Tag: Bill Maher

A Mid-term Election Reflection

An interesting question between now and the mid-term elections isn’t just who is going to win the various congressional, state, and local races. It’s what the Democratic Party has evidently come to believe in terms of its values, both politically, and in many cases, personally.

It’s also what the Party has led fellow Americans to believe and adopt as their own.

As intended or unintended fallout, something has been lost along the way.

Once upon a time “Live and Let Live” was part of the shared American creed. As a peaceful-seeking society, we collectively considered this value to be indispensable, since the virtue generally serves to nurture the development of positive human norms, attitudes, and behaviors.

It is oftentimes difficult to get people to agree on a shared set of values. But America had succeeded in doing so, and the success is what made pluralism survivable.

Unfortunately, over the last several decades the Democratic Party has reduced the concept of “Live and Let Live” to a single word: “Tolerance.” It didn’t just substitute a synonym for the original phrase. It altered the fundamental meaning of it.

The newly defined American value appealed to almost everyone. After all, it felt as if we were saying the same thing; that you may hold a differing belief or opinion than that of another, but you were willing to show respect to those who were of an opposing view.

It’s a binary axiom in life. We are all moving in one direction or another.

In the case of the Democratic Party and their newly adopted creed, “Tolerance” eventually devolved into what the Party mandated all must believe.

No more room for dissenting views. And no one allowed into its circle without accepting every one of the self-established tenets of the so-called progressive creed.

Ironically, the Democrats actually became the vice that they had initially been fighting against; i.e., they became the most intolerant among us.

It all seems to be catching up with them, and the timing of the elections in a way may be serendipitous.

Some folks are slowly beginning to realize the shift that has taken place in terms of the freedom to hang on to your own individual beliefs, attitudes, and philosophies without being dictated to and/or socially ostracized.

Bill Maher, who has been known to vote Democrat his entire life, has endured a kind of excommunication in slow motion over the past several years. His crime? He was noticing what was going on, and he wasn’t staying silent about it.

Maher proposed a “stand your ground law for cancel culture” so that “when the woke mob comes after you for some ridiculous offense, you’ll stand your ground and stop apologizing.”

He also coined a segment-closing rule on his “Real Time” HBO show: “Memo to social justice warriors: When what you’re doing sounds like an Onion headline, stop.”

He has been accused of leaving the left behind, when in reality the left did it to him.

Proof that the Democrat creed-turned-dictate has continued down a wayward path can be seen in the manner in which the Party attempts to police even the smallest of thoughts and actions of the people-at-large.

Here are a few examples of additional prominent independent-thinking celebrities who have suffered negative consequences.

Actress Sydney Sweeney garnered a lot of attention when she appeared in a jeans ad and said the following: “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring.” The internet lit up, claiming that she was subliminally endorsing eugenics.

A slew of derogatory comments about her followed. Her response was direct and effective. “I’m against hate and divisiveness,” she said.

Athlete Sophie Cunningham plays guard for the Indiana Fever and is one of the most-followed players in the WNBA. In a single ESPN profile, she offered an opinion about biological male athletes participating in women’s sports.

Cunningham said that she wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

The left-leaning media generally responded in lockstep, with The Guardian dutifully dubbing her an “anti-transgender culture war ambassador.”

Comedian extraordinaire Jerry Seinfeld, when feeling that his art was being cramped, dared to pin the blame for strangling comedy directly on “the extreme left.”

Talking to the New Yorker, Seinfeld made the charge that the disappearance of the TV sitcom was the result of ideological policing.

He said that it used to be when you went home at the end of the day, “You just expected, ‘There’ll be some funny stuff we can watch on TV tonight.’ Well, guess what — where is it? This is the result of the extreme left and PC c**p, and people worrying so much about offending other people.”

Funny how when people give themselves permission to buck the trend, courage sets in, and many times it turns out to be contagious.

The mid-term elections just may be a time when we remember how important it is to hold fast to our own self-determined principles, and to put them into practice for the good of society and our beloved country.

John Kerry’s Telling Remarks

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John Kerry appeared on a recent cable broadcast of “Real Time with Bill Maher” to promote a book, increase his possible presidential profile, and deliver a Left Coast attack on the current sitting president.

The segment did not go as swimmingly as Kerry likely intended. In what appeared to be a pre-written attempt at humor, he told Maher, “He [President Donald Trump] is the first president that I know of who spends more time reading his Twitter ‘likes’ than his briefing books or the Constitution of the United States.”

The former secretary of state-turned-comic received the usual applause from the left-leaning audience, but few laughs. He went on to acknowledge that he has been engaged in what many government officials and private citizens as well view as rogue diplomacy.

In what appears to have been an effort to revive the now-defunct Iran nuclear deal, the probable presidential aspirant revealed that behind-the-scenes he has been in talks with a high-ranking representative of Iran.

Prior to the “Real Time” venue, in a separate media appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Kerry had already admitted that he had met several times with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif, and that the talks had taken place without the approval of the Trump administration.

On the actual day of the “Real Time” taping, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to the podium regarding Kerry’s unauthorized meetings.

“You can’t find precedent for this in U.S. history, and Secretary Kerry ought not to engage in that kind of behavior,” Pompeo said in a press conference at the State Department. “It’s inconsistent with what foreign policy of the United States is as directed by this president, and it is beyond inappropriate for him to be engaged.”

“I’ll leave the legal determinations to others,” Pompeo added. “But what Secretary Kerry has done is unseemly and unprecedented. This is a former secretary of State engaged with the world’s largest state sponsor of terror.”

The day following Kerry’s appearance on Maher’s show, Pompeo took to Twitter to post a pair of tweets that focused on the Obama administration’s dubious Iran nuclear agreement, which was arranged under Kerry’s stewardship.

“What @JohnKerry has done by engaging with #Iran’s regime, the world’s top state sponsor of terror, is unseemly, unprecedented, and inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy. The deal failed. Let it go,” Pompeo said in a tweet.

The secretary of state then added the following second post: “#JCPOA [the Iran nuclear deal is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] didn’t stop all paths for #Iran to develop nuclear weapons, contrary to the way it was sold to the American people.”

The “legal determinations” to which Pompeo made reference in his press conference involve the Logan Act, the same law that then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates used against then-National Security Advisor designee Michael Flynn.

The Logan Act does not apply to an incoming official engaged in transition activities for a new administration, which was the case with General Flynn. It would, however, appropriately apply to a former secretary of state who may have misused his contacts and secretly negotiated with a dangerous foreign power without authorization from the current administration.

Depending upon the specific details of Kerry’s interaction with Zarif, he could be subject to the provisions of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires registration and transparency by individuals or companies acting on behalf of foreign governments, political parties, or persons. This is the identical statute that was used to prosecute former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

Kerry appears to be unconcerned about the remarks that he made regarding his potential illegal behavior, focusing instead on how his humor is playing out with the leftist base and the greater public.

On Maher’s show, Kerry schooled the audience on how democracy relies on the truth, but the truth rings hollow with regard to current pertinent events surrounding Kerry, as well as some significant ones in the past.

“Unfortunately, we have a president,” Kerry said, “literally, for whom the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth is three different things…”

It is the height of irony that the former secretary of state would invoke the value of truth. When Kerry returned from Vietnam, he used the anti-war sentiment that was prevalent in the media to acquire fame by making himself a leader of the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

Kerry publicly relayed a number of gruesome tales, which accused U.S. military personnel of engaging in brutal war crimes. He now refers to his slanderous stories impugning the U.S. armed forces as an exaggeration.

As a set up to what Kerry must have thought was his line of the evening, he professed to not want to “get into a real riff” on it, but then suddenly the following words rolled off his tongue.

Speaking about the current president, Kerry said that he has “the maturity of an eight-year-old boy with the insecurity of a teenage girl.”

Kerry presently appears to harbor an intense desire to be the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the next election cycle. Among his many celebrated causes, he has professed to be a staunch advocate for women’s rights.

It will be interesting to see whether Kerry, with his “teenage girls” comment and his characterization of young women as “insecure,” will be held to account or even asked to explain how blatant stereotyping and not so subtle ridicule is somehow acceptable in the present day and age.

Bill Maher, Stephen Colbert and the Death of Late-night Comedy

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With liberals targeting for destruction one cultural institution after another, it was inevitable that late-night comedy was going to have its turn.

Ironically, late-night comic hosts, many of whom were trailblazers in the laugh industry, have slowly but surely morphed into lemmings, substituting smug political claptrap for comedy.

Rather than entertain, the ones who are lucky enough to have actually made it into comedy’s top echelon are now catering to a flimsy fan base of enraged resisters and hate-driven hypocrites.

Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” is the latest example. He recently let it be known how bitter leftists view President Donald Trump’s economic track record.

Recognizing the phenomenal economy under President Trump’s leadership, Maher stated that he believes it is critical for the U.S. economy to collapse in order to rid the country of a president with whom he disagrees.

“I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point, and by the way, I’m hoping for it because I think one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy,” Maher said. “So please, bring on the recession. Sorry if that hurts people but it’s either root for a recession, or you lose your democracy.”

The left is so steeped in hatred it is willing to let the best interests of the nation take a back seat to spite. And like far too many others in his industry, Maher is more than willing to see his neighbor harmed than to see President Trump succeed.

It is hard to fathom how late-night comedy allowed itself to descend to such a pitiful depth. Late-night television was created and branded by the pioneers of the medium – Jack Paar, Steve Allen, and of course the man who defined the forum, “The King of Late-Night” Johnny Carson.

Carson was the guy who dropped in unannounced but you never wanted him to leave. No matter what had transpired in the course of the day, he could make you forget in a single quip. He was simply a friend that taught you how to smile yourself to sleep.

The current crop of late-night hosts could benefit from the master in more ways than one. A single show of Carson’s could bring in as many as 9 million viewers. By comparison, CBS’s “Late Show,” hosted by Stephen Colbert, is currently the highest-rated late-night program, but a good night for Colbert is typically a third of the viewers that Carson had, in part because Colbert’s program generally consists of Trump trashing and partisan punches.

Viewers today admittedly have a lot more options when it comes to the late-night timeslot. In addition to broadcast networks’ offerings of Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon, there are numerous cable offerings, which include TBS’s Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah, HBO’s John Oliver, and BET’s Robin Thede, along with broadcast networks’ very late-nighters James Corden and Seth Meyers.

Late-night writers generally cater to viewers who use social media to watch highlight video footage from previous programs. Shows with late-night content that stream to viewers include Hulu’s Sarah Silverman and Netlix’s Joel McHale and Michelle Wolf, who is best known for her embarrassingly unfunny performance at the most recent White House Correspondents Dinner. Weekly late-nighters such as Comedy Central’s Jim Jeffries and TBS’s Samantha Bee are also part of the mix.

Virtually all of the shows specialize in targeting the president, and Bee is one of the hosts who clearly illustrates the lowlights of today’s pathetic programming. Referring to the daughter of the president in the crudest of ways, Bee incurred a deserved backlash, which prompted defections by a number of sponsors. Both Bee and TBS later apologized, but the comic was not fired or suspended. In another humorless incident, there was a young man who had attended the Conservative Political Action Conference and was bashed with a comment about “Nazi hair.” It turned out that the young man was actually suffering from Stage 4 brain cancer, and Bee was again forced to apologize.

It is painful to have to say that in this sorry state of late-night comedy, television’s most visible hosts have turned into boring political preachers and in the process have themselves become the joke.