Real Time with Bill Maher - Overtime - Episode #445: Trump Nukes, Panama Papers, 2018 Democrats

Episode Date: November 18, 2017

Bill and his guests – Bill McKibben, Chelsea Handler, Carl Bernstein, Max Brooks, and Rebecca Traister – answer viewer questions after the show. (Originally aired 11/17/17) 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 Ma. On our last overtime of the air for Rebecca, is there any connection between domestic violence and terrorism? Yeah, a very firm connection. In fact, I can't remember the percentage of mass shooters and terrorists who have domestic violence in their past. Also animal cruelty. It's always in the past of... Right, it's actually one of the things that links everything. from domain? Like allowing people to kill elephants and then send their parts back? All of it. All of it. Yeah. Violence against women

and mass violence. Should we and are we able to rethink President Trump's access to the nuclear football? Well, no. He's the president. I mean, that's... Isn't there some sort of like architecture, though, in place? Don't you think

with all those generals around, or maybe this is a fantasy of mine? But don't you think John Kelly and Mattis and these people have discussed that he can't... Absolutely. There are discussions among people in the White House who have concerns about the president's, quote, temperament, and what to do in moments when that temperament seems out of whack. And knowledge.

He only... Well, that's the other thing. Only this year seemed to discover that nuclear weapons were bad. Nobody knew. The repritorial fact of his ignorance in terms of what he knows about what goes on in the world, the history of the United States, is really extraordinary. And it's, again, it's a fact

that we've never had a president who knows less about the history of his country, about what goes on in the world around him. This is extraordinary. It doesn't mean, though, that he doesn't have good instincts, as he's had good enough instincts to win the presidency.

That's a whole different... It is. It is. He's a personality disorder. I'm not making a psychic. But do you think that there's a chance that these generals have gotten together and said we cannot have him allow him to have access to the nuclear codes? I don't think it be anything. No, no. I don't think they could do that. I think they can say like if the order comes and we know it's that crazy, we just don't do it. Like they could distract him with a cheeseburger or something. Right. Right. I mean, it's pretty complicated how it actually. There is the National Security Council. There are the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. There are, and by the way, missiles are not just ready. to fly. They have to be fuel. They have to be

targeted. That's why we have the defense condition. We are now at DefCon 5. We would have to go all the way down to DefCon 1 to launch a nuclear weapon. And the reason we have those defense conditions is to give the grown-ups time

to intervene. Bill, your new book is about Vermont seceding from the United States. You think the idea will catch on? Well, probably not in Vermont. I mean, it's more plot device. We're an old state and saying Social

Security will go away might be enough to bring us to heal. But I never quite understand California. I mean, this is 40 million people. It's an economy the size of Germany and you've got the same two senators that we've got in Vermont for 600,000 people. It's

kind of weird. That's so wrong. I mean, I've... We're glad that you stay because the country's sort of screwed without you. I know a lot of the country things Jesus personally handed the Constitution. of the founding fathers. But it needs a page one rewrite that constitution. It really does.

I mean, there's some great things in it and there's some shit that really has to go. But we also don't teach civics in school anymore. We don't teach kids. The reason that's in there was for a very good reason because back in the day, there was no California. The biggest, most powerful state was slave-owning Virginia. And you didn't

want Virginia running roughshod over tiny little Vermont. And so that's why we have two senators from every state. Vermont didn't even join in for 15 years, we were an independent republic until we became the 14th state. And that's one of the reasons that it's, you know, that

that resistance spirit, the spirit of Mr. Sanders, whoever, stays pretty strong. That's right. He's still an independent. Okay. What pressures do the government or big corporations put on journalists to not report information they do not want exposed?

Not usually very successful. There was a lot of, like, rumors about, like, Mueller hiding information. having the mainstream media had all this information about, you know, the Panama papers and all, like, investigation details that they said they held back on purpose, the mainstream media. Is that a real thing, or is that something I'm reading on a Facebook private page? I can't imagine, I don't know the specifics, but I cannot imagine that once having had those papers, the Panama Papers, and then doing the necessary checking and reporting and follow through,

I can't imagine any responsible news organization that wouldn't go with the information. information in them. Today's story, though, is that the Koch brothers are about to buy Time magazine. I mean, the list of things that are owned by Murdox and Cokes and things just keeps growing. Well, that brings us to Citizens United. Isn't that something if we get the right people elected and Democrats in office and women in office, whether they are, I mean, don't you think that is something? I know we have, like, you know, a different leaning bench right now for the Supreme Court, but that is something that takes everybody's money out of politics. And if we had publicly funded elections, I know that seems like a long shot.

But doesn't everybody want that? Who wants to make money to these candidates all the time? Everybody wants that except the most powerful members of the donor class who determine who gets elected. So regular people who don't want to give $5 to every candidate they like or, you know, I mean, why don't we have a... I mean, that's something worth discussing and actually entertaining as an idea moving forward.

And that's the danger of getting rid of the Johnson Act. This is something that we're not discussing. If we get rid of the Johnson Act, which separates church and state, because remember, religions are international. And a lot of countries have state religions. And if you get rid of the Johnson Act, there is nothing to stop Vladimir Putin giving a billion dollars to the Russian Orthodox Church,

which will then donate it through an American Russian Orthodox Church to the candidate of their choice. And we didn't get to the topic of the tax bill, which is pretty big today. But, I mean, that is a bill written for the donor class. That's why they want to keep the situation as it is. An extension of plutocracy. It is.

And what we have been developing, over the past 30, 35 years in this country, particularly through tax and economic inequality and the middle class falling farther behind is a kind of plutocracy that we've never had in this country since the Gilded Age. And it really is the great domestic political question. They're no longer...

Of what are we going to do about this? They're not even trying to hide it. I mean, today's news was no tax exemptions for teachers buying classroom supplies. yes, tax exemptions for private jets. And Lindsey Graham has said this is because if we don't get this, the donors will dry up. We won't get money.

Chris Collins, this representative from New Jersey, has said the same thing. They're openly admitting that they have to pass these tax cuts for the super rich, robbing the middle class and the poor so that they can keep getting their money to keep getting elected. If that's who you work for, that's who you work for. That's right. All right. Last question of the year.

who do you see stepping up to the plate in 2018 and 2020 to lead the Democrats to victory? All of us. This is a mistake that we cannot repeat. We did this in 2008. We elected Obama and in Obama... And it was, yes, we can't. Yes, and in his speech, he said, listen,

now the hard work begins. And we all said, okay, benevolent king, go fix everything. We're going to discover Netflix and Tinder. And we can't do that. Power comes from the bottom. It comes from us. We're responsible.

We have to be power, Everybody. Thank you very much. What a great way to... 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.