Real Time with Bill Maher - Episode #347 (Originally aired 3/20/15)

Episode Date: March 23, 2015

Episode #347 (Originally aired 3/20/15)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series Real Time with Bill Maugh. Good afternoon. Crowded. Why haven't we been giving to the crowds for the last 13 fucking years? No, that's a wonderful.

Thank you. I think I know why you're happy. It's spring. It's the first day of spring. Or as we say here in California, the last day of hope for rain, we're screwed. That's a tough one. But look, all the news is from that other desert in the world,

the Middle East. A lot of news out of there this week. Shocking election in Israel. You saw that? Netanyahu was returned to power. And the day before... The day before the election, he said there will never be a Palestinian state on my watch.

And the day after the election, he said, I'd like to see a two-state solution. It was such an amazing 180. Mitt Romney went, wow, that guy's good. That is a... Now, of course, many people. people point out that a one-state solution for Israel is very dangerous, because this is a country, after all, where the Arabs vote, and it is almost half Arab. And they asked Netanyan today,

what about that? Did they have any message for Israeli Jews? And he said, yeah, keep fucking. Get in there, man. Now, the Republicans are mad at President Obama, because he did not call Prime Minister Netanyahu right away. He did, finally. The other judge, day, and he said that we're going to have to reassess our options with Israel. Yeah, right. We're going to stop dating Israel, and we're going to get together with Syria now. That's going to be our new girlfriend. I mean, could we have a little perspective?

Is anyone here up for a little perspective on this? Oh, great. Because this week, in Saudi Arabia, they sentenced a woman to 70 lashes, not tongue lashes, actual lashes for the crime of arguing with a man. And ISIS took a break from throwing gay people off the roof and burning pilots alive and beheading people to blow up two mosques in Yemen and a museum in Tunisia. And I have to tell you, when I heard that they blew up a museum,

my first thought was, thank God no Americans were hurt. If it was the buffet at a water slide, yes, it would have been a disaster here in America. Meanwhile, John Boehner has announced that he will be visited. Israel. He will be traveling under his Secret Service nickname, Agent Orange. And I... Oh, I'm looking forward to that trip. I would just like to say to the Israelis, if you think you've heard wailing at the wailing wall, Wait a old super-soaker has a good cry when he's shit-faced there. That's going to be

something. Boehner refers to Israel as the land of milk and Kalua. He's... Oh, he's a... Oh, another... Another tough week for Republicans. Ah, it pains me. But, uh, they lost one of their rising stars.

Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock had to resolve. Oh, there's Aaron, yes. Ooh, look at that. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that what you want your congressman to do, work on his abs? Yeah.

Uh... But he had to resign because apparently he was spending taxpayer money like it's going out of style. And speaking of going out of style, he literally spent $100,000 of taxpayer money to redecorate his office in the style of Downton Abbey. And he once took a private jet on taxpayer dollars to see a Bears game. And that's always been the word around Washington about Aaron Schock. He loves the Bears. So, what did I say?

But apparently the last row was that he asked to be reimbursed by, again, the government, for taxpayer money, for 170,000 miles on his car. But when he sold his car, it only had 80,000 miles on it. And when they confronted him with this, he just went, oh, I resign. That was it. Seriously.

And today, Robert Durst said, dude, I cut a guy into 10 pieces and got off. You can't explain 90. thousand miles on your car. Oh. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. HBO caught a murderer

atop that Netflix. Did you watch that documentary? This was fascinating stuff. Their ability to be able to capture Dirst in those rare moments when he wasn't killing someone. And they arrested

him this week in New Orleans. Not a minute too. soon. It looks like he was planning to flee. He had with him $40,000 in cash, a gun, and five ounces a pot. So he was either going to make a run for it or produce a hip-hop album.

I don't know. But, as I'm sure, you know, one of the victims was here in L.A. So the trial will be here, another celebrity trial here, in L.A., which means he will definitely get off. Even though, as

you saw, they have him on a hot mic saying the words, there it is, I'm caught. What did I do? Killed them all, of course. But his lawyers were already explaining this away. They said, when he said, you're caught, he was in the urinal.

He meant his dick in the zipper. You're caught. I killed them all. The cigarette butts in there. I killed the more. And finally, did you see this? I thought this is really interesting. Starbucks, the CEO of Starbucks initiative,

that says he wants his baristas there to initiate a conversation about race with the customers. And I think, Bravo. But please, not before I've had my coffee. All right, we've got a great show. Jack Kingston, Christine Quinn, Mercedes Schlapper here, and a little earlier he was speaking with, author Gerald Posner.

But first up, he is a 26th time Emmy Award-winning broadcaster for NBC and the MLB Network. The best who's ever done it. Bob Costas is over here. Bob. Hey Bill. What are you doing? Look at that.

Bob Costas. Good to be back on HBO, Bill. I was going to say, you're using your sportscaster voice with me. That's right. You used to have a home here on HBO. We used to trade time slots, didn't we? We did. And you know, even though it was primarily sports, there was more time to talk about the issues involved.

On network television, the coverage of sports is exquisite when it comes to the drama and the production of the theater and everything. of the theater and everything else, there isn't as much within the formats that allows for the discussion of the issues that invariably crop up. So in those of the days when I wish I could be back on the video. I noticed that you, especially now as you're entering the September of your years, as a member of the Sinatra song. I think of your life as vintage wine, Bob, from fine old kegs. They're all very good years. Very good years. But I notice you are more and more up for speaking out.

I think that's great. You're like the only sportscaster, almost the only broadcaster, who does it. And, you know, it almost has to be done because these issues crop up in sports. Gay, guns, all these head injuries. And I'm sure you get people who say to you, hey, come on, I only watch sports to get away from the news. Right. There's no mixing politics and sports. And sports has never had any thing to do with social change in America.

Robinson didn't exist, Arthur Ash didn't exist, Bally Jean King in Title IX. Yeah. You know, Tommy Smith and John Carlos at the Olympics, there was nothing political about that. There was nothing political about Muhammad Ali. Nothing whatsoever. And it all should have been completely ignored.

You've mentioned a bunch of things that actually were political. Exactly. Okay. My point precisely. You know what? I thought that's what was going on. And basically, when people say that, what they're saying is,

hey, just don't say something that I, disagree with. Right. And stop interrupting the game. Well, no one likes sports any more than I do, and the drama of it. I'm not talking about this with 10 seconds to go and the game on the line. I'm not talking about this at the bottom of the ninth. On these football games, it's halftime, Jack, and you've seen all these highlights all day long. And the idea that I'm doing it all the time is also untrue. I do it rarely. Most of the halftime things are about the history of football or some appreciation or observation about football. Nor are anything. that you have said

is really the least bit controversial. Shouldn't be. Shouldn't be. I mean, I know you for a long time. You grew up in Long Island. Yep. Okay. Not exactly a bastion of liberalism.

Then you were living in St. Louis. Yep. Okay. A purple state. A purple state. The city is... Of St. Louis is a different story. Right.

In the suburbs, they shoot people who look kind of purple. But okay. Yeah. But like the thing you said about guns. And I know you got a lot of shit about that. It was not that controversial. Tell him what, first of all, you were quoting someone.

I quoted Jason Whitlock, a writer, oddly enough, on the Fox Sports website. But I didn't have enough time to get into every aspect of it. I thought it was self-explanatory that it's a domestic violence issue. And it ought to be- That came up because a football player shot his girlfriend. Exactly, exactly. I've never talked about anything which some people might perceive as political that wasn't directly connected to sports.

Javon Belcher, the linebacker of the chiefs, had killed his fiancé and then killed himself, drove to the team headquarters, killed himself in front of the general manager and the coach. He also owned eight guns. What Whitlock wrote about, and I only had a short period of time, and I quoted him, but I agree with this, wasn't about the Second Amendment, wasn't about denying someone the right to protect their home and family or use a gun if that's their thing for sporting purposes. It was about a gun culture run amok. Right. Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, they had all written about this years prior to, using the exact phrase gun culture, had to do with the attitudes of many people in society, and particularly in sports, about guns. If you think you need to tuck a glock into the waistband of your sweatpants to go to a club, you've got a problem. That has nothing to do. I'm just thinking... That's the wrong club. Yeah, it's the wrong club. I've said that for years. Exactly, and Plexico Borough should have known that. Go to the club where they let you smoke weed in the back, not the one with the guns.

Unfortunately, they're often the same club. Greg Hardy, who just got signed by the Cowboys, but sat out most of last year because he was involved in a domestic violence case, which is prevalent in the national football league, and dominated a lot of the news last season. But it was kind of overlooked in all this. He's slapping his girlfriend around. He was found guilty by a judge, and then he had the right under Carolina law to take it to a jury trial.

And the case was dropped because she wouldn't testify against him. She changed her mind. But in any case, as part of this, he threw her on a couch with loaded shotguns and assault weapons on the couch. Now, is this what the founding fathers had in mind that Greg Hardy should be armed to the teeth, that private citizen should be able to purchase cop killer, armor pure, piercing bullets. They should be able to have an AK-47. I mean, carry it to its logical conclusion. If you're fearful of the tyrannical government taking away your rights as a citizen, then you ought to have a bazooka. You ought to have a tank. You ought to be able to have nuclear weapons

if you can get them before ISIS can get their hands on them. Well, you mentioned ISIS. Let me tie it all together, Bob. You mentioned ISIS. You mentioned slapping your girlfriend around, and I mentioned perspective in the monologue. And, you know, slapping your work. And you woman around in Muslim countries is legal, if not mandatory. Don't you think political correctness is kind of out of hand, especially when the president says things like we can't use the phrase Islamic extremism? We can only say violent extremism? Yeah. I applaud you. You and I have spoken about it privately. You need people on the left to call this bullshit out, all right? And I'm glad to be back.

on HBO, you can say bullshit. Just as you need people on the right to call conservative bullshit out. There are legitimate conservative positions. I often find myself saying, that's a good point that George Will made. That's a good point that Rich Lowry made. It may not be the entire thing.

It's a conservative point, but there's some truth in it. The DOJ report, to listen to Fox News, the only thing that was in it was that Darren Wilson was justified in shooting Michael Brown. Fair enough. To listen to MSNBC, the only thing that was in it was that there was systemic racism in the Ferguson Police Department.

Also fair enough. In other places, Cleveland, we saw something in Fort Lauderdale just recently came out. We know that this is true to a certain extent across the country. But why can't people with common sense hold two truths in their head at the same time and realize that... Right. That... All right. What we want here is common sense. Rather than just my tribe and your tribe left and right.

Because common is not common, unfortunately. No, no. And you know what you get? Wait, before we run out of that time, there's a big sports story that I have to ask you about, which is Chris Borland. He's the guy, he's 24 years old. He was a star, a rising star.

He was a rookie, linebacker with the 49. Quit football. And if I was football, I'd be very nervous. Because it was a lot of people said, yeah. Yeah. You know what? That's a smart idea because we're way past the time where it's debatable whether you guys are injuring yourselves permanent. We've seen too many people come out with crazy head injury.

Five years ago, I asked Roger Goodell on NBC on Sunday Night Football, what would you say to the parents of an athletically gifted 12 or 13-year-old boy who say we're lifelong NFL fans, but knowing what we're now learning, we won't let our son play football? And of course, I think Roger Goodell is concerned about it, both from a human standpoint and a business standpoint, there's a certain answer that he has to give that's politically correct in the world in which he lives. I also predicted that there would be lawsuits. And some people scoffed, oh, no, willing assumption of risk. Well, here come the lawsuits. So football is these sports colossus in America, but there may be cracks in the foundation because this is

fundamental to football. The risk in other sports, most, not boxing, obviously, and a few other, but the risk in most other sports is incidental. In football, it is unavoidable. Right. All right. Bob, you should be on HBO more often. I hope you don't have to kill three people to do it. Thank you, both. Great ladies and gentlemen. Let's meet our panel. How you doing?

All right, here they are. He was a 10-term U.S. representative from Georgia and our old friend, Jack Kingston. Jack, you're liberated now. I am. I'm free from Congress. He's going to be a fire-breathing liberal tonight.

I'm joking, of course. She was speaker of the New York City Council. and is now a resident fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics. Christine Quinn's back with us. Thank you. And she's a Republican strategist who served as director of specialty media

for President George W. Bush. I remember him. Mercedes-Schlaab. Hey, Mercedes. I know. Thank you for doing. All right. Remember to follow me on Facebook, Twitter,

and Instagram, and send us your questions. Robert Tom, which, starting tonight will be broadcast live on our YouTube channel. Oh, we're entering the 21st century. Great. And if you're watching from abroad, hey, nice going.

Now, include the hashtag, Overtime, Overseas, so we can address it on next week's special edition of Overtime. Okay, so let's first talk about the Middle East. There's so much going on there, the Israeli election. A lot of people were angry at the way Netanyahu won this election. They said it was racist that he said at the last minute. Arab voters are coming out in droves to the polls. And I guess that is racist in the strictest sense.

He's bringing race into the equation. But, first of all, like Reagan didn't win races with racism, or Nixon, or Bush, like they didn't play the race card. Reagan opened his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi. Remember that? Remember Willie Horton? Okay, point one. Point two. Obama would never have played the rice card. He's been playing the race card since he was elected. Hello, he's black.

Well, you can play it. You can play it like ways. But he's used it to his advantage. Come on, Bill. He's used it to his advantage to get the voters to come out. Here's a deal with Netanyahu. The president has used it. The deal with Netanyahu was that he basically came out and said,

look, these Arabs are going to come out and vote. Hey, guys, conservative base, come out, vote for me, or I'm not going to win. And that was a deal. Whether you want to call it racist or not. Right. I think what he was doing, he was making sure that his base showed up. By that. Exactly.

That's not the franchise of either. It was not fear. It was basically saying those Arabs are not going to vote for him. And so he's going to have to bring out his vote. This is what you do in the election. We got on a tangent here. Let me ask the question I was going to ask about this, which is when he said that,

Arab voters are coming out and droves to the polls. I heard a lot of commentators here say it would be as if Mitt Romney in 2012 on the eve of the election said, black voters are coming out and droves to the polls. But I don't know if that's really a great. analogy. I think that would be a good analogy if America was a country that was surrounded by 12 or 13 completely black nations who had militarily attacked us many times, including as recently as last year. Would we let them vote? I don't know. When we were attacked by the Japanese, we didn't just not let them vote. We rounded them up and put them in camps.

You know, I think on this race, Netanyahu wasn't just motivated on his own re-election, as much as he is on the survival of Israel. To one side he has the Gaza Strip Palestinian Authority recognizing Hamas. To the north, he has Hezbollah, to Syria. He now has ISIS. I think he's actually very, very concerned about the future of his country and the fact that as you're saying, these countries that are all around him have promised to wipe Israel off the map.

So he was fighting not just for his own political future, but for Israel. Well, look, I mean, I think the truth of the... challenge and the danger for Israel, that's real. And I think it's really important that we, as Americans, stand with Israel 24-7. And I think that Prime Minister, now who is concerned about the futurist country. But let's not pretend it wasn't politics, because the day after the election, he went right back. He's a politician. By the way, in a real democracy that lets Arabs vote. That's right. So I'm just saying a little perspective. And it doesn't help the President and Obama obviously sent over his own political advisors over to Israel to organize the Israelis against Netanyahu.

I mean, that's created a big tougher. Well, he came here to organize his voters against... He should. Absolutely. You've got to broaden the base. Right. When you do it, it's cool. Yeah.

Okay. So the other big beef, of course, that we have with Netanyahu is that he doesn't want to deal with Iran. So let me ask you this, especially our Republican friends. I don't know if you noticed, but the Iraqi military in the last couple of weeks has been trying to take back the city of Tikrit in Iraq. And when I say the Iraqi military, I mean the Iranians. Right, right. It's the Iranians. We are so dead set that we have to wipe out ISIS.

But we can't seem to find anybody willing to actually do that with boots on the ground except Iran. When are we going to admit that our ally is Iran? Or would that mess up the simple thought, Iran bad? I think we can sit with Iran as bad. I really do. Really? This is a country that's stirring up all kinds of front groups. The attack in Yemen at the Moss, perhaps Iranian back, we're not 100% sure.

We know that they're supporting a lot of terrorist groups. We know that they were supporting the Iraqis over us at the first time. So I think if we're looking for allies in the Middle East, we'd start with Israel. And then we'd look at Jordan. But that's the given, Jack. Of course, we're going to start with Israel. Look, Iran is playing definitely a role in Iraq and trying to take over these cities. But at the same time, I mean, their goal is to create a nuclear bomb.

And so there needs to be, you know, we have to hold them accountable. And the question becomes, is there the trust factor, considering the fact that you do have those hardliners in Iran that chance. death to America. I mean, how can you build that trust with that country and at the same time kind of push aside our ally? I don't know. When Nixon was president, you know, and the Shah was there, that was the place we trusted. It was a little more sensible, real politic. Tom Friedman wrote a column this week and he said, why aren't we actually the allies of ISIS instead of bombing them? He pointed out that Iran, the ultimate evil, apparently. We have now,

basically put them in charge of four capitals in the Arab world. Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, and the capital of Yemen. So Dick Cheney's decision to arrayed Iraq and invade Iraq looks real good right now, doesn't it? I'm just saying if Iran is so awful, why are we always doing their dirty work? Why are we always helping them? We toppled the Taliban. We toppled Saddam Hussein. Now we're going after ISIS.

We are always fighting. We're barely going after ISIS. I mean, there's so much more we can be doing to be going after ISIS. ISIS continues to stand into Syria and Iraq. So we should put... No, that should be, all military options should be on the table. And I do with you. I think we have to make up our mind.

Are we going to fight ISIS or not? And then if we are, we do need to have, we're going to have air raids, we're going to have boots on the ground, and we're going to have a coalition. This president has not been able to put together an international coalition the way that President Bush did. And that was very important. Because his war put us where we are. You mean the war that Hillary Clinton and John Kerry voted for? That would be the vote for. President Obama left a vacuum in Iraq, so he took the troops out,

wasn't able to agree on a deal with the Iraqis, and then Iraq... The boots on the ground that were started by President Bush were not, notwithstanding many brave people who died and gave their lives. It was not successful. Well, right now it's not successful, so we keep seeing these beheadings, these crucifixions, these children and women that are becoming sex slaves.

It wasn't successful, but Obama ran on. I mean, we're seeing an expansion of ISIS. And using boots on the ground is going to fix it. Do I think that it's U.S. boots on the ground? It has to be a coalition. And who's going to be in that coalition? And we need leadership coming from somewhere. This president was reelected on this thing that al-Qaeda is on the run.

Does anybody see that today? You guys, excuse me. You have such a fundamental misunderstanding of the Middle East. So does everybody. You really do. That may be true. That may be true. The best thing we could do is just stay at it.

But can't you see that they're having a war between themselves? If we want them to use all their energy, not on attacking us, but on attacking each other, they're doing it. You know, there's an old... I see Bob the hell out of them. Of course you do. Bill, but what about Australia? Bill, what about Australia? How do you do that without killing a lot of innocent people?

But what about Australia and Paris? Copenhagen and the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. You know, all this stuff happens outside of that area. But maybe if America wasn't in the middle of this battle that they need to have. They need to have a battle apparently between the Sunnis and the Shiites, just the way the Catholics and the Protestants did in the 16th century. And between the Muslims who want to live in the 21st century and the Muslims who want to live in the 7th century,

they need to have that battle. As long as we're in the middle of it, they have a common enemy. You know that old saying in politics, don't stop someone who's committing homicide when they're committing suicide? These guys are literally committing suicide. Let them have the battle amongst themselves. That way we don't... You know, Bill, when the USS Cole was attacked,

17 Americans were killed in Yemen. That was pre-9-11. We weren't interfering in their business. And as you know, Yemen was a very pro-American country. And now it's a... And here's a situation. You've got 2,000 to 3,000 Americans that are going to these countries. We don't know where they are.

We can't track them to get trained in ISIS. We don't know if they're going to return and come into a tax here in the U.S. And that's the thing that we need to be prepared for. You know, where... I said this before. Where are the Muslims who want to go and fight ISIS? The only Muslims I hear about going to the battlefield are the ones who want to be part of ISIS. Maybe if we got out of it, we would encourage those Muslims, and there are many of them,

who want to live in the 21st century, to oppose these people who want to live in this medieval world. But we are not allowing that to happen. All right, moving on. We settled that one really well. Israel, we did. We did that. Here at HBO, we have had quite a lot. month between vice curing cancer and cracking this Robert Durst case, I tell you that the morale

in the cafeteria has been happy, high-fiving each other. And it doesn't, if you're a filmmaker, it doesn't get any better than what Durecki found when he, you know, discovered that he actually had on tape the guy they've been trying to catch mumbling to himself on a hot mic that he did it. And it made me think, you know what, I made a documentary once, religiousist, thanks very much. And I was thinking to myself, I remember we interviewed at the time it was Pope Benedict, the German Pope. Remember Ratzinger? I think it was in the Sistine Chapel. And I remember him going to the bathroom.

I thought, maybe he had a hot mic on him. So I went back to look at all the footage. Damn if it wasn't true. Would you like to see it? Okay, this is, I've never been seen in public before, but this is what we got from Pope Benedict. There it is. You're caught.

Bill Ma is right. The whole religion thing is bullshit. I scammed them all, of course. How the hell would I know what happens after you die? My publicist is so fired. Face it, the whole God being his own father thing never made any sense. Oh, stupid, stupid. And who's going to believe that Jesus walked on water like he's David Blaine?

The Mac of the Conception, whose idea was that? Sounds like something the Mormons would believe. Well am I wearing? I'm a grown man in a full-length ball gown. Idiot, it was in front of me all this time, but I did not see. Nazi? Nazi? It's kind of not you when you think about it.

No. Focus, damage, focus. There must be a way we can blame this on the Jews. Okay, he is the best-selling author's latest book is God's Banker's History of Money and Power at the Vatican. Gerald Posner. Hey, Gerald, how you doing? Great to see you. All right, well.

I'm glad I wrote the book just to see that. What a great promo for your book, right? Well, as someone who actually knows a lot more about the Vatican than almost anybody, I have to admit, as you must know, I never really interviewed Pope Benedict. He would not. But I was at the Vatican. We have a picture of it. There, yeah, we met a priest outside who let me in. That's from inside. I was not supposed to get in there.

You won't be back in there. That's right. I will not be back. So your book is fascinating, God's bankers. And I understand when you're right about the Catholic Church like this, they call you a dirty Jew, and you were actually raised Catholic. That's so funny. They call me a dirty Jew, and I was raised Catholic. It's fantastic. I love that. It's so great, and there's no better moment at which you get the email or a tweet or something,

and they say, you know, dirty Jews, I'm sick of you making money off of the Holocaust and off of the Vatican. And then I'm able to say eight years of Sisters of Charity, four years of Jesuits, altar boy, the whole routine. Wow, you really... ...raised a Catholic, and then that stops them from it. I think it's a trick. You were an altar boy, were you? I was. Anything funny, huh? No. Let me break the news here.

No. No. Well, are you insulted? Apparently you were not a very cute kid. Anyway, but, you know, everything I know about the Vatican Bank, I learned from the movie Godfather 3, which I think is a very underrated movie. I happen to be a big fan of that movie. But one thing I learned from your book that it didn't realize is that the Vatican Bank. is actually very recent.

Whenever you hear Vatican attaches them and you think, oh, it must go back to the 5th century. No, it goes back to what? World War II. Just to World War II.

That's what I loved about this when I got into it, is here you have a 2,000-year-old institution and they were really Pope kings. They ran their own empires for a long time. The Borgiers, for those who have seen the series. They had 15,000 square miles

of central Italy that was their empire. They lived in Texas. And then all of a sudden they lose that. Italy gets united. They get reduced to this little post-it-st stamp piece of property. Vatican City. But their own sovereign country. But not yet. So in 1870, they're not sovereign. They're just then head of the Catholic religion, the biggest religion in the world.

Then in 1929, Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, hits an accord with them and says, I grant you sovereignty, your country, and they in turn support him. And that's what gives them sovereignty back. And then they have the rights as a country. And in the middle of World War II, the financial wizard who's running all of their money, because Mussolini gave them about a billion dollars to make up for the loss of the papal states creates the Vatican bank right in nineteen forty two because he knows that the british and american intelligence units are looking to stop countries like the Vatican these tiny little sovereigns from doing business with the Nazis so he says we have a bank across between a central bank and a wall street investment bank

we're off the radar they can't follow us and that was the start of the bank that's been this scandal ridden plagued place and it really was i mean i think from what i read in your book that it was a lot about the fact that they were looking to sort of get the pressure off them for not talking about the Holocaust. And I don't think people realize this. A lot of the Nazi hierarchy was Catholics. And the Catholic Church, if they had said something about the Holocaust, could have really changed history.

There's a debate. People say, if the Pope had spoken out, it would have made a difference. But this was a time in the 40s in which the Pope still carry that authoritarian weight that pop used to carry. If he had said it is a mortal sin for Catholics to kill Jews, of the 50,000 Nazis who administered the concentration camps, three quarters were Nazis, they were Catholics. There were some who were also Lutherans in that.

But the hierarchy was all Catholic. They revered the state. But the church was most afraid of the Bolsheviks, the Reds. And so what I find in this book is they did business with the Germans through the war. That shouldn't really be surprising. They did business with us. They weren't buying U.S. stocks. We were putting gold here.

They were buying real estate in London, but they also did business with the Nazis. So are you saying that religious people could do immoral things? Doesn't sound right to me. So Bill, is this... So the part of it is, but if you think, I was surprised the extent to which at times it was jaw-dropping in that I shouldn't have been surprised. If you take billions of dollars and take men, put them in the dark, so there's no sort of oversight at all, which there wasn't in the Vatican Bank, No wonder you end up with money launders and the mafia and all of this because they do all types of things.

Certainly a lot of men in the dark. So how's Pope Frank doing on this issue? I mean, I was very mad at him after Charlie Ed Bo. I said some nasty things, but I can't stay mad at Pope Frank. I just can't. I mean, it's a funny situation that I like the Pope and Mill Gibson doesn't. It's a bad sign for the Pope. But, you know, he's said some great things and some dumb things,

but how is he on the banking issue? On the banking issue, he's pretty good. When he became Pope, I was skeptical. He said, we're going to clean it up, we're going to reform it. But they've all said that. Every Pope who comes in says, I'm going to be a reformer, and then it gets worse. It served as a political slush fund for Italy's biggest politicians

through the 90s into the 2000, $60 million funds for the former prime minister, and they were supposed to clean up that. Right. It's almost like an offshore bank in the middle of a foreign country, right? You just summarized it. In the heart of Rome, here's a place that calls itself a country that's only two-tenths of a mile wide. And if you deposit your money into that little two-tenths of a mile zone... Can I?

No, you can't. I can't. You cannot, none of us can. Because it's me? No, right, no. No, you ask the right. Red flag. Your face, and that Vatican picture is there.

But no, because people think of it, it only has one branch. It's in Vatican City. It's teller. ATMs are in Latin in part. The only ones with a dead language. But the only people that can open up an account are priests who work there in Vatican City or religious orders or charities. And that's the problem because charities open up. And then they turn out not to exist outside of the Vatican Bank. And so it's really run by a mobster from Sicily or a money launderer or in one case, a police commander. I love this one. I'm sorry, $30 million fund for a police commander and a Monsignor who became a bishop who were also directors of Italy's largest psychiatric hospital an 800-bed unit where the land had been bought from a group of nuns. It's fabulous stuff. You can't make this stuff up, right?

It's good. Wow. And I was fascinated to see last week that the Pope said that he is likely to step down. Like the last Pope did. He said he wants to direct. No. But, I mean, for 600 years,

no Pope ever stepped down, and now it's a thing? Yeah, all of a sudden it's a true. No, I don't believe it. I've talked to... I'm skeptical. I think he's bullshitting. I do, because...

The Pope? Hard to imagine. Here's my two-cent prediction that he intends to stay, but by saying, I may get out of here in a year or two years, he energizes all of those clerics in Rome who want to do real reform to think,

oh my God, this guy may not be around for him. If Francis is... Very clever. He's better get the reform done now, because the next Pope might be a traditionalist who rolls it all back. When you're a pope, you've got to be a politician, man. That's for sure. He's a populist.

So you're no stranger to justice and the criminal justice system. You've covered assassinations and so forth. Let me talk a little bit about Robert Dursk, because that is really what's in the pop culture atmosphere this week. I thought, well, maybe we shouldn't talk about it because who could I get on a panel to stick up for Robert Dirst and say he's in his and what kind of moron? And then I realized, oh, yeah, someone who's on a jury. Did you see in the documentary the people in the Galveston jury? I mean, he kills a guy, obviously, cuts him up into ten pieces, and these fucking clueless rubs,

well, he must be the most unlucky guy in Texas. And I just, you know, when did our criminal justice system get to be so bad between stupid juries and slick lawyers who can convince people of anything and corrupt cops? I mean, it's just like, is any place better? Thank God for HBO. Wow. That's true.

You know, the 100 million dollars. A shameless attempt to get back on the show. Absolutely. Absolutely. You have my number, please. You know, $100 million, one thing that I think Republicans and Democrats can agree on is that justice is not equal when you have a big purse. And $100 million, here's a guy who has been around very closely associated with

four murders and he's well and there was like a hint okay he had seven dogs and his younger brother made this mention where it's mysteriously the seven dogs disappeared so I'm sure the dogs don't have any heads anymore poor things I mean and then he put a

severed cat where the at the former Texas judge's house where she suspect that Robert Durst left his left the cat there for him so again if you're killing your animals and then you behead this guy and then you can't find the guy's head there's a problem Only, on that we can agree.

Okay, good. That we can agree. And his own brother took out a bodyguard, hired a bodyguard to protect him. Do you know that 40% of homicides go unsolved? You know, it's not a very good record. And also, listen to this, 95% of convictions in America come from plea bargaining, which is often coerced. It's like we have the worst of both worlds. We don't convict the guilty enough.

and we coerced the innocent too much. And I'm asking if anybody's better. I actually looked it up. World Law Project studies this. And we're 19th. It could be worse. They studied 99 countries, but Norway, Sweden are at the top.

I'm going there and playing there in May. Come see me. And Denmark. Those are the three top ones. And, you know, I just think America, we're always bragging about we're the most exceptional country. We're number one. We're not really number.

one in these things that... It's true, but those three countries that were at the top. I mean, Sweden, of course, has an unsolved murder for its Prime Minister. Ola Palme. So, you know, they may be great on a lot of things, and they may be doing a good job of selling 90% of the murders, except for the murder of their own, you know, head of state.

So they might be missing a big one. Well, they've got the girl with the dragon tattoo. She solved every... But do you think that Robert Durst could plead sarcasm. I mean, they have him saying.

He's so old. I mean, it's like just he's just, I think he's stuck, but knowing him he can go with insanity. I mean, it could be just pure in the way. He is a little crazy. Yes. But I think if they get him back to Los Angeles, I think that

listening to your district attorney here, they've already felt very burned on these celebrity trials. He's not going to get out of jail. And as Mercedes says, he probably won't have that much It's up to the jury, Jack. You know, what can they do? And the lawyers.

I mean, he might have one of these great lawyers. He'll need... He's worth $100 million. He definitely has a great... And, you know what? Everybody in the judicial system should have a good lawyer. I mean, everybody...

That's right. That's the way our system works. So that is important. But everybody shouldn't get off when they chop up a bazillion body than little pieces. Local defense counsel must be salivating. When you said $100 million

coming in, there must be lawyers out there just itching to get that call to represent him and put together a dream team. Yeah. Okay. A funny thing happened in New Hampshire this week. Ted Cruz was speaking to a group of supporters. I guess he's running for president. He hinted that he's going to announce it on Monday.

And he scared the living crap out of a three-year-old. Really, here's what he was saying this. These are his exact words. He said, the Obama economy is a disaster. Obamacare is a train wreck. And the Obama-Clinton foreign policy the whole world is on fire. And the three-year-old was like,

what, the world is on fire? Because she's three. She doesn't understand the concept of exaggerating threats to flee scullible rooms. And, you know, I must say, first of all, I don't think you should bring your three-year-old

to a Ted Cruz record. His target audience is five-year-old. So that's just one. You know. But, you know, I mean, there are statistics on how much the world is on fire, and Obama came back with them on Wednesday in Cleveland. He said, what are you talking about the economy as a disaster? Unemployment was 10 percent, six months into my term.

Now it's 5.5. The Dow was under 8,000 when I took office. Now it's almost 18,000. GDP was minus 5.4%. Now it's 2.8%. the deficit was 9.8% of GDP. Now it's 2.2%. At what point...

At what point... I mean, these are... No, no, I'm not saying it for a plus. These are facts. At what point do Republicans look foolish for being on the talking point page that no longer fits? And you know what?

Those are the facts. Those are the reality. Yes. So if the world's on fire, burn, baby, burn. Because we're doing pretty good if you think about it. You know, I want to get back to New Hampshire a minute because the thing is about the hyper indignation, the feigned indignation of the left on some comment like that, in which the girl's mother said she wasn't scared, and I support Ted Cruz.

And it's a rhetorical stuff. When Obama as a candidate was saying, they're going to bring their gun, their nides, we'll bring our guns. Okay, hey, it was rhetoric. I understand that. But that's not really the left of the get all upset about it. The big question I'm asking here is the economy, he says the economy is his answer. And I just read what the economy is.

How do you make this case? Bill, do you hang out with Cubans? Okay, let me tell you, I'm Cuban. So Ted Cruz is half Cuban. We like to, like, really go with some exaggeration sometimes. But here's what we've got. Wow. There are certain facts.

He wants to be bracing it up anything. I have heard a lot of bullshit on this gentleman. That may, you may, I wish I had an award for you. The Cuban excuse. But there is a fact that. But they're still, look, our economy is still underperforming. Our economy is still underperforming. Poverty levels are at record high.

10 million people on the floor. They're not. They're not. They're not. Yes, they are. Of course, we have issues. We're not living in L.A. We're not living in Eden.

Of course, there are issues. Thank you. But these are facts. The economy of it. You know, the interesting thing, the interesting thing, he also talked about income inequality. Now, the New York Times,

hardly a Republican publication, quoting Berkeley, a study of Berkeley, again, Hardley Pepperdine University, they came out with a study that showed that the top 1% have done better under Obama than they did under Bush or under Clinton.

And what is Taylor's going to do? And he's talking income inequality. And that's the fact. Anyone I blame income inequality on, it's the Democrats. For years, they have been the sticking points. Are you... Again, Berkeley... It's just insane.

Berkeley and the New York Times published this. But, Jack, none of their policies that they are suggesting... But, Jack, what are the Republicans going to do about it? No one's going to do. What are you going to do? Are you going to raise the minimum wage? Are you going to put more subsidies in for child care? Are you going to support the president's community college initiative?

All of those things will help income in a fight. All those are more government and more debt. I'll tell you the way to do it. It's unshackle the private sector. Get the nanny state out of the people's lives, let people start their own businesses. And how are you going to help help them? owners do that. Exactly.

Small business owners are the one who are racing out of the most under a moment. And corporations, really, the CEOs who are making a lot more money than those in the bottom. They're going to cap their end. You've got to, they have to move that money to those people that are those average. Right.

Thank God, because you Republicans have been saying that forever. Let's, yes, Democrats, stop standing in the way of this. Okay, I want to, first of all, Mitt Romney when he ran, said, I'm going to get the unemployment rate down to 6% by the 2016, when after my first term, Obama's got it down to 5.5.

Do you think he did that by himself? By not true, I think when you see, it's because Congress stopped him. I think your Cuban argument is racist. You love my Cuban. You're saying that Cubans are hotheads who cannot control their arguments. Barely, barely, barely. Look at Al Castro. I mean, he's been raining for how many years now? I live in Miami.

I think she's right. Thank you. Thank you, panel. It's time for New Rules. New Rule, before mocking Farmers Only.com, the dating... The dating site for country folks, or as I call it, Hicks with Dix. You must remember it's better for rural America to date on Farmers Only.com than where they used to date. Ancestry.com.

New Rule, if this rich creed... really dressed as an old deaf woman to get away with murder, HBO has to start hounding Miso Akawa, the world's oldest woman, because I'm pretty sure she's Sheldon Adelson. New role since everyone else gets an award show. It's time we also had one for stock photo models. Welcome to the 2015 Stockies. Recognizing excellence in the field of stock photo art.

This year's nominees for Stock Photo Model of the year are Susan King for I hate my computer. Beverly Hanberry Tennyson for happy black person. And Barry Rogers, Jr., for My Dick, doesn't work. New Rule, the makers of this fun inflatable slide must apologize to these kids' parents. They're supposed to be celebrating a birthday, not reliving one. Well, let's call the Elton John, Dolce, and Gabana feud what it is. a face-off between a classic old leathery bag

and Alche and Copacca. And finally, new rule before he leaves off, as President Obama must send in the National Guard to desegregate America's last bastion of societal-approved racism, college fraternities. That's right. From now on, all fraternities must allow women,

as well as a diverse collection of races and ethnicities. So you're not really fraternities anymore. You're more like that hippie co-op. on campus where a house full of art history majors get stoned every night and makes a big lentil casserole. That's right, fellas. Gather up your beer funnels and your

ass paddles and your lacrosse dicks and your big red plastic drinking cups and get the fuck out. Sorry, bra. From now on, if you want to live with 40 other dudes and hold secret homoerotic ceremonies, you're going to have to join the seminary.

You know, it's always struck me as strange that college campuses are where political correctness is the most stringently enforced, and yet smack in the middle are frat houses, these little Vatican cities of depravity that seem to enjoy diplomatic immunity from civilization. There was a time when fraternities fit in with society as a whole, but that day is long gone. If you don't believe me, go back and watch Animal House. In 1978, watching a guy deciding whether he should have sex with an out-cold high school girl was something we all considered hilarious. And Bill Cosby still does. Revenge of the nerds from 1982 has a scene where they break into a sorority and

install cameras so they can watch the girls shower. And again, we all laughed. But this week, Penn State's Kappa Delta Roe frat was caught basically pulling the same stunt and no one's laughing. For one thing, institutions that go out of their way to have no women around, it always leads to abuse and madness and lighting farts. I mean, Scientology is bad, but at least it admits women. Every 10 years, someone has to pretend marry Tom Cruise. And there's one other bad little thing about fraternities. They kill people. Every year some kid dies when the hilarious just dangle the pledge over the wood chipper prank goes awry. Since 1970, there's been at least one hazing related to death every year,

as pledges routinely endure alcohol poisoning, sleep deprivation, waterboarding, being dressed in diapers, buried in trash, forced-fed cat food. Jesus, why not just pledge ISIS? Well, hey, a cult is a cult, and that's what a frat is, a place where they strip you of your personality and rebuild it in their image. That's why when a girl says, I'm dating a frat guy,

no one ever says, oh yeah, what's he like? I just told you I'm dating a frat guy. My school had a lot of fraternities, but it never occurred to me to join one because finally in my life, I was able to live on my own amongst women. So it had no appeal to me

when some frat guy said, hey, how about coming with me to live with a bunch of dudes? Come on. Come on. We'll stick a carrot up your butt. No wonder they call it the Greek system. And this is where someone always says, but Bill, fraternities are a tradition. Yeah, so is throwing virgins in a volcano for a while.

If you think tradition is a good enough reason to paint your face or degrade women or drink yourself sick, or if you think a good place for a bottle rocket is your ass, then maybe college isn't for, you to begin with. Of all the bad things fraternities do, the absolute worst is that they take young people at the exact moment when they should be learning to be individuals and turn them into shit-eating orders following group thinkers. Or maybe these guys all independently decided to wear shorts with a blazer and a bowtie. All right, that's our show. I'll be at the Pearl Theater at the Palms this weekend in Las Vegas.

And at the Keyboard auditorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico, May 2nd at the Bay of Music City in Houston, May 3rd. I want to thank Jack Kingston, Christine Quinn, Mercedes-Slap, and Gerald Posner, and Bob Costas. Join us now for overtime on YouTube. Thank you. New episodes of Real Time with Bill Marr, every Friday night at 11 or watch them anytime on HBO on demand. For more info, log on to HBO.com.