Real Time with Bill Maher #369 09/19/14 Terror Tantrum

Is this when the war on terror began?
Colin Powell at the UN holding anthrax

Bill Maher and his guests had a terror tantrum on Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 369, which aired on September 19, 2014.

 

The Interview: Colin Powell

 
The interview was with General Colin Powell, a four-star general, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the former Secretary of State. He is the author of several books. His most recent book is It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership.
 

When I think of Colin Powell, the image that immediately comes to mind is Powell at the U.N. holding up that little vial of fake anthrax.  Powell is one of the people most responsible for getting us into George W. Bush’s Iraq war and thus he is responsible for all the unintended consequences of that war including the rise of ISIS. Because Powell was respected by so many world-wide, his support for the war was what put Bush and Cheney’s campaign for war over the top.  I noticed in Powell’s conversation with Maher, he praised the way the conduct of the first Iraq war, the one that Poppy Bush started, but had nothing to say about the second Iraq war.

No wonder Powell wants to change the subject from war to education.  He says he is doing it because it is a continuation of what he did as a general. Take young people and “teach them how to behave, how to have discipline, how to have structure.”  (And, I will add, how to fight and die in a war based on lies conducted to enrich the oil companies.)

Maher was fawning over Powell. I suppose that is what you have to do when your guest is the esteemed General Powell.  He didn’t ask for clarification when Powell said he is a Republican because of “my feelings about foreign policy and defense spending.”  I would have liked to know what those feelings are. Powell added that he was more moderate on social issues than the Republican party is. He added that the Republican party has to do more to appeal to minorities because minorities will soon be the majority in this country. “Appeal to minorities?” Why didn’t he say, “Do something to help minorities?”

 I can praise Powell on one thing. He supported Obama in both of Obama’s presidential elections. He said, “It was the right choice in 2008 and in 2012.” I want to add, what was the right choice when it was time to proclaim your party affiliation? I think he made the right choice for himself—being a black man in the Republican party gets attention and power because there are so few blacks in the Republican party.  It is selling out! Why else would a black person align with a party hasn’t done one thing to help blacks since Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.  (P.S. The same goes for gay Republicans.  When the party leadership reviles you—why do your support them?)

ISIS
Talk about terror filled the hour.  Maher thinks that Obama is wrong to conduct even a “limited war” against ISIS.  Maher thinks Obama is giving them exactly what they want, exactly what the beheadings were designed to do—incite the U.S. to go to war in Iraq.

In the monolog Maher mentioned “arming and training the moderate rebels.”  He told us not to worry. “McCain is carefully vetting them.” A nice swipe at Sarah Palin, which Maher built on in New Rules when he referenced the Palin family’s public drunken brawl.  Maher said that Obama’s “mom jeans” were clearly better than her mom genes. Pow!

Personally, I don’t know what is the right thing to do. It seems about 75% of the country is in favor of military action against ISIS and 75% also thinks it won’t work. I agree on both. There is no winning here. The U.S. can’t ignore such a deliberate provocation and yet responding is exactly what ISIS wants. They want war with “the West.” I hope they are wrong in their strategy.
 

 

New Rules: Jihad Me at Hello

Maher said that “for terrorism to work, it takes two. Why are we buying what they are selling?” 

Maher mocked Lindsey Graham as “the scared-est man in the country.” Because of his recent hysterical statements implying that ISIS was going to kill us all.

He mocked Representative Trent Franks (R, AZ) for saying ISIS was on our border. “Yes,” Maher said sarcastically, “The Mexicans and ISIS are working together. They will cut off our heads with hedge trimmers.”

Maher said that he feels bad about the beheading of the two American journalists by ISIS.  However, they were in Iraq and they were there by choice. Maher minimizes the danger ISIS poses to U.S. citizens in general.  “Do you really think you are standing in line for the new I-Phone and zap—ISIS beheads you.”

Maher says he agrees with Hillary Clinton that global warming is the biggest threat facing us and the world. But we can’t see the sea rising. It’s not on TV over and over like the beheading videos that Anderson Cooper tells us not to watch and then airs 10,000 times. Maher ends with, “We need to get a polar bear to punch someone in an elevator.”

For more of Maher’s views about  ISIS, read Bill Maher Talks Sense About ISIS.

Flip-a-District

Maher, reported that just as he predicted, the Flip-A-District loser John Kline is now trying to make the campaign be about Maher. He’s having a tantrum because he is terrified of  Maher’s campaign against him. Kline has said that Maher is all but his opponent’s campaign manager.  Maher refuted this saying he didn’t even know who his opponent was and had never heard of his opponent, Mike Obermueller. Maher said he wanted to emphasize that he is not endorsing or supporting anyone.  “We are wholly negative,” he said with a grin.

Matthew Segal and Student Debt and The University of Phoenix Scam

The mid-show guest was Matthew Segal, a media commentator and political activist. He is the co-founder and president of Our Time, a nationwide non-profit network of young Americans promoting economic and voter empowerment, gave us plenty of reasons not to vote for John Kline.

Segal reported that the University of Phoenix, Kline’s biggest supporter, was a publically traded for-profit organization. The university is paid mainly through student loans and the graduation rate is only 22%. (Is that degree even worth anything, given the poor reputation of the school?) Maher added that Kline wants to raise student loan rates and has called student loans a “handout.” At one time, students got education grants, not loans, because education was seen as good for society. Now we have loans with compound interest which students can’t pay back and which hurts the economy because when a person has loan debt he can’t buy a house, a car, or much of anything.

Segal is having a tantrum over this because student loan debt is terrorism for students.

Jack Kingston defends Kline and Attacks Obama
 

Panelist Representative Jack Kingston (R, GA) didn’t have much to add to the conversation except is in vein attempts to defend John Kline as “a nice man.”  Maher said maybe he is a nice man, but he doesn’t vote that way. Kingston may also be a “nice man,” but he recently lost his primary for the Republican Senate nomination. The more moderate David Perdue won. I’m thinking  there may be a trend here. Extreme right-wing candidates may win in gerrymandered congressional districts, but they have a harder time in statewide elections where independents can tilt the election to the more moderate candidate. Perdue is now in a close race with Democrat Michelle Nunn.

Kingston tried to pin the ISIS problem on Obama asking a rhetorical question “are we safer now (than under Bush)?  Yes, Maher said. We have not been attacked (on U.S. territory) like we were with Bush on 9/11. Yes, Pierce said, Obama got Iran to back down. And Obama has done 175 sorties against ISIS.

Republicans like to trot out the old adage that Republicans are better at foreign policy and defense. Powell did it during the interview. And Kingston repeated it. Look closely and you will see Republicans like to spend money on defense, and they like to talk tough but do they actually keep us safer. Do wars make us safer or do they just set the stage for the next war.  It is diplomacy that makes us safer.

 

Fergusson and the Terror of Being a Black Male

Every witness to the killing of Mike Brown, including two new witnesses, say that Brown had his hands up and was surrendering when he was gunned down in the street by a police officer.  



Wendell Pierce

Panelist Wendell Pierce, an actor who currently plays a corrupted parole officer on Showtime’s Ray Donovan and who previously appeared in HBO’s Treme told a personal story that made the issue vivid.

He described how the most dangerous moment of a black man's life is when he is pulled over by a policeman.  He knows that this could be the end of his life.  He then told a chilling story of a close call he once had in Louisiana.  "I can't believe in a post racial America." he said.  "It could get me killed."

Read Wendell's story and see a video clip from Maher's show at: Post Racial America? Not for Wendell Pierce!

Terrorizing Little Children
 

There is a difference between spanking and whipping. There is a difference between an occasional slap on the rear and terrorizing a young child with a beating.  Since the NFL players currently in the news for beating their wives and children are all black, the conversation turned to whether or not this was “a black thing”  Blacks may be treating their children the way slave-masters treated them. 

Maher said it was a Southern thing because the South is where religion is the strongest. The Bible says that beating your kids is good for them. 

I think it is a generational thing. Being beaten as a child makes you beat as a parent. Not just because it is a family tradition, but because that anger is seething within you. You can hear people like Sean Hannity on TV saying, “I was beaten as a child and I turned out OK.” I saw him take out a belt and start beating it against the table. He looked out of control. Oh yeah, Sean, you turned out OK. 

The abuse in the news is against children as young as one. Is beating a one-year old discipline? A one year old can’t understand anything.  All they understand is terror.  The parent is having a tantrum and terrorizing and traumatizing the child. I can’t write about this anymore because I am going to cry.

Terrorizing the Electorate

Panelist,  Joan Walsh, editor-at-large of Salon.com, political commentator on MSNBC, and the author of several books including, What's the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was took Jack Kingston down a notch or two. “Your party philosophy is to win because people don’t vote.

In addition to voter suppression laws, Maher said Republicans try to suppress voting in three other ways.

1. The people in this country want instant gratification. When Congress does nothing, they lose interest in voting.

2. There is no education on civics. People do not learn in school about how to be a good citizen.

3. Money has perverted the system. People feel that without money they can’t affect the political system.

  I could add to this list, but this review is already too long.

The Terror of Fracking

The mid-show comedy bit was about fracking. The American Petroleum Institute bused in homeless people to attend a town hall meeting and speak in favor of fracking.  They were paid to do so.  Maher joked that that they were allowed to make their own signs.   Here are a few of the signs:

“We are the 99 Proof.”

“Give me money, and I’ll say anything, just like Congress.” 

“I hate nature. A seagull stole my French fry.”

I found the jokes a little lame, maybe because they were mostly making fun of homeless people and not politicians.  

 

Terror Trauma
 

I’m worn out from writing about terror in all its forms. It just occurs to me: Does all this terror go back to children who were beaten by their parents. Maybe those ISIS people are terrorists because they were beaten as children. Maybe those cops are killing because they were beaten as children. And maybe Republicans have such hateful views because they were beaten as children.

Bill Maher's Guests #329 September 19, 2014

General Colin Powell: Four-star general, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the former Secretary of State. He is the author of several books. His most recent book is It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership 

Matthew Segal: media commentator and political activist. He is the co-founder and president of Our Time, a nationwide non-profit network of young Americans promoting economic and voter empowerment 

Representative Jack Kingston (R, GA) 

Joan Walsh: Editor-at-large of Salon.com, political commentator on MSNBC, and the author of several books including, What's the Matter with White People: Why We Long for a Golden Age That Never Was

 

Wendell Pierce: Actor ,who currently plays a corrupted parole officer on Showtime’s Ray Donovan and who previously appeared in HBO’s Treme

 

HBO Real Time with Bill Maher #265 "It's the Facts, Stupid"

by Catherine Giordano

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” episode #265, airing on November 2, 2012 was smart and funny as usual.  (Except when the Republicans are talking as usual; Bill had two of them this week.)

I’m naming this episode “It’s the Facts, Stupid.” It’s a take-off on the headline of Bloomberg Business Week. The cover of this magazine was shown on the show. In big red letters, the headline was “It’s Global Warming, Stupid.” Bill discussed how during the Republican National Convention Romney turned Obama’s words into a joke.  Romney, with his customary smirk on his face, quoted Obama as saying, “I will stop the rise of the seas and heal the planet.” Har! Har! Har! This is the “Not-So-Funny-Now-Is-It?” moment of the week. The rising seas inundated communities in New York and New Jersey and killed close to 100 people. As Bill said, “The rising seas” is not a laugh line.

While I’m talking about Romney’s smirk, take a close look at Romney when he is supposedly offering condolences to the victims of Sandy at his Victory Rally/Relief Event last Wednesday. It was a very brief statement. He followed it with his smirk and a nod of his head. It was as if he was saying, “There, that’s done. Now let’s get back to campaigning.”  And get back to campaigning is exactly what he did.  

Romney did this phony food drive. His aides went to WalMart the night before and bought canned goods. At the rally, the aides handed the cans to attendees who then marched in front of the cameras to give them to Romney. Obama is supervising FEMA and touring the destruction, and Romney is holding a fake relief rally. And here’s the kicker. The Red Cross will not accept food or clothing. They don’t have the resources to sort, store, and distribute. They want money so they can buy what is needed when and where it is needed. 

Mitt Romney, if you had one ounce of humanity, you would have gone to that rally and made a speech about how you were donating one million dollars (or five million or ten million) to the Red Cross. (You earn $20 million a year. You could easily have given a million.)  And then you could have said that you had asked all your billionaire and multimillionaire supporters to do likewise and told us how much you had raised from this.  And then you could have asked the attendees to give you checks made out to the Red Cross. That would have been a way to show compassion and to actually help. Instead, you bought canned goods with campaign money that the Red Cross doesn’t want and can’t use.  (I hope that stuff ends up in a food bank somewhere.)  Have you contributed even a dollar of your own money yet? Probably not. Too busy out on the campaign trail making empty gestures and telling lies. 

One more thing. The Red Cross needs blood. Why didn’t Romney have several bloodmobiles at his rally?  Why didn’t he roll up his sleeve in front of the cameras?  It’s what I would have done in his position. This was supposed to be a relief event, wasn’t it?  What exactly did he do at this rally to help anyone but himself.

 

Forgive the digression. I’m back to the show now and the funniest line in the monologue. Bill said Obama was getting bi-partisan support.  Even Fox News said, “Heck of a job, Brownie.” Second funniest line was about Mitt always being wrong—wrong about Bin Laden, wrong about letting Detroit going bankrupt, wrong about FEMA. Then he goes out and denies that he ever said those things. Bill said “Now he loves FEMA. If Mitt ever met anti-Mitt, his head would explode.” 

The interview was with James Balog, a photographer who has science credentials and who has just completed a documentary about the melting of the glaciers entitled “Chasing Ice.” He did a great job explaining global warming. Solar energy melts the ice that is needed to reflect that energy back into space; then the dark water that is exposed by the melting ice absorbs more energy. Less reflection; more absorption. This causes changes in the weather. Bill seems to be devoting a lot of time to this issue—it is discussed every week and he often has a guest who has expertise on the subject. Bravo to Bill for using his show to educate people about facts. 

The panel was Rob Reiner, actor/director and a strong Democrat; Margaret Hoover, a CNN contributor and an obvious Republican partisan; a Rick Lazio (a former Republican Congressman from NY who lost his bid for the Senate to Hillary Clinton).

 

BTW, was Margaret Hoover ever a beauty pageant contestant? She had this inane smile on her face constantly. She was so “girly,” how does anyone ever take her seriously?  Maybe they don’t.  

During a discussion about FEMA vis-a-vis Katrina under Bush and Sandy under Obama, Bill pointed out that “people who like government run it better.”Rob said privatizing FEMA (as Romney said he wants to do) is insane. Bill added, “When it is life and death you don’t want a private business in charge—“they put profit over human life.” 

How do we combat global warming? Lazio suggests that we don’t know if global warming caused the storm. He also suggests nuclear power as an alternative to carbon-based fuels. Bill tells him that there are better options. I agree. Just because solar alone, wind alone, hydro-power alone, bio-fuels alone can’t do the job, doesn’t mean that they all can’t be a bigger part of the mix. We may also have to build off-shore barriers. Bill said it would be too hard and too expensive.  I say that just because it is hard and expensive doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. And the sooner we start, the more lives (and property) we will save.  

Bill said that Obama’s biggest endorsement was from Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey. (It was a tacit endorsement because Christie only praised Obama’s response to the storm, but he, nonetheless, praised him effusively.) Bill pointed out that the Salt Lake City Tribune endorsed Obama. Romney is a Mormon and Utah has a very large Mormon population, yet the Utah paper endorsed Obama over Romney. Bill pointed out in the places where “they know Romney best, they don’t like him.”  (In Massachusetts where Romney was a one- term governor, Obama leads by over 20 points.)   

Bill showed a mock ad jokingly claiming that it should be Obama’s response to Romney’s false ads about Chrysler sending American jobs overseas--an ad that is condemned as false by everyone except rabid Romney-ites. (Even Chrysler has denied Romney’s claims.) Bill’s satirical commercial was about Romney’s experience running the 2002 Olympics in Utah.. It was very funny.  The ad said that Romney gave jobs to foreigners from Iran and Russia taking jobs away from American athletes, Arab terrorists killed 11 Jews (that was a different Olympics, but we are not going to let facts intrude are we?) while Romney stood idly by, then the Olympics went to China (again another Olympics) and ended with “Romney ran the Olympics and so did Hitler.” 

Mathew Segal was the last guest. He is the young (only 27) president and co-founder of “Our Time”, an organization that represents young people.  He said young people vote ideals, not parties. He also pointed out, as so many others have, that there are not two sides to every issue; there are not “two sides to facts.” I’d like to see more of him. 

On the economy, Matt said he learned in his economics classes that it takes 10 years for an economy to recover, and that Obama has had less than four years. The Republicans tried to deny that economists say this. Bill said that there have been 1.9 million new jobs in 2012. Over the almost four years (including the first few months when America was losing jobs due to the continuation of the trend from the Bush administration), there has been a net gain of 562,00 jobs. He also pointed out the Congressional Research Service (a non-partisan organization) reported that tax cuts for the 1% do not create jobs. The Republicans, true to form, protested--unsuccessfully.  It’s the facts, stupid! 

Hoover and Lazio seeing that they were losing the argument do what Republicans so often do. Talk louder, talk faster, talk over everyone else in the room. Further, It sounded to me like they raised the pitch of their voices—My ears hurt. I was ready to turn off the TV. (I didn’t because I have to do this review.) Hoover said that she tries to reform the Republican party. Perhaps there is some hope for her—at least she realizes that the Republican party needs reform. Nonetheless, she continued to deny facts and defend Republicans.   

Bill had some good zingers in “New Rules.”  Here’s a few of them. 

“The 2012 election might be remembered as the election where one candidate was suspected of not being born in America, and the other candidate was suspected of not being born on Earth.” 

“How did we get the shameless weathervane from the Planet Kolub? The other choices were Rick Perry, Santorum, the mom from Carrie (Michelle Bachman) and the black guy from Ghostbusters (Herman Cain).” 

“Clint Eastwood was not their first choice for a celebrity speaker at the Republican National Convention.  Honey Boo Boo refused to dumb it down.” 

“There is only time for five more reincarnations of Mitt Romney.  By Tuesday, he’ll be saying he is a staunchly pro-gay Unitarian who hates corporations and has is proud of his Latino heritage who doesn’t want old white men telling him what he can’t do with his vagina.”  

Bill concluded by saying that the election is win-win for him.  “If Obama wins, America wins.  If Romney wins, comedy wins.” 

Nate Silver, the statistician who crunches poll numbers, and almost exactly predicted the number of electoral votes for Obama in 2004, has reported that Obama now has an 81% probability of winning. And that was before he got the endorsement of Chris Christie. 

 
I pray that America votes based on facts. I pray that America wins on Tuesday.

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