Bill Maher New Rules: Middle-Class Economics

by Catherine Giordano

All the commentators are saying that Romney leave the race because of concerns about donors or because of concerns about losing?   

How humiliating it must have been to run for president and lose. But how much more humiliating to run for president and lose and then next time around you lose the race for the nomination from your own party. Maybe he decided not to tarnish his reputation even further.  

I was sorry to see him go.  I recently saw a blooper reel of Romney’s 2012 campaign.  The man was funny—inadvertently funny, but funny none the less.  This year was shaping up to be a great one for the blooper reel. Romney was talking about “income inequality.” The words are so funny when they come out of his mouth.  

Now that the Republicans can’t run their mouths about how bad the economy is—because the economy is pretty good-- they have to run their mouths about something.  They chose income inequality –and of course—they blame Obama for it.  It is the latest of the ju-jitsu moves from the Karl Rove school of dirty tricks: Attack your opponent on his strengths.  

Whatever good news there is on the economy was accomplished by Obama despite the obstructionism of the Republicans. Obama has a plan to reduce income inequality—raise the minimum wage, two years of college free, numerous jobs bills that include upgrading our country’s infrastructure and more.   

When a Republican talks about income inequality, he usually doesn’t bother to mention any plan to do something about it.  And if he does offer a plan it is to lower taxes on the rich—a plan thoroughly discredited.   

This picture should be on every lamppost in America.  It is not from Bill Maher, but it makes the point so well I’m including it.

Maher devoted the last segment of Nixed Economics to income inequality and the shrinking middle class. His proposal is to return to the socialism of the 1950’s and 60’s.  “Yes,” Maher opines “For a brief period of time, the United States was Finland.” 

Here’s a video of the segment.

 

 

Read the full recap and review of the show: “The Big Game”

 

Bill Maher’s Guests:  #341 January 30, 2015

Katty Kay. Journalist, lead anchor of BBC World News America, author. Her most recent book is The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance---What Women Should Know

Monica Mehta;  Financial writer and commentator, author of The Entrepreneurial Instinct: How Everyone Has the Innate Ability to Start a Successful Small Business, ambassador for Operation Hope, a non-profit financial literacy organization. 

Laura Poitras: Documentary film director and producer. Her films include My Country, My Country. Her latest documentary, Citizenfour (about Eric Snowden), is nominated for a 2015 Oscar. 

Mel Brooks: Film director, screenwriter, comedian, actor, producer, composer, songwriter. He is best known as the producer of comic farces and parodies.  Nine of his best movies are included in The Mel Brooks Collection  

Joaquin Castro: Representative to Congress (D, TX)

Bill Maher #340 01/23/15 Open Season on Republicans

by Catherine Giordano


Bill Maher New Rules

Bill Maher had two comedy segments on his show, the mid-show segment and New Rules at the end of the show.  He took aim at Republicans and fired away.  It was like shooting fish in a barrel. 

New Rules pointed out that so many Republicans were running for their party’s nomination for president that Republicans should just tell us who ISN’T running. The clown car is revving up and ready to roll around the track.  

Right now they are all vying to catch the favor of one of the Republican billionaire sugar daddies. Last time around some candidates stayed in the race way past the time for them to leave because the backing of one billionaire kept them in.  

So Maher decided to help out by compiling “The Billionaire’s Buying Guide” so the Mr. Moneybags” of the party could make their choice.  Here is the segment.

 

 

Joanie Ernst is not running for president, at least not yet. She just won her election for Senator (R, IA). The Republicans evidently think she is a rising star. They gave her the opportunity to do the official Republican response.  (This did not deter four other Republicans from stepping up to the mic to give their very own response. There is no discipline in the Republican party these days.)  

Ernst gave a robotic delivery and, unlike Obama, she didn’t talk policy. She spent most of the time talking about herself. She told a pointless story about having to wear bread bags on her feet as a child when it rained. It might have been a good story if it was told to show how she overcame the shame of poverty, but every kid in her school wore bread bags on their feet. Maybe it was a fashion statement.  

 

Too bad for her, but fun for us. Maher did a bit about Ernst being a country singer who had a album called Bread Bags on My Feet.”  The he did parody song titles. Watch it here.

 

 

The 2016 Republican presidential nomination is starting so early. I think there will plenty more for Maher to spoof.

Red my full review and recap of episode 340, titled Crazy.  .

 

Bill Maher’s Guests for January 23, 2015 

Howard Dean: doctor, former governor of Vermont, former chairman of the DNC, co-founder of Democracy for America,” author of Howard Dean's Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform 

James Fallows: journalist, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly (“The Tragedy of the American Military”). He has written several books. His most recent book is China Airborne: The Test of China’s Future. He also wrote Blinded into Bagdad: America’s War into Iraq 

Bill Burr: comedian, podcaster, actor. He has a DvD: Bill Burr: Let it Go. His movies include Walk of Shame and Black or White

Nia-Malika Henderson: political reporter for The Washington Post (The Fix) 

Bret Stephens: columnist, journalist for the Wall Street Journal, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder

 

Bill Maher: So Sue Me Again

by Catherine Giordano


Bill Maher Repu8blican Book Club

It’s almost a cliché. If you want to run for president, you have to have a book newly published in the months preceding your announcement.  That is why there is a slew of new books on the market from Republicans. 

In the mid-show comedy segment for the January 16, 2015 Real Time with Bill Maher show (episode 339) , Maher told us he had “hacked into their emails” and found the original titles of these books.

Usually these books have boring titles, and almost always with the word “America” or “Dreams” or “Future” somewhere in the title. Maher decided to liven things up by renaming the books.

Maher didn’t need to do a thing Mike Huckabee’s book title. It was funny even before Maher transformed it. It is God, Guts, Grits, and Gravy. I was laughing before he even got to the satirical renaming.  Guys like Huckabee make Maher’s job easy.

The book title he gave to Sarah Palin’s book perfectly summed up what these books are all about. It was the one for Sarah Palin’s book.

Hey Sucker. Yeah You. Give Me $29.95

The honor of being the final book in Maher’s list went to Donald Trump. He renamed Trumps book: Me Want Banana. Me Climb Tree. Inside the Mind of a Half-Human Half-Orangutan Billionaire. 

After reading out the title, Bill laughed and said “So sue me again.”  Maher is clearly delighted that Trump once tried to sue him because Maher had joked that Trump’s father was an orangutan.

[Read the complete story of the feud between Maher and Trump at Drones, Bones, and Orange Tones.]

Watch the Republican Book Club comedy segment here:

Read the full review and recap of Real Time with Bill Maher, #339 here: Free Speech

Bill Maher’s Guests January 16, 2015.

Josh Gad: actor best known for voicing Olaf in Frozen 

Atul Gawande: surgeon, public-health researcher, professor, chairman of Lifebox, (a nonprofit which aims to reduce deaths in surgery globally) and author of several books. His most recent book is Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.

Josh Barro: Self-identifies as a neo-liberal and a Republican, correspondent for The New York Times. (I checked the definition of neo liberal—it sounds like just another word for libertarian.) 

Wes Moore: businessman, U.S. Army veteran, host of "Beyond Belief" on the Oprah Winfrey Network, author.  His first book, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates, became an instant New York Times bestseller. His most recent book is The Work: My Search for a Life That Matters.

Kathryn Bigelow: director, producer, screenwriter. Her two most recent movies are Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker.  She has started a campaign to prevent the extinction of elephants and has produced an animated/live action short/PSA called  Last Days.

Maher, Rushdie, and Charlie

by Catherine Giordano 

Salmon Rushdie Quote on Freedom of Speech

I’m always glad to see Salman Rushdie on the panel of Real Time with Bill Maher and never more so than on episode 338 which aired on January 9, 2015. At one point he said, “I have a little experience with this.” He was referring to the fact that a tatwa had been issued against him urging all Muslims to kill him because of his heresy. He was also raised as a Muslim so he understands the religion from the inside. Rushdie had the relative good fortune to have the threat against him made publically so he could go into hiding for years; the staff at Charlie Hebdo did not have a direct warning.

 

“We are the side show.”

Rushdie explained the true reasons for Islamic terrorism. “We are the side show,” he said. “This is a project to seize power in the Muslim world. They want to create a mindset that allows them to conquer the world of Islam.” He later added, “It is the fight inside Islam that is important. Inside Islam there is a powerful group that wants to drag the world back to the 7^th century.” 

 

“They share the same bad ideas.”

Bill Maher repeated the point that he repeatedly made on his show and elsewhere. “The majority of Muslims would never do anything like this, but they share the same bad ideas. The terrorists and the mainstream Muslims share the same ideas.”

 Rushdie pointed out that the reaction after the Charlie Hebdo massacre was different.  Muslims stood up and said, “Not in our name.”

 

“To a coward courage always looks like stupidity.”

Rushdie commented on those who criticize the writers, scholars and artists who stand up against bigotry. He called them, the “but-brigade” as in “Yes, I believe in free speech, BUT maybe you shouldn’t have done that.” 

Rushdie said that those who speak out are told to “Sit down, you are rocking the boat.” His response to those who would try to silence critics was: “What we can do is “not give a f*@king inch.” Also, “We have to rock the boat. It’s our function. What would a respectful political cartoon look like?”

Maher quoted “The Financial Times: “Common sense should be useful at publications which purport to strike a blow for freedom when they provoke Muslims, but are actually being stupid.”  

Maher replied, “To a coward courage always looks like stupidity.”

Here is he YouTube video of the discussion:

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the discussion was marred by the demented jack-in-the-box, on the panel, Carly Fiorina, who just wouldn’t shut up. Fast forward through her comments. They are a distraction. I wish someone would make a video where they pull the smart quotes and edit out the distractions.

 

Rushdie and Maher could barely contain their disdain for her interruptions, but every time they tried to shut her down she popped up again. Maher and Rushdie tried to ignore her, but she was shouting and pounding the table. And she would not shut up! She made me feel like I was at a party cornered by some self-centered full-of-herself bore that I just couldn’t escape. Watch her facial expressions. She is so smug, so sure that she is gifting up with her “gems-of-wisdom.” I had such a visceral reaction of disgust. And she would not shut up!

Read the full review and recap of the show: No Joking

 

Bill Maher’s Guests for January 19, 2015.

Salmon Rushdie: author of several books including Joseph Anton: A Memoir (about the time he spent in hiding because there was a fatwa calling for his murder due to his book, The Satanic Verses: A Novel) and his latest novel, Shame: A Novel

 

Paul Begala: Democratic campaign strategist and author of many books on politics including his newest one assessing the possible 2016 candidates, 2016 Scouting Report: American Bridge's Media Guide to the Republican Presidential Bench

 

Jay Leno. Former host of The Tonight Show, (See Behind the Curtain: An Insider’s View of Jay Leno’s Tonight Show by Dave Berg) He is currently doing two shows about cars: Garage which can be seen on YouTube and a car show for CNBC. 

 

Chris Hardwick: Comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, podcaster, television host for @Midnight on Comedy Central, author of The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life)

Carly Fiorina, former business executive, failed U.S. Senate candidate (R CA), author of Tough Choices: A Memoir

 

The Bumbler, the Dictator, and the Senator

by Catherine Giordano

Seth Rogen was a guest on Bill Maher’s season finale (episode #37 which aired on 11/21/14. See Tis the Season to be Stupid.)  He was on to publicize his new movie, The Interview. He needn’t have bothered. The film is not going to be released. 

Rogen has made a career in the movies of playing buffoonish jerks in a series of sophomoric movies high on the gross-out factor. It’s all in good fun until it isn’t. Rogen’s new movie, “The Interview” is the movie that went too far. They never should have lampooned Kim Jong Un. Anyone can see that he doesn’t have much of a sense of humor. 

I can understand why Kim Jong Un is upset. In the movie, Kim Jong Un is made out to be a fool. And to be fair, most of the world sees him as a fool. He strikes me as a great-big spoiled baby. In the movie, Kim Jong Un is assassinated. I can see why he would be unhappy. Would you like your death to be ridiculed? 

What does a spoiled baby do when he gets angry? He throws a great big tantrum. It can be loud and messy, but a baby can’t do much harm. But Kim Jong Un is the dictator of a country.  He’s a very sensitive man-child.  His feelings are hurt and he has the resources of a country at his disposal to get even. 

First, there was the hacking of Sony, the company that produced the film. The firm’s private emails and other data were hacked and exposed to the world to embarrass and damage Sony. It’s been pretty conclusively proven that North Korea is behind the hacking, although the hackers are still anonymous. 

The hacking was a big heaping slice of revenge, but evidently not enough. The hackers have upped the ante. They have threatened devastation on any theater that shows the movie. So Sony had to cancel the December 25^th release of the movie.   

Now you can see this.
Keep reading
to learn how.

Senator John McCain (R AZ) has called the cancellation of the film’s release “deeply troubling.” I agree. It is a very bad precedent to allow terrorists censor our freedom of speech.  Who will be the next terrorist group to threaten an act of terrorism because they don’t like a movie? The world just got more dangerous by several orders of magnitude. Will we allow our entertainment industry to be taken as a hostage? 

Yet, cancelling the release of the movie was the prudent thing to do. No one could take the risk that the hackers would make good on their threat. (Imagine the liability claims if the movie was shown and a theater was blown up or shot up and people were hurt and killed.  How many people would want to go to the movie or even go anywhere near a movie theater with that kind of threat hanging over them? 

Seth Rogen and everyone involved were very arrogant. They could have made the movie a roman à clef. A fictional dictator in a fictional country.  But instead they were brazen about it.
 

CLICK HERE
You can buy this.

 

Rogen seemed pretty happy about the movie on Maher's show in mid November.  He said, "The premise of this movie is brilliant." Maybe the lesson in the whole The Interview mess is be careful who you mess with.

P.S.:Rogen and the big stars will survive this.They will go on to their next movie. I feel sorry for the actor with a small role, his first role in a major motion picture, who saw this movie as his big break.This is really hard for him.

How to see The Interview
You can now watch the movie in a few select theaters around the country and on YouTube. It will cost you nothing to see the trailer, but $5.99 to see the full movie.  (When the video starts, click the "X "to make the ad go away.)

Bill Maher’s Guests:  #337, November 21, 2014

 

John Cleese: Actor, comedian, film producer and author of several books. His latest book is Say Anyway… 
 

Seth Rogen: Actor, comedian. His most recent movie is The Neighbors. 

Christia Freeland: Journalist, politician, author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else 

 

Chris Mathews: Host of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews and author of several books.  His most recent book is Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked 

 

Roland Martin: Journalist, host of TV One News and author of Speak Brother: A Black Man’s View of America

 

Bill Maher #337 Headline Predictions Winter 2014



by Catherine Giordano  

The hottest new toy for Christmas:
"Hands Up, Elmo"*

Whenever HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher goes on hiatus, he devotes the mid-show comedy segment to a series of predictions for newspaper headlines for the period he will be off the air. The November 21, 2014 sow which was the final on for 2014 was no exception.  Maher gave us a slew of ridiculous and funny predictions

 

Whenever HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher goes on hiatus, he devotes the mid-show comedy segment to a series of predictions for newspaper headlines for the period he will be off the air. The November 21, 2014 sow which was the final on for 2014 was no exception.  Maher gave us a slew of ridiculous and funny predictions.

 

For example: 

 

• Amazon to Offer Baby Delivery
• Anthropologists Find Woman Untouched by Bill Cosby
• Pope Francis OK with Just About Everything
• San Francisco Bans Straight Marriage
• U.S Tour of Liberian Monkeys Sees Low Ticket Sales
• Bruce Jenner to Plastic Surgeon: Give me Renee Zellweger’s Old Face

See the video clip. 

 



 

As is now becoming my custom, whenever Maher does this bit, I try to see if I can top him with some of my own predictions.

 

What do you think of these?

• Hottest New Toy for Christmas is “Hands Up, Elmo.”
• Palin Tweets: “Santa is a Liberal.”
• “Elf-on-a-Shelf” is Favorite for Republican Nomination for President

Do you have a headline prediction? Add it to the comments.

 

*Note: The real name of this toy is Sesame Street: My Peek-Boo-Elmo Toy. CLICK HERE to see more information about this toy.

Read the full review and recap of this episode of Real Time with Bill Maher: Tis the Season to be Stupid

 

 

Bill Maher’s Guests:  #337, November 21, 2014

 

John Cleese: Actor, comedian, film producer and author of several books. His latest book is Say Anyway… 

Seth Rogen: Actor, comedian. His most recent movie is The Neighbors. 

Christia Freeland: Journalist, politician, author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else 

 

Chris Mathews: Host of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews and author of several books.  His most recent book is Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked 

 

Roland Martin: Journalist, host of TV One News and author of Speak Brother: A Black Man’s View of America



Bill Maher Wishes You Merry Thankshallowismas

This year give kindness.

by Catherine Giordano

News Flash: Bill Maher may be an atheist, but he likes Christmas. On RealTime with Bill Maher, episode 337 which aired on November 21, 2014, Maher said “I kinda like the story about the virgin who has a little god-baby in the barn. As a fable, it is kinda cute.” I feel the same. I intend to have a merry secular Chistmas.  Or maybe a merry Thankshallowwismas.  

Maher proposed that we have just one end-of- the- year holiday and call it Thankshallowismas.  “The whole family gets together in costume and gives thanks for a big meal of turkey and candy and then gathers around a tree decorated with toilet paper to exchange presents and tell ghost carols.”   

Maher noted that when the subject of Christmas comes up, “So many people roll their eyes and say ‘I hate Christmas.’” There are even books and movies named How to Survive Christmas, Christmas Sucks, Skipping Christmas, Surviving Christmas. 

Maher wants to save Christmas. He wants to make the season joyous once again. 

Maher wants to save Christmas by reducing the stress many people feel around the holiday—especially the stress of gift-giving.  In New Rules, he named the segment about Christmas “Present Tense.” He said, “If we really want to get rid of the Christmas stress, we have to get rid of the gift-giving. Spending money you don’t have to give people you don’t like sutff they don’t want. That’s gotta stop. All that anxiety of what to get, what to spend, and if I get something for this one do I have to get something for that one.“  

I have decided not to give stuff. Instead I will give kindness. I suggest everyone give kindness. To get it started, I wrote an article about kindness. Make My Day: Quotes on Kindness from Famous People.  My article inspired me to do something kind for everyone I know or encounter. (It’s my New Year’s Resolution starting on December 1.) I hope it will inspire you also. (In addition to the quotes, I include suggestions for kind words and acts.) 

Here’s the YouTtube video of the complete segment on New Rules.

 

 

 

Kindness is the best gift. Unless, of course, you were thinking of using one of my links to purchase a gift from amazon.com in which case I urge you to give that gift. 

 

Read the full review and recap of episode 337, November  11/21/14 here: Tis the Season to Be Stupid

 

Bill Maher’s Guests:  #337, November 21, 2014

 

John Cleese: Actor, comedian, film producer and author of several books. His latest book is Say Anyway… 

 

Seth Rogen: Actor, comedian. His most recent movie is The Neighbors. 

Christia Freeland: Journalist, politician, author of Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

 

Chris Mathews: Host of MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Mathews and author of several books.  His most recent book is Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked 

 

Roland Martin: Journalist, host of TV One News and author of Speak Brother: A Black Man’s View of America