Real Time with Bill Maher #347 03/20/15 "Oh, God, No"

Bob Costas

by Catherine Giordano

Bob Costas, NBC sportscaster and author of Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball, did a good interview on Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 347,which aired on March 20, 2015. As for the rest of the show, all I can say is “Oh, God, No.”  

Bob Costas has become known not just as a sportscaster, but as someone who comments on the issues. Maher said that Costas has been speaking out on gays, guns, and concussions. He said, “Some people say “Keep the news out of sports…but what they really mean is don’t say something I disagree with.” 

Costas reminded us that sports figures have always been mixed up with issues that are in the news—sports stars like Billie Jean King, Mohammed Ali, Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe. And these days, wife-beating football players, racist owners of football teams, and a gun culture run amok. He was referring to Kansas City Chiefs linebacker who shot his girlfriend and himself in a murder-suicide. He owned eight guns.  

I say God bless him for being willing to speak out. 

Israel and Iran

Whenever I think of the Middle East all I can say is “Oh, God, No.” Obama is going his best to work with the allies of the United States to work out a deal with Iran in which Iran agrees not to pursue nuclear weapons. Unfortunately the recently reelected prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu, and the Congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to sabotage the final days of the negotiations.  

Speaker of the House John Boehner is going to Israel to meet with Netanyahu. In the monologue Maher joked that Boehner’s nickname among his security detail is Agent Orange. Maher said the wailers at the Wailing Wall will soon have a new wailer. “Just wait until Super-Soaker has a good cry when he gets shit-faced there.” (Boehner is known for his drinking and his crying.) 

There was talk about how Netanyahu used anti-Arab rhetoric to win his election. As soon as he won, he did a 180. In the monologue, Maher quipped, “Mitt Romney said “Wow, that guy is good.”  

Christine Quinn

Panel member, Jack Kingston, a former U.S. Representative (R, GA), defended Netanyahu saying, “He is motivated by survival of Israel.”  

Panel member, Christine Quinn, is a Democrat politician, former speaker of the New York City Council, (the first woman and first openly gay person to hold the position), former candidate for mayor of New York City, and current advisor to the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. She is the author of With Patience and Fortitude: A Memoir. Quinn conceded that “the danger to Israel is real,” while not condoning Netanyahu’s tactics.  

Maher said that Iran is our ally against ISIS. The Muslims are having a war against themselves, like the Catholics and Protestants did back in the 16^th century. The West should stay out of it. This is a war between Muslims who want to go back to the 7^th century and Muslims who want to be part of the 21^st century to fight. “Where are the Muslims who want to fight against ISIS?”  

Racism

Maher mentioned how in this country, Reagan Nixon and Bush all used race issues to win. Mercedes Schlapp, a conservative political strategist said “Obama played the race card.” When Maher tried to set her straight—Obama was very careful to keep race out of the election because it would have hurt him more than helped him—Schlapp became very loud and overbearing. No one else could speak. She did this many times during the show--standing up, pounding the table, shouting, talking over everyone else, interrupting—she pretty much ruined the show by making conversation impossible.  

Every time Schlapp opened her mouth I thought “Oh, God, No. Not again.” At one point in the show she said she was hot-headed, like Ted Cruz, because they are both Cuban. I’d say obnoxious and rude, but never mind. Maher pointed out that she was being racist because she was engaging in stereotypes.  

Robert Durst

Maher congratulated HBO on exposing multiple-murder suspect Robert Durst on the HBO documentary about him, The Jinx. His admission of guilt was caught by a hot mic (that he didn’t know was recording) during filling. Later Maher wondered if he would plead sarcasm. 

The panel said Durst had gotten away from it up until now because of stupid juries and slick lawyers. Kingston said that “justice is not equal when you have a big purse.” (Durst was born into a billionaire family.” Maher agreed saying that 40 of homicides go unsolved. “We don’t convict the guilty, we plea-bargain the innocent.”  

Mid show comedy segment—No God

The Durst documentary led Maher to think about his own documentary, Religulous . He pretended to have found an outtake of Pope Benedict talking to himself while he thought he was alone in the bathroom, Pope Benedict revealed that there is no God, the whole idea of the trinity makes no sense, and more. 

God’s Bankers

God's Bankers

Speaking of Popes and money leads us right to the mid-show guest, Gerald Posner, Investigative journalist and author of several books. His most recent book is God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican. He told us that the Vatican bank goes back only as far as World War II when Mussolini made the Vatican an independent country. The Vatican is only two-tenths of a mile wide in return for the support of the Catholic Church during WW II.  

Maher said “A lot of Nazis were Catholic. What if the Pope had said it was a mortal sin to kill Jews?”   

Posner explained how the Vatican bank was being used for many nefarious purposes including money laundering. 

Maher said, “How is Pope Frank doing?” He mentioned that he got made at the Pope about his remarks about Charlie Hebdo (See episode 339, Free Speech ), but “I can’t stay mad at him. Imagine, I like the Pope and Mel Gibson doesn’t.”  

Maher asked Posner about the pope saying he might step down in a couple of years—resigning as Pope Benedict did before him. ( I have a theory about that also. I believe  that another HBO documentary, Mea Maxima Culpa caused the Pope to resign because it revealed how deeply he was involved with the cover in the church’s pedophile scandal. See my review of episode 270, Reason and Unreason, especially the comments.)  

Posner said, “I don’t believe it. By saying he’s leaving he energizers reformers.” They will think they have to act fast or lose their chance for reform once he has left the papacy.   

New Rules Theta Blockers

Maher took on Frat Houses in his final New Rules segment. He called them “little Vaticans” because they are an independent entity inside the large campus. “If you want to live with 40 other dudes and hold homoerotic ceremonies—why not just join a seminary.”  

Maher said fraternities kill people--pranks, hazing, alcohol poisoning—why not just pledge IIS.   

Maher concluded by saying “colleges should be places for independent thinking, but fraternities promote group think.  

Oh, God, No

Religion and God in one form or another dominated the show. It was either about there is no God or about how religion and its adherents are often doing really bad things. 
 

Bill Maher’s Guests for Friday, March 20, 2015 

The interview is with Bob Costas: NBC sportscaster and author of Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball  

The mid-show guest is Gerald Posner: Investigative journalist and author of several books. His most recent book is God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican  

The panel includes:  

Christine Quinn: Democrat politician, former speaker of the New York City Council (first woman and first openly gay person to hold the position), former candidate for mayor of New York City, and current advisor to governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. She is the author of With Patience and Fortitude: A Memoir 

Jack Kingston: Former U.S. Representative (R, GA) 

Mercedes Schlapp: Conservative political strategist 

HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher #278 “Lies Told to Idiots”

HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 278, aired on April 12, 2013.  It was an interesting hour of discussion.

Bill began with some Kim Jong Un jokes. Should we be scared or him or is he just a big joke? (Or maybe both?)  Bill says we shouldn’t believe the hype about North Korea. He wants Kim Jong Un to test a missile because it is always a failure. “He is the only Asian that doesn’t test well.”  He went on to say that there are some Republicans who want to take away Kim Jong Un’s missiles, but they can’t because it is a slippery slope to gun control.  Kim Jong Un and Republicans—easy targets for jokes.

The interview was with David Byck, a documentarian who just completed a film titled “CarbonNation” about the oil industry. He said that we are too late to solve the problem of global warming by reducing carbon emissions; we need to ‘suck carbon out of the air.”  He beleives that we already know how to do that and he is very positive about our ability to do it. It’s carbon sequestration. (How nice to hear “sequestration” used in a positive context.) He said that natural gas is not “clean;” it is just cleaner than oil. Bill mentioned a pro-oil story in the Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, and said the magazine was full of was “lies told to idiots.” I liked that phrase so much that I’m using it as the title for my review. 

David Stockman, an economic advisor to Ronald Reagan was on the panel. He harkens back to the old days when Republicans were worthy of respect. He’s intelligent, he speaks in a calm manner, and he knows what he is talking about. His views are moderate, even liberal. It’s a good thing for him that he has no ambitions to run for office on the Republican ticket—he could never win a primary because he’s not ignorant and crazy as most of the Republican candidates are or pretend to be,

Stockman asked, “Why would you believe an 18th century law about muskets applies to today’s world?”  He added, “The first amendment is the real protector of our freedom.” And “You have to register your car, so why not your gun?”  Yes, it is hard to believe, but a Republican actually said those things.

Stockman also favors government spending. He mentioned that Ike gave us highways, and paid for it with a use tax (gasoline tax).  “There’s a difference,” he said “between government waste and government spending.”

Another panelist was Bob Costas, the sports broadcaster—a very intelligent man with a quick sense of humor. He pointed out that the gun lobby wants to protect sales, not freedom. Bill added that Obama was right when he spoke about people who “cling to their guns and religion,”  because now some on the right want to have an official religion for the country.  (They evidently don’t know a jot of history—the United States came into being because people were escaping from countries with an official religion.)  Costas responded that maybe each state should have their own official religion.  Utah could have Mormonism, Arizona could have a sun god, and California could go pagan.  See what I mean—a great sense of humor.

The third panelist was Stephanie Cutter, an Obama campaign manager.  She seemed like a very nice young woman, but she also seemed like a newcomer to the talk show game. The others on the show were all aggressive speakers, but Stephanie was more relaxed.  Whenever she tried to speak they interrupted her, so she didn’t get to say much.

The mid show comedy segment concerned gays and sports.  Bill put on an umpire’s shirts and demonstrated some new signals.  A gesture for “delay of brunch,” “engorgement,” eligible man downfield,” and “way too many men in the huddle.” You had to see it to get the joke.

The special guest was Saru Jayaraman, the author of “Behind the Kitchen Door.”She was passionate on her issue of protecting restaurant workers. They get about $2 an hour salary, so they are essentially living on tips.  (Be generous when you tip -- it’s an extra dollar or two for you, but it is the waitperson’s living.) She believes that the National Restaurant Association is the “other NRA.”  

If the minimum wage increased with the cost of inflation, it would be $22 an hour today instead of $7.25 an hour. One in three workers today lives in poverty. Stockman opposes an increase in minimum wage; he thinks that we should prop up workers instead with a social safety net and programs like the earned income tax credit. (A Republican who supports a social safety net?!  This is the I-can’t-believe-my-ears moment of the week.)

I disagree that our first choice should be to prop up workers. It is demeaning to need help and the programs can always be taken away. A minimum wage that produces a living wage is the way to go. It also means more money being pumped into the economy as more people can afford to buy more things. Why should our taxes have to pay for food stamps when corporations could just pay their employees a living wage instead? Companies will pass the costs of higher wages onto customers so the stuff we buy will cost a little more. One way or the other we pay for it, but I think it is fairer and better for companies to pay a living wage than for taxpayers to pay for “welfare.”  Every time there is an increase in the minimum wage, there are predictions of disaster by the folks on the right. But it doesn’t happen that way. When the minimum wage was last increased, McDonalds increased their profits by 150%.

The New Rules segment dealt with war. Bill said that Wikipedia needs 36 pages to list all the American wars, and that America has been at war for 216 of its 237 years of existence.  War soaks up 50% of our discretionary spending.  Bill gave some advice to Hillary Clinton on her possible run for president. He told her that she lost the primary in 2008 because she voted for the Iraq war. Bill said, “You don’t have to run as the Iron lady.  What good is being the first female president, if you are still a dick?”

With a reasonable Republican and a bunch of liberals and democrats on the show, there were not very many lies on the show and no idiots.  

Real Time with Bill Maher #259 09/14/12

Bill Maher is a funny guy, his political humor is sharp, cutting, incisive, and right on the money.  If there was one dominant theme in this episode of Real Time, it was money.  Consequently, I am going to name this show “The Clinking Clanking Sound,” a line from the song from the show, Caberet. entitled “Money Makes the World Go Round.”

 

Bill got the theme rolling during his opening monologue.  He said if Mitt Romney asked for a moment of silence, he’d probably try to sell ad time during it.

 

Bill is a funny guy, and a good thing too, because not one of his guests said a funny thing during the whole show.  Nobody was even inadvertently funny because he/she said outrageous things. (I mean you, Republican guests.”)The guests were all intelligent, well-spoken, and pretty much dull.

 

John Legend was the guest for the interview. He was described as a musician/activist.  He spoke about music, voter suppression, and the need to improve education.

 

The panel included Chris Hayes, MSNBC anchor and author of Twilight of the Elites. I was glad to see Chris on the panel because he is a super wonk. If anybody started making false claims, he’d be there to slap them down with the facts. Then I could cheer from my perch on the couch, “Go, Chris, Go!”  But nobody said anything outrageous.

 

Zanny Milton Bedoes is the economic editor of “The Economist.”  She had the economy beat in this show.  She said that if the grown-ups (by which she meant reasonable people) would just have a conversation, they would reach agreement. Good comment, but tell me Zanny, where do we find a reasonable Republicans to have this conversation with.

  

She also said that taxes in the U.S. are the lowest since the 1950’s. She added Republicans don’t care about debt reduction; they just want lower taxes. I cheered from my couch, “Go, Zanny, Go!”

 

And last, and yes, least, we had John Ferhery, a former aide to the former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert.  (Didn’t he leave congress in disgrace?  He did. I just googled him. His crimes involved financially profiting from his acts in Congress.  He resigned midterm and became a lobbyist.  One might argue he was a lobbyist the whole time he was in office.)  John, your association with Hassert is not exactly something  to be proud of. Perhaps that is why he prefers to describe himself as a full-time pundit.

 

During overtime John was asked to compare Sarah Palin’s VP acceptance speech to Paul Ryan’s VP acceptance speech. What he didn’t say said more that what he did say.  He never mentioned Ryan. He said Palin gave a great speech four years ago and fact checkers found her speech to be mostly true. Ouch, Ryan, that gotta hurt. And from your own team, no less. 

 

John added that if Palin were serious about politics she would never have quit the governorship of Alaska midterm. She’s no longer a contender for any political office. She is just a pundit.

 

The final guest of the evening was Bob Costas, the sports announcer who was one of the main hosts of the Olympics. He famously asked Jerry Sandusky, if he was attracted to young boys during an interview.  Sandusky fumbled his answer badly.  Bill asked him if he were to interview Obama and Romney, would that be his first question to them also.  And that is a good example of the sharp Maher wit. 

    

Costa said that Romney’s interview with David Gregory on Meet the press (9/9/12) put him in Palin territory. (That was not meant as a compliment.) He was referring to Palin’s ability to talk and talk and say absolutely nothing.  He’s right about that. “Go, Bob, Go!" 

 

The topic turned to 9/11.  We just observed the 11^th anniversary of 9/11. Bill said he objected to the way Jeb Bush, at the Republican National Convention, one of the few to even mention old W’s name, said “He kept us safe.”  Bill adds, “except for that one time.”  That’s exactly what I yell at the TV every time I hear that Bush kept us safe.  "Go, Bill, Go!" 

 

(Note to Bill:  It was more than that one time. Remember the anthrax attacks. Plus there were a few others that I can’t remember right now.) 

 

Bill said that if Al Gore had been president the Republicans would have shouted from the rooftops that Gore got us killed. There would have been no uniting behind the president. 

 

(Note to Bill:  If Al Gore had been president there would not have been a 9/11. The Clinton administration had foiled a few other attempted attacks. Further ,the Clinton/ Gore team had a plan to go after Al Qaeda. Bush ignored this plan when he came into office and did absolutely nothing, despite increasingly ”hair on fire” briefings by the CIA. Call me a “truther” if you want, but I believe W wanted the attacks to happen. I’m not saying he planned them, but he let them happen. I think he may have expected only a simple hijacking; I heard him say as much in an interview right after 9/11. He needed to shore up his popularity after stealing the election, and he needed an excuse to invade Iraq.)

 

Back to money.  In “New Rules” Bill says America’s favorite show is “Money Boo Boo."  He said the Democrats were right to leave God out of the platform, “It was a platform, not a spell.” Next he reported that Romney said he would never take “God” off our coins.  “No one is proposing to take God off our coins.”  He added that maybe Romney should say “I will not staple a silver dollar on my forehead,” or , and here is the-it's-going-to-get-vulgar moment of the week,“I will not shove a roll of dimes up my ass.” No one is proposing either of those actions either, although, now that he mentioned it ….

 

Bill talked about how Jesus kicked the money lenders out of the temple. And here is the it's- going-to-get-even-more-vulgar moment of the week: “He would have gone ape-shit on Bain.” He added that Romney doesn’t get his opinions about money from the New Testament, he gets them from the Cayman Islands. "Go, Bill, go!"

 

Bill said, “Our God is money. He concluded by saying that “free is the first part of freedom and the other part is “dumb.”

This picture from crooksandliars.com