Ep. #643: Greg Lukianoff, Jane Ferguson, John Avlon

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO Late Night Series, Real Time with Bill Ma.

Thank you.

Wow.

Here we are again in December, huh?

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

I think you're in the Christmas spirit.

Is that what this is?

I am.

I think everybody is.

I tell you, yesterday I found my elf on a shelf passed out next to my vape pen.

Something's going on.

And it's Hanukkah.

How many celebrating Hanukkah?

Oh, right.

For those people, you know, those people like in the Midwest who don't know, no, I'm kidding.

There's Jews everywhere.

Endangered everywhere, but they're everywhere.

But Hanukkah is a celebrity, it's a a festival celebrating the Jews' recovery of the city of Jerusalem in the second century before Christ.

Or as the Palestinians say, get off our land.

Oh, that issue.

That issue is not going away.

Did you see what happened with the college presidents this week?

The presidents

of

Harvard University and UPenn and MIT were hauled before Congress

and yelled at for good reason for refusing to call the genocide of Jews on campus bullying or harassment.

Misgendering a Jew, get thrown off for that in a minute.

But not the other thing.

So,

and then maybe protests here this weekend because the president is in town.

Isn't that great when the president.

No.

Really?

You think that's good?

Are you out on this?

I'll say this.

The only other time in this town an 81-year-old fucks up traffic is when they're driving a white Camry in the passing land.

No, it's not good when the president's here.

But the Republicans had another one of their debates without Trump.

This is kidding.

Now there's four of them left on the island.

And

it's just sad.

It's like a battle of the bands between the other women in Destiny's Child

and the

surviving members of the Doors.

You know, it's just

but no, there is some crazy right-wing shit out there.

I got to tell you.

The state of New Hampshire is proposing a ban on abortion that starts at 15 days after gestation.

You're not even pregnant yet.

15 days, not weeks, days.

And they asked the author of this bill, what were you thinking?

And he said, I don't know, I never got past second base.

So,

but I got to tell you, the Republicans, they smell a little blood in the water because Hunter Biden Hunter Biden was indicted again.

Now, Trump's going to have four trials.

Hunter Biden now has two.

This is true.

He was done in for,

it's another tax thing because he spent incredible amounts of money on,

well, you know what.

Bookers and blow and

cars and hotel rooms and the Biden family is asking for privacy at this time of extreme humble brag.

They said he spent,

I love this, this is a quote from the indictment that said he spent $683,000

on various women.

I tell you, I blame TikTok.

I do.

Not the app.

That was the name of one of his Chinese hookers, TikTok.

Right.

Speaking of blow, did you see this story?

The Coast Guard here in Southern California busted a submarine carrying 5,500 pounds of cocaine.

It was the first time Cox Cops begged a suspect to stop talking.

Yeah,

this was

right off the coast.

This was our blow.

I'm telling you,

this state cannot catch a break.

First the writer's strike, then the actor's strike, now this.

Oh, but good news on that front, you know, we had a writer's strike.

That's why we were on in December, because we're trying to make up for some of the shows.

And then we had the writer's strike, which I thought was settled.

Apparently it was not, but yes, the news came in two days ago.

SAG AFTER ratified it this week.

We have finished and settled the actor's strike.

So if you are, if you are.

So if you're out tonight eating at a restaurant, remember to congratulate your server.

And, okay.

Let's end with this.

This is a very positive story.

I like to do it for Christmas time.

You know, Cameo, right?

The app where you could pay a couple hundred bucks, 100 bucks, and a celebrity will wish you happy birthday, right?

Well, you know who's on it now?

George Santos.

It's true.

But I don't think he gets it.

I know a guy who did it with him, and Santos kept insisting it was his birthday.

All right, we've got a great show.

We've got John Avalon and James Ferguson are here.

Well, first off, he's president and CEO of the Foundation Foundation for Individual Rights of Expression and co-author of the book The Canceling of the American Mind, Greg Lukanov.

Greg, how are you, sir?

Great to meet you.

Thank you, sir.

Well, you know why you're here this week?

This is the week that they called the heads of the

Harvard and Penn and MIT.

They could have called a number of other colleges like my Alma Monte Cornell.

They're a bunch of assholes up there these days.

But these were the three who were called.

And this is really what you've been writing about for a long time.

This is what your book is about.

We quoted you, your organization, FHIR, a few weeks ago in an editorial because it was about campuses and where the free speech was.

First of all, what does FHIR stand for?

A foundation for individual rights and expression.

We're 25 years old this year.

Okay.

Oh, wow.

I didn't know you were on that.

Okay.

So

I remember when we did the piece, at the absolute bottom of the list.

Yep.

They got a negative score.

Was Harvard.

Harvard.

And right next to them was Penn.

Yep.

So these are two of the colleges who are now on Team Hamas.

Yeah.

Is that a coincidence or what is the connection?

Well, this is, I mean, they kind of got what they had coming because they had to go in front of Congress and convince them that they actually now were good on free speech, and nobody believed them.

Harvard, you know, it earned its position dead last.

And I always give the example, you know, when it comes to Harvard, Carol Hooven, for example, she's someone who was on a show, she was promoting a book about testosterone.

She made the point that we should be kind and compassionate towards trans people, use their pronouns, but we can't pretend that biological sex isn't real.

And the DEI administrator at Harvard started complaining about it.

Suddenly, students are boycotting her class and writing petitions.

And

she left Harvard because of the environment.

And so nobody could actually take seriously the idea that they believe in free speech.

Meanwhile, the president of Penn, after her disastrous performance, comes out and says, Oh, you know what?

We're not actually going to have our policies match constitutional standards anymore.

And it's like, no, you've been letting administrators clamp down on speech for decades now.

This will only make it worse.

Okay, but the connection between supporting Hamas

and the lack of free speech.

Let's get into that.

Because I want to read, this is what

the congresswoman who was grilling, Elise Stefanik, who has her own issues with speech, by the way.

Okay.

New York State, used to be a normie.

Okay, but she loves Trump now.

She asked the Penn person, does calling for the genocide of Jews violates Penn's rules or code of conduct, yes or no?

Now, I'm a free speech person like you are.

I'm also Team Israel.

Yeah.

So let's just get real about this.

Sure.

Calling for the genocide of Jews.

One of them, I think it was the Penn person, said, I've not heard that.

In other words, how explicit is it?

Because when I break down the phrases that I hear, first there's the intifada.

There are a lot of people who say, you shouldn't say that.

I disagree.

Free speech, intifada.

That's one of those vague terms like jihad.

It probably means violence.

But you know what?

It's just uprising, whatever.

Give you the benefit of it.

Okay, then there's from the river to the sea.

Okay, that's a little more genocide-y, but you know,

let's give it the benefit of the doubt.

It could be, well, we just want the Jews to to move, not die.

Where they're going to move to, I'm going to address that next week on our farm.

Our season finale is next week, by the way.

It is true.

As you can see, the excitement is building.

And then there's a phrase, by any means necessary.

Okay, now...

Now I'm kind of peeing my pants.

Yeah.

Right.

And I'm not even Jewish, but come on.

By any means necessary?

So, where do you draw the line here and what do you say is free speech and what should not be allowed?

Well, the First Amendment actually gives a lot of guidance on this.

And one thing that's been horrifying over the past month is seeing a lot of unprotected speech on campus.

We're seeing things that cross the line into true threats, discriminatory harassment.

We're seeing things that actually aren't protected.

But

merely expressive, offensive expression, like saying intifada, that is

absolutely protected.

But can saying things like that be part of a pattern of threats or harassment?

Of course it can be.

And it was kind of embarrassing to watch these university presidents of the top institutions of the country not being able to answer that clearly.

Right.

See, what irks me is that, look, I'm always going to be on the side of as far as you can push free speech.

And of course, as you say, there's already limits to some speech,

violence, and so forth.

You can fire in a crowded theater.

Okay, so it's not absolute.

What bothers me is the double standard.

Oh, my God, yeah.

That can you imagine, I mean, okay, say they don't want to say kill the Jews, but I certainly have heard chanted, fuck the Jews.

Fuck the Jews.

Can you imagine saying fuck the and any other, I'm not going to say any other group because they'll clip the tape and I'll live with that forever.

But

I just

I cannot think of any other group that you could say fuck the blank and have it be acceptable.

The double standards on campus, we talk about this in canceling, we talk about this at fire all the time, the double standards are astounding, but you have to have them

when you have policies like this because if they actually enforce them against everybody, they wouldn't last a second.

Yeah,

you know, I honestly think the kids,

I think they're, you know that phrase, useful idiots?

Yeah.

The bigger scandal here is that these are the biggest, most esteemed colleges in the country and they've raised a bunch of fucking idiots.

So

do I really think they want to wipe out the Jews?

I don't.

But they have this, you know, they live by buzzwords and what they read on TikTok.

They want to be an ally.

An ally of people who

have more melanin and less money.

That's who you have to be an ally.

Don't think of it past more than that.

And that's, I mean, this is, how did this happen at these colleges, which, you know, you and I both have been talking about this for a long time.

And

by the way,

there's a group of us, like I would call us like old school liberals, absolutely get called conservative for being that now.

And

for a long time, people,

my dear liberal friends, but the ones who only watch MSNBC and read the New York Times, and they're like, what are you talking about?

If there's anything that good.

If there's anything good that has come out of this, it's that now you see what we've been talking about.

We were not making it up.

Absolutely.

Like watching people say, I was reading something in Politico saying, it's like, you know, people are getting in trouble these days for their speech on campus.

And I'm like, welcome to the party, dude.

Right.

And one reason why I want as much free speech is I want to know who's saying it.

I want to know how big the problem is.

I was watching 60 Minutes did a piece on this last week, and some Jewish student said, if you support Hamas, you shouldn't be able to have an organization on campus.

No, I'm sorry.

This is America.

This works both ways.

That's your feeling.

You should be able to express it.

And I also want to know.

I want to know how many Hamas supporters there are on campus.

That's my mentor, Harvey Silverglate, would always say.

It's like, I want to know who the Nazis are on the room because I want to know who not to turn my back on.

Well, you can tell who the Nazis are.

But

one thing I really love about your book also is that you mentioned this is not just a problem of the left.

No, it is a majority left problem, I think, at this point.

Yeah.

But, you know, the right cancels people too.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, Colin Kopernak.

Yeah.

You know, are you a football fan?

No, no, not really, but he was canceled.

Okay.

But

I'm just wanting to say, as a football fan, if your team, if any team of games you're watching, does not have a really good quarterback, the game is literally painful.

It's almost soccer.

And there's this guy, Colin Kaepernick, who, last time we saw him at least, was good.

Yeah.

At least good enough to play better than what the Jets have been putting out this year.

Part of a little bar.

So, but what would you say if you had to put a numerical on it from like right to left, because there's also stuff that happens with attacking professors, left-wing professors by right-wing governors.

It's not 50-50.

What would you say it is?

We have data on, at least for professors, about 31% of the professors who get punished for their speech originally comes from the left, whether that's Fox News or whatever.

Unfortunately, a lot of times those are still enforced by administrators who are on the right.

But I'd say, depending on the context, when it comes to students, you know, on campus, it is overwhelmingly being canceled from the left.

But I think if people want to be concerned about what's going on on the right, they got to stand up for professors all over the spectrum because professors are getting canceled from the right, and this doesn't make the news.

But in elite colleges, oh man, where the problem is at its worst is much more from the left.

And it's sad, isn't it, that we all seem to just be resigned to it.

We all seem to be resigned to squelching, squelching a thought.

You know, whenever they ask somebody for an apology for like some bullshit thing, oh,

it was a Halloween costume, nobody died.

I always think, you know, you owe us an apology for all the thoughts that never got uttered, for all the jokes that never got told, you know?

And anytime you suppress anything, whether it's a fart or a thought or anything, it's not healthy.

That was a stirring fart speech.

But at the same time, you're saying that we

don't defend speech.

You have been leading the charge defending speech.

And you're

an audience.

The people who watch the show are exactly the kind of help we need because free speech is in trouble, man.

It is in trouble.

But you're doing a great job with it.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much, Craig.

All right.

We'll see you soon.

Let's meet our panel.

Hey.

Hey.

All right.

He is a senior CNN, senior political analyst, and author of

anchor and author of Lincoln and the Fight for Peace.

John Avalon, our returning champion.

And she's an award-winning special correspondent for PBS News Hour and contributor to the New Yorker, whose memoir is called No Ordinary Assignment, Jane Jane Ferguson.

Jane, what a great pleasure to have you.

And since you are a war correspondent, I thought we would talk about war because that is what all, you know, everything in the news today is war.

I mean, especially the ones in Ukraine and Gaza and the Ukraine war.

We haven't talked about it in a while, but it's big in the news this week because the Republicans want to link more aid to Ukraine to Biden doing something about the border, which would not be a bad bad idea in itself.

I don't know why they have to be linked, but

just to give you some

stats, okay,

they've spent $111 billion so far on this war.

They want $61 billion more.

I think some of that is for Israel as well.

Problem is,

it's a stalemate.

After two years, they say the front line has moved

less than 500 square miles of territory have changed hands.

150,000 Russian dead, 70,000 Ukrainian dead.

We're still having fights over territory and armies in both here and Gaza.

So I know the people, I mean, I've always tried to be good for the people of Ukraine and back them, and I think it's the right thing, but I also heard a lot, you were in Afghanistan, right?

A member of Iraq, in both wars, we can still win this thing,

but we couldn't in either one.

What's your assessment on whether we can still win this one?

I think it's dangerous to compare the war in Ukraine with the post-9-11 counterterrorism wars, where America was really sort of fighting shadows.

You know, they were chasing terrorists around the world.

This is not a Ukrainian fight.

This is not sending money just so Ukraine can fight its own war.

This is a war against Vladimir Putin and his expansionism into Europe, essentially.

I mean, this is a war for global world order.

The geopolitical, geostrategic importance of this war is vastly bigger than any of the wars post-9-11, which were overreaches of American foreign policy.

But how long do we just stay in this stalemate?

I mean, they thought it was going to be World War III, and it's really World War I.

The reason to fund Ukraine is because we learned the lessons of history, which is that you cannot reward aggression.

And it's far cheaper to fund Ukraine now than to let Ukraine fall and then have the front move.

And the Ukrainians, you know,

the Ukrainians are doing the fighting themselves as well.

Well,

I thought that too.

And of course they are.

But I was surprised to read this week, 650,000 men

have defected, left the country.

So not everybody's all in on this war.

Right.

But leaving the country doesn't mean necessarily defecting.

I mean,

there's a lot of volunteers.

Well, it's not staying and fighting.

But Putin's found out that his troops weren't exactly all in.

Remember, the initial talk was: we've got to, you know, Putin's going to win this in a couple of days.

Well, guess what?

Putin and the Russian people found out that when you invade other folks' territory, they have a lot more to fight for.

And that's about standing up for Western civilization and the rule of law and stopping a wider war.

But what I

mean

it is easy to sit here in the comfort of this studio in Los Angeles and say that, isn't it?

And then when you see the video footage of just this hellscape of like they're fighting over nothing.

There's nothing left to reclaim when the war is over.

And I don't know, they're just going to run out of people to die.

For the Ukrainians, though, this is an existential fight.

They won't stop fighting, even if Biden stops sending weapons.

Well, again, I don't know if all of them feel that way.

Here's what it is.

They lost 18% of their territory, including Crimea.

And that's wrong.

I mean,

it's not the first time in history it's happened.

I'm just like how we got here.

It's in part because folks didn't stand up when Russia annexed Crimea.

There were a lot of rationalizations and legal maneuvers, but there wasn't.

And do what?

What were we going to do?

If you're not really going to go there,

we're finding out with this one.

If you're not really going to go there and fight, they're not going to win.

The choices are not American boots on the ground.

That's the exact point of giving money to the Ukrainians so they can help fight the war, for NATO countries to stand up and help supply.

And what the Biden administration did was they put forward a balanced plan, right?

They said, we're going to fund Ukraine, which is controversial to some folks on the right who are in the Trumpist camp.

We're going to fund Israel because they need it and they deserve it after that horrific terrorist attack.

We're going to give some money to help defend Taiwan, and we're going to do border security.

And that's a balanced plan.

Everybody gets something, nobody gets everything.

And Republicans are now drawing a hard bargain as opposed to accepting that balanced plan that was put forward.

But the truth is, though, that this kind of American withdrawal from the world started long before Biden.

I mean, this was Obama and the red line in Syria.

I mean, that's really where a lot of this began.

That's when Putin saw America blink.

And that's when Putin got involved in Syria and that's really where he started this expansionism.

Okay, but take me through the scenario where in five years Ukraine is whole again and has all their territory.

It doesn't matter.

What happened in those five years?

In those five years, Ukraine has to make Russia hurt.

Putin must pay a price for invading other countries.

Haven't we tried that?

We cut off the oil,

we get all the costs of the corporations.

Over time, I mean, it took the Russians 10 years to bleed out in Afghanistan, which of course led to the fall of the entire Russian Empire.

I mean, unfortunately.

Afghanistan is not Ukraine to be able to.

It's not bordering, and it's not close to their heart.

For the Russians, when you take into consideration the loss of troops, the loss of political.

So you think in five years Ukraine will be whole?

I think actually the USA.

I think in five years, Putin will be seriously weakened by this war.

And he has already been weakened by it.

Now, look,

it's an autocracy, it's a dictatorship.

He's announced he's going to run for re-election, right?

But he's also said

he's not going to seek any end to this conflict

until at least 2024.

Why?

Because America's election is pivotal to the future of Ukraine.

He knows if Donald Trump comes back in, you know, all bets are off.

America might pull out of NATO.

The entire edifice falls.

Or if he's got an American president who's going to stand up for NATO and stand up for Ukraine, then that changes his calculus.

It's one more reason why our domestic political issue is

Biden says, kind of what you said, if Putin takes Ukraine, he won't stop there.

I feel like that's just a green room talking about it.

But we know that.

You know, we don't know that.

We don't know that.

If Putin takes Ukraine, he won't stop there.

If he keeps going, then he attacks a NATO ally.

I think Putin knows a NATO ally is different.

I'm not saying they wouldn't do it.

That shows the importance of NATO.

Yeah.

And that's why, and why Trump is basically campaigning.

He keeps saying he wants to pull out of NATO.

And that kind of leadership would be absolutely disastrous to the rule of law and to civilization if that's what you choose to defend, the liberal values that we stand for.

Putin's history, though, as well.

Absolutely.

He wants to rebuild the Soviet Union.

In 2015, he entered Syria.

He also, in 2014, he took Crimea.

Then he took the Donbass.

Throughout this period of time, he was watching America do nothing.

This is the living history of Tristram.

I feel that all the time on talk shows, and I don't know if that's really what's in his mind.

It certainly enters his mind how weak or strong we are.

But I just don't think he's going to take Poland.

I just don't think he's crazy.

I don't think he's a crazy person, and I think he knows that would be a very different situation.

We said that about Ukraine, too.

But beyond Putin as well, this is about global world order.

Now, who's watching elsewhere?

Look at China and Taiwan.

It's worth pointing out that this is a test, and the world is watching.

When you talk to people in other countries, and you've been all over the world,

and what do they think about Americans not knowing anything about them?

Is that insulting to them?

For most people these days, whenever I talk to them, whether I'm in Beirut.

They know about us, but we don't know about them.

Yeah, I mean...

Seems insulting.

Most people, I would say, whether you're in Beirut or Baghdad or Dubai, most people are really watching American politicians and trying to figure out what they're going to do.

Because the last 10 years has been so much whiplash, back and forth and back and forth.

So I don't think they're busy taking things personally.

They're just, their lives are so much impacted by the decisions that Washington, D.C., you know, does or doesn't take.

So they're not sitting around worrying about, you know, how words are pronounced.

Like what decisions in Washington?

Like whether or not they will go honor the Iran deal or withdraw from the Iran deal, flip-flopping, take the Kurds in Syria.

You know, they have to be aware of the...

People are obsessed with Syria.

Syria started a lot of that.

But how about just the overall clown show that we're presiding over?

Every time our democracy is so divided and dysfunctional, it sends a message that maybe democracy is in these great shapes.

And guess what?

The autocracies of the world try to promote that vision.

So, everyone who's polarizing our country to the point of idiocy is actually feeding into the narrative that folks want to have on that other side of the aisle,

the autocratic side of the aisle, saying that democracy doesn't work.

Autocracy is more efficient.

That's the larger stakes of our domestic politics.

We've got to wise up to that.

All right.

So,

do you think

people overseas, when they hear us complain about life here in America, that must strike them as weird?

I think a lot of those conversations just don't translate.

I mean, you know, whenever you're in parts of the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, I mean, that level of fragility, it's very hard to explain to someone that kind of sensitivity.

I thought of it because I was reading about how you got punched on the subway

here in America, though, right?

Yeah, 15 years, 15 years of war reporting.

Never been punched in the face before until I moved to New York City.

I'm sorry.

You know, a lot of New Yorkers wrote to me to say we're so sorry.

Yeah.

And this was just random, it wasn't big.

It was totally random.

And that's what's so fascinating about life in New York at the minute.

That's crazy.

Middle of the day, rush hour, I've just had the most fabulous, lovely New York day, and I get on the subway, 5.30, and I'm just doing what everybody else is doing.

I'm just staring at my phone and a person just walks by, just a disturbed person, an absolutely sucker punched me in the side of the face.

Everybody in the carriage kind of screams.

But you know, I mean, I have a diamond ring on my hand, I've got my wallet in my pocket, no interest.

Just a person who wanted to, who was disturbed and wanted to punch a woman on the subway.

So it's a weird kind of crime, you know, it's not like I don't know anybody who's had their house broken into, their car stolen, but I know an enormous amount of people who have been.

You don't know anyone who's had their car stolen?

Oh, you don't live in L.A.

I don't live in LA.

Right.

We drive out here.

Everybody's had their car stolen.

You're nobody if you haven't had your car stolen.

Oh, but.

Look, I just, the rise of crime, and it's, you know, it's getting better from the spike during COVID,

but is out of control and it's eroding people's trust, right?

I mean, the carjackings are up.

That's just one example.

What happened to you is horrific.

We successfully brought down crime in this country beginning in the mid-1990s, in part because of the crime bill that was passed, written in part by Joe Biden when he was a senator.

We seem to have forgotten a lot of those lessons.

And we're on the back foot.

And it's one of the things that erodes trust and further polarizes our, it just pisses me off.

Well, it's also how to solve a lot of these problems.

We're not doing a good job.

You know that song that was so big this year, Don't Try That in a Small Town, and the usual suspects got very upset about it.

I was like, oh, well, this is not the kind of song I would listen to, but I ain't mad at it.

You know, I'm not offended by that, like the guy just saying, don't try this crazy shit in our town.

You know, I wish we kind of could have that in big cities.

And by the way, the crime in red states, just as high as in the blue states.

It's not even a red, white, it's a red, white, and blue thing.

It's a red white blue.

It's also worth pointing out, you know,

unfortunately.

On the subway, you know, when people get attacked these days, what's so sad is watching nobody help them.

Everyone's Everyone's terrified.

Everyone's taking a picture of it.

Everyone take a picture videoing.

It's so sad to see

nobody running after the guy.

And

it's just come to be expected.

Everyone's just kind of keeping their heads down.

Okay.

All right.

So this story caught my eye this week.

McDonald's, for the first time, is having a...

You know I'm at Mickey D's twice a week.

You know, you people see me there.

No, they're having their first spin-off restaurant.

I love this.

It's called Cosmics.

Get it?

It's Cos and then Mix.

Okay.

Cosmics.

And really what it is, is that Gen Z apparently thinks McDonald's is corny, which it is, but it's supposed to be, okay?

So they're trying to come up with a new restaurant that's McDonald's, but for the under 30 crown.

And we got a hold of their, I mean that, we got a hold of their, I say that a lot of times and they think I'm kidding.

There actually was a, this restaurant is not there yet, but somebody got a hold of their menu.

This is real.

See, I've lost all my credibility by saying we got a hold of their menu.

No.

Wait,

the fake part will be coming.

But

this is not the fake part.

This is really what they're serving.

Menu items include a chai frappe,

burst, a creamy avocado tomatillo sandwich, a pomegranate hibiscus slush, and a turmeric spice latte.

That's what's been going on at the new Cosmix McDonald restaurant.

Anyway, if you think that's bad,

here's some of the other things that are going to be happening at Cosmix.

This place is really different.

When you pull up, the drive-through guy says, Welcome to Cosmix, how can I help you?

Wait, I should be manager by now.

Forget it, I quit.

And if you're having a bad day, try the cry-through lane.

If you need a morning pickup, try the McAnal Juice Cleanse.

It comes in a small, medium, and healthy at any size.

We all know the McDLT.

Cosmics has the McLBG TQ.

Oh.

And you've got to try the puberty blocker smoothie.

One of these a week, and your testes aren't going anywhere.

Cosmics does not have a happy meal.

They have an anxiety meal, and instead of a toy, you get a coupon for online therapy.

Oh,

this is great.

Thirsty, far-left anti-Semites can enjoy a cool, refreshing glass of From the River to the Tea.

And you can have that with your Hamas and Egg McMuffin.

It slays your hunger, but in a totally justified way.

They don't have a chai latte, but they have a shy latte.

You order it by mumbling while staring at your phone, and when they say it's ready, you run out of the restaurant.

Also, at the new restaurant, no ball pit.

That's now a safe space.

And the balls are gone because fuck the patriarchy.

All right, so speaking of McDonald's,

the other thing, you know, I think Biden suffers from a perception problem with what we were just talking about, the crime issue.

Actually, when you look at the stats, it's not as bad as people think, but the perception is it's terrible.

So true with the economy.

Look at this.

There was a $16 McDonald's order that I think one person ordered once a year ago, and this just will not go away virally because it just resonates with people.

on a kind of a visceral level about what's going on with the economy.

I thought it was interesting this week that Biden has, did not announce, but they are going to stop using the term term Bidenomics.

Apparently it wasn't working.

And

in Nevada in September, he tried a nuke tact and started to attack what he called MAGANomics, which I guess is MAGA for Trump, you know.

And he went down 10 points in the state to Trump.

Trump is beating Biden by 10 points in Nevada because people, I think, think of MAGA and Trump and they remember a time when things weren't as expensive and the stock market maybe was doing better for them, things like that.

I mean people are not very sophisticated when they look at economic issues.

They just think the guy president, oh yeah, gas was cheaper, whatever.

So

and we didn't have inflation for like decades.

It was kind of an aberration.

And now, like if you're under 35, it's like Biden's the first guy you remember who you, the first president you would tie inflation to.

It's not just inflation, though, for your average person, because your average American's not reading the Wall Street Journal and watching Bloomberg.

Like, for them, it's also a sense of insecurity, especially like post-COVID.

I mean, there's job security is an issue for people.

I mean, people really, you know, they're going to be more sensitive to the sense that things are more expensive when they feel like their personal economics are much more insecure.

You know, we live in the gig economy now, and it's come at the same time as the explosion

in billionaires.

So, whatever you feel about that, the average person is kind of like getting told about billionaires all the time and then going to the grocery store and finding things are way more expensive.

And it's utterly screwed up.

And look, politics is perception, but the cost of living issue is real.

And we did take low inflation for granted for a long time.

You know, you don't hear a lot from the MMT crowd on the far left that said, oh, none of this matters.

You could keep spending all the money you want.

It does have an impact.

That said, Biden's got a good story to tell about the economy.

It is objectively true that our country is better off economically than we were certainly three years ago.

And it's not just because of the pandemic.

I mean, you know,

we've had 14 million jobs grown.

We've got wages outpacing inflation.

Inflation is going down.

Unemployment rate is under 4%.

Main Street is actually doing well compared to Wall Street.

And we've got manufacturing coming back, and a lot of big bipartisan bills are starting to take effect, including the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS Act.

Those are good stories to tell.

Democrats and Biden aren't telling them well.

But those are,

that kind of reality matters.

Well, actually, what I read is that since 2020, prices are basically up 20%.

But so are wages.

So it's a complete draw.

So it doesn't look like you won anything.

But wages,

what's an average in this country?

I mean, are wages up for people who work in the tech sector and secretariat and banking and cities?

It's a thing.

It's things that people buy all the time, like eggs and gas and bullets.

That's what is the problem.

But here's San House.

Houses.

Well, I'm glad you.

I saw this and sort of, I said, this is, for once, a story where they're actually doing something about income inequality because they talk about it all the time.

And I'm like, how come I pay like most of my wages every year?

And

we're still income inequality.

What do you want?

All my money?

They're proposing

end hedge fund control of Americans Home.

Homes Act.

Okay, basically what this means is that Wall Street started buying homes, not for them to live in, just to have.

Listen to this.

They purchased 26% of the single-family homes that sold in June of 2023.

Someplace like Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2022, investors purchased 17% of Charlotte's homes in cash.

And a lot of them were affordable homes.

So like the people who are trying to buy their homes.

So Senator Merkley, Democrat of Oregon, is, I guess, proposing this.

He said, Americans are bidding not against other families, they're bidding against the billionaires of America for these houses.

I love this bill that's been put forward.

Yes, because it's about dental.

First of all,

we focus a lot on problems and we don't focus enough on solutions.

And this is a concrete step.

This is what government can do.

If hedge funds and billionaire investment groups are buying individual homes, yes, guess what?

The individual family is going to lose.

Capitalism works when there's something resembling a level playing field, when there's actually competition.

The curse of bigness crushes the American dream.

And this is a reasonable role for regulation to play.

You'd like to see people play in offense on this issue.

It's an example, frankly, what Democrats and everyone should be doing more in Washington, focusing on how to solve a problem, not just demagogue it to death to raise more cash on the side.

But

I got to tell you,

you can talk to your blue in the face.

Biden's doomed on this issue.

15%, this is a stat I read this week, 15% of people who voted for him said his economic policies have hurt them personally.

Ouch.

Yeah.

Look.

That's what we're dealing with.

Biden and the Democrats need to also play offense on issues where they're on their back foot.

Crime.

You could say that's about perception too, although crime is really

things are the border.

You've got to have solutions on these issues.

Democrats need to play offense on crime and migrants because if they're always playing defense or trying to tell people they're not seeing what they in their own lives, right, for fear of offending some special interest group, you're going to lose.

Put forward a solution.

I mean, that's the classic example of Washington, D.C.

being out of touch with ordinary people.

Damn right.

I mean, like, there's nothing more emblematic of the American dream than trying to buy your own house.

So you have a politician who's saying to you, you're better off, you're doing great, you're very welcome.

And, you know, and people are struggling to be able to afford a home.

So, you know, or they're struggling to find any kind of job security.

So people feel like they're being contradicted by politicians in that way.

And there's that lack of empathy.

And there's always been the disconnect with Washington, D.C., but I think it's broader than it's ever been.

Well,

sure.

You know, there's going to be a temptation over the next 10 months to try to

play, you know, do negative partisanship and say, look, you know, people are going to say, well, Trump will come in, think maybe the economy was better.

Maybe he'll fix that.

No, take a big step back.

This is a campaign, he's campaigning for the first time in our nation's history, he's campaigning on an autocratic platform.

And so you can't do Donald Trump.

Just day one.

Just day one.

He said just day one.

I can lift her one.

You are going to be rationalizing and saying, you know, well, I don't like Trump, but, you know, maybe he'll be good on this issue or taxes or some other thing.

You can't do Donald Trump a la carte.

You're going to get the whole deal.

They're telling you exactly what you're getting, which is an autocratic administration.

Well, I was saying that for years.

You have been.

And they were saying you smoke too much pot.

Slow motion pillar.

Slow motion.

You don't have to tell me.

No, sister.

Sleepwalking into your chambership because Liz Chamies agree with you.

All right.

So everyone's got to get off the sidelines.

But while I have a real-life war correspondent here, and by the way, thank you for your service.

On the subway.

This is in the news this week.

And it's back to that very sad subject, but an Israeli tank killed a Reuters video journalist this week.

They said, near the Lebanese border,

people said Israeli forces knew or should have known.

I don't know what happened there, but the Committee to Protect Journalists said 63 journalists.

I mean, this war has only been going on since October 7th.

It's unprecedented.

Two months.

That is an unprecedented number.

Now, the vast majority of these media people are Palestinians.

What is your take on this?

Why so many in this?

Well, it's absolutely devastating.

I mean,

just to draw on that attack on journalists in southern Lebanon, I mean, it killed a Reuters cameraman and took the leg off another journalist who was there.

You know, two strikes within about 37 seconds from an Israeli tank.

The reports have come out after investigations that that is what happened.

They were wearing press, you know, clearly defined press jackets.

In Gaza, we've never seen this number of journalists killed in such a short period of time.

Now, on the one hand, it just shows how unbelievably dangerous it is to cover this war at all.

But on the other hand, it just shows how many people are dying in Gaza.

I mean, many of these journalists are dying

in their beds at night.

But they talk about it like it just happened, like it just has sprung up.

I have a great way for this to not happen anymore.

Stop attacking Israel.

Absolutely.

It's a crazy plan, but it could work.

It's completely cowardly for Hamas to attack Israel and then hide

underground while someone.

And not expect a reaction.

And not expect a reaction, but it is still the case that these journalists did not attack Israel, you know, and that the laws of war do apply to nations among nations.

And And that's the problem, because they apply to Israel.

They don't apply to Hamas.

They do apply to Hamas.

Hamas has committed horrific crimes.

They should apply.

But of course, I mean, this begins because of the horrific, unspeakable terrorist attack that occurred.

And the collateral damage is absolutely heartbreaking.

But we just need to make that distinction that's not being made on college campuses between Hamas and the Palestinians.

There's absolutely no doubt.

And they are intentionally hiding in civilian areas, and that's leading to the compounding treatment.

There's absolutely no doubting that

Hamas should also be called out for some of the worst war crimes.

I mean unbelievable.

Absolutely appalling.

Rape as a weapon of war.

Rape is now a controversial subject.

Exactly.

Apparently in America.

Rape as a weapon of war.

It shouldn't be a controversial subject.

It should not be.

But apparently it is.

It was out in South Sudan, in Iraq when it was an attack on the Yazidis, but

within Israel right now, I mean...

Right.

Well,

Representative Jayapal, I think from Seattle, Washington, is that where she's from?

Okay.

She was asked about this on CNN.

Dana Bash said, with respect, I'm asking you about the women,

and you turned it back to Israel.

I'm asking you about Hamas.

This is about Hamas raping as a weapon of war.

And she said, I think it happens in war situations.

Terror organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools.

Now, she also condemned it, of course.

But I mean, that's pretty nilly-mouthed.

And by the way, terror organizations like Hamas, I don't think even Al-Qaeda did this.

Al-Qaeda didn't do this.

ISIS would.

The Taliban generally didn't.

ISIS would.

And it was used systematically.

We've seen it

used in Iraq systematically.

It's pretty out there when Al-Qaeda is like, no, you assholes do that.

All right.

Thank you, panel.

We have to go to Neural.

Okay.

Neural, Joe Biden needs to get off that stepladder right now.

Seriously, Joe, when people see this, they don't think presidents, they're just like us.

They think, oh, Lord, we're a hallmark ornament away from President Kamala Harris.

Neural, now that Taylor Taylor Swift has released her concert movie and Beyoncé has released her concert movie, music fans need to go back to attending concerts in person and experience live music the way you're supposed to through the tiny screen on your phone.

Neural, someone has to ask Manders Barnett, the woman who lives outdoors as a nomad on horseback, surviving on roadkill she finds on the highways, Are you on Tinder?

Because to a lot of guys, you sound like the perfect date.

Someone who already ate on her way over.

And

when you break up, he can say, fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

New rule, just because you're wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, ironically, just doesn't change the fact that you look like a fucking idiot.

New rule, now that a recent survey claims that the average penis in Florida is 0.65 inches longer than the average penis in California,

Governors Newsome and DeSantis must have another debate.

Because as crafty as Newsom is, I'm not sure he has an answer for this one.

And finally, new rule here in the season of giving.

Can we at least agree that giving is good?

I bring this up because one of the more mind-blowing stories of this year was about the internet celebrity, Mr.

Beast, and how he was always getting raked over the coals for a series of charitable endeavors.

Now if you don't know, Mr.

Beast is the most successful YouTuber ever with over 38 billion views.

Feel old now?

Anyway, he takes some of the money made from 38 billion views and plows it back into doing things like this year partnering with a group of doctors to provide cataract surgery for a thousand blind people that restored their eyesight.

Cool, huh?

Wrong?

He filmed their overjoyed reactions, which to many made him a performative altruist.

A Washington Post reporter tweeted, What truly needs curing is society's view of disabled people.

And BuzzFeed agreed, Mr.

Beast seems to regard disability as something that needs to be solved.

Okay, disability is something that needs to be solved.

And what truly needs curing is blindness.

Here's how I know this.

The newly sighted people are cheering, not booing, because Mr.

Beast, whoever the fuck that is,

just cured them and you didn't do shit.

You know the expression, shit or go blind?

You didn't either.

I tell you,

I don't get the woke.

They love nothing more than being a victim, except when they really are one, and then they tell you, I am not, go fuck yourself.

Get this.

Last month, Mr.

Beast, in another dick move,

funded funded the construction of 100 wells across five countries in Africa to provide clean drinking water to half a million people.

Good thing, right?

No.

Not good, bad.

The founder of a charity called Face Africa called it kind of frustrating that overnight this person comes along who happens to be a white male figure with a huge platform and all of a sudden he gets all of the attention.

Yes, but

But you know what else is frustrating?

Dying of thirst.

Mr.

Beast, how dare he come in and Bogart digging the wells?

That so white guy.

Always taking fresh water and shoving it down our throats.

Oh, another thing this asshole did in Africa

was pay for the rebuilding of an African orphanage, which the director of the Hope and Homes for Children charity called it a classic case of white saviorism.

So true.

Ask any orphan to name the worst part of their life.

Show offs.

Please.

please,

we should be celebrating having a dead parent.

Hey, it didn't hurt Batman.

How did we get to this weird place, telling people who are actually out in the world making a positive difference, you're the problem?

Yeah, quick question: who the fuck are you?

And this isn't only the media and the people on Twitter who exist to bitch, always finding something.

He just did it for the clicks, or for the wrong reason, or you should have done more, or sooner, whatever.

You suck, signed X.

No.

No, no.

No,

this is also the National Institutes of Health, Health, which last year proposed to amend their mission statement to exclude the word disability, saying it, quote, could be interpreted as perpetuating ableist beliefs that disabled people are flawed and need to be fixed.

Let me take this moment to go on record.

Folks, if I am ever struck blind or deaf or paralyzed, don't praise me.

Fix me.

Don't.

Don't sit around talking about how much I'm just as good as you.

Fix me.

Do something.

Use AI.

Invent something.

Steal body parts from a pet cemetery.

Steal stem cells from a frog.

Whatever it takes.

Gene sequencing, robotic eyeballs, harvesting clones.

Inject me with hamster platelets.

Grow a new gallbladder from impossible meat, just do something.

And if I catch on fire, you also have my absolute permission to piss on my ass.

You know, there's so much faking this time of year between the presents you don't want to buy and the presents you didn't want to get and the goodwill toward men that lasts until January 2nd.

I just don't have room for, and disability is awesome.

It's not awesome, and it's not a political affiliation.

That's the problem.

We turn everything into a political identity category.

You're deaf, that's your identity.

Don't mess up a good thing by hearing.

When Adele lost weight, she was excoriated for betrayal.

To who?

She betrayed the unhealthy?

The woke have even turned the homeless into a political identity group, as opposed to liberals, old school liberals, who just want to get them off the street, which now is seen as kind of judgy.

Like,

don't disturb them in their natural habitat.

They're just living their best life under the bridge.

The woke think the number one job is to protect homeless people from stigma.

I think the number one job is to protect them from rain.

Speaking of which, when I did the ice bucket challenge back in 2014, I thought I was helping the cause of funding research to cure ALS.

Wrong again.

An op-ed in Time magazine said the ice bucket challenge even seems to be suggesting that being cold, wet, and uncomfortable is preferable to fighting ALS.

It was suggesting no such thing.

What is wrong with this country that so many people can't be happy for anything for even a second?

Ice bucket challenge?

America is more ready for the can you shit on something good challenge, and yes, we're up to it.

All right, that's that's our celebrity at the Plaza Theater in El Paso.

March 3rd at the Fillmore Miami Beach, March 23rd, and Ruth Eckert Hall in Clearwater, Florida, March 24th.

I want to thank John Edwards, John Jane Ferguson, and Drake Lucienoff.

Now go watch overtime on CNN 11:30 or Catch it Saturday morning on YouTube.

Good night.

Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10, or watch him anytime on HBO On Demand.

For more information, log on to HBO.com.