Ep. #504: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Michael Render (a.k.a Killer Mike)
00:00Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh.I appreciate you putting...Thank you. I love you, too.Appreciate you putting on this brave face because it's a tough day.John Hickenlooper has dropped out of the presidential race.It was a huge blow to his supporter, and...But he said he just wants to go back to what he does.best, looping Hickens.
01:13And I don't know what that's...But it's...Trump has beentweeting about meand talking about me at his rally,so my anxiety level is very high.I'm hoping he'll get distracted by his new plan.I'm not making this up.
01:35He wants to buy Greenland.And rename it New Ivanka.Really? He wants to buy greenland.Oh, he had two Nuremberg rallies this week, and the highlight for me is it the one that said he told a protester,you have a weight problem.This is like mocking virgins at Comic Con, isn't it?Really. He pointed to a guy, and he said, that guy's got it.serious weight problem, go home and start exercising.
02:15Also pay your taxes, read a book, and stay married.But he broke another norm this week when he pressured another country, Israel, to not letin to two Congresspeople.This never happened before.I don't know if you saw the story, but Congresswoman Rashida Talib from Detroit, I believe,wanted to go to the West Bank where her grandmother lives, and Trump told Israel they shouldn'tlet her in.So Israel, not their finest moment, said she.
02:47She couldn't go.And then they got blowback.So then they said she could go.And then she got blowback because she was going to go.So now she says she's not going to go.It's so confusing.The racist at his rally don't know what to chant.Send her back.
03:11Don't send her back?Wait, I'm sorry.Lock her up there.Lock her.And Trump never informed really about any foreign country.doesn't know a lot about Israel. When he went to the whaling wall, he brought a harpoon.He's not well-informed.And I don't understand Trump's followers on this kind of stuff, because they hate foreigners,
03:36they hate other religions, and they hate people who think they're so smart.But they love the Jews.I guess you'll think about that one on the way home.But Trump, the financial genius, is driving theeconomy over the cliff. Have you seen that?I mean, for years, every one of the world's economieshas been doing fucking great. Growing!Nobody they said could screw it up.
04:04Enter Trump saying,hold my beer.His new slogan is,make America Atlantic City again.No.Well, did you see what happened in the stock market this week?I mean, I spent more time gasping for breaththan Jeffrey Epstein.
04:29owing into applause.You don't hear that a lot, but we do it here.But yes, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell.They say America can't do anything anymore.Yes, and Attorney General William Barr,he has called for a thorough investigationto which he has already written the summary.I don't get that.
05:03And, of course, the conspiracy theories are abounding alreadybecause this Jeffrey Epstein guy knew everybody,Clinton, Trump,Prince Andrew, Dershowitzit was a who's who of, ew,thisEpstein guy was a weirdo.I mean, besides the pedophilia,
05:29besides the Sex Island,besides the plane,the Lolita Express, they called it.He had a ranch in New Mexico.Did you read this? I'm not making this up,where he was gathering scientistsand nubile young womenin a plan to repopulate the earth
05:44from his spawn.And Schwarzenegger said,Or you could just hop on the maid.Now, of course,of course, Trump, the conspiracy theorist,retweeting that the Clintonskilled Jeffrey Epstein.I mean, of all the right-wing
06:13conspiracy theories that have been going around,this is the stupidest. The ideathat the Clintons go around killingtheir enemies, first of all, it makesthem look cool.NobodyNobody ever accused Mitt Romney of murdering his way to the top.And finally, Congressman Steve King, not Stephen King, the author.
06:39He's the second scariest Steve King.Congressman, this guy outdoes himself.He said, humanity this week, this was his quote.Humanity, not a quote, but I'm paraphrasing.Humanity might not exist if not for rape and incest throughout human history.And then his sister bolted out of the room.All right, we've got a great show.With our friend from Run the Jewels, Killer Mike is backstage.
07:08But first up, he is the Democratic Senator from Rhode Island on our show.And author of Captured the Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy,now in paperback.Sheldon White House.Senator.She's soon now.All right.Now, why aren't you running for president?
07:33What's wrong with you?What's wrong with you?Slogan is so easy.White House, right?Put one in there.No?They say every senator looks in the mirror and sees the president.We've...
07:45Really?We're not suffering from a shortage of candidates.No, we are not.Okay.Well, I want to get into that.I mean, you are someone who I think is goodbecause you do criticize your own party,and I think they need a lot of criticism.
07:58For example, the 2009 bipartisan,I think it was, climate bill, right?You think the Democrats could have gotten that done?Yeah.So what happened?It was through the House.God bless Nancy Pelosi for getting it done.It cost a few Democratic members of Congress their jobs to do it, but they did.
08:16It came over to the Senate, and we never took up anything.Why?You can do just an practically empty bill to get it into conference and then work on something.I think there was conflict fatigue at the White House.From Obamacare?Yep.From fighting that one?Yeah.
08:35And they just didn't want to have another fight.as a senior person in the White House said,Sheldon, we just don't want to take on any fights.We're not sure we can win.Really?And you don't think that's the right philosophy.No, I kind of don't.That leaves most of the good fights off the table.
08:52And what about now?Because, I mean, the news about climate is just horrible.Now we have, I think, a real opportunity,but you've got to think about it in terms of a jail break.you've got 10 or 12 Republican senators who want out, who want to do a climate bill.And on the other side of the wire, you've got a getaway car that most people accept,which is a big price on carbon that's revenue neutral and border adjustable.But between them and that is barbed wire, gun towers, searchlights, attack dogs,
09:29all maintained by the fossil fuel industry.Literally.Literally.and...Nearly attack dogs.Funded by, well, no, literally the fossil fuel.That's what I was asking.That's good to know.
09:40But there's a lot of fearabout who might be the one to take the runfor the wire and get wiped out.Bob Inglis in Congresswas legendarily wiped out by them.Yeah.So the trick is how do you find a wayfor these 10 or 12 Republican senators
09:56to get there?And that means knocking backthe crooked, rough effortthat the fossil fuel industrycontinues to do. By the way, if you have heard the big oil CEOs say they support a price on carbon,they are not telling you the truth. Their whole apparatus is still dedicated to stopping it.And if you look at the rest of corporate America, they're doing essentially nothing to push backon what the fossil fuel guys have done. And in many cases, their trade associations are actually
10:24our enemies. So you have good companies with good climate policies and nifty websiteswho send trade associations to Washington that say, no, nothing.climate change. And you think a lot of this is becauseof the dark money in politics, right? I thinkit's virtually entirely because of the dark moneyin politics. You turn on the light in the kitchenand the cockroach is scuttle.You put the light on who's
10:45putting the money to these things, and a lot of the companiesand big donors who are behind this, they don't want to beseen, they're going to hide, they're going to scuttlefor the exits. I mean, that heat wave they had in Europea few weeks ago, which wassomething they've never seen, and they don't have air conditioningover there. And theysmell bad enough in France.
11:03Not going there.I'm not going there either.They smell bad and it's hot.But then Matt Heatway moved overGreece, Greenland.Greenland, which is for sale.Yes.Well, it's not for sale. What do you think about? Do you think that's crazy
11:23to say, I want to buy Greenland?Not by his standards.I mean...But why is it...I mean, there's so many things he actually does wrong and crazy.I don't know why we have to be so reflexive.Harry Truman wanted to buy Greenland in 1946.And we bought Alaska in like 1857.
11:49They called it Seward's Folly.But it wasn't really a folly, was it?And the Louisiana purchase.Yeah, right.Anyway, Greenland is melting.Yes.12 billion gallons a day of water coming off that.ice sheet at the peak.
12:07They said it was melting at a levelthat the models hadn't predictedto happen until 2070.Yeah. So think of yourself livingin 2070.And if we reached that,the sea levels would rise by 20 feet.Yeah. Which is why it's urgent
12:23to get after this dark money nonsense, becausethat is what is holding us back.And as Democrats,that ought to be our daily focus.If you are playing a video gameand zombies were attacking you in the video,game and they were all powered by the same power source.Right.
12:38You'd be a lousy player if all you did was fight the zombiesthat didn't attack the power source.So what is their power source?So what is your advice to the Democrats?I have tried week after week here.I think you know this.Yeah.To kind of be their coach saying things like
13:01go on Fox News.Yeah.You would agree with that.You got to know where the people are.Okay.I wrote Island colleague David Cicillinidoes a very good job going on Fox Newsfor the House Democrats.
13:10Okay, good.Stop apologizing for everything?Correct.You believe that?You believe there's too much purity testing?Yeah, way too much.Okay.So what else?
13:19Nuclear firing score.We can't waste time fighting with each otherwhen we have the situation we face nowwith this White Houseand when we have the problem we havewith the dark money.I mean, in some respects,Trump is almost a distraction
13:33from the other problem.He's awful.He's really dazzlingin his crudity, and a lot of attention goes to him.And meanwhile, here are all these big special interests,spending unlimited amounts of money.It influences the Supreme Court to take over the EPA,to control Congress and eliminate solutions to climate change.
13:55Sometimes people, I think, wonder, why does some many, you know,conservatives still like him?Well, he gives them a lot.He gives them a lot.That they want.Not that we want.And he scares them a lot.Yeah, he does that too.
14:07Look at a couple of my colleagues, like Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, who he basically...He's an intimidator.He put him out.So, I've long said that one of the structural reasons why the Democrats have such an uphill battleis because we have 40 million people here in California and only two senators.Yeah.How many in your state?One million.
14:31One million.Yeah.And they get two senators.Yeah.Can I...Is that really fair?Is that...To be personalized?
14:40for a minute. I don't have the numbers right now, but I remember giving a speech on the Senatefloor when I did have the numbers. There was a Republican majority in the Senate, and when youadded up the number of Americans that those Republican senators represented, it was 40 millionpeople fewer, fewer than the Democratic minority represented. So yeah, we have a representationproblem. We've had presidents who got elected without having won the popular vote. Afterred map, we had the House taken overafter losing the popular vote bya million, and we have the Senate
15:16with this baked in problem. TheRepublicans do a really determinedjob of winningpower with fewer voters.And we don't take on thatinfrastructure and we don't take on thatstrategy. We're too happyfighting the fight of the minute. It's second grade
15:31soccer chasing the ball and they areplanning ahead. Well, you get after them.Please do. Senator Whitehouse.Thank you very much. Good to be with you. All right. Let'smeet our panel.Hey, everybody.Okay, he is a Republican strategy.It's an author of The New York Times
15:53Best Selling book, Everything Trump Touches, Dyes.Rick Wilson.It's very vague.Settled.Okay, he is the Chief Washington correspondentfor the New York Times,an author of confirmation biasinside Washington's war over the Supreme Court
16:10from Scalia's death to Justice Kavanaugh.Carl Hulse. Great to have you on, Carl.And she's a day.Kelly Beast politics reporter and MSNBC contributor.Betsy Woodruff is here.Betsy, hi.Okay, so let's get into this thing with Israel and Trumpand the Congresswoman going over there.
16:30First they were going to go and then they couldn't goand now they don't want to go.So I think we all agree Israel could have been the big one in thisand let them in.So let's not argue about that if we all agree that.Let's talk about the BDS because that's what's behind this.That's why Israel said they wouldn't let her in, because she supports BDS,which stands for boycott, divest, and sanction of Israel
16:56because of the occupation of the Palestinian territory.Is that fair?To not let her in?No.No.To boycott, divest, and sanction Israel.I think this is something that's growing in the United States,and you see it a lot on college campuses,
17:14where there are people who are saying,you know, we can't have this relationship with Israelwithout getting pressure on them over Palestine.I don't know whether it's right...Is it fair?Is it the right thing to do?Does Israel deserve that?I don't know that it's the right thing to do.
17:28I will say this about this whole controversy.To me, this is really dangerous for Israel.My experience is the one thing that there's been super bipartisanship in Congressalways has been Israel.It's not, do you support Israel?It's like, I love Israel the most.No, I love Israel the most.And now you have this division occurring that I think, you know, Israel, we're dependent on them.
17:51They are very dependent on us for money.And I just think if the Israeli government becomes seen as just allied to conservatives and Trump in the United States,it's going to be a struggle for them.And that's where this boycott might actually take hold.And I would say that that ship has actually sailed.Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump are almost indistinguishable.And Netanyahu has an election coming up in September.and his entire plan is to be as close to Trump as possible.
18:16People forget that Trump is way more popular in Israelthan he is in the United States.And the election there that's coming upis all about who is closest to Trump.So the challenge that this presents for the U.S.-Israel relationship,which the BDS movement really heightens,is that you have these two heads of statewho could not be more myopic about their relationship.
18:36B.B. is making every single decision based on what's going to happen a month from now.Trump makes decisions based on the next news cycle.And that means that the U.S. Israel relationship is being managed in a very manic way.This is also an indicator of the kind of politics Trump wants to play.He wants to elevate Talib.He wants to make her a star.He wants to make her the running mate of whoever the nominee is this time.He wants to elevate the squad because he thinks that they're great targets to make his audience, to make his base furious.
19:08And he wants that feeling that there's an enemy out there, and he can feel.put his finger on them. Okay, since no one'sanswering my question, I'm going to answer it myself.It's a bullshit purity test.BDS is a bullshit purity test by people who want toappear woke but actually slept through historyclass.It's true.
19:30Thank you.It's predicated on this notion. I think it'svery shallow thinking that the Jewsare in Israel, mostly white,and the Palestinians are browner, so theymust be innocent and correct.the Jews must be wrong.As if the occupation came right out of the blue that this completely peaceful people found
19:52themselves occupied.Forget about the infatadas and the suicide bombings and the rockets and the rocketsand how many wars.And let me read, Omar Bargudi is one of the co-founders of the movement.His quote, no Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will everaccept a Jewish state in Palestine.So that's where that comes from this movement, someone who doesn't even want a Jewish state at all.Somehow this side never gets presented in the American media. It's very odd.
20:24Well, I think it's absolutely become one of these litmus tests inside the hard progressive movement now.That they need the enemies of Trump and before that, the enemies of Bush, you know, they looked at hard progressives,looked at Israel as a strong ally for both Trump and for Bush prior to that.And so it's been brewing a long time.This has been coming up into the sort of percolating up to the progressive left for a long time.And I think you're right.It is largely a historical.It does not focus on the fact that there are two players in this dance and two sets of behaviors in this dance.
21:01You've got to look at.What he said.No, but I do think you're right on the a historical part.People don't understand history anymore.I mean, the entire...Well, shouldn't that come into play?Why aren't we saying it then?I don't get it.
21:15I mean, I think that we explain, you know, I work for the New York Times.You know, we tend to explain the history of this conflict.But I think people, when they see Netanyahu,and, you know, the Democrats in Washington are still really mad about that speechthat, remember when John Boehner invited him and sort of went around Obama?And they just feel that this administration's been playing.I mean, Saudi Arabia wouldn't let Jews into the kingdom.I'm not sure they still do.
21:42They don't.They don't?No.Okay.Isn't that something?I mean, I have a list here of Jews in the Middle East prior to 1948.Morocco, there was 250,000 to 350,000.These are a little old statistics, but last tally, 2,500.
22:00Iraq had 150,000.In 03, they had 34.Tunisia at 100,000, and they had 900.Egypt had 75 to 80,000, then 40.Iran at 150,000, then 9,000.It's not a one-way street here, is it?And Congresswoman Omar has said things like,it's all about the Benjamins.
22:26Israel has hypnotized the world.May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.She apologized for it, but it's out there.Jews control the world.Jews control the money.I can see why they don't get a hero's welcome.And it presents a really major challenge for the Democratic Partybecause the vast majority of Democratic members of the House of Representatives
22:49would very much share your views on this movement.But now there are these two new young members who have significant supportamong the progressive base who are making the case for the BDS movement.And that's extremely challenging for Nancy Pelosi.It's extremely challenging for the moderate Democratswho flipped the House in part because they persuaded Republican.voters that the Democratic Party was the moremoderate party. And it's something that's going to be
23:12a major challenge for the Democratic Party goingforward. How do they handlethese new members making the casefor this argument that doesn't have wide purchasewithin the party? Okay.So, I've been sayingfor about two years that I hope we havea recession, and
23:28people get mad at me as Sean Hannity thinksI'm actually causing a recession.I do not have this power,but he seems to be wanting to blame it on melike I'm a genie. I can make it happen.I'm just saying we can survive a recession.We've had 47 of them.We've had one every time there's a Republican president.
23:49They don't last forever.You know what lasts forever?Wiping out species and people.But this week, the UN report came out.More than a million species of plants and animalsare at risk of extinction.So Trump, of course, did what any evil villain would do.He rolled back the protections of the Endangered Species Act.
24:11This has saved the green sea turtle.the American alligator, the peregrine falcon, bald eagles, grizzly bears, gray wolves, humpback whales.And this is just the animals.There's now, it's going to be a new word in the language, Flintwater.There's now Flintwater in Newark.So, yes, a recession would be very worth getting rid of Donald Trump and these kind of policies.You know, Bill, and it would get rid of him.You know, Bill, a recession would definitely knock him out of office.
24:39I've got to say, bring on the recession if it means,that you replace, and I say this as a Republican of the Teddy Roosevelt variety,if you replace a goddamn oil lobbyist who runs the fucking EPA right now.Right.With a human being.Well, that's what would happen.It's outrageous.It's outrageous.
24:58Donald Trump can piss me off 50 times a day.But when I read the environmental species thing,this is just punitive dickishness by these people.They're just doing this to be assholes.They want their base to be like, we're taking them regulations away.And so, you know what?I'm from Florida.I hunt, I fish.
25:14I go outside.I like the eagles in my backyard, okay?Well, you're not killing them.No, I like Florida Panthers.I like the fact that we have a big, diverse ecosystem.These guys are just doing this.It is just performative assholery.It is not...
25:31It's not...It's not even going to go on regular...I don't...I think it's more than that, though.I think that...I think it's also to help the oil and gas.extraction industry. I mean, this is, there's a niche there. So this is to me, and you kind ofhit on this, this is to me where the chickens come home to roost, if we're going to talk species,
25:52on the Trump administration. You know, you can have the chaos every day and the outrage,whatever. This is policy, and this is a big change in policy. And this is a rare federallaw success story. It's really had great impacts, and it hasn't only saved the grizzly bear,which I'm going to mention the second, the eagle. I was just in Colorado. People like seeing theirEagles for them around and they wouldn't be there.But this has taught people to think differentlyabout species and to roll thisback. And Republicans, though, have always
26:19looked at this as a weighton the economy.But no person wasclamoring for it. No voter.Only lobbyists, you know.Only the people with the money.It's a very popular thing in a small niche.So, Liz Cheney,
26:35the daughter of theex-vice president andrepresentative now from Wyoming, a memberthe House leadership.She had a great comment the other day.She lost, there was a suit thatNative tribes andsome lawyers brought to get
26:51to stop the delisting of thegrizzly bear outside Yellowstone.And she'svery angry about this and she said thatthe selfish natives out therewere destroying our Western way of life.Without the irony,wait a second.
27:07That's priceless. That's a quote.Okay, so...I can tell you Donald Trump literallythinks that enforcing the Endangered Species Act is a joke.In private conversations, he'll say things like,oh, they couldn't drill because there was a frog,and the environmentalists were mad about the frog,where he'll say, oh, there was a puddle,
27:23and something might have grown in it.Like, he doesn't, he thinks it's funnythat people take these things serious.He thinks the wind is connected to your TV,that if we had wind power and the wind wasn't blowing,the TV would go off.I don't know.Rachel Carson, he is not.
27:38I'm old enough to remember when it was a,terrible thing to pick winners and losers in the economy.Right, you know?Yes.And here's he's picking oil and gas.Okay, so this weekwhen Epstein died,he treated that it was the
27:53Clintons, and people noticed thatthis is not the first time he has jumped on aconspiracy theory. He really nevermet a conspiracy theory. He didn't like... Look at that.23. Is it the Washington Post?23 bizarre conspiracy theories.And I think they need a little betterresearcher, because that is not all. We found
28:09all of them.Would you like to hear the full list?Okay, well, I'm glad.For example, he believes the conspiracy,the DNA testing on Monica Lewinsky's dressrevealed a second shooter.He believes...He believes that.
28:27He believes that.He believes the theory that all the plastic in the oceanis from mermaids having work done.That's...He thinks the moon landing was fake,but Nott's landing was real.That's...Donald Trump thinks the alphabet
28:46is a secret code used to communicate messages.He has many times spoken privatelyabout his belief that the pyramids aren't structuresbuilt by man. They're the earth's tits.That is...He believes, listen to this conspiracy theory,that when Starbucks ask you,do you want room for cream,
29:18they give you the same amount of coffeeno matter what you say.And he believed in nocturnal omissionmeans that in your sleep,jerked off by a ghost.Okay.He is one half of Run the Jewels and host of the Netflixshow, Trigger Warning.
29:36Michael Render, aka Killer Mike, is over here.There's that thousand-locks,smile.How are you?How are you doing?How y'all do you? All right.Mike, so glad you're here.I'm glad to be here.
29:52Are you representing there?This is...Man, this is...And, Master, I know we're going to get around to talk aboutcapitalism some point.Well, okay.A couple kids sent me a big and tall streetwarebrand called Grand.
30:04they're chubby. They figured chubby kids could buy expensive shoes. So I invested in their company.I bought some of them. Wow. Big of you.Yeah. Literally.So, all right, I got a million things I want to ask you. Let's start with Jay Z. Because that's all in the news.Jay Z has partnered with the NFL. Yes. I understand Robert Kraft is the one who brought them together.Robert's got a lot of hip-hop points past couple of years. Isn't that amazing?Yeah. Got meek free, got jerked off.All in line with rapper shit.
30:38You know you like that one.Okay.No insult, though.I like Mr. Crabb.But the internet is on Jay-Zlike Beyonce's sister in an elevator.I mean, because, of course,we had the Super Bowl and Colin Kaepernick
30:58still doesn't have a job in the NFL.Does not.And there was a lot of pressure from a lot of peoplesaying, you artists,Maroon 5 played the gig, but they got shit for doing it.Some people stayed away.Some people are now saying that Jay-Z is giving NFL cover.Eric Reed.
31:12He's a pro-bowler for the Panthers.Yeah, hell of a player.He said, it looks like your goal, talking to Jay-Z,was to make millions by assisting the NFLand burying Collins' career.I don't agree with that, but I want your take.Being a black American is a duality, right?And I navigated because I was raising in Atlanta.
31:32So in Atlanta Super Bowl came last year.I stood up in one of the meetings, and I raised hell about there not being a social climate involved.Meaning, I said at least you could have 12 kids shadow producers and learn how to produce a show.We have an arts and theater school that Alcass came out of, Tri-City.My school, Frederick Douglas High School, arts program.I was like, simple as that, you can do that, right?I saw how our communities got decimated when Major League Baseball kind of pulled out years ago.They found another genetic pool down in Dominican Republic.
32:01They could get much cheaper, right?Are we still talking about Jay-Z?Yeah, we are.Follow me.Because what we're really talking aboutis sports plantationsand what fuels them, right?So the NFL is fueled by talent
32:16from black kidsand poor and working class white kidsthat make good.Jay-Z has been a capitalisthis entire careerto celebrate the onebecause he was one of usthat made it out the streets,
32:27made it in the rooms,and he did what he couldwhen he should.When the Grammys did not showthe hip-hopportion, J. Z boycott it. I know because I boycotted that same year. Only Grandma I ever won.I was sad as hell after. But I stood in solidarity. JZ'splay, I believe, not only gives us a seat at the table, young people, young black
32:45America, it doesn't destroy what Cap kneeled for. What he knelt for was proper treatment of usby state agents with police. That does not end with him getting the job. The same way him kneelingis not an insult to the military. It is as an American asserting your First Amendment rightssaying something is wrong. So on both sides.sides of this polarized issue that we're givento narrow these wide issuesand giving this narrow frame to argue like Chomskysaid, we shouldn't do that. Look for
33:10the tertiary agreements. I believethat if Jay-Z becomes a team owner,Cap gets a try out.Yeah, well, okay.Well, I just, I mean, I won't read this wholequote, but the quoteis basically saying,time for action. Yes.
33:26And to me, it sounds like he's been talking to Obama.No.You know, Jay-Z has. Because this is Obama, toLet's do something real. Let's get something done. Let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.But the African American community would argue that Obama didn't do that. There are elements, the same elements that would argue that Jay-Z is betraying. There's an element that argument out of African-American community that's not very pleased with Obama.Now, I'm not here to castigate.I'm just simply saying, we are notmonolithic. No. We have different
33:54views. And around Jay-Z, there wasa mayor in Atlanta named Maynard Jackson.When he took mayorial ship, this is whathe said. We're going to have a seat atthis table, so 29% of anycontract that comes across the city has to beAfrican-American participating in the own. He couldn'tfind one African-American architecture
34:10at that time. So you know what he did? Hiredblack contractors to build a runways.He said, if you can build a driveway, you can build a runway.So although he couldn't include us in thearchitecture, he got black companies like the Herman Russell company working to buildFulton County Stadium to build that. And that's what Jay's doing. And with that said, I'm a hugesupport of Kaepernan. All right. May I ask a second question? You'll get more questions.Okay, so guns. Yes. Every time you're here, we have to talk about guns. I don't know why.
34:49I know, but there was a shooting last week. And Corey Booker, Kamala Harris, have gun plans out,and they're talking about these red flag laws.I bet you I know that you're not down with that.I can't be.I'm an African-American male.I live in a progressive city in the deep south.I'm surrounded by white gun owners who have owned guns for generationswho agree with the president that's being compared to nationalistic and nazi-like.
35:17I would be a fool to then give my guns to said government.Doesn't mean I have anything personally against the lobby to get,Kamala and Corey in, whether it be a Senate seat or presidency,it means that I simply cannot, in my support of black participation in politics,that is an issue I cannot support.Because a red flag means they're going to find reasons to take guns.Well, they already have.I know you would say that they're going to find more reasons with...
35:45Easy.Gun laws affect African Americans worse than first.You know how Dr. King got guns to be an issue.He filed for a concealed carry permit.You know that in the deep south,70, 80 years ago, black men could buy shotgunsor they could not buy rifles. Well, what'sthe difference? They both kill people.
36:01A shotgun can kill the clan once they're 30 yards away.A rifle could kill the clanat 100 yards away. I would wanta dead clans when 100 yards away so that he never getswithin 30 yards of shooting my wife and children.And, you know, we already have,in my view, too many police.You know, there are five police.
36:24forces, forces between Malibu and this studio?I haven't pulled over about four of them.Is that true?They all let me keep my weed, though.That's how I knew you guys were much more progressive.But, you know, there's the FBI and the DEA and the ATF and the TSA and ICE and federal...Yeah.And the sheriff's department and the federal marshals and...
36:47...and the customs and staplier....custom of the cops.But, you know, that's a lot of people with a license to kill who don't really share my politics.politics, and they all love Trump.Absolutely. Well, I can't say all, but a lot.Like, I had a black cop call me last week,who's a constitutionally.Cops love Trump. He voted Trump.
37:02Yeah.Okay, so you're Atlanta.Yeah. There was a big conclave todaywith Mayor Pete was there.Yeah, I'll be there tomorrow with Sanders.Oh, you will be there tomorrow.I'll leave right after here to fly home.Oh, wow.
37:17My wife's not happy about that.She wants to stay in Malleable and smoke wheat.Why would it be different?and malign.Weed is weed.That's what's great about it. It doesn't matter where you are.Yeah, we got better strip clubs. You got better weed.We should meet in the middle.
37:35Green weed and black women, man.All right, all right.Okay, so Mayor Pete.What do you think about Mayor Pete?Because every time I turn in the news, they're talking about him,they say, well, he's got a problem.You know, he's not down with the brown.I like his personality.
37:51I don't know enough of his policy. I know he ran into someissues around the police.in the South Bend area. My thing is, with police forces in any mayor, why do they seem tohave control and volley over the mayor's office versus the other way around? Now, in my city,police seem to be taken to task more, right? There were a group of policemen who accidentallykilled a black old lady on a false premise drug raid. They were sent to jail.A policeman killed the kid who was falsely accused, still in car, went to jail. That doesn't happenin other places. New York, De Blasio could have done something quicker. He did not. So he showed his
38:25cowardice. And Mayor Pete's growthinto a national politician, he's going to have to get outin front of this and be tough and square. Dick Gregory said something years ago, God bless thedead. If you attack insurance companies and the police pensions, you will see adeceleration. Because he said, it's funny, you never see black copsaccidentally keep killing white kids. Not that they're more spiritual or smarter.They understand that white people are not going to tolerate it. And the waythat you don't tolerate things in capitalism is attack the money. If your
38:50police force is misabusing and using you, and they don't look like you,find ways to attack their money. Find ways to attack their unions, their pensions,find ways to attack the city's money, and you'll see change.Okay. So let me ask this. I kind of want to defend a couple of friends of mine here.Everybody can get on on this one.After the shootings last week, Neil deGrasse Tyson, good friend of mine,a great friend of our show.Yeah.
39:13Boy, did he get in trouble on Twitter.He said in the past 48 hours, the U.S. horrifically lost 34 people to mass shootings.Then he said, on average, across any 40 hours, we also lose 500 to medical average,fear into flu, 20 to suicide, car accidents, and so forth a point.He said, often our emotions respond more to spectacle than to data.Okay, but he didn't voice the one true opinion.This country's now a place where there's just one acceptable opinion.God forbid you have nuance or think outside the box.
39:47So, fuck all you all.This is just, you can express.different opinion. He wasn't saying, I'm glad children are dead.It's the gotcha culture. It's everybody has to, you know, mobilize their mob at any given moment.And he got dragged because he didn't, right, he didn't say immediately, why don't we have gun control?Why don't we do this? He didn't utter the magic spell that would have protected him.Can I say, though, when we're talking about cancel culture and gotcha culture, it's not concentrated on one side.No, it's not. Just in the last two weeks, the president himself literally got a movie cancel.
40:21because he hadn't seen it, and Fox News decided that it wasn't nice to conservatives,even though it presented liberals as being mean to conservatives, which I guess,for some reason that didn't match with what the president was saying.I mean, there are always going to be outrage mobs on the Internet,but when you literally have the most powerful person in the free world...Right, right....festing and encouraging this type of conversation.When he triggers somebody, they pull a trigger.
40:47But it hurts more when it's the people on my side who are supposed to be for free speech.I'm sorry about that.There's no sense of proportion to anything.Everything hits DefCon 1 immediately.Right.You know, we had this really objectionable headline last week or so about Trump, you know,and giving him too much credit.And, you know, the New York Times, I've been there a long time,
41:10we write bad headlines all the time.It was facts.This is a common occurrence, right?But immediately everyone is, we've got to fire the editor.I'm canceling my subscription.It's just this.Right. It's just this knee jerky over the top, and it's fueled by social media.I really think it's unhealthy. I worry about this.
41:28You have to go back to the original point of, in a capitalistic society, they aren't just canceling because you offended and you hurt my feelings.We were saying that in 1992, and Rodney King got is asking.It's canceled by the perception of I'm going to lose money.So the way to cancel, council culture is to not only enforce that we be more adamant about free speech,It is to then support the things that you want to support.Thank God for Luke and the two live crew throw that dick.Because throw that dick, brought Broward County to take him to the Supreme Court.And he and people like Larry Flint fought the fight for us to say bullshit that gets us canceled.
42:05The first record I ever bought.I love you.It's so horny.He's so horny.He's so horny.And the best proof of that argument, like the best evidence for it, is where,Cancell Culture doesn't work. Literally the governor and the Attorney General of Virginia right now both have blackface problems and they both are still in power because they aren't responsive to the influences of the market.Okay, so speaking of that and movies getting canceled, Sarah Silverman, another good friend of mine. She
42:35tweeted out this week. She was about to start a movie and she would have been great as Dora the Explorer.And then this is the night before the movie.movie was just, they called her up and said, no, we saw the sketch, and this has been out therefor quite a well. She did a blackface sketch in 2007, a sketch that I don't remember anybodyat the time objecting to, which, okay, they changed the rules, you know, it was in serviceof the liberal point of view. It was an anti-racist sketch using blackface to make that point,okay? It wasn't to bring back minstrel shows that she did it. Back then, the rule was, okay,you can do that if it's in service of the right point of view.
43:17Now the rules have changed and she loses her job.Now does everybody who did that because Jimmy Kimmel did it and Billy Crystal did it and lots of Ted Danson did it and everybody should have known that future, future Sarah, should have a time machine to know that in the future the wokeness standard would change.That's what I'm saying.Which is, that is an infinitely recursive problem and it will get worse and worse and worse and it won't be, oh, someday they'll find somebody who laughed at the blackface sketch.Now they have to be fired.It's just it endlessly ron-downe.Where are you on that?Where am I on this?
43:53I'm on Sarah Silverman.There's a black detergent in Atlanta called True Detergent,started by four black Muslim United States veterans,all men in their 60s and 70 years old.She was one of the first and biggest people from Hollywoodto make a mass purchase of their products,to put it on social media.That helped not only that company grow.
44:15Yeah, it's called True Degedict.To get the black face off?No, no, no, no.No, my house, nigger.No, my house, nigga.Don't slow there.But had Sarah not done that,that company would not have gotten
44:30the extra funding they needed to then purchase a warehouseand would not be a cornerstone of the we buy black.com.And y'all check that out and buy some.So if Sarah, our ally,wouldn't have done that, I can forgive an allyfor some shit she didn't even know10 years later would be, you know,it's not that big of a deal
44:45to counsel her. We should not go seethat movie on her behalf, as black people, onthe behalf of my community. I am never, I'm going tofind out who produced that movie, and I'm never going to go seeanother movie they made. I think that's, uh, cancelcultures. Yes, exactly. I'm going to getback at them with my cancel. But you have a point that I keepthinking of, if everybody always just gets fired
45:01for every mistake or banned,who's going to be left, and who's going to take the chancesthe robots. Exactly.Right, you have to take some chance.Right. Especially as artists.Exactly. You don't know where the line is until youcross it a little bit.You wouldn't know that, though.
45:16No, I wouldn't know that at all.Okay, so...But it's really creepy the way there's a show trial aspect to this.When I read these Neil DeGrasse, Tyson's...First of all, anybody's first apology, never good enough.He wrote, I am...Long, long, long apology, I won't bore you.It's like marriage.
45:42He wrote, I am therefore thankful.for the candor and depth of critical reactions shared in my Twitter feed.This is what they used to do in the old Soviet Union.Can I get out of the gulag now?Thank you for educating me, re-educating me.Now, he's not the first astrophysicist to get in trouble, Galileo.And I read Galileo's apologies almost the same.I have been enjoined by the Holy Office to abandon the false opinion,
46:10which maintains that the sun is the center.I abjure, curse, and detest my said errors and heresies.Could I get out of the cell now?It's the cultural revolution in China.The people are, you know, they're begging to be forgiven by Maoafter he's killed their families.Right.You know?
46:27Yes.I'm so sorry, they offended you.So, okay.I mean, I don't know if it's totally fair to compareNeil deGrasse Tyson having to tweet somethingthat's a little bit, you know, over the topto the cultural revolution in China.That seems not exactly like these are the same.
46:42same thing. No, I don't think that was...That wasn't...That was not... Not yet. Not yet....and the end of a marathon is still both themarathon, though. Right. Like, you've got tosee, it's a pathway that leads toclosing and shutting scientists and artists up.So, there definitely is the beginning.
46:55When people who have notgraduated post-secondaryeducation get to shame anastrophysicist into apologizing forsimply stating facts, oh,that's a sign we'll betrying to really serve.That's a...
47:12And just, we only have 30 seconds.Just give me yes or no.Was Jeffrey Epstein a suicide or is there something more nefarious?Suicide.Suicide, but fishy.Suicide, but the investigations will probably turn up interesting context.Miguel, please.Time for new rules, everybody.
47:36The selfie brush, the plastic hair brush that holds your iPhone.So you can take a selfie in between brushstrokes.Must come with the following disclaimer.Other people's interest in you is likely lower than you suspect.Attaching your cell phone to your hairbrush doesn't say I'm a multitasker.It says, give me brain cancer, God, I dare you.Neural scientists have to do a peer-reviewed study to determine what it is about the human mindthat makes us keep thinking, a nice cold LeCroix sounds good,
48:26even though it always tastes like shit.New Rule married people who invite all their friends and familyto witness the renewal of their wedding vowshave to be honest on the invitation.New Rule, the jewel wasp has to understandwe have a pretty good idea why you asked to speak to usand before you say anything,we just want you to know that your mother and I love you no matter what.
49:17Rehearsal crowd loved that yesterday,and they were just people off the street.He's good. I don't think they speak it.New rule, since the app Shazamlets me know the name of a song I hear playing,they should make an app that lets me knowif the artist of the song I'm listening tois problematic.
49:35That's why I've invented Problame.For example, let's play the songGhost Whip the Whiskey.I'm a little risky.But that's what's up when you ghost whip the whiskey.I love that song.but can I love the singer?Let's problame it.
50:00Oh.But it says the singer Clint Beckerhas made several tweetscalling the Obama administration gayand once licked a woman's neckand a Walgreens.Throw them in the piewith R. Kelly and Wacko Jacko.
50:17Now, play somethingI can enjoy with a clear conscience.And finally, new rule.America must ask itself this question.What do we do about the easy access to firearmsby young men who simply feel like shit?There's no shortage of reasons offered as to why Americahas a gun violence problem,
50:45but isn't it a lot of it becauseAmerica is an every man for himself,winner-take-all culture,that chews up and spits out people who don't keep up.You can fly as high as you want here,but if you fall by the wayside,our response is, sucks to be you, loser.unfollow. You want a friend, get a gun.
51:0642% of the people in America make $15 an hour or less.How much of a life can you really have on that budget?What is an American mass shooter, really,but a suicide bomber wearing axe body spray?The NRA should change its slogan to guns don't kill people,seething loners who can't get laid kill people.Yes, we have too many guns,but America has an epidemic of gun violence,
51:44because it has an epidemic of guyswho were picked last in gym.All right. I do it for them at home.Forget red flags.Just find the guys who cut their own bangs.I know profiling is wrong,but if a guy takes his mother to the prom,he goes on the list.
52:20Does your fondest sexual memoryinvolve two other people you heard through a wall?I'm going to get rid of this fucking idea.That's the last thing I do.You've been selected for extra screening.Armed and lonely is not a good combination.America has a loneliness crisis.22% of millennials say they don't have any friends.
52:4625% say they don't even have an acquaintance.10% didn't know that pizza comes in slicesso someone else can have some.And what is it that has made people so lonely?It's their stupid phone,which was supposed to connect people.but which studies have found has made them more lonely.It's like a vibrator designed by Mike Pence.
53:24The internet is where young white men go from lonely and sad to radicalized and lethal.Because we used to wake up, read the paper, see all the terrible things in the world,and say, well, at least my life is better than those poor slobs.But now it's the opposite.Social media tells you everyone is having more fun with more toys and more fun.friends than you.They're always in St. Kitts havingmy tides at sunset while you're in
54:04Canoga Park selling your plasma at dusk.Yolo!Before Instagram, you could be a loserbut not feel it, because the winnersweren't always in your face.Even the most mundane postof avocado toast in ahipster coffee shop sends the
54:27message, I'm having fun and you'renot. Enjoy your cup of noodles,fatty. This is howThe internet gets you coming and going.Guys watch the haves on Instagramand then go over to sites like 8chanto brood with the have-nots.Being a loser used to just mean that you stayed home
54:50on Friday nights to get a head start on your Star Wars fan fiction.You had a hard dick and no social skills.But it wasn't a movement.But now, with sites like 8 Chan, it is.Chan is where threeof the mass shooters so farposted their manifestos.It's where QAnon got started.
55:18A. Chan is to lonely white menwhat the hometown buffet is togastric bypass patients.Both dangerous andinescapable.And it's why peopleneed real friends.Not chat room friends.
55:40Not Facebook friends.Not fellow paranoids feeding each othermisinformation on a screen.but real human friends who can look you in the eyeand tell you that your theories about the coming race war or horseshit.And to tell you that social media isn't real.So stop comparing yourself to a fantasy.No one is having that much fun.
56:05They're just distorting reality to big themselves up.Trust me, anyone out there who's home tonightfeeling left out, discarded and disrespected.If you knew how much everybody else is faking,it, you wouldn't want to join them anyway.Vegas, September 6th and 7th.I want to thank Rick Wilson, Carl Holst, Betsy Woodruff,Killer Mike, and Sheldon Whitehouse.
56:32Stay tuned for overtime on YouTube.Thank you very much.Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maherevery Friday night at 10.Or watch them anytime on HBO On Demand.For more information, log on to H.B.O.com.
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