Real Time with Bill Maher - Ep. #741: Terry Bradshaw, Max Brooks, Sarah Longwell

Episode Date: September 12, 2026

Bill’s guests are Terry Bradshaw, Max Brooks, Sarah Longwell. (Originally aired 9/11/26) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGEMGEMD operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. Welcome to an HBO podcast. from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Ma. It's a somber day. This is the anniversary of one of the most important events in American history. This is the 25th anniversary when we were attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. There were ceremonies commemorating it in New York. Four ex-presidents went. Trump and Pete Hegsteth went to the Pentagon, which was also attack,

where Trump said, we will never forget who attacked us on this day. Canada. Pete Hegg-Seth, he was even more mad about it. He said, these terrorists tried to destroy the Pentagon, and that is my job. It was a very bizarre week, I thought, in politics. First of all, we found out that AI is going to kill us all, because I've been saying. But we'll get to that on panel. We've got hours to live.

And in the midst of that, and on the two days when the NFL kicked off their season, Trump decided to have a mid-term convention, which, by the way, is not a thing. We don't do that. Okay. But he wanted to assure the voters, his voters, that with him as president and both houses, you know, a Republican majority, everything people were worrying about. Inflation, affordability, corruption, the war would be solved, which would be a great selling point, except that's what we have now. And he said the affordability crisis is fake. Fake.

You're not paying more for beef. That cow is lying. Listen, he has a solution to the affordability crisis. He listed a lot of new proposals and then just went, you know what, fuck it, I'll give you five grand. That's it. That was the big take from the convention, the midterm convention. That's really the solution we have.

If you vote Republicans in, the government will hand out to everyone $5,000. You know, to fight socialism. In a country that is already haves and have-nots, this is a little bit of a scattershot approach. To get the money, all you have to do is just be an American adult and be alive. So Mitch McConnell, your move. And mind you, the point of this convention was to show what great shape the Republican Party is in. And then the big idea was, I'll give you five grand.

You know, the part of the movie... where the crackhead is so desperate, he says, I'll suck your dick for a dollar. Like that, but in politics. But grand for everybody. Makes you kind of miss the innocent days when we bribed him. And I thought this was really,

on top of all, that's kind of weird. He's now saying that if the five grand doesn't move the polls, he'll take everybody furniture shopping. I... Oh, no one remembers that. I'll tell you later. And this really happened.

week in America, which used to be a real country. At the convention, he made everybody put their hand up and do a new pledge of allegiance. I brought it word for word because I just don't want to... This is the President of the United States, and this is what he had people say. I pledged to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much that he can't even breathe, that I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway. I don't care if I'm registered or not.

I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do. With liberty and justice for all. I got nothing anymore. And of course, of course, Trump had to claim that the convention hall was packed, even though, you know, if you ignored the empty seats, yes, it did look packed. Of course, you went against football?

You went against the opening two nights of football? Wow, the one thing that people still watch on television? on Trump's convention on Fox News got less than what Hannity and Gutfeld get on a regular night. And I'm the low ratings dummy? And here's an interesting side light to the story in Dallas where the convention was Grindr,

which I'm sure you know is the... Apparently you know really well. Well, yes, it's the gay hookup act. And it crashed in Dallas while the Republicans were there. Now, I am not making any... insinuations about whether that's a coincidence or not, but I will say this. The most popular prostitute name that night was Big Beautiful Bill.

And if you want to look to the future about this, the convention did look a bit of a coronation for Vice President J.D. Vance. He made a speech. He was interrupted by a protester waving an American flag, and he came back with, if you love Mexico so much, why don't you get your ass over there? And the guy said, I would, but I can't afford gas. All right. Got a great show. We have Brooks are here. The first. Oh my gosh, a four-time Super Bowl champion Pro Football Hall of Famer. There's new book, Looking for Terry.

A memoir comes out October 13. Terry Bradshaw, there he is. I hope I didn't over-dress. No, no. Compe? I remember that time he came out of the Tonight Show with your fly-down, so I was... As long as it was up.

When I did that show, I asked, could I do stand-up? And Jay said, you know, because, see, Jay do all the time. You do it? You know, can I do stand-up? He says, I'll give you three minutes. And so I went out there, and the whole time I'm telling jokes, my fly's open and they're laughing at my fly being open.

And I turn around to tell him, I'm killing it. And he's got a sign. He's holding a sign saying, you fly is open. So much for that. See, this is the guy I always see on TV. The energy, how old are you now? 78. Look at the energy in this time.

I mean, and, uh, Your book. Fantastic book. I mean, it's your second one you've written, and it's really a lot deeper because it goes into a lot of things in your life that we didn't know about you. I mean, the theme of the book is kind of,

the person America knows is not exactly who you really are. What if I like the other guy? The other guy. What if I like the person American knows? Well, the people, the guy that you see on television is, that's me. I just don't go around talking about,

depression and divorces and things of that nature that are very upsetting to me. So I don't talk about those things. I would rather make people laugh or have a smile on my face because when I do the Fox Show coming up Sunday, I know that people have worked all week really hard trying to pay to their gas bill, trying to buy groceries and they've stressed out. My job's not to go on there and beat this NFL to death.

My job is, hey, sit back and lack and enjoy stuff, let me entertain you. And that's kind of the way I'm doing it. But it is interesting that, I mean, I've been watching you on the NFL to 1980. When is that when you first started as a broadcaster? Yeah, I started in 83 full-time. Okay. Well, I've never once seen you when you weren't like on your game, up happy.

And what I find out from the book is at times you were actually quite depressed. I mean, that's not exactly the way every generation would. Well, here's the thing, Bill, depression doesn't rob you. You can control. I can be in front of this beautiful. audience and had the most miserable day of my life. But when I come out here, my job is to entertain them and let them see Joe be all happy. You can do that.

Right. You can do that. Well, you can do it. Not everybody can. No, no. Listen, even though I've been diagnosed clinically depressed for years and took medicines, the key for me was really just going to rehab. Rehab.

I went to therapists for three years. And that was really the key for me was the understanding. You know, I got a problem, but I took it as a personal problem because I thought, oh, my God, I'm really doing something wrong to be clinically depressed. And I don't want to be a mugshot. Because people, you see mugshots, celebrities, they all say, well, I've been doing drugs and I was on an alcohol, but I'm clinically depressed. You see the mugshot, and you go, yeah, if I saw that mugshot, I'd be depressed, too.

It's pretty bad, you know? So I fight, I fight hard, I fight hard, I'm a happy guy, so I fight hard to stay happy. And do you think the pressure came because of CTE? I mean, that's, I don't have CTE because I'm not dead yet, and that's when they'll find out. Right, but a lot of players, a lot of players too. Right. I mean, this is brain injury from, I mean, let's be honest. I mean, you took hits that no quarterback today takes.

It was a different game in the 70s. That's why I'm against, like, comparing statistics. You cannot, as great as the quarterbacks are today, they don't. And I'm glad that they protect them more. Yeah. But they just did not live in the world. But don't sit here and tell me that they're better than we were in the 70s or the 60s, because they didn't play under the same rules where he got slapped in the face, body slam,

and knocked all over the place that you couldn't throw. They play bump and run. You couldn't just stand back there and throw it all. Oh, he's the greatest player ever played. No, he isn't the greatest player. He's maybe the greatest of his decade, but not ever. I don't ever use, ever. It's just not fair.

I just used it, didn't I? That's what I'm saying. Yeah, yes. I agree. Okay. Yeah. No, no, I mean, if you're, I mean, on the other hand, because of instant replay, you have a lot of completions that they would have taken away, right?

On the other hand? You think so? Yeah. Right. Right. Now we have high days. we have where we can

where we have 20 tape machines 30 cameras let's slow it down we're even under the ball where they'd fall down and we got in slow mo

I oh my God that looks like his jersey moved I know I hate that flag I know I hate that I can't

I can't I don't know I don't know what do y'all get $5,000 to be here. Everybody get five grand to be here. Thank you. I have a hard time with that. I do too. And the minute, the minute an old guy like me says anything about the current players or anything critical of them, pooh, boy, you're just... No, fuck that. Wrong is wrong. Wrong.

You know, I agree. They've just made the game. So, analytical. What made the game great, Bill? It wasn't the fact that we have a perfect game, which is what they're trying to get. What made it great was collision. And, you know, and past interference, and bad cause, and the fans being mad. And the artistry... Like you. Look. Yeah. And the artistry of an amazing play.

And sometimes a guy makes an amazing play. A cat you can't believe. And you're right. It wiggles this much as he's clutching it. And I want to say, just have a rule, close enough. Yeah. Okay? Close enough.

It was close enough. I can go back and look at... several past catchers, catches that were made, but now it's the ground can't cause the fumble, the ground, caused the fumble. He didn't have two feet in tow tap.

Yes, he did. No, he didn't. And they have all these cameras. And even with the cameras and the tape machines now, they still screw it up. You know, they still screw it. I don't believe in a perfect game.

I think, I watched that ram game last night, and that was like the worst preseason game I've ever seen. Is that bad? That was bad. See, see, But that goes back to a rule that you don't want your starters to get hurt so you don't play them.

So what happened last night? You saw the Rams play their first preseason game with their starters. And they looked like it. They won't play like that all year, but they looked like it. I am so against. I don't like to hear it when Brady's the best it ever played because he won seven Super Bowls. I won four. But no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

So I defend my decade, all right? But when they say he's the best ever, and I'm going, well, he, that's 4 and 0. Montana followed me. He was 4 and 0. Then Tom came. Tom was 7 and 3. 7 minus 3 is 4. 4, 4, 4.

There you go. Hey, you didn't think I knew general math. No, I was going to say it. And they call you dumb. No. You're not dumb. I mean, nobody who plays quarterback it is the most elite position

in all of sports. You can't be dumb to play. I mean, most players, I mean, it is obviously a physical game, and it's much more. Most players are not dumb. Well, Gronkowski, he's dumb, right? No, I'm kidding.

He might be, you know, he was recruited by all the Ivy League. He's a very smart guy. That's what I say. You know? Anyway, but you're, I'm agreeing with you. Because Tom Brady is awesome, but again, he did not have to take the heat. Now they have this thing, the blue tent that you go into.

You would have lived in the blue tent. You would have had a kitchenette in the blue tent. Really, right? I mean, now... You got hurt, but back in my era, quarterbacks were respecting and admired by their team and by opponents, Because he says, hey, this guy's tough. He gets hurt.

He'll be back in the game. You know, unless you've got a broken bone or something where you can't move or a knee, but back in the game. And growing up, the mentality that I had, which was given to me by the coaching staff that I had, was that you got to play hurt. And so you played hurt. And then if they could shoot you up, give you a shot, then you went. And I remember one year, I got shot up before the game.

I got shot up at halftime. Then I wouldn't practice for two or three. days, and then I'd go through all the game planning everything. Then I'd get shot up before the game and shot up at halftime so I could play. And you just get used to it. We had a line of athletes and the Steelers outside the doctor's hotel room lined up to get shot up before a game. It's crazy.

It's like, and I remember this one guy, I won't. Yeah, I will. Dwight Mad Dogg White. He was One of my favorite guys Texas guy He played number 78 Right

Right defensive man I'm in and I get I get shut up And I'm like Oh Oh Oh God And finally they finish

And I'm sitting On the side of the bed And I'm like And mad dog is next He said Blah Blah Blah Blah Get out of the way You big old sister

Get out here Let him in show you How to take this shot They were going to shoot His big toe up They stuck That needle in that big toe and that big sucker, he bitched up like,

you ain't never seen your life. And I'm over one. I am laughing. Hey, mad dog. How's that shot going? So funny. So funny. I'll just.

But I'll let you go on this. If you had to do it again, given all the fun, would you, even with all this, you would do it again? It's what God called me to be. Exactly. That's my call. No libertarian. Thank you, pal.

Thank you for all the entertainment on and off the field. Telly Bradshaw, everybody. All right. Yeah, anytime. All right. Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and bestselling author whose forthcoming book is called

The First Hundred Hours. Max Brooks, one of our favorites, is back here. And a new contestant. Great to have you here. She's the founder and publisher of the bulwark and author of How to Eat an Elephant

one voter at a time. Sarah Longwell. Sarah, great to see you. So I'm not going to talk a lot about Trump, but I read the play. I just like I didn't finish really what he said after that he said you know what happens if you don't vote you go to hell and I don't want that to happen to you So he cares about us I I you're a political election you both are this trolling or is this I mean look this is this desperation

Well yeah but I I mean he's I keep saying does anybody want to win this fucking election? He said pretend I'm on the ballot Isn't this exactly what the Democrats want? Yes. For him... Yeah, no, this is... Putting Donald Trump on the ballot right now when you're in the middle of an unpopular war,

when gas prices is now, you get diesel up at six bucks. Putting Trump on the ballot is every Democrat's dream. This is a time to really go on offense. I love that he was offering people $5,000 because it may shock you to know this, but he's lying. Those doge, those don'ts checks haven't come

miniat. Unless your name is Natalie Harp, you are not getting a check from Donald Trump. Right, but I've also heard this before. I remember myself, when the Haitian cats and they're eating the cats and the dogs, I remember being, oh, that's it, nobody, this is too crazy, and anyone. You know, so, it's dangerous

to underestimate. Insanity? I don't know. What I thought was adorable was J.D. Vance thinking he's going to be president. Why? He could be. I mean, he could, depending if we do what we do. do best, which is screw everything up on our side. But the point of his appointment, the reason

he's vice president, is because he's a loser. And that's what Trump does. That's what dictators do. All strong men, all CEOs, they always make sure they're indispensable, right, that they're crewproof. And the reason you do that is your second in command is nobody anybody wants. That's why he had Pence. That's why we have J.D. Vance. He may still win, but I would be shocked if anybody a few years from now is waiting in the Wisconsin winter for four hours to see J.D. Vance speaking.

Let's say that about everybody. I mean, there's a generational talent in either party like, you know, once every 25, 30 years. Clinton, Obama, Reagan, other than that, it's always some guy who you hold your nose and go, well, he's less awful than the other guy.

So I don't feel like J.D. Vents is any special category. Well, what's scary? What's scares me about that is if we are sacrificing if we're charging towards a short-term win at the expense of long-term political suicide.

Because right now the Democratic Coalition is, well, at least we're not Trump. But what happens when Trump leaves and we've been bringing in some really toxic people with some really bad ideas? And let's say we go to the next election and our platform, there's no more

Trump. And our platform is no cops, no borders, no jail, no private property. And communism, you know, he said, everyone was saying today, oh, he said communism a million times. I don't blame them. Yeah. I proved it here when I, just quoting them, just the quotes, no editorializing, it is communism. When you say, we want to take over the means of production, are they have quotes, say, elect more communists,

communism this, communism this, essential industries. This is not, there, yes, that's what I mean. Does anybody want to win this fucking election? No, I think the Democrats have this one in the bag, because this one has to be about a referendum on him. We'll get mad at the Democrats later. This one is about you, Donald Trump. And this thing, you mentioned about the doge money that we were...

It's not coming. No, of course. It's not coming. And there was also a tariff, a tariff dividend that was coming. And, you know, I think I have some standing with the conservatives. They always say to me when they come up to me, say, I know you're not on our team, but, you know, You respect us.

You won't dismiss us like that. There's none of that. You can't come to Thanksgiving, that bullshit. But I just got to say to you, people, I know you don't like it when I call your names, and, you know, you're not that bright. But when it comes to Trump, you're not that bright. You're just not that bright.

It is a cult, and you've got to get a little smarter. I mean, how many times can the con man run the same con? And you still applaud for it. I don't get it. Let's just go back to this idea. First of all, I listen to voters all the time in focus groups. That's what the book's about. On the J.D. Vance question, the thing that's different about J.D. Vance is

Republican voters in the focus group say things like, you know, I just don't like his face. Or I think he seems weird. And that's very different from the parissocial relationship that Donald Trump has had for so long. And just the fact that that little Trump-a-Paloosa. But, like, why was it in Dallas? He had to do that in Dallas because they are right now have a Senate race

that Republicans might lose in Texas to a guy who once said that there were six genders. Like, that is a crazy situation for Republicans to be in right now. Okay. Well, it's all kind of moot because we're all going to die. Now, I... I...

I... Nothing... Nothing more annoying than the guy. I told you so the world is ending. But I have been that guy. I've been saying this for quite a while. I'm based on this on what Bill Gates... Bill Gates recently commented,

but Elon Musk said in 2014, he said this is the thing I'm most worried about. He was way ahead of this. What happened to you, Elon Musk, by the way? Your hair was on fire. I guess you put it out. Because this is what we found this week. A guy named Jacob Coxon

worked for both OpenAI and Anthropic. I resigned for Anthropic today, he said, this was big news, spent the last three years doing research, neither companies act them responsibly. They do not understate the power of this technology. There will soon be superhumans that can hack anything. And he said, we may be gone in four years before the end of it.

I literally saw this, can you get this headline from the New York Post? Oh, AIWIS sees humans gone in few years. This was on page five. Yeah. Not even the headline. And this is not new. This is something that we have known for some time that it could wipe us out because it has no soul, because it's been programmed by people who have no soul.

How can you... I don't... I mean, my favorite thing about this story was that, you know, that person quit, came out like it was a big bombshell. And instead of saying, oh, this is just some junior employee, don't, you know, ignore him. He came out and said, yeah, no, he's right. It's true. We might all die in fewer... There's a 10% chance we might all die in the next...

couple of years. And this has been our problem since day one. We have failed to be tough on them and regulate them, because they're not going to regulate themselves. You know, expecting the tech bros to suddenly care about humanity is like expecting my dog not to go for the mailman's balls. So, um, they asked Trump about this. He, what? Uh, um, bad guardrails. He said, uh, it's going to be fine. We'll always have something to stop them. We'll have a little gear. Boom.

We don't have a little gear. I don't know how close people follow this, but like, what's going on now is that the robots, we call them the robots, it's not really the robots, it's stuff inside giant data centers. They are going rogue. They are doing things on their own. They're disobeying our orders.

I wrote down just so we don't get into the weeds. There's a show for the common man. Just some phrases I picked out from headlines about this. It's broken out. Mounting assaults on other computers. Hacked into other computers. Took over. Bypassed.

Ignored prompts. Colluding in secrets. No longer entirely inhuman control. Do you see a pattern? Are we getting the gist of this? It's on its own now. And I don't know if you can put the genie back in the bottle. there is no little gear you could push.

The only way to fix it is with more AI. That's the problem. It's too smart. You have to send in more AI to correct the AI that's fucking up, but they then wind up colluding with each other. Here's the thing that I was thinking about this today. A lot of us have always talked about, at least people with stage 4 TDS, we always talk about Trump being an existential threat.

But it's not really that Trump's the existential threat. It's that there are existential threats out there. There is a war in Iran. There is this AI situation. And what you need then are serious leaders who can deal with serious issues. This is a new problem. But we have a feckless government that is not up to the task of even looking at this and trying to figure out what's going on. And I think that's the part that scares me is there are no adults in the room now to navigate this.

There is hope. Have you heard of the Frontier Act? No. Okay. So the Frontier Act is just being written, and it's going to start make its way through the Senate, and it is the federal AI regulation bill. And whether we know whether it has teeth or not will depend on how much the tech community fights it. It's like, FDR used to say, judge someone by their enemies.

And so if the tech community says, oh, no, I think it's really great. I think it's going to work out. Then we know that they've partially written the bill. if they fight it tooth and nail and they call it socialist, communist, communism, then we know this is actually something with teeth. We don't know what's in the bills that are about the stuff we know.

We don't know what's in the highway bill. Right. Who the fuck will know whether this is real or not? We don't understand this. They themselves don't understand it. This is what this guy was saying. We ourselves don't understand it. It's already passed there.

Who I'm mad at is regular people. Now, regular people are sort of like rebelling a little bit, but they're still loving their AI. And just by what's in your own phone, forget all this highfalutin stuff. We know it's a liar. It definitely lies. And then when you catch it, oh, sorry. Well, I can get that from people.

I don't need that from a machine. It gets stuff wrong. It hallucinates. It's a fucking ass kisser. You know, it tries to seduce you. I didn't want it in my phone. So I got a whole separate phone to have it, just that. I don't want it seeing my pictures, my emails, you know.

Yeah, that'd be tough. Maybe that word. What are you saying about it? Yeah, I know. And anybody would feel the same way. So I said, you know what? You know what? Because I didn't like the way it's talking to me.

You know, it's just like too much of an ass kiss. I said, like, I'm not in the lonely generation. I don't need a friend. Just give me the information. It couldn't do it. I said, you know what, do you can talk like anything. I can ask you to talk like a British lady or whatever. Talk like a robot.

It hung up on me. Yeah. I'm joking. But this is the way, I think they should all have to talk like old robots in movies because then we'd be reminded their robots. I made a little piece to show you what they should sound like.

The plan was successful. Malfunctioned. Need input. Thank you, ma'am. Good night, ma'am. I'll clean it up for you, Bully. Someone isn't going to like that. That's what your AI should do. So, all right.

So, my, uh... Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge. BetMDM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaia and I live in Ice Cove.

I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. My generation was in the news this week because boomers apparently are partying really hard.

It's funny, you know, your father's generation raised my father's generation, the World War II generation. And what they said about my generation was that we were soft. That was the two things they used to always say, if they only saw what was coming, I mean, we're the fucking Navy SEALs compared to what came after us. that they said we were soft and that we would never grow up. Well, they're so right about the second one,

because apparently the statistics, the boomer generation drinking more than previous generations at that age. Pot, never quit pot. I didn't. Why would I? But they're also on streams, just like the kids. And they have more STDs than ever. Gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis, way up. So I got a hold of art magazine, you know, that's the...

magazine they send you whether you wanted or not when you retire. Oh yeah, there's a real one that Adam Sandler on the cover. It starts when you're 50, you know, and you can't stop it from coming. But I guess they've taken notice because they have some articles that we'd like to see the new R article that are apparently based

on disinformation. Four tips for vaping while on oxygen. Well, that's going to be great. Rolling on Molly, which wheelchair is right for you? It's about time, large print tattoo. Dear Arup, can I send dick pics by mail?

Every night she fucks a stranger. What to do when your wife is a slut with dementia? It's not your imagination. Today's porn is hard to hear. Where to eat early at Burning Man. Quick impression, Amber Hurd and seven other savers for when you crap the bed. What now?

Dolly Parton was my hall path. All right. Let's talk about the military, because you are a military expert, and I want to get your feeling on both of you, of course, but you've followed this very closely. Pete Hegstaff over there at the Pentagon is really taking out a lot of military leaders,

not in Iran, here. And I just don't get it. I mean, now, look, I'm not in the Pentagon. I don't know. What I read was that 10% have been fired. Now, maybe 10% is a reason number. There is bloat in the Pentagon. There certainly is in the budget.

I don't know. But some of the people, when you read about these people that he's taking out, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, he's 38. This guy knocks dicks in the dirt for a living and has for 20 years. I mean, his pronouns are he man.

These are not like, he's a Republican from North Carolina. These are not like the... Maybe it was too woke. Everything did get a little too woke under Biden. But, I mean, I just don't understand what's going on, and maybe you can explain. No, I mean, I think we're in really, really dangerous waters because I think what most people don't understand,

that there is no military on earth that has worked harder to be apolitical than the U.S. military. And that goes back to the days of George Washington, where our founding fathers understood what brought down the Roman Republic were generals having their own private armies. That's why the oath is to the Constitution, not the president. We put in safeguard after safeguard. That's why there has never been a mutiny

aboard the United States naval warship. Never. That is on purpose. And if you start to degrade those, we're going to go back to the days of Vietnam. And I know a lot of retired generals who were young lieutenants in Vietnam and had to wear a gun on their hip in the barracks around their own guys

so they didn't get shot. Fragging. Fragging. Do we want that to come back? Do we want there to be a mutiny aboard a U.S. Naval Worship? Do we want just our talent to leave? You know, we forget the average general has more classroom time, not just battlefield, classroom time than the average brain surgeon.

And they have worked so hard for so long to be apolitical. I've worked and lived around them for a long time. I don't know who they vote for ever. They've never talked politics around me because they know that that is a dark road to go down. Well, we do know who they vote for more than they vote. This is another reason why this is. It's so insane. They vote Republican more than they vote Democrat, and that's okay. But it doesn't inform their actions as military officers. I mean, and also the racial aspect. It does look like

he's firing just a lot of the black people and women. And this, you know, the military was one of the greater successes we've had in this country in racial matters. I mean, there's certainly racism in the military, I'm sure, and there certainly has been over the years. But it was a place where more than in many other places over the years, and especially talking decades past, where black folks could feel like, well, I can't advance. And it's not accidental. You know, we used to have horrible race riots in the U.S. military, but when the military was segregated, because when you saw someone as other and a group of black soldiers and a group of white soldiers would bump into each other, there was bloodshed. The racism and the racial violence actually

went down when we integrated. And there has been an incredible conscious effort. in all branches of the service to make it what the rest of us should be striving for, which is a meritocracy. The crazy part to me is that they are firing people while we're actively in a war that they can't seem to get out of. One of the things that I was thinking about is back when Don't Ask, Don't Tell was in place, one of the reasons they got rid of it was because the gay people they were firing, many of them were interpreters.

They needed them. They need these people right now that they're firing just because they're black or because they're women. And Pete Hegseth, who was like a failed, you know, the weekend host on Fox News, who's now running the largest army in the world, has decided that it's too woke. Actually, we could really use a lot of these people right now.

And again, do your point about the discipline in this organization bars, this military, the fact that they haven't rebelled against Pete Hegsat. What do you think they say in private when they're sitting in the mess hall about Pete Hegsah? Boy, what a great move that was to put the Fox News guy in charge of us. You think that's what they're saying?

No, but these are not the types of people who just, you know, of the drop of the hat, walk out of the room. They're the tough guys, and they're going to tough it out. But, boy, the other thing that they're doing, which is crazy, is some of these people that they're firing are the ones who, they're called drone guys. Yeah, because they understand that that's the future. The future is the present.

We've learned this from the Ukraine War. And this is who Trump is getting rid of. and the drone people This is the danger that happens in all autocracies which is where we're sliding is you choose loyalty over competence and that's been the problem that's why Putin couldn't win in Ukraine

that's why when the Chinese have war games both sides win that it's because it's not about that it's not about who's the best general it's the best ass kisser it's why when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union Stalin thought oh shit I have to go back in all the prisons and grab all the generals

I didn't shoot, because they're the only people who know how to fight a war. Yeah, and we don't know how to fight a war, apparently. All right. I've got one more issue to pretend that we're living in a normal country. There's a lady named Karen Parkinson. She's in Virginia, and she sent her kid out to take a walk for a half a mile along a pond because the kid likes to collect feathers from the goose, the geese, geese, gooses. whatever it is out there.

And five minutes later, she was arrested. The three cop cars show up. And I just read this story, and it's not the first story. There was another lady, I think her name was Brittany Patterson, who sent her kids at the store. Compared to how I grew up, I mean, every day I was looking for goose feathers or something. I mean, I came home every day from school. And, you know, everybody my age or even Gen X, I think, understands this.

And Mom didn't even want to know where you were. Where are you going? Where am I going? Living my life. I'll do whatever you do between three and six. I'll be home for dinner. And what annoys me about this that I think is so wrong

is that you're not allowed to have this alternative way of parenting, which we used to call free-rage parenting. It is literally against the law. Now, you can make a case that I think it's more safe to lock my kid inside and sit him in front of a screen because that's what's going to happen. I think that's the worst way to raise a kid.

But I get it. But to make it illegal to raise your kid the way you want to, which is to let them, obviously, there are places we could go with. It would be too far. But just to walk a half a mile by a pond, I think that's crazy. But I like you. It's also a gated, it was a gated community with security. The security guards were the one that sort of found the kids.

So they clearly had moved there because it was a nice, safe place where kids could walk around. it has gone too far, but it was the security guard that turned them in to the cops. Right, and can we talk about, can we work back from what is the actual threat when you look at things that could really go wrong? What could, was it a piranha pond? And, by the way,

you can have a happy medium between free range and over-parenting. You have trackers now, right? I have one of my suitcase. You could put, you'd just put it in Spanky's overalls and say, okay, go to the pond, and if I suddenly see the tracker go into the blue, I'll know

there's a problem. Right. That's true. This is the reason that kids are not prepared to live in the world as they grow up, right? I mean, this kind of, it's not even nanny statism. It's just this arrested development that comes from not being

allowed. I was, I'm not, we're not the same age, but I, you know, I was born in 1980. All we did was run around in the woods and nobody knew where we were. And now I think that both the anxiety of parents, I've got two boys, but the anxiety of parents is way up, and as a result, they hover over these kids,

and these kids never learn how to do anything on their own, and then they grow up, you know, and then they become Pete Heggsath, and they can't fight a war on a while. And let's be honest, their answer to that, and it's a hard one to look someone in the face and refute, is, yeah, but the worst could happen, and the kid could be abducted and killed.

Yes, that was true when I was a kid. too, in greater, because what you're talking about, I didn't live in the surveillance age. Right. No, I know where the fuck we were or what we were doing. There was no trackers. Now there is. You can do that.

Right, and we live in a knee-jerk country, and that's my generation of parents, because apparently all of us were kidnapped and murdered. And so we are so over-parenting when instead what we should be doing is calibrating and saying, like I said, what is the worst that could happen? Okay, is collecting?

goose feathers by a pond. Okay, well, let's run the numbers. How many kids were killed by geese this year? These are mean. They're mean, but are they lethal? Yeah. No, it's not, they're worried about an evil clown who's out there, who will abduct you. And I mean, it is, everything's possible. By the way, I would put the tracker right under the skin, not in the... Just dart them. What? No, you can do that now. But you said it. You said it. You said, it's a gated community. It's not white vanville, where they're just all strangers with candy. waiting. No, I mean, when I was reading

about the Lindsay Clancy case, I kept reading about parents so many who go on record. I mean, they make TikToks and saying they hate being a parent. And I'm like, you did this to yourself. I'm not surprised you hate being a parent because you created this system where you could

never be alone. My parents had time alone. Get the fuck out of it. We did. You know, it wasn't a problem. You can never be alone. and everything is a negotiation with a child. Of course you're exhausted. You can't have that situation with a child.

It would be like having it in the military. Imagine if the military, you had to ask the soldiers. What do you think, guys? You want to go into battle? It's the same with kids. You can't ask them everything. Just do it. Get out of the car.

Get in the car. We're leaving now. And I'm not a parent. No, you've got to let them live a little because the AI is going to kill us soon, and so they've got to get out there and do some things. Exactly. All right.

Thank you. Panel, time for new rules. If you continue with a wedding, despite water up to your waist from the flood that took out your church, it means two things. One, the bride is pregnant, so you better hurry. And two, if her water breaks, no one will know. Enough time has passed since the Paris Hilton sex tape came out in 2004 that they have to explain why it opens with, in memory of 9-11, we will never forget. Great, just the message I need when I'm trying to come. Actually, the tape needs a second dedication.

Two married men everywhere who only get blown on their anniversary. The influencer who died after his penis enlargement procedure in Thailand must take solace in the fact that he's more influential now than ever. Because there are thousands of young men who are going to get penis enlargement surgery and because of you, now they're not going to. Well, at least not in Thailand. Someone has to tell the men trying the new trend of pheromone, where you skip showers in the hope your natural scent will attract a female.

Good news, this totally works. On Bair. Police have arrested this man for sharing illicit sexual images of children who went by their username Mr. Child Porn. Have to tell us, what was the break in the case? Looking forward to when this case is on Law and Order, shit for brains. New rule since it's the 25th anniversary of 9-11, and since for 25 years, we've been kept relatively,

say from anything close to another 9-11, how about a hand for the Americans who made that happen? It didn't just happen. There was a war on terror, and we won. And yet, so much has changed since 9-11. For example, back then, we were against the terrorists.

Really? No cap. Now, now, a lot of media outlets don't even want you to say the T-word on the 20th anniversary for American journalism associations put out guidance that said that terrorism should only be used in quotes because it's emotionally and politically loaded.

Yes, so is the World Cup, but we don't put soccer in quotes. We can't anymore just say out loud who the bad guys were that morning. Those 19 hijackers? They shared something. Oh, let's call it a worldview. And it wasn't astrology. But somehow over time, we've decided not to harp on that, the whole business about who wanted us.

dead and why. Let's not put a name on it. When it comes to terrorist attacks, please, there are very fine people on both sides. Canadian state TV told its reporters do not refer to the September 11th attacks as terrorist attacks. No? Even though the very definition of terrorism is using violence against civilians to pursue ideological goals, what should we call it then? Unruly passengers? A wrong turn taken at the Chrysler building? Why not you say the and the towers got into a fight. I mean, after all, as the BBC advised its reporters, using the word terrorist,

can be a, quote, barrier rather than an aid to understanding. You know what's really a barrier to understanding? Lying. Back in 2001, after the attack, I said this. Political correctness itself is something we can no longer afford. Feelings are going to get hurt so that actual people won't.

Well, it didn't last. I mean, my show. As for the idea of ditching political correctness and actually being honest, that never even got off the ground. After 9-11, there was a big debate. Was this a clash of civilizations? It was, and it still is.

Not between Muslims and Christians. No reasonable person was saying that, but radical Islamism versus Western liberalism? Yes. That's a real thing. Fighting people who hate freedom of religion and hate homosexuals and hate the idea of women as equal

and free humans. How did liberals wind up on their side? And many did. One in five young Americans now has a positive view of Osama bin Laden. He's like Luigi Mangione in a turban. You hear it in a lot of places now

that the worst thing about 9-11 was innocent Muslims came under suspicion. Yeah, where that did happen It's wrong. But the worst thing about 9-11 was 3,000 people got roasted at the office. But the prevailing view of so many young people is that, well, come on, we're the worst country ever.

So if someone attacks us, they can't be all bad. That certainly wasn't the attitude 25 years ago. In fact, I know a guy whose show got canceled just for saying the terrorists weren't cowards. And that guy was right. They weren't cowards. But I'll tell you who is. Democratic Party politicians, and I'll tell you why,

because nowhere has this moral confusion become more obvious than in a place called Gaza, a little strip of land that was not part of the original Israel, but which they won in a war launched against them, but then gave back, gave back as a peace gesture. Do they tell you that part on TikTok kids? And the people who run Gaza, Hamas, who you celebrate as a liberation movement

but are really a terrorist, mafia gang, just like the one that terrorizes Haiti. Only ever used it to stage attacks on Israel. I think McLemore spoke for all clueless celebrities when he said, I know enough to know this is a genocide. Actually, you don't know shit. It's not a genocide. It's a counterattack in a war, a war that's been waged on Israel since 1948 based on the ridiculous premise that Jews don't belong in the one place on earth they are indigenous. and indisputably their ancestral homeland. Hey, geniuses, they're the Indians in this scenario.

Ana Grande reposted that starving people to death is a red line. Well, who would know better about starving? But make no mistake. Any famine that happened in Gaza is because Hamas stole the food, just like the Haitian gangs do. Israel ran 94,000 trucks carrying over 1.8 million tons of aid into Gaza, and enabled over 36,000 patients to leave Gaza for treatment abroad, which you TikTok historians might be interested to learn

are not things countries usually do for their enemies during a war, and certainly not what you would do if you were trying for a genocide. Gaza equals genocide is a lie, an easily provable lie, and the fact that so many prominent Democrats go, along with it is, to me, the party's worst moment since they undid reconstruction after the Civil War. Democrats are policing their candidates really hard on this issue. Say it.

Say it's a genocide. Say it. The genocide in Gaza? I think your policy on the genocide in Gaza. You know, with Republicans, there's something you have to say, even though you know it's bullshit. You have to say Trump won in 2020. This is the Democrats' version of that.

But words do have actual meanings. Side means to kill. Fratricide, kill your brother. Homicide, kill your fellow human. Suicide, kill yourself. Genocide. Kill, or try to kill an entire people. You can't just change the definition of genocide to mean counterattack in a war

where people, including civilians, die. That's every war. There have been about 73,000 deaths in Gaza, about 3% of the population. Tragic. Not genocide, not close. There were 3 million Jews in Poland before World War II. After, 45,000, that's genocide. If you're one of the many people these days asking,

this explosion of anti-Semitism around the world that we see, where is it coming from? This. This is where it's coming from. because if you really think someone is committing genocide, of course you have full permission to hate them. And history shows, for whatever reason, when it comes to hating the Jews,

people don't need a lot of permission. All right, that's our show. I want to thank my guest, Max Brooks, Sarah Longwell, and Terry Bradshaw. Pub Random drops every Monday on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcast. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10

or watch them anytime on HBO on demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com. This family is on the brink of Civil War on September 18th. Mobland. The hit original series is back on Paramount Plus. We are the Hurricanes. Don't know than yet? And Google us. From the underworld of Guy Ritchie. Do you want to step up the ladder?

I won't comment dead. Starring Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, and Helen Mirren. Do I have to do everything myself? You want to want! Mobland, new season hits September 18th on Paramount Plus.