Real Time with Bill Maher #368, 10/16/2015 Excitement

Bernie Sanders
CLICK HERE

by Catherine Giordano

It was an exciting night on Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 368, on Friday October 16, 2015. How could it not be exciting with Bernie Sanders on the show? Sanders is excitement personified. His campaign for the Democratic nomination for president got a real boost from the CNN Democratic Debate on Tuesday 10/13. I’ve been a fan of Sanders for many years—He used to have a regular interview slot on Air America Radio, but most Americans had probably never heard of him prior to his entry into the Democratic race for the nomination for president.

Hillary Clinton

Sanders is closing in on Hillary Clinton some of the polls of the early states, but Hillary has a commanding lead over Bernie nationally. I expect that lead to grow now that Joe Biden is no longer a possible candidate and the Benghazi congressional hearing is over. (I’m sorry that there was not a new Real Timeon Friday October 23 due to Mayer’s travel schedule. He would have had fun with it.) Hillary removed any doubts during that marathon Inquisition that she had the temperament, experience, and endurance to be president.

[I’m very late with this review partly because I was busy preparing for my radio appearance on Mythicist Milwaukee on Sunday and in part because I watched virtually all of the so-called hearing on Thursday.]

Maher declared Hillary the winner of the Democratic Debate on October 13. He said she had stiff competition. Then he named the three “stiffs” who were her competition—O’Malley, Webb, and Chaffee. (By the way Webb and Chaffee have dropped out of the race, but Webb added a face-saving claim that he might run as an Independent. I wish Maher had been on the air to lampoon that assertion.)

Bernie Sanders

Bernie is a long-time Senator (VT I) who runs as an Independent and calls himself a Democratic-Socialist. He caucuses with the Democrats. He was born in Brooklyn, my old home town.

Maher began by telling Sanders that “the last man your age to get this kind of attention was Mick Jagger.” It’s a good comparison—Sanders is a kind of rock star.

Maher said that Sanders should teach America that we are already a socialist country. Sanders said that the U.S. is socialist in some ways, but he listed the ways in which we are not, compared to other “major democratic countries” because in those countries health care and medical leave are rights. He added that we have more people in jail than any other country in the world. He advocated for free college (also a right in some European countries) and higher taxes on corporations and the top 1% of Americans.

Maher suggested that someone who calls himself a socialist could not win because polls show that 47% of the country (according to polls would never vote for a socialist. (Maher compared it to herpes.) Sanders countered that he gets 25% of the Republican vote when he runs for Senate in Vermont and that he has received 650,000 contributions from individuals—more than any candidate in history.)

Bernie said, “We can bring them [Republicans] into the movement. We must stand up to the billionaire class and build an America that works for everyone. Democrats win when the voting rate is high.”

For more about Bernie Sanders read: The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America. 

The Democratic Debate

The Democratic Debate led to an exciting discussion on the show. Maher mentioned that 15 million people watched it—five times more than expected. (It was nonetheless lower that the 23 million the first Republican debate had, but then the Dems did not have a reality TV star on stage to provide entertainment.)

Panel member Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editor and publisher of The Nation magazine, columnist for the Washington Post, and author of several books including, The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama and Dictionary of Republicanisms: TheIndispensable Guide to What They Really Mean When They Say What They Think YouWant to Hear. She said, “We heard ideas, not insults.”

Even the Republican on the panel, John Feehrey, had to admit that Hillary’s poll numbers in NH went up after the debate. (Feehrey is a columnist for The Hill, chief blogger for The FeeheryTheory) He also tried to build up the Republican slate, saying “We have good candidates too. We just have to winnow the field a bit.

Maher confronted Feehery saying, “But they really aren’t [good candidates]. Bush and Rubio want to repeal all financial regulations. We will have another crash.”

Maher said that he is going to vote for Sanders in the primary and will donate to his campaign. But if Clinton wins the primaries, he will vote for her in the general election. He appealed to his viewers: “If you can’t get the fish, eat the chicken.” Maher repeated this later in the show, saying he had learned his lesson with Ralph Nader.

Lawrence Lessing—Mid-show interview

Lawrence Lessig

Lessing is the Democratic candidate that nobody has heard of. He is a single-issue candidate who is very excited about getting money out of politics. He should have been on the debate stage.

Lessing is also a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of several books. His most recent book is Republic, Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It.

Lessing pointed out that members of Congress spend 70% of their time raising money. Money and gerrymandering has made our government like a car with four flat tires and someone stole the battery. Lessing promised that if he were elected president he would pass the legislation that gets our democracy back.

Campaign Funding

In addition to Lessing, Maher and the panelists weighed in on campaign funding.

Maher told us that Marco Rubio is funded by a group called the Conservative Solutions Project and that is a bigger scandal that Hillary’s emails. Vandal Huevel added that 158 families are providing halve of the funding for the Republican candidates. Panel member Johann Hari: (author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs) mentioned Sheldon Adelson, who is a major contributor to Republican candidates, calling him out for getting all his money from gambling—“he produces nothing.”

Republicans

Republicans get very excited about war—they can’t wait to get the U.S. into one. They talk a lot about how tough they would be with foreign leaders. Maher said, “For instance, “Chris Christie said, ‘I’ll call Vladimir and say ‘Don’t you try me. I’ll do it.’ Maher added “War is their campaign prop.”

Vanden Huevel said, “Strength is not the bullyboys. It is diplomacy.”

Hari brought global warming up. Republicans refuse to recognize that global warming is a problem that we must deal with. Hari said that global warming will lead to more war. “When there is no water people will do terrible things.”

Mid show comedy bit

This was a great comedy bit about how excitable Republicans are about socialism. Maher first repeated something Bernie Sanders had said and then showed what Republicans heard. Of course, what they heard was so distorted by their own hatred of “socialism” that it was nothing like what Sanders actually said.

BTW: Was this done as a nod to Vandel Hueven's book Dictionary of Republicanisms: What they Really Mean When they Say What They Think You Want to Hear. 


This deserves to be seen in its entirety to I will link to it

New Rules: Lord of the Spree

Maher took on the increase in killing sprees in the United States. The attacker is usually a young man. He claimed that these men attacked because they can’t get laid. One even left behind something he had written, “I am going to die a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a girl and I will punish you for it.” Maher called it "The worst e-harmony profile ever."

Maher said no one ever went on the attack saying “Sex! Sex! Sex! It is all I do. Where is my gun? I am mad at the world.”

Maher went on to say, “In America, it seems like everybody is having sex but them.” He then showed some advertisements that were full of sexual imagery, with the implication that this was raising the frustration level of young men who aren’t getting any.  Maher said, “Wake up and smell the testosterone.”

He also blamed that attacks by Muslims on the lack or appropriate sexually outlets. “What is the sexual frustration level of men who only see men who look like this?” as he showed a picture of a woman in a burka, completely covered from head to toe. “How do you masturbate to that? I know masturbation requires imagination, but that is ridiculous.”  

Bill Maher’s Guests, #268, October 16, 2015

The Interview:

Bernie Sanders: Senator (I VT), former Congressman (I VT), Democratic candidate for President. A 2015 biography of Bernie Sanders is The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America by Jonathan Tasini

Mid-Show Special Guest: 

Lawrence Lessig; Professor at Harvard Law School, champion of campaign finance reform. Democratic candidate for President, author of several books. His most recent book is Republic, Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It

The Panel:

Johann Hari: Writer, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs 

Katrina vanden Heuvel:  Editor and Publisher of The Nation magazine, columnist for the Washington Post, author of several books including, The Change IBelieve In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama and Dictionary of Republicanisms: TheIndispensable Guide to What They Really Mean When They Say What They Think YouWant to Hear

John Feehery: Columnist for The Hill, chief blogger for The FeeheryTheory

Real Time with Bill Maher #368, 10/16/2015 Excitement

Bernie Sanders

by Catherine Giordano

It was an exciting night on Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 368, on Friday October 16, 2015. How could it not be exciting with Bernie Sanders on the show? Sanders is excitement personified. His campaign for the Democratic nomination for president got a real boost from the CNN Democratic Debate on Tuesday 10/13. I’ve been a fan of Sanders for many years—He used to have a regular interview slot on Air America Radio, but most Americans had probably never heard of him prior to his entry into the Democratic race for the nomination for president.

Hillary Clinton

Sanders is closing in on Hillary Clinton some of the polls of the early states, but Hillary has a commanding lead over Bernie nationally. I expect that lead to grow now that Joe Biden is no longer a possible candidate and the Benghazi congressional hearing is over. (I’m sorry that there was not a new Real Time on Friday October 23 due to Mayer’s travel schedule. He would have had fun with it.) Hillary removed any doubts during that marathon Inquisition that she had the temperament, experience, and endurance to be president. 

[I’m very late with this review partly because I was busy preparing for my radio appearance on Mythicist Milwaukee on Sunday and in part because I watched virtually all of the so-called hearing on Thursday.]

Maher declared Hillary the winner of the Democratic Debate on October 13. He said she had stiff competition. Then he named the three “stiffs” who were her competition—O’Malley, Webb, and Chaffee. (By the way Webb and Chaffee have dropped out of the race, but Webb added a face-saving claim that he might run as an Independent. I wish Maher had been on the air to lampoon that assertion.)

Bernie Sanders

Bernie is a long-time Senator (VT I) who runs as an Independent and calls himself a Democratic-Socialist. He caucuses with the Democrats. He was born in Brooklyn, my old home town.

Maher began by telling Sanders that “the last man your age to get this kind of attention was Mick Jagger.” It’s a good comparison—Sanders is a kind of rock star.

Maher said that Sanders should teach America that we are already a socialist country. Sanders said that the U.S. is socialist in some ways, but he listed the ways in which we are not, compared to other “major democratic countries” because in those countries health care and medical leave are rights. He added that we have more people in jail than any other country in the world. He advocated for free college (also a right in some European countries) and higher taxes on corporations and the top 1% of Americans.

Maher suggested that someone who calls himself a socialist could not win because polls show that 47% of the country (according to polls would never vote for a socialist. (Maher compared it to herpes.) Sanders countered that he gets 25% of the Republican vote when he runs for Senate in Vermont and that he has received 650,000 contributions from individuals—more than any candidate in history.)

Bernie said, “We can bring them [Republicans] into the movement. We must stand up to the billionaire class and build an America that works for everyone. Democrats win when the voting rate is high.”

For more about Bernie Sanders read: The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America. 

The Democratic Debate

The Democratic Debate led to an exciting discussion on the show. Maher mentioned that 15 million people watched it—five times more than expected. (It was nonetheless lower that the 23 million the first Republican debate had, but then the Dems did not have a reality TV star on stage to provide entertainment.)

Panel member Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editor and publisher of The Nation magazine, columnist for the Washington Post, and author of several books including, The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama and Dictionary of Republicanisms: TheIndispensable Guide to What They Really Mean When They Say What They Think YouWant to Hear. She said, “We heard ideas, not insults.”

Even the Republican on the panel, John Feehrey, had to admit that Hillary’s poll numbers in NH went up after the debate. (Feehrey is a columnist for The Hill, chief blogger for The FeeheryTheory) He also tried to build up the Republican slate, saying “We have good candidates too. We just have to winnow the field a bit.

Maher confronted Feehery saying, “But they really aren’t [good candidates]. Bush and Rubio want to repeal all financial regulations. We will have another crash.”

Maher said that he is going to vote for Sanders in the primary and will donate to his campaign. But if Clinton wins the primaries, he will vote for her in the general election. He appealed to his viewers: “If you can’t get the fish, eat the chicken.” Maher repeated this later in the show, saying he had learned his lesson with Ralph Nader.

Lawrence Lessing—Mid-show interview

Lawrence Lessig

Lessing is the Democratic candidate that nobody has heard of. He is a single-issue candidate who is very excited about getting money out of politics. He should have been on the debate stage.

Lessing is also a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of several books. His most recent book is Republic, Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It.

Lessing pointed out that members of Congress spend 70% of their time raising money. Money and gerrymandering has made our government like a car with four flat tires and someone stole the battery. Lessing promised that if he were elected president he would pass the legislation that gets our democracy back.

Campaign Funding

In addition to Lessing, Maher and the panelists weighed in on campaign funding.

Maher told us that Marco Rubio is funded by a group called the Conservative Solutions Project and that is a bigger scandal that Hillary’s emails. Vandal Huevel added that 158 families are providing halve of the funding for the Republican candidates. Panel member Johann Hari: (author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs) mentioned Sheldon Adelson, who is a major contributor to Republican candidates, calling him out for getting all his money from gambling—“he produces nothing.”

Republicans

Republicans get very excited about war—they can’t wait to get the U.S. into one. They talk a lot about how tough they would be with foreign leaders. Maher said, “For instance, “Chris Christie said, ‘I’ll call Vladimir and say ‘Don’t you try me. I’ll do it.’ Maher added “War is their campaign prop.”

Vanden Huevel said, “Strength is not the bullyboys. It is diplomacy.”

Hari brought global warming up. Republicans refuse to recognize that global warming is a problem that we must deal with. Hari said that global warming will lead to more war. “When there is no water people will do terrible things.”

Mid show comedy bit

This was a great comedy bit about how excitable Republicans are about socialism. Maher first repeated something Bernie Sanders had said and then showed what Republicans heard. Of course, what they heard was so distorted by their own hatred of “socialism” that it was nothing like what Sanders actually said. 

BTW: Was this done as a nod to Vandel Hueven's book Dictionary of Republicanisms: What they Really Mean When they Say What They Think You Want to Hear. 


This deserves to be seen in its entirety to I will link to it

New Rules: Lord of the Spree

Maher took on the increase in killing sprees in the United States. The attacker is usually a young man. He claimed that these men attacked because they can’t get laid. One even left behind something he had written, “I am going to die a virgin. I’ve never even kissed a girl and I will punish you for it.” Maher called it "The worst e-harmony profile ever."

Maher said no one ever went on the attack saying “Sex! Sex! Sex! It is all I do. Where is my gun? I am mad at the world.”

Maher went on to say, “In America, it seems like everybody is having sex but them.” He then showed some advertisements that were full of sexual imagery, with the implication that this was raising the frustration level of young men who aren’t getting any.  Maher said, “Wake up and smell the testosterone.”

He also blamed that attacks by Muslims on the lack or appropriate sexually outlets. “What is the sexual frustration level of men who only see men who look like this?” as he showed a picture of a woman in a burka, completely covered from head to toe. “How do you masturbate to that? I know masturbation requires imagination, but that is ridiculous.”  

Bill Maher’s Guests, #268, October 16, 2015

The Interview:

Bernie Sanders: Senator (I VT), former Congressman (I VT), Democratic candidate for President. A 2015 biography of Bernie Sanders is The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America by Jonathan Tasini

Mid-Show Special Guest: 

Lawrence Lessig; Professor at Harvard Law School, champion of campaign finance reform. Democratic candidate for President, author of several books. His most recent book is Republic, Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It

The Panel:

Johann Hari: Writer, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs 

Katrina vanden Heuvel:  Editor and Publisher of The Nation magazine, columnist for the Washington Post, author of several books including, The Change IBelieve In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama and Dictionary of Republicanisms: TheIndispensable Guide to What They Really Mean When They Say What They Think YouWant to Hear

John Feehery: Columnist for The Hill, chief blogger for The FeeheryTheory

Real Time with Bill Maher #357 6/19/15 "Kick-Ass"

Bernie Sanders

by Catherine Giordano

Real Time with Bill Maher was a kick-ass show on June 19, 2015, when episode 357 aired.

The interview was with Bernie Sanders. He is kicking ass on the issues hard and I love him for it. I believe he has changed his registration from Independent to Democratic so I am claiming him for the D’s. 

Another guest, Ann Coulter, just kicks ass because it is all a game to her and a way to sell her stupid books and I hate her for it. [Ann Coulter is a conservative commentator and author of many diatribe books. Her latest book is Adios,America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole.]

Bill Maher had to give his conservative guests an ass-kicking several times for telling lies and for their bad behavior on the show. He had to remind Coulter and panelist Matt Lewis (political blogger for the libertarian Daily Caller, contributor to The Week magazine, and author of Too Dumb toFail: How the GOP Won Elections by Sacrificing Its Ideas (And How It CanReclaim Its Conservative Roots) that guests are not allowed to talk over each other. You would have thought they would have learned that in kindergarten. Wait your turn, a--holes!

 
The SC murders
There is not a lot of humor to be milked from these horrific murders. The only thing funny was watching the Republican presidential candidates twist themselves into knots trying to avoid saying that this incident had anything to do with race. The confessed murderer said, “I want to kill black people.” And “I want to start a race war.” But Republicans (some, not all) and Fox News (pretty much everyone) were saying “What could have motivated him?” Maher asked, “Isn’t denying racism a form of racism.”   

The senseless murders of good decent people in a SC church on Wednesday June 17, 2015 got me to thinking about the death penalty. If anybody ever deserved the death penalty it is Dylann Storm Root who murdered nine people in cold blood with premeditation after spending an hour with them in Bible study because he hated black people. When I first heard about this, I was thinking no punishment is too harsh for him. 

 

But then I watched the families of the victims, one by one, look Root in the eye as they struggled to contain their grief, and say that they forgave him. And I knew that the death penalty is immoral no matter how heinous the crime or the murderer. The families showed immense dignity and set an example for us all about how to hold to your moral ideals no matter how great the challenge.  

 

The family members of the victims are true heroes. 

 

The Confederate flag and racism



Luis Gutierrez: "Take the fag down."

The only good thing to come out of this is that the Confederate flag may finally be removed from public property. Panel member Luis Gutierrez, Congressional Representative (D, IL), was especially eloquent. He said “Take the Flag down! The Civil War was over 150 years ago." 

 

Maher said, “It is the flag of treason.” [I agree.]

 

Matt Lewis, of course, had to defend the flag and introduce misinformation to do so. He said it was still flying because of a SC Democratic governor. True enough, but misleading. Maher had to explain that was a governor who held office in the “Old South,” before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and the consequent Republicanization of the South, back when the Southern Democrats were the racists. 

Maher handed Lewis’ ass to him when he said, “We can never know why someone snaps, but I know where he got his news. I looked at your website, Matt Lewis, there was a lot of news about blacks.”

Maher scoffed at those who are trying to make this part of the war on Christians just because it took place in a church. (He was talking to you Republicans and Fox News hosts.) Lewis tried to claim that the killer murdered Christians in a church because he was an atheist because of Maher’s atheist’s views. 

 

Joy Reid, host of The Reid Report on MSNBC, managing editor of the Grio.com, columnist for the Miami Herald, and the author of Fracture:Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide, had to point out that the killer’s clothing and car bore the flags of Rhodesia, South Africa, and the Confederacy—all white supremacy Christian countries.

 

Gutierrez added that the killer said “They [Black people] are taking over our country, raping our women.” Does that sound familiar? It is exactly what Donald Trump said when he announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. Only he said it about Mexicans.

 

The Pope and climate change

Pope Francis

Bill Maher loves Pope Frank again. Maher said that the Pope “opened up a can of whoop ass” when he delivered his encyclical.

 

On climate change, the Pope said, “Halfway measures delay the inevitable. We are creating a world of filth.” And he also had plenty to say about poverty, justice, and economic inequality. All the Republicans came at the Pope hard.

 

Gutierrez said that the Republicans are running scared because the pope is coming to the United States. He will talk about these issues and it may cause them to lose the Catholic vote.

 

Lewis’ opinion is full speed ahead, business as usual, was a matter of public policy—it creates jobs. Reid flung his words back in his face. “Is it public policy to not be able to drink the water [because of fracking and oil spills]?” I will add that renewable energy and other “green” policies will create jobs.

 

Desperate for a comeback because he was obviously losing the argument, Lewis said to Maher, “You come to Right to Life and I will be a radical environmentalist.” Is that how it works Lewis? You trade your principles like kids in a schoolyard trading baseball cards?

 

The presidential nomination race

If Donald Trump gets elected president, will the presidency become a reality TV show? I don’t think Trump really wants to win. He just wants a platform from which to tell the world how great he is. Maher said, “Trump was talking out of his ass so much that a roadie came up and put a mic behind him.”

 

Trump said Mexicans bring drugs, crime and they are rapists. Maher said, “No that’s fraternities.” He added, “It is like your abnormal psych textbook came to life.”

 

Jeb Bush earned some Maher contempt also. This week Jeb Bush told the Pope that he should keep faith out of politics. Maher said, “This from the person who brought faith INTO politics.” (As governor of Florida he appointed a guardian for the fetus to prevent a mentally incompetent woman from aborting a pregnancy that resulted from rape despite a court ruling that she could do so. He interfered to keep a brain dead woman—Terry Schiavo—on life support after the courts had ruled that life support should be terminated. He was constantly ignoring the law and making faith-based decisions. 

Bernie Sanders is the best presidential candidate out there in terms of his ideas. He says, “Our country belongs to all of us, not just a few billionaires.” Sanders believes that the United States should join the rest of the world on things like health care and free college education. He said, "We are the wealthiest country in the world, but it is not sustainable with wealth concentrated in the hands of the few."

 

Senator  Sanders (D, formerly I, VT), is running for  the Democratic nomination for president. He is well-known for being America’s only Socialist senator and for his 8.5 hour filibuster against tax cuts for the rich and other economic injustices. You can read his full speech in his book, Bernie'sSpeech: Complete and Unedited. [You might also want to learn more about socialism. John Nichols has written an excellent book on the topic: The S Word: A Short History of an AmericanTradition...Socialism.

 

I’ll give my opinions here. Bernie is closing in on Hillary Clinton in the polls. He is so refreshing because he tells the truth and he looks like he is excited about his ideas. Hillary is the far more qualified candidate but she gets called inauthentic. I think it is because she has this robotic quality about her. She needs to throw away her scripts and give a speech from the heart. Talk like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. No one calls them inauthentic. They sound like they mean what they say. Show a little passion, Hillary.

 

Here’s another recommendation to Hillary. If you are running against Jeb (whose wife is Mexican or Rubio who is Cuban (or even if you are not), you might want to have a Hispanic on your ticket. You couldn’t go wrong with Luis Gutierrez. He’s authentic.

 



Dad-Bods

Dad Bods

Dads who let themselves go got ribbed in the midshow comedy segment--once hot movie stars start to get a bit of a paunch.

So Maher did a mockup of a magazine called Dad Bods. He gave the blurbs for the articles. Here are some of them.

 

• Paul Giamatti: Sexiest man alive
• What happens in the garage stays in the garage
• 7 STD’s you wish you had a chance to get
• 12 TV shows you should be falling asleep in front of
• Ooff vs. Argh: Which picking-things-up grunt is right for you?
• Finally, jeans that flatter your front butt

 

New Rules Gag-Reflex

The final New Rules segment was more “Explaining Jokes to Idiots.” Maher says there is a “new brand of censorship that doesn’t care if the joke is actually offensive. You just can’t say certain words.”

 

Maher says when Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and Larry the Cable Guy “all say you have a stick up your ass, u don’t need to wait for the X-rays to come back.” Maybe political correctness has gone too far. All three of these comedians will no longer play college campuses because too many things have been declared off limits. Maher said that it is like the start of a joke—“a black, a Jew, and a redneck …”

“Jokes about men? Yes. Gay men? No.” 

“Jokes about kim Kardahian's ass? Yes. Her stepfather's tits? No.“

 

To make his point, Maher told a Muslim joke. “Islam is a religion of peace. A piece of you here. A piece of you there.” He said it is funny because Muslims blow stuff up more than anyone with the possible exception of the U. S. military.  

 

Friday nights 10pm

Get your ass on the couch in front of a screen next Friday night at 10pm. Watch Real Time with Bill Maher. Because you never know when he will release a can of whoop ass.

 

 

Bill Maher’s Guests, June 19, 2015, episode 357:  

 

The interview 

Bernie Sanders: Senator (D, formerly I, VT), Candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. He is well-known for being America’s only Socialist senator and for his 8.5 hour filibuster against tax cuts for the rich and other economic injustices. You can read his full speech in his book, Bernie'sSpeech: Complete and Unedited. [You might also want to learn more about socialism. John Nichols has written an excellent book on the topic: The S Word: A Short History of an AmericanTradition...Socialism.]

 

Mid show guest

Ann Coulter: Conservative commentator and author of many diatribe books. Her latest book is Adios,America: The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole. [I wanted to dip my cursor into a vat of disinfectant just because it touched that title.]

 

Panel

Luis Gutierrez Congressional Representative (D, IL)

 

Joy Reid: Host of The Reid Report on MSNBC, managing editor of the Grio.com and columnist for the Miami Herald. She is also the author of Fracture:Barack Obama, the Clintons, and the Racial Divide

 

Matt Lewis: Political blogger for the libertarian Daily Caller, contributor to The Week magazine, and author of Too Dumb toFail: How the GOP Won Elections by Sacrificing Its Ideas (And How It CanReclaim Its Conservative Roots)   

 

Real Time with Bill Maher #335 11/07/14 'Talking Nice"

Lisa Kudrow

by Catherine Giordano

Real Time with Bill Maher, episode #335, which aired on November 7, 2014, was the perfect antidote for post-election depression. It was one of the best for good conversation. Everyone was talking nicely. Here is the review and recap.

The monolog
In the monolog, Maher got right to the Democratic defeat in the mid-term election. He said, sarcastically, “Finally white men are getting a seat at the table.” How will Republicans govern now that they control both the House and the Senate? I’m not optimistic. Neither is Maher. He said, “The day after the election, they all talked nice; the next day, they were right back to where they were before.”

Maher said that all you had to do to win was have an “R” next to your name. Even Sam Brownback in Kansas, who destroyed the state’s economy and credit rating, got re-elected. Maher quipped, “The Republicans are the party of Reagan, but that shouldn’t mean when he had Alzheimers.  

He called Joni Ernst the new Michelle Bachman. I said it first. (See the Comments Section of my review of the October 31 show, Crazy, Scary, and Weird.) Ernst prides herself on being a hog castrator, so Maher said, “If you want to cut off the Democrats balls, good luck finding them.” This harks back to the New Rules segment from the October 31 show (Crazy, Scary, and Weird) where he urged Democrats to stand up for their principles. I’m so with Maher on this one. If you are going to go down, at least go down fighting for your principles. 

Here’s the kicker. People voted by huge majorities for raising the minimum wage, and for making recreational pot legal in those states where it was on the ballot and, at the same time, they voted for the people who blocked those measures. I can only assume they didn’t know that Democrats were with them on those issues because the Democrats were too busy trying to be “Republican Lite” instead of drawing a distinction between the two parties. Dumbasses! I’m not talking nice here because it makes me so mad. All the candidates who lost on Tuesday will have a job as a lobbyist by the end of the month; it is ordinary Americans who will have to pay for their mistakes.   

P.S.: A thought just came to me. If voters knew that the minimum wage was a Democratic principle, maybe they would have voted it down. They seem to have a blind hatred for anything Democratic.
  

The panel discusses the election

Senator Bernie Sanders

On the panel, Bernie Sanders, senator (I, VT) and author of Bernie Sanders’ 2010 Filibuster on Corporate Greed: An Historic Speech, was, as always, a joy, speaking with intelligence and passion. Robert Costa, a political reporter for the Washington Post brought facts and reason to the debate. And the third panelist, Kristen Soltis Anderson, co-founder of Echelon Insights, a Republican opinion research firm, columnist for The Daily Beast, and author of The New Vote contributed to the conversation without spewing out Republican talking points. 

Maher said the election was about the continued resentment towards the first black president. Costa said, “It was about people staying home.” Sanders added, “Ordinary people are hurting and they have given up on voting.” Anderson said it was about “people being really ticked off.” 
 

I say that people stayed home because the Democrats didn’t give them a reason to vote. Instead of talking about all the accomplishments of the Obama administration (listed in Crazy, Scary, and Weird), they treated Obama, according to Maher, “like “a teenager treats his mom. I don’t know her.”  
 

Also, as Maher pointed out, the Republicans didn’t give voters a reason not to vote for them because they never talked about their principles. They didn’t tell Americans that they are against everything that Americans really, really like—Social Security, Medicare, a higher minimum wage--and for everything that Americans really, really hate--tax breaks for the rich, personhood for fertilized human ova (in some cases, just the ova).  

Maher joked about one of the best things about the election. Scott Brown lost. In New Rules he said, “You have to appreciate the irony of Brown being the hunky pin-up who lost two elections to two women. Scott Brown is like Kris brown only with Scott, women beat him.” 

Poverty in America

CLICK HERE

In the interview, Linda Tirado, a relative newcomer to the public arena, was poised and spoke very well about poverty in America very well, using wry humor to good advantage. About a new ago, she was talking to her friends on gawker about the difficulties of living in poverty, working two or three jobs while raising kids, and it went viral. (It was picked up by the Huffington Post.)


She got out of poverty when she got a book deal to write about her experiences, Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America. Maher quipped that if Romney was asked about how to get out of poverty, he’d say, “Just get a book deal.” 
 

I expect that her book will be just as popular as her previous writing.Tirado appears to be very intelligent and personable, and without her lucky break, she might never have been able to climb out of poverty. Poor people just can’t get a toe hold.  

Robert Costa said that Republicans celebrating their win will be a short celebration. Sanders said that Americans want a jobs program repairing the infrastructure. They want young people to be able to afford college.

Read more about the Linda Tirado interview here: Working Harder, Getting Poorer
 

Climate change

Congress will have to deal with climate change. Maher cited the U.N. report saying that carbon dioxide levels were up, the oceans were getting too acidic to support marine life, the sea levels are rising, and then added “the geniuses in America elect a bunch of climate deniers.” 

Maher quoted Senator Inhofe (R, OK) who said “God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.” Sanders said Inhofe really believes it, but some of the others know better. He is worried though because we are being governed by “the greedy, the cynical, and the truly stupid.”  

Sanders said that the debate within the scientific community of over. Maher mocked Republicans who try to avoid the issue by saying they are not a scientist. Maher said, “You are not a gynecologist either, but you still talk about women’s vaginas.” 

I think about the people who know better. I ask myself, “Don’t they have grandchildren? Don’t they care what kind of world their grandchildren will have to live in? Is there nothing more important to them than their greed?” 

Flip-A-District

Maher was forthright about Flip-A-District. “It went up in flames.” His consolation was, “It was always a long shot.” Then he found the humor in defeat. He did the mid-show comedy segment about other things that need flipping. 

• Flip Mississippi: It is the fattest state in the nation. Challenge them to lose a billion pounds. 
• Flip a Brother: Each congressperson gets their own very large black man to follow them around. 
• Flip a Bigot: Pat Robertson has to engage in receptive anal sex with Michael Sam. The only problem will be in getting Sam to agree to it.

Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in
The Comeback

Lisa Kudrow

The mid-show guest was Lisa Kudrow, an actress, currently starring in Showtime’s Web Therapy and HBO’s The Comeback. She creates such wonderful characters.

Kudrow is excited about the second season of The Comeback which premiers on HBO on Sunday 11/9/14 at 10pm. It has been nine years since Season One ended. Kudrow joked, “I always knew we’d catch on during the second season.”
 

Maher complimented her on how well she captured the dysfunction and insecurity of her character. He said, “Show business sucks if you are not in the top 1%.” Kudrow said, “It is about how much dignity you would give up for success.”

Endless Governor

In the final New Rules segment, Maher had a lot of very nice things to say about Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of California. He had a lot of very not-nice things to say about ageism.

Governor Brown is 76 years old, and Maher said his record qualifies him for president—he took the broken state of California and fixed it. He’s active—he runs three miles a day and does yoga, but too many people think he is too old to be president. (Maher quipped, “He’s so old, his sex taps are on Betamax.”

He said that age gives people wisdom. He showed a picture of a beautiful young woman. It was a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsberg (perhaps her highschool year book photo) at the age of 18. “We are beautiful when we are young and wise when we are old.”

Warren Buffet is 84 and he’s the one everyone wants financial advice from. Larry King is 80, and he’s still the best in the talk-show host business (on the web now instead of on TV where he was replaced by a younger less effective host.) The Rolling Stones are great and Beiber sucks.

Then Maher digressed to a rant about America’s current fascination with big asses on women. He said, “Millennials should be called ‘Generation Ass’.” I think he was making the point that America is still a teenager of a county.

Returning to the subject of the linkage of age and wisdom, Maher said, “Wisdom is not something you can just google. Governing is where we need wisdom.”

His final punch line was an ageism joke, but because I am a nice person, I’m going to omit it and let Maher go out on a high note.

Bill Maher's Guests for November 7, 2014

Linda Tirado: Author of Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America, a book about what it is like to live in poverty in America

 
Bernie Sanders: Senator (I, VT), author of Bernie Sanders’ 2010 Filibuster on Corporate Greed: An Historic Speech
 

Robert Costa: Political reporter for the Washington Post

 

Kristen Soltis Anderson: Co-founder of Echelon Insights, a Republican opinion research firm, columnist for The Daily Beast, author of The New Vote

 

Lisa Kudrow: Actress, currently starring in Showtime’s Web Therapy and HBO’s The Comeback