Real Time with Bill Maher #336 11/14/14 "Revelations"

by Catherine Giordano

Obama is in Ninja mode.

It was a night of revelations on Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 336, which aired on 11/14/14 on HBO. I’ll reveal what I heard and learned from Bill Maher and his guests in this recap and review.

Obama as ninja

Maher began his opening monolog by revealing that “Obama went all ninja on them” and “He was like Pacino at the end of Scarface. He compared Obama to the idealist President Bartlett on the defunct TV series The West Wing. (I always wished we could have a real-life president like President Bartlett.  

Here is what Obama did that earned Maher’s (and my) respect.  

• He went to China and got a carbon-capping deal that can help reduce global warming.
• He came out strongly for net neutrality.
• Obama announced that he is going to use executive action on immigration. 

Obama will allow illegal immigrants who have close relatives who are citizens—this usually means the parents of children who are citizens because they were born here—to obtain green cards and will not deport them. This is a family-values policy because it keeps families together.

Republicans are going ballistic at the mere thought of this action. They are threatening to shut down the government and to stat impeachment proceedings in retaliation. Ninja Obama is fearless. He has nothing to lose and he has finally realized that Republicans will never cooperate with him on anything.  It’s a shame that it took the loss of majority control in the Senate for him to let his inner ninja out.

Maher also joked about “fake outrage.” The President was chewing gum.  And walking at the same time. Maher quipped, “It’s a blatant attempt to show up Bush.”
 

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The interview with Rand Paul

Maher began the interview with Rand Paul by showing the cover of the Time magazine that featured Paul with the headline “The most Interesting Man in the World”. The introduction set the tone for the whole interview. Maher said he was open to voting for Paul if he ran for president.  (Maher began his political career as a libertarian.  He has since matured into a liberal, but he still sometimes has a weakness for libertarians.)

Rand acquitted himself well in the interview.  He said, “It’s a low bar” about his title as “most interesting man in the world.” 

 

Rand revealed his progressive side to us. He came out in favor of restoring voting rights to felons. There are 200 million people who can’t vote because they are felons.  He is also in favor of prison reform.  H objects to prisons as a for-profit business.  He also objects to the expense of keeping people in prison when it does not add to the public safety.

If Maher was going for a gotcha moment with a question on climate change, he didn’t get it.  Rand said he favored a “balanced solution.”  He said we should pursue renewable energy, but not shut down one source of energy [coal]. Darn. Why aren’t Democrats saying that? Of course, we can’t shut down the coal industry overnight; it has to be phased out while coal-miners are trained for new jobs in renewable energy.  I can’t imagine there are many coal miners who wouldn’t jump at the chance to earn a comparable wage without having to do the dirty and dangerous job of coal mining.

Rand is for ending the drug war and ending the shooting war in Iraq and the Mideast. He pointed out that every time we topple a secular dictator, things get worse.  

If he keeps talking like this, I might be open to voting for him. However, I’m hoping the Democratic candidate will take the same stands on these issues because Paul is wrong about a lot of other things. Also with common sense rational views like this, I doubt he can win the Republican nomination.   But you gotta give Paul credit--he tailored his message to his audience.  Let’s see what he says when he is talking to Republicans in the primary debates.

 

The mid-term elections

Maher bemoaned the fact that Obama waited until after the elections to reveal the good news.  If he had done if before the elections, he might have motivated some more people to vote.



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Panelist Margaret Hoover, a Republican political commentator and author of American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party was magnanimous. She said “The map was just not in your favor this year” because the majority of the elections were in red states. 



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Panelist Andrew Sullivan is Blogger- in-Chief at The Dish and author of six books.  (His most recent book is Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival.) He said, “Show that you believe in something. No one wants to vote for the guy mumbling and shuffling away.”



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Panelist Jeremy Scahill, an investigative journalist and author of two books. (Blackwater and his new book Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, said, “It is like an acting troop that comes out for the encore, but they never did the show.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Immigration

Hoover said that the Republicans are “quietly back-channeling” that they are will to move on this.  Maher retorted with disbelief, “VERY quietly.”  Sullivan was also skeptical. He said, “When have they ever won out over the crazies.”


The mid-East and ISIS

Maher said it would take 30,000 ground troops to defeat ISIS. Scahill said this war was a continuation of the war against Bushes troops and that the Bathists had joined a coalition with the Muslim radicals. Sullivan said we need a president to say “This is not our problem.” Maher agreed that we should just let them fight it out among themselves.  

Religion

Maher said that there are power struggles in the Vatican as Pope Frank (as Maher calls Pope Francis) tries to move the church into the new age.  He canned Cardinal Raymond Burke, a very conservative cardinal. (Actually, you can't fire a cardinal. The Pope just transferred him to some minor post.)

Pope Frank has to serve in the unusual circum stance of having another living Pope, the retired Pope Benedict. Maher said Pope Benedict was the Dick Cheney of the Catholic Church. Maher then launched into the mid-show comedy segment where he showed a mock war-of-words on twitter between the two popes. 

The conversation about religion continued when the mid-show guest, Martin Short—comedian, actor, and author-- joined the panel. Maher said the he and Short and Sullivan were all raised Catholic and the only one stuck with it.  “The gay one! “(Sullivan.)

Sullivan said, “We can leave room for doubt.  If you have never doubted, you have never really believed.”

Scahill said Pope Frank is trying to push for economic change.  Hoover said he is trying to go back to “the simplicity of Christ.”  Maher pointed out that after he does these things, he comes out for exorcism. “He’s a good politician, throwing a little something to the base.”

Maher brought up the Mormon religion. The Mormon Church has been trying to modernize by being honest about the history of the church.  They are admitting that Joseph Smith, who founded the religion in the 1930’s had 30 to 40 wives, one of whom was a 14 year-old girl and others who were already married. Maher called it “a sex-cult.”  Maher said, “They can’t hide the facts because this history is so recent.”    

Sullivan then tried to claim that the stories in the Bible wee history true.  There was a virgin birth and Christ did come back from the dead—it can’t be empirically disproved.  Maher said that none of the Bible stories about Christ were written until 40 years after his death.  “It is like no one noticed the Beatles until 2010.” 

Martin tried to end the discussion by saying that the truth of religion is not important: “Who cares if it gives you strength.”   

Maher had one more point to make.  He said that the Mormons have Revelators who get messages from God and that even the Mormon missionaries will no longer go to Syria and Iraq. 

CLICK HERE

Martin Short

The mid-show guest was Martin Short, an actor, comedian, and author of several books. Maher discussed Martin Short’s new book I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend.  Maher praised Short for his beautifully written memoir and for his honesty in talking about the losses in his life the death of his brother, his parents, and his wife of 36 years. In the book Short reveals a lot of personal details about his life and career including the fact that Gilda Radner was his first real love.

New Rules: The Importance of Voting

Maher was on fire about people not voting. He started with the little stickers that say “I voted” that are given to people after they vote. Why should people get a sticker just for doing what they are supposed to do? It is like getting a sticker for flushing the toilet.  Instead, there should be stickers for non-voters that say “I couldn’t be bothered.”


He castigated people like comedian Russell Brand who made a statement saying don’t vote because the system is broken. (It got broken because people didn’t vote.)  Politicians are all the same? Tell that to the 700,000 people in Florida who would have gotten health insurance if the Democrat had been elected governor. Obama didn’t deliver? Maybe you missed it because it wasn’t on TMZ.

 

President Mitt McCain

Maher asked us to imagine life if we had elected President Mitt McCain instead of Obama. (He morphed pictures of the two into one. It was very funny.)  Maher revealed what would have happened.

• There was no stimulus and the auto industry was allowed to die.  We are in the sixth year of Great Depression II.
• Paula Dean and Joe the Plumber is on the Supreme Court.
• The Attorney General is Dick Cheney’s head.
• The nearest abortion clinic is in London.
• There is no renewable energy but one trillion dollars was spent on an electrified fence on the Mexican border to keep out the one Mexican who still wants to get it.
• Homeland Security chairman Ted Cruz deported all 12 million Mexicans and now we have no fruit.

“No fruit, no jobs, your girl friend is having a baby you don’t want, no health insurance and your tap water is on fire!  But you didn’t dirty your hands in the gutter of politics.” I think the bit should have ended with this line. 

The last line seemed a little weak to me. Maher ended with, “If your hands are not dirty, it is not because you are pure. It is because you are not helping.” The writers should have battered that one around a little more. 

Yu cn read more about this and see the video clip at Bill Maher: President Mitt McCain

 

Martin Short

Bill Maher’s Guests: November 14, 2014
 

Rand Paul:  Senator (R, KY), and author (with Ron Paul) of Government Bullies: How Everyday Americans are Being Harassed, Abused, and Imprisoned by the Fed  

Martin Short:  Actor, comedian, and author of several books. His most recent book is I Must Say: My Life As a Humble Comedy Legend

 

Margaret Hoover: Political commentator and author of American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party

 Andrew Sullivan: Blogger-in-Chief at The Dish, blog and author of six books.  His most recent book is Love Undetectable: Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival

Jeremy Scahill: Journalist and author of two books.  His most recent book is Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield 

Real Time with Bill Maher #309 “In the Dark”

By Catherine Giordano

Real Time with Bill Maher is, as always, a candle in the darkness enlightening us on issues and shining a light on Republican hypocrisy and lies.  

The February 28, 2014 show (#309) was no exception.

A lot of references to darkness this week.  In the monologue, Maher said that the favorite Tea Party game is “Pin the Blame on the Darkie.”  And in New Rules, he spoke about the new Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor  “Core Ice Cream”.  He said it was introduced to taunt Obama, “half dark chocolate, half white. and really dark at the core.  And to taunt Hillary Clinton, Ben and Jerry’s have ‘Hubby’s Chubby.’ “ [Except Bill Clinton is not really chubby anymore; Hillary is the one who needs to get on her husband’s diet.]

There was a great line in the monologue about Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona.  Bill said, it was a good thing that she vetoed the bill allowing businesses to discriminate against gays on the basis of their religious beliefs because she looks like “a lesbian warden in a prison movie.”   Low blow, Bill, but I’ll laugh at it because ever since she wagged her finger in Obama’s face, there is nothing she can do to redeem herself in my eyes.  I think she occasionally does the right thing, but for the wrong reasons.

The interview was with Christopher Leonard, author of The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover ofAmerica's Food Business.  He talked about the terrible conditions in the food industry.  A lot of us are in the dark about how our food is raised. Leonard said that the chicken factories, like Tyson, have so much power in rural areas it is like a “feudal system”  from the Dark Ages. The FDA has been almost entirely dismantled due to the influence of the powerful meat industry.  [Remember The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.  It led to reforms in the meat industry.  Can The Meat Racket do the same?]

Maher had a lot of criticism for the Tea Party, although he gave them credit for becoming a force in American politics in only five years.  In Overtime, he said, they had “baked themselves into the cake that is the Republican party.”  Although they are supposed to be about deficit reduction and lower taxes, Maher said there was virtually nothing about that on their website.  It was all about Benghazi and Obamacare.   Bill says they are all about hatred for a black president.

There were two conservative panelists this week.  One was Margaret Hoover [great grand-daughter of President Hoover—so we know where she gets her bad ideas from.]  She a commentator on Fox news and is the typical blond airhead Fox News likes to put on their news shows--all low cut dresses, short skirts, and girlish flirtatiousness.  [I noticed on Fox News the camera frequently pans down to newscaster-ettes legs whereas on other channels the female newscasters are treated with respect and the camera remains on their faces. ] Hoover is the author of a new book, American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party. I hope she had something worthwhile to say in the book. She had nothing worthwhile to say on Maher’s show.

Bill Kristol, the other conservative panelist, had a smug combative attitude on the show.  I liked the part where Maher confronted him as being totally wrong about the Iraq war, suggesting that this does not inspire confidence in his prognostations and opinions.  Kristol quickly admitted that he was wrong—a brief moment of honesty-- and then just as quickly returned to is in-your-face opinionating and lying. Just looking at him, I could see the darkness of his soul.

The third panelist was Austan Goolsbee.  He is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and the author of MicroEconomics. He is no light-weight—he was formerly chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors.  He had some important things to say about the current cuts to the military supported by Obama and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.  He said that we need a different kind of military now that in prior eras—we need technology more than troops and armaments.  We should get rid of the tanks and aircraft the military doesn’t even want any more.  He said “They are cutting strategically, not willy-nilly.”  Hoover and Kristol, as would be expected, were in hysterics about how these cuts would be the end of America.

In the comedy segment, Maher mentioned that the obesity rate had dropped among only one are group in America—two-to-five year olds.  He gave us some toddler diet tips.  Most were really gross—the whole segment was the “let-me-get-the-audience-to-groan” moment of the week. I think there was only one non-gross diet tip: Cut carbs—dump the Spaghetti-Os over your head.

The special guest was Bruce Dern, the actor currently starring in Nebraska.  (The movie is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Dern is nominated for Best Actor for his role in this movie.  Bill Maher likened Nebraska to King Lear, Don Quixote and Grapes of Wrath. Dern spoke of his admiration for the people of the Mid-West, honest, hard-working, with a strong sense of fairness.

The New Rules final segment blasted “the 1%” for whining about being persecuted.  He said that the 85 richest peo0le in the world have more money than half of the people on the planet—more money that 3.5 billion people.

He said, “Masters of the universe?  They are more like babies on a plane.”  Tom Perkins who is worth eight billion said he is being persecuted like the Jews were by the Nazis.  Bill explained that the Jews never did anything to deserve their persecution.  Tom mentioned billionaire Sam Zell who said, “We are the 1% because we work harder.”  Bill said, “Really, you sit in your cushy office and talk on the phone and you think you work harder than a coal miner? You make 1000 times more than a coal miner will make in his whole life on just one deal.”

Maher said, “Let’s give you something to cry about.  You don’t want a minimum wage, how about a maximum wage?”  Maher pointed out that a maximum wage is not a new idea.  Several of the founding fathers argued for it—James Madison, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton.  Maher added, “Your shady financial tricks tanked the economy and nothing happened to you.”  [They clearly were not even punished, much less, persecuted.]

Maher praised people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who give their money away.  Maher said that Buffet has said, “I should write a book about how to get along on $500 million a year because apparently there are a lot of people who don’t know how to do it.”

Thank you, Bill, for the light you shed each week.  You expose darkness and let good ideas shine and you do it all with good grace and humor.  

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