Real Time with Bill Maher #366 10/2/2015 “Politicizing”

Neil deGrasse Tyson shows off his awesome vest.

by Catherine Giordano

Is politicizing a bad thing? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. When Bill Maher politicizes on Real Time with Bill Maher, as in did on episode 366, which aired on October 2, 2015, he combines news with comedy and politics both for our elucidation and entertainment.

Science should not be politicized

What a rare treat! There were two renowned scientists on the show. Richard Dawkins was the first interview and Neil deGrasse Tyson was the mid-show interview. They spoke about the wonders f science.

Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (which works to promote scientific literacy and a secular worldview), and author of several books. His most recent book is Brief Candle in the Dark, My Life in Science, is a follow-up to his 2013 autobiography. He said that the wonder of science is that life came into being without being designed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of Star Talk Radio, and author of several books including Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries. He also talked about the wonders of science. He loves the cosmos so much that he often wears outrageous ties and vests that depict the cosmos.)

 For Tyson, the wonder is that science can change the world. He explained how Einstein published an obscure paper many years ago, and it was considered to be a waste of time—but that discovery led to lasers and bar codes. Quantum physics gave us the technology for the internet.

Did the microscopic "water bear"
come from Mars?

Neil deGrasse Tyson is excited about the discovery of water on Mars. He thinks life may have evolved on Mars and Mars seeded the Earth. He spoke about the microscopic organism known as the “water Bear.” He said you can’t kill the thing. If it dries out, you can just add water, and it comes back to life. He said there was no reason for this to evolve on Earth; it might have evolved on Mars and arrived on Earth embedded in some space debris.

On Overtime, Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson revealed their two different approaches to the problem of religion. Richard Dawkins advocates engaging with religionists about the falsity of religious beliefs. Tyson, who describes himself as an educator, wants to offer religionists the scientist’s way of seeing the world and they can come to it on their own.”

Read more about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s views on life, the universe, and everything, including religion.  Neil deGrassse Tyson: The People’s Astrophysicist

Benghazi was politicized by Republicans

In the monolog, Maher said that Republicans are fond of saying that we shouldn’t politicize tragedies like school shootings. And then they immediately follow-up with “Now back to Benghazi.” Now that Kevin McCarthy boasted in an interview with Fox News TV host Sean Hannity about how the ninth and most recent Benghazi hearing took down Hillary’s poll numbers, we have the proof of how Republicans politicize tragedy when it suits their purposes. Maher quipped “Fox News is furious with McCarthy because he broke with the format of Fox News by saying something true.”

Hillary seized the opportunity to attack the Republicans for this. I hear the commentators on TV saying, “Why didn’t she go on the offensive before this?” The answer is obvious. If she had said it was a Republican witch hunt before Kevin McCarthy let the cat out of the bag, Republicans would have scoffed saying she was having “vast right-wing conspiracy” delusions. Now that McCarthy has admitted it, Hillary is finally free to speak up.

Maher said that this latest investigation has lasted longer than Watergate. Panelist Adam Gopnik, staff writer for The New Yorker and author of several books including the best-seller Paris to the Moon, said it was a “tragedy in search of a scandal.” He added that McCarthy blurted out the truth because he was making a campaign promise—he would use his position as speaker for political purposes.

Planned Parenthood was politicized by Republicans

Another wholly political Congressional investigation is the one on Planned Parenthood and the donation of fetal tissue for medical research. Maher said, “It was not a hearing, it was a yelling.” The video has been totally discredited, plus seven states have already conducted their own investigations and none of them found any wrongdoing. Panelist Angela Rye, a Democratic strategist and CEO of Impact Strategies (a government relations and political strategy firm based in D.C.) called it “a witch hunt.” She added, “They do not talk about the benefits to medicine that is derived from research using fetal tissue. Maher had the last word, saying, “The opponents of fetal tissue research should pledge to forgo any personal use of treatments that arise from this research.”

The Pope was politicized by Kim Davis

Kim Dais is the story that will not die. She is politicizing her religious beliefs. She claimed to have had a private audience with the Pope when he was in DC at which time the Pope told her she had his support. It turns out that is not at all true. It is true that she met the Pope, but it was a brief “drive-thru” type of meeting--Or as Maher described it. “Wham! Bam! Bless you ma’am! The spokesmen for the Pope have made it clear that they did not discuss her actions.

The Pope gave only one private audience on that day and that was to his former student, a gay man, who brought his partner of 19 years to the meeting.

Kim Davis lied about her meeting with the Pope.

See more funny Kim Davis memes: The Kim Davis Satirical Memes Photo Album

The shooting victims were politicized by Ben Carson

Maher said, “Ben Carson can separate conjoined twins, but he can’t separate fact from fiction. Maher has talked before about the “smart stupid person,” and Carson is a prime example of the type. He’s a highly skilled neurosurgeon, but he doesn’t believe in the Big Bang and he thinks evolution is a theory from the devil.

Maybe Carson knows how to perform neurosurgery, but he apparently is an ignoramus on everything else. Nonetheless, he is rising in the polls. Rye said that his tax plan was a 10% tithe. Tyson added, “It’s like the government is God.”

Carson was thoroughly ridiculed and he had not yet even said his stupidest thing. He blamed the victims in the Oklahoma shooting for not rushing the gunman. [By the way, one student did rush the gunman, but I guess Carson didn’t know anything about the subject he was talking about. The student was shot, but survived. He may have helped to keep the death toll down.]

Carson said he would have rushed the gunman. I doubt it. First of all, Carson is so slow- thinking that the gunman would have shot 50 people before Carson even figured out what was going on. Second, Carson is so slow-moving, that the idea of his “rushing” anyone is ludicrous. Third, he’d be too busy praying to do anything. And fourth, he doesn’t strike me as the hero type.

Note: I wasn’t sure if Trevor Noah would be able to fill Jon Stewart's shoes. Then I saw this bit about Ben Carson blaming the Oregon victims for not "rushing the shooter," and Noah has won me over. Watch this amazing bit from The Daily Show on 10/7/2015.  It’s as good as anything Stewart has ever done.

 

The mid-show comedy segment

Bill Maher turned Putin’s speech at the UN into the mid-show comedy segment. He literally put words into Putin’s mouth as he pretended to translate Putin’s speech. Some examples are: 

• Your so-called “Russian dressing” is just ketchup and mayonnaise.
• You are a nation of fat people in workout clothes. The irony amuses me.
• The food here is poison, and believe me I know poison.

Donald Trump is getting better at politicizing

Maher opened his monologue with a reference to Trump. He remarked that he was already seeing Jack-O-Lanterns everywhere. Then pretending to correct himself, he said that it was only Donald Trump.

Donald Trump revealed his tax plan--and, guess what?--it was the same as all the others from Republicans He would reduce the top rate, cut the corporate rate, and eliminate the estate tax—all of which he would personally benefit from. Maher said, “We need more tax rates—another bracket for the obscenely rich.”

Panelist Matt Welch, Editor-In-Chief of Reason Magazine and co-author (with Nick Gillespie) of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America faulted Trump’s plan, saying, “He is not talking about cutting the size of government. Cutting taxes without cutting spending is just raising the deficit.”

New Rules: Il Papa Don’t Preach

Republicans and Conservatives don’t like the Pope talking about economic justice—you know, the things that Jesus said. Maher said, “There are two Jesuses—liberals have the traditional Jesus and conservatives have a small business man from Galilee, the Supply-Side Jesus, whose main gripe is big government and who wants to make Nazareth great again. He is the Jesus who gave all the loaves and fishes to the top 1% so they could trickle down onto everyone else.”

Supply Side Jesus

Maher concluded, “This is why Donald Trump is the perfect candidate for the Republican Party. He has he two favorite books. One is about a perfect God who teaches humanity the right way to live and the other is the Bible.”

Read more about Donald Trump's "two most favorite books:" Donald Trump: I Love the Bible and Other Panders

Republicans are great at politicizing. So is Bill Maher. Only, with the Republicans, the humor is unintentional. 

Bill Maher’s Guests October 2, 2015

Interview

Richard Dawkins: Evolutionary biologist, founder of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (which works to promote scientific literacy and a secular worldview), author of several books. His most recent book is Brief Candle in the Dark, My Life in Science, a follow-up to his 2013 autobiography.

Mid-show Special Guest

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, host of Star Talk Radio, author of several books including Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries

Panel 

Adam Gopnik: Staff writer for The New Yorker, where he covers American politics and culture. He has written several books including the best-seller Paris to the Moon.

Angela Rye: Democratic strategist, CEO of Impact Strategies, a government relations and political strategy firm based in D.C. She was the Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus for the 112th Congress. 

Matt Welch: Editor-In-Chief of Reason Magazine, co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What’s Wrong With America. He was the host of Fox Business Channel’s The Independents, which aired from December 2013 until January 2015.

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” #317 “A How-To Pow Wow”

By Catherine Giordano

 There was a lot of “how to” on episode 317 of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher which aired on May 9, 2014.  All the guests were telling us, and each other, how-to do something or other. I tell all in this review/recap of the show.

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The interview was with Sister Simone Campbell, a Roman Catholic nun, executive director of NETWORK, a lawyer, and the author of  A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community. She’s a friendly open woman with an easy manner and a charming smile and a heart in the right place. She said “The real issue is how we treat each other?” She said “Pope Francis is going back to the basics--touching people’s lives.” She works to make the dream of equality a reality in America.

Matt Welch, editor of Reason, a libertarian magazine and co-host of “The Independents” on the Fox Business Network is also the author of a book explaining how-to fix America, The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America. He was an amiable panelist with a kind of smart-alec charm who defended Republican policies and tactics, but then turned around and said the Republican Party is “a total clown show.” I’m at a loss at how to know what he really thinks. 

Another panelist was Arianna Huffington, the editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, and the author of numerous books, many of them how-to books. Her latest book, which tells us, how-to live is Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder. I’ll give her this: she knows how-to thrive. She seems nice enough, but sometimes she comes across as a bit contrived and inauthentic. She began her career as a Democrat, then became a fierce Republican, and then switched back to Democrat. In a review, I saw that her book was about “mindfulness” the biggest buzz-word in the self-help business right now.   

The final panelist was Baratunde Thurston, a comedian and author of How to Be Black.  I had never heard of him before, but I immediately liked him.  He’s charming and authentic and consistent in his views. 

The mid-show guest was Dinesh D’Souza, a contributor to the conservative American Enterprise Institute and author of several books including his most recent book, America: Imagine a World without Her. He wants to tell us how to be an American, but he has it all wrong. American is first and foremost about equality. The founders wrote, “All men are created equal,” not “It’s all about wealth.” He has a very unpleasant demeanor—His movements are cramped (as if he doesn’t have enough space), and he seemed nervous and unsure of himself because he kept bobbing his head like a bird. I think he should read Huffington’s book and learn how-to loosen up a little. Perhaps he looks so sour because he has such a bitter view on life.  

Dinesh admitted that all of his dire predictions about the Obama presidency have failed to materialize. Things are actually much better in this country than when Obama took office. Unable to criticize Obama on the economy, Dinesh pivoted to his “Obama is an anti-colonialist” theme. Maher said, “Isn’t anti-colonialism a good thing?”  According to Dinesh, not if you are Obama. He states that Obama has taken up his father’s anti-imperialist views—even though Obama had next to no contact with his father. Dinesh thinks that Obama wants to take down imperialist countries. Like America.  [I wonder if this isn’t a classic case of projection. Dinesh’s family is from India. India was a colony of Britain. Perhaps it is Dinesh and his father who are the anti-imperialists. Perhaps Dinesh wants to take down Obama in order to take down America.  How’s that for a conspiracy theory.] 

Now that I have introduced you to the cast I’ll move on to the issues discussed.  Benghazi was a biggie. Maher described the Benghazi uproar as being “like a bad case of the shingles. I thought it was gone, but now it is back, and I am itching again.” 

Maher said “There is no there there.” Welch disagreed saying, “There is a scandal.” When he gave his reasons, it became clear that the events in Benghazi weren’t the scandal. No, the scandal was Susan Rice and her talking points on a Sunday morning talk show. The seven previous investigations into Benghazi, some actually dealing it the events that took place in Benghazi, have found no wrong-doing, before, during, or after the events. (However, there are recommendations about how to improve security for diplomats serving in dangerous areas.) 

The eighth Benghazi investigation is about to begin—the “Congressional Select Committee on Benghazi” has been convened. Thurston called it “The Select Committee on Nonsense.”  I told you I liked him.  

Monica Lewinski is back in the news because of her article in Vanity Fair. She said, “I was taken advantage of, but it was totally consensual.” In his monologue, Maher joked,” “Ironically, that as was what Bush said about Dick Cheney.”  

Huffington stated, “I know 20 women in Washington who would have given Clinton a blow job.” Welch blurted out, “And that’s just the Republicans.” Huffington feels that Lewinski’s problems stem not from the sex, but from her bad judgment.  She couldn’t keep her mouth shut about it.  

There was some discussion about whether the Republicans had learned their lesson from the whole impeachment brouhaha which led to huge mid-term wins for the Democrats. The consensus was that they probably had not. Welch scornfully dismissed the likelihood that Republicans had learned anything and referred to that year as a “bad year.” [Right now Welch is gung-ho on Benghazi, I wonder if 10 or 20 years from now, he’ll be describing 2014 with its Benghazi witch hunt as a bad year?] 

There were also discussions about the role of religion, especially Islam, in terrorism, sharia law, and whether or not multi-culturalism was a good thing.  

The mid-show comedy segment was about the messages that some graduates tape to the mortarboards of their graduation caps.  Maher said that it used to be things like “Thanks, Mom,” but now, the messages reflect the economic difficulties facing graduates. The new messages read something like this: 

·         My other hat is a hairnet.

·         Don Sterling, If you pay off my loans, I’ll be your “archivist.”

·         My other tassels are on my nipples. 

The final New Rules segment was about the issue of privacy—the lack of it in our personal lives even when we are speaking in our own homes. Lewinski was brought down by tapes made by a friend and Don Sterling was brought down by tapes made by his girlfriend. Maher quoted a column written by Kathleen Parker that essentially said that we should all be more careful about what we say even when we think we are having a private conversation and that “speaking your mind is over-rated. “That from a columnist who makes her living speaking her mind,” Maher scoffed. Maher seemed pretty angry on this issue and said he was not about to give up “speaking his mind.” He made valid points, but he forgot how-to make it funny.

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HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” #295 "Twerking it”

They were twerking it on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” #295, on Friday September 27, 2013.

Okay, no real twerking.  But Bill did make a comment about Ted Cruz being the Miley Cyrus of politics. He’s twerking us all around with his antics, and in the process making a name for himself. Some of us think he is making a fool of himself, but Miley Cyrus’s is making tons of money due to her antics and Ted Cruz is now a household name.  Sure half the country thinks he is an ass, but the other half thinks he is a hero. Bill also jabbed about Ted Cruz’s talkathon, “where is Kanye West when we need him?’ Would someone please shut that guy up. Bill didn’t let up on Cruz throughout the whole show.  He took another jab at him in “New Rules.”  How did Cruz talk for 21 hours without a bathroom break? “Who needs a bathroom break when you have that much crap coming out of your mouth?”  Gross, but apt…and funny.

The panel included Matt Welch, an editor for Reason magazine and author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America.  He’s clearly a Republican from the Rand Paul/Ron Paul libertarian wing of the party, but he’s no fan of the tea-partiers. He said, “Republicans are squandering their power.”

Robert Reich 

There was a lot of talk about crazy-ass Republicans. A good thing we had the brilliant Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, and the author of several books including his most recent Inequality for All, to set everyone straight. He said the right word for the Republicans was not “hostage takers, but extortionists” They are threatening to shut down the government and to refuse to pay the bills that Congress has rung up unless Obama gets behind the Romney/Ryan economic agenda.  What part of “You Lost” do they not understand?  They will bring down not only the United States economy, but the world economy. Reich said that the last time Congress came close to refusing to raise the debt ceiling the U.S. economy lost $1.3 billion and that was without them actually doing it. 

Reich made a very important point. That Republicans with their mantra of “makers and taker” don’t seem to realize when the all Americans do well (the so called “working class or “middle class”  do well the rich do well.  The two biggest economic disasters, “The Great Depression” and the recent “Great Recession” were preceded by the greatest inequality between the super-rich and the ordinary worker. When the workers have money to spend, they buy stuff and that makes the entrepreneurial class richer.  The minimum wage (which needs to be raised), food stamps, unemployment insurance the are not just give-aways—they are what keeps the economy going in hard times and what allows the economy to eventually recover.

ObamaCare was a big topic.  Welch said with great conviction, “We all know that it will add to the deficit.” Bill shot back, “We don’t know that.”  They began to argue and Reich broke in, “I’ll be the mediator.  It won’t.”  In addition to being really smart, Reich has a great wit.  Welch seemed a little conflicted about ObamaCare. He seemed to like it when he said that “I had a pre-existing condition” and couldn’t get health insurance, but then he attacked it saying it was “one size fits all.”  Bill pointed out that the bill was 2000 pages long, something Republicans are always complaining about, explain how that is one size fits all. Welch had to admit that he had no answer.  Touché, Bill, for that “hoist-on- your- own-petard” moment of the week.

However, when Welch criticized Obama for not doing a better job of explaining the new affordable Ca Act, even Bill had to agree.  Even I have to agree. Obama is out there doing it now, but for so long there has been a vacuum which the Republicans could fill with outrageous lied.

The comedy bit dealt with the creepy ad that Republicans have been running about health care—the ones where a menacing puppet of Uncle Sam is trying to get into your private parts. (Bill showed the ads last week.) The ads are supposed to persuade young people not to sign up for ObamaCare. The ads are a joke and I doubt they will persuade even one person. They are good for one thing, though—parody.  Bill replaced the creepy Uncle Sam puppet with a creepy Jesus Christ puppet who informs the young woman that she is pregnant and had better make the right choice.  The words “Don’t let the church play doctor. Opt out of Mississippi.” appear on the screen.

The third panel member was Monica Metha, an economic columnist for the magazine Inc. and the author of The Entrepreneurial Instinct: How Everyone Has the Innate Ability to Start aSuccessful Small Business  I hadn’t mentioned her earlier because she had nothing much to say.  he told a long pointless story about how her immigrant parents became entrepreneurs and enjoyed financial success.  (Maybe she was just plugging her book.) Later she said “I can’t keep all this straight”. Monica, you are an economist, isn’t it your job to keep all this straight. She did say one interesting thing, “Politicians should wear badges of their sponsors like they do at NASCAR.”  Or rather, it would have been interesting if I had not heard that said by dozens of people over many years.

 

Who had a lot of interesting, and original, things to say?—the mid-show guest, Dr. Carl Hart, a neuroscientist, professor at Columbia, and author of High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges EverythingYou Know About Drugs and Society. It was music to Bill ears to hear hart explain that much of what we think we know about drug addiction is not true. He has done the research and has found that 80% to 90% of drug users are NOT addicted. Adderall is methamphetamine. Morphine is heroin.  When we don’t like the users, we vilify the drug. He praised the Obama administration for being the only administration who has ever talked about drug laws and how those laws are discriminatory. 

Dr. Hart’s comments meshed nicely with those of Tom Robbins, actor, who has a new movie coming out called Thanks for Sharing about drug addiction. However, Tom was on the show not to talk about his movie or about drug addiction, but to talk about prisons. He became interested in prisons when he starred in The Shawshank Redemption, the movie about prison based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, (published in a book of four novellas titled Different Seasons).  Over half of all prisoners are in prison for drug offenses, mostly non-violent offenses. They are thrown together with criminal and not provided any educational opportunities and thus prisons become schools for crime. Tom has a program using improvisation to help prisoners work to get their emotions under control and to form emotional bonds.  The recidivism rate among prisoners who participate in his program is zero compared to the 65% rate for all prisoners. Wow! It’s amazing what can be accomplished when people are treated like human beings and given a chance.

In New Rules,. Bill launched into a paean about California because California is showing the country how it is done. When you have a governor (Jerry Brown) and a legislature (Democratic) that works in tandem with him, great strides can be made improving the lives of citizens. A deficit of $27 billion as turned into a surplus by cutting spending and raising taxes. ObamaCare is working in California and single payer policies a gaining steam.  Gay marriage and pot smoking is legal, abortion has been made easier and undocumented residents can get driver’s licenses. The Golden State is huge (40 million residents) and it is setting the trend for America. Even almond milk.  We just had some extra almonds and we thought we’d “mess” with you.” (I substituted mess for the word Bill actually used.)

A great show. All the guests were well-behaved. I think that may be the new policy of the show. No screaming matches allowed.

If only I could say the same about Republican politicians.  No good behavior there.  Instead of working it (doing their jobs like they are in California), they are twerking it.  And by that I mean they are making asses of themselves.  

P.S. Speaking of asses, Bill said that NRA stood for Nuts, Racists, and Assholes. I couldn’t work that into the review, but it was too good a line to pass up.