74: The Crown and The Royals reaction, The White House's bunker mentality

Explicit content warning

11/22/20 • 35 min

Intro: Minutes 0 to 3 We’re both having aches from sleeping weird. We’ll be taking off next week for Thanksgiving and will be back on December 6th. We’ll also be taking off the two weeks after Christmas, on December 27th and January 3rd.

The Crown and The Royals: Minutes 3:00 to 19:45 I’ve been watching The Crown and have seen the first four episodes of season four. I’d only watched a couple of episodes of the first season before. Chandra watched season one and two. I love the costuming, settings and how trashy it is. We talk about how unrealistic the dialogue can be, but we love it. Chandra says they’re getting the broad strokes right about the royals.

Minute 7:00: After season four of The Crown dropped there were so many stories discrediting it. You could tell the palace was freaking out. The royal commentators bashed The Sussexes for making a deal with Netflix, just because The Crown is on Netflix. There are so many shows on Netflix and Prince William worked to promote David Attenborough’s Netflix series, which no one mentions.

We also heard that Prince William was enraged “at the way his parents are being ‘exploited’ and ‘presented in a false, simplistic way to make money.’”

Chandra says it sounds like Clarence House issued talking points for royal reporters to defend Prince Charles. They’re all denying that Mountbatten sent Charles a letter, but he did tell Charles to stop messing around and get married. There are also stories that Charles and Camilla stopped seeing each other when Charles married Diana. Camilla did try to befriend Diana as shown on The Crown, but as Chandra mentions she came at it from an aristocrat’s position that all husbands cheat.

Minute 12:20: I play a segment from Zoom where we talk about The Crown. Sara has a personal story about Thatcher Thatcher Milk Snatcher and Zakia, Karen and Lisa talk about The Crown and the palace’s reaction to it. We agree with Lisa that the palace is reacting to The Crown like they did Finding Freedom. The Crown is blowing up 15 years of Charles’ positive PR trying to get the British people to accept Camilla.

There was an article in Vanity Fair that claimed that Camilla is a fan of The Crown, that she’s watched other seasons and would be watching this one with a glass of wine. In that same article they quoted a royal biographer who half-blamed Diana for Charles cheating on her, it was outrageous. Chandra mentions this is the same false story they’ve told about Diana since the separation, that she’s “hysterical” and “crazy.”

Minute 17:30: There’s an investigation into Princess Diana’s 1995 interview with Martin Bashir. This is getting renewed interest due to a new ITV documentary called The Diana Interview: Revenge of a Princess. The documentary claims that Bashir blackmailed Diana into speaking with him by using fake bank statements. That doesn’t mean Diana didn’t want to talk to him. She planned that interview for maximum impact. Prince William has gone on the record to support the investigation.

Politics: Minute 19:45 to 29:45 I get Chandra to say my favorite new word she uses, ratf-cking. Rudy Giuliani gave a press conference in which his hair dye was dripping down his face and he tried to quote from My Cousin Vinny. He’s been making an ass out of himself trying to represent Trump in court.

Trump is tweeting a bunch of ridiculous crap as usual and insiders claim there’s a “bunker mentality” in the White House.

Obama was on 60 Minutes to promote his new book. Chandra says he looks depressed about the state of the country. I play a segment from Zoom where Karen, Angelina and Ameerah talk about the election and Trump’s ratf-cking. Their whole legal strategy is that votes in predominantly black counties don’t count. Republicans can no longer hide under a veneer of respectability. They’re just racists. I play another segment from Zoom where Ashley, Karen and Ameerah say that the only difference in the Republican party now is that they’re saying the quiet part out loud.

User Feedback: Minutes 29:45 to 32 Thanks Katrina and Jackie for your nice messages! Chandra explains the meaning of ratf-cker, which I thought was just a creative swear.

Comments of the week: Minutes 32 to My comment of the week is from Scarlett on the post about Nigella Lawson’s two part toast buttering process.

Chandra’s comment of the week is from Josephine on the post about Rudy Giuliani representing Trump in court.

Thanks for listening bitches!

We also heard that Prince William was enraged “at the way his parents are being ‘exploited’ and ‘presented in a false, simplistic way to make money.’”

Trump is tweeting a bunch of ridiculous crap as usual and insiders claim there’s a “bunker mentality” in the White House.

User Feedback: Minutes 29:45 to 32 Thanks Katrina and Jackie for your nice messages! Chandra explains the meaning of ratf-cker, which I thought was just a creative swear.

Comments of the week: Minutes 32 to My comment of the week is from Scarlett on the post about Nigella Lawson’s two part toast buttering process.

Chandra’s comment of the week is from Josephine on the post about Rudy Giuliani representing Trump in court.

Thanks for listening bitches!

Previous Episode

73: Prince Harry's wreath request denied, Harry and Meghan visit LA National Cemetery, Joe Biden is President Elect and is unbothered

Intro: Minutes 0 to 9:45 I’ve been taking hula dancing lessons and Chandra has been hiking. We’re so relieved that Biden is now officially the President Elect. I play a segment from Zoom where Michelle, Ameerah, Alnaaze, Karen, April and Zakia talk about Biden winning the election.

Royals: Minutes 9:45 to 24 One of the biggest stories this week was that Prince Harry’s request to lay a wreath in his name on the Cenotaph for Remembrance Day, which is the UK’s Memorial Day, was denied. It cost 1,000 pounds and was made by The Royal Legion. The story, which came out in The London Times, was that Harry called The Queen’s staff to request that the wreath be laid on his behalf. They turned him down, but the story was that they didn’t even ask The Queen about it. Chandra wonders who The Times’ source is. A source close to Harry went to People Magazine to say he was “saddened and disappointed by the decision.” That makes it look like he’s not The Times’ source, but on the other hand it makes Buckingham Palace look so bad that she finds it hard to believe it came from them.

After that Harry and Meghan went to the National Cemetery in Los Angeles to lay flowers at the graves of commonwealth soldiers, accompanied by just one photographer. Chandra does not think they would have done this if the palace had honored Harry’s request, and I agree. People were criticizing Harry and Meghan for this thoughtful gesture, which annoyed me. Harry was in the British army for 10 years and did two tours of Afghanistan. He wanted to pay respect to his fallen colleagues. Chandra mentions how hypocritical it is to call Harry attention-seeking for this when it’s so much more attention-seeking to deny him a wreath and leak the news to the press. I play a segment from Zoom where Ameerah, Courtney, April and Tanisha talk about this.

Minute 19: Will and Kate did Zoom calls to veterans serving overseas. Kate’s Zoom background is strikingly similar to Meghan’s, in that they’re both on their couches with art and flowers behind them. I watch a lot of MSNBC and it’s rare to see people calling from their couches like that. Here’s a link to the article Chandra mentions where the Daily Mail analyzed Meghan’s living room. They previously did calls from Anmer Hall and all you could see was a blank wall and one piece of art behind them.

We talk about Kate’s ridiculous Peter Pan collar blouse, which received backhanded compliments from a celebrity stylist quoted by The Daily Mail. It was so dated and ugly!

Politics: Minutes 24 to 35 Trump is refusing to concede and is shutting down all attempts to offer help to the Biden transition team, as is customary with a new administration. Trump’s people are refusing to pass along messages heads of state are giving to Biden, they’re refusing to release over 9.9 million in transition funding that is rightfully his, and they’re refusing to authorize Biden to get daily security briefings.

Other Republicans are backing up Trump, like Mitch McConnell. Biden has said they’ll work with him and he called Trump embarrassing in that same Q&A segment. I play a segment from that.

Minute 28: Chandra mentions that commenters have said Biden must be getting advice from psychologists on dealing with narcissists and pathological liars. We’re so impressed by Biden and how presidential he is acting. We don’t think he needs to go low and meet the Republicans on their own level because he has people for that. Kamala is particularly excellent at challenging people. Schumer and Pelosi have been calling out the Republicans.

Minute 31: We talk about the Vanity Fair story where the atmosphere inside the White House is being described as Lord of The Flies. Everyone is walking on eggshells around sore loser Trump. Chandra doesn’t understand why no one in the Trump administration is working with the Biden transition teams. She says the only people left working there are the die hard believers.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked how he would work with the Biden transition team and he said “There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.” Our allies are scared that he’s trying to subvert the results of a fair election.

Chandra says Trump’s post-election life will involve multiple lawsuits and prison. Plus he owes hundreds of millions to creditors and they’re going to come calling.

User Feedback: Minutes 35 to 36:30 Deirdre sent us a nice email about our political coverage and comments.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 36:30 to 40 We both picked comments of the week, independently, from Phaedra about Rudy Giuliani’s press conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

Thanks for listening bitches! Call us or leave a voicemail at 434-218-3219.

Next Episode

75: Duchess Meghan's powerful essay, Duchess Kate’s pie chart, Prince Charles hates The Crown

Intro: Minutes 0 to 7:45 I am feeling unsettled but Chandra is having a good week. Chandra’s kitten-ish cat has been grooming her and biting her hair off. She noticed a big piece of her hair missing like she had side bangs. My hair has been falling out.

Royals: Minutes 7:45 to 21:45 I say we need a good scandal and Chandra mentions the Larsa Pippen story, which didn’t get much traction on our site. When we were taking a break, Duchess Meghan published a powerful essay in the New York Times revealing that she’d had a miscarriage in July. It was called The Losses We Share and came out the day before Thanksgiving. She was careful not to give too many details and it was moving. She also didn’t focus on herself much and turned it around to the issue of mental health and asking people if they’re ok. Chandra thinks Meghan got less negative press for revealing her miscarriage because she waited so long to talk about it. Meghan’s miscarriage happened around the time Finding Freedom came out. We don’t think Harry and Meghan told Harry’s family around the time it happened because it would have leaked to the press. I pay a segment from Zoom where Karen, Ameerah, Zakia and Sara talk about this.

Minute 14:00: Duchess Kate announced the results of her really laughable five question online survey of children’s early years, which was conducted in late January before the pandemic. She released what they called “five big insights” from that but they were also drawn from another British survey of over 3,700 people conducted during the pandemic. There were several cutesy videos put out ahead of a five minute video of Kate speaking, which seemed to serve little purpose except to show she cared about this topic and was doing work. I love this line that Chandra wrote: “This is the crux of so many issues centered in Kensington Palace: their Trumpian need to tell instead of show, even when the telling is so plainly false.” The goalposts and nature of this work keep changing. I play a segment from Zoom where Lisa, Sara and a bunch of us clown on Kate.

Minute 21:45: Prince Charles and Clarence House keep bringing more attention to The Crown by continually complaining about it. British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden called for Netflix to put a disclaimer before the show that it’s fiction. Chandra says this is obviously all coming from Charles and that it’s telling how they’re nitpicking the details and not denying the broad strokes. I play a segment from Zoom where Karen, Ashley, Rhiannon and Tanisha talk about this.

Politics: Minutes 27:30 to 33:30 Since we last talked, The Biden transition was finally authorized, but Trump is still clinging to his idea that there was voter fraud, even though his Attorney General Bill Barr has said there wasn’t. They’re having hearings in Michigan which are carried by OANN and are just a bunch of white people making unfounded accusations. We laugh about that crazy drunk woman testifying with Giuliani. It’s thought that Trump is going to fire Barr for daring to state the truth that there wasn’t voter fraud.

Trump is said to be considering preemptively pardoning his kids and Rudy Giuliani. Chandra thinks that Ivanka and Jared are the most likely to get preemptive pardons.

There’s currently a justice department investigation into a potential bribe for a presidential pardon. The documents were released with the names redacted so it’s unknown who it is. Chandra thinks it could be Ghislaine Maxwell.

Melania did the final White House Christmas decorations and they look normal. She looks so happy and relieved lately. Chandra thinks Melania might invite Jill Biden once the electoral college votes.

User Feedback: Minutes 33:30 to 35 Loren on Twitter tweeted a photo of her Spotify wrapped showing she’d listened to NINE episodes of us in one day, which is crazy and thank you Loren! Renata in Brazil sent us a nice email.

Comments of the Week: Minutes 35 to 38 My comment of the week is from Trillion on the post where Ozzy Osbourne says he’s not going to cheat on Sharon anymore. Chandra’s comment of the week is from Belli on the post about Helena Bonham Carter saying there should be a disclaimer before The Crown.

Thanks for listening bitches! Text us or leave a voicemail at 434-218-3219.