Ep. 139 - The 'Midterms 22, Bad Sisters, and Smartless Biden Interview' Edition

The 'Midterms 22, Bad Sisters, and Smartless Biden Interview' Edition

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.Okay, hey y'all, welcome back to

(00:26):
another episode of Marble Halls and SilverScreens. My name is Sarah Lee.
I am coming to you from Atlanta. Um, still in Atlanta. Promise
I'll be heading back to DC atsome pup point in the near future.
UM, but I am if youif you can hear it, I'm recovering
from a bit of a cold.Um, nothing serious, I just feel

(00:47):
like it. You know when youused to be a kid and you would
get those little weird colds and uh, you felt fine, but you sounded
weird. That's what's going on overhere. So so yes, welcome to
my more nasally than usual voice.I'm going to keep today's episode short.
It's Saturday, it's football Saturday.It's a very big UGA football game today

(01:11):
with Tennessee, and I've got somethings I've got to get done before that
happens later this afternoon. But Idid want to go ahead and record for
you today since it's been a coupleof weeks. But I will keep it
short. So if that's your thing, If you like a good, short,
concise podcast, you're you're in theright place today. What I want
to talk about very briefly, isobviously the midterm elections coming up on Tuesday.

(01:34):
If you haven't voted, you youreally should vote, and you know,
ideally you should vote on the day. I didn't have that option this
year because I had to mail inmy ballot to DC and some people,
you know, have to work andthings like that. So but I think
that it's probably a good idea ifwe start moving back toward the idea that

(01:59):
everyone kind of goes to the pollsand votes on the day of. Because
the Left has been as we sawin twenty twenty and a little you know,
certainly less in twenty twenty two,but still a little bit of it.
The narrative still exists that we're changed, they've changed the at the way
that we vote, right, soeverything is mail in ballots or drop boxes

(02:20):
or you know, early voting,all of this stuff. So that's probably
that those kinds of things lend themselvesa little bit more easily to problems in
the election. Problems with our elections. So I think we should start moving
back toward the direction of you know, you vote on the day of,

(02:45):
unless there are circumstances they're serving overseasyou're indigent, you're in the hospital,
you have to work, and youcan't get away. So those are just
my two cents, and we maydo that if the midterm polls are what
we all think they are. Sowe'll talk a little bit about the midterms
in just a second. I wantto talk about an excellent show that I've

(03:08):
been watching called Bad Sisters on AppleTV. And then finally I want to
talk about this podcast that is hostedby three of my absolute favorite actors,
and they had Biden on and it'sjust always it's not a disappointment. I
always know how actors where they comedown on politics. We know they're generally

(03:30):
to the left. But something happenedon this particular podcast that kind of resonated
with me, and I was like, that's that's what's that's why so many
of so much of Hollywood is onthe left. It's kind of that simple,
and it's not going to be asurprise when you hear it. You're

(03:52):
gonna say, of course, that'swhat it is, you know, but
it just sort of hit me reallyhard when I was listening to clips of
this podcast. We're gonna take aquick break here from our sponsors, very
quickly and then when we come back, I will knock all of this stuff
out for you guys, so youcan also get back to football. Okay,
thanks for being here, and sittight and we'll be right back.

(04:16):
Okay, and we're back. Hey, hey, y'all. Okay, so
there's been this. The midterms arecoming up as we know, on Tuesday,
and most of the polling and mostof the vibe. I mean,
if you're any kind of seasoned youknow, political observer, pundit, professional

(04:40):
observer, or are just you know, you do it as a hobby,
which is how a lot of theprofessionals started out. So sometimes the hobbyists
have it right, have it better, a better grasp on it, because
they're not they're they're less swayed bysome of the professional interests. But if
you are a payer of attention tothings like polls and midterm elections, you'll

(05:04):
have noticed that the there has beendiscussion of a red tsunami coming. Okay,
I feel pretty confident that that theRight is in a pretty good position
to win a lot of seats,uh, certainly to take the House,
possibly to take the Senate. I'ma little nervous though, because um,

(05:26):
I think that what they what happenedin twenty twenty could very easily happen again,
which is to say, days anddays, if not months, of
counting votes and lawsuits to challenge results. And you know, I it makes
me nervous the way that we're handlingour elections today, that that we're we're

(05:51):
um, it's not as uh,they're not as clean as they should be.
I'll say it like that, atrisk of at risk of being called
an election denier, which now apparentlyis stantamount to racist and God only knows
what else every other terrible thing youcan think of. So if you if

(06:12):
you question, uh, you know, the integrity of our elections, wanting
them to be as as perfect aspossible in terms of the you know,
right people, the votes being countedand the people that actually are elected taking
office. That somehow makes you anawful person, you know, terrible names

(06:36):
like the worst you get called theworst things you can think of, like
the worst kinds of pejoratives. Soanyway, but I tend to think that
the simpler the better. I thinkthat gets us to a place where we're
actually just counting votes on the dayof However, so that concerns me about
the twenty twenty two elections. However, most of the polling, certainly Sean

(07:00):
trendy at at Real Clear Politics hasbeen covering this probably better than anyone,
and most of the polling shows thatthe Republicans are pretty well positioned. That
didn't stop you know, Joy Reid, who is just a toxic race bader.
It is it is painful to listento her sometimes it's hateful, so

(07:23):
hateful. Um. That doesn't stoppeople like Joy Reid and others from coming
out and saying, you know this, these polls that look good for the
Republicans are just you know, falseflags to make it look like they're doing
better than they are. No,I don't think that's true. I think

(07:45):
that the polls are probably taking thetemperature. And again, you can trust
polls or not. They're certainly easyto manipulate. Um, you can design
them to get the answers that youwant. Everyone knows that. But I
would say that the internal polling onthe Democrat side is pretty Uh, it's
telling them the same thing because they'vebeen pulling out, you know, of

(08:07):
running ads in certain places. It'sit's it's looking better for the Republicans than
it is good for the Democrats.Okay, so that said, excuse me,
that said, there was this reallyinteresting article in the New York Times
where they had to admit that thispolling was going this way, that the

(08:30):
Republicans were well positioned. But itwas so interesting to read this article because
even in their admission they had tosort of give Democrats hope in a way.
And the way that they did itis they say, here, Democrats

(08:52):
still show important signs of resilience.Now, let let me go ahead and
say, it looks like the Republicansmight win the governorship in New York.
There's a tight race for the samein places like Oregon. Of all places,
there are Senate seats up for grabs. We know Senate seats up for
grabs. We know of the onesin Georgia. Obviously those get covered quite

(09:13):
a bit. Arizona looks like Coloradois tightening. So this is an interesting
race, and that I think thatthe Democrats are seeing some race tightening they
didn't expect. So here's how theNew York Times, and admitting that things
aren't looking good for the Democrats,tries to give them hope. Democrats still

(09:35):
show important signs of resilience. Theparty appears to be highly competitive in the
key Senate races like Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona. And if
you're a savvy watcher, you'll knowthat those are the states that really factored
in heavily in the twenty twenty twoare sorry, the twenty twenty election,

(09:56):
Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, andArizona. In these states, Republicans have
nominated relatively weak candidates who might underperformeven in a favorable national political environment.
And there are other bright spots forDemocratic candidates and states like Michigan and Kansas
where abortion remains much on the mindsof voters. So this is it looks

(10:20):
to me like just sort of alast ditch attempt. It's so funny that
The New York Times plays nonpartisan,because they're just they're simply not. I
think that sometimes they can do goodwork, and there are certain stories that
aren't. But as a general rule, you know, trying to give Democrats
hope in the darkness is kind ofhow they roll. But I say all

(10:43):
that to say this, this articleitself is what is partly what tells me
that it's not looking very good forthe Democrats on election day, with the
caveat that I am concerned about someof the integrity of the elections around the
country. It's going to be interestingto see if the Republicans addressed some of

(11:09):
the concerns that they had in twentytwenty making sure that you know, only
valid votes were counted, that thereweren't you know, people harvesting a bunch
of ballots from you know, oldfolks homes and things like that, which
doesn't necessarily automatically equal fraud, butit's illegal in a lot of states,

(11:30):
and so it shouldn't be happening.So and of course the poll watching,
I think that was one of thethings that the Republicans and we all remember,
you know, the images out oflike Detroit where they were actually blocking
the poll watchers rof doing their jobs. So it'll be interesting to see if
the Republicans have they took a greatcare to train up poll watchers and things

(11:56):
like that in preparation for the twentytwenty two elections. So let's go to
be interesting to see how this allplays out. Biden gave a speech the
other night that was fascinating and alittle strange, where he said, you
know, we have to accept theresults no matter what they are, and
he, you know, said,we, you know, political violence is

(12:16):
never okay, which is pretty richon the heels of you know, how
much political violence happened in the summerof twenty twenty, you know, the
the effort to turn January sixth intosomething that even comes close to measuring several
months of burning cities has always seemedabsurd to me. But obviously we wouldn't

(12:41):
want to repeat of January sixth either, So so yeah, it's looking pretty
good for the Republicans. We'll seewhat happens. I think that, you
know, the messiness. People tendto get despondent over the state of things,

(13:01):
right, and I don't know thatwe should do that, the state
of things in sort of this chaoticway of doing things. That's I mean,
you may have heard the expression thatdemocracy is messy. It is it's
supposed to be like this, especiallyafter we've realized that it's under threat.

(13:26):
It is under threat. The sortof simple mechanisms that we use to get
elect people elected, where you casta vote and they're counted, right,
and then we have a representative democracy, and we have an electoral college.
These are not that complicated. They'lltry to overcomplicate the electoral college, but

(13:46):
it's really not that complicated. Thesethings are under threat. There are a
lot of efforts to change the waywe do those things, and it's not
a good thing. So this isgoing to be an interesting election to see
if we kind of rain some ofthat back in. So I'm on board

(14:07):
with the early polling and some ofthe internal polling and exit polling from some
of the early voting that shows thatRepublicans are in the lead. But we'll
just have to see. We'll haveto see what happens. I am not
a talented prognosticator. Some people are. I've been wrong way too many times
to be comfortable saying this is definitelygoing to be what happens. So I'm

(14:33):
optimistic that things are, that theship is being righted a little bit,
that there's we're moving away from sortof this uniparty of the Democrats running everything
and we're getting back to, youknow, government where there are some differences
of opinion and differences of policy ideaand they're checking each other, which is

(14:54):
how it's supposed to work. Alot of people will say it's supposed to
be gridlocked. I don't know ifit's supposed to be gridlock, but there's
definitely supposed to be debate, andI feel good that maybe we're heading back
in that direction. So that's themid terms. Let's talk very briefly about
this fantastic show I've been watching onApple TV. I was told to watch

(15:15):
it. I thought, God,it looks like, you know, girls
hating a dude again, and Idon't know if I want to see that.
It's called bad Sisters. I knowthat cynical, but in this age
of like sort of hyper feminism,there's only so much of that I can
take. Like, you know,I love men, and there is a
lot of mail bashing that goes onright so in popular culture. So I

(15:39):
just didn't. I just didn't wantthat to be the case. So but
because the show, I had seena lot of people saying, no,
it's very good, you should giveit a chance. It takes place in
Dublin, and you guys might know. I have a deep and abiding desire
to visit Land. I looked atthe cast list. They are relatively unknown

(16:06):
actors and actresses here, although theyare pretty famous overseas in Europe and some
of them probably should be better knownhere. They're fantastic actors and actresses.
And so I decided to watch it, and I'm so glad I did.
It's excellent. It's a pitch blackcomedy called Bad Sisters on Apple TV.

(16:29):
I mean, the the general plotline is that these sisters are trying to
save their one sister who's married toan absolute prick of a man. And
they call him the prick. That'show they refer to him. He is
a terrible human being. But theshow to itself does not beat up on
men. There are some really reallygood, fine male characters in it.

(16:52):
One who is trying to do everythinghe can to help his bedridden pregnant wife.
One who's just a sweetheart love trystum. You know, very male,
very handsome, very male. Um. They haven't feminized these guys in
the slightest. Uh. It's justthis one character as a terrible man.

(17:12):
So the whole show is about theirefforts to knock this guy off, to
save their sister, literally to killhim, to bart him. Um.
And it will remind you maybe inplot line of you know, throw Mama
from the train or something like that, where that's also the plot line and
they're they're unsuccessful. I haven't finishedthe series, but they managed to do

(17:36):
a lot damage. But thus far, I'm on, I think they're ten
episodes and I'm on I think eight, so so far they've they've done some
damage, but they haven't killed him. Um. But again, this is
a dark comedy. It's also thereare also moments of just intense, you
know, drama, but it's mostfunny, very very very very dark comedy

(18:03):
and it's really well done and it'sreally funny and it's interesting looking at sort
of this you know, sort ofthe Dublin as part of the you know,
as one of the characters in away, which is always cool when
when people shoot on location and theyembrace the location, you know, they
make the location part of the castin a way. So it's it's really

(18:26):
good in that regard. So yeah, So some of the standouts Sharon Horgan
as the eldest sister, and she'samazing Eve Houston if you don't know who
she is, that is Bono's daughter, Absolutely stunning looker, beautiful girl.
I think in the Irish parlance it'sshe's a ride okay, gorgeous girl,

(18:48):
very talented actor, Brian Gleeson,who's great. Um, you may have
seen him before. Amory Duff playsGrace, the sister they're trying to save,
and she's alter itly, you know, sort of pitiful and meek,
and then you see these strange momentswhere she's really enraged. She's essentially abused
emotionally, possibly physically. They don'tget into that too much, but you

(19:11):
see moments where you think, yes, that's probably happening. Really really,
really good show. I recommend anyonese yet, even dudes. Dudes,
you'll like it too. It's it'sreally good. Just like you know when
everybody said Bridesmaids was great and theguys were like, ah, I mean,
chicks can't be that funny, andthen guys saw it and they were
like, holy cow, they're hilarious. It's the same kind of thing.

(19:32):
So um see Bad Sisters on AppleTV. It's the writing's fantastic, the
direction like that. Some of thecamera angles have been amazing, Like there's
this one scene where she drops thesepeas on the floor, frozen peas.
One of the sisters. Dad's bebeis her name? What is what is
that actress's name? Um? Ican't I can't remember her that particular actress's

(19:57):
name, but she's also wonderful.She drops frozen peas on the floor and
the way they shoot it, theyshoot it from the floor level, so
you're just kind of seeing these peasin the foreground as she's picking them up
in the background on her hands andknees, and it sparks an idea for
her, and it's a really interestingcamera angle. So it's not it's not

(20:17):
even it's it's well done, it'swell acted, it's well written, it's
you know, intriguing and engaging,but it's also playing with perspective. You
know, Babi's kind of the craziestone of them, so that sort of
perspective is supposed to you know,I think put you in her kind of

(20:38):
mindset where she's kind of a it'sa little bit of a nutter. She's
got a lot of rage in herfor good reason. So it's a good
show. I would recommend it.I'm like I said, I'm still trying
to figure out, you know,he dies, because that's the first thing
you see in the in the show, So he does pass away, but
I still don't know how. Soit's a good one. Guys, check

(21:00):
out Bad Sisters on Apple TV.Okay, finally, and I have to
I have to start this small segmentsegment by saying, first, I have
not listened to this entire podcast yet. I have been wanting to check out
the SmartLess podcast, which is JasonBateman, Shawn Hayes, and Will Arnett,
three of the most hilarious dudes doinganything today, for a while.

(21:26):
I had it, I had followedit on social media. I just hadn't
gotten around to checking out their showyet, although I was like, it's
got to be hilarious. Well,they just had Biden on, and so
I haven't listened to a full show. I have listened to they just had
Biden on. I did listen toseveral clips. It's only an hour long,
so I think I've gotten most ofit. But full disclosure, I

(21:48):
haven't sat down and listened to thewhole thing in one sitting all the way
through. But I have to saythat what I have heard, it's I
mean, you know, I'm notgonna like like hate these dudes for having
Biden on. He's the President ofthe United States and you can tell they
like him. I mean, butthat's again, you know, most of

(22:11):
the way Hollywood Lanes. It's nota surprise, right, but something.
And for the most part, thisis a pretty innocuous interview. They're talking
about what Biden does at the lighthouse, like I get up at seven am
and then I work till seven pm, which, by the way, is
bullshit. That's not true. Idon't think the guy I don't know.

(22:32):
I shouldn't say that, I don'tknow what he does, but I don't
get the impression that he's spending eighthours, nine hours, ten hours a
day in the Oval office but pouringaway over the resolute death. But that's
kind of what he told them,so whatever. So anyway, they sort
of talk about his you know,shaving routine and things like that, which

(22:53):
is a strange thing to talk tothe president about. But these are comedians,
so cool, cool, whatever.But something hit me and I was
like, that's why on this duringthis interview clip that I listened to,
I'm like, that's why Hollywood isso left. It's got nothing. It

(23:15):
sort of has to do with theirpolitics, except that I don't think they're
really up on politics as much aswe think they are. If they were,
I don't think that they would beas left as they are right in
general because they often vote against theirown interests. I mean, you can
see that with like the unionizing tryingto unionize, you know, the key
grips or whatever. That happened ayear or so ago. So the thing

(23:41):
that hit me was Sean Hayes,you know, hilarious just Jack from Will
and Grace, hilarious comedian, openlygay, which plays into this. He
says at one point during this interviewthat he was shaking a little bit because
Biden is there on their show,which is pretty cool. I think it

(24:04):
was actually there on the show.I don't think it was a call in,
which is pretty cool. You know, I get a little shaky when
I meet people that I'm in Awevetends not to be Hollywood people. It
tends to be policy people. SoI can get that and get behind that.
You know, it's just the dudehe likes. But he said,
I just want to say, Imean, I'm paraphrasing, but he's like,

(24:26):
you know, your kind words abouthow Will and Grace did more to
educate Americans on the gay community thananything else has just really, I mean,
I can't overwhelmed by that. Andit occurred to me I'm like,
this is this is what it is. The Left functions in a place where

(24:48):
they their transactions are almost always accompaniedby heavy, obsequious, you know,
appeals to narcissism. It's how theywork. It's because so many of their
ideas are so bad that they haveto sell people themselves by being like,

(25:10):
You're the most wonderful, most beautiful, most greatest, smartest person I've ever
known. Also, will you promotethis thing that I'm working on? Like,
that's how they roll. And whenyou're talking about Hollywood people, narcissism
is also where they live. Likeit's it's just a function of being,
you know, a star. JustJack right, I mean that says it

(25:33):
better than anything. Just Jack me. They make fun of the fact that
that's the world they inhabit, butit is the world they inhabit. They
mostly are narcissists. You have tobe to get up on stage and be
like everyone loves me. You know, I'm so good at this. I
have so much confidence I can dothis. I think there are some exceptions

(25:56):
to that role. But I wouldsay Hollywood and enter the entertainment industry is
probably eat up, as we sayin the South, with narcissists. So
Biden appealing to that and the leftin general appealing to that is why Hollywood
gravitates toward the left more than anything. I don't think it has much to

(26:18):
do with policy. I really don't. I don't think they know enough about
it. I don't think they're educatedenough about it to say that this policy
is better than this one. Theylike having their egos stroked, and the
left does that really really well.And you hear it in this clip with
Sean Hayes and Joe Biden. Soit just occurred to me. I was

(26:38):
like, Ah, that's the unholyunion, that's the marriage of the two
so and I kind of already knewthat. I think most people listening this
is probably gonna be like duh,of course, Sarah. But I think
it had never really like hit methat hard before or I was like,
there it is, like it's andI think it's partly because the left,

(27:02):
Hollywood lefties like to go out thereand promote these policy ideas as if they
know about them. But really that'snot it. They're given talking points,
they go out there and they promotethem. They really don't know much about
them. That's my sense. Andso I try to give people the benefit
of the doubt, but I thinknow I'm just more leaning towards Yed's basically

(27:23):
about the narcissism and the glad handing. That's what they like, that's what
they expect. That's why they likethe leftists. It's really that simple,
and it's really that shallow. It'sdisappointing in a way, but it's also
just sort of the way of things. So all people can do is try
to counter that with the facts inthe data. And you know you're gonna

(27:44):
get called a nazi for it,but you gotta do it, Okay,
guys. So that's all I havefor today. I've got to get ready
and run out and go do somethings before this football game. Go dogs.
You know you were getting it.You guys, have a great weekend.
Definitely vote Tuesday or get your ballotin if you haven't already. Um,

(28:07):
this is an important one and it'sgonna sort of set the tone I
think for twenty twenty four. Um, and never lose hope. Okay,
never lose hope even if things aren'tgoing the way you think they should.
Hope springs eternal, as my motherused to say. So Um, take
care of yourselves, take care ofeach other. Be kind, be strong,
be nice, Um, be positive, be happy, and we'll talk

(28:30):
against Watch from the psychiatric board's facesup on the bulletin board. With every
board, he'll stab you with thesword. Don't be fools. This has

(28:51):
been a presentation of the FCB podcastnetwork, where Real Talk lives, visit
is online and CP podcasts dot com.