Ep. #589: Ricky Williams, Vivek Ramaswamy, Marianne Williamson

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Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late night series, Real Time with Bill Maher.

How are you?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are you

hi, everybody?

Thank you very much.

I appreciate that.

Look at this crowd as

thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh, I can tell you, you got it.

You got

this crowd, I know they have Super Bowl fever,

and that's the only fever they have.

I just want you on there.

No other fevers.

Yes, Super Bowl, in our city, very exciting.

Of course, for the Super Bowl, like you here, mask mandate.

Still have the mask mandate for the Super Bowl.

So local politicians, prepare your apologies now.

Because.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We're one of the last states to have this, but yeah, Super Bowl, they have to wear the mask, except when you're eating or drinking.

Really?

Because in America, stuffing your face is a religious exemption.

I just want you to remember.

Here's the

interesting thing.

California, the mask mandate is off, except for L.A.

County.

Well, some counties, but L.A.

County.

So if you're driving through,

you have no mask.

Well, when you hit the county line, you got to put it on, except when someone gives you a hot dog, then you can take it off.

What the CDC calls following the science.

Yeah, well, most of the states now, though, are ditching the mask mandates.

But again, here it's spotty.

San Francisco, as of this hour anyway, still have the mask men.

Well, in San Francisco, you have to have the mask on when you're shoplifting indoors.

But

then you can get rid of it for your getaway.

So, you know, it's a nuanced thing.

But listen to this about the Super Bowl tickets.

You know what the average ticket is?

It's like over $8,000.

When people talk about the nosebleed section now, they mean the luxury box with the cocaine going around.

I'll tell you,

the only thing that has made me feel better this week is watching the Olympics because, you know, for years we've been like, China, oh, they're just kicking our ass here, and they're ahead of this,

and China, this, China, that.

And then I'm watching.

It's like, what a dump.

It's like, really?

I mean,

it's like if our showcase city was Bakersfield, you know, that's what Beijing looks like.

And, you know, it's also so corrupt.

Like, you know, Russia has been tossed out because they're cheaters.

And they get caught doping every time.

So they're officially not in the Olympics.

But you know who's in the Olympics?

Russia.

Not as Russia.

They call it the Russian Olympic Committee.

When Putin invades Ukraine, he's going to say it wasn't us, it was the Russian military committee.

We're not involved.

But of course,

we are Americans.

People want to know how is Team USA doing?

Well,

let's just say when they come back home, there's not going to be a big problem at the metal detector.

Okay, that's all I'm.

Well, I mean,

and that's why the ratings are way down, you know.

When we don't do well, America, we don't watch.

Just ask Afghanistan.

But hey, let's talk about nice stuff.

It's Valentine's Day.

Oh, look at that.

Oh, yes.

Gets my heart every year.

I read the most touching story this year about how two Gen Zs are celebrating together.

Well, not together, because they're afraid to go out with the virus.

But they sent beautiful cards.

Well, not cards.

One texted a heart emoji, and the other one texted back same.

So it's a beautiful story.

But here's something I don't understand.

43%, I read this in a survey of singles now, say that we should expand Valentine's Day to include the concept of self-love.

No, but that's the, does everything have to come around to be the opposite of what it fucking is?

Nothing more.

Yeah.

Nothing more romantic than a candlelight dinner over the sink.

But

I am going to end on a happy note here tonight if it kills me.

No, I have one.

Donald Trump, for the first time, is way down with Republicans, like women Republicans, men Republicans,

Republicans without white guys without college degrees, his base.

I'm talking about 20 points down.

This is very big good news.

And we found out

a new book says that when he was president, he used to routinely flush wads of paper down the toilet.

And also, I think

he used to take a shit in the document shredder.

He may just have a

it looks like he may have been trying to hide things.

Then, you know, when you're president, you're supposed to, when you leave, turn over all the papers to the National Archives, right?

Trump took them with him to Mar-a-Lago.

He wanted them, including the letter, remember the love letters with Kim Jong-hun?

The letters that said thing, Kim called him Your Excellency.

Kim said, our friendship will be like a magical force.

He said, our next meeting is going to be like a fantasy film.

Really, that was in these letters.

Now, you may ask yourself, what kind of idiot would fall for that kind of bullshit?

I say again, Trump took them with him to Mar-a-Lago.

And

not just that.

15 boxes.

This is the people's property that he took with him that you're not supposed to take, including the love letters and the, remember the hurricane map that he drew on with the Sharpie?

Well, whatever it is, it's the people's property, and now it's going to the Smithsonian so that future history the weakest virtue signaling I've seen all week.

But okay.

But yes, this way future historians can look at it and go, what what the fuck?

All right, we've got a great show.

We have Marianne Williamson and Rebecca Ramaswamy.

But here first, he is the former NFL star and cannabis entrepreneur who just launched his new brand, Heisman, Ricky Williams.

Ricky, how are you?

Great to meet you.

Hey.

Look at that.

Wow.

Look at that.

They love you.

You know what?

I was always a huge fan of you when you were playing.

Also, when they wouldn't let you play.

Yes.

So are you a football fan?

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's what I was going to ask you.

Are you still a fan?

I mean, what is it?

I mean, obviously you have a...

checkered experience with football because you were a great player, but they also fucked with you in a lot of ways.

Can you watch this game?

Do you watch this game?

Do you watch it with joy?

Do you watch it with mixed feelings?

You know, when a a game is on I can't help but get into it because I've done it my whole life but if I'm being honest sometimes I get a little PTSD because it's kind of a rough game and

when I was young and doing it I didn't I didn't think so much of the consequences but now that I'm older and looking back

you know it's it's rough but I loved the game it taught me a lot

And you know, when I was a kid, my goal was to be the best college football player I could be.

I really had no aspirations to go to the NFL, but I had so much success that I went into the NFL.

And it was like the moment I entered the NFL, it was like that's when the nightmare started.

Nightmares.

Yeah.

Because they would not let you treat yourself.

I mean, your body takes an awful punishing.

You wanted to treat, I mean, this is sort of has echoes with what we're going through now with COVID.

Yeah.

The way some people don't want to treat themselves pharmaceutically.

Yeah.

And you wanted to treat yourself with marijuana, which worked better than Paxil.

A lot better.

A whole lot better.

But just the idea, you know, whether it's Paxil or the anti-inflammatories the NFL gives us, the whole idea is to shut ourselves off to the pain.

Right.

Shut ourselves off to what's going on.

And for me, that doesn't really work so well.

I'm more about turning on to it so I can actually deal with it.

Right.

Well, but didn't the pot help you feel better?

The pot helped me.

So there's two things that I like to talk about with pot.

First, the immediate effect of I'm stressed out, my mind was tied in knots, I smoked a little bit, have a little bit more space, I'm more relaxed.

That's short term, but if people are doing that to escape their issues, that feeling good turns into not feeling good over the long term.

And what I found is after practice, I go home and smoke and yeah, I feel better, but in that better feeling state, I start to reflect on my life and look at areas of my life where I'm like, man, I can't believe I said that to that person.

So it...

It made me want to be a better person.

So it turned into more of a longer effect to feeling good.

Every week, 11 guys are trying to kill me.

Yes.

Paid a lot of money to try to kill me.

I'm sure, yes.

Well, so what's your body like now?

What's your body and your mind?

Where do you think would they be any different if you hadn't played football?

Well, I mean, obviously, but I think I'd be a lot worse if I didn't take the year off

when I left after I failed a drug test, because in that year off, I got to, I learned yoga, meditation.

learned more about cannabis because I wasn't being tested all the time.

And so in that year off, I was able to find a way to take care of myself and so when I came back and played another five years it's amazing how resilient the body can be if you get out of the its way in the right way I mean you don't look I mean I've seen a lot of football players or I mean they look crumpled up yeah Olympic you look fine I would never guess you played football I feel great I mean even

my team a Heisman team we we had a softball intermediary softball team and and we've been playing softball and so I'm still able to do all the things I want to do I still practice yoga tai chi my body feels great My mind feels great.

I'm an entrepreneur.

I have

three startups, so my mind's always moving.

I love the name of your company, Heisman.

Yeah.

You get it?

You get it, sir?

It's a great play on words.

Yep.

And it must feel good that the thing that they threw you out of the league for is the thing that you're making money with now.

You know, that feels great.

What feels better is the thing that I had so much shame about.

You know, because at least in my culture, and then being an athlete, there wasn't really talk about medicinal marijuana or this is good for you.

It was, if you smoke pot, you're going to be a loser and you're going to get in trouble.

And so, when I failed the test and it came out that, you know, famous football player gives up everything for pot, right?

You know, I was like, is that what just happened?

And so it didn't sit well with me.

And so I wanted to research, like, what is it about this plant that I was willing to sacrifice so much for?

Oh, I could tell you.

I didn't know at the time, but I'm guessing you understood it.

Oh, I did.

I used to defend you all the time with that, because anything that was a pot issue, of course, I was going to be out there for it.

But I always admire your courage in doing that.

And also, it struck me as rank hypocrisy because

it's just, for football, it's just not a performance-enhancing drug.

For me, it is.

For you,

I mean, like, I've heard now that a lot of the players take take Adderall.

That I get.

Why that would be a performance-enhancing drug for football?

Increases your concentration, your alertness, aggressiveness, right?

Yeah, but it's legal.

And when I got to college,

they got all of us on Adderall.

Yeah, well, yeah.

The pharmaceuticals are always illegal, and then there's always a street version that's not.

Yeah.

So let's talk about some other people who had trouble with football.

Colin Kaepernick.

Yes.

Now that everybody is kneeling,

I still don't understand why he never got another job.

It seems like we passed that point where what he did was,

how dare you, into controversial, into we're all doing it now.

Yeah.

The owners do it.

Yeah.

Well, my attitude about that is, and this is the attitude I took with cannabis and the NFL, is they said you can't do this, and I said, well, buy.

And so I think with Colin Kaepernick is he's made a name for himself beyond anything I think he could have ever done in football.

That's something that's bigger than football.

And for me, I always scratch my head.

Why does he want to go back into that place and play?

Why not keep going and doing all these amazing things he's doing?

He had that show on Netflix.

He's just doing a lot of really cool stuff.

Yeah, a lot of people can have a show on Netflix too.

He was in the Super Bowl, was he not?

He was in the Super Bowl.

I mean, when you're in an elite athlete, I don't think anyone, I certainly can understand.

I think only you guys can understand each other, but it's a very short window.

Because you see people who are just in their early 30s, they've peaked and they were like, wow, this guy was the greatest.

And now he's one of the greatest in the world, but he's not right on that.

It's such a fine razor's edge.

And if you can be on it for those few years where you can, it's got to be the greatest high in the world.

So I understand why he wanted it.

To a certain extent, but like for instance, in what you do, what if your career only lasted till 40?

It's like,

what are you going to do the rest of your life?

That's the great thing about comedy.

You can do it till you're a fucking hundred.

And the thing about football

is, at least how I've come to terms with it, football is a platform.

It's a platform.

Because even Tom Brady, right, my age, 44, just retired, he still has approximately half of his life left.

Right.

And so,

and I had a coach.

He said,

if you're only known for what you do on the football field at the end of your life, then you didn't live a fulfilling life.

And so, and this is really why I'm launching Heisman is to take everything I've learned, not just about football, but through football and about life, and sharing that message.

And

my favorite thing to say when people talk about this brand is it's not about a trophy, it's about getting high.

Hear, here.

Okay, well,

the other guy who's in the news lately for getting kicked out of the NFL.

Seems like they do that a lot.

Yeah.

Is Brian Flores.

He was the coach of the Dolphins.

He's got a lawsuit against the NFL now.

He says it's a sham when they pretend to interview black coaches for the job.

There's only one black coach in the league, Mike Tomlin or the Steelers, although next year there'll be three.

But it's still a small amount out of 32 teams.

Now,

I was a minority owner of the Mets at one point.

Yeah.

So I did sit on one owner's meeting.

That's three hours I will never have back.

It was super boring.

You know, it was about how much parking cost.

My view was these guys just are interested in money and making money and also winning.

They want to be a hero in their hometown.

So I'm not saying there isn't bias in their minds, but it's got to be unconscious, right?

Because if they thought they could make more money with the key hire, which is the coach, they, I mean, it's hard to believe in 2022, even some old white owner would be like, you know, I know this black coach is the best, but I just don't like looking at him so much I'm going to risk losing the season.

Is that, what do you make of what's going on?

My opinion is I kind of understand, you know, that the relationship between an owner and a coach is a very special relationship.

And my guess is a lot of the owners don't really spend a lot of time around black people.

That's probably right.

And so they're just like, it's just uncomfortable.

Like, how do I, like...

How do I talk to him?

And, you know, you're making this big investment and, you know, this big company.

Right.

I understand.

You want to hire someone that you can relate to or you feel you can relate to.

But does Jerry Jones really care?

I mean, he wants to win so bad because he wants to be the big hero.

He wants to ride in the parade on the big hat in Dallas.

And is he really talking?

I mean, it's the coach and the players.

But they're 70% black.

That's what matters.

You'd think that they would want to hire a black coach if they thought that that would produce a better better result.

I think if you could convince them of that, they would.

They would.

But even still, if we said, okay,

we want to hire an African-American coach that we think is going to give us a shot to win,

who are they going to hire?

Because they don't get a lot of opportunities.

They don't get a lot of opportunities to show what they can do.

But it's such a small pool that they're choosing from.

Right?

I mean, they almost always come from the ranks of assistant coaches.

Right.

And it's their business.

They know all these people,

right?

Even before.

Oh, but the owners don't.

The owners.

The owners don't.

They don't.

Okay.

They don't.

So what do you think about the part of it where he says that he was paid to tank games so that they could get a better draft position?

Well, is it true?

I mean, I don't know.

I wasn't there, but I wouldn't doubt it because of what you said, right?

Money.

Money and they want to win.

And if you tank and you get a first pick,

you have a better chance to win.

And I also think that's part of it because that's the way that they think, okay?

And when they're talking to African Americans, like

they don't know how African Americans think.

And so,

and you see what happened?

He mentioned this to an African-American coach.

African-American coach ratted him out.

Right?

Isn't that what happened?

Well, enjoy the game tomorrow.

It's great to meet you.

Yes, thank you.

And I hope I get to enjoy your product sometime with you.

Well, we left some for you.

So you did it.

Thank you so much.

My man.

All right.

Ricky Williams, let's meet our panel.

Hey.

There they are.

All right.

He's a scientist lawyer, former biotech CEO, now best-selling author of Woke Inside Corporate America's Justice Scam Babaik.

Ramaswamy is over here.

How are you doing?

Nice to meet you.

Good to meet you.

And she's a political activist and best-selling author who writes for Substacks Transform with Marion Williams and Marion Williamson, who ran for president.

Okay.

How are you guys doing tonight?

Okay?

All right.

So I want to talk about Canada to start off because I feel like the eyes of the world are on them.

And we don't talk about Canada enough.

We should, because our show has been on in Canada for a long time.

But we're so, you know, Americans.

We're chauvinistic about our own country.

There's stuff going on up there.

Well, now everybody's looking at Canada because there's this giant trucker protest.

I guess.

See,

I wasn't that into it for the first couple of weeks of it because it looked like it was just a small group of people, and it is a minority.

It was first about vaccine mandates.

The truckers have to get, 90% are vaccinated,

but they're crossing the border.

This goes both ways.

Some of them then, when they started the protests, had Nazi flags, which of course is going to look bad and is bad.

But I don't know, sometimes the Nazi flag means, I'm a Nazi, and sometimes it means, you're a Nazi.

I'm calling you a Nazi.

So I don't know what this is, but it's not the most of the people there.

What's happening this week, it looks like, is people are understanding that this is about something more

than just the vaccine mandate.

It's becoming a big thing.

It's happening all over the world now.

They think it might happen here in Washington on Super Bowl Sunday.

Do you agree it's about something more, and if so, what?

Look, I think it is about something more.

If you think this is about vaccine mandates or about white supremacy, you're missing the point.

And this isn't a left or right issue.

This is about an uprising of everyday citizens in democracies around the world.

It's not just Canada, it's not the United States, it's Western Europe too, rising against the biggest threat to actual democracy, which I think is the rise of this managerial class in democracies around the world that are crushing the will of everyday people through bureaucracies.

And it's the same people, by the way, Bill, who staff corporate boards of directors, who end up as associate deans of universities, who then end up being appointed as diplomats abroad.

These are the unelected class of leaders that ultimately, I think, are using their bureaucratic power to supplant the will of everyday, not only Americans, but Canadians and Western Europeans too.

And that's why we're seeing a fusion of both the left and the right here saying that actually we want our voices heard.

We want to be able to speak without fear of putting food on the dinner table.

And you know what?

The beautiful thing about a democracy is that so far, thank God this has been a peaceful set of protests.

I hope it stays that way.

That's part of the messiness of democracy.

That's part of what makes it beautiful.

You're ready for that one.

I'll be watching it.

I agree that democracy is messy and that's the price you pay in a way for free society.

As long as we're going to honor free expression, protest is important but also protest is inherently disruptive.

So the line we have to find for ourselves is where does disruption become harm?

These people have spoken, they have expressed themselves, they have a lot of passion behind their message, obviously.

And what the Canadian government and any government has to then balance is at what point does this now move over into more than your grievances, but the grievances of people such as workers in Detroit and elsewhere who are finding economic harm because of

these protests.

I think it's interesting, this issue of our looking at Canada, because these protesters are not attacking their capital.

And

their government is not bringing out, they're not attacking the building.

I mean, mean, they're in Ottawa, they're in front of the Capitol, but they're not attacking the Capitol building.

Right, well, they're not trying to stop an election, not right.

Well, but my point is, there's no violence in what they're doing, even though swastikas are not funny at all.

Right.

I mean, but those are outliers there.

Yes, I don't think so.

My point is that, in a way, we get to see that this can be done in a way that does not bring violence with it.

And I think for Americans, it's actually something to look at there.

But I'm asking about the bigger issue here: is like, why

did this

and why truckers?

And I thought, you know, like during the pandemic,

you know,

I talked about this many times.

You know, we would see these eds, we're all in it together, and I'd think, no, we're not.

No, we're not.

There are some people who stay home and some people who bring them the food.

You know, if you're just ordering Amazon and you don't ever have to go out, and your job you can do remotely,

but who's bringing the Amazon things?

The trucker.

You know,

it was just, it looks, you did not use that word elitist in your whole speech, but like that's the word that I think is on people's tongues and minds.

And I mean, that certainly is what populists, including bad ones like Trump, play on.

But there is this idea, and it's not wrong, that Some people are staying home in their Lululemons and other people

can afford to wait out and get a free vacation and money from the government and other people can't.

And they're pissed off the people who can't.

I think you're totally right about that, Bill.

I will say one more thing though.

It goes, I think, one step beyond that, is this is also furthermore a group of people who have further, by the elites, been excluded in the name of capital I inclusion.

And so I was a biotech CEO after when the George Floyd protests played out in 2020.

I was still a biotech CEO back then.

Back then, every institutional elite in America, in other countries around the world, but especially in America, would step up and say, what we need to do is we need to listen and open our hearts and minds.

And I think those same institutional leaders would now do well to take a page from that playbook and listening to these truckers right now.

Right, I mean, actually listen to what they have to say.

I mean, Justin Trudeau.

What?

You're laughing, but Justin Trudeau, I mean, I thought he was kind of a cool guy, but I started to read what he said, this is a couple of weeks ago, he was, or maybe this is September, but he was talking about people who are not vaccinated.

He said they don't believe in science.

They're often misogynistic, often racist.

No, they're not.

That was not smart of him at all.

Right.

He said, but they take up space.

And with that, we have to make a choice in terms of a leader as a country.

Do we tolerate these people?

It's like, tolerate these.

Now you do sound like him.

And recently he talked about them

holding unacceptable views.

Wow, that's a good question.

I'm surprised to hear that Trudeau said those things.

You didn't see the blackface?

I mean, he's.

No, I'm kidding about it.

I'm not.

I mean, that was not a good look for him.

But I mean,

come on.

I mean, that's, I think, what gets under people's skin.

And I was reading also who got the money from the PayTech Protection Program.

You know, this is our $800 billion.

That's kind of a lot, okay, that we gave out.

Only about a quarter of the money spent by the program paid wages that would have otherwise been lost.

So three-quarters of it didn't do, of $800 billion.

And then 72%.

of the relief money ended up in the hands of people with incomes, household incomes, in the top 20%.

I think this is what the truckers are mad at.

Not that they know the exact statistics, but 20, 20,

all that money went up to the people who are in the top 20 percent?

The people who got loans for $1.5 million and over got a quarter of the money.

This is so outrageous.

Donald Trump's personal lawyer, his law firm got a $10 million loan.

This is what people are angry at because the system is so corrupt.

The system is so corrupt.

And it's not just corporate elites, it's the corporate elites who are corrupting the system because of the money that corporations, their undue influence on a very, very corrupt government.

This corruption is so baked into the cake and of course people are angry.

People are enraged and they are legitimately enraged.

It's so baked into the cake that it's bipartisan.

It is bipartisan in that.

It is absolutely right.

There are differences, big differences.

We may agree about that.

I think there are a big difference between Democrats and Republicans, but this kind of stuff, they're kind of on the same team.

This

The Republicans started it, but the Democrats haven't stopped it.

And at this point, the Republicans don't even pretend to care, and the main difference between the Democrats is that they do pretend to care.

This has to do, that's the main difference between the parties at this point.

When you look at those people, when you look at those people who could afford to stay home with their Lululemons, what has happened with this?

It's interesting to note with that PPPE loan data, the small business administration tried to keep it secret.

They said because of privacy, they didn't want to let out the numbers.

And the judge said, oh no, the people need to know this and made those numbers public.

So what's happening is that people are getting the receipts for what we have been feeling for so long.

This kind of economic injustice, this kind of structural rigging, so that whenever there's a problem, take care of the people who already have, and then the rest of the people who don't have, well, good luck, we'll drop a few crumbs to you.

It's been going on for decades.

People have felt it, they've acted on it, and now we're getting the receipts.

Look,

we sent our stimulus check back.

There's a economic stimulus check we got.

We send it back.

This is not meant for people like us.

But I think that actually at the end of the day, this is about a merger of government and private enterprise that together is actually far more dangerous than either one.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, managing over $10 trillion, got the deal to administer much of the COVID-19 stimulus, and many of their alumni now staff the administration.

And so I think that this is, you're right, it's not a left-wing issue, it's not a right-wing issue, it is a rejection of this marriage of the private sector and government.

And you know what?

We live in the moment of social distancing.

What I think is actually we need more social distancing between capitalism and democracy.

Let the private sector operate, let government operate, keep them apart from what we live in.

There is a word for it.

There is a word for it when government is so tied, is so married to corporate interests.

That word is fascism.

Right.

Amen.

That is the actual definition of fascism.

But

in the system we have,

it is just two sides, and we don't seem to be able to break that bond.

We never seem to be able to have a third party that's successful.

I was reading, this is a Bloomberg survey, of like who is on whose side, basically, this is by profession, who votes for who.

So interesting, the way that two parties do this doci-dough where they completely switch.

Democrats, professors, people like professors, therapists, lawyers, bankers, of course, teachers, government workers.

Those used to be the, you know, other

Republicans, truck drivers, construction workers, carpenters, cops, maintenance people, the blue-collar guy.

Does it always have to be that you can't be both, that you can't appeal to both?

That you have to, we can switch sides, but you can't appeal to both?

Well, the Democratic Party used to be unequivocally the power that stood for the rights and the needs and the safety and the well-being of the working people of the United States of America.

That's what Democrats used to be.

People like you and I have an institutional memory of a time when they were that.

At this point, because there is so much that's performative, because there's so much that's promising, people know that the system is so unbalanced.

We have the largest income inequality in the history of our country.

We have, of all advanced nations, the highest poverty rate.

Of all advanced nations, we have the highest incarceration rate.

One out of four people can't even afford to fulfill the prescription that their doctors gave them.

Of all advanced democracies, we're pretty much the other one, the only one that doesn't have universal health care.

And people are looking, is anybody going to help us here?

Well, the reason they're not, though, is, and I think that there are more cynical forces at work here, is there is this arranged marriage between big government and big business after the 08 financial crisis.

Because what happened is big business back then, the big business that used to support the Republican Party, they realized that actually the biggest threats to their power used to come from Democrats.

So Wall Street didn't like Occupy Wall Street.

Guess what they said?

We're going to now embrace the new woke movement, the new neo-progressive movement, and use that to put Occupy Wall Street up for adoption.

Silicon Valley used to hear the fact that actually Democrats are the ones that want to break us up.

So you know what?

We'll start using our platforms to censor views that you don't like so that you don't come back to us.

And both sides, Bill, are duped into submission by this woke industrial complex where liberals look the other way because they like the values they're pushing.

Conservatives, for that matter, just they look the other way because they say the free market can do no wrong and both sides are actually duped by this new monster whatever that's a clever way you've got to plug in for your book

the whole time was in there the tracker is in the context of your book

everything in the group

no lubricant

you're lazy this though wow okay i mean

i'm gonna i'm gonna get i'm gonna bring it up in two seconds but let me interrupt to to bring up just before i so i don't lose track of time i mentioned this in the monologue i want to say it again because i'm clinging to little pieces of hope.

Trump is so down in his own party.

This has not happened before.

I mean, I could read you the numbers, but it's like startling numbers.

Over 20% among his key groups, not the other groups.

Okay.

So apparently what he's doing is because he realizes the handwriting may be on the wall, maybe he's not going to be president again.

He's looking around for another gig.

This weekend, this is true.

He was DJing at Mar-a-Lago.

And see, there it is.

And

he DJs under the name Fat Boy Dim.

And he

we got a hold.

His playlist is a little different.

We got a hold of it.

Would you like to hear some of the

I knew you would.

I knew you would.

For example, Fuck the Capitol Police is one of his.

This land's not your land.

Don't stop a grieving is one of his big hits.

Hot for bleacher.

I like that one.

50 Ways to Leave Your Daughter.

Got to get me into your wife.

Mr.

Tangerine Man.

Working four to five.

How can you mend a broken voting machine?

Whatever.

And, of course, where the tweets have no shame.

All right.

So,

I'm sorry.

I interrupted you.

You were entering his, what we were making fun of him for, but you did it beautifully.

Your book is Woke Inc.

And the thesis is basically that corporations should stick to making widgets and not take political positions um is

does that include every issue because what about when they're involved in the issue like being polluters yeah so look i think it generally applies to most issues nearly all issues and i say it not because i want them to be more efficient at making widgets that's what milton friedman right i said i say it because i actually care about the integrity of a a democracy where every person's voice and vote ought to count equally irrespective of how much power they wield in the marketplace.

And I think that most of these corporations are doing it cynically.

They are blowing rotations.

Okay, give me an example of what you mean.

Is this like when Kendall Jenner was selling Pepsi by, you know, handing the Pepsi to the cop at the protest?

I think it was absolutely that, but I just don't want to pick on Pepsi.

It's Coke too, their competitor, who does the same thing where they train their employees on how to be less white.

That's their language, not mine, while doing nothing about the impact of their own products on diabetes and obesity, including in the black community that they profess to care so much about.

So it's a sham.

And I think that the sham doesn't work if we're actually able to see through it.

Now, some people do it authentically too, and I'm more sympathetic to the authentic cases.

But even in the authentic cases, I have an issue with it, which is that it tells the ordinary Americans that it's the judgments of elite corporate leaders that matter more than your judgments.

That's the way old world Europe used to work.

Church leaders, labor leaders, business leaders used to get together in a smoke-filled room and decide what was right for the rest of society.

That's not the way we do it in America.

The way we do it is every person's voice counts equal.

But if I understand.

If I understand what you're saying, though, you are a great proponent of what you call

stockholder capitalism, as opposed to stakeholder capitalism, which is, I understand, it is just trickle-down economics.

It's just regonomics.

It's that the only responsibility of the corporation is the fiduciary responsibility to its stockholders, even at the expense of stakeholders, at the expense of the environment, at the expense of the community.

This is unfettered, unregulated capitalism.

That is not the answer to our problems.

That is our problem.

I respectfully disagree with that, actually, because I'm sympathetic to where you're coming from there.

But I think that we ought to sort out the right way to work out racism, is it to apply a quota system, or is it something else?

The right way to fight climate change, is it to make higher prices for consumer goods or something else?

Those ought to be debated in a democracy through free speech and open debate in the public square without elite corporate intervention.

And one last thing about you, I know you ran for president of the Democratic Party, you're actually one of my favorite candidates, but I want to say this is.

But you're not a Democrat.

I'm not a Democrat, but you were actually probably my favorite candidate, to be really honest about it.

But liberals in 2010, a card-carrying member of the Democratic Party, had to say that they were opposed to Citizens United.

That was the case that allowed corporations to influence elections through campaign contributions.

Well, guess what?

I think this new stakeholder capitalism trend is Citizens United on steroids.

Because it doesn't just allow corporations to make those donations, it demands that they influence politics in ways that actually crush the will of everybody.

The main influence of these corporations on our politics, I agree with you about the bullshit of the system.

Where I disagree with you is that you're covering up and apologizing for the mendacity of the system.

That stockholder capitalism does have an undue influence on our country, mainly through its undue financial influence through donations on our government.

It is the corruption of our government.

I agree with you about the corruption of the culture, but what I'm mainly concerned about is how it corrupts our government through money.

So let me give you a specific example.

What about, now, here's,

everybody knows what happened with Joe Rogan.

He's got in big trouble once, then twice.

It's like once he was vulnerable, one thing, they went in for the kill with the other.

It's like when you get a bull down, you know, you're like, now he's bleeding.

We're going to get him with this other.

Okay, so

this head, so Daniel Eck is the CEO of Spotify.

That's what Joe Rogan is on.

Now he's not getting rid of Joe Rogan, but he did say they're going to be giving,

I'm committing to an incremental investment of $100 million

for the licensing, development, and marketing of music from historically marginalized groups.

That made me laugh, because it's like, thank God we're going to be able to help some black people break into the music industry.

That is long overdue for the.

I mean, what the fuck does that mean?

A hundred historically marginalized groups?

I saw this same trick played by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, by the way.

They phrased it a little differently.

In the wake of George Floyd, they're going to actually invest in companies led by persons of color.

They didn't say historically marginalized, they said persons of color.

Why?

Because they're already investing in companies led by Indian Americans or Asian Americans, and they're just counting that towards the quota.

So, again, this is just a way of appeasing the greatest threats to a capitalist's power by feeding them enough breadcrumbs that makes them go away.

But there's something more there.

$100 million is not nothing.

And I agree with you.

And I agree with you about the bullshit of the overwokeness.

I don't disagree with that.

$100 million that's not...

Where does it go?

I don't understand what this is.

Is this finding a tribe in the Amazon and giving them a record deal?

I don't know.

Well, I'll tell you.

It has to do with podcasts that would have to do with black history, Latino history, history of the United States as untold by certain official narratives.

It's not nothing.

Why is that Spotify's job?

I mean, that's

just selling indulgences.

It's what the church used to do.

You ought to get into heaven.

It's going to cost you.

I mean, it's like, that's all this is.

I mean, it's Spotify's job is to host different, diverse views.

And you actually want to embrace diversity.

Great.

Joe Rogan gives you diversity.

Host different views.

Okay, so this is the issue of should or should not there be an ethical moral center to capitalism.

And you're saying, if I understand you, but correct me if I'm wrong, that capitalism should be amoral.

So I say that, Marianne, in one narrow context, because I think virtue is a precondition for capitalism to work.

Virtue is not a product of capitalism.

That's what you just said.

But that's why capitalism is falling apart.

So, well, I think that's why the whole system is up.

But the problem is upstream of capitalism.

The problem is upstream.

That's why people have had it with the capitalism.

It is a toxic capitalism that has no moral.

So I think we disagree only by a little bit because I think capitalism works if people want what they actually need.

And capitalism fails

when our wants diverge from our

actual needs.

And so social media companies are able to prey on our insecurities.

We should solve those psychic insecurities upstream in the family through education.

Then capitalism ends up being a more beautiful system

just to get good.

But people have, it's very nice.

It's very nice that you think that everybody should have this wonderful voice within the public sphere.

When people are so shackled economically,

when you have 40 million people who are living in poverty, when you have people who are eight years old, 10 years old, already locked out because they haven't been taught to read and their chances of incarceration are greater than their chances of high school, then when they see the incredible way that our tax code serves the very, very rich and every other thing we're talking about, whether it's PPP or anything else, where it's so unfair, where do you think they're supposed to express themselves?

I think they're supposed to express themselves as citizens, because in a democracy, each of our voices and votes are weighted equally.

But you know what?

At the end of the day, I agree with you that people are frustrated through their disempowerment.

But these capitalists, these

corporations are the ones giving the donations to these political parties.

I say social distancing.

I don't like campaign contributions any more than the next guy.

But one thing I will say about you is, actually, campaign contributions and spending in political elections don't work nearly as well as you think they would.

Michael Bloomberg's nearly a billion dollars, you probably got more votes than he did.

I'm more worried about the other problem with which is effectively.

Before we run in our time, can say one thing: Spotify.

He's here too.

Where are you fine?

about it?

It's okay.

I'm happy.

No, no.

Hey.

They pay me the same whether I'm involved in the fight or not.

Spotify doesn't pay its artists now.

That's the point.

That's the point.

You know what they should do with that $100 million?

Pay the people who are on you now.

That's correct.

I mean, you could have the biggest hit record, record and Spotify, you'll get a check at the end of the year for like 12 grand.

At the end of the day, we shouldn't expect anything different from these companies.

They're going to do what allows them to aggregate the most profit and power.

We shouldn't have any different of an expectation

to fix government.

Oh, it's the way we fix our culture.

That's what we should focus.

No, no, I totally disagree with you.

And I think the fact that there is no more

insurance companies, insurance companies are why we do not have universal health care.

Pharmaceutical companies are why people cannot even afford their drugs.

Oil companies are why there's oil extraction.

Now you've opened up a big...

To say...

I...

Thank you.

I know.

I know, but

the military-industrial complex is why we have these spectacular military misadventures.

But to say insurance companies are the only reason why we don't have universal health care.

You're saying the influence of big insurance companies.

I'm saying there's a lot of people in that mess.

It's not just not that I give a fuck about insurance companies, but that's a very narrow way to look at it.

And we don't have time.

I have to go to new rules.

But there's a lot of people, including the people who write those bills in Washington.

Who receive campaign donations from their corporate overlords, that marriage being.

All I would say is that three of us are in agreement.

Let's restore democracy, where we actually disentangle capitalism from democracy, we're into a good place.

Time for new rules, everybody.

New rules.

Let's just going to have to do it.

All right, the next time, New Rule, the next time Vladimir Putin meets Emmanuel Macron, they need a smaller table.

Boy.

At least America never had a leader who let the furniture make him look stupid.

New Rule, Japanese artist Sashi has to tell us her secret to making her 3D cat portraits look so realistic.

Actually, never mind.

Neural, now that Dune has been nominated for 10 Oscars, someone has to tell me, why does everyone in science fiction live in the desert?

Is it for the schools?

Better parking

taxes?

You have spaceships.

Leave.

Oh, and by the way, you're wearing your masks wrong.

New rule, if England enters its third month of being enraged at Boris Johnson for going to an office party, the whole country has to get sacked by Vikings.

to remind them of when they had real white people problems.

Here's the punishment for going to an office party.

You're at an office party.

New rules, someone has to explain to the butterfly sanctuary in Texas that had to close down due to constant harassment from QAnon conspiracy nuts who believed it was a front for human traffickers.

You can't put all the blame on QAnon.

Your snack bar could have done a little better job in explaining that the kids' meal was a meal for kids.

And finally, New Rules, stop saying that Whoopi Goldberg getting yanked from the view right after she attacked me on the view is karma.

There's no such thing as karma.

Sorry.

Sorry, but life is random.

The only word to describe it when a big game hunter gets trampled by an elephant and then eaten by lions is hilarious.

Now,

I mentioned this karma stuff stuff on the show last week because I was relating how many texts and emails I got from people congratulating me on receiving a karmogram from the universe

in the form of Whoopi Goldberg's chastisement.

So I thought this would be a good time for a little tutorial on karma, which, as Americans understand it, is nothing more than an extension of the common logical fallacy called post-hoc ergo propter hoc,

which means after that, because of that.

It's the fallacy that happens when someone assumes that if one thing follows another, then the first thing must have caused the second thing.

Like, I wore green socks every day last year and I never got into a car accident.

Green socks must prevent car accidents.

People make this mistake all the time, but honestly, washing your car doesn't really make it rain.

Yeah.

If it did, we would have tried it here by now.

But this is how Americans see karma.

But karma is not a system of reward and punishment.

That's Catholicism.

Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning action.

You make the conscious choice to put good out into the world.

Karma is the memory of our souls, the sum of a person's actions in previous states of existence that decide their fate in future existences.

Now, of course, that's all bullshit, too.

I mean...

I mean.

I mean, reincarnation, really?

If that was real, wouldn't we have some evidence by now?

A raccoon spelling out in acorns.

Help me!

My name is Herb Zoller, and I got trapped in this raccoon body.

I have a meeting next week, and I can't show up as a raccoon.

So yes, the Buddhist version of karma is, well, certainly unprovable, but at least it's a beautiful, positive thought.

But what Americans did was take karma, and like everything else in this hateful, spiteful country, turn it into something bitter and nasty.

We use it like, you took the last cupcake and God will have my revenge.

Ellen was mean to her staffers and then she lost her show.

Karma!

You voted for Trump and now you have COVID.

Karma, now die.

We took something that was meant to be gentle, kind, and hopeful and turned it into a Tarantino movie.

Someone did you wrong and then sometime later something bad happened to them.

Karma.

No.

Something bad was bound to happen to them.

At some point because they're alive.

If you keep living, some bad things will happen.

Only in this dump country do we all make it about ourselves and connect the two and call it karma.

You stole the parking spot I was waiting for at Trader Joe's.

Enjoy your early onset dementia.

What Americans really mean when we say karma, the foreign word that really describes our feeling, is not found found in Sanskrit.

It's found in German, Schadenfreude, meaning getting pleasure out of someone else's misfortune.

But your old high school boyfriend didn't wind up a janitor because he dumped you a week before the prom.

He's a janitor because he got 600 on his SATs.

And Whoopi Goldberg getting suspended by the view isn't karma, and I wouldn't want it if it was.

People have to learn to disagree in this country and not hate for it.

Whoopi said I was flippant and immoral for saying it's time to chuck the masks and get back to normal.

Well, are 43 states here in America and the entire nations of England, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland flippant because they're saying the same thing now?

COVID is so much more complicated than just, I'm for more safety than you are, therefore I'm a better person.

But Whoopi is misinformed on many aspects of the COVID debate.

After she got it recently, she said that being vaccinated, quote, doesn't stop Omicron, and that's the problem of the variant because it gets stronger.

Actually, it usually gets weaker, as is the case with this one.

But that's okay.

She's allowed to be wrong.

Fuck, it's 11 a.m.

Who can think clearly at that hour?

I'm still in REM sleep.

And as I mentioned last week, how could a nation like America have maintained an apartheid state for the vast majority of its history and expect the views of the races to match on all matters?

It's amazing they match on any.

Whoopee Goldberg shouldn't have to conform to or apologize for her views on race as much as I disagree with them.

And she certainly shouldn't have to sit out like a child and think about what she did.

The view, suspending someone for sharing a view is like firing Pat Sajak for selling a vowel.

We have got to get past this endless, unforgiving, zero-tolerance mindset bent on punishing and disappearing anyone caught saying the wrong thing.

The right response to speech you don't like is more speech, not the lazy, cowardly response of canceling people.

This is a big country with lots of people who don't think like you.

We all only need to agree on free speech itself.

That's my religious belief.

That's the timeless principle I live by.

I don't like what Whoopee said about race.

She didn't like what I said about COVID.

So what?

The real essence of karma, by the way, is non-attachment, letting shit go.

It's very Zen.

Oh, and by the way, no one knows what that means either.

All right, that's our show.

I'll be at the Fox Theater in Oakland tomorrow, February 12th, at the Smart Financial Center in Triggerland, Texas, April 9th.

And at the Tulsa Theater in Tulsa, April 10th, I want to thank your mate, Lama Swami, Marion Williamson, and Ricky Williams.

Now go to YouTube and join us on Overtime.

Oh, thank you.

I was super proud.

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

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