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

Bernie Sanders
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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 #342 2/6/15 “The Scream”

The Scream

by Catherine Giordano

Remember the primal scream. It was all the rage back in the 70’s. It was a type of therapy in which you get all your pent up anger and grief out in an epic fit of screaming. (The Primal Scream by Arthur Janov). I think the whole world is having one great big primal scream.

 

Johann Hari and The War on Drugs

Johann-Hari: Chasing the Scream

The War on drugs has been going on in this country for more than 100 years. We are not winning. Johann Hari, a journalist, has written a book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, that gives the best explanation I have ever heard about why we are losing the war on drugs and what we need to do to treat drug addiction.

 

He says everything we think we know about addiction is wrong. He pointed out that people in hospitals get heroin, often for long periods of time. “Your grandma didn’t become a junkie from her hip operation.”  

 

He described an experiment with rats. If you put a rat in the cage with types of water—regular water and water with heroin in it. He will choose the heroin water. But if you create a Rat Park, a place that has everything rats like, he will choose the regular water and won’t touch the drug water. Happy rats don’t become addicted.

 

Hari told us about Portugal a country with a really bad drug problem. They decided to take all the money they were spending on treating drug users like criminals and use it to help them instead. They got them subsidized jobs. (The government essentially paid employers to hire the addicts. It worked. There are far fewer addicts.

 

I want to scream because the United States probably won’t try this. I think it goes back to the Calvinistic and puritanical roots of this country. People are sinners and no one deserves anything they have not earned. So we treat drug users like animals and lock them in a cage at enormous cost both financial and socially. Will any politician be brave enough to try treating people with love?

 

I want to learn more about this. Maher kept interrupting Hari to make jokes. I know it is Maher’s job to make jokes, but I wanted to scream at him to shut up and let the man talk.

 

Vaccines

Vaccines

Everyone is screaming about vaccines. Maher is in favor of the measles vaccine (I think, but he just had to go off on how the flu vaccine is useless. He had a doctor on the show who explained it to him, but Maher can be just as stubborn as anyone else about not letting the facts get in the way of his opinion.

 

Panel member, Marianne Williamson is a spiritual teacher and author of 10 books including Healing the Soul of America: Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens. Her best known book is Year of Miracles based on A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman. Williamson said “it is a public health issue that overrides individual choice.”

 

Panel member, John McCormack, senior writer, The Weekly Standard said that the measles vaccine does not cause autism.

 

Panel member, Amy Holmes, news anchor on the TheBlaze.com/tv, said the criticism of Rand Paul and Chris Christie for suggesting otherwise was “gotcha politics.”

 

Maher jumped on this bandwagon. “If you ask any questions, it is like you are a climate denier. Medicine is more complicated than climate science.” (Really!?) He compared vaccines to antibiotics which he called “too much of a good thing.” He then went on to say “The body needs a workout to build the immune system.” To some extent this is true, but Maher doesn’t seem to know how vaccines work. A vaccine gives you a small dose of the weakened virus so your immune system can go into action, conquer, and produce antibodies that give you immunity in the event you are exposed to the real thing. Vaccines give your immune system a workout! (The italics are to indicate that I am screaming.)

 

Williamson had to force spirituality into the debate. She said,”People who have been prayed for live longer.” Maher, said “Sure, but not because the prayers reached God.” (People who are prayed over live longer because they have social support. Many experiments have shown that random intercessory prayer has no effect.) Williamson is not arguing prayer over vaccines is she? I don’t think so. So why bring up prayer?)

  

Obama and the National Prayer Breakfast

Obama at the 2014 National Prayer Breakfast

Everyone is screaming over Obama’s remarks at the national prayer breakfast. He pointed out that terrorism in the name of religions is nothing new. Christians did it with the Crusades and the Inquisition. Homes said “These are non-sequitors. They are from 800 years ago. What does one have to do with the other?”

 

Maher explained it. “We did it then, they are doing it now.” Nonetheless, Maher went on about how Islam was worse. “The evil is right in the book.” Christianity had the reformation and Islam needs to have its own reformation. Maher said, “They worship Allah; we worship money.” He meant that we have more of an interest in living well here on Earth.”

 

Then everyone started screaming and talking over each other and I couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. So I’ll just have to report on my own comments. Obama said those things because he is smart. If he wants allies in the Arab world in the fight against terrorism, he can’t insult Islamic nations. He must say that these terrorists are not part of the true Islam. The U.S. and Europe need to be allied with Muslim nations in order to suppress terrorism! They will not be our allies if we insult them! (Screaming again.)

 

Williamson blamed it all on our invasion of Iraq. I believe she is correct bout this, but she forced it into the conversation just the way she did when she made her comments on prayer. So everyone started screaming again and talking over each other again and I couldn’t hear a thing.

 

The Jobs Report and the Good Economic News

More good economic news and more new jobs created last month. The number of jobs has increased for 55 straight months. Maher taunted his conservative guests. Remember how Republicans said ObamaCare would be a job killer? Has it killed jobs? No!”

 

McCormack said it hasn’t killed jobs yet because the employer mandate was delayed. Again not letting facts get in the way of opinions.  

Obama’s poll numbers have been steadily increasing since the November elections despite Republican screams of outrage over everything he does or says. Why are the poll numbers going up? I think it is because all the negative attack ads are off the air since the election is over.  

 

Janet Mock: Transgender Issues

Janet Mock

The mid-show guest was Janet Mock, transgender rights activist, author of Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More

There was a discussion about Republican presidential contender, Mike Huckabee, making his bid on gender issues and by criticizing Beyonce.

 

Bill Maher said Janet Mock sees herself as a girl who just happened to be born with a penis. She had gendered reassignment surgery many years ago and came out in a 2011 article in a magazine, Marie Claire.

 

Mock said that gender is not just Male female. Maher mentioned that facebook has 56 gender categories. Mock said that on tinder (an online hooking-up site), there are over 1000 gender categories.

 

A Spoof on Two Mommies

The mid-show comedy segment concerned news reports that babies can have three parents. Women who have a genetic defect in their mitochondrial DNA can have it removed from their eggs and replaced with healthy DNA from another woman before in-vitro fertilization and implantation of the fertilized egg.

 

Maher took the book Heather Has Two Mommies which is about children who have lesbian parents and turn it into a spoof. Watch the segment here.

 

 

 

New Rules: Babble Rouser

Finally Republicans are willing to admit that Sarah Palin is a crazy person. “They have finally realized the emperor has no clues,” Maher said.

 

Matt Lewis wrote a column in The Daily Beast titled, You Betcha I Was Wrong About Sarah Palin.

 

Maher asked what else Republicans might finally realize they are wrong about

 

You Betcha I Was Wrong About Climate Change: Germany gets 70% of their energy from renewable.)

 

You Betcha I was Wrong About Sending 12 million Mexicans back to Mexico: There are not enough trains. Just ask Germany. (Groans from the audience.)

 

You Betcha I Was wrong About Middle East Invasions and Heroic Snipers

 

 And finally, the grand daddy of Zombie Lies—You Betcha I Was Wrong About Trickle-Down Economics: It’s like have three dogs and giving one a wiener and thinking he’ll share it with the others.

 

What are Zombie Lies? It’s from an earlier New Rules Segment. Read about it here:

Zombie Lies

 

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream

It seems like everybody is mad as Hell and they are not going to take it anymore. We may need to take a collective deep breath and calm the f@#k down.  

 

 

Bill Maher’s Guests #342 February 6, 2015

 

The interview was with Johann Hari, journalist, author of Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs

 

The mid-show guest was Janet Mock, transgender rights activist, author of Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More

 

Amy Holmes, news anchor on the TheBlaze.com/tv

 

John McCormack, senior writer, The Weekly Standard

 

Marianne Williamson, spiritual teacher, author of 10 books including Healing the Soul of America: Reclaiming Our Voices as Spiritual Citizens. Her best known book is Year of Miracles based on A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman