Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime – Episode #391 (Originally aired 06/10/16)

Episode Date: June 11, 2016

Overtime – Episode #391 (Originally aired 06/10/16) - Bill and his roundtable guests Barbara Boxer, Tom Morello, Ana Marie Cox, Katie Packer and Andrew Ross Sorkin answer fan questions from the latest show. 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. Okay, here we are on YouTube. Tom, how do you keep ticket prices to your shows affordable? By insisting. I mean, that's it. Well, also by being popular, because enough people come out. Enough people do come out, but I mean, the first three shows of this tour that we played so far

was a $20 ticket we gave all of it away. It's insisting on a point of view in the way that you want to do your business, which is different from other acts. But it's not cheap to put on a rock show. It's not. You have to absorb some of that cost, and you make that part of the thing that you're doing. There's good points and bad points between music and comedy, but all my

music friends are so jealous that I just show up. Yeah, yeah. As long as the mic works. Yeah, yeah. That's true. That's true. Sound check. That's true. That's true. When you do do a show for a $20 ticket, you incur a lot of... I mean, you can't do anything without

lots of equipment and electricity and people. But I mean, I, I mean, It's a curse in a way. That's how we're going to do it. It's hell of worth it. Is it smart of Hillary Clinton to engage with Donald Trump on Twitter? Good question. I say yes.

That's where the audience is. Same reason why Obama goes on, well, every show but this, as we know. Lots of, you know, like lots of dumb-ass shows. Because, you know, you've got to go where the audience is. They're not watching Meet the Press. How long do you think they were holding that delete your account to a tweet? Yes. Like, that was, like, felt like that had the feel

of something they had to sort of dust off the top shelf. You know. And how many days before that did Hillary just learn what that meant? Right? Right, Bernie. Right. Okay. Bernie, would you like to read the next question?

For Andrew, do you think Hillary Clinton will be tough? Will be tough enough on Wall Street? This is my new career as a trillic with, by the way. It's not that hurt. Bendo. Do you think Hillary Clinton will be tough enough on Wall Street? Tough enough is relative. It's not tough compared to what Bernie would do

and not tough compared to what Elizabeth Warren will do. She's going to be pushed to some degree, but I don't think she's going to be pushed nearly to the degree that I think probably a lot of people even in this room want her to be. Do you think it mattered those speeches she made to Wall Street that Bernie was always railing about, release the transcripts of those speeches? I don't think because the speeches matter.

in that she said something. I don't either. Then why don't she release it? No, no. But I will say this. The relationship that she has to corporate America writ large, forget about just Wall Street. Right. You know, when people make comments about the foundation and, you know, what Bill Clinton was doing, what she's doing, and the speeches and the money and all of...

That's not good. That's not good. And ultimately, that colors everything. It just does. She's a Wall Street candidate. She's a centrist Democrat. They're Wall Street candidate. Yes, that's the gig.

I think the thing about those speeches is probably why she didn't release them is because there's probably so anodyne and boring. So they were paying her a lot of money to say nothing. And that's actually kind of a scam. You know, that shows how much in her, in, how deep the relationship is. I think she's saying a lot of really nice things about people that are reviled by a lot of people. Does anyone think she's not a Wall Street, Canada? Of course she is.

Yeah, does anyone think she's not? And she's not going to walk back from these things. I anticipate she will release these things. Why she's the nominee. Now that it's over. And again, not to beat the dead horse about what I was saying at the end of this show and last show, but capitalism is not the enemy. Just unchecked capitalism.

Right. Right. I mean, capitalism has brought more wealth and higher standards of living to more people. If you're working in an Indonesian sweatshop, you might have a different opinion of that. Hold on. Hold on. You couldn't be charging $20 for those tickets if you had not been as successful as you have been.

We don't live in an anarcho-sindicose utopia. When we do, I'll be an abandon that one, too. I mean, they sell Noam Chomsky books at Barnes & Noble. You know what I mean? Like, that's where we are. I'm trying to, I'm working hard to change that. You know what I mean? But Hillary Clinton is not.

Wait. Wait. I don't know what you said. I mean, I could pretend I knew. What does that mean? They sell bar... No, no, I mean, I think the argument's being made that a successful rock and roll musician

has benefited from capitalism, therefore I should not criticize it. No. No, I'm just saying that... Not that you shouldn't criticize it, just that you have... Again, like democracy, the worst system except for all the others.

And that it does bring... My analogy is always... It's a raging river. But you've got to have the river flow in the way it natural. flows, not like the communist Chinese are trying to make the river run backwards. You know, but you just put

dams and locks on the river so that it doesn't kill people. A river is a natural phenomenon. Capitalism is a morally bereft system. That harms much of the planet. Oh, hold on. People pay other people for people. No, no. People have gained other people for things

since there was things to pay for. What's this? People have been paying people for other things that since there was stuff to trade. And greed and selfishness, there is nothing more natural than that. If you indulge me, if you indulge me, it didn't start in America. Capitalism has taken more people out of poverty around the world than any other systems. Put a lot of people in poverty too. That's right. That's true.

Yes. It's completely not even a relative argument. Unless you're making Nike shoes in an Indonesian sweatshop, which is a crucial part of what capitalism is. Like you cannot have you cannot have rodeo drive without that sweatshop. You can't have it. Right. Okay. But we, but we are, I'm not sure that's the case. But doesn't that assume that people out the side of the sweatshop are doing way better? Right, and also... No, it assumes it'll be grotesque economic inequality on the planet.

That's what it assumes. And it's predicated on grotesque economic inequality. By the way, the sweatshop that they work in probably is the better job. They went to that sweatshop because they had a work job. And also in the last 30 years, we've lifted something like 2 billion people out of poverty. And the number of people in the, like, extreme poverty level is the lowest ever. Okay, so, you know, I mean, it's just true. And that's why I said, don't romanticize either system.

You need both. Every modern economy is a mix of capitalism and socialism. We've been to have quasi-socialists for 100 years. It's not a bad word. And Bernie's one of the people who, more than anybody, help make it not a bad word. Katie, do you think there's any chance Romney will still be drafted to run as the Republican nominee? No. No?

Absolutely. Come on. You know that he's... I think the reality is that Mitt Romney understands how difficult it is to win a general election. He's not going to just go out there to be a spoiler. He'd only go if he thought he could win. I don't think he believes he can win. But he wants to be president. He wants to be president.

He's going to be on Trump. He ran twice. He would run again. I'm not listening to you, baby Bernie. He's going to let Donald Trump own this loss. There's no doubt about it. Okay. All right. Well, thank you very much.

You're all very entertaining. And we gotta go. 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.