Overtime - Episode #372 (Originally aired 11/20/15)

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

Okay, here are our questions from the overtime group.

Senator King, what do you and Bernie Sanders, why do you and Bernie Sanders continue to remain independents despite caucusing with Democrats?

Good question.

Because it gives me a chance to work on both sides of issues.

I don't think there's a necessarily anybody has a monopoly on the truth, and

I can work with one side or the other.

I work with Republicans on some issues, Democrats on others.

But you have to caucus with somebody because that's how you get a committee assignment.

Caucusing doesn't mean you sign anything.

It's basically who you have lunch with on Tuesdays.

Right.

Oh, interesting.

Okay.

Gavin, why do you support raising the minimum wage in California?

That's a nice softball for you.

I mean, you know, look, we all know this.

Economic growth has been a spectator sport for too many people.

Wages are flat, salaries are flat, and we need to step it up.

You know, as you may know, I've got 18 small businesses.

So I understand this issue.

Yeah, and we have close to a thousand employees.

So the impact of the minimum wage, I understand deeply from the other perspective.

And I can tell you, as a former mayor of a city that had the highest minimum wage in the United States, and I was intimating this earlier, the city has never done better economically.

This notion that somehow raising the minimum wage is going to kill job growth and job creation is just simply untrue.

It's factually incorrect.

We need to get our minimum wage up.

What did you think of that, Andy?

I like it.

Can I chip in on that one?

Yes, please chip in.

No, I was just going to say,

one of the, I

what can I say?

I love San Francisco.

I love San Francisco.

No, what a shock.

Yes, sorry.

I chatted.

I'm sorry.

Go ahead.

Go ahead, darling.

Tell it.

No, the only thing I was going to add there is, you know, one of the things that I think is so important when we think about economic growth is if you don't build middle-class prosperity, you are not going to have sustainable economic growth.

If people don't have money to spend, you're not going to have economic growth.

And that's why anything you can do to support the middle class and the people who are struggling to join it is going to be good for the economy.

100%.

Okay.

Ben, do Republicans have an alternative strategy to Obama in Syria?

I think that they do.

Unfortunately, Unfortunately, I'm not sure those strategies are better.

I think that the unfortunate thing for the Republicans when it comes to Syria is that their natural inclination is to want to go the boots on the ground route or do something of that nature, but they've also had this tug of war within their consciousness about it because they've never really worked through the lessons of the Bush era when it came to that sort of issue.

I think the window is actually past the point where you could achieve what a lot of Republicans wanted to do in terms of getting rid of Assad.

Instead, now you're at a point where

you are going to have to form a coalition with other Muslim countries

and with Russia

and target ISIS

along those lines as opposed to what they might have been able to do.

But I always hear them say he's weak and he's this and he's that and then when it comes to time to put up, but what would you actually do differently?

It's a lot of ba ba ba ba ba ba.

This time around it's because none of them really want to admit the fact that they're going to have to cave to Putin's priorities, which leads to a situation in in the Middle East where Russia is viewed as a better patron than and more reliable one when it comes to drawing red lines than the American.

Andy, what can we expect from the new Real Housewives series in the...

That is a far more important question for a number of reasons.

I left off at the beginning.

A follow-up question.

Andy,

what can we expect from the new Real Housewives series in the D.C.

suburbs?

Yes, Potomac.

Real Housewives of Potomac.

That's a great idea.

The Salahis torpedoed the Real Housewives of D.C., if you remember the party crashes all those years ago.

Absolutely.

But we've got this great group of women.

We weren't looking to do a housewives again in that area, but we found these women in Potomac who are very Potomac proud.

And they're all about etiquette.

It reminds me of kind of early days of the housewives.

It's great.

Are they housewives of politicians?

No, they're not.

It's not.

It's very apolitical.

Oh, what a shame.

Why don't you do one?

I know that would be great.

That would be great.

I mean, I'd love to get Michelle Bachman on a Real Housewives show.

I mean, she's kind of perfect.

And I bet you'd like to meet her husband.

Anyway.

No, actually, actually,

actually,

I bet he'd like to meet me.

Yes.

That's much less.

That's absolutely right.

What do you make of the Charlie Sheen thing?

You know, I mean, I'm not going to make any jokes because, I mean, I've had my fun with Charlie,

but I also know him a little bit.

And,

you know, this is serious.

This is not a time for snarky comments.

Right.

Well, it was an interesting week because before he came out and said, I have HIV, there was a, it felt like the 80s where there was this HIV shame going around where, and then that it turned out that he was coming out because he had been bribed.

You know, he didn't want to disclose the information.

Then he had been blackmailed.

I mean, he had been blackmailed.

I'm sorry.

But on the today's show, I found his,

I found it a little irresponsible that he was on with this doctor who was saying that the doctor was guiding him through having unprotected sex with these high-risk individuals.

And it just seemed to me like he had an opportunity to kind of say something or do something.

And he kind of, the message was very murky.

I left feeling very confused.

I obviously wish him great health.

But it was upsetting.

And then to find out that there were what he claimed, oh, I've told everyone that I've been with that you know this is my status but then all these women came out and said no they he's never told me it just got very messy very quickly but tiger's blood does not prevent it it doesn't

what did you think by the way I mean you he I'm assuming you've known him for a long time not like that well no I know that I know

I've had dinner with him so I got I got checked immediately no No, I mean, I think it's, I mean, first of all, I think it's interesting that when you think about the heterosexual men who've gotten it, Magic Johnson,

Charlie Sheen, people who have like fucked everybody west of La Brea.

Right.

Charlie Sheen was in Heidi Fleis's Little Black Book 21 years ago.

He was the only name that came out of that book.

So this has been going on a long time.

Yeah.

I mean, and people said to me, oh, porn stars.

Well, porn stars get checked every week, don't they?

Because that's their living.

I don't know if we we can.

I'm just wondering why the hell I'm saying.

This is not a political ad right here.

You just fly right off and say,

Jump in anytime.

No, jump in anytime.

Well, yeah, porn stars have to get checked.

They do.

That's what they do for a living.

They've got to protect the moneymaker.

Like, I have some special knowledge of this.

Christian, what do you think of Justin Trudeau's plan to lift visa requirements for Mexicans coming to Canada?

Well, Justin Trudeau is the Prime Minister of Canada.

He's the leader of my party.

He's my boss.

So, of course, I think it's a very good plan.

Spoken like a true politician.

And I do think it's a good plan.

I mean, you know, Mexico is a very important partner for Canada.

Interesting.

And, you know, having better relations with Mexico is really important to us.

And I've said this before on the show, but just to put things in perspective, I mean, Europe has to worry about people coming to their society and trying to destroy it.

The people who come from Mexico don't want to destroy our society.

They want to join it.

And they make great food and they enjoy sexy dancing.

All cultures are not alike.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

What does the panel think of Bernie Sanders' statement that climate change is linked to the threat of terrorism?

He's right.

Absolutely.

The Syrian war started partly because there was a horrible drought there that drove all the farmers into the city and there was nothing for them to do.

So what's going to happen when Bangladesh is underwater?

Yeah.

There are going to be millions of people.

Well that's the other refugee crisis, right?

630 plus million people live in the coastline that are vulnerable to sea level rise.

But, you know, it's a good point.

Close to a million people were displaced during that four-year epic drought in Syria, northern Syria, and Assad didn't react to it.

created conditions that sparked the civil war, ultimately created the instability where terrorists were able to take advantage of that and vulnerabilities.

But it's certainly an accelerant.

It's certainly something that the Pentagon has identified as quote-unquote a threat multiplier.

And it's something that's not unique to Syria as well.

You've seen it in Nigeria.

You've seen it certainly as part of the conversation around the Arab Spring and food price increases.

It is a serious and significant issue.

And that's why, again, these Paris talks are critical as it relates not just to climate but also the broader conversation about national.

It's not every day you see Bernie Sanders and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Senate.

And again, California, I think, was the state that got the country better mileage standards, wasn't it?

Because California decided that we would not accept cars that didn't have a certain level and it's too big a market for Detroit not to make every car that way.

Decades before the federal government finally put themselves in a position to adopt similar strategy.

Look, we have a low-carbon green growth strategy.

We're committed to radically changing the way we produce and consume energy.

We're the only large-scale cap-and-trade program in the United States.

Our economy again.

We've seen deals with Ontario and Quebec on cap-and-trade.

We have partnerships and sort of the Western Hemisphere.

And so, look, California is, we're in the how business, and we're not just isolating an ideal.

We don't get the respect we deserve.

That's the bottom line.

Isn't it true?

It's because the media is in New York.

That's what the respect.

That is what

I'm saying.

The media is in New York.

Oh, it's the greatest city in the world, and we don't get the respect we deserve.

Thank you.

Fuck yeah.

Thank you, everybody.

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