I've never liked Bill Maher. He is a pseudo-intellectual who has always carefully positioned himself to appear as a renegade when he is an establishment shill. He does it to chase ratings and attention. His appearance on these shows is really chasing his audience; he can see that the traditional news audience had dwindled to the point that, if he wants to stay in the public eye, he needs to court the independent and even "right wing" media because that's where the audience is.
As the Megyn Kelly interview shows, he's an uninformed, vapid celebrity who's opinion isn't worth a cup of coffee.
I like him, and think he's funny. Not always, but let's be fair, more often than say Gutfeld is. BTW, reading the editorials book now. I'm to page 79. How can you not say all his insults about the cell-phone/smart phone conformists, click bait faux journalism, and cancel culture aren't timely and accurate?
Give me a break...he didn't stand up to any of the cancel culture episodes until it was obvious the tide was turning...the same with almost everything he ever supposedly takes issue with. He made fun of a guest who talked about gender re-assignment surgery for minors just a few years ago, saying it was one of the most ridiculous things he'd ever heard of. He's a poser.
well, to be fair, if you are reporting accurately on what he use to say about that topic, he changed, didn't he? you know, in the forward to his book, he asserts he admonishes his writing staff who help him with his 'new rules/final editorials' NOT to be earnest, meaning self-righteous and hall monitor-like, because that is anathema to comedy. Yet, at his worst, it seems to me too, when he bites his lip like Clinton use to do, he appears to be one-my-truthing, which I think you are calling being a poser. Point taken--at his worst. But wouldn't you say he stands up for comedy (and against censoring of comedy) in general?
But he didn't when it counted...he let Dave Chappelle, Joe Rogan, and other comedians take the heat and show that they could survive the cancel-culture mob before he came forward. There's no risk to saying you're standing against censorship now so it's hardly a principled position. Chappelle's the hero in comedy, he was too big to cancel. Maher could have been that guy but he's too late to the party.
I haven't (and won't) read Maher's book; I've never found him to be anything other than smug and condescending. If you like him I'm happy for you; that's okay!
Yeah, he gets under my skin too. Watching him dismantle Taibbi bothered the hell out of me.
The main reason I give him any attention is that he actually DID pay a price for his opinions, and it was a heavy one. His show was cancelled, his career went DOA for quite some time, and he was a pariah; that's undeniable. (It was when he called the hijackers brave after 911)
IDK... I'm getting old (65) and what surprises me is that rather than becoming the crotchety old fart I felt destined to be, I'm finding myself more inclined to find common ground than I did in the past. So I fully acknowledge the faults of Bill Maher, but weighing them against his qualities, they come up short. Like most people, he's a good guy.
sorry to say, I am really computer/phone/world challenged, so I read you said BS, but I do not know what (possibly) BS thing I said. I am guessing I complimented Bill Maher's book a little too much. Now, that I finished it, I suspect you may have a point. The whole thing about Bill is he is a comedian, in big letters and political in smaller ones. if too much the other way, yes, he (or his writing staff---you believe everyone there knows climate change or the PRC equally and as fairly?) can become an unfunny scold. The other reason these editorials usually work is that they are the only part of the show---just a very small portion of it, that can be completely unfunny on purpose. and he gets away with if it is preceded by lots of jokes like Johnny did satirizing magazine headlines and more than a few porn hub and b-job jokes.
I had responded to someone on here who said he was inconsistent. That is certainly true. He does this all the time--if you compare his editorials with each other and realize, he left out THAT part on that one, but what he left out became the main point of the other one. But when he does it in the same one, it's annoying. Take Page 327, near the top: (on his I'm like WC Fields on kids, only I mean it theme, they always kick my seat on airplanes, et., al): "Having kids or not having kids, there should be no moral dimension to it."
But then, a couple of paraghaphs down, he tells you (with no credentials/citations/ bordernotes): "(having a child) increases your carbon legacy by over 9K tons...there's literally nothing you can do that's better for the environment than to NOT produce another resource-sucking, waste-makng human being..." lick the lip with self-important, dare I say it? woke superiority? don't you suspect he pulled that stat where he says the red team does their's? but he's a comedian being funny you see, so he can be hateful and make shit up.
just above similarly, he cites (without stats), 'The science is in...single women have better overall health (than married ones) and single men lower rates of heart disease. Singles actually have stronger social ties, less debt (I even doubt this one!), and are more likely to volunteer for civic organizations.' Really? would that include kid sports camps, the chains for football games and so forth? wouldn't that still be civic? and organizations? they don't count why? not woke enough?
In fact he does the I hate kids stuff so much, they're so stupid, they don't know anything, their protests are idiotic, and they aren't loving Biden (someone Bill doesn't really love either) as much as they should. so they aren't voting for him (like Bill demanded over better candidates such as Bernie. Yes, Bill was a Hillary demand voter if there ever was one. He talks a good game about you were bad, you can't hate the bigot, but you changed. Unless you're under 40. then he hates you, you're too close to being a a kid, it would be better if you died to save the planet, even though some kid might grow up to be a scientist who saves the planet. well, at least he/she would have a better chance of doing that than his superior animals such as mosquitos one supposes he cheers on as they bite people in red states with too much humidity...
on the bit about changes, as he sometimes supports, I once bought this book that told blue people (by emojis) where major corporations stood on ...women hiring, the environment, minorities, and so forth. how scientific do you think such a book was? and what if some company actually read it and said, geez, I did not know we were so bad, hey, let's call the trans black and hire THEM? would the book reflect that change? was the point of the book to do so? Is Bills', really?
as to the future, which is sht because you and I have kids, the index has not one cite to Ro Khana, not one to the DNC's anti-democratic activities, not one to even Gavin Newsome. Even the few times he cites Bernie, it's for derision, such as the stupid kids like him because he tried to be their Santa Claus. (probably in the same editorial about democracy needing some aspects of democratic socialism, but whose pointing that out?), but every single time the name Elizabeth Warren comes up, of course, it's glowing and unchallenged. Warren, who endorsed Biden over Bernie, so..helped us to arrive at our awful place now. Isn't Bill's selective vigilance on these things being rather woke?
? really and truly, when I click on these things, I only see the responses, so I do not know what you found so ...uh, bloviating. I am guessing, you are overweight? so you are protesting how I know Bill lied about 'weighing in the 150's' on the private show, as he drank in the daytime with Jerry Seinfeld--who told him he weighed '166'.
Okay, try this. right this second, I am wearing Levis straight leg 514 blue jeans. 32 W, 32 L. a few minutes ago, I was trying to mow the lawn, but had to essentially do it with one hand cause the other hand was holding up my jeans from the sensation of them falling down. today, I weighed 168.4 on my digital scale. I am 5'9" or barely taller than Bill's officially reported height (and barely shorter than Jerry Seinfeld's reported height.). again, Bill does not weigh 'in the 150's'. (and because this makes you so angry, I am guessing, you weigh much more as well, right porky?).
Bill: I'd like to contribute a "II don't know for sure it's not true, I just know it's a lie"...
you do not really weigh "in the 150's." as you told your friend Jerry. Now, Jerry, at 166? that sounds about right. you see, I know what these weights look like very well. Back in the 90's, when I was 35, I weighed 153. this was at the time, that Jerry had an episode about changing his 32 inch waist jeans to 31. Well, my waist was smaller than 31, smaller than 30 even, and my height was right in the middle between Jerry's reported height and Bill's. now, I was supposed to have my DL redone, but during COVID, the Bay Area panicked so much, no in-house appointments were allowed. For a LOOONG time. yet, all the threatening letters about having to renew and no one in government offices to answer my calls. SO...I just sent in the money for renaew with a short letter of my problem. the result: I got a new DL at age 60 that shows my pic from age 35. So...I decided to get my weight down to 153, which I did, I even made it to 150. I was gaunt. so, now I coasted back to the high 160's. all to say, Bill does not weigh in the 150's. he is not really a courageous truth-teller, who obsesses about obesity. Well, at least not the first part...
re: "Megyn Kelly brought up the Hunter Biden laptop censorship, which Bill Maher laughed off."
Maher's opinion on the goverment-coordinated censorship which took place prior the the 2020 election could not possibly matter less. If Maher is ok with the censorship, it signifies only that Maher is an ass. It is like in sports, when a team is caught cheating. They are disqualified. (Really, they have disqualified themselves.) One side cheated, so it wasn't a valid contest. It doesn't matter what Maher or anybody else thinks about it. We know that the FBI and other government organizations cheated, so the election was not valid.
For Bill Maher, with Trump, it's personal. The calm, see all sides, reasoning he brings to so many issues (such as pediatric trans surgery) goes out the window when he talks about Trump. Then he just sounds like another hysterical Leftist who denies any fact that cuts against the "Orange Man Bad" thesis. Yeah, if Trump wins, "democracy" will end--he'll probably start trying to lock up his political enemies on bogus charges--oh wait, that's happening right now. That line alone should shut Maher's mouth.
So one of the worse bomb throwers from the left says let’s all get along and sing from the same hymnal (theirs ). While he is trying to plug a book he wrote. Wonder how much he is paying to run the circuit
To me he's a very frustrating figure and hard to take seriously. Like he'll pretend to be serious when he will criticize the radical left, but at the end of the day he will ALWAYS support the Dems. No matter what. It wouldn't matter if they ran a pig and the Republicans ran Abraham Lincoln reborn.
Bill Maher has always been inconsistent in the points he makes, since back in the Politically Incorrect days. He’s obviously smart, but makes points that contradict other things he says. Holding on to his TDS for dear life while pointing out some of the insanity of the left is a continuation of this pattern. Is it all an act to draw viewers and sell books? Who knows.
Not sure. He might know deep down that if he actually started advocating support for Republicans instead of Democrats then he'd lose his show lol. Which would be cowardly. Cuz yeah he'll just list off all these crazy left wing things but then he'll just be like oh yeah but Trump is gonna end democracy and shut down the press. Like what? We had 4 years of him and if anything he was the one oppressed lol.
I'm a fan, but of course that's true. When reading his book, for example, and he's talking about colonizers, so he goes to a Muslim example. He could have cited Moses breaking the shalt not covet commandment by telling his followers to look over at Canaan, never mind the people there, it's YOUR's! and sure, I noticed on one, he's making fun of being called racist for suspecting COVID came from the Wuhan lab, but then on another, he's making an analogy about how unsanitary and diseased the Wuhan wet market is. and sure, when he said that thing about the countries with fist fights in their parliaments are not from the monarch dictator countries or the truly democratic countries, but the sad/pretend democracies in the middle, I thought of Taiwan... which of course, he cannot do, because the PRC is 100 percent bad, says both red and blue teams now, and he follows suit. and he ouches on the read costs of higher education and while admitting the extra finances one achieves from doing what he did and attending one of the elites, he advises YOU not to go. and he does overdo it on the Greta Thumberg is holy queen of the environment stuff, which comes off just a little closer to his rants against the influencers and the privileged than he makes it sound. but he's funny and right about what Trump accurately, sorry to say, called the fake media. and he's a lot right about COVID related lies and attacks on the 1st and 4th amendments. He may not be Mark Twain or Lenny Bruce, but he's funny a lot of the time.
I am so tired of lefties upside down view of "threat to democracy". Every single restriction of freedom (except abortion) comes from the left. Speech, worship, self defense, association, movement, secure borders, secure elections, parent's rights, property owners rights, suppression of political opposition, forced experimentation with drugs,...
Every. Single. One.
They are on the wrong side of history. While they may carry the day for a period of time, I think I know what civilization will look like in 500 years. And it will be what the left fears the most: free.
Maher's arguments are flawed on many angles - my 20+ yr old kids can point them out(without my intervention). Example: "Trump didn't concede." My son is like.... "He left the White House." Not a deep argument, but critical.
This VFW's subscription here is testament to an investment in this country. Bravo, Sasha. Pity that the 'republican establishment' misses this common sense.
Noticing a lot of the "let's learn to discuss our differences" think pieces coming out of the media. Those were absent when a year or two ago when the busybody left was riding high.
I think it is finally dawning on them how much they have alienated everyone around them.
They may also be anticipating losses and bad times ahead as more criticism and facts come out about Biden corruption, vaccines, Wuhan lab, lawfare and FBI hoaxes are revealed.
No doubt. However, it's too late for them. They have failed to acknowledge their role in the coof fiasco and anti-Trump political fuckery and expect us to forget, if not forgive.
This is part of their death throes. Good riddance.
Keep in mind that these people actually believe they are the good guys. Once they convince themselves of that key thing, it is all but impossible to have a rational conversation with them. What person wants to say to himself: "Wait, are we the baddies?" - Most people will never be able to do it. It's just easier to keep pretending.
We are, and have been, for sure in the get out of the cities stage since the 1960’s. Witness Philly, Chicago, Baltimore, DC, Atlanta, St Louis, San Fran and hundreds more.
If our cities collapse our country will collapse. If our country collapses it will most likely trigger the collapse of our entire already very unstable global civilization and it could all come tumbling down very quickly. Something like on 911 when the twin towers collapsed ever faster as the upper floors collapsed on those beneath them. Even people like Elon, Vivek and Bret Weinstein say we’re skating on very thin ice.
Do people have a right to say things that are wrong? Not within Far Left ideology. So, we are going to have democracy without political debate? How would that work? Not.
And yet they think the "threat to democracy" comes from their enemies. Sincere, but delusional. Critical thinking is not their strong suit: if it was, they would not have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated.
We now have this exact same divide among conservatives over Israel. Kim Iversen says she’s deeply disappointed in anti-war Tulsi who makes an exception for Israel because, she says, Hamas is part of global Islamic Jihad that wants to conquer the world so we have to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here. I believe Israel has already lost the war and the consequences for them will be disastrous and also greatly damage us. Basically, our whole world is in a tailspin.
“Tulsi Gabbard Voice Blind Support For Israel.” (12 min)
*shrug* I'm America First, not Israel or Hamas First. The lunatic lefties\DNC media have really forced me into full blown support for Israel though, so much so that I wonder if I am being psyoped. If that's the case though, why don't I support Ukraine? You are spot on with that last sentence, our foreign policy is a sh*tshow. Blinken constantly looks like he is simultaneously crapping his pants and having an anuerysm.
The divide among conservatives about Ukraine is an order of magnitude worse. There is nothing that happens in the Middle East that is an existential issue for the US. Ukraine, on the other hand has seen about half of conservatives ally themselves with the globalists. In addition, they could stumble into nuclear war.
Richard, allow me to ask you the same question I asked Seva: is not Islamic Jihad a threat to both Israel and the US? As I like to point out, when someone chants "Death to America" 10,000 times or more, believe them. But you don't see it that way, I take it.
It's a threat, but a toothless one that can only succeed outside of the Middle East with further appeasement driven by ignorant, chickenshit notions of "racism" and "multiculturalism."
Killing all the Palestinians in order to exterminate Ham-Ass just creates more jihadists elsewhere. Israel can keep dictating who the US should go to war with, or we can leave them to fend for themselves and adopt a more reasonable approach to the spread of Islam and Muslim hostility to infidels.
Yes, it is "appeasement" of Islamic Jihad that will allow it to succeed... said appeasement is in full gear right now in the Western world... but "toothless"--got to disagree with you there. Any movement that has as many maniacally faithful followers as Islam is hardly "toothless." Too bad us Westerners don't believe in our religion, culture, and civilization with the same intensity as the Jihadis do in theirs, I'd be far less worried about the future.
I'm not buying that Israel is "killing all the Palestinians"... that's Jihadi propaganda... we should challenge it every time it is advanced.
It is a threat but not an existential one to the US. (Besides, Israel can handle it if the US would just get out of the way. I support Israel doing this and we should provide diplomatic support and arms purchases.) I disagree with Seva that the Gaza war has divided conservatives in any meaningful way.
The threat posed by the Ukraine war is much worse because it has split the conservatives between the neo-cons and America First to the advantage of the Leftists. It has also undermined the world economy, created an unequal alliance between Russia and China and poses a not inconsequential risk of nuclear war.
So, the "death to America" chant is just idle chatter, huh? I disagree, they hate us only a tad less than they do the Israelis, and if the Jihadis ever get the Bomb, they will indeed become an "existential threat" (to use a very overworked phrase).
On Ukraine: it has not "split" the neo-cons and America Firsters, only illuminated their pre-existing differences on endless wars. But totally agree, the consequences of poking the Russian bear are potentially beyond catastrophic. I'm a'gin it.
Not idle chatter but the threat is terrorism not annihilation as it is for Israel. I was shocked to discover that Israel had abandoned the concept of an armed citizenry. This greatly enhanced the toll on 10/7. We haven't done that though the Left is trying. Point taken about Ukraine exposing the split among conservatives. Again, I was shocked by how many missed the demise of the Soviet Union and how much they wanted to poke the bear. The financial war has dire consequences for Americans even if it never goes hot. As for, the Jihadis (Iran) getting the bomb, if they do, the likely target is Tel Aviv at which point Iran becomes a radioactive wasteland. If I am wrong, the likely target is DC. Oh well.
Seva, questions of strategy aside, don't you agree that Islamic Jihad is an evil force that would take us back to the 12th century if they could? Or no?
I think the Woke race and gender fanatics who rule us are a far greater danger than Islamic Jihad. Just consider the damage they’ve done with things like their open borders and war on meritocracy which they consider “racist” due to it having a “disparate impact” on blacks. This is just not working at all.
Hey, just because the race and gender jihadis are arguably a worse threat to us, does not mean that the Islamist jihadis is not one, too. A two front war is what we are looking at.
We wouldn’t have a problem with Islamic Jihad if we stopped bombing their countries and stopped giving Israel 2,000 lb bombs to drop on the Palestinians. Israel destroyed Gaza as a way to ethnic cleanse the Palestinians from Israel and take that land. This has failed and left Israel in a disastrous situation. And why was the southern border with Gaza left unguarded on Oct 7? Because the government had redeployed the troops to the West Bank to help the settlers steal Palestinian land to ethnically cleanse them from land which the Israelis feel belongs to them. The whole world has watched this happen online and this has turned Israel into a pariah state which will be disastrous for them and it has also destroyed our global leadership ability and moral credibility which will cause many to side with the Russia/China led BRICS against us.
Seva, agreed that misguided American war policies have made a bad situation worse, but it is worth recalling that hatred for "the infidel" (i.e., us) long predates those policies. As I recall, it was 19 jihadis who gave us 9/11. SO I think you are a tad naive to think that it is all our fault. And it is startling that you seem to blame Israel for the barbarism of October 7... I don't get it. By the same token, Pearl Harbor was FDR's fault, because you know, he should have known an attack was coming.
Yes, "the whole world" has watched the Gaza War online, but that does not mean they have an accurate view of what is happening... unless you happen to think that online opinion is synonymous with truth. Meanwhile, today in Tehran, the mob is chanting "Death to Israel/Death to America" for the 10,000 and first time. I say, believe them. And respond accordingly.
She's correct, but over-estimates the reach of Ham-Ass and ignores the fact that Israel doesn't need tens of billions of $ from the US to exterminate everyone in so-called "Palestine." Netenyahu has been playing us like a fiddle ever since he came to power.
Some nations of Europe and the UK are ushering in the Caliphate without going to war with anyone. Sound immigration policy is the answer to that.
I recommend everyone see Rogan's latest discussion with Dave Smith for one of the more reasonable takes on that shit-show in the desert.
I may not agree with Mayer BUT it’s an opening for a CONVERSATION. I “forced” a liberal to have a conversation with me about the allegation that men make more money than women. When all was said and done, he looked at me and replied, “You know? I never thought about that.” (I’m a woman by the way.)
Maher was saying the exact same shit before Trump was elected the first time. Verbatim. I don't believe a thing Maher says: either because he actually believes what he says (thus indicating an impossible dissonance), or, because he has incentive to act like he believes what he says. The latter is more likely: it keeps the "old school liberals" happy enough to watch his show and buy his book.
I saw Maher’s stage show recently and was surprised that he completely dismissed the problem of mass illegal immigration. He thinks Republicans are imagining it. After the economy, immigration is the American electorate’s number one issue. He seemed completely unaware. It seemed that to put down the Right, he had to make up stuff. He had plenty of real things to criticize the Left about, yet he sticks with them.
Bottom line he lives in a bubble with an echo chamber. He’s occasionally aware of some cultural & political issues, but is surprisingly unaware & naive on others - as are most self described ‘“classic” liberals.
will give him This, Unlike the vast majority to those on the Left he will sit down and talk to the Non-woke. Mostly disagree with him but he is willing to talk.
And YES He is doing a book tour. From what I gather book tours are HELL. You get the same questions over & over & over, and often by people who have not read the book. An you have to pretend that you are just THRILLED to be there. He was on The View yesterday I TRIED to watch it. MY GOD THOSE WOMEN ARE STUPID, even for Lefties!
Whatever credibility the FBI has manufactured over the years, beginning with the TV series back in the 1960s (J Edgar had script approval in exchange for use of the FBI seal in the opening credits) that credibility has been forfeit. I am tired of the trope of "the front line people are fine, it's the leadership that is at fault." That no longer excuses anything.
If you are an FBI agent and you are ordered to participate in an entrapment, to create, destroy or conceal evidence, or any of the other scummy behaviors seen in recent times, you should resign. Failure to do so makes you complicit. May you never have another night of sound sleep if you look the other way.
Maher has always been a condescending, snide asshat whose sarcasm, when it hits, can be pretty amusing, but his schtick is wearing thin. He lost me with "Religulous." This mockery of narrow-minded religiosity attacks an easy target and, like most atheist screeds, fails to consider why humanity needs transcendent stories to cope with the horrors of existence and to consider our place in the universe as something besides a random accident happening to microbes on a mudball.
But when he tries to get serious he reveals his narrow-mindedness and demonstrates that he's as easily duped as us dumbass mouth-breathers of the heartland who dig Trump's handling of the establishment and are willing to vote in our self interest. Until someone more genteel with the right ideas for a sound America First agenda comes along, like Ramaswamy or Gabbard, or even (to a degree) an RFK Jr., he's the man to change the Ship of State's course.
He will be able to act with much less restraint as a lame duck. The open southern border appears to be his main priority, so if he starts there and succeeds, he can move forward with his entire Agenda 47, including his ambition to "crush the deep state." We'll see if he has the balls to end the funding of Israel and Ukraine. and end the neoconservative doctrine of "nation building" and "spreading democracy."
For reasons that only he understands, Maher is scared shitless of Trump, another hysteric among the legions of idiots with terminal TDS.
Ukraine has already been destroyed and Israel has become a global pariah state externally which is severely fragmented internally between various groups like Orthodox Jews vs secular Jews plus they now have a low grade, endless war on their northern border with Hezbollah to deal with. I read somewhere that something like a half million Jews have already fled from Israel due to the disastrous situation there. Israel is in a downward spiral and I see no way of them pulling out of it. They are being overwhelmed by all their out of control, unsolvable problems.
Ahhh, good article til the 'meet in the middle' part at the end. There is no compromising on the open border, trans-kids, trans-rights, DEI, ESG, ClimateChange. That is all lunacy on the road to communist hell.
None of those are within light years of "the middle." I am with you that all of the Woke-Marxist stuff cannot be compromised with at all. For sure, the Democrat party will attempt to normalize them. ("Climate Change" is almost normalized at this point. It amounts to lunatics with a death wish, taking the rest of us with them.) Woke-Marxist promise utopia but will deliver yet another massive hell-scape to occur on Earth. The old and retired hippie Democrats don't realize they'll be among the first loaded onto the trains. Being old, non-productive, and expensive, the New Order would discard them faster than Mao did the Red Guard.
Maher seems to be rejecting the Woke-Marxist extremists. That's good, I suppose. But why is he "with" the Democrat party at all given that is who dominates it, and all the key institutions? Does anything redeem it? I suppose there has to be two parties, but why do we need the Dumb & Incompetent Party and the Totalitarian Death Cult Party? Can't at least one of them be supplanted? lol
I've never liked Bill Maher. He is a pseudo-intellectual who has always carefully positioned himself to appear as a renegade when he is an establishment shill. He does it to chase ratings and attention. His appearance on these shows is really chasing his audience; he can see that the traditional news audience had dwindled to the point that, if he wants to stay in the public eye, he needs to court the independent and even "right wing" media because that's where the audience is.
As the Megyn Kelly interview shows, he's an uninformed, vapid celebrity who's opinion isn't worth a cup of coffee.
Bingo. I've always called him "smarmy Bill".
I like him, and think he's funny. Not always, but let's be fair, more often than say Gutfeld is. BTW, reading the editorials book now. I'm to page 79. How can you not say all his insults about the cell-phone/smart phone conformists, click bait faux journalism, and cancel culture aren't timely and accurate?
Give me a break...he didn't stand up to any of the cancel culture episodes until it was obvious the tide was turning...the same with almost everything he ever supposedly takes issue with. He made fun of a guest who talked about gender re-assignment surgery for minors just a few years ago, saying it was one of the most ridiculous things he'd ever heard of. He's a poser.
well, to be fair, if you are reporting accurately on what he use to say about that topic, he changed, didn't he? you know, in the forward to his book, he asserts he admonishes his writing staff who help him with his 'new rules/final editorials' NOT to be earnest, meaning self-righteous and hall monitor-like, because that is anathema to comedy. Yet, at his worst, it seems to me too, when he bites his lip like Clinton use to do, he appears to be one-my-truthing, which I think you are calling being a poser. Point taken--at his worst. But wouldn't you say he stands up for comedy (and against censoring of comedy) in general?
But he didn't when it counted...he let Dave Chappelle, Joe Rogan, and other comedians take the heat and show that they could survive the cancel-culture mob before he came forward. There's no risk to saying you're standing against censorship now so it's hardly a principled position. Chappelle's the hero in comedy, he was too big to cancel. Maher could have been that guy but he's too late to the party.
I haven't (and won't) read Maher's book; I've never found him to be anything other than smug and condescending. If you like him I'm happy for you; that's okay!
Yeah, he gets under my skin too. Watching him dismantle Taibbi bothered the hell out of me.
The main reason I give him any attention is that he actually DID pay a price for his opinions, and it was a heavy one. His show was cancelled, his career went DOA for quite some time, and he was a pariah; that's undeniable. (It was when he called the hijackers brave after 911)
IDK... I'm getting old (65) and what surprises me is that rather than becoming the crotchety old fart I felt destined to be, I'm finding myself more inclined to find common ground than I did in the past. So I fully acknowledge the faults of Bill Maher, but weighing them against his qualities, they come up short. Like most people, he's a good guy.
BS!
sorry to say, I am really computer/phone/world challenged, so I read you said BS, but I do not know what (possibly) BS thing I said. I am guessing I complimented Bill Maher's book a little too much. Now, that I finished it, I suspect you may have a point. The whole thing about Bill is he is a comedian, in big letters and political in smaller ones. if too much the other way, yes, he (or his writing staff---you believe everyone there knows climate change or the PRC equally and as fairly?) can become an unfunny scold. The other reason these editorials usually work is that they are the only part of the show---just a very small portion of it, that can be completely unfunny on purpose. and he gets away with if it is preceded by lots of jokes like Johnny did satirizing magazine headlines and more than a few porn hub and b-job jokes.
I had responded to someone on here who said he was inconsistent. That is certainly true. He does this all the time--if you compare his editorials with each other and realize, he left out THAT part on that one, but what he left out became the main point of the other one. But when he does it in the same one, it's annoying. Take Page 327, near the top: (on his I'm like WC Fields on kids, only I mean it theme, they always kick my seat on airplanes, et., al): "Having kids or not having kids, there should be no moral dimension to it."
But then, a couple of paraghaphs down, he tells you (with no credentials/citations/ bordernotes): "(having a child) increases your carbon legacy by over 9K tons...there's literally nothing you can do that's better for the environment than to NOT produce another resource-sucking, waste-makng human being..." lick the lip with self-important, dare I say it? woke superiority? don't you suspect he pulled that stat where he says the red team does their's? but he's a comedian being funny you see, so he can be hateful and make shit up.
just above similarly, he cites (without stats), 'The science is in...single women have better overall health (than married ones) and single men lower rates of heart disease. Singles actually have stronger social ties, less debt (I even doubt this one!), and are more likely to volunteer for civic organizations.' Really? would that include kid sports camps, the chains for football games and so forth? wouldn't that still be civic? and organizations? they don't count why? not woke enough?
In fact he does the I hate kids stuff so much, they're so stupid, they don't know anything, their protests are idiotic, and they aren't loving Biden (someone Bill doesn't really love either) as much as they should. so they aren't voting for him (like Bill demanded over better candidates such as Bernie. Yes, Bill was a Hillary demand voter if there ever was one. He talks a good game about you were bad, you can't hate the bigot, but you changed. Unless you're under 40. then he hates you, you're too close to being a a kid, it would be better if you died to save the planet, even though some kid might grow up to be a scientist who saves the planet. well, at least he/she would have a better chance of doing that than his superior animals such as mosquitos one supposes he cheers on as they bite people in red states with too much humidity...
on the bit about changes, as he sometimes supports, I once bought this book that told blue people (by emojis) where major corporations stood on ...women hiring, the environment, minorities, and so forth. how scientific do you think such a book was? and what if some company actually read it and said, geez, I did not know we were so bad, hey, let's call the trans black and hire THEM? would the book reflect that change? was the point of the book to do so? Is Bills', really?
as to the future, which is sht because you and I have kids, the index has not one cite to Ro Khana, not one to the DNC's anti-democratic activities, not one to even Gavin Newsome. Even the few times he cites Bernie, it's for derision, such as the stupid kids like him because he tried to be their Santa Claus. (probably in the same editorial about democracy needing some aspects of democratic socialism, but whose pointing that out?), but every single time the name Elizabeth Warren comes up, of course, it's glowing and unchallenged. Warren, who endorsed Biden over Bernie, so..helped us to arrive at our awful place now. Isn't Bill's selective vigilance on these things being rather woke?
Sigh, more BS combined with bloviation supreme.
? really and truly, when I click on these things, I only see the responses, so I do not know what you found so ...uh, bloviating. I am guessing, you are overweight? so you are protesting how I know Bill lied about 'weighing in the 150's' on the private show, as he drank in the daytime with Jerry Seinfeld--who told him he weighed '166'.
Okay, try this. right this second, I am wearing Levis straight leg 514 blue jeans. 32 W, 32 L. a few minutes ago, I was trying to mow the lawn, but had to essentially do it with one hand cause the other hand was holding up my jeans from the sensation of them falling down. today, I weighed 168.4 on my digital scale. I am 5'9" or barely taller than Bill's officially reported height (and barely shorter than Jerry Seinfeld's reported height.). again, Bill does not weigh 'in the 150's'. (and because this makes you so angry, I am guessing, you weigh much more as well, right porky?).
Bill: I'd like to contribute a "II don't know for sure it's not true, I just know it's a lie"...
you do not really weigh "in the 150's." as you told your friend Jerry. Now, Jerry, at 166? that sounds about right. you see, I know what these weights look like very well. Back in the 90's, when I was 35, I weighed 153. this was at the time, that Jerry had an episode about changing his 32 inch waist jeans to 31. Well, my waist was smaller than 31, smaller than 30 even, and my height was right in the middle between Jerry's reported height and Bill's. now, I was supposed to have my DL redone, but during COVID, the Bay Area panicked so much, no in-house appointments were allowed. For a LOOONG time. yet, all the threatening letters about having to renew and no one in government offices to answer my calls. SO...I just sent in the money for renaew with a short letter of my problem. the result: I got a new DL at age 60 that shows my pic from age 35. So...I decided to get my weight down to 153, which I did, I even made it to 150. I was gaunt. so, now I coasted back to the high 160's. all to say, Bill does not weigh in the 150's. he is not really a courageous truth-teller, who obsesses about obesity. Well, at least not the first part...
That’s exactly the term I’ve been calling him!
“uninformed, vapid celebrity” — yes, that’s true. And, he is easily rolled, a weather vane!
re: "Megyn Kelly brought up the Hunter Biden laptop censorship, which Bill Maher laughed off."
Maher's opinion on the goverment-coordinated censorship which took place prior the the 2020 election could not possibly matter less. If Maher is ok with the censorship, it signifies only that Maher is an ass. It is like in sports, when a team is caught cheating. They are disqualified. (Really, they have disqualified themselves.) One side cheated, so it wasn't a valid contest. It doesn't matter what Maher or anybody else thinks about it. We know that the FBI and other government organizations cheated, so the election was not valid.
This description describes Maher to a tee...
Agree
And he went to Cornell. "Everybody" knows that's not a "real Ivy!" ;-)
For Bill Maher, with Trump, it's personal. The calm, see all sides, reasoning he brings to so many issues (such as pediatric trans surgery) goes out the window when he talks about Trump. Then he just sounds like another hysterical Leftist who denies any fact that cuts against the "Orange Man Bad" thesis. Yeah, if Trump wins, "democracy" will end--he'll probably start trying to lock up his political enemies on bogus charges--oh wait, that's happening right now. That line alone should shut Maher's mouth.
So one of the worse bomb throwers from the left says let’s all get along and sing from the same hymnal (theirs ). While he is trying to plug a book he wrote. Wonder how much he is paying to run the circuit
"worst" bomb thrower.
To me he's a very frustrating figure and hard to take seriously. Like he'll pretend to be serious when he will criticize the radical left, but at the end of the day he will ALWAYS support the Dems. No matter what. It wouldn't matter if they ran a pig and the Republicans ran Abraham Lincoln reborn.
Bill Maher has always been inconsistent in the points he makes, since back in the Politically Incorrect days. He’s obviously smart, but makes points that contradict other things he says. Holding on to his TDS for dear life while pointing out some of the insanity of the left is a continuation of this pattern. Is it all an act to draw viewers and sell books? Who knows.
Not sure. He might know deep down that if he actually started advocating support for Republicans instead of Democrats then he'd lose his show lol. Which would be cowardly. Cuz yeah he'll just list off all these crazy left wing things but then he'll just be like oh yeah but Trump is gonna end democracy and shut down the press. Like what? We had 4 years of him and if anything he was the one oppressed lol.
I'm a fan, but of course that's true. When reading his book, for example, and he's talking about colonizers, so he goes to a Muslim example. He could have cited Moses breaking the shalt not covet commandment by telling his followers to look over at Canaan, never mind the people there, it's YOUR's! and sure, I noticed on one, he's making fun of being called racist for suspecting COVID came from the Wuhan lab, but then on another, he's making an analogy about how unsanitary and diseased the Wuhan wet market is. and sure, when he said that thing about the countries with fist fights in their parliaments are not from the monarch dictator countries or the truly democratic countries, but the sad/pretend democracies in the middle, I thought of Taiwan... which of course, he cannot do, because the PRC is 100 percent bad, says both red and blue teams now, and he follows suit. and he ouches on the read costs of higher education and while admitting the extra finances one achieves from doing what he did and attending one of the elites, he advises YOU not to go. and he does overdo it on the Greta Thumberg is holy queen of the environment stuff, which comes off just a little closer to his rants against the influencers and the privileged than he makes it sound. but he's funny and right about what Trump accurately, sorry to say, called the fake media. and he's a lot right about COVID related lies and attacks on the 1st and 4th amendments. He may not be Mark Twain or Lenny Bruce, but he's funny a lot of the time.
I am so tired of lefties upside down view of "threat to democracy". Every single restriction of freedom (except abortion) comes from the left. Speech, worship, self defense, association, movement, secure borders, secure elections, parent's rights, property owners rights, suppression of political opposition, forced experimentation with drugs,...
Every. Single. One.
They are on the wrong side of history. While they may carry the day for a period of time, I think I know what civilization will look like in 500 years. And it will be what the left fears the most: free.
Maher's arguments are flawed on many angles - my 20+ yr old kids can point them out(without my intervention). Example: "Trump didn't concede." My son is like.... "He left the White House." Not a deep argument, but critical.
This VFW's subscription here is testament to an investment in this country. Bravo, Sasha. Pity that the 'republican establishment' misses this common sense.
Noticing a lot of the "let's learn to discuss our differences" think pieces coming out of the media. Those were absent when a year or two ago when the busybody left was riding high.
I think it is finally dawning on them how much they have alienated everyone around them.
They may also be anticipating losses and bad times ahead as more criticism and facts come out about Biden corruption, vaccines, Wuhan lab, lawfare and FBI hoaxes are revealed.
No doubt. However, it's too late for them. They have failed to acknowledge their role in the coof fiasco and anti-Trump political fuckery and expect us to forget, if not forgive.
This is part of their death throes. Good riddance.
They probably aren't aware. If you are a leftist who gets all their info from the MSM, you have never been told any of this stuff.
Excellent observation, Brent.
Keep in mind that these people actually believe they are the good guys. Once they convince themselves of that key thing, it is all but impossible to have a rational conversation with them. What person wants to say to himself: "Wait, are we the baddies?" - Most people will never be able to do it. It's just easier to keep pretending.
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. “Upton Sinclair
“Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.”
-Jonathan Swift
This quote combined with yours pretty well explains the world we are living in lately.
“It’s impossible", said Pride
"It's risky", said Experience
"It's pointless", said Reason
"Give it a try", whispered The Heart.
That's a quote for our time, for sure. Are we in the loot and pillage stage? Sure feels like.
We are, and have been, for sure in the get out of the cities stage since the 1960’s. Witness Philly, Chicago, Baltimore, DC, Atlanta, St Louis, San Fran and hundreds more.
If our cities collapse our country will collapse. If our country collapses it will most likely trigger the collapse of our entire already very unstable global civilization and it could all come tumbling down very quickly. Something like on 911 when the twin towers collapsed ever faster as the upper floors collapsed on those beneath them. Even people like Elon, Vivek and Bret Weinstein say we’re skating on very thin ice.
So true. The scariest thing about the Left is their certainly that they are right... their presumed exalted ends justifies any wicked means.
Do people have a right to say things that are wrong? Not within Far Left ideology. So, we are going to have democracy without political debate? How would that work? Not.
And yet they think the "threat to democracy" comes from their enemies. Sincere, but delusional. Critical thinking is not their strong suit: if it was, they would not have allowed themselves to be indoctrinated.
We now have this exact same divide among conservatives over Israel. Kim Iversen says she’s deeply disappointed in anti-war Tulsi who makes an exception for Israel because, she says, Hamas is part of global Islamic Jihad that wants to conquer the world so we have to fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here. I believe Israel has already lost the war and the consequences for them will be disastrous and also greatly damage us. Basically, our whole world is in a tailspin.
“Tulsi Gabbard Voice Blind Support For Israel.” (12 min)
Kim Iversen. May 21, 2024
https://youtu.be/iIuxlxGE21I?si=MHpFgkNbcyZG2U1B
*shrug* I'm America First, not Israel or Hamas First. The lunatic lefties\DNC media have really forced me into full blown support for Israel though, so much so that I wonder if I am being psyoped. If that's the case though, why don't I support Ukraine? You are spot on with that last sentence, our foreign policy is a sh*tshow. Blinken constantly looks like he is simultaneously crapping his pants and having an anuerysm.
The divide among conservatives about Ukraine is an order of magnitude worse. There is nothing that happens in the Middle East that is an existential issue for the US. Ukraine, on the other hand has seen about half of conservatives ally themselves with the globalists. In addition, they could stumble into nuclear war.
And you can’t stumble out of a nuclear war.
Richard, allow me to ask you the same question I asked Seva: is not Islamic Jihad a threat to both Israel and the US? As I like to point out, when someone chants "Death to America" 10,000 times or more, believe them. But you don't see it that way, I take it.
It's a threat, but a toothless one that can only succeed outside of the Middle East with further appeasement driven by ignorant, chickenshit notions of "racism" and "multiculturalism."
Killing all the Palestinians in order to exterminate Ham-Ass just creates more jihadists elsewhere. Israel can keep dictating who the US should go to war with, or we can leave them to fend for themselves and adopt a more reasonable approach to the spread of Islam and Muslim hostility to infidels.
Yes, it is "appeasement" of Islamic Jihad that will allow it to succeed... said appeasement is in full gear right now in the Western world... but "toothless"--got to disagree with you there. Any movement that has as many maniacally faithful followers as Islam is hardly "toothless." Too bad us Westerners don't believe in our religion, culture, and civilization with the same intensity as the Jihadis do in theirs, I'd be far less worried about the future.
I'm not buying that Israel is "killing all the Palestinians"... that's Jihadi propaganda... we should challenge it every time it is advanced.
Israel can’t kill all the Palestinians. It’s killing as many as it can to encourage them all to leave. That’s called “ethnic cleansing.”
It is a threat but not an existential one to the US. (Besides, Israel can handle it if the US would just get out of the way. I support Israel doing this and we should provide diplomatic support and arms purchases.) I disagree with Seva that the Gaza war has divided conservatives in any meaningful way.
The threat posed by the Ukraine war is much worse because it has split the conservatives between the neo-cons and America First to the advantage of the Leftists. It has also undermined the world economy, created an unequal alliance between Russia and China and poses a not inconsequential risk of nuclear war.
So, the "death to America" chant is just idle chatter, huh? I disagree, they hate us only a tad less than they do the Israelis, and if the Jihadis ever get the Bomb, they will indeed become an "existential threat" (to use a very overworked phrase).
On Ukraine: it has not "split" the neo-cons and America Firsters, only illuminated their pre-existing differences on endless wars. But totally agree, the consequences of poking the Russian bear are potentially beyond catastrophic. I'm a'gin it.
Not idle chatter but the threat is terrorism not annihilation as it is for Israel. I was shocked to discover that Israel had abandoned the concept of an armed citizenry. This greatly enhanced the toll on 10/7. We haven't done that though the Left is trying. Point taken about Ukraine exposing the split among conservatives. Again, I was shocked by how many missed the demise of the Soviet Union and how much they wanted to poke the bear. The financial war has dire consequences for Americans even if it never goes hot. As for, the Jihadis (Iran) getting the bomb, if they do, the likely target is Tel Aviv at which point Iran becomes a radioactive wasteland. If I am wrong, the likely target is DC. Oh well.
Seva, questions of strategy aside, don't you agree that Islamic Jihad is an evil force that would take us back to the 12th century if they could? Or no?
I think the Woke race and gender fanatics who rule us are a far greater danger than Islamic Jihad. Just consider the damage they’ve done with things like their open borders and war on meritocracy which they consider “racist” due to it having a “disparate impact” on blacks. This is just not working at all.
Hey, just because the race and gender jihadis are arguably a worse threat to us, does not mean that the Islamist jihadis is not one, too. A two front war is what we are looking at.
We wouldn’t have a problem with Islamic Jihad if we stopped bombing their countries and stopped giving Israel 2,000 lb bombs to drop on the Palestinians. Israel destroyed Gaza as a way to ethnic cleanse the Palestinians from Israel and take that land. This has failed and left Israel in a disastrous situation. And why was the southern border with Gaza left unguarded on Oct 7? Because the government had redeployed the troops to the West Bank to help the settlers steal Palestinian land to ethnically cleanse them from land which the Israelis feel belongs to them. The whole world has watched this happen online and this has turned Israel into a pariah state which will be disastrous for them and it has also destroyed our global leadership ability and moral credibility which will cause many to side with the Russia/China led BRICS against us.
Seva, agreed that misguided American war policies have made a bad situation worse, but it is worth recalling that hatred for "the infidel" (i.e., us) long predates those policies. As I recall, it was 19 jihadis who gave us 9/11. SO I think you are a tad naive to think that it is all our fault. And it is startling that you seem to blame Israel for the barbarism of October 7... I don't get it. By the same token, Pearl Harbor was FDR's fault, because you know, he should have known an attack was coming.
Yes, "the whole world" has watched the Gaza War online, but that does not mean they have an accurate view of what is happening... unless you happen to think that online opinion is synonymous with truth. Meanwhile, today in Tehran, the mob is chanting "Death to Israel/Death to America" for the 10,000 and first time. I say, believe them. And respond accordingly.
8th Century.
Heh heh... OK, I'm off by a few centuries.
She's correct, but over-estimates the reach of Ham-Ass and ignores the fact that Israel doesn't need tens of billions of $ from the US to exterminate everyone in so-called "Palestine." Netenyahu has been playing us like a fiddle ever since he came to power.
Some nations of Europe and the UK are ushering in the Caliphate without going to war with anyone. Sound immigration policy is the answer to that.
I recommend everyone see Rogan's latest discussion with Dave Smith for one of the more reasonable takes on that shit-show in the desert.
"It's easier to fool someone than to convince them they have been fooled." attributed to Mark Twain...
I may not agree with Mayer BUT it’s an opening for a CONVERSATION. I “forced” a liberal to have a conversation with me about the allegation that men make more money than women. When all was said and done, he looked at me and replied, “You know? I never thought about that.” (I’m a woman by the way.)
Maher was saying the exact same shit before Trump was elected the first time. Verbatim. I don't believe a thing Maher says: either because he actually believes what he says (thus indicating an impossible dissonance), or, because he has incentive to act like he believes what he says. The latter is more likely: it keeps the "old school liberals" happy enough to watch his show and buy his book.
I saw Maher’s stage show recently and was surprised that he completely dismissed the problem of mass illegal immigration. He thinks Republicans are imagining it. After the economy, immigration is the American electorate’s number one issue. He seemed completely unaware. It seemed that to put down the Right, he had to make up stuff. He had plenty of real things to criticize the Left about, yet he sticks with them.
Bottom line he lives in a bubble with an echo chamber. He’s occasionally aware of some cultural & political issues, but is surprisingly unaware & naive on others - as are most self described ‘“classic” liberals.
He’ll return to previous form once book sales stall. He’s NYC up to the eye balls.
will give him This, Unlike the vast majority to those on the Left he will sit down and talk to the Non-woke. Mostly disagree with him but he is willing to talk.
But is he willing to listen with an open mind? I doubt it. I think it’s about book sales.
You look at the guest list for his show and Podcast.
Pod cast Guest list
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21064582/episodes/?season=1
Fairly Broad.
And YES He is doing a book tour. From what I gather book tours are HELL. You get the same questions over & over & over, and often by people who have not read the book. An you have to pretend that you are just THRILLED to be there. He was on The View yesterday I TRIED to watch it. MY GOD THOSE WOMEN ARE STUPID, even for Lefties!
Whatever credibility the FBI has manufactured over the years, beginning with the TV series back in the 1960s (J Edgar had script approval in exchange for use of the FBI seal in the opening credits) that credibility has been forfeit. I am tired of the trope of "the front line people are fine, it's the leadership that is at fault." That no longer excuses anything.
If you are an FBI agent and you are ordered to participate in an entrapment, to create, destroy or conceal evidence, or any of the other scummy behaviors seen in recent times, you should resign. Failure to do so makes you complicit. May you never have another night of sound sleep if you look the other way.
💯
Trump conceded on the morning of January 7, 2021.
Facts don’t matter in Fascismland.
Maher has always been a condescending, snide asshat whose sarcasm, when it hits, can be pretty amusing, but his schtick is wearing thin. He lost me with "Religulous." This mockery of narrow-minded religiosity attacks an easy target and, like most atheist screeds, fails to consider why humanity needs transcendent stories to cope with the horrors of existence and to consider our place in the universe as something besides a random accident happening to microbes on a mudball.
But when he tries to get serious he reveals his narrow-mindedness and demonstrates that he's as easily duped as us dumbass mouth-breathers of the heartland who dig Trump's handling of the establishment and are willing to vote in our self interest. Until someone more genteel with the right ideas for a sound America First agenda comes along, like Ramaswamy or Gabbard, or even (to a degree) an RFK Jr., he's the man to change the Ship of State's course.
He will be able to act with much less restraint as a lame duck. The open southern border appears to be his main priority, so if he starts there and succeeds, he can move forward with his entire Agenda 47, including his ambition to "crush the deep state." We'll see if he has the balls to end the funding of Israel and Ukraine. and end the neoconservative doctrine of "nation building" and "spreading democracy."
For reasons that only he understands, Maher is scared shitless of Trump, another hysteric among the legions of idiots with terminal TDS.
I think Trump might succeed in defunding Ukraine, but most likely not Isreal.
Ukraine has already been destroyed and Israel has become a global pariah state externally which is severely fragmented internally between various groups like Orthodox Jews vs secular Jews plus they now have a low grade, endless war on their northern border with Hezbollah to deal with. I read somewhere that something like a half million Jews have already fled from Israel due to the disastrous situation there. Israel is in a downward spiral and I see no way of them pulling out of it. They are being overwhelmed by all their out of control, unsolvable problems.
Ahhh, good article til the 'meet in the middle' part at the end. There is no compromising on the open border, trans-kids, trans-rights, DEI, ESG, ClimateChange. That is all lunacy on the road to communist hell.
You forgot systemic racism.
None of those are within light years of "the middle." I am with you that all of the Woke-Marxist stuff cannot be compromised with at all. For sure, the Democrat party will attempt to normalize them. ("Climate Change" is almost normalized at this point. It amounts to lunatics with a death wish, taking the rest of us with them.) Woke-Marxist promise utopia but will deliver yet another massive hell-scape to occur on Earth. The old and retired hippie Democrats don't realize they'll be among the first loaded onto the trains. Being old, non-productive, and expensive, the New Order would discard them faster than Mao did the Red Guard.
Maher seems to be rejecting the Woke-Marxist extremists. That's good, I suppose. But why is he "with" the Democrat party at all given that is who dominates it, and all the key institutions? Does anything redeem it? I suppose there has to be two parties, but why do we need the Dumb & Incompetent Party and the Totalitarian Death Cult Party? Can't at least one of them be supplanted? lol