Donald Trump is the Orange Hitler

It was a great pre-election special on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday November 4, 2016. The discussion was serious and the barbs against Donald Trump were biting. Here is a quick review of the show.

Bill Maher called Donald Trump "The Orange Hitler". 

An Interview with President Obama

The show began with an interview with President Obama. It was pre-taped because of Obama’s schedule. This was good for the show because it allowed the interview to go for about a half hour, with additional bits put on YouTube. [See the full interview on YouTube]

Obama defended the ACA (ObamaCare) saying he would have preferred single payer, but it wasn’t possible to start from scratch. He needed to build upon the existing institutions. He calledlikened the ACA to a "starter home." saying that it should be improved.  

Maher pointed out that the news used to be a loss-leader—it didn’t have to make money. Obama said that  it wasn’t possible in the environment we have today. He said that we need "to create a space where truth gets eyeballs" We must have "some common baseiline of facts." Did Obama give a hint about his post election plans? He said, "Maybe we could build some platforms where everybody says let's agree on the facts and argue about means after that."

Obama is optimistic about America and Americans. “I’m a glass half full kind of guy. A government is as good as the people.” He indicated that the problem is that information is not getting to the people. “If I could sit in every living room in the country, I would have the large majority of on my side.” He added, “If I watched Fox News, I wouldn’t like me either. This was a reference to his earlier comment that there is a “Balkanization of the media.”

The best part of the interview was about the upcoming election. Obama said, “The choice should be really clear.” He called out people who say because both parties have problems nothing will change. He enumerated all the changes he was able to accomplish: Reigning in some of the excesses of Wall Street, establishing a Consumer Protection Bureau, health insurance reform, protections for “The Dreamers” were among them.

Obama said, “Every single issue we have made progress on is on the ballot.” He praised Hillary Clinton. “I have worked with her. She cares about people.” He warned that a third party vote is a vote for Trump.

At the end, Obama told Maher, “I watch your show all the time.” I’m sure that Maher who waited eight years to get an interview with Obama was glad to hear it.

Fascism in America

Bill Maher repeated what he has been saying for months. “Trump could win this election.” Maher described it as “a slow-moving right wing coup.” The FBI becoming Trumplandia, doing things to help Trump. The Russians being in league with Trump.

Jennifer Granholm, the former Governor of Michigan was on the panel. She said, Trump would be an "authoritarian nightmare.”

Maher called Trump “The Orange Hitler.” He said, “We would have fascism in this country with Trump. There would be no rule of law.” He pointed out that the Republican dominated Supreme Court shut down the Voting Rights Act, and the states were quick to deny people voting rights by reducing the number of polling places and other tricks. [Fortunately, some state courts have pushed back and limited these attacks on democracy.]

Granholm added, “Trump is undermining democracy. He has said the election is rigged. He has said he won’t accept the results of the election.”

Another panelist, Martin Short, an actor and comedian, said that if you want to sell aspirin you have to tell the truth. We need a Consumer Protection Act for politics. The Trump campaign is filled with lies."

Maher reminded everyone that Hitler was elected to office.Then he declared an emergency to dismantle democracy and seize total power. [I’m sure Trump would try to do the same thing here. He is an authoritarian who says that “I am the only one who can fix it.” A republican Congress would let him do it.]

Maher said that the Republican Congress is already talking about impeaching Hillary. “First they decide you are a criminal, then they look for a crime.” He added, “We are where Rwanda was. Doing God’s work by eliminating the enemy.”

In his facebook special, titled "Whiny Little Bitch, Maher said “Hillary is like a black driver in a white neighborhood and the Republicans are the cops. They keep pulling her over and they keep having to let her go.” [Republicans have investigated her umpteen times, and every time they come up with nothing. Yet the Republican Congress is threatening continuous investigations. This is not how democracy is supposed to work. Please vote for Democrats up and down the ballot so we can have a country that works again.]

Maher said, “Once fascists get power, they don’t give it up.” He expressed concern that people would not take the threat that Trump poses to America seriously. “We cried wolf with McCain and Romney, but this is real.”

[I disagree about the "crying wolf" part.. McCain and Romney would have been very bad for the country and they were rightly criticized. It is just that Trump is a threat of such magnitude that the threats of previous Republican candidates seems minor in comparison. As Maher said in his facebook special, “This isn’t the choice between Coke and Pepsi, this is the choice between Coke and the tap water in Flint.”

Trump doesn’t want to “shake things up” as he so often says; he wants to tear it all down. In Maher’s facebook special on 11/2/16,  Maher said Trump would shake things up like a Great Dane at a toddler’s birthday party or like soccer played with handguns.]

Harking back to the Obama interview about the lack of information among the public, David Frum, a Republican on the panel who is currently editor of The Atlantic magazine urged everyone to “buy a subscription to a newspaper, and don’t rely on facebook.”

A Useful Idiot

Maher told us that “Russia is in collusion with the Republican candidate. He is an unwitting agent, a useful idiot.”

[This phrase “a useful idiot” has been in the news a lot. It is spy talk for someone who you don’t even have to convince to betray his country--He is just too stupid to know that the enemy is using him. It is why Hillary Clinton, in the third debate called Trump, Putin’s Puppet.”]

Bible Trumper

In New Rules, Maher said, “There is one good thing that Donald Trump did—He exposed evangelicals for the shameless hypocrites they are. Trumps Commandments are the regular ones with LOL added.”

“He is the world’s least godly man.”

 “Jesus Christ is his Personal Lord and Taylor.”

 “Jesus Christ is from the Middle East. Trump wouldn’t even let him into the country.”

He concluded with praise for the Mormons. Essentially he said they believe a lot of dumb-ass ideas, but they rejected the Orange Hitler.

Here are some other essays that address Bill Maher’s views about Trump and religion.

 Donald Trump: Move Over Jesus

 Donald Trump: I Love the Bible and Other Panders

It Can't Happen Here

CLICK HERE
for more info

Sinclair Lewis wrote"It Can't Happen Here" in 1935. The reprint of this novel is now on amazon’s best-seller list.  I guess a lot of people are worried about fascism in American.

The plot summary in Wikipedia says it all. The novel is about ”the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a populist United States Senator who is elected to the presidency after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values. After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes a plutocratic/authoritarian rule with the help of a ruthless paramilitary force, in the manner of Adolf Hitler and the SS.”

You could use the exact words to describe Donald Trump is you remove the words “United States Senator.”  Trump has never held elected office before.  

  

Thumbs Up for the Show Format

The show was great tonight. It began with a serious interview with Barack Obama I’m so glad Maher finally got to have Obama on his show. The interview was long so there was not mid-show comedy bit and no mid-show special guest.

The main reason I wanted to praise this episode was the quality of the guests. I wish every show would have one comedian, one Democratic politician and one thoughtful, intelligent, and polite Republican who does not tell lies. David Frum was that Republican on this show. Some weeks, I just can’t watch the show because the Republican is a loud-mouthed idiot who interrupts everyone, talks over the other guests constantly, and spews lie after lie.

I want to hear intelligent discussion of issues. I don’t want a bar brawl. Please give us guests who know what they are talking about and who can comport themselves like an adult.

P.S. The full interview includes a discussion of atheism. 

--By Catherine Giordano

Addendum: To you want to fight against fascism in America? Please join this facebook group: Blue America Fights Back 

Real Time with Bill Maher #360 08 14 15 Nun-Sense and Gravitas

Gravitas by Talib Kweli

Nun-sense and Gravitas

by Catherine Giordano


Last week’s show was one of the best ever. I named the review Tsunami of Stupid because Bill Maher coined that phrase to describe the Republican debate. The show was a tsunami of comedy, satire, and fun. Unfortunately, Bill Maher and his guests did not hit that high water mark again on the August 14, 2015 show, episode #360. Nonetheless, the nonsense was skewered and a good time was had by all.

The interview—Sister Helen Prejean
Sister Helen Prejean is a criminal justice activist and death penalty abolitionist, founder of the Ministry Against the Death Penalty, author of The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions and Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty that Sparked a National Debate. I expected a passionate discussion on the immorality and injustice of capital punishment. What I got was a tepid conversation. 

Bill Maher wasted the first half of the interview reminiscing about his days as a young boy in Catholic school. The sisters smacked you with a ruler, but could we let that go and get on with current events? The new Pope is making some changes with respect to social justice and tolerance. (Bill remarked that Pope Francis said atheists can go to heaven adding, “I don’t care, but it is a nice gesture.” When Sister Prejean said there was less emphasis on sin with the current pope, Maher said, “Wow it really has changed. I got to give it a try again.”)  

Finally, the conversation moved to the death penalty. Sister Prejean said, “It is about us.” I expected her to talk about how executions coarsen society and make us no better than the murders. From a nun, I expected a discussion of morality.  

Instead she let Bill Maher get away with saying, “Let’s kill the right people. Let’s keep the death penalty for the worst of the worst.” She was on the show to talk about one condemned person in particular, someone scheduled to be executed in September. (I didn’t even catch his name because her presentation was that weak.) This man was in all probability innocent and even if he was guilty, his crime was far from being the worst of the worst. He wasn’t even involved in the actual killing, but was accused of hiring the person who did the killing.  

I think sister Prejean was trying to say that as long as we have executions we will have innocent people executed. But she made the case with such a lack of passion that most people probably never even heard it. What a waste of air time.

Here is the case she should have made. Thou Shall Not Kill: The Immorality of the Death Penalty and Why Innocent People are on Death Row. 

Here is a post giving some of Maher’s earlier comments on the subject. Death Row Follies

The Republicans Maher and the panel had a few things to day about the 17 Republicans running for Congress and the nonsense of the ‘100-car pileup that is the Republican field.’

In the monolog, Maher quipped:

“Donald Trump is offering free helicopter rides to kids at the Iowa State fair. Chris Christie countered by offering to be the bouncy house.” 

“Donald Trump said he has a plan for ISIS: I’d laugh, but he defeated Fox News in the period–gate scandal. Fox took a look at the ratings and then said that maybe Megyn was on the rag.” [In 2012, the first Republican debate had 3.2 million viewers; this time it got 26 million viewers.”]

“Worrying about Castro is like worrying about Bobby Jindal’s presidential campaign.” [Neither will have any effect on anything.]

Jeb Bush and War
Jeb Bush can’t seem to get it right on the Iraq War. He’s still defending it. He has to it is his brother’s war. Lawrence Wilkerson, a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William & Mary, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell was not in favor of this war then or now. He’s a military man (31 years in the U.S. Army, retired from active service in 1997 as a colonel) so he knows a little something about war. He said, “U.S. policy always was to stay offshore. Boots on the ground was out of the question. You don’t want to start a ground war in Asia.” Not surprisingly, he is for the deal with Iran. 


Women’s Issues


CLICK HERE

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, former Governor of Michigan, Deputy Director of the American Jobs Project at UC Berkeley, Co-chair of Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that is supporting Hillary Clinton for President in 2016 and the author of A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future was the only woman on the show. She spoke up for women. 

Jeb Bush is proud to say that he defunded Planned Parenthood in Florida. Granholm pointed out that he did more than that. He improperly intervened in court cases that concerned abortion. He advocated for the “scarlet letter bill” that would have forced women who continued their pregnancies, but wanted to place the baby up for adoption, to publish their sexual histories in the newspaper. It was about public shaming.

Here is where panelist Doug Heye jumped in, loudly and obnoxiously. Heye was the Deputy Chief of Staff to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (VA R) and was the RNC Communications Director. On the pretense of defending women he told us how he thought that the term “women’s issues” was insulting to women because women care about all issues, especially the economy and jobs.

So Granholm took him to school over how Republicans voted against the violence against women act, voted against equal pay for women, and are now threatening to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood. She pointed out that the Republicans had little to nothing to say about the middle class during the debate while having plenty to say about abortion.

[P.S. Women who care about the economy and jobs should definitely vote Democratic. Compare the economy and jobs situation now to when GWB was president.]

Mike Huckabee has been on the campaign trail saying that Jay Z treats his wife Beyonce as if he was her pimp. What nonsense! Maher scoffed saying that Beyonce runs her own career. [Talk about being insulting to women he compared Beyonce to a whore and said she had no mind of her own when it came to her career choices!]

The Mysterious People Who Aren’t Men
The talk about women was a great segue into the mid-show comedy bit. Maher read from a spoof children’s book with the above title.

The book taught children that there are “Voters out there who don’t have a penis,” “Women live in houses, not Mitt Romney’s binders,” and “Women exist even when we are not horny.”

Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli is a musician (his latest albums are Fuck the Money and Gravitas) and founder of The Action Support Committee. Some of his songs made it onto Obama’s play list.

Kweli recently did two concerts on the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. The first concert was to raise money for the protestors and the second was for the family of Michael Brown.

Maher brought up the “Black Lives Matter” protestors who interrupted Bernie Sanders’ speech. He said that Sanders is not a racist. Kweli explained. “Activists are not about being polite. They changed the agenda. They forced the candidates to come up with a platform.”

Donald Trump
Donald Trump is still at the top of the polls, even in Iowa. Everyone said he would never 

 

CLICK HERE

play in Iowa. He’s on his third wife and the evangelicals in Iowa won’t like his lack of piety about God and his New York bluster in general. Heye lamented that “the press is ignoring the serious candidates.” What Heye is missing is that Trump is transforming himself into a serious candidate. I watched Trump give his press conference in Iowa and he was good. He looked like a clown in the debate, but he is evidently a quick study.

He’s telling people what they want to hear. “I will make America great again.” Whatever problem America has, he has a “terrific” plan to fix it. . (He never says how he will fix it—just that it will be terrific.)

Personally, I think America is pretty great right now (compared to the GWB years) and the best way to see that America gets to be even more great is to elect a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress. The rest of the world does not think that “America is a joke” as Trump is fond of saying. (That was during the GWB years—now America is admired again.) 

But despite his lack of polish, Trump has modulated his tone and is starting to look like a serious candidate. He still talks nonsense, but he seems to have gained a bit of gravitas. (But will he tweet Putin 26 times at 3am if Putin says something that makes him angry?)

Hillary Clinton


CLICK HERE

The final New Rules was about Hillary Clinton. Maher reminded us that he gave one million dollars to Obama and said now I have one million dollars …of advice for Hillary. It boiled down to lighten up. Be more like Trump. “Say I’ll be the best.”

I agree that the advice is worth a million dollars. I groan every time I see Hillary give a speech. She is so over-rehearsed. I know she wants to play it safe and not make a gaffe, and maybe she is right. But even her jokes sound so scripted. (I wonder how she will manage at the Correspondent’s Dinner.”)

Maher told her to laugh more, but to lose the cackle that makes her sound like "the wicked witch of the West Wing.”

Maher’s last bit of advice was what he called her “ace in the hole.” “Your husband Bill Clinton has to have an affair. You can get the magic back, but Bill has to humiliate you.” 

  

CLICK HERE

Bill Maher’s Guests: Episode 360,  August 14, 2015

 

Interview

 

Sister Helen Prejean: Criminal justice activist and death penalty abolitionist, founder of the Ministry Against the Death Penalty, author of The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions and Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty that Sparked a National Debate

 

Mid-Show guest

Talib Kweli: Activist, musician, founder of The Action Support Committee. His latest albums are Fuck the Money (available on August 17) and Gravitas

 

Panel

Gov. Jennifer Granholm : Former Governor of Michigan, Deputy Director of the American Jobs Project at UC Berkeley, Co-chair of Priorities USA Action, a super PAC that is supporting Hillary Clinton for President in 2016. She is the author of A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future

Doug Heye: Deputy Chief of Staff to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (VA R), former RNC Communications Director. He was recently selected as a Fall 2015 fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Lawrence Wilkerson: Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William & Mary, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. He served 31 years in the U.S. Army and retired from active service in 1997 as a colonel.