Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #439: Puerto Rico, Police Militarization, Hugh Hefner

Episode Date: September 30, 2017

Bill Maher and his guests - Paul Hawken, Kurt Andersen, John Heilemann, April Ryan, and Tom Morello - answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 9/29/17) 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, back and the questions for the panel. April, Ryan, what are your thoughts on the Howard University protesters who shouted down James Comey? I don't know about this.

What happened? Well, first of all, the Howard University students are very upset that James Comey will now have this position for a year. He's given the money back to the school. What position? He's going to be kind of like a fellow. He's over top

of this its policy governance. At Howard University. Howard University they brought him in. He turned away other colleges and took this position in Howard. Howard students are very upset. I thought it would be more so about the Hillary election

in his part in those remaining days like the 11 days or so prior to the election. And it wasn't. It was mostly about the history of the FBI and the black community. Now the kids have right, freedom of speech and freedom of expression. They had a right to protest, but the president of Howard University says, Comey, no matter what, will be there for the year. But it's

interesting finding out about James Comey, and I found this out through the president of Howard, President Wayne Frederick. He said that James Comey, whenever he brings someone, when he used to be FBI director, whenever he would bring someone in, he would make them look through the records, the FBI records of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to show. how the department overreached and he would make them go to the King Memorial. It's interesting. It's interesting this dynamic. He did a bad thing, but he's not a bad guy. He's doing six. Well, that's debatable, but he's doing six speeches.

You think Comey's a bad guy? I think it's yet to be, I think the verdict is still out on Comey. Yeah. I think, what? I'm in agreement. I think there's a lot of stuff. You think, we don't know. It's still the...

The Howard students are right, and the FBI has been no friend of the African-American community that much. It has not. Well, he's trying to speak, though. The whole point is, is he's supposed to be doing these six speeches, and they're basically going to be about police reform and criminal justice reform. As April said, that was what the first speech was about. And I think it's supposed to be a series. They were chanting, the chant that I found most poignant was a lot of them chanting,

Comey's not my homie. But he thinks he's down. He does. Okay. Paul Hawkin, do you think that storm ravaged places like Puerto Rico can be rebuilt to withstand future extreme weather events? That's a good question. I mean, some of these places... Which extreme weather events, the ones we just had

are the ones we're going to have in 10 years or now. Right. What if they'd become uninhabitable? That could possibly happen. It can. It actually can. And the thing is with global warming is that even if we stopped emissions today, warming is locked in for the next 20, 30 years. It's locked and loaded. And the instability that we're seeing,

it shouldn't be called global warming. It should be called climatic instability or volatility. Because what you're getting is much more rain. much powerful winds, more powerful winds. You're getting more severe droughts. British Columbia had the biggest fire season ever in history. We had the third biggest in California. That's no water.

Our fire season hasn't even started, and it started. Yeah. It's the pre-season. Exhibition here. But it's already cost like $2 billion. Yeah. That's a really good question. There's only two rainforests in the United States.

Now there's only one. The whole rainforests of Puerto Rico was destroyed. So, and that's just a cat five, you say just a cat five, but I mean, cat six is coming. Right. I mean, that's writ large. And the thing is, it should be about pattern recognition, which is you can't say it's due to global warming. You can't say that. But you do know that warmer water is going to intensify whatever happens.

And we know that 90% of all the warming that's occurred since industrial age, 90% goes into the water, not the land, the water. So, yeah. Al Gore predicted this. Yes. He did. Of course. And the Internet. Would you agree that?

He said he invented it. Would you? Well, he did not say he invented it. Yes, he did. He did not say those words. You're parroting the Republican Hillary. No, I was there. I know I look young, but I was there.

He was, he was instrumental. That's a lot. He was instrumental. He believes that he was one of the people who created the Internet. Well, that created. But he was very instrumental in having it. And he should never. have laughed at him, you know,

that's the mistake the Democrats make. They don't back up what they say. And when the Republicans were saying, oh, you're a liar, he was like, okay, you know what, you got me, I'm a liar, and I'll laugh at myself. Instead of saying, fuck you. That's right, that's right. Yeah. But, you know, I'm going to say something by Al Gore, because he's

just a wonderful guy. He is a wonderful guy. But, I think the world is tired of hearing from privileged white men about disasters they're going to come in the future. I don't think it doesn't, it doesn't connect. What the fuck is being white have to do with global warming? Or Brown, it doesn't matter.

I'm just saying people are privileged. Why does everything have to be that? Really? I'm a white man. I can't talk about global warming because I'm privileged? What should I fucking do? Just send an apology to Kendrick Lamar tomorrow and then I can talk about global warming? Sorry, Doc. It's privilege.

It's people who are well-to-do, sent to millionaires telling the world that it's getting bad and it's going to get worse. Well, Katrina happens. whoever's saying it's a welcome measure. People who, Katrina happened to low-income black people in the ninth ward. You're seeing what's happening in the Virgin Islands. You're seeing what's happening in Puerto Rico. People who live on the water. People who are in these communities tend to be the least of these.

So, I mean, people don't, and I hate to say this, but this is the way society is. They don't listen to us. It took a former vice president to stand up and speak. And he even received a Nobel Prize. And he created that great document. and people are not listening. And now he was like Chicken Little. The sky is falling. The sky is falling.

It is falling now. But the falsehood that there is no climate change and it's not caused by factories and cars, of course, was put out by privileged white people in the form of the Koch brothers and the Republican Party, who put out this fantasy and convinced that worked. That convinced a lot of people.

So, you know, if privileged white people can make that untruth be widely believed, why can't white people? I don't care. It needs to be forced. Okay, it does. All right. Tom Morella, what is your relationship with Ted Nugent? We're friends.

We're friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm friends with... That's great. You know, I get shit for being friends with right-wingers, too. And you have to have friends who you don't agree with. There is a good overlap as well. We're big advocates of the First Amendment.

We're family men. And guitarists. We enjoy rock and roll music. And there are things that, you know, things we differ on. Occasionally, you know, when Ted says something that fires up the racist element of his base, I'll shoot him a text and say, back off, dead. Just shoot him. Back off, tech. Yeah. No, I'm trying to get him

on the show again. We used to have him on the old show a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and he's... I don't know. He's a friend about him. Yeah. Okay, good. Kurt, do you think the militarization of the police force is another symptom of living in fantasy land? Well, I do. And it happened without us even noticing. And what I discovered, in the course of my research, is that It started, of course, right here in Los Angeles,

the SWAT team that Daryl Gates wanted to start and created on the universal back lot. What? Yes. That's where they trained. Oh, wow. And then there was the Aaron Spelling Show SWAT, which came out. That is the key thing that convinced dozens and then hundreds of cities around America to create their SWAT teams. Whatever we see on TV.

That is where reality is. It can work for good, Like with gay marriage? Yes. You know, Will and Grace, I see, back on the air. But, I mean, Will and Grace did a lot to change how people feel. We saw Trump on TV. We saw Trump. That is, I mean, I don't know if you're being facetious.

I'm not. But for, you know, for the jaded Washington types who think Comey's a bad person. If Donald Trump had never been on the apprentice, he would never been president. Exactly. We, you know, I never saw the apprentice. You did? No. I'm sorry.

Why? Are you serious? You think that's crazy that I never? ever saw the Abram? Right. It was a phenomenon in one point. Your DVR full of a past episode? No, no, no, no.

But, I mean, when it first came- It's- When you're up 25 million people a week watch that show and it's- Yes, I mean, at least the first- Do I have to watch? No, you don't have to watch, but I think it was surprised.

25 million people's a lot. Here's a crazy one. I never saw dancing with the stars either. You're not alone. Okay, okay, but that's a phenomenon. What are you crazy? That's where they go after their, they're convicted of things.

Right. You're so right. You're on your way to the white, Oval eyes. You know, we on the coast, we were like, oh, turned our nose up, the apprentice, that's the stupid show. And a lot of people in America saw a guy who was, you know, in a position of authority, and he fired people, and he was in charge. And it turned out, you know, he didn't even do all that.

He just came in and read his lines like any other actor, like Ronald Reagan. I got to say, what I was old... But he's firing people today. It's the White House apprentice now. Yes, nobody ever says, why did you hire all these idiots to begin with? He's like, I fired him. Yeah, you shouldn't have hired him in the first place. I got to see, I was a little disappointed with this show tonight only because we didn't get a chance to have a broader conversation about Hugh Hefner.

And go ahead. Well, just say, I know when I heard that he had passed away, you know, I thought I kind of reached for a tissue and then I reached for a few more. And then I thought, that's how Hugh would have won. That's how Heffin would have wanted him, right? A Thuring Memorial. But seriously, but seriously, think about, just think about the fact that in the last couple weeks, we've lost Hugh Heardner. Hapner and Rolling Stones being sold, I would contend that if you think about what shaped modern culture, and there's a lot of stuff that Kurt writes about it in his book, those two

institutions, Playboy at Rolling Stone, had as much effect on shaping the culture, post-60s culture as any two institutions in America, and now Hapner is dead, and Yon-Winter selling off Rolling Stone. It's an interesting moment that those two are kind of... I would say even more a Playboy, because it wasn't... But, well, it did... Rock and roll culture, the drug culture, the rock and roll culture in Rolling Stone. I mean, they just... Well, sex existed, too.

But... But... Not in a magazine like that. No. And not... Not mainstream. Not mainstream. But he was a mixed bag, though.

He was a big... Who isn't? No, but I mean... Who is not? Yeah, but think of this. I mean, you know, yeah, he helped a lot of people reach their potential. And a lot of people... A lot of people...

A lot of people... What a great. You know. That's a totally new euphemism. That is... That is a... hiking in the Appalachian Trail and reaching your potential. Yeah, and then a lot of people learned how to read.

But then also... But then there's this real situation, and just hold on from it before you jump me. There's this real situation. You know, I don't like the fact that women are portrayed as objects. We're more than T&A. But... Thank you.

So... But wait a minute. No, I'm on your side on this one. I got you. But wait a minute, but wait a minute. But when I... When I duck deeper, he really was a great man when it came to issues of civil rights. He was on the cutting edge.

Exactly. And, you know, sometimes you have to say, all right, but for the greater good. Trump is an inheritor of part of that Playboy mantle. Is it really? Absolutely. His vibe, his fear of women, the kind of the objectification of women. That's part of one big piece of Playboy. Do you think he fears women that he doesn't like women?

I think it's all wound up together. Okay. I'm going to the mansion like you and it was sad. Well, maybe at the end. At the end, it was sad. But so if you just look at a naked woman, that's objectifying? No, okay. No, no, no, no.

When you look at a woman and all you see is what God gave her and not see her for a woman that's going out there knocking down the barriers and walls trying to make a living, a woman that's got a mind who's working hard to change things that are going on. Really? We have to see everything in everybody at all times? Yes, you don't. He just got a box of Kleenex. He just wants to jerk off. You just, well, I mean, it's a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. And it's actually a necessary thing and a helpful thing.

It is healthy. It is healthy. Absolutely. And, and, you know, I mean, we don't have... I'm all right, of course, as Americans. It's not my conversation. All right, we'll get you out of here, then. Thank you very much. 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.