Bill Maher has devolved into a moronic loud mouth. I had some respect for him years ago but now he’s just a little bully who is unable to have an actual debate. Ugh. I was sickened watching Maher sucker punch Matt with the shit lib Russia hoax. I had stopped watching Maher’s show but tuned in to see my hero Matt. Needless to say, “Real” time is never appearing on my television again. Sorry you experienced his toxic nonsense, Matt.
Matt thought he didn't do well against Maher (Matt's words). I think he did quite well under the circumstances. This is particularly true after reading above that Matt was given a list of questions and then asked other things live.
Bonus point awarded to Matt for not calling Maher an idiot when Maher made the non sequitur, "9/11 didn't cost much either" and Bonus point taken away for not calling Maher out on that non sequitur. First: comparing a terrorist attack to buying Facebook ads is insulting to the people who lost their lives on and after 9/11 and second: 9/11 was a years- possibly decades-long plan to indoctrinate and vet a large group of potential suicide bombers who could learn to fly planes, get them to the US, integrated enough not to be arrested, trained in flying planes, etc., etc. We're talking millions of dollars over decades to kill hundreds of thousands (we have to include Afghans and Iraqis in a true accounting of 9/11) compared to $50k in Facebook ads (pre-election) and zero deaths.
Unfortunately, if you're going to do clown car TV, I think you need to bring your own set of clown tools to the show. This means a few prepared laugh lines or sound bite zingers: "Look, I get it! Neoliberals really WANTED to believe there was something there, and they were extremely disappointed when after 2 years of digging, Mueller didn't find anything." The implication that you'd have to be a neolib to swallow Russiagate would probably land on Maher.
"Russiagate is this generation's WMDs" is actually the perfect zinger, but Maher tried to co-opt it by saying it first, then waving his arms, moving the goalposts, shouting "oh come on!" etc.
It could also be fun to preempt the show's format by acknowledging "I know this show isn't about nuance, or detailed discussion of the issues, but..." or "I don't have a 5-second sound bite for this, but..." and then follow it up with a sound bite like "that's not collusion."
At the risk of sounding like Giuliani (or DJT himself).
Have Bill Maher as a guest on Useful Idiots and see how well he does. Don't beat yourself up Matt. Maybe some "normie" guests would sharpen your debate skills. Then again not everyone is a debater. After all Ted Cruz is a championship high school-college debater and everyone hates him.
Matt It might make you feel better to listen to Jimmy Dore's take on your interview. He blasted Bill Maher! So sorry you got sucker punched by this jerk. Keep up the good work! it is reporters like you that keep us sane.
With respect, Matt, I think the failure here is one to challenge underlying assumptions. The biggest of all, the fundamental failure of Russiagate, is this idea that Russia is a well - organized place with centralized decision-making. It is, by far, not, it is chaos even domestically, and on anything foreign like this it is almost entirely private initiative of unconnected people, most of whom act for themselves, not Russia. but even if they think they are acting for the team, it is their own opinion. Russia has no strategic interest and no coherent plan for America. There was an episode when Putin invited Nasha Gessen into his offuce and argued eith her, without realising that she has written an unfavourable international bestseller about him, of whoch he eas unaware. That he would know, or care , who Flynn was? please. that's part one.
Second point folows then. who are "Russians" or what is "Russia" then? when you realise Putin is just a name, everyone Russian becomes a villain. Listen to these people, and all Russians are Russia. But they are not. By 2020, CNN hounded babushkas in Florida, who are all long time US citizens, and claimed that Putin told these babushkas to support Trump, scaring their neighbours off neighbourhood proTrump bake-ins. Most of the infamous non-grammatical FB posts were probably written by immigrants anyway. Klimnik, Veselnitskaya, Butina, Prigozhin, in the end of the day, Deripaska, are all private people. there is no connection between either or them and government, or between them. best I can tell from what I know, Veselnitskaya is actually more of opposition than loyalist (the adoption lead gives it away, it is an opposition cause). Butina has been on gun rights for many years, it was her thing, and was fervently pro American. both of them were less "Kremlin connected" than yours truly, if that were possible. Klimnik was a mid level political PR consultant who lived in Ukraine for years and worked for an American company most of his life. Deripaska, for his years of FBI collaborations and mostly pro American overseas endeavors, as well as widely expressed pro American views, was mocked in Russia - and on top of that, it is public knowledge that Putin can barely stand him. These two win the men least likely to get along context in every respect. This is all completely imaginary. only Prigozhin is relatively close to Putin and, it appears, did run a troll farm, but even then, the idea for doing so will have been his own initiative, for which he maybe hoped to afterwards take credit - and he is a private individual. This isnt something Putin would be told about or care, at all. to Muller's credit, he appears to have mostly figured it out, despite not having much experience, knowledge etc in foreign affairs, for this is nowhere near, of course, the remit if the Bureau. But the failure of the elites in DC to accept his conclusions is underlined by a massive, fundamental failure to understand how Russia works , how its elites operate, and, well , What Russians Think. That's why i wrote the so-titled book to explain this. btw.
The tide will turn, eventually. Vietnam was a good war...until it wasn't. Death of the orthodoxy typically takes thousands of cuts and eventually, the narrative changes. At one point, Vietnam was the right thing to do, because, communists.
I was genuinely surprised at how passive and one sided the dialogue was between them. Bill has stopped having true dialogue from different view points for a long time. He was heroic in calling out the misuse of the word cowardly (Politically Incorrect), so it saddens me to see himself sheltering from honest dialogue. He has wasted his talent
Bill Maher has devolved into a moronic loud mouth. I had some respect for him years ago but now he’s just a little bully who is unable to have an actual debate. Ugh. I was sickened watching Maher sucker punch Matt with the shit lib Russia hoax. I had stopped watching Maher’s show but tuned in to see my hero Matt. Needless to say, “Real” time is never appearing on my television again. Sorry you experienced his toxic nonsense, Matt.
Matt thought he didn't do well against Maher (Matt's words). I think he did quite well under the circumstances. This is particularly true after reading above that Matt was given a list of questions and then asked other things live.
Bonus point awarded to Matt for not calling Maher an idiot when Maher made the non sequitur, "9/11 didn't cost much either" and Bonus point taken away for not calling Maher out on that non sequitur. First: comparing a terrorist attack to buying Facebook ads is insulting to the people who lost their lives on and after 9/11 and second: 9/11 was a years- possibly decades-long plan to indoctrinate and vet a large group of potential suicide bombers who could learn to fly planes, get them to the US, integrated enough not to be arrested, trained in flying planes, etc., etc. We're talking millions of dollars over decades to kill hundreds of thousands (we have to include Afghans and Iraqis in a true accounting of 9/11) compared to $50k in Facebook ads (pre-election) and zero deaths.
Unfortunately, if you're going to do clown car TV, I think you need to bring your own set of clown tools to the show. This means a few prepared laugh lines or sound bite zingers: "Look, I get it! Neoliberals really WANTED to believe there was something there, and they were extremely disappointed when after 2 years of digging, Mueller didn't find anything." The implication that you'd have to be a neolib to swallow Russiagate would probably land on Maher.
"Russiagate is this generation's WMDs" is actually the perfect zinger, but Maher tried to co-opt it by saying it first, then waving his arms, moving the goalposts, shouting "oh come on!" etc.
It could also be fun to preempt the show's format by acknowledging "I know this show isn't about nuance, or detailed discussion of the issues, but..." or "I don't have a 5-second sound bite for this, but..." and then follow it up with a sound bite like "that's not collusion."
At the risk of sounding like Giuliani (or DJT himself).
Have Bill Maher as a guest on Useful Idiots and see how well he does. Don't beat yourself up Matt. Maybe some "normie" guests would sharpen your debate skills. Then again not everyone is a debater. After all Ted Cruz is a championship high school-college debater and everyone hates him.
Matt It might make you feel better to listen to Jimmy Dore's take on your interview. He blasted Bill Maher! So sorry you got sucker punched by this jerk. Keep up the good work! it is reporters like you that keep us sane.
With respect, Matt, I think the failure here is one to challenge underlying assumptions. The biggest of all, the fundamental failure of Russiagate, is this idea that Russia is a well - organized place with centralized decision-making. It is, by far, not, it is chaos even domestically, and on anything foreign like this it is almost entirely private initiative of unconnected people, most of whom act for themselves, not Russia. but even if they think they are acting for the team, it is their own opinion. Russia has no strategic interest and no coherent plan for America. There was an episode when Putin invited Nasha Gessen into his offuce and argued eith her, without realising that she has written an unfavourable international bestseller about him, of whoch he eas unaware. That he would know, or care , who Flynn was? please. that's part one.
Second point folows then. who are "Russians" or what is "Russia" then? when you realise Putin is just a name, everyone Russian becomes a villain. Listen to these people, and all Russians are Russia. But they are not. By 2020, CNN hounded babushkas in Florida, who are all long time US citizens, and claimed that Putin told these babushkas to support Trump, scaring their neighbours off neighbourhood proTrump bake-ins. Most of the infamous non-grammatical FB posts were probably written by immigrants anyway. Klimnik, Veselnitskaya, Butina, Prigozhin, in the end of the day, Deripaska, are all private people. there is no connection between either or them and government, or between them. best I can tell from what I know, Veselnitskaya is actually more of opposition than loyalist (the adoption lead gives it away, it is an opposition cause). Butina has been on gun rights for many years, it was her thing, and was fervently pro American. both of them were less "Kremlin connected" than yours truly, if that were possible. Klimnik was a mid level political PR consultant who lived in Ukraine for years and worked for an American company most of his life. Deripaska, for his years of FBI collaborations and mostly pro American overseas endeavors, as well as widely expressed pro American views, was mocked in Russia - and on top of that, it is public knowledge that Putin can barely stand him. These two win the men least likely to get along context in every respect. This is all completely imaginary. only Prigozhin is relatively close to Putin and, it appears, did run a troll farm, but even then, the idea for doing so will have been his own initiative, for which he maybe hoped to afterwards take credit - and he is a private individual. This isnt something Putin would be told about or care, at all. to Muller's credit, he appears to have mostly figured it out, despite not having much experience, knowledge etc in foreign affairs, for this is nowhere near, of course, the remit if the Bureau. But the failure of the elites in DC to accept his conclusions is underlined by a massive, fundamental failure to understand how Russia works , how its elites operate, and, well , What Russians Think. That's why i wrote the so-titled book to explain this. btw.
The tide will turn, eventually. Vietnam was a good war...until it wasn't. Death of the orthodoxy typically takes thousands of cuts and eventually, the narrative changes. At one point, Vietnam was the right thing to do, because, communists.
I was genuinely surprised at how passive and one sided the dialogue was between them. Bill has stopped having true dialogue from different view points for a long time. He was heroic in calling out the misuse of the word cowardly (Politically Incorrect), so it saddens me to see himself sheltering from honest dialogue. He has wasted his talent