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Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

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In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Television / Must See TV

Must See TV

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Watching Bill Maher tonight, and man is he all-in for Israel. That’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is that you absolutely have to watch the panel with some wingnut from the Daily Caller on the left, Nate Silver in the middle, and Jane Harman on his right, and Silver has not spoken for twenty minutes and looks like he is going through his own personal hell.

His facial expressions are alternating between confused as to why these people who know nothing keep talking, perplexed because they are just wrong, and appalled at how much really stupid people like to talk. It was a twenty minute display of silent disdain- as if he was wondering “How do these people hold down a job?” This is the greatest thing I have seen in years. You have to watch him.

He looks like he would rather be having a publicly televised enema. He looks like me in church.

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  3. 3.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Silver was the most awkward looking dude I’ve seen on tv. Bizarre. Too many bong hits in the green room.

  6. 6.

    Liquid

    So Maher is an Anti-Vaxxer? Really? I mean you mock Alex Jones and his insanity but your medical views align with that over-plasticised broad from Singled Out? <- I miss that show and gawd I'm old.

    ETA– I know the Maher/AV thing has been around for some time but how the hell does he get a pass?

  7. 7.

    Little Boots

    the israel thing was depressing all around. not even that you can’t stick up for israel. but the group think was a perfect example of everything that is wrong with that subject. it was truly pathetic. and nate silver sitting there like a lump. just a depressing moment.

  8. 8.

    The Dangerman

    Maher occasionally tries to be like his ex (Ann Coulter) and goes well too far. Basically, he’s an asshole, just like her.

    ETA: Actually, I could have it wrong; Coulter was dating somebody surprising (Olbermann?) at one time. It may not have been Maher.

  9. 9.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    stopped watching/listening to Mahar 15 years ago, at least. pompous, ignorant prick.

  10. 10.

    Violet

    Nate Silver, huh? The last I heard from him was the crawl on ESPN that said he gave Brazil 65% chance of winning the game with Germany. That worked out well for him.

  11. 11.

    Little Boots

    @The Dangerman:

    I don’t think he was doing that. I think he was truly part of the stupid, depressing consensus in this country that Israel is beyond all criticism, always.

  13. 13.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @The Dangerman: Maher has dated Coulter, Olbermann may have as well. Maher and Olbermann(along with Bill Nye the Science Guy) were at Cornell at the same time.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    He looks like he would rather be having a publicly televised enema. He looks like me in church.

    Waaaay back in ’85, on my way from TDY in Honduras back to Fort Lewis, I visited my aunt and uncle in Florida. Spent several days with them one of which happened to be a Sunday. They both attended church regularly (good Presbyterians, ya know) and so to be polite, I went along. My aunt noted my relative, um, uneasiness while in the pews, and very politely, in return, because that’s the way she was all the time, noted it had probably been some time since I sat through a church service.

    This is the same aunt who, upon visiting us in Oregon when I was about oh 12 or so, greeted us warmly upon arrival and declared “normally, one says ‘oh my how you’ve grown since I last saw you!’, but that’s just so obvious so I’m not going to say it!”. I had a lot of terrific aunts, but she was probably my favorite. It didn’t hurt that she made absolutely dynamite ginger snaps.

  16. 16.

    Villago Delenda Est

    More prime time idiocy from Noisemax:

    Dick Morris: Border Crisis Could ‘Wipe Out’ Democrats in Midterms

    Never mind the Senate, the House is in the bag for the Dems.

  17. 17.

    Little Boots

    and I like Bill Maher. he’s actually usually provocative, though sometimes ridiculously wrong headed. but the israel thing is just brain dead, and brain dead in the most thoughtless, consensus-driven way. again, depressing. damn, what a stupid show tonight.

  18. 18.

    ruemara

    Abby Martin from Russia Today America was busy retweeting Maher’s tweet about the crazy girlfriend analogy as an example of a liberal journalist in the tank for Israel and a misogynist, ergo this is why you can’t trust mainstream media liberal journos.

    the past few years have really brought out the refined stupid in gene pool.

    Also KITTEH! and BUNNEH! plus, um, lizard?

  19. 19.

    Little Boots

    and I don’t agree with John. nate silver might actually have contributed, well, something, anything, but he chose not to.

  20. 20.

    Doug

    Anybody “all in” for Israel is willfully ignorant of the facts. Let Maher go live in Gaza or the West Bank as a Palestinian for awhile. See how he likes it.

  21. 21.

    Little Boots

    @Doug:

    or at least, gee, imagine there might be more to it, than poor little israel, why are the big kids picking on it?

  22. 22.

    Botsplainer

    You can’t tear down my mood. My baby daughter R. shared this paper she just did for a summer course with us – she’s a rising sophomore at UC, an archaeology major with the drive and grades for a Ph.D.

    It made me a little weepy, and more than a little proud.

    ​It started off with stories. Not the written kind, or the ones that your grandmother tells you while you lay in bed, but stories told with the body in dance. Every late summer I would stand in the heat, my red woolen knee socks scraping at my skin, begging to be ripped off, and I would watch my parents dance. My father, dressed in a deep red shirt, led my mother around on the dance floor to a somber waltz. When they were done he would bow and she would curtsy and they would go back to being Mom and Dad, but while they were dancing, I didn’t know them. They became two Russian people in red and black and I just drank it in. My parents were not actors pretending to be a couple in love, they were a couple in love and with their movements under a blazing sun, they painted a true story of their friendship as well as a story of lovers past.
    ​
    My father was good, but it was my mother that I loved to watch the most. She would dance with the other women, holding hands and singing the lyrics of the songs while they floated in heavy black boots across the floor. My favourite dance was reserved for mothers only, many of whom would carry their infant kin onto the stage. The dance told a story of post-winter prayer for the young children that had lost their lives in the cold and it was a celebration of those that lived. The dance was slow, quiet, haunting and beautiful. I fancied my mother a dark haired nymph, her forehead haloed in a wreath of flowers, ribbons flowing down her back like water.

    She is speaking of our folk dancing at our Orthodox parish, which we did from her youngest days.

    Having grown up Orthodox, the church that I went to had immigrants from all throughout the Orthodox nations, Russia, Greece, Ethiopia, and just about anywhere in the Middle East. While my family was Lebanese, the church was heavily Russian based given that our priest’s wife was Russian Orthodox; this accounted for the ethnic festival that we would have every summer. My mother would dress me up with the other children and we would run around the stage attempting to mimic our lithe parents. From the church a godmother was chosen for me, a Russian woman named Anastasia, and she would later have a significant influence on my development. Most importantly, this early on immersion into Russian culture and themes would eventually lead to my broader passion for history.

    Before I was able to read on my own, my mother would read to me at night and one of my favourite books was a gift from Anastasia that told the story of a young Matreshka doll captured by the evil Baba Yaga. As I listened, I played with my own Matreshka doll, imagining her escaping the confines of Baba Yaga’s evil, magical, chicken-footed hut in the woods. I fingered the red on her dress and the tiny hand painted flowers spotting her apron, shrinking in size with each inner doll. The book made me think of my nymph-mother and my black Russian box with delicate red and blue flowers brushed onto the lid, concealing my most cherished treasures.

    My father, though Lebanese, has a particular affinity for Russian culture, language and history. Growing up, the bookshelf in our living room was laden with Russian history and literature. I would stare at the bindings, not understanding the titles, the only book I knew I wanted was one that sat on the center shelf, its deep purple dust cover standing out against the dull browns, musty yellows and brick red. On the cover it said: “The Life and Times of Grigorii Rasputin by Alex deJonge” and it featured a black cut out of a typical seminarian in a black cassock with a long beard, his right hand laid just over the center of his rib cage, a pose I had seen my own priest do over and over during his sermons. His face blank and his eyes evil and haunting, Rasputin terrified me because unlike Baba Yaga, my father told me he was real. If you want to scare your kids, tell them about an iron-toothed witch in the woods, but if you want terrify them, tell them about Rasputin. It was here at this early age that I began to understand that real life could be even more thrilling than fiction.

    It goes on like this. She details her development at length, and in a moving way. Her parting shot?

    These days I don’t spend a lot of time folk dancing. Instead, I spend my summers under that same blazing sun, my hiking boots instead of knee socks begging to be ripped off, and I dig away the earth, flipping pages with each pull of my trowel and like reading a book or watching my parents dance, I read the earth and watch a story unfold.

    Out-damned-standing. While I recognize that as some solid literary work, I never dreamed of being able to pull off any word play like that.

  23. 23.

    burnspbesq

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    the House is in the bag for the Dems.

    Don’t get complacent. Wing nuts aren’t going to stay home. In their minds, the future of civilization is at stake. We have to GOTV like motherfuckers.

  24. 24.

    Villago Delenda Est

    One would think that Maher, with his “Religulous” flim, might be a bit more skeptical about a “Jewish State” that the fundies think fulfills the prophecies of Revelations. But then again, he chose to save Islam for the last, to leave that particular taste in the mouth of American audiences, jumping in on the entire “let’s bash the Muslims!” oeuvre.

    Not to mention the ultra-Orthodox are ultra-weird.

  25. 25.

    beth

    Doesn’t Nate Silver always look vaguely uncomfortable on tv anyway? I can’t remember an interview where he was ever at ease so I don’t know why he’d do a show like Real Time where there’s always some blowhard you’ve got to talk over if you want to say anything. But John’s right – that whole Israel segment was depressing.

  26. 26.

    James E. Powell

    I’m not a Maher fan. He’s a dick and he’s not very original if you know what I mean and I think that you do.

    But let’s not forget that he once lost his job by saying something that could form the basis of a right-wing witch hunt. I’m sure he’s never recovered from it. I mean, apart from the loss of income, he was turned into a pariah in a matter of days.

    Unlike Phil Donahue, he was able to get another show. Not on broadcast TV of course, but he’s back and he’s never going to do or say anything that will cost him his show.

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @burnspbesq: If Bill Kristol echoes Morris’ prediction, will that convince you that the House is in the bag for the Dems? I mean, these two are the King-Midas-In-Reverse guys of the right wing pundits.

  29. 29.

    Little Boots

    well, I am a Maher fan, and by and large, I think he does say what he thinks. but tonight, what he thinks and what he said was just pathetic. he tried to make up for it a little by hinting at what a godawful fucktard netanyahu and the current israeli government are, but it was way too little, way too late, although it would have made for a much more interesting discussion. and hey, maybe nate would have chimed in on that one.

  30. 30.

    Bill Peterson

    Thank you all for watching this and describing it so I don’t have to. Bill Maher hasn’t been entertaining since Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

  34. 34.

    Botsplainer

    @beth:

    I know, she surprised me with that. She’d always been a little workmanlike in the past, a little wordy. I’d noticed a big change over the past several months.

    I called her today when I read it; she told me she wrote it for us as a kind of a thank you for shaping her life and career.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @beth:
    I like his work, a lot, but Silver on the teebee is way out of his element. Have never seen him at ease, regardless of who’s interviewing.

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    Maher is our generation’s Howard Cosell: often wrong but never in doubt, absolutely convinced (in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary) that he is the smartest guy in the room, and a walking definition of the word “bombastic.”

    In other words, exactly like Corner Stone.

  40. 40.

    Little Boots

    @trollhattan:

    that may be true. that may just not be where he’s effective. that discussion could have used somebody, anybody, though. why didn’t the ghost of gore vidal show up?

  43. 43.

    cthulhu

    Maher’s best work was probably Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death.

    Still, while he does manage to get under the skin of the right people at times, he is definitely a jerk more often than not.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    @Botsplainer: You should be damned proud, she has a beautiful way of building a scene and painting the moment. Congratulations. To her. You, can just bask in the glow of the gene pool.

  45. 45.

    Little Boots

    @burnspbesq:

    sorry, that was a really inept post. meant, yes, before we focus on 2016 and the “inevitable” Hillary thing, can we notice there’s a 2014 election?

    now back to israel, and that stupid damn show tonight.

  46. 46.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Botsplainer: What a terrific kid! Talented writer too.

    ETA: Religilous notwithstanding, Bill Maher is an ignorant dickweed and also a misogynist.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    Last time Bill Maher was entertaining, the IBM Peanut was still on sales shelves.

    He comes here with a predictable, vapid show each New Year’s, complete with wildly overpriced tickets. Guess he had to get together the scratch to purchase partial ownership of the Mets somehow.

  55. 55.

    Little Boots

    i wonder if we will ever come up with an intelligent way to speak, or even think, about israel. probably not.

  57. 57.

    KG

    @Mike J: so far, it looks like only the Tenth Circuit has ruled ( and done it multiple times). Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits have cases pending. All three will likely take the multiple Tenth Circuit decisions as persuasive authority

  59. 59.

    Little Boots

    seriously? this place is dead? where once TBogg posted like a mighty poster?

  60. 60.

    SatanicPanic

    Maher is an asshole. He probably looks himself in the mirror and says “you’re handsome, you asshole you”

    That being said, he’s occasionally funny. I couldn’t really get into Religulous though. Personally, I am an atheist because I just don’t give a shit about religion. It’s up there with golf and The Bachelorette for shit I’d just prefer didn’t intrude into my life. So watching an hour and a half investigating it was more than I could take.

  62. 62.

    Little Boots

    I don’t think Maher is horrible. I disagree with him on this thing, but I don’t think that makes him horrible.

    I think the Left really is too quick to throw out inquisitions. I’m seeing it all over this thread, and all over the net.

  65. 65.

    YellowJournalism

    I went to school with a guy who looked and acted a lot like Nate Silver. He spent a lot of time in his locker. He also reminds me of the duck face kid from one episode of Full House.

    I feel bad for Silver. I think I this had been an online discussion, he would have been throwing out facts and disputing some things that were being said. He just seems like te kind of guy who feels and acts awkwardly in a group setting.

    And who was the bleached blonde biker mama sitting next to Silver? Maybe she scared him. Sadly, I’ve seen the giant tool from The Daily Caller before on other shows.

  68. 68.

    YellowJournalism

    Maher’s whole talk about the superiority of Jews in the scientific community because they’ve win modern awards disregards a few chunks of history.

  69. 69.

    Little Boots

    @YellowJournalism:

    yeah, like so much else in that show, there could have been an interesting discussion about the politics of science, the problems science faces in the muslim world, but just a quick, hey, jews, science, amiright? was just dumb.

  72. 72.

    some guy

    the killing on a mass scale of a large number of kids has put overt and covert “Liberals For Bibi the BabyKiller” supporters in quite a pickle.

    cf Maddow, Rachel.

  76. 76.

    some guy

    12:14 A.M. Israel’s foreign ministry issues a travel warning to Israelis to avoid travel to Turkey,

  78. 78.

    some guy

    10:32 P.M. In opening remarks, Undersecretary of the UN Jeff Feltman calls for an immediate end to Hamas rocket fire

    9:22 P.M. Iron Dome intercepts two rockets in Rishon Letzion area. (Haaretz)

    9:14 P.M. Sirens sound throughout Tel Aviv metropolitan area, central Israel, south Israel.

  79. 79.

    some guy

    8:28 P.M. Prime Minister Bibi the BabyKiller Netanyahu spoke with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ahead of the UNSC emergency meeting tonight, and protested the comparison Ban made between Israel and Hamas. He also asked Ban to publish photos of rockets found in an UNRWA school in Gaza to prove Hamas is hiding weapons in civilian areas. (Barak Ravid)

    7:57 P.M. Haifa protest against Gaza operation ended with 30 arrests

  80. 80.

    Mike E

    He did a show here and was pretty good. As egotistical libertarians go (yeah, redundant) he’s done pretty well for himself.

    But Maher just proves how hard it is to be Stewart, Colbert, or any long time media personality with staying power that can, for the most part, avoid the habit of tripping over one’s dick.

  81. 81.

    some guy

    7:34 P.M. Following earlier report that three soldiers were wounded: They were wounded when they were driving in a David-class jeep on the eastern side of the border fence, that is, they were in Israeli territory. It is not clear if the jeep was damaged by an antitank missile or an explosive device. Two were lightly wounded and one was moderately wounded. The vehicle was damaged.

  82. 82.

    some guy

    11:16 P.M. United States e11:16 P.M. United States envoy to the UN Samantha Power says her country supports Israel’s right to self-defense. (Barak Ravid)says her country supports Israel’s right to self-defense. (Barak Ravid)

    feel confident your crazy unxcle and our envoy to the UN, Samantha Power , feelsa the same way, her country supports Israel’s right to self-defense. (Barak Ravid

  83. 83.

    burnspbesq

    At the risk of seeming to be overly simplistic …

    (1) how many Israelis have been killed by Hamas weapons in the last 60 days? One, IIRC.

    (2) how many Gazans have been killed by IDF weapons in that same period? Somewhere north of 200, IIRC.

  87. 87.

    James E. Powell

    @burnspbesq:

    Americans, taken as a whole rather than any individuals, have an odd way of looking at the deaths of brown people, especially those whose deaths are caused by the US or its corporate affiliate, Israel. More specifically, they don’t look at them at all. Remember during the invasion and occupation of Iraq it was considered to be act of treason to suggest that maybe we ought to keep track of the number of people Our Brave Troops were killing?

    And with respect to these particular brown people, my take has always been that since September 5, 1972, the great mass of Americans are disinclined to regard the Palestinians as anything but criminals or criminals-to-be.

    I don’t agree with this and I’m sure there are quite a few Americans who don’t agree with this, but we are a small portion of the electorate and, let’s be honest, we have other more pressing priorities in our lives.

  88. 88.

    My Truth Hurts

    Maher’s problem is that he thinks he’s smarter than he actually is. I used to feel that way too but I got over it eventually because I don’t have vapid sycophants around me all the time leeching my fame and wealth and telling me how awesome I am and actually live a life that tosses me some regular humility. That kind of positive if dishonest re-enforcement and the weed has to affect your brain after awhile and you start believing your own bullshit. He simply believes his own bullshit. He’s witty sometimes and once in awhile he’s smart and makes a clever observation but basically he’s just riding on the fact that he was clever once 20 years ago and has stopped making any effort since. He should just stick to his stand up and his jokes. His philosophising and commentary rarely rises above the junior high level.

  91. 91.

    Ramalama

    @My Truth Hurts:

    He shot himself in the foot over this show, as he’s done with others.

    And, yeah, he lost his last show based on BS reasons.

    His jokes for me run about 50-50 flat/funny. What I value about his show is that it makes for a good, free podcast that in turn makes for very good driving material, especially if I am driving rideshare peeps in my car, Boston-Montreal. His podcast/show really makes everyone in the car relax.

    But he also talks to people and asks them questions no one else in any media venue does. I value the conversations, brief and always needing a punchline though they are.

    I wish Phil Donahue could get back on air. I like him so much more. But is there anyone else who is talking to arseholes in power like Maher?

  92. 92.

    Jack the Second

    People love Bill Maher because he’s a “good” (ie, outspoken, unapologetic) atheist, but he’s a terrible, terrible skeptic. So if you’re a skeptic, or a atheist who comes at it from a skeptical rather than a “fuck religion” direction, he’s basically a Blue Dog. We may acknowledge that there are worse people who could be on television or that he’s useful at times, but man it’d be nice to give his time slot to Steve Novella.

  93. 93.

    Jack the Second

    People love Bill Maher because he’s a “good” (ie, outspoken, unapologetic) atheist, but he’s a terrible, terrible skeptic. So if you’re a skeptic, or a atheist who comes at it from a skeptical rather than a “down with religion” direction, he’s basically a Blue Dog. We may acknowledge that there are worse people who could be on television or that he’s useful at times, but man it’d be nice to give his time slot to Steve Novella.

  94. 94.

    dmbeaster

    Maher’s Israel segment was simple minded because it was one-dimensional. It was just about Israel responding to be rocketed by Hamas. Limited to that metric, it is hard to argue with the use of force in response to rocket attacks. And then you had a terrible panel: a filibuster from the Daily Caller, a mute Nate Silver and Jane Harman.

    Of course, re-frame the issue as wanna be Afrikanners do their best “must quell the unruly Bantu” imitation, and maybe you get a different discussion. Nothing like premising the discussion on what can you do about dirty arabs (or as Joe Pesci in character might say, sand n***ers).

    The segment was just awful.

  95. 95.

    smintheus

    @Violet: And then after Brazil’s incompetence was thoroughly exposed by Germany, Silver went on to give them a 71% chance of beating Holland in the 3rd place match!

  97. 97.

    CDWard

    Israel has been taking the Palestinian’s land, water, homes, olive groves, and lives ever since it began. The Palestinians have every right to fight back.

  98. 98.

    Trinity

    “He looks like me in church.” Oh John, for this statement alone, I am so grateful for you.

    I will watch that video.

    Be good to yourself.

  99. 99.

    LanceThruster

    I am so bloody sick of the claim that the slaughter of innocent people by bringing down the full force of modern weaponry from every possible direction to mangle their flesh in the most horrific and violent ways is not monstrous because [we have a good reason].

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