote ER is revolutionizing voter engagement by transforming routine healthcare visits into opportunities for civic empowerment , partnering with trusted health professionals and reaching historically underrepresented communities . So in my professional world as a physician , I work in several underrepresented communities or with patients who are underrepresented politically , and I have a card on my badge . I clearly do not tell people you need to vote for this person or do not vote for this person . Obviously , I'm not doing that and I don't want to do that . I want people to think for themselves . But I do speak about when . Sometimes they'll see it on my badge . And what is that ? And it has a QR code on it . You can use the QR code . Let's see if you're registered . Clever , are you registered ? And they just put in their information , their address , to show are you in fact registered ?
Speaker 2Because , as you said , it becomes more and more important . How many of us , it's sad to say , but how many of us are going to get to the polls , take off work or go ahead before work like I typically do Sometimes . I don't know how late I'll get out , and even if I make it to vote , what if my vote gets thrown out later ? I wouldn't know it . Or what if I get to the polls and they say well , wait , you're not registered . So we don't want any surprises on the day of the day you go into voting . You want to get as much information . So I have this on my back . You want to check it ? Are you registered ? Yeah , why don't you check ? Let's just make sure why don't you check .
Speaker 2Let's just make sure I am not endorsing anyone . I am just speaking about the need to become and stay engaged , especially in the healthcare arena . We all know what's going on with healthcare and the changes and the hoops that now we physicians are able or needing to jump through in terms of abortion access or female rights and transgender care and things like that . The landscape is becoming so difficult that voting , especially for health care professionals , is really , really important .
Speaker 1Excellent , les Excellent . Let me see if I covered everything that I wanted to cover . Oh , I did want to say something really quickly .
Election Predictions and Government Knowledge
Speaker 1Alan Lichtman I'll put his name in . The reason why I started listening to him is that he has a set of keys , which he calls keys 13 things which are not poll related , it's not how the polls are saying , but it's things like whether there is social unrest , whether there is foreign conflict . So he looks at 13 things , keys that he has been using to predict the elections , and he started this in late , in early in the early 80s , and when he applied these keys he has predicted every election .
Speaker 2Correctly predicted the election , since I'm trying to look up to see , he's accurately predicted nine of the last 10 elections .
Speaker 1And he argues that it was actually 10 , but we're not going to quibble , even if it was nine .
Speaker 1He has a 90% success rate based on the 13 criteria he uses to predict who will win the presidency Exactly , and he then applied his keys backwards , so prior to him establishing them , and they predicted every presidency as well . So it may be something interesting that you can follow , if these polls are driving you crazy . My son calls me all the time mom , did you see ? And I engage with him , but it's like yeah , but I'm listening to the keys , I want to know the keys , but again really , really interesting .
Speaker 1I thought that would be kind of new information for you . So I just wanted to mention that because we're about listen it to the people yeah , yeah , giving it to the people all right , let's show people that there are ways to become more informed .
Speaker 2Yes , I mean it's nothing else please know what your branches of government do and what they're responsible for . So when you have to blame people for something , assign blame to the right person you know or responsibility or give credit to the right person . But let's not , let's not confuse that stuff . That's elementary school , that's schoolhouse rock stuff . We , the people , in order to All right , all right . This has been another important episode of Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn , brooklyn .
