The Death Star destroys a planet. |
Who needs the Death
Star? We Earthlings are doing a real
good job of raining death down on our planet all by ourselves.
On HBO’s Real
Time with Bill Maher, which
aired on July 18, 2014, Bill Maher mixed his metaphors a bit. He was talking
about Star Trek and the Death Star is featured in Star Wars, but never mind,
it's still a good theme for the entire show.
A Malaysian airliner was shot out
of the sky this week by Ukrainian separatists using surface-to-air missiles
supplied by Russia. All 298 people on
board were killed. One of the panelists, Jamie Weinstein, political columnist and commentator, senior editor of The Daily Caller, a conservative news and
opinion website, and author (with Will Rahn) of The Lizard King: The Shocking Inside Account of
Obama's True Intergalactic Ambitions by an Anonymous White House Staffer said “Putin played a reckless game. He funded the separatists.” He was
right n that, but then he had to go and ruin it by firing off the same old Republican
talking points. “Obama should impose stricter sanctions. Obama has to speak
with moral clarity. Obama has to increase defense spending.” Maher fired back, “Obama is already doing
that. Should he go to war with Russia? Weinstein had to back down and said, “No.”
Another panelist, Jane Harmon, former Congresswoman (D,
CA) and President and CEO of The Wilson Center had a better idea. “We can export clean energy to Europe.” Since
gas is a major source of income to Russia, the more we replace fossil fuels
with clean energy, the more we deprive Russia of the funds it needs for its invasion
of the Ukraine. She also pointed out
that the sanctions Obama imposed are already working. She said, “The Russian
economy is tanking.”
Missiles are
flying on the Israeli-Gaza border. Israel is trying to take out the missile
launching sites and destroy the tunnels that Hamas has built on the border to
sneak into Israel to attack Israelis. Maher defended Israel. Whose fault is it
really? Israel has a right to defend itself.
Harmon agreed saying,
“Israel is using its missile defense system to protect its citizens [with
bunkers]. Hamas is using its citizens to protect missile defense systems. He also said, “Hamas would kill as many Israelis
as it could. Israel is not killing as many Palestinians as it could.” In other
words, Israel is showing restraint, doing only as much killing as is needed for
defense.
Maher concluded
by saying that world opinion is the least of Israel’s problems. The real problem
for Israelis is “Will I get killed when I go to the dry cleaners?”
In the monologue
Maher spoke about Republican response to the Israeli defense, Operation
Protective Edge. He said that Republicans say, “Now that is how you secure a border!”
Maher said that
the Republican response to everything is to say that Obama is weak and ineffective.
And the next thing they say is that Obama is a tyrant who controls
everything. (A logical inconsistency,
but when has that ever stopped Republicans?)
Maher summed up Republicans reactions this way:
- McCain will call for war.
- Obama is doing it to distract from Benghazi.
- Obama is part of it.
- Obama is doing nothing about it.
A protest sign in North Carolina |
Barber said that the Moral
Monday protests were about not only Medicaid, but about all of the rights being
denied to people in the state—public school teachers, public education, workers
rights, earned income tax credit, the unemployed, the LGBT, women’s rights and the biggest denial of rights--voter suppression.
He said that every group as supporting this movement—people f faith and hose
without faith, Democrats and Republicans, blacks and whites, because everyone
in the state is being hurt. Maher joked
that “Monday is the perfect day to get people to be moral. There is nothing
going on anyway.”
The third panelist was Nate
Silver, Nate
Silver, a statistician who analyses
politics and baseball, editor-in-chief of
ESPN's FiveThirtyEight blog, special correspondent for ABC News, and author of The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many
Predictions Fail — but Some Don't. He did not have a lot to say because he is all about
the numbers and either doesn’t have, or doesn’t express, opinions. Maher
questioned silver about voting patterns, but Maher did most of the talking. “The people who like Obama the most are the
people least likely to vote. Anger makes people vote. People don’t vote to say
thank you, but to say f@@k you.”
Weinstein
couldn’t resist this opening to say, “What has Obama done to make people vote
for him? Maher then delivered a soliloquy
reprising “Zombie
Lies” from last week’s show. He specifically wanted to shoot down the
lie about “trickle-down economics. “ He said that Republican Governor Sam
Brownback of Kansas cut taxes repeatedly. As a result, state revenue collapsed,
and the economy of Kansas is now in a crisis. California went the other way and
raised taxes, and they have had twice the job growth.
Weinstein, like the good little Republican mouthpiece that
he is, said “It‘s too soon to judge. It has
only been two years.” Harmon responded that things are so bad in Kansas that
100 leading Republicans in the state have endorsed the Democratic candidate for
governor. Silver pointed out that even though Brownback has really low approval
ratings, politics is so polarized that he could still get elected.
George Takei |
The mid-show guest was GeorgeTakei, actor, LGBT activist, author of several books including Oh Myyy!: There Goes the Internet, and subject of a new documentary, To Be Takei. You have got to give Takei credit. He had a small role on a 1960’s television series, Star-Trek, and has lived off of it ever since. In more recent years, he has added being gay into the mix, and he has made a career of that as well.
The Death Star comment was a response to the mention of a
long-running feud between Takei and William Shatner. Maher suggested that Takei might want to settle
their dispute with a “Death Star.” Takei wouldn’t get specific about the reason
for their mutual dislike, but I suspect it may have something to do with Takei
being gay. Takei said that everyone on the set of Star Wars knew that he was
gay and was cool with it. He implied
that the only person who didn’t know was Shatner.
Maher spoke about how Star Trek was a “sneaky political show”
using outer space as a metaphor for our own society. For instance, the Klingons
were the Russians. They spoke about the episode in which Captain Kirk kissed a
black woman. Takei said the show as blacked out in the South and the ratings plummeted. Maher asked him if he ever asked Gene
Roddenberry, the producer of the show to tackle the gay issue. He said that
Roddenberry declined saying that if we pushed the envelope to far we wouldn’t b
ale o do any social issues. They discussed how things have changed so much
since the 60’s. Gay marriage became accepted a “warp speed.”
The mid-show comedy segment was about the one-percent. Maher
asked, as he has cone in the past, “What can you buy with your second billion
that you didn’t already buy with your first billion?” He suggested a magazine tiled “One-Percent” to
help billionaires spend their money. Some of the cover stories were:
- Seven New Acquisitions that Will Drive Your Trophy wife Wild
- Wine Cellars for the panic Room in the Pool house o your Vacation home
- The 2015 Republican Congress: Collect Them All
- Sheldon Adelson: Sexiest Man Alive
CLICK HERE |
In New Rules, Maher
took on “Blitzkrieg Cops.” He said that
Pentagon cast-offs were being given to local police forces so now every town can have its own tank. Maher stated, “If they are
dressed and equipped like an occupying army, they will act like one.” ‘We don’t need to fill our streets with horrifying death
machines.”
The “jack-booted thugs” that the tea-partiers rant about are
here. “They are the police coming right through the door with no warrant, a battering
ram and a stun grenade.” He concluded, “I’m
afraid of the cops and I’m white.”
Read more about Blitzkrieg cops and se the video at "Tank You Very Much."
Read more about Blitzkrieg cops and se the video at "Tank You Very Much."
I’m sick to death of stories about death. A good thing Bill Maher can make me laugh
about it. Now if that “Death Star” could just turn its laser beam somewhere else
for a while.
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Bill Maher’s
Guests for July 18, 2014
Rev. Dr. William J
Barber II: State NAACP President for North
Carolina, Leader of the Moral Monday protests
Jane Harmon: Former
Congresswoman (D, CA), President and CEO of The Wilson Center
Nate Silver: Statistician,
editor-in-chief
of ESPN's FiveThirtyEight blog, special correspondent for ABC News, author of The Signal and
the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't
Jamie Weinstein: Political columnist and commentator, senior editor of The Daily Caller, a conservative news and opinion website, author of The Lizard King: The Shocking Inside Account of Obama's True Intergalactic Ambitions by an Anonymous White House Staffer (with Will Rahn)
GeorgeTakei: actor, LGBT activist, author of several books including Oh Myyy!: There Goes The Internet, subject of a new documentary To Be Takei
Jamie Weinstein: Political columnist and commentator, senior editor of The Daily Caller, a conservative news and opinion website, author of The Lizard King: The Shocking Inside Account of Obama's True Intergalactic Ambitions by an Anonymous White House Staffer (with Will Rahn)
GeorgeTakei: actor, LGBT activist, author of several books including Oh Myyy!: There Goes The Internet, subject of a new documentary To Be Takei
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