August 18, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Real Time with Bill Maher: Highlights from Episode 255, August 17, 2012
Highlights from Real Time with Bill Maher – Episode 255, August 17, 2012
On the coal industry, and the case that Mitt Romney and Republicans make that environmental and climate change regulations cost jobs.
Bill Maher: These people [coal miners] think they’re going to lose their jobs. You make this economic case, but it doesn’t resonate with people who live paycheck to paycheck.
Peter Byck (Carbon Nation): Well, it does if you say hey, “would you rather be in a hole digging up coal, or would you rather be in a building, retrofitting it, and putting windows in it?” And there’s many, many, many, many, many more jobs to retrofit buildings then there ever are for coal jobs. And when you go to Kentucky and West Virgina, the poorest areas are the areas that they mine coal, so if mining coal is such a great economic deal for the people who do it, why is that?
Talking about defense spending
Alex Wagner: Is there any thought when we talk about “security,” to the fact that Mitt Romney is saying we’re going to make it a floor, defense spending is going to be at a floor of 4% of GDP, and on the backs of, we are going to do that on the backs of the poor, and the working class. And when you talk about security, what about security for those people? What about the fact that 10 million people are going to lose food stamps – 57 million Americans are going to become uninsured?
Democrats this election.
Bill Maher: The Democrats seem to be back in the game as real gutter fighters now, which I love, and it’s driving the Republicans bat shit, or actually – bat shit-er.
Alex Wagner: This is the first time the Democrats have not (in the words of Dana Milbank) crawled up into the fetal position and just taken it.
Over-the-top anti-Obama rhetoric from Republicans.
Bill Maher: Do you think that they [Republicans] have a messiah complex? Because I always heard that Obama was “The One.”
Reihan Salam: He hasn’t pledged to lower the level of the seas.
Bill Maher: But wait, this is what Ann Romney said, this week she was interviewed on 30 Rock [Rock Center]:
“I believe in my heart that Mitt is going to save America, that economically we are in such difficult times and that he is the person that’s going to pull us through this.” – Ann Romney, 8/16/12, NBC
Bill Maher: Really? Save… Does America need saving? This is like when Justin Timberlake was going to bring sexy back. Sexy went away and so you brought it back? — This is what Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC said:
“Save America. Fire Barack Obama and hire Mitt Romney…Mitt Romney has to win for the sake of the very idea of America. Mitt Romney has to win for liberty and freedom. We have to put an end to this Barack Obama presidency before it puts an end to our way of life in America.” – Reince Priebus (RNC Chair), 7/18/12, Fox
Reihan Salam: It’s his job to be over-the-top.
Bill Maher: Michael Steele never said that shit.
Alex Wagner: It’s part of this sort of, it’s couched in almost quasi-religious terminology. It’s part of this sort of, I think missionary ethos, this crusader ethos. I mean it is, it definitely is, and I think that it is also a way of painting Barack Obama as this sort of, again, an “other,” not a real American, someone who’s trying to take our country down. Which is, I mean, pretty strong rhetoric, and a very, very, the message of it, is if you talk about being a patriot, this is the President of the United States.
New Rules (highlights)
New Rule: (picture of recent mass shooters) The government must run a public service announcement reminding America’s crazy people that sometimes it’s ok to just lose your mind and masturbate in the park.
New Rule: Mars sucks. Let’s face it, it’s Arizona without the old white people getting skin cancer. Though I will admit that one of life’s great mysteries was solved this week when the rover panned to the left and found Mitt Romney. (Mars rover picture with Mitt Romney’s head peering from the left)
New Rule: I’m still not exactly sure what Pussy Riot is — But count me in.
New Rule: Scientists must explain how it’s possible that the tiny island country of Jamaica, can at the same time possess all the most stoned people in the world, and all the fastest people in the world. (Olympic runners)
And finally, New Rule: Republicans must quit pretending that their new voter ID laws have anything to do with stopping fraudulent voting and instead start passing laws where if poor black people want to vote, they must first jump through an actual hoop.
