Ep. 145 - The 'Biden Failures, Poker Face, and Rockin' Rowling' Edition

The 'Biden Failures, Poker Face, and Rockin' Rowling' 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 hope you guys are doing wellout there. It's been a little bit
since we've chatted. UM. Iwant to say off the top that you
might hear some weird ambient noise inthe background. That's just the heater over
my head. Got very cold inGeorgia. UM. Overnight it's been like
in the sixties, and then todayit was like freezing cold, really windy,

(00:50):
so the heat's on. UM,so you may hear that in the
background. I hope it's not toodistracting. UM. Today I actually have
a dance rehearsal here and about thirtyfive minutes or so, well, sorry,
an hour. I have to leavein about thirty five minutes, so
I want to knock this podcast out. There's a ton out there that I
could talk to you about, soI think I decided that, you know,

(01:12):
I definitely wanted to talk about what'sgoing on with the Biden administration,
and I could have talked about thespy balloon and the hearings in the house
looking at the weaponization of the federalgovernment, and you know, the potential
scandal involving China and the Penn BidenCenter, et cetera, et cetera,

(01:34):
et cetera, the debt. ButI decided I wanted to talk about all
of those things. So I huntedaround a little bit and I found a
pretty good article from the Heritage Foundation. Basically, it's written by a guy
named Jared Steptman. If you're aDC person, you recognize his name.
But he has a really good articlethat I will that I will link in

(01:56):
the in the column that goes withthis podcast, where he kind of he
kind of boils down the failures ofthe Biden administration into six subjects, six
topics. So I'm going to talka little bit about that. Be too
open the show. UM. ThenI'm going to talk with you guys just
a bit offer my um sort ofthoughts on as I always do, a

(02:21):
new show, a new movie,something like that that I've been watching.
I started watching poker Face, soI want to talk to you a little
bit about that. That's actually onPeacock, So I'll talk to you a
bit about that, and then finallyI want to end the show with a
really interesting podcast that's getting ready togo live at Barry Barry Weiss's new outlet,

(02:45):
Free Press, I think is whatthat's called. And it is a
podcast that features sorry, Barry Weiss'soutfit's called the Free Press, that features
none other than the fabulously talented andgenius JK. Rolling and the scandal that
has been in gulfing her for thelast many many years. So so yeah,

(03:10):
those are the topics for today's show. As usual, we will break
to hear from sponsors, and thenwhen we come back, we will jump
into all those things. Hopefully Ican keep this one tight for you today.
It's a Friday. We have athree day weekend coming up. Like
I said, I have a dancerehearsal here shortly, so I'm gonna knock
it out for you guys, andI hope you enjoy it. Sit tight,
We'll be right back. Okay,okay, okay. That's my Matthew

(03:38):
McConaughey sort of version. That's myversion of Matthew McConaughey's alright, alright,
alright, I'm teasing. That justkind of fell out of my mouth,
so I thought i'd make a jokeabout it. So let's jump into it,
shall we. Thanks for sticking around. Let's go ahead and talk about
Like I said, I wanted totalk about something a little comprehensive since I've

(04:00):
gone to a podcast that's kind ofsort of looking like it's becoming a monthly
thing now as opposed to every coupleof weeks. So I'm going to have
to, i think, start talkingabout some of these things with a broader
lens, a more sort of holisticlook at certain things, because if I'm

(04:21):
going to cover the things that arehappening, I'm going to have to start
doing that. So I was veryvery happy too, and I knew I
wanted to talk about the Biden administrationgenerally, especially as the House open opens
up their hearings, you know,the big tech hearing that the opener on
that was really interesting. I thinkwe're going to see some crazy things come

(04:44):
out about censorship and that hearing morethan we have already seen. We're probably
going to get into discussion of tothirty regulation, going to get into the
discussion of TikTok and how much theChinese are surveiling us through a tech.
So that's going to be an interestingone. The one I'm mostly interested in.

(05:05):
There is going to be a subselect subcommittee on China that one I
think I am going to be payingvery close attention to as well. That
one's also going to be dealing withFarah Foreign Agency Registration Act. But the
one that I think right now thatpeople really should be paying attention to is
the weaponization of the federal government.That is looking at and Stepman in his

(05:29):
piece at Heritage does deal with it, but that is looking at sort of
the politicized administrative state, the bureaucracy, and you know, more than just
politicized, more than just a partisanbureaucracy. It is the top of the
administration, the president and his peopleactually engaging those partisans within the bureaucracy to

(05:57):
act on the party or the candidateor the administration's behalf. So that's going
to be a very very interesting hearing. Already, Chuck Grassley has has testified
about his FBI whistleblowers. That's sureto get very interesting. That has to

(06:21):
do with, you know, theirwork on some of the the hunter Biden
laptop and whether or not it wasa part of some Russia collusion scheme.
There's also some discussion of you know, people leaving the Bureau that some of
these whistleblowers talked to Grassly about peopleleaving the bureau because there was a scandal

(06:45):
of a sexual harassment scandal. SoGrassley's looking into some of these agencies on
the Senate side, So he testifiedto the House. So that I think
is going to be a fairly explosivehearing to the extent that the media covers
it, though, because we dostill have a similar issue in our sort

(07:06):
of legacy media where if it's notfavorable, I'm starting to think it's not
even about Biden, it's just abouttheir own personal political biases, and you
know, they're a little bit shallowon the left side of the aisle.
They'll they'll toss a Biden, they'llget rid of that if he runs a
foul of them. There's already reallybad polling for him, they'll they won't

(07:30):
protect him anymore. But what theywill protect is the sort of structure that
protects them in their jobs, andthat also tends to be highly partisan.
So so yes, the press isn'talways going to cover some of this stuff.
So I the American people are goingto have to start licking this stuff

(07:51):
up for themselves. The great newsis c SPAN will be making this stuff,
most of it, so the juicystuff anyway, most of the juicy
hearings live. You'll probably be ableto watch it on Twitter, Facebook,
go directly to the c SPAN page. You can find those hearings. So
oftentimes they're even at the pages ofthe committees themselves online. So I would

(08:18):
encourage the American people to watch that. And here watch them some of those
hearings from the Weaponization Committee. Andhere's why. As Jared Stepman writes,
he is a he's a columnist forthe Daily Signal at the Heritage found that's
out of the Heritage Foundation does reallygood reporting, really good work. Definitely
has a conservative point of view,but they're not angling their stories with false

(08:46):
information. They're they're using facts,and they're basically covering the things that the
mainstream press won't cover. But theydo really solid journalism work. So Jared's
a columnist there, and he's gota really great piece came out January twenty
fourth, so you know, almosta month ago now, but it's called

(09:07):
six Failures of Biden's presidency in yeartwo. He breaks these out. The
six are and I'll just tell youwhat those are the immigration chaos, which
you know, they threw that borderat wide. They use the nonprofits to
shuttle people into the country illegally,and it has gotten out of hand,

(09:33):
and I think it's gotten out oftheir own control and they don't quite know
what to do about it. Soimmigration chaos is one. Ballooning debt is
two. I know there's actually afight coming up here in a couple of
weeks over the debt. Basically,Jared says, the debt has increased by
about four trillion since Biden arrived inoffice, and they're just piling on,

(09:58):
you know, they're student loan forgivenessprograms, et cetera, et cetera.
So ballooning debt inflation. We're allliving that. Even though they keep telling
us no, no, no,things are getting better. Some of the
long term predictions are you know,I have a brother that works in sort
of high rise construction. He's amanager for a company that that engages in

(10:24):
that kind of building and development,and the entire industry is slowing down.
Um That's what I'm told anyway,because people are are not really investing in
some of those things because they're waitingfor the economy to sort of self out.
So that's happening. And these inflationmarkers, you know, they're there

(10:45):
even though maybe gas has gone upa little bit, et cetera, et
cetera. Well we have a youknow, Biden has a lever on the
strategic Reserve, so he can hecan fluctuate those markers anytime he wants.
But some of the real markers areharder to see, and it's things like
people will not investing because the economyscares them. So that's number three,
the Wilke administrative state. That's theone that's dealing with some of this partisan

(11:09):
bureaucracy. Jarrett goes into the dEI stuff, the diversity equity inclusion stuff.
We're kind of dying ourselves into seriousproblems esging ourselves into serious problems too.
That's environmental, social, and governance, and that's something that's coming out

(11:30):
of the business world where they're goingto be trying to regulate businesses based on
how they meet these criteria under thatumbrella. It's the same with d EI,
and that's happening in academia, andit's all about it. It's not
about it's so clear now and aswe move forward, it'll become even more
clear. This isn't about caring aboutthe government of the environment, or people,

(11:54):
or the culture or the country.It's about control. It's about you
do what I tell you to do, because I've got you under the d
I've got you by the DEI balls, so to speak. So that's what
that is, woke administrative state.That's number four. Number five is the
specter of scandal. So that's allthe China Hunter Biden corruption within the Biden

(12:20):
family. Even the sort of progressiveDemocrats are having to kind of acknowledge this
stuff. Now. I mean,Hunter's laptop was real, and the stuff
that's on it is highly disturbing,so m you know. And then there's
the classified materials at Delaware and atat Biden's Delaware home, at the Penn

(12:41):
Biden Center. There are these verymysterious and very big gifts from China to
to the University of Delaware and theUniversity of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, where Penn
Biden Center was established. There's alsoreally good article in Today's Washington Examiner.
A friend of mine, Gabe Kaminski, well he's a work friend, where

(13:05):
he's talking about some of the largestelite American universities have invested huge amounts of
cash with a very questionable private equityfirm link to the Chinese government's genocide of
weaker Muslims. So there's a lotgoing on out there, and that's the

(13:26):
fifth spectral of scandal, and thesixth is no return to normalcy. So
basically what that means is if peoplethought that the progressive Democrats were going to
get us back on even footing wherewe're all happy and feeling nice and speaking
across the aisle and you know,back to norms, that's not happened,
nor will it happen because a lotof that really nasty rhetoric was not coming

(13:50):
from the right. It's going tobecome harder and harder to ignore that.
So that's Jared's peace. I,like I said, I'll link this.
I think it's really good overview ofsome of the problems that the Democrats have.
And I want to say this beforemoving on from it. What this
is telling me, just a bigpicture, is that this progressivism that has

(14:15):
been building really since the sixties andprior to that, just coming in waves.
It disappears, it comes back,but this version of it is a
failure. It doesn't work. It'sjust like communism, right, and it's
it's in some ways, this kindof progressivism is way too close to communism,

(14:35):
communism and some of its methods andin some of its preferred outcomes.
So um, you know, what'swhat's becoming very clear is that it doesn't
work. And it doesn't not workbecause, uh, it doesn't not work
because of resistance from the right.It doesn't work because it doesn't work.

(14:58):
It's failed. It's it's a governanceby bullying. It's governance by you know,
helicopter parenting. It's not governance byallowing citizens to make their own decisions,
allowing citizens to speak freely, andthose are enshrined in our sort of

(15:20):
the DNA of our country. Andso the progressivism that we're seeing right now,
which the Democrats have fully adopted,they went way hard to the left.
And I think it's because Biden isso corrupt that everybody owns him.
He can't do or say anything thathe wants to do or say. He's
he's pretty much owned by all theparties around him, including some foreign nations

(15:46):
as we know so and not alwaysfriendly foreign nations. So that's kind of
where we're at right, like thisis a failed experiment and progressivism. The
progressives like to say, you know, we're at we're late stage republic.
I hate that kind of loser talkwhen I see it on the right.

(16:10):
It actually infuriates me because it's thelanguage of users. It's the losers,
it's the rhetoric. And I don'tmean losers like you're a loser. I
mean people who don't win, peoplewho don't want to win, people who
don't want to finish the game,people who just want to quit and give
up and go home. We're notlate stage republic. If we don't want
to be right. Progressivism is afailure. The country and the ideals behind

(16:32):
it are not now they're linked.These are two inextricably linked things because our
freedoms actually probably are partly how wegot this kind of progressivism. But remember
it looks a lot like socialism andcommunism for a reason. Okay, you
started seeing this form of progressivism whenMarx wrote his ugly Little Manifesto, and

(16:57):
there's a reason for that. Idon't know that I'm even willing to say
that this kind of progressivism is aresult of our freedom. So I think
it's a twisting of those freedoms nota result of So I'm gonna leave that
there, and we are going totalk about a kind of a cool little
show called poker Face, so notto be confused with the Lady Gaga song,

(17:22):
which which I actually kind of like. Poker Face is a sort of
it's on Peacock. It stars NatashaLeon. If you don't know Natasha Leon
Natasha Leone, as you probably do, and you just don't know, you
don't that you do, you know, she's in like American Pie. She
spent a bunch of stuff. Ithink she was recently in Russian Doll on

(17:44):
Netflix that a lot of people liked. Very interesting actress, really interesting to
watch, Like she's got this reallyhusky voice, very attractive, rough around
the edges, kind of has that. That's how she acts as well,
Like her style of acting is rougharound the edges. She's not what I
would call a polished actress. Shejust kind of she's almost like what were

(18:08):
those method actors where like, youknow, Stanley Kowalski and you know James
Dean, so Brando and Dean,like their whole thing was bringing you know,
like reality, real stuff to theacting. Was the method acting.
She's kind of like that, right, She's not trying to pull out your

(18:30):
heart strings as much as she's justtrying to portray this character who may or
may not be a lot like NatashaLeone in real life. Do feel like
this part was kind of made forher. So the show itself is it's
pretty good. The way that Icharacterized it to my boyfriend was it is
a cross between the old Incredible Hulkshow where David Banner, you know,

(18:56):
travels around the country because he's beingchased and along the way he has to
like get in scrapes into or outof scrapes, or solve problems or whatever.
She's doing the same thing. Becauseof how this show is set up.
She runs a foul of some mobstersbasically in Vegas, and it's also

(19:21):
so it's a mixture of The IncredibleHulk and there's a lot of murder she
wrote in there too, because it'sa funny murder mystery. Every week.
It's a new vignette every week withthis thread of her being chased by these
mobsters and she's running across the countrygoing who knows where, picking up odd
jobs. But every week she's basicallya young, hip Jessica Fletcher solving a

(19:44):
crime. And the sort of plotdevice in this is that she has a
preternatural ability to tell when someone islying. She makes the distinction in the
show that she can't tell you whatthe truth is. She just knows if
someone is lying, and that helpsher figure out these sort of murder mysteries

(20:08):
that she gets herself involved in.It's got an interesting set up the way
episode is set up. You seethe murder first, and you don't even
know where she is in the storyuntil after you see the murder happen,
and then the story plays out severaldays prior to that, how she comes

(20:30):
to the town, how she getsinvolved with these characters, so you pretty
much know from the beginning who didit and she then the interesting thing is
how she sorts it out. Right. It's a really kind of interesting shows.
It's sort of filmed in the BoogieNights style, right. Everything's kind

(20:52):
of dingy and grubby. That mayjust be because that's what her life style
is. She's traveling around and thisbeat up car going to these small towns
picking up odd jobs, you know, nothing very glamorous, So it's sort
of that, you know, everything'skind of orange, I guess, for
lack of a better expression, likethe Ara is orange, kind of like

(21:14):
the seventies orange. So anyway,Natasha Leone's characters, Charlie kle I really
am enjoying it. Like I thoughtat first. There was like one episode
where they got a little political,and I was like, because it was
like a maga dog right, andI was like, I can't with another
show like this. But then thenext seat, the next episode, the

(21:36):
next week, they went in theother direction and skewered the hard left,
and I was like, oh,I think maybe I can deal with this,
right, like equal equal application ofderision. I'm in right, So
so yeah, so I'm kind ofenjoying it. I like the premise,
I like the story so far,really interesting cast of just like Murder she

(22:00):
wrote and those other shows. Actually, Psych was really good about this.
They're the guest stars are awesome,so like Fred Armison, Benjamin Bratt is
on it, John Ratzenberger of CheersFame, Let's see who else, Chloe
seventy seven, ye Ellen Barkin,Tim Meadows, Jamal Jamille, Tim Blake

(22:23):
Nelson, Joseph Gordon Levitt, NickNolty and on and on and on.
Cherry Jones great actress, so yeah, Judith Light who's really good in her
episode. Um, So this hasbeen a kind of a fun show and
I would recommend it. It's notyou know, I wouldn't say let your

(22:44):
little kids watch it or anything.Lots of adult themes, some drug use,
et cetera. Um, but it'spretty good. It's definitely one of
those shows that I can see womenbeing like, oh my god, did
you see the latest episode? Notto mention Benjamin Bratt, still just very
nice to look at. So yeah, I like this show. I'm going
to keep watching it. I don'tknow if other people will feel the same

(23:07):
way about it that I do,but I found myself like enjoying it and
wanting to see another episode, Likeit comes out on Thursdays, and I
like make a point to watch it, which to me, I'll see shows
and I'll be like, yeah,that was pretty good. But then I'll
just never go back to it again. And that's pretty much my you know,
That's how I know that, LikeI could care less, basically,

(23:30):
but if I make a point towatch it and I'm like that's actually good,
I can't. I kind of wantto see what happens this week,
then I'm in right. So Imean, that's not a mystery, that's
just how that works. So Ifind that I do that every week on
Thursday, so it's like, ohgoody, you know, another Poker Fas
episode tonight. So hopefully it keepsgoing in this direction, it keeps getting
better. You know. I've recentlyjust rewatched all of the Psyche episodes and

(23:52):
it kind of started a little slowerand got really really really good and really
fun and did never took itself tooseriously. I feel like this show is
doing the same thing. It's nottrying to take itself too seriously. Charlie
is sort of always just mystified byhow weird everybody is around her. So
yeah, I like it. SoI'll leave that there. Finally, I

(24:15):
want to talk very briefly about theseof My time is on my step.
This incredible. I'm sure it's goingto be so good. It's an incredible
idea, and I have a feelingit's going to be excellent. And I'm
a big fan of JK Rowling.I have thought for a long time,

(24:36):
you know, when all the I'mvery Catholic, and when all the initial
like, oh my gosh, she'swriting about witches. Was happening back and
you know, when Harry Potter wasfirst coming out in the nineties, I
thought that was ridiculous and I immediatelyread all the books and they're great,
right, They are as good aspeople think that as people say, like
they are very good. The lessonsare great. She's a good writer,

(24:59):
you know, she's woven this entireuniverse of people. She's a very very,
very good at what she does.So lately these past couple of years,
when the trans scandal started coming out, because she has the temerity to
say that no women or women andwomen deserve their own spaces just like men
deserve their own spaces, right,And this has turned people into you know,

(25:22):
complete and utter dragons about how she'sa monster and she's a right.
It's made me just fascinated more andmore that she's not only that she has
weathered these things, but that shedoesn't back down. And in today's age
of everybody being freaking terrified just tosay what they think, she has no

(25:48):
problem with it. And people comeat her like on Twitter, and she
just doesn't. I wouldn't say sheclaps back because I don't think she's actually
a jerk, but she doesn't backdown, and she speaks her piece,
and she's clever and funny. Andso she has a new podcast coming out
called The Witch Trials of JK.Rolling, and the initial piece that is

(26:14):
announcing it was written by a womannamed Megan Phelps Roper, who is an
apostate from the Westboro about this churchshe was raised in that she sort of
sorted out as an adult the toxicitythere and had to leave her entire family,
and that happened as a result ofher sort of talking to people on

(26:36):
Twitter. So now she's this evangelistfor discussion and dialogue and how that's the
only way kind of to move forwardand move through things. So she is
apparently interviewing Rolling in this podcast,and like I said, her name is
Megan Phelps Roper. The piece onthe Free Press that she wrote is called
the Witch Trials of JK. Rolling, and it's very good. The piece

(26:56):
itself just announcing the podcast is excellent. It So, um, I'm going
to be looking for this. I'mgoing to be listening to it when it
comes out. I think it comesout sometime next week, sometime early in
the early twenties of February, likeFebruary twenty fourth or something like that.

(27:17):
So um, yeah, this shouldbe really really interesting, not least because
you know, not only did Ilove the Harry Potter books and have been
amazed that that JK. Rowling juststands her ground. I'm a huge and
ridiculous fan of the CB Strike novels, and the new episodes are out um

(27:37):
on Hulu or HBO. The booksare amazing, so I haven't read them
all yet, but yet they're youknow, it's her writing, and she's
basically channeling you know, Agatha Christiein these books. So um, yeah,
I'm a big fan of rolling andI'm mostly a fan of hers,
even though I know politically we differvery much differ, um, but I'm

(28:00):
a fan of hers because she hasstrength and she is not a coward,
and I think that in today's worldthat is just so rare as to be
incredibly moving when you see it,and you can't help but be drawn to
it. So I'm looking forward tothis podcast. I'll keep you guys posted
on how it goes. At that, I'm going to say goodbye to you

(28:22):
guys, um, have a reallygreat weekend. I hope. It's a
three day weekend for you as well, Federal Holiday Monday. So um as
always take care of yourselves, takecare of each other, be cool,
be safe, be kind um bestrong, and we will talk again in
a couple of weeks. The psychiat'llstab you with this. He's This has

(29:00):
been a presentation of the FCB podcastNetwork, where real talk lifts. Visit
us online at FCB podcasts dot com.