Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #364 (Originally aired 9/18/15)

Episode Date: September 21, 2015

Overtime - Episode #364 (Originally aired 9/18/15)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Saving those children is how we all go home. From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh. We're on the Internet. All right, where are the questions? Where are there?

Where? Oh, these are the ones. Okay. If a Republican is elected and rips up the Iran nuclear deal, what kind of ramifications will be for the rest of the world? Good question. Bad, I would say. I would rephrase that and say,

if Iran has a nuclear weapon, what are the ramifications for the rest of the world? And I think what we have done is just allowed them. Clearly, a legal path to a nuclear weapon is not a question of if it's a question of when. And by the way, what happens to the world when they have $150 billion that we know a significant part will be used to support terrorist groups around the world? That is not a good thing. But, Governor, you said it's a question of when.

We know without the deal, the when could be months. It's already illegal. With the deal, it's at least 10 years away. How is that not better? It's already illegal for Iran to have any type of nuclear program. What we're saying now is we're going to legalize it and pretend that the fact they ignored it the first time doesn't mean they'll ignore it the second time. And in the meantime, they get $150 billion.

They get a legal intercontinental ballistic missile program. You do know that even if we don't do the deal, the sanctions go away because none of the other country is going to do them. No, they can't. So we either get the deal or we get nothing. No, that's not true. The sanctions are. They were passed by resolutions of the security. Yes, but I'm talking about the other...

They have to be repealed. But the other countries who are part of the sanctions, you know what? Marco Rubu said, we're not a planet. We're just one country. All those other countries that are part of the sanctions, they're not going to acknowledge them anymore. So they're going to trade with Iran.

So either we get the deal or we get nothing. No, I don't think that's true. If we don't get the deal, they don't get $150 billion that they can use to become... the dominant, not just economic, but military power in the Middle East, when we know they're going to use it for terrorist activity. Well, period. They were the number one power in the Middle East when Nixon was president,

and we loved it. They weren't a terrorist state, and they weren't the number one state sponsor of terror. Because whenever we get rid of a dictator, something worse comes along. That happens. That happens. It has happened. And we had a pretty... Because they're full of moderates.

Okay, we had a situation before W came in where we had a number of states that were buffers against Iran. We had a pretty good balance between the Sunnis and the Shias over there. It's actually balanced. You had Jordan on our side, Egypt on our side, the Saudis on our side. You had a Sunni government in Baghdad. Okay, what did we? We knocked them off, gave it to Iran. Now we got a Shia government's right across the Middle East now who all hate us.

And so we did that because of a war. We started. We started that war. I just want to understand. How can you guys keep doing it wrong? and keep being so confident of anything. What did you think of... What did you think of Ronald Reagan and Reykovic in 1987?

I thought he made the right to say. When he offered Gorbachev to go down to zero, zero, get rid of an entire nuclear arsenal, and how would that go over today with Republicans? I think it's very different today. I think it's very different because we are... It was even more dangerous. Where you have China, you have North Korea.

North Korea, even if they sign some sort of accord, would never do it. We know they have, according to China's estimates, at least 20 nuclear weapons. We know other countries have nuclear weapons. Ronald Reagan offered to get rid of our entire nuclear arsenal. What if Obama offered that? How would that go over?

I don't think it would go over. I think it would go over. I think it would go over the way it should go over, which is not very well. Not when you have China. So Reagan was wrong to. No, that was a different world. And you have to look forward. No, really? It's a different world. Reagan was It was. You didn't have a nuclear

North Korea. You didn't have what will be a nuclear Iran. You didn't have a nuclear China at that point. Sure you did. China got nuclear weapons in 1964. Well, all right. Well, they weren't as much of a challenge to America as they could be to.

Come on. You just love Reagan and hate Obama? I mean, it's like, it's never about... It's not a question of personnel, it's a question of policy. Okay. The world... America was more respected. It was stronger. People had greater confidence in our future when Reagan was president. than they do today.

And by the way, you look at the world today. There are over 40 million refugees, the largest since the end of World War II. That is a tragedy. And most of the largest numbers... Totally because of Obama. No, the largest numbers... Bill, Bill, Bill, the largest numbers

come from two countries. Syria and Libya. Syria is where this president addressed the American people and said, I'm drawing a red line. And Syria is destabilized because of George Bush's stupid war in Iraq and global warming.

Syria was destabilized. Syria was destabilized before ISIS existed. And the second is Libya. And somehow, I guess George Bush is responsible for Libya, too. In fact, it was the Clinton. The Clinton- Obama policies working with the Italians and the French, got rid of Gaddafi, leading from behind. And one, we created this void instead of helping forces

that would have been pro-human rights. So it was good when Bush got rid of Saddam Hussein, but bad when Obama got rid of Gaddafi. No, not at all. All right. How can European countries assimilate the migrants into their pluralistic societies? Carefully. It's going to be, it's almost impossible for them just to find a solution. They decided to divide all the immigrants coming in, but many countries are rejecting them.

And also, I mean, let's be honest. I mean, Mexican immigrants who come here basically share our value system. That is not true necessarily with the immigrant. who are coming into Europe. I mean, I don't know of any Mexicans who want a theocracy, but there are many Muslims who come from theocratic societies. I mean, it's harder to assimilate them.

Who wants to hire someone that supercuts are wearing a burqa? And now, the crisis... No one wants their haircut by an invisible lady. I think I know that. The crisis might end now with winter. With the winter, then the number of immigrants is going to diminish.

And then the problem right now that they're facing in Europe is going to the minister. Okay. Let's see. Chris Matthews, does Trump's candidacy make us look foolish in the eyes of the world? There's a nice softball for you. How about a one-word answer? I don't think you get it. Yes.

Okay. I just wanted to make history there. Can I use up my time? Yes, use up your time. You know, when we talk about the country being worse off and on, you know, there's been a lot of progress in this country in the last 10 or so years.

you know, we have same-sex marriage now. We watched the Republican debate the other night. Nobody thought about that. Maybe there's Huckabee, you know, he did his Marjo invitation. Right. But that went over. Nobody wanted to fight about it. Republicans don't.

So we go through, it's better. Everybody loves to talk about the greatest generation or all. You know, those guys wouldn't have done this stuff. They wouldn't have said it's okay to be gay. They wouldn't have said same-sex marriage was all right. They wouldn't have... The country's much better in ethnicity. Every one of our kids is more liberal in ethnicity than we are.

They just are. They didn't think about it. It never occurs to them. So it's just, a better country. I don't know why we keep whipping ourselves and say, we're not as great as we were. The greatest generation was wrong on so many things. The services were not integrated,

right? Right. The gays were beaten up in the barracks. I'm sorry, the country is better now morally in many ways than it was in the Reagan. True. Okay. Does the election of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, well, he wasn't elected, he's head of the Labor Party, okay. In the UK

signal a global swing toward populism and are know what that means. But I could ask another Jeremy Corbyn question. He is advocating that the U.K. apologize for the Iraq war, for their participation in the Iraq war. Should America?

It was clearly a mistake. I mean, in 2003, we made... Even the Republican candidates. We made a huge mistake. And as journalist, I think it was also part of our responsibility. We were silenced, and we didn't challenge... No, that's not true. Yeah, we didn't challenge...

You put that way in your... Keep that weed to yourself. No, no, no. No, keep that weed to yourself. We oppose the war. I think... No, the weed doesn't work here. No.

The fact is that as journalists, we didn't challenge Joseph R Bush as we should have. No. Otherwise... I opposed the war in every column I wrote. I did. I did. And Michael Moore got up at the Oscars.

I'm sure you did. Don't be condescending. No, no. What I'm saying is that as journalists... Well, you really don't like this guy. No, I don't think it's for me. No. I think the thing is on here.

I'm sorry. We should have done much better. We? We did challenge him enough. But he has a good point. Obviously, we didn't challenge him enough because he started the war. But why are we all lumped together? You know, some journalists didn't.

Chris and I spoke out against the war. Michael Moore, like I was about to say, stood up in the Oscars, and they all booed him, but he had the guts to say, we shouldn't do this, and it's immoral and not right. And there was lots of people. There was demonstrations all around the world. Lots of people were against this war, including some people in the... Congress, not Hillary Clinton, not 28 Democrats, but lots of people. So, yeah, I mean, okay, let's not lump.

No lumping. Okay. Barack Obama, Howard Dean, they all post a war. So good people. Okay. Last question. And then I want to do my Ed Sullivan impression. No, I do.

Because Ed Sullivan used to introduce people in the audience. Remember that? Remember when he used to do that? Arnold Palmer is in the audience. Hey. Ladies gentlemen, our audience tonight are the greatest comedians of all time, Mr. Martin Short.

Ladies and gentlemen, Martin Short is in our audience. Martin Short, one of the greatest comedians. Now James Brown and his sole crap will be next. That's Gabe Kaplan's. All right. Last question. Can the U.S. still excuse that China and other countries are not doing their part on climate change? No.

I mean, yes, the climate is rotten and giant. But, you know, they're trying. Yes, they have problems. We don't, and we wish they would do it faster. And I'm sure they wish we would do it faster. But this idea that I heard at the Republican debate that, you know what, other countries do bad stuff, so we shouldn't even try. That's a crazy thing. I thought America was the leader. I thought we weren't supposed to lead from behind.

Particularly in technology. In technology, it's going to change, right? It's already changing. It's changing continuously. And so what we see today is not what we're going to see in 10 years or 20 years. And to think that we shouldn't lead is ridiculous. Let me say, as a Republican, I actually think climate change exists. And I know that may be a little stunning.

And you're not alone. George Schultz does, Henry Paulson, does Watson. And I honestly think, though, America's not the problem. America's the solution. We produce now 16% of the Greenhouse guests. What Mark is saying is absolutely right. What we have to do is develop technologies that allow us to decarbonize and at the same time grow our economy and create jobs.

If we simply impose costs on America, we don't help the global. But all the Republicans at the debate talk like the jobs are in coal, whereas solar now provides, I think, 10 times as many jobs as coal. The jobs in America are always in the next industry. Yeah, that's exactly right, because we're going to be creating new jobs that more than replace the jobs that are lost. What did you make your billions in? typewriters, Marr? Streaming, streaming, right? Right here. What we're doing on YouTube.

Did you hear what Henry Ford said, if I'd ask people what they wanted, they would have set a faster horse. Right. Perfect way to end it. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Thank you. 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.