Ep. 148 - The 'Political Light at the End of the Progressive Tunnel, Jesus Revolution, and Just Say No to Kamala' Edition

The 'Political Light at the End of the Progressive Tunnel, Jesus Revolution, and Just Say No to Kamala' Edition

Episode Transcript

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

(00:26):
to another episode of Marble Halls andSilver Screens. My name is Sarah Lee.
It's been a couple of weeks sincewe last talked, but I felt
like today was the day. It'skind of rainy outside right now in Atlanta,
so it's not like a good dayto do some recording and talking about
politics. I've got another radio hitthis afternoon, so this is my,
uh my warm up for that.So today, UM, we'll keep it

(00:51):
kind of short today. UM,I do want to talk a little bit
about what's going on with the Bidenadministration. There's some scary stuff out there
happening right now. And not notthat I engage in trying to scare people.
I think that there's plenty of thatgoing around. And UM, I
definitely prefer to be an optimist andtry to see, you know, some

(01:12):
way out, some some light ofhope for for the myths that we find
ourselves in. But I do thinkit's worth the only way to kind of
get to those slivers of hope isto understand where you are. I think
it's it's it's crucial to figuring outhow to get out. You got to
understand the labyrinth before you can beforeyou can defeat it. So i'll talk

(01:38):
a little bit about what's going onwith the Biden administration. Then I want
to offer a few thoughts on thefilm Jesus Revolution. I watched it.
I was very interested in it becauseI have an older sister who passed some
months ago, who I think shewas quite young when all that was going
on, but she definitely she knowsshe was definitely under keen when those things

(02:00):
were happening. The Jesus Revolution thatwas became the famous Time magazine article,
but it did affect her, andI think it affected her throughout the rest
of her life. So I wantedto kind of watch the film, not
just because it's been doing very wellin theaters, which kind of billize the
direction that Hollywood has been going,but also just in honor of her.

(02:22):
So i'll give you a few thoughtson that film in just a few minutes.
And then finally I want to talkabout Hollywood more broadly, I think,
and conservatism in Hollywood more broadly,and a story that essentially proves what
I have been suspecting and what otherssmarter than me have also suspected, which

(02:46):
is that you can go too farand get to the point where the pendulum
begins to swing back, and thatwas never your intent. And so I
want to talk a little bit aboutthat relating to the twenty twenty four election
and who Hollywood backers of the progressiveagenda think is capable and fit of carrying

(03:08):
on in twenty twenty four for them, and who might not be. So
we're going to hear from our sponsorsbriefly, and when we come back,
we'll jump into all those things.And I hope it's entertaining for you for
the next twenty minutes or so.Okay, sit tight, we'll be right
back. All right, and we'reback, hey, y'all. All right,

(03:30):
let's jump into what's actually happening withthe Biden administration. He was traveling.
The word is that he took Hunterwith him. There are some interesting
photographs out there. Biden himself wentto Ireland to try to sort of shore
up the relationship between Sunni Rishak,who is the I think I'm saying his

(03:52):
name correctly, Prime Minister of UKand the US because we have to do
that right now, because Macron inFrance has been which isn't really that unusual
for the French, but has beensaying, you know, he went to
Beijing and he's like, we don'thave to be followers of the US.

(04:14):
Europe doesn't need to just be sheepand do whatever the US tells us to
do. So Biden going over totalk to our best European ally, the
UK. It's not a stupid move, but it was definitely a necessary one
because let's set the scene for what'sactually been happening. A couple of things
that I think are very very tellingabout what's been happening, and they have

(04:38):
a little bit to do with thewar in Ukraine, but mostly to do
with China, which, as youguys know, I'm a focus on China
a lot because first of all,it's my tendency to loathe their current political
ideology communism, but also because theyare a growing superpower. They are that

(04:58):
is their goal to supplant overtake usbasically as a as a world power.
So they are our biggest geopolitical competition, if not outright foe right now.
So that's why I focus on Chinaso much. So, yeah, so
let's talk about this. One ofthe stories that just came out that really

(05:20):
kind of to me. It blewmy mind, actually, And I think
it says so much, and Ithink that's it's underreported, and I think
it's getting it's not getting much attentionbecause of the other story that just came
out, the other story that wasjust sort of dropped in the last couple

(05:42):
of days, which is the Pentagonclassified document leak, which has been getting
all of the attention. So we'llget to that one in a second.
The story that I want to startwith is there are reports that a US
Chinese bank it's got offices in bothLA and China, called Cafe Bank.

(06:05):
When the GOP began to investigate HunterBiden's business dealings with particularly the Chinese energy
firm CFEC, I think is whatit's called, or e CEFCUM if I've
transposed those, please forgive me thoseU that acronym. When Ron Johnson and

(06:31):
Chuck Grassley began their investigations into Hunter'srelationships and potential influence pedaling, they had
been seeking financial records from banks showingyou know, money movement and transactions,
bank transactions, things like that.Well, apparently no banks would give them
this information, except for recently theCafe Bank, which is actually I think

(06:59):
based in China, although it doeshave an office in LA has turned these
records over to the GOP to investigateto use as part of their investigation.
Ron Johnson basically, and this isnot a direct quote, but he's basically
said, you know, to hismind, this is China, basically letting
Joe Biden know, like, we'vegot the goods on you, buddy,

(07:19):
and we're willing to hand him over. This is extraordinary to me. And
apparently these documents do show what everybodysuspected that there are some financial transactions that
show that Hunter and apparently his unclewere involved with this energy company while Joe

(07:43):
I think was vice president. Soyeah, the fact that this bank,
which if you if you are aChinese company or industry in any way,
you are tied to the CCP,You're tied to the Communist party there in
China. So that means that Geand his underlings have direct power to give

(08:09):
the go ahead to do this ornot. Right, That's how communism works.
It's extremely authoritarian and very top down, which makes me think that this
bank. I can't prove this,but I would suspect that this bank turning
over these records that that had tobe given from. That go ahead had
to be given from, if notthe very top of the CCP, pretty

(08:33):
close to it, so I wouldsay probably the top, so just given
the nature of the investigation. Sowhat that also does is it sends a
message to Americans and to the worldthat China has the goods on Joe Biden.
It also tells us that they're willingto help us get out of a
mess that they are complicit in creating. So you can kind of decide for

(08:58):
your self what you think that says, but it's nothing good. Essentially,
China is signaling like we kind ofgot these guys. We got these guys
through this president that they have.And I'm not going to get into all
the ways I think that that thatrelationship is problematic between the Biden family and

(09:22):
China and what that does to ourbasically to the country, to us,
to our national security. Just there'stons of information out there if you want
to dig into all of these marriedways that this is a problem. But
from the messaging perspective, which isactually sort of my field of expertise,

(09:43):
it's not good. This is amessage from g that they're going to actually
help us fix our problem, aproblem that they actually helped create. Now
what does that tell you about theirpower over the United States, at least
in the short term. So that'snot great, And I think that story

(10:03):
is getting under it's getting lost inthe noise of this other story that has
broken recently about the Pentagon classified leakeddocuments, which involves some extremely sensitive documents
that were posted by a twenty somethingyear old kid on his discord channel,

(10:26):
and a lot of what the initialreporting before they knew who they suspected had
done it. And again, yougot to take all of this with a
grain of salt, because I mean, I hate to be cynical, but
our media has been so complicit inselling agenda and propaganda that you know,
their official who did it stories thatthe initial the one that everybody's talking about

(10:54):
right now came out in the WashingtonPost. Kind of always in the back
of my mind, I think aboutthe filmmaker that Hillary and company said was
the reason for the Benghazi uprising,which was not true. This poor filmmaker
guy goes to jail and he hadnothing to do with and you know,

(11:16):
they just kind of pinned it onhim. So I would be lying if
I didn't say that. That alwayssticks in my mind anytime I see the
official we found them story. Now, that's not to say that this isn't
true, that this isn't real reporting, and that they didn't actually find this
guy and talk to his Discord channelfriends. It looks like it's real.

(11:37):
It looks like it's a good piece, and you know, these people are
real people and they're telling a realstory about who this guy is. But
that's also illustrating the point of there'sa lot of discussion about how this happened
and what Discord is this chat channelbasically used by gamers. Mainly that's heavy

(12:00):
in the reporting. What's not beenheavy in the reporting until just recently.
I think Politico did a pretty goodpiece on what was actually in those documents
that wasn't really being reported much,and I know that to date, I
don't think Biden has even said anythingabout this. But here's what was in
those documents according to Politico, whichPolitico, again, you know there's bias

(12:24):
there, but they do tend tohave good sources, and they do tend
to have information that other people don'thave. But this is what they reported,
and I think This was a dayago, maybe the twelfth of April.
This is what they outlined were inthese files. It's a grab bag

(12:50):
of national security secrets, including aboutthe conduct of the war in Ukraine,
US success in penetrating the Russian warmachine, insights on the clandestine maneuverings of
Israel in South Korea, hints abouta previously unknown satellite surveillance technology, the
attempted shoot down of a British thyplane by the Russians, appending arms deal
between Egypt and Russia, and onebetween Turkish contacts and the Wagner Group.

(13:13):
A Russian effort to hack I thinkthat's Wagner and Wagner, a Russian effort
to hack Canadian gas fields and intelligentsources and methods, all of which flowed
onto online sites, drenching the Pentagonand embarrassment and endangering secret missions around the
world. Who I mean, that'sa big breach. So yeah, we

(13:39):
have a problem in our the highestthe highest levels of our government right now.
And if it is true that sometwenty year old kid was able to
just abscond with these documents and postthem on his discord channel, and there's
some evidence if the Washington post story. It can be believed that he spent

(14:00):
a lot of time like transcribing thesedocuments for his channel. You've got to
believe that there's more to that thanjust I'm just trying to, you know,
puff up for my friends and likeshow them I have an important job.
There's something else going on there.So that's where we're at. Okay,

(14:20):
guys, and that's none of thisis very good. But I will
say that the silver lining that Imentioned at the top, and I've been
watching this play out, you're seeingit in real time right now, with
like the Dylan mulvaney bud Light fiasco. The progressives had to have a tendency

(14:43):
to be very greedy, and theygo way too far. They always do,
and they do a lot of damagewhen they do this, but ultimately
that pendulum shifts back. Most peopleare somewhere under the middle of that.
Even as much as people say we'reso polarized now, if you just get
sit down with people and have ameal or have a beer, you'll find

(15:07):
that most people fall really pretty prettysecurely under that middle ground of the Bell
curve. The extremists are smaller groupon either side, so the progressives have
embraced this extremism, and you seeit too with the sort of trans movement
that's led to a bunch of violence. And that's not to suggest that all

(15:28):
trans people are violent. That's obviouslynot the case. And I don't think
that all trans people are supportive ofthis violence that we're seeing, but it's
it's and not just trans but leftistviolence. The kid in Kentucky was just
a you know, run of themill progressive leftists, which we've seen before.

(15:48):
You know, remember the guy whoshot up the congressional practice baseball practice.
So you know, they're going waytoo far. They're pushing way too
far. They're moving outside, they'removing outside of that Bell curve. And
as a result, I think thatyou know, now with China basically saying

(16:11):
yeah, yeah, here's the financialrecords proving that Hunter Biden was in bed
with us with this leak of thePentagon papers, I mean, all of
the other things. And then Iwatched Tucker Carlson interview Trump, who I
have, just like every other conservative, I have very mixed feelings on Trump,
very mixed. You know. SometimesI think he's very good at certain

(16:32):
things. Other times I'm like,oh my god, we can't handle him
again. But I watched his interviewon Tucker Carlson, and I have to
say that watching all of this otherstuff go out of control on the left
hand side of the political spectrum,it looks to me like if Trump were
to run again, he would win, like as much as they're trying to

(16:55):
get him in. You know,on this NDA thing, Latitia James has
dragged him back into court for fraudor whatever she's saying, and I'm not
sure there's much basis to this.You know, this is just a gotcha,
gotcha, gotcha every time the manturns around. They really really are
trying to knock him out of anycontention, and I'm not sure that they're

(17:15):
going to be successful with that.So they've gone too far. And as
a result, I have a friendon Twitter, Jesse Kelly may know who
he is, who says all thetime that this radical position that they've taken
on the left is going to leadto things that they do not like very

(17:36):
much. And you know, wegive you Trump again. M de Santis
for all of those people who arehoping for De Santis, and I like
de Santis as well. Remember hehas not declared yet. We don't even
know if the man's gonna run.So this is where we're at, and
I don't know. I think thatthe silver lining is that at the very

(18:03):
least, even if it ends loudlywith another contentious Trump term, some of
this madness is going to come toan end, particularly on the national security
stage, international stage, with thisunbelievable situation with influence peddling, allegations of

(18:26):
influence peddling. I mean, tomy mind, this is the worst corruption
we've ever seen in our government.And it's something that it's so horrifying it's
hard to even wrap your head aroundit. Most people don't even want to
talk about it or know about itbecause it's that bad. So that's why
you'll hear people going on, Idon't even know about that. They're like

(18:47):
actively ignoring it because it's just theimplications of it are so so scary.
So anyway, that's where we're headed. It could be another Trump term,
it could be something else. Idon't know, but I think that the
progressives have pushed it to the pointwhere they're they've they've unloaded their you know

(19:10):
tank, their their tank is empty. Um that's a prediction that could I
could be really wrong. They've surprisedme before, but that's how it looks.
So if you're a conservative, thereis reason to be optimistic that some
of this madness might be coming toan ensue. Okay, let's move on
to Um, to the Jesus Revolution. So I wanted to watch this film

(19:33):
because I've mentioned at the top ofthe show there's a personal reason for it,
and also I was just struck bythe fact that it was doing so
well in theaters. Um. Soit's the story of Calvary Chapel as a
Catholic um, which you know,Catholics have the proselytizing thing way back in
our history, but we're not muchWe're not as big of proselytizers now as

(19:59):
the hotestants are. And so theproselytizing part of it and the baptizing in
the water and all of that wasit was a little strange for my Catholic
sensibilities. But I do understand.You know, there's a lot of Southern
Baptism in my family, Southern Baptistin my family, so it's not completely
foreign to me. So I gotit. But Cavalry Chapel was the Jesus

(20:22):
Revolution for the hippies, These hippiesin the late sixties, early seventies,
you know, we're kind of justget it, growing disillusioned with you know,
seeking truth through acid trips basically,and so they started to turn toward
God, and that actually happened.The Time magazine article was profound. It

(20:45):
was a big deal. I mean, thousands and thousands of people were converted
and baptized, and Cavalry Chapel stillgoes on today. The pastor that started
it, who I think has passedaway now and who's dramatized in the film
is Chuck Smith. Greg Laurie,who is still alive, is part of
that movement still and it's still goingstrong. And it's also about this kid,

(21:11):
Lonnie Frisbee, who was sort ofthe first hippie that showed up that
helped Chuck Smith kind of get thisidea. There's some scandalous you know,
there's a scandalous part of the Frisbeestory that I'll let you look up.
Suffice to say they had a fallingout. He ended up dying of AIDS.
And there's a lot of discussion aboutthe fact that he was homosexual.

(21:33):
He was abused as a child andhe was a homosexual man, and Chuck
Smith as a pastor's not very friendlywith homosexuality. That's the word. I
can't say that with a degree ofcertainty. I just have read that.
So there is some bit of ascandal here. But the movie does a
pretty good job of dramatizing what happenedin Calis southern California when this began.

(22:00):
And I want to just say this, it's very hokey. It's very like
the writing is really kind of thudssometimes trying to hitch you over the head
with the sacker and sweetness of it. I think the actors, including Kelsey
Grammer and Jonathan Roomy, who's great. He's in the Chosen Place, Jesus
in the Chosen He's great, theyreally kind of saved the writing. They

(22:25):
saved the movie from some of thewriting. It's very you know, popping
you over the head with this stuff. But as I sat there and thought
about that and I watched it,I mean I did enjoy it. I
will say that I enjoyed the film, and as I but you know,
very aware that this was like notyou know, gonna win any script writing
awards. But as I watched it, I was thinking to myself, this

(22:45):
is kind of perfect. It's whatwe need. You know, we've become
so cynical and we've moved so foreverything. So I was talking to this
guy about why it's difficult. Heactually works on trying to help college students
understand the sort of malign influence ofthe CCP on college campuses, and I

(23:10):
was asking him why he was interviewinghim, and I was asking him why
he thought that it was so difficultto convince young people that TikTok is not
a great app and it's basically loggingtheir keystrokes and it's not good and they
shouldn't use it. And he saidit's because they're so cynical about technology.
They just figure all the apps aredoing that, so what's the big deal?

(23:32):
And I kind of thought about thatas I watched this film. We're
so cynical about everything that it's kindof necessary to kind of get back to
this hokey, feel good stuff thatkind of hits you right in the heart,
intends to hit you in the heart, knock you over the head with
it, actually, and kind ofas successful at doing that. So the

(23:53):
Jesus Revolution is that Kelsey Grammer's verygood in it. He's a fine actor.
Actually, I think the guy thatplays Greg Laurie is pretty good.
Again. I love Jonathan Roomy.So it's an interesting film. It's an
interesting story. And whether or notyou're a believer in Jesus, whether or

(24:18):
not you're a Christian, which isthe same thing, whether or not you're
religious at all, whether or notyou're conservative, progressive, whatever you might
be. This film was interesting becauseit blends at moment in time where all
of those things kind of fell awayand people just were seeking truth in something,

(24:40):
truth in life, the mystery oflife, which is one of my
favorite topics of discussion, and Ithink we have to do that again or
we're gonna lose these kids who areenraged. I mean, I have so
many ideas about what's enraging them.I think it's a number of things.
But they are pissed. The kidsare AnGR greet as hell, y'all.

(25:02):
And if we don't start trying toreach them where they are, we're gonna
lose them. Right. Instead ofjust like making fun of them or rolling
our eyes at them, which Iam so guilty of doing this, I
think we got to start trying toreach them, and this movie kind of
made me feel like that was thekey, just in dramatizings when that happened

(25:25):
in the past in this country,not very long ago. So even if
you don't reach them with religion,you got to reach them with something that's
not rage. So that's that's frommy thoughts on Jesus Revolution. I mean,
I would say watch it if youare a Christian, you should watch
it. If you're not, andyou're just a buff of history, also

(25:47):
worth your time if you just likeKelsey Grahmmer, really worth your time.
Not a bad film, and I'mhappy to see some of this coming out
of Hollywood right now. I mean, having the cynical dark stuff is great.
Like I like all forms of art, including the hokey, schlocky stuff

(26:07):
that hits just straight in the fields. I think it's all. It all
has its place, and maybe rightnow we need a little more of the
saccharin suitet. Okay, finally,and let's wrap it up here, because
actually I don't have my computer pluggedin and I think it might die if
I don't wrap it up. Thereis this really interesting story about the There

(26:30):
is a group in California, agroup of actors who let me see if
I can find it. I hadit pulled up here. Oh no,
a group of actors in California,and I think they're they're related to one
of maybe the unions out there.They have essentially come out and said that

(26:55):
they do not think that Kamala Harris. They're basically warning Biden that Kamala is
not fit essentially um to be histo be his second on the twenty twenty
four ticket. They want her tobe replaced essentially UM. And these are

(27:18):
not only actors but political donors.So h. There was apparently a zoom
call with former California Senator Barbara Boxerwhere Helen hunt Ron Livingston and Gabrielle carteris.
And you may remember Gabrielle carteris fromnine O two one oh and think
who cares. But she's actually beenpretty heavily involved in the UM. I
think the SAG union, uh sagAFTRA. I want to say she's been

(27:42):
involved in that. I don't knowif that's the right union. I can't
remember which one or actress equity oneof them, so UM, but she's
been pretty pretty high up, Iwant to say, um. Actually,
let me let me make sure I'mright about that. I'd hate to give
you wrong information. She may actuallybe I may be misthinking that, and

(28:07):
and she might be she's have somethingto do with you know, like the
oscars. No no, no,I was right. So she was the
executive vice president of sag Aftra forfor several years. I don't think she
still is. She might be.Ron Livingston is of course from the Great
Office Space and has done other things. And we all know who Helen Hunt
is. So basically, you know, these are donors who have said she's

(28:32):
not good. We don't like Kamala. They suggested that that the voters would,
you know, focus more on thepresident due to Biden's advanced age if
Kamala was his second, if shewas his VP candidate, and they don't

(28:53):
like her as the next in linefor the presidency if Biden is unable to
service full term. So yeah,And of course there's some in the Democratic
Party that have been pretty vocal aboutnot liking Kamala either, which I think
is interesting essentially because first of all, kamalas from California, so for Californians

(29:17):
to be like it's pretty interesting.And also because that is another sort of
it's proof that you can go toofar on these things. Kamala was tapped
because of her because she's a blackwoman, basically black and Indian woman,
and an immigrant or her parents were, and she really didn't have any other

(29:40):
thing to recommend her in terms oflike her skills. You know, she
she did some things in California thata lot of people thought were pretty not
very successful. So she was sortof tapped to do this for reasons that
were not really you know, owingto her skills as a politician. Uh.

(30:03):
And so they've gone too far nowto the point where people are noticing
that and they're like, uh,maybe that's not enough of a criteria to
get the job done. So it'sjust interesting. I thought I would leave
you with that thought. Um,it's going to be really interesting to see
how this all pans out. I'llsay this, Trump's uh interview with Tucker

(30:26):
Carlson was fascinating from the perspective thatTrump didn't say he didn't think Biden was
going to run. He just questionedwhether or not he was going to be
able to. So I'm going toleave that with you guys to consider.
As usual, take care of yourselves, Take care of each other. Be
kind, be strong, um,be brave um, and have a little

(30:48):
hope and we'll talk again in afew weeks. The psychiatical what is?
Brace us up on the bulletin boardwith the reboard. He'll stab you with
the sword. Don't be fooled byhis arm. He's probably This has been
a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us

(31:14):
online at FCB podcasts dot com.