Mark discusses the critical acclaim for Song Sung Blue, the movie about a Milwaukee musical couple and how the film avoids the normal Hollywood condescension toward middle America. A new theory on why President Trump is targeting Venezuela, and Milwaukee's corporate welfare recipient Kanan Haywood Sr. offers yet ANOTHER plan for his 27th and North project. (He's years overdue in paying back his massive taxpayer-funded loan.) And, our weekly football preview including a discussion of whether the Packers will be motivated now that they have clinched a playoff spot.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
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The Mark Belling.
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Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm going to start by quoting somebody that I've actually
quoted on my program before, but I know I've never
led with him. This is like the most unusual conservatives,
maybe the most unlikely conservative spokesman ever. For those of
you who followed his career, like I always thought Rob
Schneider was kind of a goof I mean, was what
(00:50):
he was in Saturday Night Live? Saturday Night Live? Was
he wasn't in Two and a Half Men. He was
in one is some of the goofy show that what
was it?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
He was in some Adam Sandler movies. I think he
was on a TV show like one of those. Doesn't
matter anyway. He uh has become one of that handful,
it's growing, but handful of celebrities that just came out
of the political closet and is conservative. He's, you know,
(01:23):
on Guttfeld's program all the time. He does a lot
of interviews. He's still a stand up comedian, but he's
a conservative and I guess the reason I thought he
was an unlikely conservative is he always seemed like playing
a goof in all of the comedic roles that he had,
But he wouldn't even think that he'd have any political
opinions really at all. But he's become not only an
(01:46):
outspoken guy and a funny guy, occasionally has significant insight.
He gave an interview a couple of days ago that
was I thought very provocative. He makes a provocative point.
I don't agree with him, but I think he's on
the right track, but I think he takes it too far.
We're going to start the show by talking about that
(02:09):
and use it as sort of a launching off point
to discuss the reaction so far to the movie Song
Sung Blue, the movie that was based on Lightning and
Thunder of Milwaukee that hit the theaters yesterday. Were doing
this podcast on Friday, December twenty sixth I forget what
(02:30):
name there is for today. In my mind, I started
to think that this was Black Friday. Then I realized
that that was Thanksgiving. But this is like the day
that everybody would return things or whatever. But I don't
think that happens much anymore because people buy stuff online.
And it's Boxing Day, which is a Canadian holiday that
nobody really understands, but we don't honor Boxing Day here
(02:51):
in the United States. I thought they used to have
a name for the day that you returned things or whatever,
but I don't remember what it is anyway. Song Sung
Blue so debut on Christmas Day. It is getting a
lot of reviews. They tend to be glowing and raves
I mentioned that I saw the movie at the Milwaukee
premiere a few weeks ago at the Oriental Theater, and
(03:14):
there are several things that made the movie I think
really work, and one of them is going to relate
to what it is that Schneider has to say. So
that's enough of a build up for you, and we'll
get into that in just a moment. First, when it
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and often used in their own business experience. The you
line difference today visit you line dot com. Rob Schneider
(04:04):
did an interview with Epic TV. The Epic Times is
a big conservative website. Occasionally they put on a print newspaper,
but they now have delved into TV and everything else.
It's major news organization bankrolled by the Chinese opposition, but
they cover lots of news in the United States. And
(04:24):
Rob Snider in an interview and they were talking to
him about not just the issue of leftist bias in entertainment,
but why the entertainment industry, the d entertainment industry in
the United States is in such decline. And he made
a provocative statement, I want to hope from the story.
Actor Rob Schneider predicts the big studios in Hollywood will
(04:47):
shut down all lots by twenty thirty. Now what does
that mean. I've actually never You've never toured any of
those lots, have you? Lots of people have. The major
movie studios still have their big they call them lots,
the big production. They have lots and lots and lots
of real estate and that's where the movie sets are.
(05:09):
And they have all of these buildings where they shoot
the movies and they create the sets and so on,
and they're all in the Greater Los Angeles area. He's
saying they're going to shut them all down, which makes
you wonder, well, how will they produce everything if they
shut this stuff down, unless they're going to like just
do AI or film on location.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And so on.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But anyway, that's what he said. Going back to the piece, quote,
we are seeing Hollywood completely dismantle himself, Schneider said during
a recent interview with Epic TV, and then mentions the
show on there and so on. Quote, you will not
see these studios, the Sony Lot, the Fox Lot, Warner
Brothers Lot, those places in five years will just be
(05:52):
real estate. You will not have those stages anymore. And
I think it's their own decline. Now let me ENTERGA.
One of the reasons to think that he might be
onto something is even in the great demise of Los
Angeles and particularly in California and general Underdosom, this is
(06:13):
still a massive amount of real estate. Those studios, the
properties that they have, It's an incredible amount of land
that could be developed for something or another. It's one
of the issues that we face in horse racing that
racetracks in BEG metropolitan areas are endangered because racetracks take
up a massive footprint more than a football stadium, because
(06:35):
you not only have the track and the grand stand
in the parking of all of that, but you need
to have this huge area where the stables and everything
else are, and the tracks really only make sense if
you're in an area that's kind of a dilapidated area
of a city, or if you're kind of off in
a distance and away from the larger cities. It's the
same thing, just too much real estate to justify the
(06:58):
money that it throws off. To that extent, Schneider might
be onto something that a lot of these lots are really, really,
really big. But his larger point, I'm not sure that
I agree with. Going back to the piece the Hot
Chick leading man, so apparently he was in the Hot Chick.
Do you've ever heard of the Hot Chick. There's two
(07:19):
of them. Dave Michaels is here, by the way for Paul.
By the way, Paul did not send in his football pick.
We're going to do our football segment at the end
of the podcast, and I had to like text him
and remind him. First of all, he's like, not working
today today is a company holiday. But my podcast, you know,
we do three podcasts a week. It sort of has
(07:39):
a schedule under itself. So he's, well, it's a holiday,
I'm not coming in. But you know, between this and
not setting of the football pick, what if I fired him?
I think that would be hilarious for most of you know,
because this has been announced, Paul is leaving the show
at the end of the year. He's going to still
do his weekend programs, but he's leaving full time employment
with Eyes Art and WIS Radio and so on, and
(08:02):
that's kind of been no so there's only like two
more podcasts after this one. You ge would be hilarious
if I fired him after thirty five years with me.
If I fired him two shows before the end of
the thing, well, I think this is growing for firing.
First of all, he's too much of a weasel to
come in the day after Chris because it's a company holiday.
And secondly, he Dave did contact him in he said, well,
(08:25):
I was, I'm working on the football pick. It'll be
in time for the segment. I think that's bs. I
think he forgot. Do you believe him or not? Yes,
because he you know, our recording time, we're doing the
recording in the morning rather than the afternoon. And he
said that, well, he thought it would just be well here,
you're right, he didn't know when we would record because
(08:46):
he's now working. Anyway, let me get back to Rob Schneider. Here,
hot Chick, that's her where the Hot Chick leading man
who supported President Donald Trump suggested a series of reasons
why Kinseltown will fail, which includes what he said were
the year's long effort to blacklist conservative voices. If an
(09:08):
actor like me says anything or even questions or dares
to question the tribe of Democrats, that's it. You're out.
You're out of Hollywood. The three time Emmy nominated Jokester
pointed out an awkward interaction with The Irishman star Robert
de Niro during the final scene of Saturday in the
Elive's fiftieth reunion show, when the cast that alumni went
(09:32):
on stage as the credits rolled. I'm right behind de
Niro and you know, finally I'm trying to stay away
and I bump into him. He turns around and has
that particular expression which I think everybody knows I know
the expression. By the way, anybody who's a prominent conservative
(09:52):
and you bump into anybody this kind of elite and
not conservative, they give you the same kind of look.
And that's what Rob said is referring to this look.
It's just like, like, how can you support that schmuck?
He gave me that look, and he was about to
really go at me. First of all, you would think
(10:12):
that why would Robert de Niro worry about what Rob
Schneider thinks? Robert de Niro is as high as you
can get it. Rob Schneider's rolling around the level of
of Rob Schneider, except we know how unhinged de Niro
gets with regard to the subject of Trump. I actually
think you could see him worrying about what Rob Schneider thinks,
that going off on it because de Niro has just
(10:34):
you talk about Trump de arrangement syndrome, which again I
just contend he is real and de Niro obviously has it.
So I mean, Schneider's telling this anecdote, here's de bumps
did at de Niro, and Nero's ready to launch. I mean,
there's all these people that Satury Nail every union thing.
They had zillions of people there. Schneider's probably the only
person on the entire stage that supports Trump, and he
(10:55):
bumps in it anyway, So he's telling his story, he continues.
Schneider said he de escalated the situation by just saying
I love you, which caught the two time Oscar winner
off guard. That would catch you know, an egomaniac Hollywood
guy like the Niro. He'sit at a launch off and then
you say I love you.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
It just.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I mean, the one thing that those people love is
being told how wonderful they are, so that probably would
disarm him. The political divide isn't the only factor causing
the public and conservative members of the industry to turn away,
Schneider suggested. The grownups comedian pointed out that long gaps
in new content caused by the pandemic and the strike
(11:37):
by the Strain Actors Guild and Writers Guild didn't help
Hollywood's decline. I thought that was just completely irresponsible and stupid,
Schneider said, Well, talking about the historic sag after NWGA
strikes in twenty twenty three, and then people realize, hey,
we'll find entertainment somewhere else. There'll be more entertainment on Instagram.
(11:58):
As a matter of fact, I think more people watch
Instagram and they're like, do this. The actor noted that
the same shift happened in the news, calling podcaster Joe
Rogan the Walter Cronkite of our time. You're seeing right
now a rejection of Hollywood, and you're seeing it. You're
(12:19):
seeing an implosion of it. What will replace it? I
don't know. I mean, I think what replaced the news
is individuals, people talking like Joe Rogan, the biggest of
those independent media, and everybody else. Now I agree with
Snyder's take, I don't go so far as saying that,
(12:41):
you know, we're at the end of twenty twenty five,
by twenty thirty, these big studios will simply shut down production.
I just don't think it's that dire, in part because
while he's certainly correct that massive amounts of viewing is
moving to Instagram, self create content on YouTube, all the
(13:03):
other DApp police videos on YouTube, and you know, completely
independent productions like say this podcast that you're listening to.
This is all competition that didn't exist before, exist prior,
you know, years earlier, to television and the movies and
so on. So I think he's certainly right in there
in this in the sense that fewer and fewer people
(13:27):
are going to be watching movies and watching TV shows
because they have all this other stuff that they're able
to do. But I think he goes too far. Why
one of the things that's happened is the creation of
all of these streaming services. There's so many that I
don't think they all need content. And the streaming services
(13:51):
have incredible value Netflix for example, Paramount Networks, Hulu, and
then you have Amazon's Prime Video and Apple which is
getting involved in streaming. In order to get somebody to
subscribe to your streaming service, you have to have lots
of content that they want. So that's going to create
(14:14):
demand for somebody to make the movies and the shows
and all of that that goes on there. And who
else to do that other than the movie studios. Now
it might be that somebody will supplant them, that Apple
will just say, what do we need this movie company?
What do we need somebody to make the movie for
We'll just commission it ourselves. In fact, they do fund
some of these movies. But still you have to shoot
(14:35):
them somewhere, and unless we're just going to turn to
everything being AI and virtual reality and nothing being real.
I still think that there will be a demand for
some content, but he's certainly right in the direction that
we're moving toward shrinkage of this. Now, what are the
points that he made that by silencing so many concers,
(15:00):
privative voices in the media, and an entertainment at least
talk in entertainment, much of the entertainment that we have
had for decades now you're just overwhelmed with leftist messages.
I mean, how many TV shows are on right now
(15:20):
that don't at one point or another, jam some leftism
down your throat. The same thing with the movies. The
subject matter will either be overtly leftist or they'll just
work it in. It's overwhelming. This is certainly no secret.
You know, I've talked for years that the people who
(15:42):
run entertainment, the only people they know are the coastal people.
You know, go up and down the California coast and
then go up and down the East Coast kind of
from Miami to New York. The elitist, the hoity toity,
the tody. Those are the people that they know that
that's what they programmed to they have no kind a
flyover country and flyover countries the rest of us. The
(16:05):
guy who mastered flyover country and understood flyover country was Trump.
But the people who run Hollywood, the people who run
the entertainment isstry have never gotten that. Back in the
era in which the late night TV talk shows were
really a big deal, as opposed to now where they're
(16:25):
just marginal programs, I always thought that it was interesting
that almost all of the hosts that became big were
from the Midwest. Johnny Carson was to Nebraska. Dick Cavitt,
who was his competitor at the time, he was from Nebraska.
David Letterman's from Indiana. I don't know where Leno was from.
(16:48):
I mean, is Leno from New York. He seems like
he's he seems like he's from New York or something.
I don't know. But when the talk shows were big,
the sensibilities of these hosts. They had the sense of
Middle America, and while the shows were all either set
in New York or Los Angeles, I thought that they
(17:09):
had a sense of being able to program to the
middle of the country and those people could relate to that.
Take a look at one of the shows that I
think just resonated with Middle of America forever, both version
one and then years later version two of Roseanne. It
(17:30):
was set in the middle of the country and the
values of the middle of the country in part because
they were driven by the values of Roseanne. Then the
second thing comes around and Roseanne shot off her mouth
and said something that was racist, commenting on someone's appearance
in a racially inappropriate way, and ABC used that as
the excuse to dumper and the rebranded the show of
(17:50):
the Connors and so on. You know, the character that
Roseanne played was based on Roseanne's life. Roseanne in her
life became conservative and voted for Trump, and the character
Roseanne for Trump. And I just think that's the reason
that they, you know, no matter what it was that
she said, she that show just who's not going to
continue that they couldn't premise it on being set in
Middle America unless it was the preachy Middle America preaching
(18:13):
at Middle America. It's again and again and again, it's
a looking down your nose, not just that people with
different beliefs, but who live their lives differently condescension. Now
(18:34):
I've known this my entire life and career. There are
all sorts of hoity toity and elite people and so
on that are very very nice and don't have this,
but lots of them are the apposite. Even in Milwaukee,
you've got that kind of North Shore elite kind of
they'll look at people like me and the views that
(18:55):
I have and they just assume that the everybody that's
listening to me is an idiot or a moron, or
somebody that's missing half their teeth and couldn't figure anything out,
and they're just listening or somebody like me because they
don't have enough brains to figure anything out. Of Course,
they're the people that can't figure anything out, and they're
the people that can't do any critical thinking, and they
(19:15):
have a completely wrong view of who it is that's
in this listening lines. But that's the attitude that they
take to this, which brings me to one of the
reasons why them will be songs. Have you go on yet?
You've not? Are you going to? What do you mean
you'd like to? Oh, it's a time now, I understand
(19:36):
you have ninety seven jobs, you're it's a time. I
always people say I'd like to do something and it's
something that's like really easy to do. If you'd like
to do it, you actually would. Now admittedly it only
opened on Christmas Day and today's December twenty sixth. People say, well,
i'd like to do that. If you'd really like to
do something, you will have done it. I mean, I'm
(19:56):
not talking about well I'd like to go to Dubai
or something that's really expensive, but well, yeah, i'd like
to I'd like to take up golf. Well, then you
would have. If you really would have liked to, you
would have taken up golf. It's not that hard to
like start doing something anyway. It's one of the things
that I do wonder about how successful the movie is
(20:18):
going to be, without regard to how great it is,
given that I think it's aimed largely at it. You know,
Neil Diamond himself is now at all these act The
couple involved were the movie was sad, Lightning and Thunder
were in their thirties and so on. I you know,
the people go to movies are buying large young people
(20:40):
and I don't know if they relate to this movie.
And I just think older people tend to wait for
something to show up on Netflix or whatever streaming service
that it's on. So I just don't know if you're
going to be able to get the kinds of people
who would love songs soun glued to actually go to
a theater and watch it. I do know that I've
never seen anything like it In terms of the showings
in southeastern Wisconsin, every major cineplex that I'm aware of
(21:04):
has it, and some of them have like two and
three of the you know what do they call them,
you know, when there's ten screens, like they have the
rooms that you go into it just they call them
screens or whatever. Like three or four of them will
be devoted to this movie because it's like there's like
eighteen choice a day at some of them, so it's
all over And I obviously they would expect, because the
movie is based on two characters from Milwaukee, that they
(21:26):
would expect it to be big in Milwaukee. When it
does hit streaming, I think it's going to have a
second wave that will be really, really huge because that's
how a lot of people that I think that are
in the target market would watch. For those of you
who don't know what I'm talking about, Song Sung Blue
is the story of lightning and thunder for you if
you're not from Milwaukee. They just got to be on
(21:49):
like a Milwaukee level, really big in a Milwaukee kind
of way. You know, people in Milwaukee and some of
the cities in Wisconsin heard of them, but nobody else did.
And they were the kind of act that really probably
would only make it in a city like Milwaukee. They
were two kick arounds on the local music scene who
(22:13):
met and fell in love, and Mike Sardina loved Neil
Diamond and he developed a career as a guy that
did Neil Diamond songs. And they put on a show
that was I mean, this is where I'm going to
get to where I think one of the reasons that
the movie works it was you could perceive it as
(22:34):
being really schlocky, and people that are elitists and stuck
up would look at this and roll their eyes because
Mike's dressed up like Neil Diamond. And then when Claire
Claire said in his wife, who's sunder joined him as
part of the program. She's wearing the glittery gowns and
they play on the Neil Diamond music and the band
thing is going, and a lot of people would just
(22:57):
First of all, they look down their noses at Neil Diamond,
even though he's of the great songwriters of all time
in addition to performers, and they would look down at
this because they look down at the kind of people
who fell in love with the whole Lightning and thunder.
I think, well, that became a really big deal in
Milwaukee in part because they worked their asses off, and
(23:18):
Mike in particular was an incredible self promoter, which you
just have to be. I mean, I've told the story
a couple of times. If if I met Claire, I
just forgot it, and I might have because in that
period of the nineties, they were everywhere. I remember when
I met Mike. What the movie keeps talking about their
(23:39):
stuff at the State Fair, but in fact, Summerfest is
where they always were, and they got to be a
big enough deal that they were playing the side stages
at Summerfest, like multiple days during the week of Summerfest.
And that's you know, the Summer Fest does all these
side stages, and they'd be like the kind of act
they will play the afternoon at a side stage, and
what Mike would do and I don't know how often
(23:59):
he it, but he was doing it the day that
I was there. He's standing in the main gate dressed
up at his Neil Diamond get up. This was already
after Claire had her accident. I won't give away too
much because of the movie, but most people know the
story here. And Mike standed at the main gate dressed
up like Neil Diamond, just talking to anybody who would
(24:22):
walk by, just promoting, promoting, promoting, And I don't know
how it started, but that's why he talked to me.
Maybe he recognized me or whatever, but we talked, and
he talked about her accident and what he was gonna.
You know, they're gonna whether he was still doing and
performing and so what I mean, he just worked it
and her thing at this level that she's had, she
(24:43):
wanted to be a star, and she never had dreams
that she was gonna win a Grammy or anything. She
want to be a start like okay, singing a borer club.
We're twenty five or thirty. People woul pay attention, and
it's just the kind of thing that I think a
lot of people would look, Oh my god, that's your life.
Who's in that? You're playing a bowling alley in West Alice.
(25:05):
The thing that there's several reasons that the movie is
really good, but every review that I've read that raves
on it makes the same point, and I'm going to
make it here. They treated the filmmaker, Craig Brewer, treated
those characters with respect. He didn't present them as two
(25:26):
goofs with such goofy little dreams and doing such a
goofy act. He met them. I dated a woman who
was a psychotherapist, and she said, we try to meet
people on their own terms, meet them where they are.
And that's what I think that the movie did. It
never tried to make fun what they were doing. It
(25:47):
was it honestly reflected that they were doing exactly what
they wanted to do, and that the people who love
them loved them because this is exactly what they wanted
to see and it was. I just think that almost
every other Hollywood treatment of this would have gotten that
part wrong, that they wouldn't have had any feel for
how a Neil Diamond tribute act of a husband and wife,
(26:10):
and the wife isn't even really doing anything that's Neil Diamond.
She just a background second, and then it's the show
she did her Patsy Klein stuff and so on, how
something like this could work and they would look upon
it as hoky. Craig Brewer did not do the movie
(26:32):
that way. It treats the characters with respect, and it
treats the family. It was a blended family. You know,
he had his daughter, she had two kids. It might
have been a couple of other kids that didn't count
included the movie. But anyway, Claire's daughter, who's done a
lot of interviews and featured in the movie, and just
(26:53):
a tremendous performance by the actress who played her, I
think her name is Ella. Anderson daughter, talked about they
had this concern about whether or not they trusted this
guy to handle their life story and put it on film,
or would they make a mockery of them or all
(27:15):
the crap that happened. Would it be kind of humiliating
and treating them like, you know, a novelty act or
a carnival side show. And they developed a level of
trust where they felt that he wouldn't do that, and
he did treat them with total respect. And I think
it's one of the reasons that the movie I think
(27:36):
really really works. I'm I'm sure most of you have
not yet seen the movie. My review of it is
I mentioned this on the podcast a few weeks ago.
The performances are off the chart. Kate Hudson in particular
is it's just an astonishing performance in her role as Thunder.
Hugh Jackman is outstanding. It almost becomes Neil Diamond. But
(27:58):
the acting, particularly from the two main stars, is really
really good. Secondly, the music is outstanding. They know. My
take on Neil Diamond is that eighty percent of the
stuff that he did was really really good and twenty
percent was atrocious. He's one of these guys that had
like no middle ground. He had some stuff that I
(28:20):
just thought, really really that whole Jonathan livingson seagull Era
that he went into, which some of you don't even
know because the music I thought, Bee and these other
it just that was awful and he became a character
mature of himself. But the rest was really really good.
The movie doesn't use any of the bad stuff they owe,
even the obscure songs like they make a big deal
of the song Solomon, which is a really good song.
(28:43):
The music is really really good and the sound is
really really good, and the singing which the two actors
do their own singing is really really good. It sounds good.
The acting is good. And the other thing that I
just think makes it work is the way they approached
these characters and their life. Now the story the movie,
(29:05):
of course, he goes, if it was not based on
a true story, people would look at the movie and
say that that's implausible and ridiculous. Oh, all this crap happened,
and that Neil Diamond and then this and this and
this and then all the downsides of after the accident
and so on. Who's gonna believe this? It's contrived. They
do change up some details on the movie, and some
(29:27):
timelines are changed and locations are changed, but the gist
of the story is completely accurate, so you can't claim
that it's contrived, because this stuff actually did happen. I
posted on my account on x which you should all
be following, Mark bellin show the review in the New
York Times that showed up on Christmas Eve what struck me?
(29:49):
And the New York Times reviewer absolutely raved loved the movie.
That surprised me because the New York Times is this
snooty and you know the nose more than any other
publication than you can imagine. Maybe The Guardian would be
more and The Guardian Rave two. The Wall Street Journal
print edition they don't print on Christmas Day came out today.
(30:12):
And Kyle Smith, who's maybe right now the biggest movie
you're in America. I'm gonna share his review. This is
from The Wall Street Journal Today. A tuneful tribute acts
true affection. Song Sung Blue follows a Neil Diamond impersonator
and his partner. Here's the review. Song Sung Blue won
(30:32):
me over early on when a bar fight breaks out
over the remark shouted by a leather clad biker dude
Neil Diamond sucks fighting words bordering on heresy. Whether you
love Diamonds Diamond ironically or unironically, this oddball music comedy
drama is bound to turn on your heart light, though
(30:56):
if you're reverse to his tunes, you'd best stay away.
Base and a true story that previously inspired a two
thousand and eight documentary of the same name, Song Sung
Blue is a warm and slightly weird tale of a
pair of working class people. Mechanic hairstylist who in the
mid nineteen nineties Milwaukee moonlighted as a Neil Diamond impersonator
(31:17):
and his backup singer and keyboardist. The joy that they
find in this work is infectious, and I loved this
movie beyond measure. It wasn't on my annual Top ten
list only because I hadn't seen it yet when I
wrote that Hollywood types often strike and this is the
point I was making. Hollywood types often strike a snarky
(31:40):
and condescending tone when they peer down the ladder at
the low rungs of show business. An excellent example is
the twenty seventeen comedy The Disaster Artist. But as written
and directed by Craig Brewer, whose previous credits include Hustle
and Flow, the twenty eleven remake of Footloose, and the
sequel of Coming to America. Song Sung Blue avoids straying
(32:03):
in the mockery of Mike and Claire Sardina, who perform
as Lightning and Thunder. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are
completely enduring as the performers who made it a state
who made it a state fair where he caught where
he calling himself. Lightning is chafing at doing a tribute
to Hawaiian vocalist Don Ho, and she is impersonating Patsy
(32:23):
Klein Brewer interviews. Brewer intertwines the movies two registers brilliantly,
and then he goes on and I don't want to
lay out too much more because I don't want to.
I think for a lot of people in Milwaukee, there
are no spoiler alerts because most people know the story.
But it's a rave review, and just about everyone that
I've seen from like the hoity twity film critics, is
(32:49):
a rave review. So in putting this all in context
of what Rob Schnier had to say is the reason
I think that everyone is just struck by the fact
that they tweeted these characters with respect. Is that's what's
so unusual about it, This elitist tone that Hollywood makes,
in which they make movies about themselves, and every movie's
(33:11):
got to be an alternative lifestyles that people pursuing a
leftist thing, and you know, nobody making any movies that
anybody in Middle America can relate to. You know, when
Mel Gibson made his tremendous movie about the Crucifixion of Christ,
he had a self finance it himself because no studio
wanted to fund it. Normally, stories like this aren't TV shows,
(33:38):
they aren't movies. They're simply not told. And when they
are told, the tone is totally wrong. The fact that
this guy got it right it is what's so unusual
and so remarkable. And that's where getting to Rob Schneider's point.
I think that's where he becomes right about what's happened
with Hollywood is that the whole point of Hollywood has
(34:02):
been to create stuff that lots and lots that the
masses want to see. And that's what the movies and
TV were. For the longest time. There was no political
bias in most of the big TV shows. That what
was the political bias of Bonanza one? What was the
political bias of It's a Wonderful Wife or Gone with
the Wind? I mean was in there? I didn't pick
(34:24):
up on it, And I don't want to suggest that
Songs and Blue is a conservative movie. What's just remarkable
is there's no politics to it at all. I have
no idea what Mike and Claire Sardina's politics were, or
in case that Claire are, or even if they have any,
and none of it got in there, and it shouldn't
get in there, because what would that have to do
with the story. Nothing. But that's the exception rather than
(34:49):
the rule. I want to turn my attention to some
comments that President Prout made about all the photos of
Bill Clinton in the Epstein files, and interestingly, Trump is
coming to Clinton's defense. Now, Trump has been poop pulling
this old Epstein's story. Trump's names in the Epstein files,
and Trump met Epstein, and there's this photo here and
(35:11):
so on. There is no suggestion at all that Trump
was ever done at that island bopping around with young
But the media is just obsessed with trying to tie
Trump's name in to Epstein. And Trump's just frustrated that
the Epstein story keeps being covered because he thinks it's
detracting from all of the accomplishments that he's had. Nonetheless,
he makes a point here about Bill Clinton that's worthy
(35:31):
of common Trump said, I like Bill Clinton. I've always
gotten along with Bill Clinton. Notice he's talking about Bill
and not Hillary. We respect him. I hate to see
photos come out of him. Everybody was friendly with this
guy he's talking about Epstein. He was all over Palm Beach.
Larry Summers was his best friend. Bill Clinton was a friend,
(35:52):
but everybody was I threw him out of mar Alago.
I don't like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown.
I don't like pictures of other people being shown. You
probably have pictures being exposed of others, people that innocently
met Jeffrey Epstein many years ago, because of guys like Massy.
That's the Republican congressman of Kentucky who's a real lowlife,
(36:14):
whose polls I don't know about nine percent in Kentucky.
Massy's a loser. He works with the Democrats. Anyway, The
point that Trump is making here, in addition to he
doesn't like the fact that he's being tired of the
whole Epstein thing, is I think fairly legitimate. They just
uncovered a million more docums think of us, a million
more documents or files with Epstein. See, when you're doing
(36:36):
an investigation, you grab up all of this stuff in
everything having anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein in his life,
And I think what's gonna happen is all of this
stuff comes out, We're going to have even less clarity
because you're gonna be looking at it, all of this
stuff that doesn't have anything to do with anything, and
people just looking for what it is that they can
(36:57):
use the political purposes. Oh look, here's this with Trump,
here's this with this one over here, and so on.
The thing I think that most people want to know
is who went down to that island and who was
messing around with underage girls. Best we can tell, some
of the women at the island were of age and
others were underage. Some may have been trafficked, some may
(37:18):
have been willingly going down there and doing it for money,
but there were clearly guys that were going down there
and having sex with underaged women, and some of the
women were abused, And I think we just want to
know who those people are. And all of this other
stuff is just noise. And I think the more information
we get now, all being presented by people who are
trying to look for certain ways to use it, the
(37:39):
less we're actually going to know about the whole Epstein thing.
Another story. Patrick Byrne, who's been involved in intelligence and
law enforcement is an analyst and observer for some time,
posted the following a couple of days ago on X
This is if true, and again I don't have any
(38:01):
reason to think it isn't true. This is one of
those like bombshells that people just aren't going to hear about.
He said, I gave FBI special Agent Dave Smith a
hard drive of Perkins Kooy. Perkins Kooy is the big
DC law firm that was the one Perkins Koi cie
(38:22):
Perkins Koy. Perkins Koi is the big DC law firm
that was behind the Steele dossier that fueled the whole
fake Russia collusion thing with regard to Trump. Anyway, he said,
I gave special Agent Dave Smith a hard drive proving
Perkins Koi access to Ukrainian child porn to plant on
(38:44):
Prompt's email server. Also, the VA medical system was penetrated
by I Ran Garland, that's Merrick Garland, Attorney General under Biden,
ordered Ray FBI Director pack Ray to destroy it in
the FBI lab ps DOJ fat ass Todd Blanche ordered
(39:04):
the FBI a DOJ to refuse to accept a copy
of that hard drive. Now, again, maybe it's not true.
Maybe the guy's making this up, but it passes the
smell test and certainly seems to be believable if Perkins
Koy was involved in funding the Steele dossier, just making
up a bunch of stuff, about Trump in an attempt
(39:26):
to damage Trump. Why would they stop at that. Why
wouldn't there be an attempt to put child pulling on
Trump's computer? You know when people think that Trump is
paranoid and he's you know, payback for all of his enemies,
look at all of the crap that this guy was
on the receiving end of. As Nicki Minaj said in
(39:47):
her statement at turning Point, very hard to be lied on.
Imagine just being light on and light on and light
on the people are believing the lies. Interesting piece to
share with you on this podcast. It addresses this whole
thing of why is Trump going after Venezuela. Some people
(40:09):
believe it's because of the oil. Some people believe it's
because of the fenool. Some people believe it's because of
the enormous Venezuelan community in the United States, exiles who
are as obsessed with bringing down the Maduro government as
the Cuban exiles were worth bringing down Castro. There's a
(40:31):
piece that was written by Michael McNair. It's on Medium.
I'm not linking it up, but medium is it's like substack.
It's one of those sites that post blogs in which
he has a deep analysis here of something that's going
on that he thinks that's driving Trump and our government's
concern over Venezuela. He writes, the Maduro regime has deep
(40:54):
and quiet ties to Moscow dating back to the Cold
War networks in Latin America. By the way, that's true,
there is a separate report that Putin is getting the
Russians that are in Venezuela out right now for fear
that the United States is going to have an attack anyway.
The minority regime has deep and quietized the Moscow dating
back to the Cold War networks in Latin America. This
(41:17):
does not require Russian submarines, a locally operated capability enabled
by foreign technology advisors in financing that Venezuela can run
under its own flag. That model fits Moscow's incentives, It
preserves deniability and explains why the administration would keep the
public story focused on narcotics while quietly building options for
(41:40):
something larger. Now, what's he referring to. He's suggesting that
there's a drone operation that Moscow is running, essentially laundering
it through Venezuela, and that the purpose of the drones
is to attack commerce by ships. In other words, all
the international trade that's going on with ships that are
(42:01):
sending things around the world, that Russia is developing a
drone network capable of knocking them out. If they, of
course have that and start doing it, it will give
put an incredible leverage. So the point that mcnern is
making in his piece is that's the real reason about
(42:21):
the focus on Venezuela. In the same way that Russia
and Cuba created the Russian Missile crisis when the Russian
sent nuclear weapons over to Cuba which would threaten the
United States, and Kennedy said, We're simply not going to
take it. According to this writer, Crumb's concern with Venezuela
is that Venezuela is hiding Russian drones that have been
(42:44):
developed for the purposes of taking out international cargo ships,
continuing Russia working through the Maduro regime and cartel infrastructure
to create leverage against Washington. Our entire globalized trading system
rests on a base sick assumption that goods can move
freely across the world's oceans. Autonomous underwater vehicles can change
(43:07):
that calculus. A dozen of these mobile autonomous minefields positioned
in the Florida Straits and the Yucatan Channel could cut
off access to the Gulf, referring here to the Gulf
of America if you prefer the Gulf of Mexico. Venezuela
can also operate these systems under its own flag. Foreign
sponsors provide the technology, training, and payloads. Moscow would be
(43:31):
doing in the Caribbean what Washington has done in Ukraine,
arming a proxy and maintaining just enough distance to complicate escalations.
That's a theory offered by him on what it is
about Venezuela right now that is causing Trump to act.
My quick little ps on this. I think that Venezuela
(43:54):
is so destabilized internally. The economy is such a mess
that it may not take away war to finally get
rid of the Maduro government that's simply hitting them a
number of times, maybe enough to embolden the Venezuelans that
are still in that country, or what's left of the
Venezuelan military that hasn't drank the kool aid of Maduro
(44:16):
to simply topple him. You know, Venezuela was a very
before the economy cratered when Hugo Chavez came in Venezuela
was one of the most modern of South American countries,
Lots and lots of high very much like a rand
in the Middle East, highly educated people, I culture, great
(44:37):
wealth and so on. And there's still a lot of
the people who haven't gotten out there, still are a
lot of them there. It may well be that if
Trump is sending these signals that we're just going to
keep hitting Venezuela right and left, that the military in
Venezuela will act in the form of a coup and
finally get rid of Maduro, which I think if that happened,
(44:58):
you would see celebrations in the three of Caracas. He's
very much one of those countries in which Maduro through
terror has control of that country. And I suspect that
a significant number of the populace don't approve of him,
which is why they reg elections and so on. This
is the Mark Belling podcast. This is the Mark Belling podcast.
(45:21):
You know, I have had occasion over the years not
only to say I told you so, but there have
been several stories in which I was so convinced I
was right that I say before the story happened. When
the idea is being proposed I said, you know, in
a few years, I'm good. This is going to be
one of my biggest I told you so. Is ever
(45:45):
the trolley was is always going to be number one
on that list. The you know, I told you so.
I think number two was this idiotic not even the
right word. It's more like corrupt. Idiotic idea, corrupt idea
for the City of Milwaukee to use direct taxpayer funds
to bank rule the very well connected developer Kaylon Heywood's
(46:10):
senior and his plans to develop a four star hotel
at twenty seventh North, just saying it is ridiculous. And
the reason it sounds ridiculous is it is ridiculous. Somebody
who wants to stay at a two hundred and fifty
dollars a night hotel is not going to stay at
twenty seventh in North, no matter how nice it is.
(46:31):
The idea was absolutely ridiculous. And I said at the
time that the only plausible reason to do this is
to get the hand the money in the hands of
Heywood and then have him start paying engineers and architects
and so on, and start spending the money. But nothing
was ever going to happen if it ever opened it
would close within six months. Well guess what, nothing happened.
(46:56):
They didn't even begin construction. Nothing, And the city keeps
asked th King Heywood that paid back the money that
they gave him, because it came in the form of
a loan. He hadn't paid anything back. So then he
came up with a second plan for the site and
the city council gave him an extension. Again, I should
mention Heywood is very well connected and is a big
(47:19):
time donor to just about everybody involved in city government.
He's the ultimate inside player. He was also the guy
who was the subject of that very controversial investigation into
a woman's allegation of sexual assault. It was the investigation
in which Heywood's lawyer was present at one of the
(47:40):
police interrogations. People questioned whether or not preferential treatment was
being given to Heywood. He was never charged in connection
with that. Now Tom Dake and reporting on js online.
After version one of this plan at twenty seventh and
North went nowhere and version two of the plan at
twenty seventh and North went nowhere, he would has a
(48:01):
new plan. Remember, he hasn't paid anything back. He's had
this money for years. Stall development as new plan group
seeks to turn city site into housing, which is probably
the only thing that it ever would be would have
been in the first places to put into some housing.
So now he's asking and seeking incentives to go ahead
with housing and dragging out paying back the millions that
(48:24):
he got. Again, you may wonder, how how has he
been able to pull this off? How is he able
to get city money for such a ridiculous idea. How
has he been able to go years without paying back
any of the money? How is it that the property
has not been foreclosed upon? How is it that the
city has not sued him for the return of the money?
(48:45):
He would still has numerous other assets, He's got his
finger in all sorts of things going on in Milwaukee.
How is this Well, if this was Minnesota, it would
make sense, because if this was Minnesota, I would just
be convinced that Calen Heywood Senior is amat because that's
what this is what the Somalis were doing in Minnesota.
(49:05):
Everybody knew was corrupt. The corruption evidence is all over
the place. But because the Somalis were a political influence
group in the state of Minnesota, the Democrats cap giving
them money, but this isn't Minnesota's Wisconsin, and so far
as they know, Kaylon Heywood Senior is not a Somali,
But if he was a Somalia, it would make sense
because they in Minnesota were just allowed to do it.
But it is similar. It's the cloud of Haywood that
(49:28):
has allowed him to make ridiculous proposals and be given
money and then never pay it back and being given
forever and ever at ever to try to develop and
turn it into something. It's free money. If you can
try it into something in which you can make a profit, fine,
If you can't, you're still spending the money in the process,
doling it out to your friends and peddling your influence
(49:49):
with the money that you got. It's a zero risk,
all win opportunity for him. And why why not any
of the numbers of other people that would love to
do something in the unterseity because none of them are
Kaelon Heywood's. So, now, okay, he wants to do housing,
like there's a lack of housing in the central city. Well,
there's a lack of newer housing in the central city,
so we may put up a housing project. It may work,
(50:11):
it may not work. Certainly people will move into it.
Whether or not he'd ever be able to charge the
kind of rent to get back the return of the
construction very very dubious. But it would allow him to
pay contractors and pay other people in exchange for who
knows what. What it is is out and out favoritism
and corruption. It is a microcosm of what happened with
(50:35):
the Somalis in Minnesota. In fact, I've got a quote
here from Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff President Trump,
who has a remarkal of ability to summarize things so
that everybody can understand it and do it in less
than two minutes. Here's his quote. Look how powerful the
(50:57):
Democrat Party became in Minnesota once they flooded it with
one hundred thousand somalions, once the elections were decided by
clan rivalries and ethnic feuds. Once that happened, the Democrat
Party became permanently powerful in Minnesota. They became permanently powerful
of the Twin Cities. When you see the state of Somalia,
(51:20):
that's what they want for America because it's easier to
rule over an empire of ashes than it is for
the Democratic Party to rule over a function in Western
high trust society with a strong middle class. That's their
model for America, to make the whole country into a
version of Somalia. And everything they do gets down to that.
(51:48):
And now a comment from James Comer. Not to be
confused with James Comy. James Comer is the Republican Congressman.
He's the head of the Committee on Investigations. He's one
of these guys who's figured out the crap that's been
going on on any number of these issues for some time.
Him and Tim Waltz in Minnesota. Waltz isn't going to
fix any of the Somali fraudy issues in Minnesota because
(52:09):
Democrats rely on that population to win power. It's the
whole key to the business model of success for the
Democratic Party in Minnesota. And staggering numbers of them are
on the US taxpayer dole. Quote. The early numbers that
I'm getting in on the Somalis in Minnesota is seventy
five percent or in full government assistance, full welfare. The
(52:34):
lid's I Magic Comra is correct. Twenty five percent of
the Somalis get a ton of money to run corrupt
government programs at which they're not providing services, and the
rest of them are just put on the entire welfare
doll Bring one hundred thousand people from another country, call
them refugees, bring them in, and then pound them with
(52:58):
money in exchange for them giving you all of their votes.
In a state like Minnesota, which used to be a swing,
Saint Garant king that you start with that pad of
one hundred thousand in every election in exchange for allowing
the Somalis to pocket all sorts of money, either in
the form of welfare or worse, the corruption in terms
(53:18):
of the COVID programs and the other programs that they
were running that Minnesota officials knew all along were not
being spent. They got made of thinking, there do you
know about the Nigerian dating scam? See Dave Michaels is married,
so he might not know about these things. You know not, Well,
(53:39):
there's a website. It's been out there for several years
as a husband and wife team that for those of
you not aware. Apparently I've been hearing for years that
the whole online dating world is just filled with scammers,
you know, fake profiles, fake this, fake the other thing,
and so on on. That has always been, what's the
(54:02):
what's your long term plan for pulling this off? Let's
imagine some fat, ugly guy posts a photo of somebody
that's thin and skinny and twenty five years younger, and
you claim that you're worth all this money and you're not. Well,
I mean, what's the end game? Okay? Let's imagine some
woman responds to this, attracted to this guy that isn't
really who the guy is in the picture and all that.
When you show up, what happens?
Speaker 4 (54:25):
Then?
Speaker 2 (54:25):
What's your plan? You think you're gonna be able to
explain it away? Well, she says, well, where's all your money? Allowed?
I okay, I made all of that up because I
wanted to meet you and you're really beautiful. Well, how
come you're fat and ugly and old and you see
in the picture? Was all of this? I just don't
understand the endgame of this unless the plan is never
to meet the woman at all. I'm trying to think
(54:47):
it's one of its catfish. Catfishing is the term for
this fake dating thing, fake girlfriends, fake boyfriends, and so on.
And there's a husband and wife couple that are on
YouTube that expose this and what it is.
Speaker 3 (54:59):
Is.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
It'll be like a woman who's I'm just not sure
that the guy that I've been communicating with online is real,
and there are these guys that he have relationships with women.
Sometimes it's the other way around, but it seems to
be mostly fake guys having relationships with women. It goes
on for years, but they've never met because of course
(55:20):
the guy. The guy doesn't want to me because he's
a scammer, a stunt. So then they hire this company
and it's one of the it's that's very good at
doing IP tracking and checking out Internet addresses and they
can delve into what it is that you have here
in you know, they'll con the person into saying well,
and they're sending him money to send them something in
which you can get access to their computer. And there's
(55:41):
all sorts of scambusters that are out there on the
Internet trying to compete with the people that do the scamming.
And I'm trying to I can't remember the name of
the couple that do this. Some of you will be
aware of them. The woman is really hot. They expose
these guys that are on these dating sites and it
turns out again and again and again and again and
again and again. When they track the IP address of
this guy that is communicating with the woman, the IP
(56:05):
address comes back to Nigeria, I mean Nigerian day I
saw that ninety percent of the dating scams are Nigerians.
Right now, almost all the welfare fraud scams are Somalians.
So it's like people who this is not new. You know,
when the Irish criminal gangs came to the United States,
there are certain kind of crimes that they specialized in
(56:25):
the mafia and the United States was into illegal gambling
and garbage contracts and hooking up with the teams. There's
various ethnic gangs tend to focus on various ethnic types
of crimes. But apparently the you would actually think that
somebody sitting in Nigeria would I have a hard time
using the lingo. I have some smooth talking American guy.
Speaker 3 (56:49):
But.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Apparently they apparently they do. I want to talk for
a second about the Supreme Court ruling. It's a temporary rule.
It's not permanent. It's a temporary ruling saying that Trump
does not have the authority to send the National Guard
to Chicago. The vote was six to three, and when
it's sixty's three. It's all gonna be always because John
(57:15):
Roberts and Amy Barrett wander over to join the liberals.
And that's what this vote was. The four women plus
John Roberts voted to form the six. Samuel Alito had
a very strong descent. Now, I think that this needs
to be examined for just a moment. Here. Does the
(57:37):
president have the authority to federalize the National Guard and
send them into an American city? It does, I grant
the Supreme Court this. It does present significant constitutional questions
with regard to federalism, the rights of the state and
(57:58):
the rights of the executive. Constitution of the United States
limits the role of the federal government and reserves all
of the remaining powers of the states. So does a
president have a right to take a national guard of
a state and federalize it and use it for a
local operation when the local state doesn't want it? I
(58:19):
grant you It's a legitimate question. However, as Alito's point,
as Alito's descend points out, the reason Trump has sent
the National Guardian is to protect ice. One area that
is undeniably the responsibility of the federal government is immigration
(58:41):
and customs enforcement. That's not a state issue. ICE has
the right in every one of our states to conduct operations.
ICE agents are under attack, it would seem to me
that the President has the right to use the National
Guard to protect the lives of federal agents who are
(59:04):
being attacked and targeted where they're conducting their operations. If
Trump was sending in the National Guard for say, disaster relief,
when the individual state didn't want the disaster relief, maybe
you can make the case that the president doesn't have
the authority to do it. But in this case, the
(59:27):
President is using the National Guard for the purposes of
a legitimate federal rule, which is customs enforcement. If ICE
agents are under heavy fire and attack and the local
police or the local state will not protect them, all
that's left to protect them is other arms of the
(59:48):
federal government, which would logically be the National Guard. And
that's what Alitos descent said, that the President of the
United States has the right to protect federal employees when
they are doing their duty in the same way that
you could argue that let's imagine it was the Postal Service.
It's a quaseg of an agency. Let's come up with
(01:00:09):
a better word. The Census Department the Census Department is
going neighborhood and neighborhood doing information to gather for the census,
and these people were being attacked right and left. The
President would have the authority to protect those census workers
because they were conducting a legitimate federal activity. One of
(01:00:29):
the components of Trump derangement syndrome is simply to turn
Ice into Like in the minds of the left. The
naziss and the ICE agents have unbelievably dangerous jobs, aside
from the fact that they're often going to grab extremely violent,
dangerous criminals who realize that if they are deported, they're
going to go to prisons in their home countries. So
(01:00:50):
a lot of these people are armed themselves. You then
have people out on the street that are targeting them
them swell themselves. And while the ICE agents have a
right to be armed, there's certainly no match for a
mob of eighty to ninety or one hundred, but a
well armed n National Guard might be. So it would
seem to me that this is a legitimate role for
Trump to be able to take. Now, if the Supreme
Court ultimately comes down and rules that Trump is the
(01:01:11):
right to send them in the problem with that is
is that it'll be in the next term of the court.
It's months and months and months away. In the meantime,
these operations are going on now. I think this does
constitute an emergency. ICE needs protection, and in the states
where the governor and the mayors refuse to provide police
for protection and are allowing ICE agents to simply be
(01:01:34):
targets for murder, I believe it is the legitimate right
of the President to consider that an emergency and act
to protect them. We're going to do our football preview
and football analysis coming up next on the Markedelling podcast.
This is the Marked Beelling Podcast, and it's time for
(01:01:56):
a weekly football preview and some point spread analysis. I've
got my for lot of American sports analysts with us.
We normally record this podcast on Thursday, but Thursday was yesterday.
That was Christmas Day, So here we are on Friday.
And I mentioned that for those of you listening after
the fact, that we will only be talking about games
starting this Friday. My next football segment will be New
(01:02:16):
Year's Eve Wednesday, not New Year's Day. So when we
get to our point spread picks any game between those
to be played this afternoon, which should be December twenty
sixth through the games of December thirtieth would be fair game.
Let's talk about some football for the weekend. The college
(01:02:36):
football playoffs do not resume them until after our next segment,
so none of the eight teams involved in a fight
for the national championship we're playing in this period. So
there's two other games that I pulled out that I
thought were of interest to talk to Mike about before
we get to the pros. And the first is Georgia
Tech and BYU. I think these are two of the
best teams that didn't make the playoffs. EYU had a
(01:03:01):
very good season except when they played Texas Tech, to
whom they lost twice. Georgia Tech and the ACC was
very good team. They gave their arch rival Georgia in
a non conference game a really good fight. You know,
in a lot of these ball games, the choices you
have to look at see it who's opting out and
which players are not going to play because the NFL
(01:03:22):
draft and the running of the transfer portal and so on,
And you'll see that a lot in this case, though,
I believe most of the key players for both teams
are going to be involved. Both coaches are still at
their schools, so there's a little bit of stability with
both teams. It's an interesting game. What are your thoughts
on Georgia Tech and BYU.
Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
Yeah, two solid teams. Obviously BYU finished the playoff rankings fourteenth,
so they missed it by a couple spots. And as
you mentioned, they're only lost this year. Their two losses
were to Texas Tech. Other than that, they they swept everyone,
so they had they played a really good schedule and
had a good season this year in Georgia Tech. Similar
(01:04:01):
Georgia Tech had a couple of you know, losses that
weren't great to NC State and I'm missing the other one,
but they also lost to George at the end of
the season, which is their big game. Who comes to
play in this game?
Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
As you said, b Yu.
Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Are they out to prove It's a tough situation sometimes.
Are they out to prove that they should have been there?
Or they flat because they didn't get in the playoffs.
It seems to me from everything I've heard, and byus
out to prove a point here. Everyone's gonna play, or
most guys gonna play. They do lose their running back,
but most of their key guys are going to play
in this game. The Georgia Tech similar situation mark, but
(01:04:39):
they have they have a little bit of coaching turnover there.
They lost their offensive coordinator and he took four assistance
with him, so they have a makeshift offensive staff right now.
For Georgia Tech, they were very good offensively this year,
fourteenth in total offense thirty three points per game. Should
be a really good game. BYU has a much better defense.
Two good offenses should be a good to watch for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
The next game is involving two teams from major conferences
that were both just below the top level in their conferences,
but two schools that I think have most people know
a fair amount of at and that's the Tennessee and
Illinois game. Illinois, of course, coach by Brett Beelamo, a
former Badger coach. Tennessee very good, they have been. There
(01:05:23):
were one notch below the very top of the SEC.
Two very good teams. Maybe you can give us an
indication of the transfer portal situation and so on. I
believe Tennessee is favored in the game against Illinois. Illinois
is one of those teams that I recall earlier in
the year. I actually thought Illinois was going to beat Indiana.
That was an early game of the season. That's before
(01:05:45):
any of us had any idea that Indiana was. When
Indiana turned out to be, they beat Illinois by like
fifty five points, and that was just that blew me away.
And it's that was my light bulb over the head. Okay,
Indiana isn't the old Indiana. Indiana is now Ohio State,
but it's still I think this, I think is a
pretty good game. Tennessee and Illinois. These are two teams
that never really were in the hunt for making the playoffs,
(01:06:06):
but both had very good seasons. Give us your thoughts
in this game.
Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Yeah, this line opened Tennessee six and a half and
it's down to two and a half, So let's move
four points. I think the majority of the reasoning for
that as Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Does have quite a few opt outs.
Speaker 4 (01:06:23):
They have at least five or six starters that are
not going to play in this game, and it's possible
more will opt out prior to the game.
Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
It's next Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
There's still some up in the air there for Tennessee,
and I think that's the main reason this line moved
four points down. They also fired the game.
Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
And guys opt out for two reasons. Some opt out
because they're going into the NFL Draft they don't want
to be hurt. And others are opting out because they're
planning to transfer and why get hurt before they get
off to their new school Already they're at the door anyway.
And I mean when you see in the case of
like say Mississippi and Lane Kiffin, when you see coaches
opting out when they're in the contention for the NA Championship,
(01:07:01):
it's not surprising players are going to opt out, especially
when it's just a regular old bowl game, not headed
to the national Championship.
Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
Yeah, it happens with all these lower chair bowl games.
You get guys opting in and out. And the crazy
part is Mark it's hard to It's really hard to.
Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
It's hard to handicap these games.
Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
First of all, because sometimes you have coaches that leave
and players plan and leaving and then they still play well.
Take a look at this year Ohio, Toledo, Washington State.
Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Their coaches are leaving.
Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
And they played like they were in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
And then you got.
Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
Teams like South Florida and Memphis, same situation that never
showed up to play. They didn't want to be there.
Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
So hard to.
Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
Handicap this situation.
Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Illinois, they're the craziest one.
Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Is what's going to happen with Michigan where their coaches
go on not because he's leaving, because he's in jail.
You to talk about trying to figure out how a
team is going to react to that, whether it's an
emotional higher and emotional gosh, that's the bossing. The Ohio
situation was similar. He was fired for inappropriate behavior not
related to what they did on the football field as well.
(01:08:07):
But you're right. I mean, one of my standards is
just if the team loses their coach, go against them
in the ball game because they don't have stability. But
you're right. In some of these cases, the team seems
to rally emotionally around the whole situation, the coach leaving,
and you're right. In other cases, the team just gets
crushed because they're metally a wall.
Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
Yeah, And it's hard to figure that out. I mean,
it's really hard to pinpoint what's going.
Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
To happen in those situations.
Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
It really is bold bull game. I used to enjoy
handicapping Bowl games, they're really hard. I mean, the one
stable situation is the college football playoffs for the most part,
I mean he had Kiff and leaving, But for the
most part, you have the players that they're playing, the
coaches are there. You're going to get their best efforts.
Everyone's in. Those are the best games to handicap these smaller,
chier games with you know, Tennessee opting out a bunch
(01:08:54):
of guys. Illinois has a few guys opted out in
this game too tough to handicap the line drop, So
I probably lean in this game, Mark who wants to
be there. I would guess Illinois more so than Tennessee.
I would probably lean Illinois in this game, but I
don't trust Illinois, so it's the game we're probably not
gonna use.
Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Yeah, I mean, this is those games. And you've got
the people who bet huge amounts of money. They just
have their ears to the ground because these are opportunities
if they know something that others don't. And as you say,
some of these lines have moved violently, so if you
can get involved and get six or seven points. And
I think one of the games, I think Connecticut and Army.
(01:09:33):
The game open with Connecticut favored, but whether Connecticut might
have even been favored or Army favored by one or two.
And I think Army is now favored by nine and
a half. But imagine if you would have bet Army
before that line move, but you could now bet the
other way and win both sides with an eight point
middle in there. So I'm sure some other reason for
the big line movement is You've got some people that
(01:09:56):
bet a huge amount when they think that they know
something in games that otherwise don't attract a lot of attention.
But being the person that knows that stuff, hard to
know who those people actually are. Let's turn our attention
to the NFL. Also a unique situation in the NFL.
In the NFC, almost everything is already decided. The Packers
(01:10:16):
are in the playoffs. They clinched thanks to the Lions losing.
Green Bay's last two Seeds games of the season are
borderline irrelevant. They can still pass the Bears and win
the division if they win their last two and the
Bears lose their last two. I don't think where green
Bay plays Chicago is going to matter a hoot. I
don't know that home field matters much in the playoffs,
(01:10:39):
but you do have a team in which the game
is critical. Baltimore Ravens have to win. The Packers play
the Ravens Saturday night in Green Bay, Green Bay. As
I say, I guess they would like to win, but
they don't need to win. They're in the playoffs. The
Ravens have to win. There's quarterback injuries on both sides.
Both Packer quarterbacks get banged out. It looks like they're
(01:11:01):
both available, and it looks like Lamar Jackson will not
play for Baltimore. So the Packers are favored, but the
Ravens are the team that clearly need to win the
game more than the Packers. How do you size this up?
Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
Yeah, these games, some of these games late in the
season NFL, I mean, are similar to the Bowl games.
Not I don't have a bunch of players opting out,
but I mean it's hard to handicap some of these games.
As you mentioned, first of all, in the NFL playoffs,
there's fourteen teams in the playoffs. Eleven are decided already
on the only situation we have yet is the AFC
North with Pittsburg or Baltimore. As you said, Baltimore has
(01:11:36):
to win if they lose their out, we've got the
NFC South Carolina or Tampa Bay is going to be
in and then there's one wild card left in the
AFC and it's either're gonna be Houston or in Indianapolis.
So that's kind of where we sit playoff wise. You
mentioned Jackson's out in this game, they're going to play
Tyler Huntly. I kind of agree with you, Mark, I mean,
the Packers have have so many injuries they be better off.
Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
Just you know, win or lose this week.
Speaker 4 (01:12:01):
Just said everyone next week play having a bye game,
a bye week type of thing for them, because right
now it's looking like whoever wins the NFC North is
probably going to be the two seed, not locked into that,
and whoever loses is going to be the seventh seed.
Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
They're gonna play each other.
Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
They're gonna play either in Chicago or in Green Bay.
Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
I mean, chances are Green Bay is going to be
the seventh seed, and what they do and e the
last two games probably wouldn't affect that. And you know,
Love coming off of a concussion and Hunley being a
little dinged up and not not Hunley Willis, Malik Willis
being a little dinged up. It makes you wonder why
Green Bay would give it this focus. On the other hand,
I don't think Green Bay wants to go into the
(01:12:40):
postseason with three losses in a row, but the injury
concern is real. It just makes for a really weird game.
Another game the Bears in the forty nine Ers. Now,
both of these teams are in the postseason. However, both
have an opportunity yet to win their division, which would
(01:13:00):
mean home field advantage in the first game. The Bears
just need, without regard to what Green Bay does, win
one more game. The forty nine Ers are in the
most amazing division in the NFL. The NFC West has
three teams that are all not only vying to win
the division, but are vying to be maybe the best
team in football. You've got Seattle, the Rams, and the
(01:13:24):
forty nine Ers, and they're all outstanding with tremendous records.
The Bears have to go out to San Francisco to
play the forty nine Ers. The forty nine Ers are
favored by three points. Again, we're talking about motivation and
so on. It would seem to me that this game
means a lot more to the forty nine Ers but
it doesn't mean a ton to either because both teams
(01:13:46):
for certain are in and the case of the Bears,
they're likely to be the NFC North winner even if
they lose this game, and even if they lose next week.
Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
Yeah, another interesting game. In fact, just if the Packers
lose on Saturday, the Bears won the division, right, So
that makes it just just for those of you that
play these games, if you like San Francisco, I would
play San Francisco at minus three right now because if
Green Bay loses that game, that line's going up.
Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
Man.
Speaker 4 (01:14:17):
If if it doesn't, it's set right now where it
should be. So just just an fyiy on that. Yeah,
interesting game. San Francisco. Actually, mark if they went out,
they're the number one seed in the NFC.
Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
So if they win this week and.
Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
Beat Seattle next week, they're the number one seed in
the NFC. So they have quite a bit to play for. Still,
they're they're playing.
Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
Awfully with their offense. And for those of you who don't.
Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
Follow this very close, San Francisco hasn't punted since November,
and I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Think that that's like a Dan Campbell thing where you're
just going to go forward and fourth down every play
they haven't putted because they've not ever gotten to the
point of fourth down in their own territory. Is that
what it is?
Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
They've had eighteen possessions their last two games. They scored
eighty five points in those games they sit out of
the eighteen possessions, They've had ten touchdowns, five field goals,
a miss field goal, an interception, and a fumble.
Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
That's it. Their last eighteen possessions. They're scoring on everyone.
Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
In fact, since so their punters only job for the
last month is to hold for the field goals.
Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
He means, Yeah, that's pretty much all he's doing since
Party came back from injury. Mark they're five to zero
straight up and against the spread, with winning all five
games by double digits. I think this sets up nicely
for them, as you said, especially if the Packers lose
on Saturday Night. I like San Francisco in this game.
I think they're the better team than Chicago and it's
(01:15:45):
a huge game for them at home, and they've been
rolling on offense.
Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
I think the Bears have moved the ball because San
Francisco's defense isn't very good.
Speaker 4 (01:15:51):
That's why the total set at fifty two and a
half in this game, high scoring game. But I like
San Francisco in this game.
Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
I think they're going to win and cover in that game.
Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Okay, some point spread picks. As I mentioned, Paul is
not with us this week, so he in fact, after prodding,
he emailed his pick in and we'll share that in
a moment. Let's recap the picks from last week. I
had two college games that I absolutely loved. Mike agreed
with me on one and disagreed with on the other.
The second game, which unfortunately neither of us used as
(01:16:20):
our picks. We both liked Hawaii a lot on the
Christmas Eve Bowl game, and what a ridiculous game that was.
Hawaii fell down to California twenty one to nothing in
the second quarter and one, it came back and they won.
So we were both right about that. But it trure,
didn't I mean, from the middle of the second quarter
on you saw that Hawaii was the much more motivated
(01:16:42):
and better team at the beginning of that game was
a really bad one. The pick that I used on
the air, though I took Arkansas State over Missouri State.
They were favored by one. I thought they'd win by three. Touchdowns.
They didn't. It was a much closer game than that.
They won by six, But I won on that pick.
Paul took the Eagles over Washing to win by seven
or more and they won by eleven. And Mike had
(01:17:06):
a wrong pick on the Lions. We need to talk
with the Lions in a moment. The Lions just had
a collapse of a season. Detroit not only lost that
game to Pittsburgh, they then lost on Christmas Day to Minnesota.
Detroit is out of the playoffs now. The Commanders have
had the biggest decline of any team in the NFL.
(01:17:27):
They went from the NFC Championship Game to being one
of the worst teams in the NFL. I think Mike
and I at the beginning of the season both thought
that Detroit would take a step back after they lost
both of their both their offensive and defensive coordinators. But
this is a team Detroit that fell apart down the stretch,
even though the visually they didn't appear to be playing
(01:17:48):
that badly. So not only did did Mike not right
last week in a game that they simply had to
win against the Vikings, they couldn't beat them. I mean,
before we get to our picks. Any quick thoughts on
Detroit and why don't fill apart on him? Is it
injuries again or is it Campbell was in over his
head without his coordinators or do you have any thoughts here?
Speaker 4 (01:18:10):
Well, yeah, first of all, we had Detroit was in
a perfect situation in the last couple of weeks, them
coming off losses, they just win and cover those games,
and they're just Detroit's not that great this year. I mean,
I think it shows you Mark. You know, they lost
their coordinator, Johnson to the Bears. Look at the Bears
are fight for the number one seed and Detroit's out
of the playoffs. I think that tells you how important
(01:18:32):
he was to that team. And since Campbell took over
the play calling midway through the season, they just haven't
been all that great. I think they're and I've heard
they've got a lot of cap issues now. I think
they've had their window. I think Detroit's going to keep
declining start next year.
Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Well, I do too, And I think that the whole
mystique of Campbell is just over whatever the decision is.
He's just going to do whatever the bold and aggressive
things is, and the opponents know what and what Mike
was saying, with regard to coordinators, look at the difference
Jeff Hafley has made at Green Bay. I mean the coordinator,
particularly when the coordinator coordinates the area of football that
(01:19:10):
the head coach is not part of. You know. For example,
in Green Bay, Lafleur runs the offense, so Halfley has
total control over the defense. Okay, let's get two picks
for this week. Paul Texan his pick here, which emailed
it in without giving any explanation. Dave Michaels is shaking
(01:19:30):
his We know Paul forgot about this. He's claiming he
just no, no, no, I'll get it into you by noon.
He's taking the Steelers over the Browns. The Steelers are
favored in the game. Paul says three. I want to
look up the line real quickly. I think that's where
it is. Yeah, this is an interesting game. The Steelers
are favored by three points over the Browns. The Steelers
(01:19:51):
are still fighting to win the AFC North Division. The
Browns can't seem to be able to beat anybody. The Browns, however,
have the best defensive player in the NFL, Miles Garrett,
who's having a freak out of a season, the Lions
are excuse me, the Steelers are becoming the team now
that wins all the close games that Aaron Rodgers' magic back.
(01:20:14):
It would scream out that the Steelers should win this
game by fourteen points. But it must be telling us something, Mike,
that this is such a narrow point spread of only three.
Is Paul taking a sucker bet here? Or is he
getting the steal of a lifetime. I'd love to hear
your thoughts in this game.
Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
Well, first of all, I wouldn't play this game till
Sunday because if Baltimore loses.
Speaker 3 (01:20:33):
Pittsburgh's is gonna sit guys, I would guess.
Speaker 4 (01:20:35):
Because they won the division, that game's over.
Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
You think that's moly down holding down the line. Baltimore
is an underdog and the betters realize that if Baltimore
does lose, Pittsburgh's a bad team to bet on, and
that's what's holding it down.
Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
I think that might have something to do with it.
Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
So if Baltimore won, Pittsburgh's line pointspread might go up
and they might be fair.
Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
Might I don't think it's going to go up that much,
to be honest with you, I think it'll come down
more if Baltimore loses than the other way around. I
mean Cleveland. You know, late in the season, bad teams.
If they're going to get up for a game, it's
a home game against a division rival, and that's what
Cleveland's probably going to do in this game. They took
(01:21:18):
Buffalo to the wire last week, lost by three at home.
Their defense at home is phenomenal. Their defensive road splits
at home and away are ridiculous. They're not good on
the road, they're great at home.
Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
It's just a game I would not.
Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
Play until Sunday morning, and then it's probably too late
because the line's going.
Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
To move one way or the other.
Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
Well maybe that's whereas all right, time to get a
pick from Mike. Where are we going? We've got NFL
games and again we're doing this program on Friday, meaning
the Saturday through Monday games in the NFL, or any
of the Bowl games through Tuesday night.
Speaker 4 (01:21:51):
Let's look at well, one of the Bowl games we
talked about for tomorrow BYU Georgia Tech. What do you
have on that the line on that game?
Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
My sheets of lines are all fouled up because of
all these things are scheduled. But I'll get there. Yeah,
b YU and Georgia Tech. That I didn't mention. That's
the Pop Tarts Bowl. I don't know where that one is.
It's b YU is favored by four. You know where
that game which you used to be would know where
(01:22:23):
the game was being played for the name now with
just sponsors names on the game could be anywhere. Where
is the Pop Cards Bowl.
Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
It's in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
Oh, it's in Orlando, Okay. Georgia Tech and b y U.
B YU is favored by four in that game, which
is an afternoon game on Saturday.
Speaker 4 (01:22:41):
I'm going to take I'm going to take BYU minus four.
Got a couple more points in that game that I
didn't mention. What we like looking at in these type
of games is when you get to the balls, a
lot of times you like eliminating the bad teams. We
look at the how these teams to do against other
Bowl teams, so decent teams.
Speaker 3 (01:23:03):
So this year.
Speaker 4 (01:23:03):
BYU played against seven Bowl teams, Texas Tech twice.
Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
Those are their only losses against Bowl teams.
Speaker 4 (01:23:10):
Against the other teams if you re moved Texas Tech,
there were five and zero straight up in against the
spread and outgained all five teams. If you look at
Georgia Tech, they played against six. They played six bowl teams.
One was a playoff team Georgia They were three and
three in the bowl games. They got out gained in
all six games. They're lucky to be three and three.
(01:23:30):
The other thing I like in this game, I don't
like the coaching turnover for Georgia Tech. As I mentioned
the opposite.
Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
I mean BYU's coach Sataki. He was rumored to be
up for a lot of jobs and he stayed with
a big pay. BYU has a lot of money, in
part because of the Mormon alumni backing and supporting the program.
Hughge Nil. Their coaches in all sports included football, basketball,
are well paid. Sataki is staying, so there's total and
they that's a school that has very few transfer issues. Ever,
(01:24:00):
I think there's tremendous stability at BYU on the coaching
staff and therefore for the game. And maybe you were
about to say that, but I think that would point
to BYU.
Speaker 4 (01:24:09):
Yeah, agree, one hundred percent. I mean again, Georgia Tech's
lost a bunch of offensive assistants. Everyone's there for BYU.
They're missing their running back, but pretty much everyone else
is around. The other thing I like about this game
is Georgia Tech's biggest game of the year is Georgia.
Every year, it's the biggest game of the year. It's
the season finale. They took him to the wire. I
watched the game. Georgia look completely disinterested because they had
(01:24:31):
Alabama next in the SEC championship game.
Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
They still won the game.
Speaker 4 (01:24:35):
Georgia did and Georgia Tech when they lose in their
last game of the season to Georgia and go to
a bowl game, they're one and.
Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
Seven the last times they've gone.
Speaker 2 (01:24:43):
To both ball against.
Speaker 4 (01:24:44):
And that's a good thought, and so I just think
BYU's out to prove a point, it's a fairly small line.
I think they win by more than four in that game.
Speaker 2 (01:24:52):
I've got the same problem that I have last week,
in which there are two games that I like a lot,
and I also know that my probably going to disagree
with me on one of the two and agree with
me on the other two. And I've just been wrestling
which one to take, and this I just have the
(01:25:12):
sense that I'm probably going to pick the wrong one
and be wrong in the game that I'm taking here.
I'm still trying to decide, all right, I'm going to
go with a safer pick rather than the one that
I like a little bit more because there's some risk
associated with it. The game that I the game that
I'm not going to take is I like San Diego
State catching five and a half points against North Texas.
(01:25:32):
This is you can't have two more opposite teams. You
could imagine here. North Texas had one of the best
offenses in America and San Diego Stated one of the
worst offenses in America. North Texas defense is terrible and
San Diego State had a spectacular defense. The difference is
is that North Texas quarterback is out. North Texas's coach
has left and go on to Arkansas, and there's going
(01:25:55):
to be numerous opt outs on the game. The line
moved up because San Diegego State's quarterback is injured and
isn't going to play. But the reality is he isn't
any good. So no matter who the quarterback is at
San Diego State, the play wasn't going to be that good.
I just would lean toward San Diego State's defense and
the weather's going to be terrible for that game in Albuquerque,
but I'm not going to take I think you would
(01:26:17):
have told me to take North Texas, but I like
San Diego State, but that's not my game. I don't
know if you want to give me what your opinion
was going to be on.
Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
That, but sure, no, I agree.
Speaker 4 (01:26:26):
I the one downside in that game for Sandy. I
agree with the San Diego State really good defense. North
Texas has way more instability with coaches leaving and such,
but a really good offense. But the quarterback's gone. As
you said, the one thing I don't like in that
game for San Diego State, and this is something we
like tracking as And before I do this, I'll preface
(01:26:47):
really quick. We use Hawaii as a big play as
one of our top games.
Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
Yeah, that was my second night, second favorite play of
the year. My first biggest player of the year was
Arkansas State. So I mean sitting there with my family
on Christmas Eve, trying not to make it like I
care what what's going on in a bet on a
football game, but what a weird and wild.
Speaker 4 (01:27:04):
Game when that was it was, we were lucky.
Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
We use it as a six star and we want it.
The problem I.
Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
Have thirding quarterback for Hawaii in that game went down
with fifteen seconds left in the game. They're down by three.
They could have easily run a running play and kick
a field goal to take it overtime and stead the
backup quarterback goes back and makes a pass into tight
coverage in the end zone and dropped a dime on
that receiver. It was a great pass and they hit
(01:27:30):
it and they won the game. You're talking about a
thrill for that guy. But most coaches would not take
a completely cold quarterback pluck him in that situation and
take that play call. But it worked.
Speaker 3 (01:27:41):
It was crazy. It was a crazy game.
Speaker 4 (01:27:43):
The thing I don't like about San Diego State is
the Mountain West has not been good and look him
in the playoffs. The two teams that made the Mountain
West championship UNLV and Boys, he.
Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
Both got both bowl games.
Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
Utah State lost big in their bowl game to a
team that had the.
Speaker 3 (01:27:58):
Coach was gone.
Speaker 4 (01:27:59):
A lot of stuff like that and why you got lucky.
So that's the one thing I don't like about that game.
Speaker 3 (01:28:03):
But I think i'd lean San Diego State Yon.
Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
All right, Well, it's not going to be my pick anyway.
I'm going to the game two higher profile teams. LSU
is playing Houston. Houston in that game is favored by
two and a half points, and I'm going to take Houston.
LSU fired Brian Kelly, the coach early in the season.
LSU's offense underachieved all year. They're in the ball mostly
(01:28:27):
because they won their first four games of the season.
They went three and five down the stretch. In addition
to that, Nussmer, their quarterback, who is highly touted when
he came over there, he's opted out of the game.
He's not playing. There's opt outs right and left for LSU.
The LSU is where Lane Kiffin is going to be
taking over as the head coach. But you've got a
skeleton staff of holdover some Kelly staff that are coaching
(01:28:49):
for the bowl game, numerous players missing. Houston has total stability.
First of all, Houston has a really good coach in
Willie Fritz. It's his second year here. He turned around
a crap program instantly. They went four and eight last
year in his first year, and this year they went
nine and three. Really really improved. They have a very
good qu I won't say great, but very good quarterback
(01:29:10):
and Connor Wegman, You've got Houston coming out of the
Big twelve, LSU coming out of the SEC. Houston has
a chance for a ten win season. And LSU's players.
You know, when Kiffin gets there, he's going to bring
in eighty five guys to the transfer portal. He's going
to bring in his entire staff, the LSU players. I
(01:29:30):
just don't see any sense of motivation. I think it's
a strong situation for Texas. I think the person in
LSU would be better, but they're going to have so
many opt outs. And Houston, as I say, has a
really good coach. And one other thing I think this matters.
I like to look up what coaches records in ball
games are, especially if they've been at multiple schools. And
Willie Fritz's four and one in ball games and he
(01:29:52):
was at a lower division school prior to going to
Georgia Southern and he had a good record in postseason
games then too. So I think everything points to Houston.
It's a so's it's a safer pick, unlike my San
Diego State pick, where I would be getting points, which
I just love. In these little profile ball games, I'm
having to lay two and a half here, but I'm
taking Houston over LSU, and Mike, You're gonna shock me
if you tell me I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
No, I agree games in Houston too, so that's correct.
Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
And again I just think there's motivation for Houston can
win season kind of playing at home. They weren't in
a ball game I think for two or three years
prior to this, and LSU what a train wreck of
a situation where everything's just waiting for Kiffin in next year.
Speaker 4 (01:30:34):
Yeah, I agree their coaches, their their interim coach is
probably not going to be there, so the coaches are
looking elsewhere. The other thing I like that you didn't mention.
You mentioned Wegman, their quarterback for Houston's is going to
play in this game, and he's announced he's coming back
to Houston next year already, so that that's a big.
Speaker 3 (01:30:50):
Boost as well.
Speaker 4 (01:30:51):
I agree there's a reason Houston's favored over LSU in
that game, so I would agree with you.
Speaker 2 (01:30:56):
Okay. Our next football preview and points stret Picks will
be on New Years that's Wednesday of next week, and
my next podcast will be on Monday. Talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (01:31:24):
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(01:31:47):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
The Mark Belling.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Podcast is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I'm going to start by quoting somebody that I've actually
quoted on my program before, but I know I've never
led with him. This is like the most unusual conservatives,
maybe the most unlikely conservative spokesman ever. For those of
you who followed his career, like I always thought Rob
Schneider was kind of a goof I mean, was what
(00:50):
he was in Saturday Night Live? Saturday Night Live? Was
he wasn't in Two and a Half Men. He was
in one is some of the goofy show that what
was it?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
He was in some Adam Sandler movies. I think he
was on a TV show like one of those. Doesn't
matter anyway. He uh has become one of that handful,
it's growing, but handful of celebrities that just came out
of the political closet and is conservative. He's, you know,
(01:23):
on Guttfeld's program all the time. He does a lot
of interviews. He's still a stand up comedian, but he's
a conservative and I guess the reason I thought he
was an unlikely conservative is he always seemed like playing
a goof in all of the comedic roles that he had,
But he wouldn't even think that he'd have any political
opinions really at all. But he's become not only an
(01:46):
outspoken guy and a funny guy, occasionally has significant insight.
He gave an interview a couple of days ago that
was I thought very provocative. He makes a provocative point.
I don't agree with him, but I think he's on
the right track, but I think he takes it too far.
We're going to start the show by talking about that
(02:09):
and use it as sort of a launching off point
to discuss the reaction so far to the movie Song
Sung Blue, the movie that was based on Lightning and
Thunder of Milwaukee that hit the theaters yesterday. Were doing
this podcast on Friday, December twenty sixth I forget what
(02:30):
name there is for today. In my mind, I started
to think that this was Black Friday. Then I realized
that that was Thanksgiving. But this is like the day
that everybody would return things or whatever. But I don't
think that happens much anymore because people buy stuff online.
And it's Boxing Day, which is a Canadian holiday that
nobody really understands, but we don't honor Boxing Day here
(02:51):
in the United States. I thought they used to have
a name for the day that you returned things or whatever,
but I don't remember what it is anyway. Song Sung
Blue so debut on Christmas Day. It is getting a
lot of reviews. They tend to be glowing and raves
I mentioned that I saw the movie at the Milwaukee
premiere a few weeks ago at the Oriental Theater, and
(03:14):
there are several things that made the movie I think
really work, and one of them is going to relate
to what it is that Schneider has to say. So
that's enough of a build up for you, and we'll
get into that in just a moment. First, when it
comes to shipping packaging, industrial supplies, and equipment, many suppliers
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(03:37):
do with endlessiles of product. Test the quality of each
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ship the same day, and have a team available twenty
four to seven to answer your product questions. You line
only carries supplies and equipment they have tested it, tried,
and often used in their own business experience. The you
line difference today visit you line dot com. Rob Schneider
(04:04):
did an interview with Epic TV. The Epic Times is
a big conservative website. Occasionally they put on a print newspaper,
but they now have delved into TV and everything else.
It's major news organization bankrolled by the Chinese opposition, but
they cover lots of news in the United States. And
(04:24):
Rob Snider in an interview and they were talking to
him about not just the issue of leftist bias in entertainment,
but why the entertainment industry, the d entertainment industry in
the United States is in such decline. And he made
a provocative statement, I want to hope from the story.
Actor Rob Schneider predicts the big studios in Hollywood will
(04:47):
shut down all lots by twenty thirty. Now what does
that mean. I've actually never You've never toured any of
those lots, have you? Lots of people have. The major
movie studios still have their big they call them lots,
the big production. They have lots and lots and lots
of real estate and that's where the movie sets are.
(05:09):
And they have all of these buildings where they shoot
the movies and they create the sets and so on,
and they're all in the Greater Los Angeles area. He's
saying they're going to shut them all down, which makes
you wonder, well, how will they produce everything if they
shut this stuff down, unless they're going to like just
do AI or film on location.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
And so on.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
But anyway, that's what he said. Going back to the piece, quote,
we are seeing Hollywood completely dismantle himself, Schneider said during
a recent interview with Epic TV, and then mentions the
show on there and so on. Quote, you will not
see these studios, the Sony Lot, the Fox Lot, Warner
Brothers Lot, those places in five years will just be
(05:52):
real estate. You will not have those stages anymore. And
I think it's their own decline. Now let me ENTERGA.
One of the reasons to think that he might be
onto something is even in the great demise of Los
Angeles and particularly in California and general Underdosom, this is
(06:13):
still a massive amount of real estate. Those studios, the
properties that they have, It's an incredible amount of land
that could be developed for something or another. It's one
of the issues that we face in horse racing that
racetracks in BEG metropolitan areas are endangered because racetracks take
up a massive footprint more than a football stadium, because
(06:35):
you not only have the track and the grand stand
in the parking of all of that, but you need
to have this huge area where the stables and everything
else are, and the tracks really only make sense if
you're in an area that's kind of a dilapidated area
of a city, or if you're kind of off in
a distance and away from the larger cities. It's the
same thing, just too much real estate to justify the
(06:58):
money that it throws off. To that extent, Schneider might
be onto something that a lot of these lots are really, really,
really big. But his larger point, I'm not sure that
I agree with. Going back to the piece the Hot
Chick leading man, so apparently he was in the Hot Chick.
Do you've ever heard of the Hot Chick. There's two
(07:19):
of them. Dave Michaels is here, by the way for Paul.
By the way, Paul did not send in his football pick.
We're going to do our football segment at the end
of the podcast, and I had to like text him
and remind him. First of all, he's like, not working
today today is a company holiday. But my podcast, you know,
we do three podcasts a week. It sort of has
(07:39):
a schedule under itself. So he's, well, it's a holiday,
I'm not coming in. But you know, between this and
not setting of the football pick, what if I fired him?
I think that would be hilarious for most of you know,
because this has been announced, Paul is leaving the show
at the end of the year. He's going to still
do his weekend programs, but he's leaving full time employment
with Eyes Art and WIS Radio and so on, and
(08:02):
that's kind of been no so there's only like two
more podcasts after this one. You ge would be hilarious
if I fired him after thirty five years with me.
If I fired him two shows before the end of
the thing, well, I think this is growing for firing.
First of all, he's too much of a weasel to
come in the day after Chris because it's a company holiday.
And secondly, he Dave did contact him in he said, well,
(08:25):
I was, I'm working on the football pick. It'll be
in time for the segment. I think that's bs. I
think he forgot. Do you believe him or not? Yes,
because he you know, our recording time, we're doing the
recording in the morning rather than the afternoon. And he
said that, well, he thought it would just be well here,
you're right, he didn't know when we would record because
(08:46):
he's now working. Anyway, let me get back to Rob Schneider. Here,
hot Chick, that's her where the Hot Chick leading man
who supported President Donald Trump suggested a series of reasons
why Kinseltown will fail, which includes what he said were
the year's long effort to blacklist conservative voices. If an
(09:08):
actor like me says anything or even questions or dares
to question the tribe of Democrats, that's it. You're out.
You're out of Hollywood. The three time Emmy nominated Jokester
pointed out an awkward interaction with The Irishman star Robert
de Niro during the final scene of Saturday in the
Elive's fiftieth reunion show, when the cast that alumni went
(09:32):
on stage as the credits rolled. I'm right behind de
Niro and you know, finally I'm trying to stay away
and I bump into him. He turns around and has
that particular expression which I think everybody knows I know
the expression. By the way, anybody who's a prominent conservative
(09:52):
and you bump into anybody this kind of elite and
not conservative, they give you the same kind of look.
And that's what Rob said is referring to this look.
It's just like, like, how can you support that schmuck?
He gave me that look, and he was about to
really go at me. First of all, you would think
(10:12):
that why would Robert de Niro worry about what Rob
Schneider thinks? Robert de Niro is as high as you
can get it. Rob Schneider's rolling around the level of
of Rob Schneider, except we know how unhinged de Niro
gets with regard to the subject of Trump. I actually
think you could see him worrying about what Rob Schneider thinks,
that going off on it because de Niro has just
(10:34):
you talk about Trump de arrangement syndrome, which again I
just contend he is real and de Niro obviously has it.
So I mean, Schneider's telling this anecdote, here's de bumps
did at de Niro, and Nero's ready to launch. I mean,
there's all these people that Satury Nail every union thing.
They had zillions of people there. Schneider's probably the only
person on the entire stage that supports Trump, and he
(10:55):
bumps in it anyway, So he's telling his story, he continues.
Schneider said he de escalated the situation by just saying
I love you, which caught the two time Oscar winner
off guard. That would catch you know, an egomaniac Hollywood
guy like the Niro. He'sit at a launch off and then
you say I love you.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
It just.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
I mean, the one thing that those people love is
being told how wonderful they are, so that probably would
disarm him. The political divide isn't the only factor causing
the public and conservative members of the industry to turn away,
Schneider suggested. The grownups comedian pointed out that long gaps
in new content caused by the pandemic and the strike
(11:37):
by the Strain Actors Guild and Writers Guild didn't help
Hollywood's decline. I thought that was just completely irresponsible and stupid,
Schneider said, Well, talking about the historic sag after NWGA
strikes in twenty twenty three, and then people realize, hey,
we'll find entertainment somewhere else. There'll be more entertainment on Instagram.
(11:58):
As a matter of fact, I think more people watch
Instagram and they're like, do this. The actor noted that
the same shift happened in the news, calling podcaster Joe
Rogan the Walter Cronkite of our time. You're seeing right
now a rejection of Hollywood, and you're seeing it. You're
(12:19):
seeing an implosion of it. What will replace it? I
don't know. I mean, I think what replaced the news
is individuals, people talking like Joe Rogan, the biggest of
those independent media, and everybody else. Now I agree with
Snyder's take, I don't go so far as saying that,
(12:41):
you know, we're at the end of twenty twenty five,
by twenty thirty, these big studios will simply shut down production.
I just don't think it's that dire, in part because
while he's certainly correct that massive amounts of viewing is
moving to Instagram, self create content on YouTube, all the
(13:03):
other DApp police videos on YouTube, and you know, completely
independent productions like say this podcast that you're listening to.
This is all competition that didn't exist before, exist prior,
you know, years earlier, to television and the movies and
so on. So I think he's certainly right in there
in this in the sense that fewer and fewer people
(13:27):
are going to be watching movies and watching TV shows
because they have all this other stuff that they're able
to do. But I think he goes too far. Why
one of the things that's happened is the creation of
all of these streaming services. There's so many that I
don't think they all need content. And the streaming services
(13:51):
have incredible value Netflix for example, Paramount Networks, Hulu, and
then you have Amazon's Prime Video and Apple which is
getting involved in streaming. In order to get somebody to
subscribe to your streaming service, you have to have lots
of content that they want. So that's going to create
(14:14):
demand for somebody to make the movies and the shows
and all of that that goes on there. And who
else to do that other than the movie studios. Now
it might be that somebody will supplant them, that Apple
will just say, what do we need this movie company?
What do we need somebody to make the movie for
We'll just commission it ourselves. In fact, they do fund
some of these movies. But still you have to shoot
(14:35):
them somewhere, and unless we're just going to turn to
everything being AI and virtual reality and nothing being real.
I still think that there will be a demand for
some content, but he's certainly right in the direction that
we're moving toward shrinkage of this. Now, what are the
points that he made that by silencing so many concers,
(15:00):
privative voices in the media, and an entertainment at least
talk in entertainment, much of the entertainment that we have
had for decades now you're just overwhelmed with leftist messages.
I mean, how many TV shows are on right now
(15:20):
that don't at one point or another, jam some leftism
down your throat. The same thing with the movies. The
subject matter will either be overtly leftist or they'll just
work it in. It's overwhelming. This is certainly no secret.
You know, I've talked for years that the people who
(15:42):
run entertainment, the only people they know are the coastal people.
You know, go up and down the California coast and
then go up and down the East Coast kind of
from Miami to New York. The elitist, the hoity toity,
the tody. Those are the people that they know that
that's what they programmed to they have no kind a
flyover country and flyover countries the rest of us. The
(16:05):
guy who mastered flyover country and understood flyover country was Trump.
But the people who run Hollywood, the people who run
the entertainment isstry have never gotten that. Back in the
era in which the late night TV talk shows were
really a big deal, as opposed to now where they're
(16:25):
just marginal programs, I always thought that it was interesting
that almost all of the hosts that became big were
from the Midwest. Johnny Carson was to Nebraska. Dick Cavitt,
who was his competitor at the time, he was from Nebraska.
David Letterman's from Indiana. I don't know where Leno was from.
(16:48):
I mean, is Leno from New York. He seems like
he's he seems like he's from New York or something.
I don't know. But when the talk shows were big,
the sensibilities of these hosts. They had the sense of
Middle America, and while the shows were all either set
in New York or Los Angeles, I thought that they
(17:09):
had a sense of being able to program to the
middle of the country and those people could relate to that.
Take a look at one of the shows that I
think just resonated with Middle of America forever, both version
one and then years later version two of Roseanne. It
(17:30):
was set in the middle of the country and the
values of the middle of the country in part because
they were driven by the values of Roseanne. Then the
second thing comes around and Roseanne shot off her mouth
and said something that was racist, commenting on someone's appearance
in a racially inappropriate way, and ABC used that as
the excuse to dumper and the rebranded the show of
(17:50):
the Connors and so on. You know, the character that
Roseanne played was based on Roseanne's life. Roseanne in her
life became conservative and voted for Trump, and the character
Roseanne for Trump. And I just think that's the reason
that they, you know, no matter what it was that
she said, she that show just who's not going to
continue that they couldn't premise it on being set in
Middle America unless it was the preachy Middle America preaching
(18:13):
at Middle America. It's again and again and again, it's
a looking down your nose, not just that people with
different beliefs, but who live their lives differently condescension. Now
(18:34):
I've known this my entire life and career. There are
all sorts of hoity toity and elite people and so
on that are very very nice and don't have this,
but lots of them are the apposite. Even in Milwaukee,
you've got that kind of North Shore elite kind of
they'll look at people like me and the views that
(18:55):
I have and they just assume that the everybody that's
listening to me is an idiot or a moron, or
somebody that's missing half their teeth and couldn't figure anything out,
and they're just listening or somebody like me because they
don't have enough brains to figure anything out. Of Course,
they're the people that can't figure anything out, and they're
the people that can't do any critical thinking, and they
(19:15):
have a completely wrong view of who it is that's
in this listening lines. But that's the attitude that they
take to this, which brings me to one of the
reasons why them will be songs. Have you go on yet?
You've not? Are you going to? What do you mean
you'd like to? Oh, it's a time now, I understand
(19:36):
you have ninety seven jobs, you're it's a time. I
always people say I'd like to do something and it's
something that's like really easy to do. If you'd like
to do it, you actually would. Now admittedly it only
opened on Christmas Day and today's December twenty sixth. People say, well,
i'd like to do that. If you'd really like to
do something, you will have done it. I mean, I'm
(19:56):
not talking about well I'd like to go to Dubai
or something that's really expensive, but well, yeah, i'd like
to I'd like to take up golf. Well, then you
would have. If you really would have liked to, you
would have taken up golf. It's not that hard to
like start doing something anyway. It's one of the things
that I do wonder about how successful the movie is
(20:18):
going to be, without regard to how great it is,
given that I think it's aimed largely at it. You know,
Neil Diamond himself is now at all these act The
couple involved were the movie was sad, Lightning and Thunder
were in their thirties and so on. I you know,
the people go to movies are buying large young people
(20:40):
and I don't know if they relate to this movie.
And I just think older people tend to wait for
something to show up on Netflix or whatever streaming service
that it's on. So I just don't know if you're
going to be able to get the kinds of people
who would love songs soun glued to actually go to
a theater and watch it. I do know that I've
never seen anything like it In terms of the showings
in southeastern Wisconsin, every major cineplex that I'm aware of
(21:04):
has it, and some of them have like two and
three of the you know what do they call them,
you know, when there's ten screens, like they have the
rooms that you go into it just they call them
screens or whatever. Like three or four of them will
be devoted to this movie because it's like there's like
eighteen choice a day at some of them, so it's
all over And I obviously they would expect, because the
movie is based on two characters from Milwaukee, that they
(21:26):
would expect it to be big in Milwaukee. When it
does hit streaming, I think it's going to have a
second wave that will be really, really huge because that's
how a lot of people that I think that are
in the target market would watch. For those of you
who don't know what I'm talking about, Song Sung Blue
is the story of lightning and thunder for you if
you're not from Milwaukee. They just got to be on
(21:49):
like a Milwaukee level, really big in a Milwaukee kind
of way. You know, people in Milwaukee and some of
the cities in Wisconsin heard of them, but nobody else did.
And they were the kind of act that really probably
would only make it in a city like Milwaukee. They
were two kick arounds on the local music scene who
(22:13):
met and fell in love, and Mike Sardina loved Neil
Diamond and he developed a career as a guy that
did Neil Diamond songs. And they put on a show
that was I mean, this is where I'm going to
get to where I think one of the reasons that
the movie works it was you could perceive it as
(22:34):
being really schlocky, and people that are elitists and stuck
up would look at this and roll their eyes because
Mike's dressed up like Neil Diamond. And then when Claire
Claire said in his wife, who's sunder joined him as
part of the program. She's wearing the glittery gowns and
they play on the Neil Diamond music and the band
thing is going, and a lot of people would just
(22:57):
First of all, they look down their noses at Neil Diamond,
even though he's of the great songwriters of all time
in addition to performers, and they would look down at
this because they look down at the kind of people
who fell in love with the whole Lightning and thunder.
I think, well, that became a really big deal in
Milwaukee in part because they worked their asses off, and
(23:18):
Mike in particular was an incredible self promoter, which you
just have to be. I mean, I've told the story
a couple of times. If if I met Claire, I
just forgot it, and I might have because in that
period of the nineties, they were everywhere. I remember when
I met Mike. What the movie keeps talking about their
(23:39):
stuff at the State Fair, but in fact, Summerfest is
where they always were, and they got to be a
big enough deal that they were playing the side stages
at Summerfest, like multiple days during the week of Summerfest.
And that's you know, the Summer Fest does all these
side stages, and they'd be like the kind of act
they will play the afternoon at a side stage, and
what Mike would do and I don't know how often
(23:59):
he it, but he was doing it the day that
I was there. He's standing in the main gate dressed
up at his Neil Diamond get up. This was already
after Claire had her accident. I won't give away too
much because of the movie, but most people know the
story here. And Mike standed at the main gate dressed
up like Neil Diamond, just talking to anybody who would
(24:22):
walk by, just promoting, promoting, promoting, And I don't know
how it started, but that's why he talked to me.
Maybe he recognized me or whatever, but we talked, and
he talked about her accident and what he was gonna.
You know, they're gonna whether he was still doing and
performing and so what I mean, he just worked it
and her thing at this level that she's had, she
(24:43):
wanted to be a star, and she never had dreams
that she was gonna win a Grammy or anything. She
want to be a start like okay, singing a borer club.
We're twenty five or thirty. People woul pay attention, and
it's just the kind of thing that I think a
lot of people would look, Oh my god, that's your life.
Who's in that? You're playing a bowling alley in West Alice.
(25:05):
The thing that there's several reasons that the movie is
really good, but every review that I've read that raves
on it makes the same point, and I'm going to
make it here. They treated the filmmaker, Craig Brewer, treated
those characters with respect. He didn't present them as two
(25:26):
goofs with such goofy little dreams and doing such a
goofy act. He met them. I dated a woman who
was a psychotherapist, and she said, we try to meet
people on their own terms, meet them where they are.
And that's what I think that the movie did. It
never tried to make fun what they were doing. It
(25:47):
was it honestly reflected that they were doing exactly what
they wanted to do, and that the people who love
them loved them because this is exactly what they wanted
to see and it was. I just think that almost
every other Hollywood treatment of this would have gotten that
part wrong, that they wouldn't have had any feel for
how a Neil Diamond tribute act of a husband and wife,
(26:10):
and the wife isn't even really doing anything that's Neil Diamond.
She just a background second, and then it's the show
she did her Patsy Klein stuff and so on, how
something like this could work and they would look upon
it as hoky. Craig Brewer did not do the movie
(26:32):
that way. It treats the characters with respect, and it
treats the family. It was a blended family. You know,
he had his daughter, she had two kids. It might
have been a couple of other kids that didn't count
included the movie. But anyway, Claire's daughter, who's done a
lot of interviews and featured in the movie, and just
(26:53):
a tremendous performance by the actress who played her, I
think her name is Ella. Anderson daughter, talked about they
had this concern about whether or not they trusted this
guy to handle their life story and put it on film,
or would they make a mockery of them or all
(27:15):
the crap that happened. Would it be kind of humiliating
and treating them like, you know, a novelty act or
a carnival side show. And they developed a level of
trust where they felt that he wouldn't do that, and
he did treat them with total respect. And I think
it's one of the reasons that the movie I think
(27:36):
really really works. I'm I'm sure most of you have
not yet seen the movie. My review of it is
I mentioned this on the podcast a few weeks ago.
The performances are off the chart. Kate Hudson in particular
is it's just an astonishing performance in her role as Thunder.
Hugh Jackman is outstanding. It almost becomes Neil Diamond. But
(27:58):
the acting, particularly from the two main stars, is really
really good. Secondly, the music is outstanding. They know. My
take on Neil Diamond is that eighty percent of the
stuff that he did was really really good and twenty
percent was atrocious. He's one of these guys that had
like no middle ground. He had some stuff that I
(28:20):
just thought, really really that whole Jonathan livingson seagull Era
that he went into, which some of you don't even
know because the music I thought, Bee and these other
it just that was awful and he became a character
mature of himself. But the rest was really really good.
The movie doesn't use any of the bad stuff they owe,
even the obscure songs like they make a big deal
of the song Solomon, which is a really good song.
(28:43):
The music is really really good and the sound is
really really good, and the singing which the two actors
do their own singing is really really good. It sounds good.
The acting is good. And the other thing that I
just think makes it work is the way they approached
these characters and their life. Now the story the movie,
(29:05):
of course, he goes, if it was not based on
a true story, people would look at the movie and
say that that's implausible and ridiculous. Oh, all this crap happened,
and that Neil Diamond and then this and this and
this and then all the downsides of after the accident
and so on. Who's gonna believe this? It's contrived. They
do change up some details on the movie, and some
(29:27):
timelines are changed and locations are changed, but the gist
of the story is completely accurate, so you can't claim
that it's contrived, because this stuff actually did happen. I
posted on my account on x which you should all
be following, Mark bellin show the review in the New
York Times that showed up on Christmas Eve what struck me?
(29:49):
And the New York Times reviewer absolutely raved loved the movie.
That surprised me because the New York Times is this
snooty and you know the nose more than any other
publication than you can imagine. Maybe The Guardian would be
more and The Guardian Rave two. The Wall Street Journal
print edition they don't print on Christmas Day came out today.
(30:12):
And Kyle Smith, who's maybe right now the biggest movie
you're in America. I'm gonna share his review. This is
from The Wall Street Journal Today. A tuneful tribute acts
true affection. Song Sung Blue follows a Neil Diamond impersonator
and his partner. Here's the review. Song Sung Blue won
(30:32):
me over early on when a bar fight breaks out
over the remark shouted by a leather clad biker dude
Neil Diamond sucks fighting words bordering on heresy. Whether you
love Diamonds Diamond ironically or unironically, this oddball music comedy
drama is bound to turn on your heart light, though
(30:56):
if you're reverse to his tunes, you'd best stay away.
Base and a true story that previously inspired a two
thousand and eight documentary of the same name, Song Sung
Blue is a warm and slightly weird tale of a
pair of working class people. Mechanic hairstylist who in the
mid nineteen nineties Milwaukee moonlighted as a Neil Diamond impersonator
(31:17):
and his backup singer and keyboardist. The joy that they
find in this work is infectious, and I loved this
movie beyond measure. It wasn't on my annual Top ten
list only because I hadn't seen it yet when I
wrote that Hollywood types often strike and this is the
point I was making. Hollywood types often strike a snarky
(31:40):
and condescending tone when they peer down the ladder at
the low rungs of show business. An excellent example is
the twenty seventeen comedy The Disaster Artist. But as written
and directed by Craig Brewer, whose previous credits include Hustle
and Flow, the twenty eleven remake of Footloose, and the
sequel of Coming to America. Song Sung Blue avoids straying
(32:03):
in the mockery of Mike and Claire Sardina, who perform
as Lightning and Thunder. Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are
completely enduring as the performers who made it a state
who made it a state fair where he caught where
he calling himself. Lightning is chafing at doing a tribute
to Hawaiian vocalist Don Ho, and she is impersonating Patsy
(32:23):
Klein Brewer interviews. Brewer intertwines the movies two registers brilliantly,
and then he goes on and I don't want to
lay out too much more because I don't want to.
I think for a lot of people in Milwaukee, there
are no spoiler alerts because most people know the story.
But it's a rave review, and just about everyone that
I've seen from like the hoity twity film critics, is
(32:49):
a rave review. So in putting this all in context
of what Rob Schnier had to say is the reason
I think that everyone is just struck by the fact
that they tweeted these characters with respect. Is that's what's
so unusual about it, This elitist tone that Hollywood makes,
in which they make movies about themselves, and every movie's
(33:11):
got to be an alternative lifestyles that people pursuing a
leftist thing, and you know, nobody making any movies that
anybody in Middle America can relate to. You know, when
Mel Gibson made his tremendous movie about the Crucifixion of Christ,
he had a self finance it himself because no studio
wanted to fund it. Normally, stories like this aren't TV shows,
(33:38):
they aren't movies. They're simply not told. And when they
are told, the tone is totally wrong. The fact that
this guy got it right it is what's so unusual
and so remarkable. And that's where getting to Rob Schneider's point.
I think that's where he becomes right about what's happened
with Hollywood is that the whole point of Hollywood has
(34:02):
been to create stuff that lots and lots that the
masses want to see. And that's what the movies and
TV were. For the longest time. There was no political
bias in most of the big TV shows. That what
was the political bias of Bonanza one? What was the
political bias of It's a Wonderful Wife or Gone with
the Wind? I mean was in there? I didn't pick
(34:24):
up on it, And I don't want to suggest that
Songs and Blue is a conservative movie. What's just remarkable
is there's no politics to it at all. I have
no idea what Mike and Claire Sardina's politics were, or
in case that Claire are, or even if they have any,
and none of it got in there, and it shouldn't
get in there, because what would that have to do
with the story. Nothing. But that's the exception rather than
(34:49):
the rule. I want to turn my attention to some
comments that President Prout made about all the photos of
Bill Clinton in the Epstein files, and interestingly, Trump is
coming to Clinton's defense. Now, Trump has been poop pulling
this old Epstein's story. Trump's names in the Epstein files,
and Trump met Epstein, and there's this photo here and
(35:11):
so on. There is no suggestion at all that Trump
was ever done at that island bopping around with young
But the media is just obsessed with trying to tie
Trump's name in to Epstein. And Trump's just frustrated that
the Epstein story keeps being covered because he thinks it's
detracting from all of the accomplishments that he's had. Nonetheless,
he makes a point here about Bill Clinton that's worthy
(35:31):
of common Trump said, I like Bill Clinton. I've always
gotten along with Bill Clinton. Notice he's talking about Bill
and not Hillary. We respect him. I hate to see
photos come out of him. Everybody was friendly with this
guy he's talking about Epstein. He was all over Palm Beach.
Larry Summers was his best friend. Bill Clinton was a friend,
(35:52):
but everybody was I threw him out of mar Alago.
I don't like the pictures of Bill Clinton being shown.
I don't like pictures of other people being shown. You
probably have pictures being exposed of others, people that innocently
met Jeffrey Epstein many years ago, because of guys like Massy.
That's the Republican congressman of Kentucky who's a real lowlife,
(36:14):
whose polls I don't know about nine percent in Kentucky.
Massy's a loser. He works with the Democrats. Anyway, The
point that Trump is making here, in addition to he
doesn't like the fact that he's being tired of the
whole Epstein thing, is I think fairly legitimate. They just
uncovered a million more docums think of us, a million
more documents or files with Epstein. See, when you're doing
(36:36):
an investigation, you grab up all of this stuff in
everything having anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein in his life,
And I think what's gonna happen is all of this
stuff comes out, We're going to have even less clarity
because you're gonna be looking at it, all of this
stuff that doesn't have anything to do with anything, and
people just looking for what it is that they can
(36:57):
use the political purposes. Oh look, here's this with Trump,
here's this with this one over here, and so on.
The thing I think that most people want to know
is who went down to that island and who was
messing around with underage girls. Best we can tell, some
of the women at the island were of age and
others were underage. Some may have been trafficked, some may
(37:18):
have been willingly going down there and doing it for money,
but there were clearly guys that were going down there
and having sex with underaged women, and some of the
women were abused, And I think we just want to
know who those people are. And all of this other
stuff is just noise. And I think the more information
we get now, all being presented by people who are
trying to look for certain ways to use it, the
(37:39):
less we're actually going to know about the whole Epstein thing.
Another story. Patrick Byrne, who's been involved in intelligence and
law enforcement is an analyst and observer for some time,
posted the following a couple of days ago on X
This is if true, and again I don't have any
(38:01):
reason to think it isn't true. This is one of
those like bombshells that people just aren't going to hear about.
He said, I gave FBI special Agent Dave Smith a
hard drive of Perkins Kooy. Perkins Kooy is the big
DC law firm that was the one Perkins Koi cie
(38:22):
Perkins Koy. Perkins Koi is the big DC law firm
that was behind the Steele dossier that fueled the whole
fake Russia collusion thing with regard to Trump. Anyway, he said,
I gave special Agent Dave Smith a hard drive proving
Perkins Koi access to Ukrainian child porn to plant on
(38:44):
Prompt's email server. Also, the VA medical system was penetrated
by I Ran Garland, that's Merrick Garland, Attorney General under Biden,
ordered Ray FBI Director pack Ray to destroy it in
the FBI lab ps DOJ fat ass Todd Blanche ordered
(39:04):
the FBI a DOJ to refuse to accept a copy
of that hard drive. Now, again, maybe it's not true.
Maybe the guy's making this up, but it passes the
smell test and certainly seems to be believable if Perkins
Koy was involved in funding the Steele dossier, just making
up a bunch of stuff, about Trump in an attempt
(39:26):
to damage Trump. Why would they stop at that. Why
wouldn't there be an attempt to put child pulling on
Trump's computer? You know when people think that Trump is
paranoid and he's you know, payback for all of his enemies,
look at all of the crap that this guy was
on the receiving end of. As Nicki Minaj said in
(39:47):
her statement at turning Point, very hard to be lied on.
Imagine just being light on and light on and light
on the people are believing the lies. Interesting piece to
share with you on this podcast. It addresses this whole
thing of why is Trump going after Venezuela. Some people
(40:09):
believe it's because of the oil. Some people believe it's
because of the fenool. Some people believe it's because of
the enormous Venezuelan community in the United States, exiles who
are as obsessed with bringing down the Maduro government as
the Cuban exiles were worth bringing down Castro. There's a
(40:31):
piece that was written by Michael McNair. It's on Medium.
I'm not linking it up, but medium is it's like substack.
It's one of those sites that post blogs in which
he has a deep analysis here of something that's going
on that he thinks that's driving Trump and our government's
concern over Venezuela. He writes, the Maduro regime has deep
(40:54):
and quiet ties to Moscow dating back to the Cold
War networks in Latin America. By the way, that's true,
there is a separate report that Putin is getting the
Russians that are in Venezuela out right now for fear
that the United States is going to have an attack anyway.
The minority regime has deep and quietized the Moscow dating
back to the Cold War networks in Latin America. This
(41:17):
does not require Russian submarines, a locally operated capability enabled
by foreign technology advisors in financing that Venezuela can run
under its own flag. That model fits Moscow's incentives, It
preserves deniability and explains why the administration would keep the
public story focused on narcotics while quietly building options for
(41:40):
something larger. Now, what's he referring to. He's suggesting that
there's a drone operation that Moscow is running, essentially laundering
it through Venezuela, and that the purpose of the drones
is to attack commerce by ships. In other words, all
the international trade that's going on with ships that are
(42:01):
sending things around the world, that Russia is developing a
drone network capable of knocking them out. If they, of
course have that and start doing it, it will give
put an incredible leverage. So the point that mcnern is
making in his piece is that's the real reason about
(42:21):
the focus on Venezuela. In the same way that Russia
and Cuba created the Russian Missile crisis when the Russian
sent nuclear weapons over to Cuba which would threaten the
United States, and Kennedy said, We're simply not going to
take it. According to this writer, Crumb's concern with Venezuela
is that Venezuela is hiding Russian drones that have been
(42:44):
developed for the purposes of taking out international cargo ships,
continuing Russia working through the Maduro regime and cartel infrastructure
to create leverage against Washington. Our entire globalized trading system
rests on a base sick assumption that goods can move
freely across the world's oceans. Autonomous underwater vehicles can change
(43:07):
that calculus. A dozen of these mobile autonomous minefields positioned
in the Florida Straits and the Yucatan Channel could cut
off access to the Gulf, referring here to the Gulf
of America if you prefer the Gulf of Mexico. Venezuela
can also operate these systems under its own flag. Foreign
sponsors provide the technology, training, and payloads. Moscow would be
(43:31):
doing in the Caribbean what Washington has done in Ukraine,
arming a proxy and maintaining just enough distance to complicate escalations.
That's a theory offered by him on what it is
about Venezuela right now that is causing Trump to act.
My quick little ps on this. I think that Venezuela
(43:54):
is so destabilized internally. The economy is such a mess
that it may not take away war to finally get
rid of the Maduro government that's simply hitting them a
number of times, maybe enough to embolden the Venezuelans that
are still in that country, or what's left of the
Venezuelan military that hasn't drank the kool aid of Maduro
(44:16):
to simply topple him. You know, Venezuela was a very
before the economy cratered when Hugo Chavez came in Venezuela
was one of the most modern of South American countries,
Lots and lots of high very much like a rand
in the Middle East, highly educated people, I culture, great
(44:37):
wealth and so on. And there's still a lot of
the people who haven't gotten out there, still are a
lot of them there. It may well be that if
Trump is sending these signals that we're just going to
keep hitting Venezuela right and left, that the military in
Venezuela will act in the form of a coup and
finally get rid of Maduro, which I think if that happened,
(44:58):
you would see celebrations in the three of Caracas. He's
very much one of those countries in which Maduro through
terror has control of that country. And I suspect that
a significant number of the populace don't approve of him,
which is why they reg elections and so on. This
is the Mark Belling podcast. This is the Mark Belling podcast.
(45:21):
You know, I have had occasion over the years not
only to say I told you so, but there have
been several stories in which I was so convinced I
was right that I say before the story happened. When
the idea is being proposed I said, you know, in
a few years, I'm good. This is going to be
one of my biggest I told you so. Is ever
(45:45):
the trolley was is always going to be number one
on that list. The you know, I told you so.
I think number two was this idiotic not even the
right word. It's more like corrupt. Idiotic idea, corrupt idea
for the City of Milwaukee to use direct taxpayer funds
to bank rule the very well connected developer Kaylon Heywood's
(46:10):
senior and his plans to develop a four star hotel
at twenty seventh North, just saying it is ridiculous. And
the reason it sounds ridiculous is it is ridiculous. Somebody
who wants to stay at a two hundred and fifty
dollars a night hotel is not going to stay at
twenty seventh in North, no matter how nice it is.
(46:31):
The idea was absolutely ridiculous. And I said at the
time that the only plausible reason to do this is
to get the hand the money in the hands of
Heywood and then have him start paying engineers and architects
and so on, and start spending the money. But nothing
was ever going to happen if it ever opened it
would close within six months. Well guess what, nothing happened.
(46:56):
They didn't even begin construction. Nothing, And the city keeps
asked th King Heywood that paid back the money that
they gave him, because it came in the form of
a loan. He hadn't paid anything back. So then he
came up with a second plan for the site and
the city council gave him an extension. Again, I should
mention Heywood is very well connected and is a big
(47:19):
time donor to just about everybody involved in city government.
He's the ultimate inside player. He was also the guy
who was the subject of that very controversial investigation into
a woman's allegation of sexual assault. It was the investigation
in which Heywood's lawyer was present at one of the
(47:40):
police interrogations. People questioned whether or not preferential treatment was
being given to Heywood. He was never charged in connection
with that. Now Tom Dake and reporting on js online.
After version one of this plan at twenty seventh and
North went nowhere and version two of the plan at
twenty seventh and North went nowhere, he would has a
(48:01):
new plan. Remember, he hasn't paid anything back. He's had
this money for years. Stall development as new plan group
seeks to turn city site into housing, which is probably
the only thing that it ever would be would have
been in the first places to put into some housing.
So now he's asking and seeking incentives to go ahead
with housing and dragging out paying back the millions that
(48:24):
he got. Again, you may wonder, how how has he
been able to pull this off? How is he able
to get city money for such a ridiculous idea. How
has he been able to go years without paying back
any of the money? How is it that the property
has not been foreclosed upon? How is it that the
city has not sued him for the return of the money?
(48:45):
He would still has numerous other assets, He's got his
finger in all sorts of things going on in Milwaukee.
How is this Well, if this was Minnesota, it would
make sense, because if this was Minnesota, I would just
be convinced that Calen Heywood Senior is amat because that's
what this is what the Somalis were doing in Minnesota.
(49:05):
Everybody knew was corrupt. The corruption evidence is all over
the place. But because the Somalis were a political influence
group in the state of Minnesota, the Democrats cap giving
them money, but this isn't Minnesota's Wisconsin, and so far
as they know, Kaylon Heywood Senior is not a Somali,
But if he was a Somalia, it would make sense
because they in Minnesota were just allowed to do it.
But it is similar. It's the cloud of Haywood that
(49:28):
has allowed him to make ridiculous proposals and be given
money and then never pay it back and being given
forever and ever at ever to try to develop and
turn it into something. It's free money. If you can
try it into something in which you can make a profit, fine,
If you can't, you're still spending the money in the process,
doling it out to your friends and peddling your influence
(49:49):
with the money that you got. It's a zero risk,
all win opportunity for him. And why why not any
of the numbers of other people that would love to
do something in the unterseity because none of them are
Kaelon Heywood's. So, now, okay, he wants to do housing,
like there's a lack of housing in the central city. Well,
there's a lack of newer housing in the central city,
so we may put up a housing project. It may work,
(50:11):
it may not work. Certainly people will move into it.
Whether or not he'd ever be able to charge the
kind of rent to get back the return of the
construction very very dubious. But it would allow him to
pay contractors and pay other people in exchange for who
knows what. What it is is out and out favoritism
and corruption. It is a microcosm of what happened with
(50:35):
the Somalis in Minnesota. In fact, I've got a quote
here from Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff President Trump,
who has a remarkal of ability to summarize things so
that everybody can understand it and do it in less
than two minutes. Here's his quote. Look how powerful the
(50:57):
Democrat Party became in Minnesota once they flooded it with
one hundred thousand somalions, once the elections were decided by
clan rivalries and ethnic feuds. Once that happened, the Democrat
Party became permanently powerful in Minnesota. They became permanently powerful
of the Twin Cities. When you see the state of Somalia,
(51:20):
that's what they want for America because it's easier to
rule over an empire of ashes than it is for
the Democratic Party to rule over a function in Western
high trust society with a strong middle class. That's their
model for America, to make the whole country into a
version of Somalia. And everything they do gets down to that.
(51:48):
And now a comment from James Comer. Not to be
confused with James Comy. James Comer is the Republican Congressman.
He's the head of the Committee on Investigations. He's one
of these guys who's figured out the crap that's been
going on on any number of these issues for some time.
Him and Tim Waltz in Minnesota. Waltz isn't going to
fix any of the Somali fraudy issues in Minnesota because
(52:09):
Democrats rely on that population to win power. It's the
whole key to the business model of success for the
Democratic Party in Minnesota. And staggering numbers of them are
on the US taxpayer dole. Quote. The early numbers that
I'm getting in on the Somalis in Minnesota is seventy
five percent or in full government assistance, full welfare. The
(52:34):
lid's I Magic Comra is correct. Twenty five percent of
the Somalis get a ton of money to run corrupt
government programs at which they're not providing services, and the
rest of them are just put on the entire welfare
doll Bring one hundred thousand people from another country, call
them refugees, bring them in, and then pound them with
(52:58):
money in exchange for them giving you all of their votes.
In a state like Minnesota, which used to be a swing,
Saint Garant king that you start with that pad of
one hundred thousand in every election in exchange for allowing
the Somalis to pocket all sorts of money, either in
the form of welfare or worse, the corruption in terms
(53:18):
of the COVID programs and the other programs that they
were running that Minnesota officials knew all along were not
being spent. They got made of thinking, there do you
know about the Nigerian dating scam? See Dave Michaels is married,
so he might not know about these things. You know not, Well,
(53:39):
there's a website. It's been out there for several years
as a husband and wife team that for those of
you not aware. Apparently I've been hearing for years that
the whole online dating world is just filled with scammers,
you know, fake profiles, fake this, fake the other thing,
and so on on. That has always been, what's the
(54:02):
what's your long term plan for pulling this off? Let's
imagine some fat, ugly guy posts a photo of somebody
that's thin and skinny and twenty five years younger, and
you claim that you're worth all this money and you're not. Well,
I mean, what's the end game? Okay? Let's imagine some
woman responds to this, attracted to this guy that isn't
really who the guy is in the picture and all that.
When you show up, what happens?
Speaker 4 (54:25):
Then?
Speaker 2 (54:25):
What's your plan? You think you're gonna be able to
explain it away? Well, she says, well, where's all your money? Allowed?
I okay, I made all of that up because I
wanted to meet you and you're really beautiful. Well, how
come you're fat and ugly and old and you see
in the picture? Was all of this? I just don't
understand the endgame of this unless the plan is never
to meet the woman at all. I'm trying to think
(54:47):
it's one of its catfish. Catfishing is the term for
this fake dating thing, fake girlfriends, fake boyfriends, and so on.
And there's a husband and wife couple that are on
YouTube that expose this and what it is.
Speaker 3 (54:59):
Is.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
It'll be like a woman who's I'm just not sure
that the guy that I've been communicating with online is real,
and there are these guys that he have relationships with women.
Sometimes it's the other way around, but it seems to
be mostly fake guys having relationships with women. It goes
on for years, but they've never met because of course
(55:20):
the guy. The guy doesn't want to me because he's
a scammer, a stunt. So then they hire this company
and it's one of the it's that's very good at
doing IP tracking and checking out Internet addresses and they
can delve into what it is that you have here
in you know, they'll con the person into saying well,
and they're sending him money to send them something in
which you can get access to their computer. And there's
(55:41):
all sorts of scambusters that are out there on the
Internet trying to compete with the people that do the scamming.
And I'm trying to I can't remember the name of
the couple that do this. Some of you will be
aware of them. The woman is really hot. They expose
these guys that are on these dating sites and it
turns out again and again and again and again and
again and again. When they track the IP address of
this guy that is communicating with the woman, the IP
(56:05):
address comes back to Nigeria, I mean Nigerian day I
saw that ninety percent of the dating scams are Nigerians.
Right now, almost all the welfare fraud scams are Somalians.
So it's like people who this is not new. You know,
when the Irish criminal gangs came to the United States,
there are certain kind of crimes that they specialized in
(56:25):
the mafia and the United States was into illegal gambling
and garbage contracts and hooking up with the teams. There's
various ethnic gangs tend to focus on various ethnic types
of crimes. But apparently the you would actually think that
somebody sitting in Nigeria would I have a hard time
using the lingo. I have some smooth talking American guy.
Speaker 3 (56:49):
But.
Speaker 2 (56:50):
Apparently they apparently they do. I want to talk for
a second about the Supreme Court ruling. It's a temporary rule.
It's not permanent. It's a temporary ruling saying that Trump
does not have the authority to send the National Guard
to Chicago. The vote was six to three, and when
it's sixty's three. It's all gonna be always because John
(57:15):
Roberts and Amy Barrett wander over to join the liberals.
And that's what this vote was. The four women plus
John Roberts voted to form the six. Samuel Alito had
a very strong descent. Now, I think that this needs
to be examined for just a moment. Here. Does the
(57:37):
president have the authority to federalize the National Guard and
send them into an American city? It does, I grant
the Supreme Court this. It does present significant constitutional questions
with regard to federalism, the rights of the state and
(57:58):
the rights of the executive. Constitution of the United States
limits the role of the federal government and reserves all
of the remaining powers of the states. So does a
president have a right to take a national guard of
a state and federalize it and use it for a
local operation when the local state doesn't want it? I
(58:19):
grant you It's a legitimate question. However, as Alito's point,
as Alito's descend points out, the reason Trump has sent
the National Guardian is to protect ice. One area that
is undeniably the responsibility of the federal government is immigration
(58:41):
and customs enforcement. That's not a state issue. ICE has
the right in every one of our states to conduct operations.
ICE agents are under attack, it would seem to me
that the President has the right to use the National
Guard to protect the lives of federal agents who are
(59:04):
being attacked and targeted where they're conducting their operations. If
Trump was sending in the National Guard for say, disaster relief,
when the individual state didn't want the disaster relief, maybe
you can make the case that the president doesn't have
the authority to do it. But in this case, the
(59:27):
President is using the National Guard for the purposes of
a legitimate federal rule, which is customs enforcement. If ICE
agents are under heavy fire and attack and the local
police or the local state will not protect them, all
that's left to protect them is other arms of the
(59:48):
federal government, which would logically be the National Guard. And
that's what Alitos descent said, that the President of the
United States has the right to protect federal employees when
they are doing their duty in the same way that
you could argue that let's imagine it was the Postal Service.
It's a quaseg of an agency. Let's come up with
(01:00:09):
a better word. The Census Department the Census Department is
going neighborhood and neighborhood doing information to gather for the census,
and these people were being attacked right and left. The
President would have the authority to protect those census workers
because they were conducting a legitimate federal activity. One of
(01:00:29):
the components of Trump derangement syndrome is simply to turn
Ice into Like in the minds of the left. The
naziss and the ICE agents have unbelievably dangerous jobs, aside
from the fact that they're often going to grab extremely violent,
dangerous criminals who realize that if they are deported, they're
going to go to prisons in their home countries. So
(01:00:50):
a lot of these people are armed themselves. You then
have people out on the street that are targeting them
them swell themselves. And while the ICE agents have a
right to be armed, there's certainly no match for a
mob of eighty to ninety or one hundred, but a
well armed n National Guard might be. So it would
seem to me that this is a legitimate role for
Trump to be able to take. Now, if the Supreme
Court ultimately comes down and rules that Trump is the
(01:01:11):
right to send them in the problem with that is
is that it'll be in the next term of the court.
It's months and months and months away. In the meantime,
these operations are going on now. I think this does
constitute an emergency. ICE needs protection, and in the states
where the governor and the mayors refuse to provide police
for protection and are allowing ICE agents to simply be
(01:01:34):
targets for murder, I believe it is the legitimate right
of the President to consider that an emergency and act
to protect them. We're going to do our football preview
and football analysis coming up next on the Markedelling podcast.
This is the Marked Beelling Podcast, and it's time for
(01:01:56):
a weekly football preview and some point spread analysis. I've
got my for lot of American sports analysts with us.
We normally record this podcast on Thursday, but Thursday was yesterday.
That was Christmas Day, So here we are on Friday.
And I mentioned that for those of you listening after
the fact, that we will only be talking about games
starting this Friday. My next football segment will be New
(01:02:16):
Year's Eve Wednesday, not New Year's Day. So when we
get to our point spread picks any game between those
to be played this afternoon, which should be December twenty
sixth through the games of December thirtieth would be fair game.
Let's talk about some football for the weekend. The college
(01:02:36):
football playoffs do not resume them until after our next segment,
so none of the eight teams involved in a fight
for the national championship we're playing in this period. So
there's two other games that I pulled out that I
thought were of interest to talk to Mike about before
we get to the pros. And the first is Georgia
Tech and BYU. I think these are two of the
best teams that didn't make the playoffs. EYU had a
(01:03:01):
very good season except when they played Texas Tech, to
whom they lost twice. Georgia Tech and the ACC was
very good team. They gave their arch rival Georgia in
a non conference game a really good fight. You know,
in a lot of these ball games, the choices you
have to look at see it who's opting out and
which players are not going to play because the NFL
(01:03:22):
draft and the running of the transfer portal and so on,
And you'll see that a lot in this case, though,
I believe most of the key players for both teams
are going to be involved. Both coaches are still at
their schools, so there's a little bit of stability with
both teams. It's an interesting game. What are your thoughts
on Georgia Tech and BYU.
Speaker 4 (01:03:41):
Yeah, two solid teams. Obviously BYU finished the playoff rankings fourteenth,
so they missed it by a couple spots. And as
you mentioned, they're only lost this year. Their two losses
were to Texas Tech. Other than that, they they swept everyone,
so they had they played a really good schedule and
had a good season this year in Georgia Tech. Similar
(01:04:01):
Georgia Tech had a couple of you know, losses that
weren't great to NC State and I'm missing the other one,
but they also lost to George at the end of
the season, which is their big game. Who comes to
play in this game?
Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
As you said, b Yu.
Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
Are they out to prove It's a tough situation sometimes.
Are they out to prove that they should have been there?
Or they flat because they didn't get in the playoffs.
It seems to me from everything I've heard, and byus
out to prove a point here. Everyone's gonna play, or
most guys gonna play. They do lose their running back,
but most of their key guys are going to play
in this game. The Georgia Tech similar situation mark, but
(01:04:39):
they have they have a little bit of coaching turnover there.
They lost their offensive coordinator and he took four assistance
with him, so they have a makeshift offensive staff right now.
For Georgia Tech, they were very good offensively this year,
fourteenth in total offense thirty three points per game. Should
be a really good game. BYU has a much better defense.
Two good offenses should be a good to watch for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
The next game is involving two teams from major conferences
that were both just below the top level in their conferences,
but two schools that I think have most people know
a fair amount of at and that's the Tennessee and
Illinois game. Illinois, of course, coach by Brett Beelamo, a
former Badger coach. Tennessee very good, they have been. There
(01:05:23):
were one notch below the very top of the SEC.
Two very good teams. Maybe you can give us an
indication of the transfer portal situation and so on. I
believe Tennessee is favored in the game against Illinois. Illinois
is one of those teams that I recall earlier in
the year. I actually thought Illinois was going to beat Indiana.
That was an early game of the season. That's before
(01:05:45):
any of us had any idea that Indiana was. When
Indiana turned out to be, they beat Illinois by like
fifty five points, and that was just that blew me away.
And it's that was my light bulb over the head. Okay,
Indiana isn't the old Indiana. Indiana is now Ohio State,
but it's still I think this, I think is a
pretty good game. Tennessee and Illinois. These are two teams
that never really were in the hunt for making the playoffs,
(01:06:06):
but both had very good seasons. Give us your thoughts
in this game.
Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Yeah, this line opened Tennessee six and a half and
it's down to two and a half, So let's move
four points. I think the majority of the reasoning for
that as Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
Does have quite a few opt outs.
Speaker 4 (01:06:23):
They have at least five or six starters that are
not going to play in this game, and it's possible
more will opt out prior to the game.
Speaker 3 (01:06:30):
It's next Tuesday.
Speaker 4 (01:06:31):
There's still some up in the air there for Tennessee,
and I think that's the main reason this line moved
four points down. They also fired the game.
Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
And guys opt out for two reasons. Some opt out
because they're going into the NFL Draft they don't want
to be hurt. And others are opting out because they're
planning to transfer and why get hurt before they get
off to their new school Already they're at the door anyway.
And I mean when you see in the case of
like say Mississippi and Lane Kiffin, when you see coaches
opting out when they're in the contention for the NA Championship,
(01:07:01):
it's not surprising players are going to opt out, especially
when it's just a regular old bowl game, not headed
to the national Championship.
Speaker 4 (01:07:09):
Yeah, it happens with all these lower chair bowl games.
You get guys opting in and out. And the crazy
part is Mark it's hard to It's really hard to.
Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
It's hard to handicap these games.
Speaker 4 (01:07:21):
First of all, because sometimes you have coaches that leave
and players plan and leaving and then they still play well.
Take a look at this year Ohio, Toledo, Washington State.
Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Their coaches are leaving.
Speaker 4 (01:07:32):
And they played like they were in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (01:07:34):
And then you got.
Speaker 4 (01:07:35):
Teams like South Florida and Memphis, same situation that never
showed up to play. They didn't want to be there.
Speaker 3 (01:07:39):
So hard to.
Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
Handicap this situation.
Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Illinois, they're the craziest one.
Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
Is what's going to happen with Michigan where their coaches
go on not because he's leaving, because he's in jail.
You to talk about trying to figure out how a
team is going to react to that, whether it's an
emotional higher and emotional gosh, that's the bossing. The Ohio
situation was similar. He was fired for inappropriate behavior not
related to what they did on the football field as well.
(01:08:07):
But you're right. I mean, one of my standards is
just if the team loses their coach, go against them
in the ball game because they don't have stability. But
you're right. In some of these cases, the team seems
to rally emotionally around the whole situation, the coach leaving,
and you're right. In other cases, the team just gets
crushed because they're metally a wall.
Speaker 4 (01:08:26):
Yeah, And it's hard to figure that out. I mean,
it's really hard to pinpoint what's going.
Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
To happen in those situations.
Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
It really is bold bull game. I used to enjoy
handicapping Bowl games, they're really hard. I mean, the one
stable situation is the college football playoffs for the most part,
I mean he had Kiff and leaving, But for the
most part, you have the players that they're playing, the
coaches are there. You're going to get their best efforts.
Everyone's in. Those are the best games to handicap these smaller,
chier games with you know, Tennessee opting out a bunch
(01:08:54):
of guys. Illinois has a few guys opted out in
this game too tough to handicap the line drop, So
I probably lean in this game, Mark who wants to
be there. I would guess Illinois more so than Tennessee.
I would probably lean Illinois in this game, but I
don't trust Illinois, so it's the game we're probably not
gonna use.
Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
Yeah, I mean, this is those games. And you've got
the people who bet huge amounts of money. They just
have their ears to the ground because these are opportunities
if they know something that others don't. And as you say,
some of these lines have moved violently, so if you
can get involved and get six or seven points. And
I think one of the games, I think Connecticut and Army.
(01:09:33):
The game open with Connecticut favored, but whether Connecticut might
have even been favored or Army favored by one or two.
And I think Army is now favored by nine and
a half. But imagine if you would have bet Army
before that line move, but you could now bet the
other way and win both sides with an eight point
middle in there. So I'm sure some other reason for
the big line movement is You've got some people that
(01:09:56):
bet a huge amount when they think that they know
something in games that otherwise don't attract a lot of attention.
But being the person that knows that stuff, hard to
know who those people actually are. Let's turn our attention
to the NFL. Also a unique situation in the NFL.
In the NFC, almost everything is already decided. The Packers
(01:10:16):
are in the playoffs. They clinched thanks to the Lions losing.
Green Bay's last two Seeds games of the season are
borderline irrelevant. They can still pass the Bears and win
the division if they win their last two and the
Bears lose their last two. I don't think where green
Bay plays Chicago is going to matter a hoot. I
don't know that home field matters much in the playoffs,
(01:10:39):
but you do have a team in which the game
is critical. Baltimore Ravens have to win. The Packers play
the Ravens Saturday night in Green Bay, Green Bay. As
I say, I guess they would like to win, but
they don't need to win. They're in the playoffs. The
Ravens have to win. There's quarterback injuries on both sides.
Both Packer quarterbacks get banged out. It looks like they're
(01:11:01):
both available, and it looks like Lamar Jackson will not
play for Baltimore. So the Packers are favored, but the
Ravens are the team that clearly need to win the
game more than the Packers. How do you size this up?
Speaker 4 (01:11:15):
Yeah, these games, some of these games late in the
season NFL, I mean, are similar to the Bowl games.
Not I don't have a bunch of players opting out,
but I mean it's hard to handicap some of these games.
As you mentioned, first of all, in the NFL playoffs,
there's fourteen teams in the playoffs. Eleven are decided already
on the only situation we have yet is the AFC
North with Pittsburg or Baltimore. As you said, Baltimore has
(01:11:36):
to win if they lose their out, we've got the
NFC South Carolina or Tampa Bay is going to be
in and then there's one wild card left in the
AFC and it's either're gonna be Houston or in Indianapolis.
So that's kind of where we sit playoff wise. You
mentioned Jackson's out in this game, they're going to play
Tyler Huntly. I kind of agree with you, Mark, I mean,
the Packers have have so many injuries they be better off.
Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
Just you know, win or lose this week.
Speaker 4 (01:12:01):
Just said everyone next week play having a bye game,
a bye week type of thing for them, because right
now it's looking like whoever wins the NFC North is
probably going to be the two seed, not locked into that,
and whoever loses is going to be the seventh seed.
Speaker 3 (01:12:15):
They're gonna play each other.
Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
They're gonna play either in Chicago or in Green Bay.
Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
I mean, chances are Green Bay is going to be
the seventh seed, and what they do and e the
last two games probably wouldn't affect that. And you know,
Love coming off of a concussion and Hunley being a
little dinged up and not not Hunley Willis, Malik Willis
being a little dinged up. It makes you wonder why
Green Bay would give it this focus. On the other hand,
I don't think Green Bay wants to go into the
(01:12:40):
postseason with three losses in a row, but the injury
concern is real. It just makes for a really weird game.
Another game the Bears in the forty nine Ers. Now,
both of these teams are in the postseason. However, both
have an opportunity yet to win their division, which would
(01:13:00):
mean home field advantage in the first game. The Bears
just need, without regard to what Green Bay does, win
one more game. The forty nine Ers are in the
most amazing division in the NFL. The NFC West has
three teams that are all not only vying to win
the division, but are vying to be maybe the best
team in football. You've got Seattle, the Rams, and the
(01:13:24):
forty nine Ers, and they're all outstanding with tremendous records.
The Bears have to go out to San Francisco to
play the forty nine Ers. The forty nine Ers are
favored by three points. Again, we're talking about motivation and
so on. It would seem to me that this game
means a lot more to the forty nine Ers but
it doesn't mean a ton to either because both teams
(01:13:46):
for certain are in and the case of the Bears,
they're likely to be the NFC North winner even if
they lose this game, and even if they lose next week.
Speaker 4 (01:13:57):
Yeah, another interesting game. In fact, just if the Packers
lose on Saturday, the Bears won the division, right, So
that makes it just just for those of you that
play these games, if you like San Francisco, I would
play San Francisco at minus three right now because if
Green Bay loses that game, that line's going up.
Speaker 3 (01:14:17):
Man.
Speaker 4 (01:14:17):
If if it doesn't, it's set right now where it
should be. So just just an fyiy on that. Yeah,
interesting game. San Francisco. Actually, mark if they went out,
they're the number one seed in the NFC.
Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
So if they win this week and.
Speaker 4 (01:14:32):
Beat Seattle next week, they're the number one seed in
the NFC. So they have quite a bit to play for. Still,
they're they're playing.
Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
Awfully with their offense. And for those of you who don't.
Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
Follow this very close, San Francisco hasn't punted since November,
and I don't.
Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Think that that's like a Dan Campbell thing where you're
just going to go forward and fourth down every play
they haven't putted because they've not ever gotten to the
point of fourth down in their own territory. Is that
what it is?
Speaker 4 (01:15:01):
They've had eighteen possessions their last two games. They scored
eighty five points in those games they sit out of
the eighteen possessions, They've had ten touchdowns, five field goals,
a miss field goal, an interception, and a fumble.
Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
That's it. Their last eighteen possessions. They're scoring on everyone.
Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
In fact, since so their punters only job for the
last month is to hold for the field goals.
Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
He means, Yeah, that's pretty much all he's doing since
Party came back from injury. Mark they're five to zero
straight up and against the spread, with winning all five
games by double digits. I think this sets up nicely
for them, as you said, especially if the Packers lose
on Saturday Night. I like San Francisco in this game.
I think they're the better team than Chicago and it's
(01:15:45):
a huge game for them at home, and they've been
rolling on offense.
Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
I think the Bears have moved the ball because San
Francisco's defense isn't very good.
Speaker 4 (01:15:51):
That's why the total set at fifty two and a
half in this game, high scoring game. But I like
San Francisco in this game.
Speaker 3 (01:15:57):
I think they're going to win and cover in that game.
Speaker 2 (01:15:58):
Okay, some point spread picks. As I mentioned, Paul is
not with us this week, so he in fact, after prodding,
he emailed his pick in and we'll share that in
a moment. Let's recap the picks from last week. I
had two college games that I absolutely loved. Mike agreed
with me on one and disagreed with on the other.
The second game, which unfortunately neither of us used as
(01:16:20):
our picks. We both liked Hawaii a lot on the
Christmas Eve Bowl game, and what a ridiculous game that was.
Hawaii fell down to California twenty one to nothing in
the second quarter and one, it came back and they won.
So we were both right about that. But it trure,
didn't I mean, from the middle of the second quarter
on you saw that Hawaii was the much more motivated
(01:16:42):
and better team at the beginning of that game was
a really bad one. The pick that I used on
the air, though I took Arkansas State over Missouri State.
They were favored by one. I thought they'd win by three. Touchdowns.
They didn't. It was a much closer game than that.
They won by six, But I won on that pick.
Paul took the Eagles over Washing to win by seven
or more and they won by eleven. And Mike had
(01:17:06):
a wrong pick on the Lions. We need to talk
with the Lions in a moment. The Lions just had
a collapse of a season. Detroit not only lost that
game to Pittsburgh, they then lost on Christmas Day to Minnesota.
Detroit is out of the playoffs now. The Commanders have
had the biggest decline of any team in the NFL.
(01:17:27):
They went from the NFC Championship Game to being one
of the worst teams in the NFL. I think Mike
and I at the beginning of the season both thought
that Detroit would take a step back after they lost
both of their both their offensive and defensive coordinators. But
this is a team Detroit that fell apart down the stretch,
even though the visually they didn't appear to be playing
(01:17:48):
that badly. So not only did did Mike not right
last week in a game that they simply had to
win against the Vikings, they couldn't beat them. I mean,
before we get to our picks. Any quick thoughts on
Detroit and why don't fill apart on him? Is it
injuries again or is it Campbell was in over his
head without his coordinators or do you have any thoughts here?
Speaker 4 (01:18:10):
Well, yeah, first of all, we had Detroit was in
a perfect situation in the last couple of weeks, them
coming off losses, they just win and cover those games,
and they're just Detroit's not that great this year. I mean,
I think it shows you Mark. You know, they lost
their coordinator, Johnson to the Bears. Look at the Bears
are fight for the number one seed and Detroit's out
of the playoffs. I think that tells you how important
(01:18:32):
he was to that team. And since Campbell took over
the play calling midway through the season, they just haven't
been all that great. I think they're and I've heard
they've got a lot of cap issues now. I think
they've had their window. I think Detroit's going to keep
declining start next year.
Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Well, I do too, And I think that the whole
mystique of Campbell is just over whatever the decision is.
He's just going to do whatever the bold and aggressive
things is, and the opponents know what and what Mike
was saying, with regard to coordinators, look at the difference
Jeff Hafley has made at Green Bay. I mean the coordinator,
particularly when the coordinator coordinates the area of football that
(01:19:10):
the head coach is not part of. You know. For example,
in Green Bay, Lafleur runs the offense, so Halfley has
total control over the defense. Okay, let's get two picks
for this week. Paul Texan his pick here, which emailed
it in without giving any explanation. Dave Michaels is shaking
(01:19:30):
his We know Paul forgot about this. He's claiming he
just no, no, no, I'll get it into you by noon.
He's taking the Steelers over the Browns. The Steelers are
favored in the game. Paul says three. I want to
look up the line real quickly. I think that's where
it is. Yeah, this is an interesting game. The Steelers
are favored by three points over the Browns. The Steelers
(01:19:51):
are still fighting to win the AFC North Division. The
Browns can't seem to be able to beat anybody. The Browns, however,
have the best defensive player in the NFL, Miles Garrett,
who's having a freak out of a season, the Lions
are excuse me, the Steelers are becoming the team now
that wins all the close games that Aaron Rodgers' magic back.
(01:20:14):
It would scream out that the Steelers should win this
game by fourteen points. But it must be telling us something, Mike,
that this is such a narrow point spread of only three.
Is Paul taking a sucker bet here? Or is he
getting the steal of a lifetime. I'd love to hear
your thoughts in this game.
Speaker 4 (01:20:29):
Well, first of all, I wouldn't play this game till
Sunday because if Baltimore loses.
Speaker 3 (01:20:33):
Pittsburgh's is gonna sit guys, I would guess.
Speaker 4 (01:20:35):
Because they won the division, that game's over.
Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
You think that's moly down holding down the line. Baltimore
is an underdog and the betters realize that if Baltimore
does lose, Pittsburgh's a bad team to bet on, and
that's what's holding it down.
Speaker 4 (01:20:51):
I think that might have something to do with it.
Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
So if Baltimore won, Pittsburgh's line pointspread might go up
and they might be fair.
Speaker 4 (01:20:58):
Might I don't think it's going to go up that much,
to be honest with you, I think it'll come down
more if Baltimore loses than the other way around. I
mean Cleveland. You know, late in the season, bad teams.
If they're going to get up for a game, it's
a home game against a division rival, and that's what
Cleveland's probably going to do in this game. They took
(01:21:18):
Buffalo to the wire last week, lost by three at home.
Their defense at home is phenomenal. Their defensive road splits
at home and away are ridiculous. They're not good on
the road, they're great at home.
Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
It's just a game I would not.
Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
Play until Sunday morning, and then it's probably too late
because the line's going.
Speaker 3 (01:21:35):
To move one way or the other.
Speaker 2 (01:21:35):
Well maybe that's whereas all right, time to get a
pick from Mike. Where are we going? We've got NFL
games and again we're doing this program on Friday, meaning
the Saturday through Monday games in the NFL, or any
of the Bowl games through Tuesday night.
Speaker 4 (01:21:51):
Let's look at well, one of the Bowl games we
talked about for tomorrow BYU Georgia Tech. What do you
have on that the line on that game?
Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
My sheets of lines are all fouled up because of
all these things are scheduled. But I'll get there. Yeah,
b YU and Georgia Tech. That I didn't mention. That's
the Pop Tarts Bowl. I don't know where that one is.
It's b YU is favored by four. You know where
that game which you used to be would know where
(01:22:23):
the game was being played for the name now with
just sponsors names on the game could be anywhere. Where
is the Pop Cards Bowl.
Speaker 3 (01:22:29):
It's in Orlando, Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:22:30):
Oh, it's in Orlando, Okay. Georgia Tech and b y U.
B YU is favored by four in that game, which
is an afternoon game on Saturday.
Speaker 4 (01:22:41):
I'm going to take I'm going to take BYU minus four.
Got a couple more points in that game that I
didn't mention. What we like looking at in these type
of games is when you get to the balls, a
lot of times you like eliminating the bad teams. We
look at the how these teams to do against other
Bowl teams, so decent teams.
Speaker 3 (01:23:03):
So this year.
Speaker 4 (01:23:03):
BYU played against seven Bowl teams, Texas Tech twice.
Speaker 3 (01:23:07):
Those are their only losses against Bowl teams.
Speaker 4 (01:23:10):
Against the other teams if you re moved Texas Tech,
there were five and zero straight up in against the
spread and outgained all five teams. If you look at
Georgia Tech, they played against six. They played six bowl teams.
One was a playoff team Georgia They were three and
three in the bowl games. They got out gained in
all six games. They're lucky to be three and three.
(01:23:30):
The other thing I like in this game, I don't
like the coaching turnover for Georgia Tech. As I mentioned
the opposite.
Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
I mean BYU's coach Sataki. He was rumored to be
up for a lot of jobs and he stayed with
a big pay. BYU has a lot of money, in
part because of the Mormon alumni backing and supporting the program.
Hughge Nil. Their coaches in all sports included football, basketball,
are well paid. Sataki is staying, so there's total and
they that's a school that has very few transfer issues. Ever,
(01:24:00):
I think there's tremendous stability at BYU on the coaching
staff and therefore for the game. And maybe you were
about to say that, but I think that would point
to BYU.
Speaker 4 (01:24:09):
Yeah, agree, one hundred percent. I mean again, Georgia Tech's
lost a bunch of offensive assistants. Everyone's there for BYU.
They're missing their running back, but pretty much everyone else
is around. The other thing I like about this game
is Georgia Tech's biggest game of the year is Georgia.
Every year, it's the biggest game of the year. It's
the season finale. They took him to the wire. I
watched the game. Georgia look completely disinterested because they had
(01:24:31):
Alabama next in the SEC championship game.
Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
They still won the game.
Speaker 4 (01:24:35):
Georgia did and Georgia Tech when they lose in their
last game of the season to Georgia and go to
a bowl game, they're one and.
Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
Seven the last times they've gone.
Speaker 2 (01:24:43):
To both ball against.
Speaker 4 (01:24:44):
And that's a good thought, and so I just think
BYU's out to prove a point, it's a fairly small line.
I think they win by more than four in that game.
Speaker 2 (01:24:52):
I've got the same problem that I have last week,
in which there are two games that I like a lot,
and I also know that my probably going to disagree
with me on one of the two and agree with
me on the other two. And I've just been wrestling
which one to take, and this I just have the
(01:25:12):
sense that I'm probably going to pick the wrong one
and be wrong in the game that I'm taking here.
I'm still trying to decide, all right, I'm going to
go with a safer pick rather than the one that
I like a little bit more because there's some risk
associated with it. The game that I the game that
I'm not going to take is I like San Diego
State catching five and a half points against North Texas.
(01:25:32):
This is you can't have two more opposite teams. You
could imagine here. North Texas had one of the best
offenses in America and San Diego Stated one of the
worst offenses in America. North Texas defense is terrible and
San Diego State had a spectacular defense. The difference is
is that North Texas quarterback is out. North Texas's coach
has left and go on to Arkansas, and there's going
(01:25:55):
to be numerous opt outs on the game. The line
moved up because San Diegego State's quarterback is injured and
isn't going to play. But the reality is he isn't
any good. So no matter who the quarterback is at
San Diego State, the play wasn't going to be that good.
I just would lean toward San Diego State's defense and
the weather's going to be terrible for that game in Albuquerque,
but I'm not going to take I think you would
(01:26:17):
have told me to take North Texas, but I like
San Diego State, but that's not my game. I don't
know if you want to give me what your opinion
was going to be on.
Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
That, but sure, no, I agree.
Speaker 4 (01:26:26):
I the one downside in that game for Sandy. I
agree with the San Diego State really good defense. North
Texas has way more instability with coaches leaving and such,
but a really good offense. But the quarterback's gone. As
you said, the one thing I don't like in that
game for San Diego State, and this is something we
like tracking as And before I do this, I'll preface
(01:26:47):
really quick. We use Hawaii as a big play as
one of our top games.
Speaker 2 (01:26:51):
Yeah, that was my second night, second favorite play of
the year. My first biggest player of the year was
Arkansas State. So I mean sitting there with my family
on Christmas Eve, trying not to make it like I
care what what's going on in a bet on a
football game, but what a weird and wild.
Speaker 4 (01:27:04):
Game when that was it was, we were lucky.
Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
We use it as a six star and we want it.
The problem I.
Speaker 2 (01:27:10):
Have thirding quarterback for Hawaii in that game went down
with fifteen seconds left in the game. They're down by three.
They could have easily run a running play and kick
a field goal to take it overtime and stead the
backup quarterback goes back and makes a pass into tight
coverage in the end zone and dropped a dime on
that receiver. It was a great pass and they hit
(01:27:30):
it and they won the game. You're talking about a
thrill for that guy. But most coaches would not take
a completely cold quarterback pluck him in that situation and
take that play call. But it worked.
Speaker 3 (01:27:41):
It was crazy. It was a crazy game.
Speaker 4 (01:27:43):
The thing I don't like about San Diego State is
the Mountain West has not been good and look him
in the playoffs. The two teams that made the Mountain
West championship UNLV and Boys, he.
Speaker 3 (01:27:52):
Both got both bowl games.
Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
Utah State lost big in their bowl game to a
team that had the.
Speaker 3 (01:27:58):
Coach was gone.
Speaker 4 (01:27:59):
A lot of stuff like that and why you got lucky.
So that's the one thing I don't like about that game.
Speaker 3 (01:28:03):
But I think i'd lean San Diego State Yon.
Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
All right, Well, it's not going to be my pick anyway.
I'm going to the game two higher profile teams. LSU
is playing Houston. Houston in that game is favored by
two and a half points, and I'm going to take Houston.
LSU fired Brian Kelly, the coach early in the season.
LSU's offense underachieved all year. They're in the ball mostly
(01:28:27):
because they won their first four games of the season.
They went three and five down the stretch. In addition
to that, Nussmer, their quarterback, who is highly touted when
he came over there, he's opted out of the game.
He's not playing. There's opt outs right and left for LSU.
The LSU is where Lane Kiffin is going to be
taking over as the head coach. But you've got a
skeleton staff of holdover some Kelly staff that are coaching
(01:28:49):
for the bowl game, numerous players missing. Houston has total stability.
First of all, Houston has a really good coach in
Willie Fritz. It's his second year here. He turned around
a crap program instantly. They went four and eight last
year in his first year, and this year they went
nine and three. Really really improved. They have a very
good qu I won't say great, but very good quarterback
(01:29:10):
and Connor Wegman, You've got Houston coming out of the
Big twelve, LSU coming out of the SEC. Houston has
a chance for a ten win season. And LSU's players.
You know, when Kiffin gets there, he's going to bring
in eighty five guys to the transfer portal. He's going
to bring in his entire staff, the LSU players. I
(01:29:30):
just don't see any sense of motivation. I think it's
a strong situation for Texas. I think the person in
LSU would be better, but they're going to have so
many opt outs. And Houston, as I say, has a
really good coach. And one other thing I think this matters.
I like to look up what coaches records in ball
games are, especially if they've been at multiple schools. And
Willie Fritz's four and one in ball games and he
(01:29:52):
was at a lower division school prior to going to
Georgia Southern and he had a good record in postseason
games then too. So I think everything points to Houston.
It's a so's it's a safer pick, unlike my San
Diego State pick, where I would be getting points, which
I just love. In these little profile ball games, I'm
having to lay two and a half here, but I'm
taking Houston over LSU, and Mike, You're gonna shock me
if you tell me I'm wrong.
Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
No, I agree games in Houston too, so that's correct.
Speaker 2 (01:30:19):
And again I just think there's motivation for Houston can
win season kind of playing at home. They weren't in
a ball game I think for two or three years
prior to this, and LSU what a train wreck of
a situation where everything's just waiting for Kiffin in next year.
Speaker 4 (01:30:34):
Yeah, I agree their coaches, their their interim coach is
probably not going to be there, so the coaches are
looking elsewhere. The other thing I like that you didn't mention.
You mentioned Wegman, their quarterback for Houston's is going to
play in this game, and he's announced he's coming back
to Houston next year already, so that that's a big.
Speaker 3 (01:30:50):
Boost as well.
Speaker 4 (01:30:51):
I agree there's a reason Houston's favored over LSU in
that game, so I would agree with you.
Speaker 2 (01:30:56):
Okay. Our next football preview and points stret Picks will
be on New Years that's Wednesday of next week, and
my next podcast will be on Monday. Talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (01:31:24):
The Mark Belling Podcast is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts
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You Line has everything in stock. Visit you line dot com.
Listen to all of Mark's podcasts, always available on the
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(01:31:47):
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