The Lying's Den

 I have never found Bill Maher funny at all. He has writers making the jokes for his opening monologue and the bits he does in the middle of the show. He can be funny and he tours as a stand-up act, but he is not funny at that. I tried watching his stand up once and gave up five minutes in. He seems to be high all the time, and he giggles a lot at his own material, perhaps to signal to the audience that a joke is inbound and they should laugh. He seems to get seriously angry at the crowd if they don't laugh. It happens too often to be 'part of the act'- practiced indignation. 

I used to watch "Real Time" not because of him, but despite him. He tended to have interesting guests. They made the show watchable. I gave up watching a couple years ago because I just couldn't with him anymore. You could find those interesting guests in better hands anywhere else on podcasts, which everyone who is anyone seems to have these days. Podcasts are like what blogs used to be in the early 2,000's. Nobody reads blogs anymore. You may have noticed I have one. Most people have not noticed though. I've noticed that...

But I digress. Bill Maher is not a podcaster really, but he does sort of have one. It's called "Club Random". On it he drinks and smokes weed heavily, and hopes his guests indulge as well, but he doesn't care. He's just being his stoner self. I've only seen clips. I may have mentioned I don't like the guy but, small doses are okay. Again- it depends on the guests. It's available wherever you find podcasts. I find them in clips on Bluesky and YouTube whenever they show up. Algorithms are my club random.

Maher is not a liberal despite him telling you he is. He is a libertarian. That is a republican who smokes weed. Nothing more. He might be one of the neediest people this side of Trump. I think he's a lot like Trump with the megalomania and the addled mind to go with it. He thinks very highly of himself. Just as Trump declares "I alone can fix it", Maher seems to say, "I alone can interpret it". I think it was a year ago about this time that he had dinner with Trump. He called it, "Going into the lion's den". He makes that analogy a lot. He came out of it saying that libs had Trump all wrong, that he was really a nice, thoughtful guy. Apparently, he's not the asshole we see every fucking day on TV, because he was nice to Bill. He left the lion's den uneaten!

Well, duh! Trump may be a bad businessman, but he knows the business of schmoozing people and when to do it. He had absolutely nothing to gain by debating Maher, and nothing to lose by charming him. When Maher reported back how wonderful Trump was, he got eaten alive in the lion's den of public opinion, and deservedly so. And that only served to prove his point about how liberals were wrong about Trump and, well, everything as usual. He got mad at the audience again, for not getting it. 

Maher is to liberalism as John Fetterman is to the democratic party. It's a front. As long as you say you are something, you only need to barely talk the talk and walk the walk of your claim. He frequently complains about liberals but always adds that that "...is coming from me and I'm one of you, so it's OK". But it's not. It's phony and disingenuous. It's a gimmick. A schtick. It's his thing. I think most people see through it. The liberal lion's den does. I sure do. Complain about liberals/democrats all you want. I'll join in- as long as you are genuine about it. You don't want to get me started on Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jefferies. I promise you don't. There is a whole lot more to democrats than just saying, "We're fucked up, but at least we're not them!" If you think about it, that's not really a bad starting point. But it's not the starting point. 

Anyways, fuck Bill Maher and the bong he rode in on.