Ep. 149 - The 'DeSantis Show of Strength, Renfield, and Hollywood: Perfect Capitalism" Edition

The 'DeSantis Show of Strength, Renfield, and Hollywood: Perfect Capitalism" Edition

Episode Transcript

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

(00:26):
episode of Marble Halls and Silver Screens. My name is Sarah Lee. So
happy to be back with you todayon this beautiful Friday in the South.
Um. Hopefully, uh, we'vegot some baseball coming on later, although
I understand that the weather in NewYork is maybe not going to be conducive
to Braves v. Mets tonight,but we'll see. Um. But before

(00:49):
all of that happens later this evening, and I'm sure you all have awesome
weekend plans coming up. Um,let's talk a little bit about politics,
because that's what we do on thisshow. I've got a couple of things
I want to cover. I'm notgoing to go too deep into any of
this stuff, because you know,this is a twenty thirty minute show,

(01:10):
and I'm going to work really hardto keep it sort of short. I
want to get back outside and takemy laptop out and finish work sitting on
the back porch in the sun.But but I do want to talk about
a few things that I think areinteresting and maybe even important. I'll also
give you some thoughts on a filmI recently saw called Renfield, and then

(01:37):
I'm going to talk a little bitabout an interesting article that I read about
Hollywood and how Hollywood embraces progressive policyideas but is actually one of the better
examples of capitalism we have in theworld today. So we're gonna hear a
couple of commercials from our sponsors,and we will jump into all of those

(02:00):
things. Obviously I didn't mention thepolitical stuff, but we'll jump into that
when we get We get back,and you'll you'll hear my thoughts on some
of the news of the day.All right, y'all sit tight, We'll
be right back, all right,and we're back. Okay. So I
listened to myself the other day ona work related podcast, and I really

(02:25):
really have some work to do onhow I sound on podcasts. I have
kind of a weird lisp. Itactually comes from an underbyte that I had
when I was a child, andI had to learn how to correct that
lisp that I had. So nowI overemphasize my ess in a in an

(02:45):
attempt to sort of correct the lisp. The underbyte was corrected through um,
you know, some some exercises thatmy orthodontist had me to I never had
to get braces, but because itit was just a very slight one and
my jaw was still I was veryyoung, my jaw was still growing.
So all of that to say,I hate the way I saund on these

(03:08):
podcasts. It really bothers me.Then you've got the hardcore southern accent.
Sometimes I can sound very like Idon't know. I was talking about Randy
Weingart the other day on our workpodcast, and I got kind of like,
I mean, you know, almostlike I was making fun of her,
and I felt bad about that.I was like, ah, I
should be a little more professional.So if you hear me trying to tone

(03:31):
that down a little bit on thispodcast, That's why I really don't listen
to myself. I'm not one ofthose people that religiously goes back and listens
to their podcast. I don't readmy own I don't read comments on the
pieces I write. I think ifI were a you know, I dance,
there's video of me dancing. Idon't really enjoy watching videos of myself

(03:54):
dancing, even though I'm okay atit. I think if I were an
actress, I'd be one of thosepeople who's like, I don't watch my
own movies. So it's just somethingthat's a weird thing for me. But
if you hear me, like sounda little different or tone it down a
little bit. That's why I'm tryingto be more professional. I want to

(04:15):
be like that New Zealand woman whotalks like this and everyone loves her accent
and she's so calming and wonderful.I'm gonna try to get to there.
All right. Anyway, let's talkpolitics, shall we, Rhonda Santis,

(04:36):
So we'll start with Nicki Haley.The other day, Nicki Haley came out.
She was on a program and shesaid something to the effective and let
me just start this off with acaveat. I like Nicki Haley. I
have no problem with Nicki Haley.I think she did a good job at
the un I think she could stillbe quite good in a role in a

(04:56):
cabinet position. I'm not sure thatI feel like she's presidential material, and
it's primarily because of things like this. So she was on a news program
and she kind of in criticizing deSantis because she is already running. He
is expected to announce that he's officiallyrunning here in the next I don't know,

(05:18):
I keep hearing in a couple ofdays like sometime next week, it's
natural for her to set up oppositionfrom him, and you know, get
a little pugilistic in her rhetoric.That's politics, that's the way it goes
that, that's campaigning. But shesaid something that was really foolish. And

(05:39):
it's not because it was obviously ajob at him, that's to be expected.
It's because it is what Republicans andthe Conservatives get wrong about the left
every single time. And almost everyconservative voter knows it. If they didn't
before, over the last several years, they've learned it, and that is

(06:00):
that you cannot make the left likeyou, just it's not gonna work.
You can make them respect you,but you can't make them like you.
That's the truth in life. Likethey're just certain people that are not going
to like you. They're not goingto agree with you, they're not going
to like what you do. Thatdoesn't mean that you have to dismiss them
out of pocket. If you haveto work with them, they have to

(06:23):
respect you enough to work with you. Right, So Nikki Hayley tells Disney,
Hey, you know what if youwant to come up to South Carolina
to my state. You know,will will we have beautiful sunshine, and
you know we won't we won't subjectyou to these these horrible things that the
Santis is doing, taking away someof your attacks, pat your attacks right

(06:46):
off down there in the state ofFlorida. And everyone knows, you know,
Disney has you know, I hatethe expression, but they've gone woke.
They have. I think they canprobably rain it in, but they're
going to have to make some seriouschanges. Um. I think everyone is
going to start raining it in.This has been a couple of years of
absolute like you know, the throwthe crypt doors wide, you know,

(07:12):
the the zoo has has flowed outinto the yard overflowed out into the yard.
Um. And it's because of thepower that the Progressive Democrats have found
themselves and the positions of power,and so all the absolute craziness has been
thrown at the wall. Um.And that's what we've been witnessing. But

(07:33):
I have a suspicion that that's allgoing to be rained back in. A
It hasn't been very successful. They'renot very good at leadership nor policymaking,
um. And that's showing in thebreakdown of our civil society, the breakdown
of you know, cities in blueblue cities in both blue and red states.

(07:57):
Um, the progressive Democrats. Thecurrent Democrat leadership is not very good
at the job. They're just notSo all of this might might kind of
roll back just by virtue of thefact that it's not successful and a lot
of the like Disney, wants tomake money. So all of that said,

(08:18):
Nicki Hayley makes this comment and itcompelled me to put on Twitter.
You know, this is what bothersme about this is that you cannot make
the left like you. You cannotpander to them, just like you can't
really apologize to them for not doinganything wrong, like when they come after
you like you're not woke or youmiss gender and all that stuff. You
can't start apologizing for things that arepart of their strange fantasy world that they're

(08:43):
trying to create, this weird utopiathat they want us to live in that
doesn't exist with made up words andyou know, eight hundred genders and all
of the other things. So whatshe did was she pandered, and she's
like, you know and like usin South Carolina, And it got me
to thinking that it doesn't matter ifDisney doesn't like De Santis. What matters

(09:09):
is if they respect him, andI think they do because they know that
he's tough and he's playing the gamesthat he's playing as tough as they are.
Right, That leads to a mutualrespect. Nikki Haley, on the
other hand, has just projected tothem that she will roll over for them,
please like me. Right. Thatis not a good That's not the

(09:35):
sign of a strong leader. Andit was confirmed for me a little bit
that that is how DeSantis is.I haven't had the benefit of being in
Florida. I'm in Georgia. I'vebeen in DC for fifteen years. I'm
back in Georgia, so I don'treally I know the stories of De Santis's

(09:56):
leadership in Florida and that he's quitegood. The Floridians like him, but
I haven't had the benefit of knowingthat firsthand. However, he just from
the stories and from the national thethings that have made national news, it
sounds like that's the case. Buthe just went to Israel and gave a

(10:18):
speech that was very very good aboutthe importance of the Israeli American Alliance,
the history of Israel and the incrediblerole that it plays as basically a democratic
state in a really tough region ofthe world. It was a good speech.

(10:41):
It had a line in it thatI was just like, whoa,
that is such a great line.Let me see if I can find it,
because I actually really enjoyed it.He says. De Santa said this.
He was invited their Jerusalem Posts actuallyorganized the event. He was invited

(11:03):
by some leadership there in Israel.He had a lot of very important people
to thank, including the leader ofIsrael. But he said this, He
said, against all odds, thepeople of Israel have taken a barren desert
and transformed it into an oasis offreedom and innovation. And this was the
line that made me go, wow, that's actually poetry. He said,

(11:26):
a vibrant society in the heart ofone of the world's toughest neighborhoods. And
I thought about that, and I'mlike, that is not only is that
remarkable, that that's true. Imean think about that, like, think
about a thriving you know, homelessshelter or some kind of daycare center that's

(11:50):
doing quite well in the halt inthe heart of the worst neighborhood in Baltimore,
Like, that's a tough thing topull off, and that's what he's
saying that Israel has done. Butalso what struck me about it is that
DeSantis, you know, struck thattone. He's talking about how hard it

(12:11):
is to make things live and growand survive in a very tough neighborhood,
and quite frankly, the world rightnow is a tough neighborhood. So I
thought that that was a very strongstatement, and it speaks to something if
he is about to officially declare heis talking about the right stuff at the

(12:33):
same events, and this kind ofhearkens back to the Nicki Haley thing.
He took a question from a reporterand he answered it in a way that
was so refreshing to see. Ofcourse, the left ron Philip Kowski,
who I found out when I retweetedit that I had him muted for very
good reasons. You know, theyalready have jumped on it. I think

(12:56):
Philip Kowskis had not wrote it forPrime time. It's actually the opposite of
that. It was an incredibly awesomestatement. Essentially, the reporter's like,
how do you respond to reports thatyou were engaged in torture? At Guantanamo,
and DeSantis is like, who onearth told you that? And the

(13:18):
reporter says, uh, detainees,and DeSantis is just like, you know,
how would they even know I wasthere? I was a junior officer.
You basically need to stick to thefacts of you know, you're reporting,
rather than caring about the narrative.You are only saying this and asking
that question to satisfy a narrative,because you know people like you will eat

(13:41):
it up. And he actually gotapplause from that. Of course, the
left immediately was like, oh no, he you know, he got really
mad, like they're they're framing itlike he he popped off at him or
he lost his temper. It wasactually awesome. And it's that kind of
thing, that sort of projection.If you know what, just don't don't

(14:01):
go there with me. I don'thave time for your nonsense. I'm done
with this nonsense. I have moreimportant reasons to be here. If you're
gonna be this ridiculous, you know, move along, let me ask let
me, let me get somebody elseto ask another question that actually has some
meaning and some import related to whyI am here? Right, He answered
it really, really well and thatis the same thing he's doing with Disney.

(14:24):
And it's what I think Nicki Haleymissed when she's like, Disney,
we love you in South Carolina.Okay, I'm not saying, and I
want to clarify, I'm not sayingNicki Haley is wrong to want Disney to
come to South Carolina. But ifsomeone pointed out to me on Twitter,
everyone knows that they can't just pickup and move. She knows that too.

(14:46):
So it was a sort of emptyrequest. It was an empty ask.
It just wasn't good. It wasnot a good look, and it
definitely didn't speak to this sort ofstrength that we're seeing out of De Santis.
Now where Trump comes into all ofthis, I don't know right now.
I mean I didn't see this formyself, but someone the rumor yesterday

(15:11):
was that he had quoted Lenin.I don't know if that actually happened,
but someone told me that he did. They didn't know in what context it
was. But Lord have mercy ifhe's doing that, and I don't know
if he is, like please,I would love to be told no,
no, no, he didn't dothat. Please do tell me that because
I did not confirm and look thisup for myself. But you know,

(15:33):
I don't, I don't know what'sgoing on with Trump. He is acting
like he's already got the candidacy inthe bag. I'm not sure that that's
the case. So we'll just haveto see how this all plays out.
Then, on the Democrat side,it sounds like they are at least floating

(15:54):
the idea that they're going to runBiden again. And my gracious me,
I don't even I don't I don'teven have the words to express why,
Like how these that side of thepolitical aisle thinks that that isn't any way
a good idea. I don't eventhink they're going to have a primary.
They're just gonna just gonna run thisguy again, um, probably from the

(16:18):
basement again. So it's this isan absurd time to be alive. I
think history is going to look backon this time in our country's history and
uh, actually, if we surviveit, actually wonder how we survived,
like how we actually made it throughthe very nearly communist progressive Democrats, um,

(16:44):
that sort of philosophy infecting the DemocratParty in this country and rising to
the highest levels of power. Andyou can you can think I'm sounding conspiratorial
or tinfoil hat or all of that, but you can challenge me on,
you know, the communist stuff,and I will happily provide you with plenty

(17:06):
of information showing that if they arenot outright communists themselves, they are certainly
embracing some of the philosophy behind it. So anyway, let's move on from
that. I want to talk toyou guys about a pretty fun little movie
I saw recently recently with my boyfriendDavid, who's gonna be thrilled that I

(17:30):
just mentioned him. It's called Renfield. And if you're familiar with the bram
Stoker Dracula book bram Stoker's Dracula thebook, Renfield is Dracula's sort of mad
lunatic assistant basically, and so inthis movie, Nicholas Holt, whom I'm

(17:56):
just starting to ask, absolutely adore. I mean most recently. I saw
him most recently in the menu,but you know we saw him grow up
before the camera, right. Hewas in About a Boy, which is
just a great movie. I mean, I think I saw it a million
years ago when he was a kid. I love Warm Bodies. He's just
great. He's just an interesting actor. He went from this awkward, weird

(18:19):
kid into this extremely handsome, reallykind of He's got a really great sarcastic
sort of vibe about him, whichis why he's good in these kind of
satire movies. He plays Renfield toNicholas Cage's just scenery chewing Dracula and it's

(18:41):
a pretty fun little movie. Iactually been thinking about it a lot,
like when we watched it. It'skind of a you know, it's kind
of a cheesy blood spatter movie.I've been watching a lot of those lately.
I don't know why they're not myfavorite movies, but this one was
pretty fun. So, you know, think Sean of the Dead or something

(19:03):
like that. And Nicholas Holt asRinfield, basically decides he can't he's in
this toxic relationship with this narcissist,which is true and in Dracula, so
he joins a self help group andBrandon Scott, by the way, if
you watch the show Ghosts, theAmerican version, he plays, he's the

(19:26):
ghost of the revolutionary soldier in thatshow, and he's really really, really
really funny. He's also the um. He's also the head of this self
help group about being in you know, toxic relationships. He's great in it.
So anyway, this movie's really kindof fun. I mean, I
cut the feeling that Nicholas Cage wasjust like it could have been any movie.

(19:49):
It didn't matter who else was goingto be in it. It didn't
matter if the writing was terrible.He did not care. They were like,
do you want to play Dracula?He's like, yes, I do,
because he just chewed this one upthat that you know, pun intended.
Um, he's really funny in it. Uh, it's just and also

(20:10):
quite scary as Dracula as this horriblenarcissist. Um. Nicholas Holt's great as
Renfield. You know this this guyhe's trying to find himself and get out
of this relationship, and he kindof becomes this like, you know,
god, I don't know, Portlandsort of looking guy with the funny you

(20:32):
know it's sort of a hipster haircut, um cosby sweater wearing. I don't
know, I can't still say thatas everything gonna be okay, that's he's
not gonna hurt your delicate sensibilities.Um, he's just he's good in it,
right, He's he's just trying tofind his inner child again. Um
Aquafina, who you may know fromyou know, some other films. Um,

(20:56):
he's pretty good. She's pretty goodin it. Um. She plays
a cop kind of maybe a littlebit of a love interest for Renfield.
Ben Schwartz you may have seen anotherthing. He plays a mobster guy.
So it's a pretty fun movie.I don't think it's getting awesome reviews,
but I we had fun. Wesaw it in the theater. We enjoyed

(21:18):
it. We were just kind oflike, you know, that was silly
and fun. So if you're intoyou know, kind of cheesy, schlocky
gore, or if you just justreally are interested in Nicholas Cage and all
his many, you know, goofyroles, which may be the better reason
to see this. Yeah, i'dsee Renfield. I enjoyed it. I

(21:41):
actually kind of want to see itagain just because the writing was actually pretty
clever too. I sort of enjoyedit, So I did enjoy it actually,
So yeah, Renfield, give ita shot if that's your thing.
Okay, finally, let's get thiswrapped up. Um, there's a really

(22:02):
interesting article in I think it's foundationfor um no no, let's see,
let me see if I can findit. I'm sorry to okay. It
is. It's Foundation for Economic Education, which is a DC sort of you
know, uh think tank. It'skind of centrist, I would say,

(22:26):
probably mostly libertarian more than anything else. Um. And you know, it
can kind of it's pretty middle ofthe road, right because they're they're trying
to look at things from a froman economic standpoint, although I think it
does have a reputation for being alittle bit more to the right, but
not much so. Um. Andyou know, they do, they do

(22:48):
good work. So this young woman, Carrie Wedler, has written a really
interesting piece. Um. And thiswas actually from back in twenty nineteen,
and I thought it was an interestingarticle to kind of bring up again today
as we watch sort of Disney andyou know, and remember this is pre

(23:10):
pandemic. As we watch Disney doingwhat it's doing, as we watch theaters
start to come back, you know, people more and more people are going
to the movies, which is great. It's really good to see that Hollywood
trying to exercise and get get freeof like some of the influence of China
and the and the need to havethat box office straw how they're going to

(23:34):
start trying to make movies I thinkthat appeal to more of a diverse swath
and drop some of this sort ofyou know, literal activism that they've been
involved in, and start just makingfilms that people care about again. You
know, that's human stories that aren'tshoving politics down your throat all the time.

(23:55):
So there's a really interesting article andI think that everyone should read it.
And the headline is Hollywood's economics areimpressively capitalistic despite its politics. So
this young woman, Carry Weddler,apparently, according to her piece, was
born and raised in la and sheactually worked in the industry after she got
out of high school, which I'msure a lot of young people who grew

(24:17):
up in LA go into that industry. And she talks about the relationship between
Hollywood and politics. Hollywood and youknow, lobbying, their partnerships with the
Pentagon and the FBI and the CIA, the people who you know, board
members who chair the boards who actuallycome out of politics and get production deals,

(24:42):
and the Obamas are famous for thatwith Netflix. So yeah, so
she's an interesting article. But shetalks about how despite their embrace of sort
of this progressive political ideology. They'rea really good example of how capitalism works,
and one of one piece of it. When she's talking about profitability,

(25:04):
I thought it was really interesting,she says, Back when I was interning
as a script reader, one ofmy tasks was to evaluate the profitability of
scripts the department was considering purchasing.And she basically goes from there and says,
in considering a dance script, forexample, the producers needed to know
how much other dance films earned atthe box office, using a popular industry

(25:26):
site called boxofficemojo dot com, whichif you don't know about that, you
should because it tells you. Itgives you a lot of data about Hollywood.
I'd look up the data for thedepartment's decision makers to review. If
there wasn't money to be made basedon market preferences, rest assured the studio
would not pay for the script andinvest resources to turn it into a film.

(25:47):
This is all like market research.This is capitalism, Like what's going
to get us the profit? Nowwe have to start talking about how some
and she goes along from there,talks about it's a good article and I'm
going to link it in my column, but how they cut costs, how
they create jobs, competition, andevolution, Like she's talking about Hollywood as

(26:11):
an industry as a really good exampleof capitalism, which is fascinating. And
remember this is pre COVID, sothey're having to, I think, embrace
some of these ideas again to getback to where they were. But one
thing that I thought was particularly interestingabout this is that there's going to have

(26:37):
to be some discussion, and Iimagine that it will come and they're going
to have to be delicate about it, much like they were when they were
talking about the FBI's role in theRussia collusion hoax, because you know,
you don't want to undermine everyone knowsthat that wasn't good, But you also

(26:59):
don't want to tell the American peoplethat they can't trust their institutions, like
you want to let them know thatthere's a problem without absolutely saying you know
what it's all for, not it'sall corrupt, don't believe in any of
it anymore. I can understand whythey were cautious about that, right,
that makes good sense to be cautiousabout it. I know Bill Barr gets

(27:23):
a lot of grief for that,but I actually understood what he was trying
to do there, So protecting theinstitutions while trying to ferret out the corruption.
That's a delicate game, that's abalancing act. We're going to have
to have that conversation again soon whenwe're talking about capitalism as it relates to

(27:44):
how communist countries like China have usedthe desire for profitability against us. Okay,
because we're going to have to starttalking about some unpleasant aspects of capitalism
and how they actually made us vulnerableto what has happened with China stealing our

(28:06):
technology, China giving us a tonof money in certain institutions like academia,
and using that sort of profitability metricthat goes along with capitalism to insert themselves
into all of these things. NowI have no problem with China. I
always have to clarify this because Italk about the Chinese Communist Party a lot.

(28:34):
This is a political ideology. Ifeel worse for the Chinese people than
anyone else. I feel worse forthe Chinese people than I do for us
here because they have to live underthis brutal, horrible Marxist regime. So
I just again have to clarify thatbecause it's too easy for people to think

(28:59):
that if you talk about China's maligninfluence that you're being some kind of xenophobe.
That's not the case. This isI'm talking about the political ideology that
Chinese leadership has decided to embrace,right and did so half a century ago.
So we're going to have to starttalking about how, you know,
capitalism gave communism the open door touse its own negatives. And nothing's perfect

(29:26):
right, everything's got its positives andits negatives. Capitalism is mostly positive.
It's it's not even a political ideology. It's an economic system. I've always
said that the comparison between people thatset capitalism against socialism are comparing apples to
oranges. They're not comparable. Marxwanted to create an economic system as part

(29:52):
of his social revolution, but capitalismis just an economic system. Has nothing
to do with how government is orderedand things like that, how people vote,
etc. It might influence some ofthat, but it's not designed to
have any effect on it except thatit's what makes the economy run. Socialism

(30:15):
is all it's a comprehensive you know, the society first, and then we'll
figure out how to you know,the society will be ordered a certain way
and then we'll figure out how theeconomy works from there. So they're they're
actually apples and oranges. So anyway, I just found this this interesting because

(30:38):
Hollywood was one of the institutions thatwas really really one of the first to
be really sort of taken over bycommunist China. NBA basketball as well,
and I think some of the qualitiesthat link those two institutions that made them

(31:02):
vulnerable to that was this almost youknow, the almighty dollar is the most
important thing, almost this like,you know, uh, worshiping the golden
calf of the almighty dollar. Right, And I'm a capitalists saying this,
Uh, you know, I thinkthe pursuit of success and money is not

(31:29):
a not a bad thing. Idon't think it's a moral morally a bad
thing, but I think you canworship it as opposed to understanding that it's
useful for something. So those two, those two industries seem to have become
very uniquely vulnerable initially to communist China. Um and I think we're going to
have to start exploring why that is. And I do think that it's related

(31:53):
to communist China figuring out that thatworship made capitalism vulnerable, and if we
want to counter it, we're goingto have to stop making the worship of
the almighty dollar the central focus ofcapitalism and start making the sort of the

(32:15):
idea that capitalism creates the most jobs, allows for the most freedom, that
those are the things we have tostart talking about instead of I'm the richest
guy and I have the biggest boator whatever. So I just wanted to
put that out there for you.I'll link this article. It's very good.
Like I said, it was allpre COVID, so it's interesting reading

(32:35):
it now, a post COVID afterHollywood's trying to kind of come back.
I'll link it in the column.But on that note, I'm over time,
so I'm going to let you guysgo. I hope you have a
wonderful weekend. I hope to havea wonderful weekend. There's some talk of
a concert tomorrow, so we'll seehow all that goes. Until then,
take care of yourselves, take careof each other, be kind, be

(32:59):
thoughtful, will be good, besmart, be tough. And we'll talk
against a man he's arm with theknight with the night. I'll say,
watch a young visit Garuna loose fromthe psychiatric board. His face is up

(33:22):
on the bulletin board with the reard. This has been a presentation of the
FCB podcast Network where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com