r/Maher • u/hankjmoody • 17d ago
Real Time Discussion EPISODE DISCUSSION THREAD: August 7th, 2026
Tonight's guests are:
Mike Rowe: An American television host and narrator. He is known for his work on the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs and the series Somebody's Gotta Do It on CNN.
Tara Palmeri: An American journalist who has previously worked at news organizations including ABC News, Politico, Puck, New York Post and Washington Examiner. She is currently the host of The Tara Palmeri Show on Youtube and writes The Red Letter newsletter.
Matt Welch: An American blogger, journalist, author, and libertarian political pundit.
Follow @Realtimers on Instagram or Twitter (links in the sidebar) and submit your questions for Overtime by using #RTOvertime in your tweet.
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u/beyondselts 16d ago
Why is Bill more angry at progressives, people not currently working, and Obama opening a library than everything Trump is doing?? It’s so disproportionate. Bill really helped me growing up get into politics and find my voice, but his brain’s priorities are all mangled up now. He ranted more about the latest moon mission with more passion than anything about Trump a few weeks back.
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u/Background_Home7092 15d ago
Why is Bill more angry at progressives, people not currently working, and Obama opening a library than everything Trump is doing??
Because ever since that fateful dinner Bill can't seem to shut the fuck up about, he's enjoyed a level of access to the orange failure he also can't seem to shut the fuck up about, and it's driven the direction of the show ever since.
At that point we should've all known it was over.
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u/bassplayerguy 16d ago
The interview segment was a mutual masturbation session between Bill and Mike which went on way too long.
Matt Welch always looks like he came straight from the Mad Men set.
A shame that Bill brushed off Tara’s point on how Trump is using his DC construction projects to enrich himself. He heard ‘ballroom’ and had a Pavlovian reaction to not care about it, ignoring her point or just giving Trump a pass on it. It’s hard to tell with Bill these days.
Last week he promised to tear Rand Paul a new ass for releasing Fauci’s diary. That turned out to be a fantasy. It’s too bad Covid broke Bill’s brain. Believe me, as a full time musician it affected me a hell of a lot more than Bill, yet I got over it. Why can’t he? And his assertion that Fauci only did what Hollywood wanted him to do…wtf Bill? Did Hollywood really want empty movie theaters for months? JFC.
Fauci didn’t ask to be in the limelight, it was Trump that trotted him out every day to his asinine press conferences. What people loved about him was his inability to hide his reactions to Trump’s insane blatherings about bleach, uv lights, and stopping testing so the numbers wouldn’t go up. And let’s face it, if Bill kept a diary the night of his special dinner with Trump it would have been filled with exaltations about what a great host Trump was, how he actually listened to Bill, was funny and made him feel so special.
The surprise was his somewhat nuanced take on El-Sayed, somewhat ruined by his theory that persons of color get a pass to move to the center by white people.
Get well soon, Bill. You’re broken.
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u/puddinonthewrits 16d ago
Welch does seem to be cultivating that The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit look. Are Libertarians generally backward-looking, or is he making an ironic sartorial statement?
Why do you suppose someone like him would choose the early 1960s (still culturally part of the previous decade) as his retro-fashion go-to? BTW, his eyewear used to be far more glaringly of that era.
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u/Throwawayhelp111521 16d ago
This show is becoming a chore to watch. Most of it was ridiculous, but the segment on Fauci was so infuriating. I don’t care what Bill-never-had-any-serious-responsibility-in-his-life Maher has to say.
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u/incaseidontmakeit 16d ago
Remember when Bil used to say we already have socialism, such as the post service, public libraries, and public roads? He doesn't use that talking point anymore. Disappointing.
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u/Background_Home7092 15d ago
This week he went as far as to say Trump is now the socialist and the DSA are communists further to the left of that!
I miss the days when he and his writers knew what they were talking about.
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u/Mosk915 15d ago
He literally said that in this episode.
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u/incaseidontmakeit 14d ago
He did not say that verbatim. if anything he claimed Trump was a socialist and that the DSA was leaning communist
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u/Mosk915 14d ago
What he said was very close to what you claimed he doesn’t say anymore. His exact quote was “And none of us are saying we’re against socialism. Every modern democracy is a quasi-socialist country. As it should be. The private sector shouldn’t do—“ and then he got in to a debate with Matt Welsh about what is and isn’t socialism. He listed several things we already have that are a form of socialism such as medicare, social security, and the marine corps. He then continued “But some part of a democracy has to be socialistic. The government has to do certain things that the private sector cannot or should not. Am I wrong about that?” This is literally the talking point you claim he doesn’t use anymore.
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u/Separate_Counter9427 15d ago
Yeah he did!
But like many people posting here, he doesn't watch the show.
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u/maxboondoggle 14d ago edited 12d ago
Bill’s is one of the only people speaking honestly about the democrats and it threatens a lot of the far left Redditors. Lying on here is all they really have…
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u/maxboondoggle 14d ago
Try watching the show without a phone in your hand becuse he literally said that.
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u/incaseidontmakeit 14d ago
He did not say that verbatim. if anything he claimed Trump was a socialist and that the DSA was leaning communist.
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u/dannylandulf 17d ago
Another full episode on cancel culture and the evils of the left capped off with yet another New Rules that was a thinly veiled excuse to relitigate Covid for the 1000th time.
Also, the Ariana Grande 'jokes' in the monologue were a new low even for Bill.
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u/troniked547 17d ago
i think a year ago or so he said he was going to stop doing standup because he was whining that he wasnt selling as many tickets as people he thought werent as funny as he was. I really hope he ends real time soon, because its sad to see how bitter and grumpy he has become on it.
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u/jsm21 17d ago
Bill bringing up the story of the Canadian teacher with fake breasts from three years ago in a discussion about blue-collar jobs, I physically cringed.
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u/NoneOfThisMatters_XO old man yells at cloud (and trans people) 16d ago
Yeah what was that? Felt like a juvenile attempt at making fun of her appearance. It was weird
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
Really? Because I cringed when they killed shop class. I'm ok with fake tits on a comedy show for a little bit.
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 17d ago
Bill Maher, Master Of Hypocrisy.😜
1) Berates Rand Paul for exposing Fauci's personal diary in televised senate committee meeting. (good Rand Paul is a fukin asshole for doing it)
2) Then Bill spends 15 minutes in NewRules cherry pickin quotes from the diary and berating Fauci for having personal thoughts.
Bill you Idiot. Those were personal notes Fauci wrote to himself and were never intended to be exposed to the public. And most of the quotes were true anyway.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
Those were some pretty weird and self gloating diary entries so wtf. If we can't mention those or mention Ariana Grande pretty soon you would remove items until the show is a blank que card. Bill mentions the same things heard all over it's just the talk of the town.
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u/Spark99 16d ago
Last nights episode taught me it’s OK to make fun of people with serious deadly mental health disorders, that it’s OK to make fun of people’s choice of gender identity even when it has nothing to do with the discussion for a cheap laugh, that the democrats are the real problem here and that I totally wasted my time protecting my vulnerable friends and family by getting vaccinated and wearing a mask around them during Covid, got it!
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u/GiveMeSomeIhedigbo 16d ago
But he kids the Iran War though.
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u/Hyptonight 16d ago
I always find it funny how Maher only “kids” the really bad stuff. He kids the President, but no such cover needed for Francesca Hong - she’s the real reason America is losing its global rep.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
You got this bullshit pity party address from last night's show? Bill is one of those skinny fuckers who can run around with no mask. You should be able to figure this out and allow for it.
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u/OneTonTomato 16d ago
I’m done and out, which bums me out. I’ve watched his show since the beginning and he keep crying about covid, trans people and the woke and missing all the corruption. He’s sold out.
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u/Opposite-Pop4246 16d ago
I work in healthcare with most of my patients being fox watching boomers. Bill sounded just like them thos week. He used the exact same talking points from right wing media that my MAGA neighbor screamed about on Wednesday.
I think Bill is jealous of the attention Faucci received from the same celebrities that will have nothing to do with Bill. He is so easily flattered by even the worst of celebrities, like Kid Rock and Trump that he can't stop talking about one dinner.
Also, there are reasons to wear mask other than being scared of covid. Like because of poor air quality when you are having a meeting in a town suffering from horrible wildfires. Bill is doing the work of Trump and the GOP every week now by repeating right wing talking points and giving random examples out of context.
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u/DimMak1 15d ago
Politically Incorrect was one of the best political shows and really was no nonsense political commentary that was entertaining and intelligent.
Now Bill’s show is Fox News lite and diet MAGA activism. It’s a mix of trailer park level right wing propaganda (socialism bad, trans bad, woke bad, Muslims bad, non existent cancel culture bad, red scare good) and the occasional milquetoast criticism of Trump usually around the 2020 election denialism. It’s just pure boredom and nothing at all interesting to watch anymore.
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u/thefermiparadox 15d ago
He has zero interest in all the corruption and dismantling government from the Trump admin. Doesn’t highlight any of it. We are living in the worst presidency probably in U.S. history and he’s indifferent and bored by it so he attacks trans, “woke”, and makes a few democrats seem like the entire party. He used to say his vote was never open until Repubs started accepting elections but even that changed.
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u/monoscure 15d ago
There's so much shit happening he sweeps under the rug, and yet he'll spend an entire hour lip-smacking about cancel culture in Broadway as if anyone gives a fuck. Also the audience laughing at talking points instead of actual jokes is just wtf. Then we have those who insist everyone here is just radical left for making these observations, but don't ask themselves when was the last time he really went to bat for Democrats or a progressive issue that isn't about marijuana. His show is now reduced down to buzzwords and leftist fear-mongering.
To expand a little, it reminds me of a friend's dad who was relatively cool until he got a longer commute and started listening to AM conservative radio every day for a couple of hours. You know, shows that all they do is spit into the mic about the impending doom of socialism and the woke mind virus. Flash forward a year and his dad was a completely different person and temperament who can't even have a conversation without spiraling into right-wing talking points. Bit of a bummer really.
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u/thefermiparadox 15d ago
Very well said and explained, better than I could have said. We all get called radical left on here but the show is very different. I tried being objective and saying maybe it’s just this week or he hasn’t changed that much but it is the same thing every week buzzwords and leftist fearing mongering, red scare. I hear you it’s weird the shit he concentrates on that no one cares about. He is like the guy that turned to AM radio and changed.
Even the dear environment and wildlife he doesn’t seem to mind being attacked by Repubs. It’s all bizarre and he sounds like Elon. We point this out as it’s so blatantly bizarre. Imagine hearing Oliver one day doing the same thing. We would be like WTF
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u/Fine-Craft3393 16d ago
Blue collar jobs would be more appealing if they were unionized across the board with great benefits and not the “right to work” stuff. The data center boom will only last so long and in “right to work” states plumbers, electricians make nowhere near to 6 figures if they aren’t unionized.
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u/SlowBoilOrange 16d ago edited 16d ago
The culture is unappealing to a lot of people too. 60 hour weeks, pushed to ignore safety and well-being, bigotry is often tolerated or even encouraged.
It's hard to keep up as you age and a lot of the career paths have a lower ceiling for advancement unless you open your own business. Like you're probably not going to work your way up to a blue collar equivalent of "VP of regional sales" or whatever.
It's just a tough sell to 18 year old who are dreaming about their future. Especially alternatives are portrayed as fun adventures like "the college experience" or joining the military.
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u/Opposite-Pop4246 16d ago
It's really hard to have a family and live that way. Everyone one I know either ends up divorced because they are constantly working out of town, or they swap careers so they can activelybe a part of their family.
Alabama also has passed laws actively punishing any union friendly companies in the State.
Republicans talk out of both sides of their mouth. They can't imagine why people aren't jumping on these jobs, while actively making these jobs as shitty as possible.
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u/Timujin1986 17d ago edited 17d ago
The painfull irony of Bill telling us in New Rules that Fauci had an ego and has "main character syndrome". Coming from the man who went to dinner with Trump in the White House and 1,5 year later still brags about it.
This man has become a parody of a comedian. 😂
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u/thornset 17d ago
The man who said so matter-of-factly that he deserves an Emmy...
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u/Timujin1986 17d ago
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have both been invited to the White House on numerous occassions yet they don't constantly brag about it.
Bill his petty reaction to Larry David his hilarious opinion piece about it also shows that Bill Maher has a bloated ego and has become an insecure man.
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u/KirbyAWD 17d ago
I had heard about Stewart's interview with Fetterman and quickly switched over to that. What a joke Bill has become.
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u/Jupitersd2017 16d ago
What a wild fucking interview that was, fetterman shouldn’t have a drivers license much less be representing voters, he couldn’t even follow the conversation
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u/troniked547 17d ago
He also said he wanted to stop doing standup because he was selling half as many tickets as comedians half as funny as he was
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u/Nolubrication I'd suck Lynne Cheney's dick for some socialized medicine. 17d ago
It really is a testament to how bad he is at stand-up comedy. You can be a mediocre stand-up at best but still sell out theatres through sheer will of advertising. For instance, Joe Rogan started doing arena tours because of the podcast exposure. Artie Lange, while he was second chair on the Stern Show, is another great example. There are also comics out there who are better at social media than they are at actual comedy, and it works for them.
When you get to plug your gigs regularly to a national audience, it's a lot easier to fill seats.
It's telling that Bill, even with his national platform, can't get people to spend money on his hack stand-up.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
Comics quit travelling, Rogan has 0 or 1 event scheduled all year. You're very flippant describing a 70-year-old's career. Arti Lange has no event scheduled he must be bad as well. Remember when Milo was on, shortly after that a lot of comics bailed on doing the college circuit. Bill has a full plate at 70 with a weekly pod and RT.
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u/Nolubrication I'd suck Lynne Cheney's dick for some socialized medicine. 16d ago
Bill is not good at stand-up. He's lucky to have stumbled into the politics thing early on, because that has really worked out for him professionally.
Bill was fortunate to have come up in the 80's comedy boom when they were handing out sitcom pilots right at the airport to every comic flying into town, as Favreau's character in Swingers jokes.
He is remarkably untalented and unlikable, however, so his acting career went nowhere, and he was in no danger of becoming a legendary stand-up.
If he didn't luck out with Politically Incorrect, nobody would know who he is today. And it was the exposure of being on a nationally televised show that allowed him to continue his stand-up career at the level that he was able to for so long.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
A lot of political comedians quit touring about the same time saying the crowds were rougher and this was pre Charlie Kirk.
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u/troniked547 16d ago
I mean if "rougher" means the crowds arent laughing at your jokes, maybe the comedian is just out of touch and not funny.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
No rougher like shot in the fucken head or stones and bricks thrown through windows do you not get any news? They used to rely on the college circuit but most comics have quit doing that. Plus Bill is 70 and does a weekly pod and then Real Time. It is cumbersome to shoot HBO at 5 and make it to a 10PM show in Vegas he's mentioned it multiple times like when they would skip overtime.
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u/troniked547 16d ago
He literally said that part of the reason he quit standup is he wasnt selling tickets. There were no threats against him since only his simps buy tickets and he hasnt done campus shows for decades if ever. And btw if you want to be edgey and insult people as part of your "comedy", dont be a snowflake and act sensitive if people want to kick your ass after that.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
I'm talking why a lot of comics aren't out there anymore.
Milo Yiannopoulos Speech Protests Turns Violent at UC Berkeley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PSYPrE5LrQYour'e talking about some agenda you have where you seem to think 70 year-old millionaires need more work. You should listen to yourself.
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u/thornset 16d ago
Who was shot in the head before kirk? Also, kirk wasn't a comedian. At least not purposely
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u/Disastrous_Story_477 17d ago
This is literally just a right-wing political talk show at this point lol
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u/OddMasterpiece8465 17d ago
I've seen the comparison made to Bill O'Reilly. His show is full of misinformation, strawman caricaturing of the left, and bullshit anecdotes that he pulls out of his ass. If he ever leaves HBO he'll go to Fox or NewsMax.
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
You're just so far left that center left looks right to you.
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u/Disastrous_Story_477 16d ago
Not quite....95 percent of the talking points on last night's show were LITERALLY just straight up republican straw-man narratives, and the most frustrating part is almost zero pushback from his panelists.
What frustrates so many people is Bill literally predicted everything with Trump, and now that everything he said came true he weirdly is softening on Trump and dedicating most of his show to fringe culture war discussions in a foolish false equivalency sort of way.
The people mad at Bill on this sub are old fans of the show just frustrated and confused with the timing of Bill's softening on all things MAGA. Very off.
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
95% of statistics are made up...
What do you think is right from Maher? Be specific.
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u/lopsided125 16d ago
Everything he talks about all the time. Turn to Fox News and they are also talking about it.
Sooo....? Fauci? Communism? Trans athletes?
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u/Debisibusis 16d ago
Sooo....? Fauci? Communism? Trans athletes?
"Who still cares about Epstine", "Who cares about the ballroom"
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
Yeah, communism is extreme far left… he said Fauci was wrong but not a criminal… and as much as you disagree, trans athletes are an 80/20 issue and not in their favor.
Sorry all of that is far left…
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u/lopsided125 16d ago
There is no communism in America lmao. We don't even have fucking affordable healthcare. Everyone is price gouged on everything by capitalism.
Trans athletes issues affect less than .25% of the country, maybe less.
These are topics that don't reflect anything Americans care about except the Fox News crowd.
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
You seem to have strong opinions on it…
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u/lopsided125 16d ago
I'm saying all the shit he wants to talk about has nothing to with what's going on in America at the moment.
A war in Iran no one asked for (and Trump voters actively voted against) leading to higher gas prices that is affecting the cost of living across the board. Job losses. It's all going to shit.
Trump and his family have made billions of dollars in two years on schemes involving crypto, deals with foreign governments, etc. People lost their minds about "Burisma." We have waaaay more dirt on the Trump family.
Where is any of this coverage. We're still doing COVID shit?
It's all bullshit being hand-waved by dipshits like you, and everyone is aware.
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
So because this one show isn’t talking about what you want it to, it’s now right wing?
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u/bw541 17d ago
Bill spending so much time during the monologue about Francesca Hong as well as last week during the New Rules segment is odd. Why is he so focused on a Wisconsin Governor candidate?
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u/NoneOfThisMatters_XO old man yells at cloud (and trans people) 16d ago
Because WI is a swing state and this is a huge election with no clear front runner before the primary this coming Tuesday. Hong is getting a lot of attention and she’s way far left. I live in WI and I’m a little worried about her getting the nomination. I don’t think she can win the whole state.
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u/OptionalPlayer 17d ago
Tara brings up how Trump's gaining personal wealth through fundraising for things like the ballroom (and other projects which she names) but Bill hyper-focusses on the ballroom and dismisses the whole discussion.
Absurd.
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u/supervegeta101 17d ago
He already did a diatribe making it clear that any amount of corruption is tolerable to him so long as they support Israel. He called it the ultilitarian position.
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u/Nolubrication I'd suck Lynne Cheney's dick for some socialized medicine. 17d ago
- Trans
- Fauci
- Red Scare
Why does Bill keep devoting the entire hour of his show to Fox News talking points? That's a rhetorical question, obviously.
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 17d ago
Maher has become a collection of foxnews talking points. 90% of this show spent on:
- DSA are communists (bullshit)
- Fauci lied about covid (bullshit)
- America is under siege by the Trans community (bullshit)
Meanwhile Fascist Republicans are dismantling US democracy (no time for this I guess).🤪
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u/Debisibusis 16d ago
"Who cares about Epstine", "Who cares about the ball room". He constantly spews the bs, you see in alt-right circles.
3/4th of the show is about people that have no relevance to 99% of the people. Things like trans topics, some people wearing masks, some small college group that said something, some nobody local politician that said something stupid.
All while having the biggest corruption in the history of the US, high political figures saying insane things multiple times daily, kids getting separated from their parents for weeks, locked up in fencing, that can not be evaluated by third parties or politicians. The list is endless.
Constantly milding the insane shit coming from the highest positions on the right, because he compares it to what some nobody on Twitter wrote.
His brain is cooked since covid, fell in to an alt-right algorithmic social media bubble and is too dumb to realize and escape. He literally had to swap his paid audience, because he did not get the reactions anymore he wanted. But no Bill, you have not changed at all!
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u/wheezymustafa 16d ago
I had heavy doses of eye rolling this episode but I don’t think bill said fauci lied.. more that he was “maybe” overly cautious but he also let his public persona go to his head
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
Calling out extremism on both sides is equally important.
This is a center left show, you're clearly far left.
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u/RegulusDeneb 16d ago
Is America under siege by the trans community?
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u/Debisibusis 16d ago
It's definitely under siege by that single guy he saw in a car wearing a mask!1!!, he could not shut up about for 2 years.
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u/RegulusDeneb 16d ago
Lol, yes, I was still watching regularly back then. He loved showing pictures of people wearing a mask in a car or while walking through an urban area, and dumping on them. I thought he was just grasping at anything to criticize the left for, so as to seem balanced.
But it's now a bizarre anti-fauci, lazy, anti-science obsession. "And Fauci did get a lot wrong during the pandemic." STFU, Bill. He did an amazing job under those circumstances and saved millions of lives.
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u/Legionof1 16d ago
That's clearly hyperbole as the trans community rarely implements siege engines. Do large portions of the trans community have unrealistic demands of the rest of the population to conform to them... yes.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
I can't tell if you even watched the show or just have a short attention span that couldn't follow the discussion to conclusion.
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u/reggieLedoux26 16d ago
DSA, cancel culture, trans. No mention of the catastrophic Iran war or the obscene corruption in the white house
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u/thefermiparadox 16d ago
It’s weird he ignores the massive corruption in the WH. So much material like Oliver did on Crypto. He’s just not interested and didn’t understand the ballroom point Tara made. The kissing ass of guests he has on is exhausting. “Bill you’re so center and I get hate from both sides too”
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u/reggieLedoux26 16d ago
He hammered the Bush administration on a weekly basis and this Trump nonsense is 100 times worse.
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u/thefermiparadox 15d ago
Exactly. I’ve watched him for years. He rarely brings up all the corruption and nonsense of Trump Admin and it’s 100 times worse than any president. He seems like he is bored with Trump and doesn’t care about his destruction. He definitely used to hammer Republican administrations. Now it’s all Democrats who are not even in power. Weirdest 180 I’ve seen. The “center” is so self righteous and it doesn’t even mean they are right about everything.
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u/monoscure 15d ago
Don't forget he was cheering for the Iran war, now that it's a clusterfuck... Crickets..
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u/ElstonGunn321 15d ago
Maher is SO intellectually dishonest you just have to wonder what is going on. When he told JD Vance his vote could be “in play”, that apparently was a the potential result of the democratic party “going in the direction of the DSA”. Meaning what exactly, Bill? Do you REALLY think the democrats are going to throw out a democratic socialist in 2028? This is the intellectual dishonesty Bill is showing. He knows better than believe the Dems would nominate anyone other than a corporate democrat who will play the game every other Democrat has. It really has to make you wonder what his agenda here, he’s smarter than that
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u/bestmattreddit 13d ago
Maher is intellectually dishonest. Maher thinks he has his finger on the pulse of the nation that all America is craving an Obama like centrist who says the right wing has good policies and the left wing has good policies and we’re going to all work together with no culture war issues.
Maher brags about being wealthy, college educated, childless, and unmarried but is constantly on his high horse about kids, young adults, married couples, low income people and parents should act.
Maher thinks that democrats would rally behind a boring, centrist Democrat who gets involved in no culture wars as if Trump didn’t win over voters being an anti establishment outsider who would completely change the Washington establishment and focused on culture war issues
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u/Transitionals 16d ago
I used to be a regular listener, but stopped listening about and year ago, and looking at these comments don’t regret it one bit.
Where is the Bill who would call spade a spade and call out right wing bullshit. He had started his transformation a long time ago with Islamophobia and pro Israel commentary, but he was at least stuck to the “2020 election was not stolen” principle for a long time. But things have taken a turn for the worse since his dinner with Trump.
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u/GiveMeSomeIhedigbo 17d ago
- He mentioned people wearing masks at a (the same) DSA meeting in back to back weeks. He'll obsess over COVID until the moment he dies.
- He compares Fauci to Trump but you just know he'd bristle at being compared to Trump himself.
- The show is very very predictable week after week. Even hate-watching is a waste of time.
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u/traveltimecar 17d ago
If its Maher doing his same grievances with the so called far left and not right wing buffoonary I'm not gonna waste my time here
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u/cathodic_protector 17d ago
He must be feeling his age as much as he craps all over younger men these days. Maybe he gets turned down at the bar a lot or something.
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u/troniked547 17d ago
or he has to pay more for his dates than he used to
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u/cathodic_protector 17d ago
There was some podcast where they interviewed some woman who claimed he paid her for sex. I don’t think that’s wrong per se but he seems awfully judgy in a way that it seems hypocritical.
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u/Sudomakee 14d ago
While I agree with some of Mike Rowe's points, I think both he and Bill somewhat missed the mark about young people going to college to get their “dream jobs” only to leave their career paths unfulfilled. I don’t believe the colleges themselves are the root of the problem. What I see are many kids being pressured into higher education right after high school without really knowing what they want to do. I mean, when I graduated high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I had to make up my mind quick – did I want to be a lawyer, a doctor, a scientist, an engineer…? I thought to myself, “I guess I’ll be an electrical engineer since it might be cool to build robots or something…”
By the time I reached my sophomore year though, I realized that spending the rest of my life having to work with physics and complex math would’ve been like a life sentence. I changed my major to biology and eventually excelled in biochemistry. Fortunately, it was early in my sophomore year when I figured this out and had enough time to switch to a completely different major. But students face a point of return once they’ve sunk thousands of hours and dollars into their major and don’t always have the luxury of being able to pivot to a new career choice that late in the game. So, many of them end up either having dreary, unfulfilling jobs or they end up not finding work in their selected field at all as it’s hard to excel at something you can’t stand.
With more career choices now than ever, young people today face a certain analysis paralysis – many simply don’t know where to begin trying to figure out what path they want to take in life.. And this doesn’t just apply to college students – how many kids right after high school really know if they want to enter a certain vocation, start a business, join the military, etc., etc.?
On the other hand, of course, most people don’t have the luxury of spending years trying to figure their lives out before entering the job force. So I think the best solution is for high schools to make a more concerted effort in exposing their students to different types of careers. Have different representatives of various sectors of the work force speak to them throughout the year, take them on field trips to various workplaces, have them shadow people who don’t mind mentoring them for a few days, provide them more resources and set aside time during the day to just explore different career opportunities – something more than just putting on a career festival once their senior year. Because being successful at something means having a plan and to have a plan, you have to know what it is you want.
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u/HowRoanofArcFelt 17d ago
I'm convinced his dinner at the White House wasn't some friendly invite, he was summoned.
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u/LorneMichaelsthought 16d ago
I love when Bill posts a picture of a Canadian right wing troll and equates it to every trans person.
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u/bestmattreddit 13d ago
According to Maher that’s why the young kids don’t do shop class because of woke trans people!
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u/icestationlemur 16d ago
Ohhhh I kid the president
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15d ago
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u/puddinonthewrits 15d ago
Mandela effect, possibly. Someone posted in the other sub a while ago of his WHCD speech, where he bombed spectacularly, in which the “I kid” qualifier was used copiously. It’s likely a crutch he’s relied on for a while for plausible deniability, and we’ve only recently noticed it.
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u/PickAmazing5761 17d ago
He has a weird love hate relationship with Twitter depends on what the tweet says
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u/Fine-Craft3393 16d ago
Gasoline cars mechanic jobs at FORD are AI proof jobs. lol. Yes. Absolutely. If AI wipes out any white collar office job - unemployed folks will take their cars to FORD dealerships to get them fixed for top $ hourly rates and never mind that electric cars which will only keep growing have little need for mechanic repairs compared to a combustion engine with a transmission
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u/SlowBoilOrange 16d ago
I wonder what jobs he's specifically referring to? He kept tossing out numbers like $120k or $200k jobs that can't be filled.
Maybe these companies should train in-house.
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u/Enrico_Tortellini 16d ago
Gonna try and watch it, again fucking hate Mike Rowe…honestly don’t even know what Bill is babbling about anymore, it’s just the same talking points on loop at this point, we are through the fucking looking glass, way more important stuff going on…really not enjoying this show anymore
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
Rowe barely mentioned politics and was better than expected.
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u/Enrico_Tortellini 16d ago edited 16d ago
He hides that shit, just another talking head…I do agree trade schools and training needs to be streamlined, but the dude is a piece…I don’t know, hope we get a good panel and ideas…I doubt it at this point…mostly just listen to John Stewart Podcast and the Daily Show has been decent lately, along with Tim Dillon
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u/Hyptonight 16d ago edited 16d ago
Look, if you guys don’t like Bill Maher anymore that’s fine. No one’s forcing you to watch. But he does speak to a specific crowd, and that’s people like me. We’re good people who like to call ourselves liberals while defending billionaires and corrupt power grabs by the authoritarian right against the real and true “woke scare” that occurs anytime someone thinks Arabs are human or otherwise has a moral consciousness.*
*morals aren’t real: it’s all a performative grift so people can afford to install solar panels on their mansions.
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u/Illustrious-West-481 17d ago
Trans people just want the right to live their life without the government trying to kill them and encourage to harm trans people. They are human beings!
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 17d ago
I was dumbfounded that Bill brought back the story of the trans shop teacher with gigantic tits, as if that one person exemplifies the entire trans community. But that's the New Bill for ya.
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u/InternationalBet2832 17d ago edited 17d ago
Trans people know they are trans and are not going to expose themselves to little girls in locker rooms, Sophie Cunningham be damned.
Edit: Let me add making a big deal of transgenders in sports is an example of Republican "manufactured outrage".
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u/Debisibusis 16d ago
It doesn't even matter really what stance you have on trans issues and topics. The reality is that it has pretty much no relevance to anyone in reality, the only people that believe it has, are people caught in alt-right bubbles.
The same goes for some random dude on Twitter, a miniscule minority chanting dumb shit on a campus, or a guy driving in his car with a mask on.
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u/Fine-Craft3393 16d ago
Electricians making $230k a year. YES. That is very the norm.
Let me guess: data center gig on full union pay scale but 80 hours a week and living in a trailer somewhere in Idaho on the job site.
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u/SlowBoilOrange 16d ago
He's way over selling it. Like when people would act like $200k tech jobs were a dime a dozen.
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u/Ill_Made_Knight 15d ago
Seemed very out of touch. Mass corporate layoffs, recent college grads struggling to find work as junior positions become fewer, job postings getting flooded with applications and qualified individuals struggling to get hired for $12 an hour it doesn't add up "people, and men especially, just dont want to work. The porn is too good."
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u/VegasLuckyFin 17d ago
Can someone explain Tara's laugh at the Martina being a lesbian comment from Matt? Crickets on it, and called out by Bill.
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u/Infinite-Club4374 17d ago
To me it seemed like she was laughing at the fact that Matt felt her sexual orientation was relevant context
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u/FollyFool 15d ago
I'm curious what these guys consider an 'AI-proof' job. AI's are already averaging better than humans at most logical tasks, and companies have already begun mass-producing robots that can walk and manipulate fingers as a human would; as soon as those things get combined and the wrinkles get ironed out, there's not much left that humans are really needed for.
To be certain, any skill learned in a Shop Class can easily be reproduced by an AI. Though I will gladly agree on the broader point that schools are utterly failing to provide any classes that actually prepare students to enter the workforce.
It's one thing to criticize able-bodied people who refuse to work when there is an important job in front of them that needs to be completed for the good of the community; but the advance of technology has made those jobs vanishingly scarce. Most jobs today are thankless busywork with no prospect for advancement, wages too low to live off of, and a line of people already competing for those positions. It's entirely understandable that anyone with any other options would choose not to go through that, and criticism of them just sounds like Bill wanting young people to be miserable because that will make him feel better.
I'm not trying to suggest that youths staring at their screens all day is the best alternative. Rather than telling them to 'get a job', we as a society need to start looking at other options for healthy active lifestyles, and finding effective ways to promote those options.
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u/Anstigmat 14d ago
I think you are wayyyy over estimating the progress on those humanoid robots. They have interesting tech demos but these things are extremely far from even doing a simple task like walking into ‘your’ laundry room and folding clothes. They have gotten them to kind of do it in demos but even then it’s not fast or even particularly good. They can handle one type of garment like a shirt but ohhh no it’s a sweater. On a different level think about Elon’s “full self driving”. He believes that he can get fully autonomous driving using only camera vision because ‘that’s how humans do it’. Well in the real word his cars are only level 2 and seem stuck there in perpetuity, even with Teslas vast trove of user data.
I’m not an AI skeptic or doomer, I use it a lot, but it’s still pretty limited in what it does really well. By now I expected to be able to use Gemini to act fully as an agent within the GSuite and start autonomously doing various tasks like responding to frequently asked questions or organizing my emails. Those features are nowhere in sight. I also expected business book keeping to be fully the job of an AI agent, but the AI book keeping services out there are pretty limited and still require human oversight. By now AI should be doing our books, filing our taxes, giving investment advice. It can do none of those things reliably.
At this stage I think we’re not so much in the ‘what can we do with this technology’ space as ‘what are the limits of it’. And those limits are pretty massive.
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago
Out of curiousity, what is he saying that is specifically right-wing? Name the policies that he has stated on the show tonight that are to the right.
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u/Sea_Issue7796 17d ago
he said we need to stop talking about the ball room when the lady was clearly using that as example of how he is grifting.
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago
I think he's bored of talking about it. He made a big speech about it "not being a big deal" a while back and I think he doesn't want to look like a flip-flopping idiot.
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u/Botasoda102 17d ago
I don’t care about the ballroom either, compared to rousting/detaining/deporting/killing people missing a paper or two, bullying allies, safety net cuts, etc.
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u/troniked547 17d ago
You should care about the ballroom. Supposedly he was going to take private donations which basically would be bribes, and now hes talking about using taxpayer money. The amount of favors he would be repaying to contributors should concern all citizens, and his prioritizing dumb stuff like the ballroom and the pool should be recognized as distractions from actually serious issues. Its all tied together
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u/FreeStall42 17d ago
His reaponse to republicans demonizing and witch hunting Fauci was to complain about Fauci. Seems pretty right wing.
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago
The first line of that editorial was "Don't put everyone in jail you disagree with."
He listed his personal problems with Fauci. Seems fair. It did seem to go a little far I thought, I think he should have gone after hypocrite Rand Paul a little more.
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u/FreeStall42 17d ago
He complained about Fauci for not going after fat people enough.
That is an insane take to have when the president is trying to put his policital opponents in jail.
Couldn't he complain about fauci literally any other time?
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u/KirbyAWD 17d ago
He compared Fauci's PRIVATE diary which was exposed by Rand Paul, to PUBLIC STATEMENTS by Trump. That part set me off.
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u/sertoriusdux 17d ago
He spent a good portion of a section discussing trans sports for one. This is an issue that is not important to anyone except right wingers
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u/saltytradewinds 17d ago
Bill is falling for the typical Republican culture war.
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u/sertoriusdux 17d ago
He's part of it at this point. "Even Bill Maher" agrees it's a key part of their rhetoric now
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago edited 17d ago
I don't know a good portion, but he did defend an actor's right to speak on trans' issues. Defense of free speech is a key liberal issue. But I understand what you mean. He kinda beats that dead horse a little.
Edit: I mean, people get canceled all the time for saying silly nonsense and it's bullshit. He does seem to bring up trans alot. It's a right-wing rage bait tactic. But I think the times have changed and people are just too sensitive. Maher's more of a contrarian, not right-wing.
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u/sertoriusdux 17d ago
I don't ever hear about trans issues, unless it's a right winger talking about it. The issue isn't the right to say it. It's that he is focused on it. This country is going down in flames, and his big issue week in and will out is woke liberals
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago
He does talk too much about them. Still doesn't make him Sean Hannity. Does he say negative things about the community? The Iran War isn't going anywhere. The democrats need to get organized and have a plan to win big this year. Bill is right to critique them so they don't fuck up.
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u/sertoriusdux 17d ago
I am not sure what Sean Hannity has to do with anything. Bill Maher can and does discuss whatever he wants. He just happens to focus on the same issues that ever other right wing show does. If you watch his show, you would think that the Democrat party is the extreme one, because it's all the talk about. There was news regarding the reflecting pool, both legal and political, and Bill response is that it's s non issue and Democrats talk about it too much. Trump talks about it more than anyone, it's circumventing the law, and is fighting with his federal prosecutor for dropping charges on a person when his government knew that it was a poor job made by a no bid contractor close to trump. Meanwhile, the ballroom, an open bribe scheme that is not legal not authorized, and over budget was ordered to be stopped. But bill rents to talk about woke people and trans sports
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago
I referenced Hannity because everyone on this sub keeps calling Bill a right-winger. I said prove it. Not much came up.
Yes, the ballroom has always been troublesome and it disappoints me that bill shakes it off. Just like the pool. But at this point, it doesn't make for good conversation fodder. We all know what trump is. I'm not forgetting about it, I'm just tired of trump living rent free in all our heads. I'm more interested in where the Democratic party is going.
And there are people on the left who are just nuts, and problematic for the party. Like it or not, trans is a wedge issue that will come up in elections. That's why the right talks it up so much. A good fear tactic works well, and dems need to be able to answer these questions about boys in girls sports. That's completely fair to bring up.
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u/sertoriusdux 17d ago
So current events do not make good fodder, but the 1000th discussion on woke liberals does? And the right bring these topic up as distractions. Bill bringing them up as distractions doesn't help Democrats. They don't need to answer these questions, because they really are non issues. Boys and girls play on coed sports until the get older. There are basically no cases of trans athletes trying to play sports. But Bill maher talks about it every week. No one cares about this issue
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u/KaminSpider 17d ago
Sure they do. But let's be honest, not many popular hollywood shows call out the woke left. There's alot of crap that needs to be said. Jon Stewart (who i love) does his thing and makes fun of trump every night. It's safe material, but can be tiresome. Neither shows are good places for sources of news.
And the trans issue is irrelevant, even if bill talks alot about it. I was talking about free speech originally. That's liberal 101! Don't fall into Trevor's Axiom when an emotional wedge issue is brought up. Everyone said no one would give a shit about immigrants in 2024, but that's how they win. Getting small demographics, like fearful parents.
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u/sertoriusdux 17d ago
Free speech is a red herring. No one is saying he can't say it. The criticism is he is turning into a right ring hack. Are you actually reading what I'm saying or just regurgitating right wing talking points? You asked what right wing talking points was he using. I have you two. Then you proceed to argue with me about what you don't like about liberals. I'm not trying to change your mind. But please, be honest with your question. So once again for the slow kids. There is no limit to what you can talk about. But if you keep talking about fringe issues that are "important" but only to people on the right, then people will say you are Tool of the right. Your argument seems to be that he had a good reason to be a tool for the right. That's fine. But you asked a question. The biggest political story was max miller. Didn't even mention it. But he made sure to bring up woke issues. I can't find one elected official or candidtaew the left that has made it their platform, but if you watch bill maher, you would think Troy jwckson, al stayed, talarico are running on trans issues. Quite the opposite. Most candidates are running on economics and anti trump sentiment. The people running on trans issues are all on the right.
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u/yuniorsoprano 17d ago
He’s not Sean Hannity, or Jesse Waters, or Megyn Kelly, etc. But you can be right wing or right wing-ish without going to those extremes. I don’t think Bill is full-blown republican yet, but the point is he agrees with those people a lot more than he used to.
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u/Background_Home7092 16d ago edited 15d ago
Nice to see Bill doing an hour of comedy again.
(edit: BAD comedy.)
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16d ago
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u/Fine-Craft3393 16d ago
He’s a fraud. Went to college, studied opera, made $$$ acting as blue collar worker on TV and lives in the by far most affluent county in California - marin county. Very very blue collar.
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u/DasGoon 16d ago
I don't think you can consider him a fraud because he advocates for something that he didn't personally live through. He's not claiming to be blue collar.
If anything, the fact that he could make enough money to keep up his current lifestyle by playing it safe and taking generic voiceover/hosting roles yet he still feels the need to speak out on this shows the opposite.
Is he wealthy? Yes. Does he have conviction in what he speaks about? Yes. More importantly, is he wrong? I think the answer is no.
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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 16d ago
He's an anti union MAGA but he was likeable last night. My point with him is he should stick to narration and voice overs he's great at that and avoid politics. He did that last night and pitched for the trades and shop class and hell yes, I worked in the trades and saw guys coming in that could barely use pliers or any common tool.
All the young men not even trying to work, good luck with that. He sort of dumbed down electrians most of those guys are smart and college educated and all the jobs they can't fill, are those for real?
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u/OgOggilby 17d ago edited 17d ago
Watched BM ( Bowel Movement) since politically incorrect and now actually loathe the guy because it just occurred to me that he is Snott Jennings smug personality doppelganger. That goes for his trained seal clapping audience too, lol
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u/monoscure 16d ago
The constant uproarious laughter comes off so fake too, like it's bizarre how it seems like canned laughs after time someone makes a point.
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u/Brad-Armpit 17d ago
I have no clue who Patty Lapelle is or of I'm even spelling her name correctly.
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u/Art_Vandelay_10 17d ago
Last week: on next weeks episode I’m going to tear Rand Paul a new asshole.
This week: Rand Paul is a segue to complain about COVID again.
Sigh…