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| The Wind in the Reeds |
Bill Maher had an excellent lineup of guests for episode #363
of Real Time with Bill Maher which
aired on September 11, 2015. Enjoy the recap and review.
Alexandra Pelosi:
The interview was with Alexandra Pelosi. She is an Emmy-winning
documentarian film maker and writer. Her latest project, San Francisco 2.0--debuting
on HBO on 9/28/15--
explores the impact
of Silicon Valley’s tech influx on the city. It has forced the middle
class out of the city. The film is about the effect of income inequality in San
Francisco, but it is happening all over the country. Bill Maher mentioned the
problem with “ghost apartments” in New York City—about 40% of the apartments are
occupied only a few weeks out of the year because the rich people who own or rent
them do not use them as their primary residence.
It is a crazy mad world that forces middle class people out
of its cities.
Alexandra Pelosi is also the
author of several books including Sneaking Into the Flying Circus: How the Media Turn Our Presidential Campaigns into Freak Shows and Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip (Citizen USA is also available on dvd).
Refugee crisis
The panel discussed the crisis caused in Europe by the
Serbian refugees.
Panel member, Salman
Rushdie is a well known author, and I always enjoy his appearances on Maher’s
show. (Rushdie’s 12th novel, Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days, was published on September 8. In this novel. Rushdie conjures up
a whole universe of jinns, blending elements of One Thousand and One Nights, Homeric
epics, and sci-fi and action/adventure comic books.) Rushdie said, “We
have to fix the reason the refuges are fleeing.”
Panel member Linda
Chavez, Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, nationally syndicated
radio talk show host, columnist, and author of An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of AnEx-liberal called the emigration of
Syrians to Europe “a time bomb. She said “Europeans are not having babies
anymore.” She said that Europe is having problems because, unlike
the United States, they do not do a good job of assimilating immigrants. Rushdie
said that there is some assimilation among the young, “the young immigrants in
France feel French, Not Muslim.”
The whole mid–east has gone crazy mad when people are
forced from their homes and countries.
Donald Trump
In the monologue, Maher said the Trump was talking about
winning so much that he sounded like Charlie Sheen. “But Sheen had an excuse—he
was on crack.” Next he called Trump “the insult comic dog.” He wrapped up saying
“I’ve seen schizophrenics with Tourette’s with more control over their mouth.”
Trump is such an easy target even I could get my licks in. (Read
my essay, Donald Trump: I Love the Bible and Other Panders.) However,
most of the entire Republican field will likely be grist for the joke mill. It
is getting hard to tell satire from reality with these candidates.
Maher referenced the finding of a formerly unknown species
of early human. Maher said, “It had a tiny brain… and a hat saying “make
America Great Again.’
Panel member Michael
Moynihan is a columnist for The Daily
Beast and host of The Business of
Life on Vice News. (His documentary, Launching Balloons into North Korea: Propaganda
Over Pyongyang, aired on Vice
earlier this year.) Moynihan didn’t
mince words. “Trump is completely bat-shit crazy.” He’s attracting the
mad-as-Hell crowd.
Even Linda Chavez said, “He is a vile human being.”
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| Kim Davis mugshot |
Kim Davis
Maher called Kim Davis “the Rosa Parks of homophobia” and
Mike Huckabee “the white Al Sharpton.” He mocked her for saying God’s law supersedes
the courts by saying, Yeah, in Saudi Arabia.”
Kim Davis would have been an excellent premise for the mid
show comedy segment, but Maher shoes another topic. I put together some of the jokes
he could have used in
Kim Davis Satirical Meme Photo Album. If Maher had done it,
they would have been raunchier. Still they are pretty funny.
Panel member, Salman
Rushdie said, “In Europe religion is not a big
public thing. They had to conceal Tony Blair’s religious beliefs to get him
elected.
Maher mocked Huckabee for saying
“Send me to jail instead. He said, “It’s like saying, ‘I will take your cancer.’”
Wendell Pierce
Wendell Pierce
was the mid show guest. He‘s an
actor, author, and chairman of the Pontchartrain Park Community Development
Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding the neighborhood where Pierce
grew up, after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. His recent book is The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not be Broken.
Pierce talked about the rebuilding f New Orleans and how the
poor have been pushed out of the city. Only about one-third of the low-income housing
has been replaced.
It is a crazy mad world that forces poor people out of its
cities.
Mid show comedy bit
The mid show comedy bit was about how the venerable National
Geographic would change now that Rupert Murdoch has taken it over. He listed
the titles of the stories we could expect to see.
Space: Our Hillary’s Emails Out There?
Aborigines and White Face—Where is the Outrage?
The Gay Penguin Agenda
New Rules: Migrant
Headache
Maher said the real immigration problem was not Mexicans,
but Australians. “You can’t swing a dead wallaby without hitting one,” Maher
quipped. “They flawlessly mimic our American accent and take all the acting
jobs.” WE can’t build a wall across the ocean to keep them out, but [mimicking Trump’s
voice] “We will build a great barrier reef.”
He segued to Mexican immigrants. “No one takes a job, he
said, someone has to hire them. We have to build a war to protect us from people
so dangerous that we just can’t stop ourselves from hiring them to raise our
children.”
He took a whack at Sarah Palin at the end with a reference
to her mangled syntax. . “Why are the ones who demand we speak English always
the ones who can’t speak English.”
It’s a crazy mad world. It’s a good thing we have Bill Maher
to make us laugh each week.
Bill Maher’s Guests
September 11, 2015
The Interview
Alexandra Pelosi:
Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and writer. Her latest project, San Francisco
2.0, explores the impact of Silicon Valley’s tech influx on the
city. (It debuts on HBO on 9/28/15)
She is the author of several books including Sneaking Into the Flying Circus: How the Media Turn Our Presidential Campaigns into Freak Shows and Citizen U.S.A.: A 50 State Road Trip (Citizen USA is also available on dvd).
Mid-show guest
Wendell Pierce: Actor,
author, and chairman of the Pontchartrain Park Community Development
Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to rebuilding the neighborhood where Pierce
grew up, after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. His recent book is The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, APlay, and the City That Would Not be Broken.
The Panel
Salman Rushdie: Author.
His 12th novel, Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Days, was published on
September 8, 2015. In this novel,Rushdie conjures up a whole universe of jinns,
blending elements of One Thousand and One Nights, Homeric epics, and sci-fi and
action/adventure comic books.
Linda Chavez:
Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, nationally syndicated radio talk
show host, columnist, author of An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of An Ex-liberal
Michael Moynihan:
Columnist for The Daily Beast and
host of The Business of Life on Vice
News. His documentary, Launching Balloons into North Korea: Propaganda
Over Pyongyang, aired on Vice
earlier this year.
