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.

Real Time with Bill Maher #326 July 25, 2014 "Realityville"

by Catherine Giordano

Hop on the train to Realityville with Bill Maher and his guests. Real Time with Bill Maher, episode 326, airing on July 25, 2014 is the non-stop express to Realityville. 

Stop the train, I want to get off.

As Bill said in his opening monolog “The world is falling apart this week.” 

 

We have planes falling out of the sky and the Israelis and Palestinians shooting missies at each other.

 

Weird Al Yankovic’s new album Mandatory Fun is the number one album on Billboard and, incidentally, the album cover features planes and missiles. 

Also the Russians have lost control of a satellite full of copulating lizards, and it is floating around in space. 

(More about the geckos with a video clip at #GoGetThoseGekkos )

  

When reality gets to be too much, we turn to Maher for some comic relief.  

So here are some of the jokes from the monolog.

• Putin said the plane taken down by Russian separatists in the Ukraine actually crashed because one passenger turned on his cell phone.
• The Israelis and the Palestinians have a 12-hour cease fire, otherwise known as reloading.
• Obama met with the president of Guatemala to tell him the children can’t stay… unless they have a good curve ball.

 

Interview, Economy

The interview was with Richard D. Wolff, an economist and author of Democracy at Work: The Cure for Capitalism. Maher and Wolff spoke about “The American Dream.” Maher noted a recent study reported it takes $130,000 a year for a family of four to live a modest middle class life—a house, a car, a vacation, nothing extravagant. Only one in eight Americans can attain this lifestyle.  

Wolff said he is neither a Marxist nor a capitalist. He said it is important to look at the pros and cons of both systems and to learn the lessons of the past. Capitalism in the 19^th century embraced a commitment to develop the world and grow the economy. Today capitalism is about making a buck any way you can. However, the socialism of

Russia and China show that socialism does not work either.  

Maher brought up automation (robots) and outsourcing (cheap foreign workers) as the two major threats to “American Labor.” I agree and I have long advocated that government must provide the balance between capitalism and socialism. Neither can be allowed to gain too much power over the other. Right now the capitalists have the upper hand. That is why we need to raise the minimum age, tax overseas profits, and take other measures to restore balance.   

Obama hatred, Impeachment

Barack Obama

Bill Maher had two conservative guests on the show, Matt Kibbe, an economist, President and CEO of the Republican think tank, FreedomWorks, and author of Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto, and Hogan Gidley, a senior political advisor for the Republican consulting firm, BraebenderCox. They behaved themselves and even had a few intelligent things to say, but Maher was frequently either laughing at them or chastising them. 

Maher mentioned that Republicans say that everything is Obama’s fault. A poll shows 57% or Republicans want to impeach him. However it has nothing to do with Obama’s acts as president. “They wanted that at the inaugural ball.”  They just can’t face the reality that Obama won the election. Twice. 

This impeachment talk is crazy and very bad for our country. It seems that no sooner does a Democrat get elected president thanthe impeachment talk starts.The founders intended impeachment to be for “high crimes.” I think Bush was guilty of high crimes when he lied us into a war with Iraq and Democrats never spoke of impeachment; all Obama has done is give people affordable health care, save the economy, and try to address a few of this country’s problems where he can despite Republican obstructionism. As Obama said in a recent speech, “I’m the guy doing my job. You [Republicans] must be the other guy.” 

Kibbe leaded off with “Obama has so little respect in the world.” Maher laughed at him for bringing out this tired old talking point. “All the polls show that the popularity of the U.S. is up worldwide [compared to Bush-era polls.]” 

Maher asked Kibbe to be specific about what he thinks Obama should do differently. Kibbe answered “It’s called leadership.” I groaned—another tired old talking point. Maher rebuked him saying, “I said to be specific.” 

Then Gidley jumped in saying something a missile shield and buying French helicopters. I guess that is specific. Maher should have asked for ‘something specific that is not stupid.” 

Rand Paul, Dick Cheney, War

Kibbe likes Rand Paul because Paul is opposed to war. He says Rand will return to traditional Republican policies as opposed to Bush who engaged in nation-building. He said, that Paul is not advocating isolationism, but is all about “practical realism,” about what the U.S. can do. Gidley said, “War is terrible. It is all about killing people and blowing stuff up, but we can’t take it off the table.” Well, at least he thinks it is terrible. 

Maher reported that Dick Cheney responded to Paul by saying the military should be our top priority. Maher feigned shock. “You mean it is not?” He then recited the reality of spending levels in the U.S. budget that showed that the military gets the lion’s share of revenue. 

Amy Goodman: The Silenced Majority

Amy Goodman, a journalist, columnist, radio host of Democracy Now, and author of several books including The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them and The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope (with Denis Moynihan and Michael Moore) and the lone liberal on the panel jumped in saying We should just reverse everything that Dick Cheney says.” She add, “Be strong at home.”  She also said, “Peace is harder than war.”  She gave Syria as an example. The U.S co-operated with Russia to get Syria to get rid of its chemical weapons and war was averted.

I say, chalk one up for Obama for that successful use of diplomacy. 

Israel

Maher called Rick Santorum a “Super-Duper Christian.” Maher said there will be soon be no Republican Jews in congress now that Eric Cantor lost his primary election, but Republicans “love Israel like King Solomon.” [This is part of Maher’s oft-stated opinion that Christian Republicans only support Israel because they believe that the establishment of the state of Israel fulfills a biblical prophecy so”you-know-who can come back.”] 

Gidley, who used to work for Santorum, said that the attendees at a recent “Christians United for Israel” conference was very diverse, but the people on the stage were all white men. He urged that they put some different faces on the stage. [Again the Republican response to their lack of diversity is optics not policy changes. Did it ever occur to him that the reason there were only white men on the stage is because o the reality that white men are the vat majority of Republican politicians.] 

Mid-Show Comedy Segment
 

Dr.Seuss
 Oh the Places You'll Go

The mid-show comedy segment was a parody of the Dr. Seuss book, Oh, The Places You’ll Go. Maher changed the words to satirize Republican attitudes toward immigrant and refugee children. He ended with:  

“Be careful out there or immigration will catch you

And never believe what you read on a statue.” 

See the full video clip on my post, Border Crossings.

Mid Show Guest

Neil deGrasse Tyson

The mid-show guest was Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, author of several books, including Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, host of TV show, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and all-around nice guy. I loved his tie with its starry universe motif—it just showed what a great sense of humor he has. 

Tyson was recently featured on the cover of the conservative magazine, National Review. The headline was “Smarter Than Thou.” It was intended as a snarky insult. Tyson just laughed it off with his characteristic good humor. “They don’t like me because I am a geek. The geek-set tends to vote Democratic.” “On this show, ‘they’ always means Republicans.” 

Tyson is like a big kid when he talks about the cosmos. “It is awesome.” “It is spiritual.” He’s one person who is in love with reality. 

Bill Maher spoke about a recent solar flare incident that could have wiped us out. Tyson told him that it was not even close. Then he unleashed his inner geek and explained solar flares to us: The sun is a roiling ball of gas and it sometimes burps out charged particles. When these particles collide with the atmosphere, we get the Northern Lights. It might disrupt satellite communications a bit, but it is not going to destroy the Earth.  

Tyson spoke about his desire to learn if there is life on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. “Who doesn’t? It’s in the Goldilocks zone.” [He means that conditions are” just right” for the existence of life as we know it.]  

Executions, botched and otherwise

In his monolog, Maher made light of the botched execution in Arizona this week. He said, “Execution is not that hard. Set him free and put him in a GM car.” He mentioned that some people have suggested a return to a firing squad and others say that would be “cruel and unusual punishment.” Maher said, “This is America. What’s so unusual about getting shot?” 

Towards the end of the show, there was a more serious discussion of the topic. Amy Goodman said, “It was not a botched execution. Execution is a botched policy.” 

Maher said, “There is something perverse about trying to kill people in a gentle way.” Exactly, killing is a brutal act no matter who does it and no matter how it is done. Maher is edging towards an epiphany on this subject, but he is not quite the yet.  

Kidde jumped in saying, “Think of what he [the person who was executed] did. There is a price to pay for his brutality.” He is clearly stuck in revenge mode. 

Goodman had to correct him. “We should not duplicate the brutality of the killer.” She pointed out that we are the only industrialized country that has the death penalty.  

Tyson said it best. “Wouldn’t it separate us [from the killer’s brutality] more not to do it [the execution] at all? We should be above the base level of conduct exhibited by the criminal.”  

My take on this is the old adage: Two wrongs don’t make a right. It is natural to feel the urge for revenge. However, part of being a civilized human being is to control our baser urges.

Read more about this at Death Row Follies.

You can also read: Thou Shall Not Kill: The Immorality of the Death Penalty

New Rules: Trouble with the Serve

Bill Maher is upset with the service industry. He is riled up by customer service agents that give you a hard time when you call to cancel, hotels that charge a “resort fee”, airlines that chare for luggage, the small print in contracts, and more.  

He’s a bit worried about Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to take over Time Warner which owns HBO.”If that happens, this show will become Eating Paste with Steve Doocy.”  

Maher says that big business is the new big government. “Too big to fail? No, too big to care.” 

“My friends on the right have this idea that the free market is always perfect because it lets the consumer find the best product at the best price. Nice idea for business school or the Ayn Rand Charity-Haters Club. Here in Realityville, you get cable from the one cable company in your area, and you sign a piece of paper, and then Rumplestiltskin comes to your house and laughs. I’m kidding. He doesn’t come to your house. You have to call.” 

Next stop: Realityville

Now do you understand why I want off the train to Realityville? It’s hard living in the real world.  

Bill Maher’s Guests #326 July 25, 2014

Richard D. Wolff: Economist, author of Democracy at Work: The Cure for Capitalism

 

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

host of TV show, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Hogan Gidley: Political advisor for Republican political consulting firm, BraebenderCox
 

Amy Goodman: journalist, columnist, radio host of Democracy Now, author of several books including The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them and The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope (with Denis Moynihan and Michael Moore)

 

Matt Kibbe: Economist, President and CEO of Republican think tank, FreedomWorks, author of Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto

 

HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher #299 “Spoofs and Spooks”

By Catherine Giordano

Debbie Wasserman -Shultz

HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher”, #299, aired on Halloween (Friday 10/31) or as Bill called it, “the atheist Christmas.” In the monologue, Bill commented that a lot of the Christian holidays are linked to the occult as opposed to the actual Christmas which is linked to amazon.com.

[Which reminds me, please use the link to amazon.com on the left side of this page—I get a small commission when you do and it doesn’t cost you anything. Also, you’ll see links to some books in this post—click on them to order the books you want—I get a commission on anything you buy using my link even if it is a third party seller. Maybe you will be buying stuff from amazon for gifts. This is how bloggers get paid for their work, so if you enjoy my posts, please remember to use my link when you buy from amazon.]

Bill also mentioned the flap over health insurers cancelling “junk policies.”  This gives the right a chance to proclaim that Obama is a liar because he said, “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.” Bill brought up all the lies G. W. Bush told while president (like the lies about WMD), and said, "Well, those were OK--they were white lies.”

Keeping with the Halloween theme, my favorite spooky witch of the right, Ann Coulter was the guest for the interview. The coultergeist had a new book to flog: Never Trust a Liberal Over 3-Especially a Republican. (Buy it used—I don’t want to help put even a penny in her pocket.) Her long blonde hair was softly curled—a more flattering style than her usual long straight hair flopping down to her hips. But that dress—was it a Halloween costume? The dress drew bull’s eye’s around each breast. I think she must have had some work done or perhaps just a lot of help from Victoria’s Secret, because she usually looks very flat-chested. I won’t bother to report anything she said because it’s not worth mentioning, but I will point out that she giggled like a teen-aged girl throughout the interview.

Debbie Wasserman Shultz, the Congresswoman from Florida, and author of

For the Next Generation: A Wake-Up Call to Solving Our Nation's Problems, was fierce in defending Obama and Democrats in general. She said that Obama’s claim that people could keep their insurance was not a lie because he was referring to the 95% who have employer-provided health insurance. Furthermore, from what I have heard, almost all of the people who have had their insurance cancelled were able to get better coverage at lower cost through the ACA. And I’ll add one more thing about these cancellations—it is very self-serving for the insurance companies who would like to see the ACA fail so they can go back to gouging consumers.    

Another guest, Neil de Grasse Tyson, everyone’s favorite astrophysicist and author of Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, opined that 10 years from now all the ACA problems “won’t even be a footnote.”  (By the way, Tyson has a lot of books—one more interesting than the next. I’ve put them all on my wish list—hint hint to anyone wanting to get me a gift.) 

The mid-show comedy segment was a spoof about posters for health insurance that you might see in various states. 

            TX:      Because we all get shot sooner or later. Get covered.

 

            WV:     Because my sister caught me with m other sister. 

            FL:      Because shit here always gets weird 

            DC:     Because you never know where you will run into Chris Brown

Bill introduced a new topic to the conversation, bringing up Ted Cruz senior, a really spooky kook, who recently went on an embarrassing rant revealing to all where Ted Cruz junior learned his nastiness. Bill remarked that Democrats have absent fathers, like Clinton and Obama, but Republicans have father issues, like Bush, Romney, and Cruz. 

Ann Coulter tried to explain away Daddy Cruz’s nutty remarks by saying he was only joking. That is really a stretch even for liar-liar-pants- on-fire Ann Coulter. Bill countered that Republican jokes are never funny because the underlying premise is wrong. For instance, we can make a joke about Sarah Palin being stupid because everyone knows she is an air-head, but if you try to say that about Nancy Pelosi, it falls flat.

Women in politics was another topic of conversation. Everyone was for it, not just Wasserman-Shultz who would like to have more female colleagues in Congress. Tyson was a big fan of the idea, saying, “Women outnumber men. Let’s do it. Women can put women in office. Vote all the men out and the women in.”  

Another panel member, Rob Reiner, co-author with Norman Lear of The Princess Bride: A Celebration (a book commemorating the 25^th anniversary of the film), spoke about Hillary. He said, “If Hillary ran we would have the single most qualified person ever to run for president.”

The interview was with Rob Lowe who plays JFK on the television adaption of Bill O’Reilly’s book, Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot. (If you want to buy that book, make sure you buy it used. I don’t want to help put even one penny in that man’s pocket.) Lowe spoke about his friendship with John Jr.  Lowe appeared on the last cover of John Jr.’s magazine, George.

There as a discussion of John Kennedy’s achievements—the space program that put a man on the moon, how Kennedy inherited the Bay of Pigs, how he tried to pull back the CIA, but couldn’t and now the intelligence agencies are out of control.

Wassermann–Schultz strongly favors continuing the embargo on Cuba. The other panelists disagreed, saying that we don’t put an embargo on other countries with human- right violations.  Tyson. in addition to being really smart and very charming, is also a funny guy: He said, “If we boycott China, Wal-Mart would go under overnight.”

Because Tyson is an astrophysicist, naturally the talk turned to the new movie, Gravity. I saw the movie—it is weak on character and plot, but the photography and special effects are worth the price of admission. Also, the uplifting theme of the spirit of humanity triumphing against the odds.  Bill thought the movie was exaggerated, but Tyson pointed out that the threat of space junk is very real—in the movie one satellite takes a hit, fragments, and takes out all the other satellites. Bill said that if that happened, we wouldn’t have cell phones. Tyson had to correct him again telling him cell phones worked off towers, not satellites. It seems Bill knows his politics, but science, not so much.

And on to New Rules. Bill jabbed Suzanne Summers who is evidently talking smack about the ACA.  He said, “She sells a metal spring for $30, and [has the gall to say] the ACA is a scam.

Bill jabbed Ted Cruz again, making fun of a photo showing him duck hunting. He looked just as awkward as John Kerry did when he was photographed duck hunting during his presidential run. He told Ted Cruz, “You have already proved your dominion over primitive creatures with brains the size of walnuts—you head the tea party.” But if Cruz insists on going duck hunting, Bill hopes he gets Dick Cheny as a partner. (If you have forgotten, Cheny once shot his friend in the face while duck hunting.) 

Bill also mentioned that some people hunt to eat. For instance, John Boehner lives on Wild Turkey. This segment was the “turkey-turkey-duck” moment of the week. Bill was blasting away at Republicans who just couldn’t duck his shotgun style jokes. 

Bill ended with an appeal on behalf of stoners. He said that ‘the New American Voter is a stoner.”  Bill said, “By the time younger folks turn 65, they’ll want pot to be covered by Medicare Part D.” (I’m not a stoner, but I say, “Why not?”) Bill called Obama a “total buzz kill”  saying he is tired of waiting for him to evolve on the issue. He told Hillary, “Give up your pantsuit and say hello to Stoner Hillary.” 

My thoughts: Who needs Halloween, when you have Republicans.  Never mind ghosts and ghoulies--it is Republicans like Ted Cruz who scare me.

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