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| Bill Maher turned up the heat. |
Bill Maher and his guests turned up the heat on a number of
people and topics in the news this week on Real
Time with Bill Maher on Friday, June 12, 2015, on HBO at 10pm.
Maher and his guests were on fire.
The interview was with Ed Begley, Jr.
Maher and his guests were on fire.
The interview was with Ed Begley, Jr.
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| Ed Begley, Jr. |
Begley is building it with recycled steel and has a 10,000
gallon underground storage tank for water. Maher said that he gave up his lawn
because of the drought and he doesn’t miss it Begley said lawns go back to
feudal times. It was a way for a rich landowner to say, “I’m so rich that I don’t
have to grow crops on vast swaths of my land.”
However, the main thing Begley wanted to talk about was not
his house, but bees--specifically colony collapse disorder (CCD. We may be in
danger of losing our bees. If we do not have bees to pollinate the crops, we
would lose a major part of our food supply.
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| CLICK HERE |
Maher said, “Bees have a special place in our eco-system. Einstein
said that if we wipe out our bees, we got four years to live. They are our
tiniest farm workers.” Begley quipped, “And they are paid about as much.”
I was so surprised to hear them start off the interview talking
about bees because I had just written an essay on CCD. Bees leave the hive to
forage and they just disappear. No one knows what causes this but it may be as
Begley said “death by 1000 cuts.” So many environmental factors are stressing
them that it is more than they can cope with.
Learn more about this by reading my essay: What
is Killing the Honey Bees? | Colony Collapse Disorder.
The out of control cop at the pool party
Economic Inequality
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| Roastmaster General Jeff Ross |
The mid-show guest, Jeff Ross, talked about prisons.
Jeff Ross is a
stand-up comedian who is known as the “Roastmaster General” because he often
hosts roasts. . He is the author of a book I
Only Roast the Ones I Love: How to Bust Balls Without Burning Bridges. You can also
enjoy Jeff Ross on DVD: Jeff
Ross Roasts America. He has a new special, Jeff Ross Roasts Criminals, airing on Comedy Central this week.
He was playing with fire when he went to a prison and did a
comedy show roast with the inmates. He wrote about his experiences on The
Huffington Post website. His article is: I Went to a Texas Jail to Roast the Inmates;
Here's What I Learned About Incarceration in America
Ross began the interview by saying, “I’ve roasted Charlie
Sheen and Justin Bieber so I am ready for criminals.” He had a lot of incendiary
things to say about the prison system in the United States.
- There are more black men in prison in the United States now than there were slaves in 1850.
- There are more prisons in the United States than colleges.
- Jails are mental institutions now. [The mentally ill are sent to prison instead of receiving medical treatment.]
Ross told the inmates, “Crime doesn’t pay. No, it doesn’t
pay for you.” He was referring to the
face that prisons are big business. Maher said the towns with prisons are
company towns, like with military bases. It’s true that the prisons are often
in rural areas. The jobs provided by the prison are vital to the local economy.
My thoughts are that there are too many states turning to for-profit
prisons. They will need a steady supply of convicts to be successful in this
business.
Ross told the convicts. “Some of you are here for possession
of less marijuana than I have in my longs right now.” Some people are in prison
for marijuana possession in states where marijuana is now legal.
Ross and Maher also discussed that although the prisons are called
correctional institutions, there is very little to no rehabilitation being
done. There are often long periods of solitary confinement that can wreak havoc
on a person’s sanity. Most of the inmates will be sent back into society worse
than when they came in. Is it any wonder the re-incarceration rate is so high. But
a high re-incarceration rate is good for business.
The out of control cop at the pool party
Maher discussed the pool party where a white cop got burned
up about some black teenagers.
Panelist Mike Pesca is the host of Slate’s podcast, The Gist, a frequent contributor to PBS’s The Newshour, and a commentator on MSNBC and CNN. He was previously
a national correspondent for NPR for nearly 10 years covering a variety of
topics such as sports, pop culture, politics, and economics. Pesca said, "At least there was no dead
body this time.” He added, “Twelve cops
were on the scene, 11 were good, 1 was crazy.”
The crazy one did pull his gun at one point. I think the presence of the
other 11 cops acted as a restraint and that is why there was no dead body.
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| Mike Pesca |
Panelist Alexis Goldstein is the communications
director for The Other 98%, an organizer
with The Debt Collective, and a contributing
writer to Medium.com’s Bull Market
blog. She said, “Cops see black kids as older and more violent than their black
counterparts.” Later she added, “Police over-police people of color.”
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| Alexis Goldstein |
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| Christie |
Ron Christie, a columnist for The Daily Beast and founder and
president of Christie Strategies, LLC (an independent media and political
strategy firm). Christie is the author of two books: Blackwards: How Black Leadership Is Returning America to the Days of Separate but Equal and Acting White: The Curious History of a Racial Slur.He was the conservative
on the panel.
Christie went straight for blame-the-victim. He said, “People shouldn’t
antagonize the cops.” He also claimed that the incident wasn’t racist.
Economic Inequality
Economic inequality is going to play
a role in the presidential campaigns.
Maher said that Scott Walker was
stealing Bill Clinton’s signature line “Work hard and play by the rules.”
Christie couldn’t resist an off-topic snide remark, saying, “I think Bill
played by his rules.”
Pesca said the problem was the decrease
in social mobility. “It’s impossible if you are not born into the top 20%.”
Goldstein said, “We must tax
capital the same as labor. Ronald Reagan said that.”
Maher said that Republicans were
starting to talk about economic inequality, but their answer is the same as
before--Tax cuts for the rich which is pretty much their answer for everything.
And then Christie did that thing
that conservatives always do: Tell a bald-faced lie with an air of great
conviction. “The tax cuts increased tax revenue.” No one had ever heard this
before, but no one happened to have the tax revenue data on hand to refute him.
So they stared at him stupefied, and then the conversation moved on.
Bernie Sanders Liberal Erotica—mid show comedy
Bernie Sanders has come under fire
to an essay he wrote in 1972 about women and gang-rape fantasies. He says it
was meant as satirical fiction.
This led to Maher doing some satirical
fiction of his own as he spoofed erotic fiction with a book called “Be Still My
Bleeding Heart.” The bit was about a man shopping at whole foods who has a
burning desire for the woman with a body "like Ruth Bader Ginsburg” who
works there as a cashier.
“’When do you get off?’ he asked. She replied,
‘When Elizabeth Warren talks about credit card abuse.’”
Later our couple gets it on and “she
screams like Howard Dean after he wins a primary.” It ends with our young man
saying “You are the sexiest woman” and she says, “Call me Caitlyn.”
New Rules: Spy vs. I
Maher quoted the advertising line,
“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” and then told us how burned up he was
about the fact that there is no privacy anymore. "I bought a pair of shoes
online and now facebook thinks I’m obsessed with shoes." If you carry a
smart phone everyone knows where you are. And “every stupid thing you say or do
is recorded and uploaded to the internet for all eternity.”
[Interestingly, Maher did this
rant right after a previous New Rules segment that featured him making fun of a
fight between two women at a Wal-Mart that was recorded and uploaded to the
internet for all eternity.]
Maher ended saying, “There is
never a moment to let your guard down” and “Everyone starts to alter their
behavior for the camera.” Then we see the video clip of the cop at the pool
party doing that infamous “drop and roll” on ground and Maher concludes, “Except
for the cops. They still don’t give a shit.”
List of Guests: June 12, 2015
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| St. Elsewhere |
The interview
Ed Begley Jr. is
an actor and environmentalist. He is in the process of building “North America’s
greenest most sustainable home.” You can watch the progress of this project on
the web series On Begley Street.
Begley has won six Emmy nominations for his role as Dr. Victor
Ehrlich on the television series St. Elsewhere (1982-1988).
Mid-show guest
Jeff Ross is a
stand-up comedian who has a new special, Jeff
Ross Roasts Criminals, airing on Comedy Central on Saturday June 13, 2015. He
actually went to a prison and did a comedy show roast with them. He wrote about
his experiences on The Huffington Post website. His article is: I
Went to a Texas Jail to Roast the Inmates; Here's What I Learned About
Incarceration in America I expect he will be talking about his experiences in the prison on Maher’s
show.
Ross is known as the “Roastmaster General” because he often
hosts roasts. He is the author of a book I Only Roast
the Ones I Love: How to Bust Balls Without Burning Bridges. You can also
enjoy Jeff Ross on DVD: Jeff Ross
Roasts America.
Mike Pesca: Host of Slate’s podcast, The Gist, frequent contributor to PBS’s The Newshour, commentator on MSNBC and CNN. He was previously a
national correspondent for NPR for nearly 10 years covering a variety of topics
such as sports, pop culture, politics, and economics.
Alexis Goldstein: Communications director for The Other 98%, organizer with The
Debt Collective, contributing writer to Medium.com’s Bull Market blog.
Ron Christie: Columnist for The Daily Beast, founder and president of
Christie Strategies, LLC (an independent media and political strategy firm). He
was formerly a Special Assistant for domestic policy to former President George
W. Bush.
Christie
is the author of two books: Blackwards:
How Black Leadership Is Returning America to the Days of Separate but Equal
and Acting
White: The Curious History of a Racial Slur.
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