"The world is
now seeing Trump’s America for exactly what it is becoming: a rogue state led
by an impulsive strongman disconnected from the rule of law and other
constitutional American principles and values. And do you know what our
democratic allies do with rogue states? Let’s connect some dots.
First, they don’t buy Treasury bills as much as they used to. So America has to offer them higher rates of interest to do so — which will ripple through our entire economy, from car payments to home mortgages to the cost of servicing our national debt at the expense of everything else." - Thomas Friedman, NY Times, "I have Never Been More Afriad For My Country's Future'
Bill Maher in a nausea -inducing 13 minute romp on Real Time Friday night, gushed that on a recently invited (by Kid Rock) WH visit, he found the president “gracious and measured and able to laugh at himself." Cue the barf bags. Of course he was able to laugh at himself after he pulled the freakin' wool over more than 77 million voters on November 5th, and got the morons to interject a 34 count indicted felon back into power.
A power governed by retribution even as hundreds of Venezuelans find themselves in a Salvadoran hellhole prison with no chance of escape. Oh, and college students find they can't get access to financial assistance because Dotard blew up the Dept. of Education. Oh, and we now learn NASA's top astrogeology section is being dismembered under DOGE.
Sorry, but any asshole that sucks up to a guy who's responsible for all that is a useful idiot. And being played by an orange traitor clown who likely can't believe such a PR stunt and optics win fell into his lap. Golly freakin' gee he ain't nutso after all, he's "measured".
How much of a loser asshole do you have to be to get "charmed" by the Dotard? Well, one of cosmic scale for sure, proving even an erstwhile smartypants like Maher can be suckered into the orange toad's fungal atmosphere and not know it. Don't believe me? Describing their hours-long meeting and meal on March 31, Maher chirped that Trump gave him “a very generous amount of time, and a willingness to listen and accept me as a possible friend."
Accept you as a possible friend? You mean another ass kisser like the dozens of butt kissing Reepo sycophants in congress? Who won't lift a damned finger to put a check on Trump's lawless overreach? Sorry, boyo, you've now been relegated to the segment of Trumpers who fawn over a lawless, power mad renegade and ensure - by your 13 minute slavering- even more power and influence as he craters the global economy.
Fortunately, one WaPo columnist and author (Chaos Under Heaven) - Josh Rogin - was present to puncture Maher's fantasizing. After Maher had gushed about the Dotard being "warm and measured", Rogin pushed back and informed the wide-eyed imp he'd been used as part of a PR stunt. After all, to get a popular comic with an influential show to call a madman warm and measured has to be a PR (and propaganda) win. As Mr. Rogin put it:
"I think you've fallen into the trap, and I think I represent 99% of the internet when I say this: you've played the game of proximity is principle. I'm not questioning your motivation, I'm questioning Trump's, OK?"
Hard to contradict that, certainly from what I saw Friday night. Wondering to myself if Maher had smoked one too many reefers before his WH visit.
Certainly when Maher went off the rails when he asserted Dotard was "one of the most effective politicians because of his authenticity" i.e.
Bill Maher Calls Trump One Of The 'Most Effective Politicians' Because Of His Authenticity
One had to question if Maher too had lost all his marbles. Was he even in the same universe assessing an orange porker who'd already reeled off more than 37,000 lies?
Of course, Maher took umbrage that he could be so questioned for going to an hours long visit with the worst predator president ever, sending this nation over a cliff piece by piece. Confirming he's doing Putin's dirty work for him, and once again repeating the lie that Ukraine started the war with Russia. yeah right, and monkeys type out works of Shakespeare on their infinite typewriters. Anyway, after shutting down Rogin, Maher barked:
"Did you hear what I said? What is the alternative to not talking? Just sit at your lunch table and don't talk to anybody?"
Which shows he's as clueless as he is naive. Because Rogin never said don't talk to anybody. If there is a Trumper not totally sucked into Trump's butthole and open to sane, logical discussion, by all means. But that is not the same as being sucked into the orbit of a traitor and felon and allowing his pseudo-charm to turn your brain into a propaganda machine.
As one recent Washington Post column put it:
"The remarks amounted to a win for the White House: One of the president’s most prominent critics, for a night, spent 13 minutes on a monologue humanizing Trump, rather than caricaturing or attacking him. Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire ally, shared a video of Maher’s remarks that had received more than 55 million views as of Monday morning."
For the rest of us, I warrant most of the sane segment of this country, Maher's glib glorification of a traitor - who pardoned thousands of January 6th traitors - is an atrocity. One we won't soon forget. Also, that Maher himself has lost all contact with reality, especially when he yapped:
"A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there,”
Sorry, Billy boy, but if you don't recognize you've made a sociopath and fascist sound acceptable, then I can't help you.
Some WaPo comments on Maher's meet:
-Maher should have just administered the BJ while he was there in the room. Trump earned it for the time he spent snowing this guy.
I saw the show and was appalled. I don't care how funny Trump is, or even if he has a sense of humor. For all the horrible things Trump has done to his own country and the world, being funny is the least important thing..
There are two possibilities: Maher is gullible and not that bright, so he got snookered. Or, Maher is verging toward Trumpism and not that bright, so he allowed himself to get snookered.
Like Trump it would seem Maher has had a "He likes me!" moment. I never would have believed he could be that naive. You've joined the multitude of folks who have been hoodwinked by the creatures 'charm' offensive, Bill. Sad.
I look forward to when Maher gets a tour of the Salvadoran prison like his delightful tour of the WH and declares as a smug “centrist” his equivalent of “there’s nice people on both sides.”
Maher’s comments only heightened my concern about the country’s future. When I thought the Orange One was just an amoral jerk selling himself to right wing oligarchs, life was just about survival until 2029.The portrait Maher paints of a sane rational being creating a caricature to promote chaos is scary.
See Also:
by Jaime O’Neill | April 21, 2025 - 5:18am | permalink
Here I am again, pissing in the punch bowl, explaining what happened to Bill Maher, once an icon of the left, a comedian who could shred the follies of the fascist right, who has gone off-the-charts nuts. Full Gonzo, but not in a good way. His pronouncements have been getting him big love ups over at Fox where he was hated big time not so very long ago.
But then he began to turn. Slowly he turned, but he turned. Perhaps he was running on the Pot Clock, on which things often go very, very slow, but whatever he was smoking changed the guy, and it showed. And he smoked a lot of pot. Like he was breathin' the stuff instead of oxygen.
So what happened that turned him into such a dick, a guy who could go to Mar-a-Lago this late in the game and return with the report that he’d found Donald Trump to be “charming,” not at all the way he is reported to be by the main stream media.
And:
Larry David skewers Bill Maher's Trump meeting in Hitler essay
And:
by David Badash | April 15, 2025 - 6:20am | permalink
President Donald Trump’s recent escalating rhetoric and actions across multiple fronts have alarmed political experts, who are now warning that the United States is not just drifting but accelerating toward fascism—and may have already crossed the threshold.
“He’s threatening media companies who are critical of him,” warned Republican Sarah Longwell, a political strategist and publisher of The Bulwark. “He’s talking about sending Americans to foreign prisons. He’s signing executive orders to investigate former staff members who spoke out against him. Don’t you see what’s happening here?”
Trump on Sunday night attacked CBS and its “60 Minutes” newsmagazine, a top-rated and esteemed broadcast for more than five decades. The President, apparently angered by its reporting, called for CBS’s broadcast license to be revoked. He also called on his hand-picked head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to “impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior,” namely, reporting facts he did not like.
And:
by Jaime O’Neill | April 16, 2025 - 5:10am | permalink
You heard that right, right? Donald Trump, the current President of the United States, a country once thought to be against dictatorial rule and generally inclined to favor democracy and the rule of law, praised the ruler of El Salvador as one of the coolest dictators currently dictating. He also showed yet more inconsistency of how to dress when coming to the Oval Office. Not cool to come not wearing a tie if you're the leader of Ukraine. You will be scolded and bullied. On the other hand, Kid Rock is so cool he can come wearing a Halloween costume. Same deal with Bukele of El Salvador who showed up tieless only to be praised lavishly.
There are quite a few dictators in the world, btw and fyi, though none of them are anywhere near as cool as Trump, himself, of course, but that went without saying. When it comes to being a dictator, nobody is currently doing it better, and nobody is cooler than DJT. This Bukele dude in El Salvador would be wise not to let that praise from the master go to his head.
And:
by Robert Reich | April 14, 2025 - 5:24am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
As tens of millions of Americans hussle to pay their taxes, Trump has put the entire global economy into chaos. 401(k)s are tanking, savings are shrinking, treasury bonds are losing value, supply chains are convulsing.
Even America’s oligarchs are petrified. They contributed millions to Trump’s inauguration. Many invested heavily in his campaign. They lavished praise on the new president and have supported his every move — in order to benefit from his promised big tax cut.
But the chaos he’s unleashed on the world economy is causing many of them to go public with their worries.
“Obviously,” Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, said in a conference call with reporters, “the China stuff is significant. We don’t know the full effect.”
And:
There Is No Choice: Trump Must Be Impeached
Excerpt:
Trump has figured out how to convert the slow grind of due
process into a tool of mockery. Gag orders become proof of censorship. Trials
are dismissed as witch hunts. The very idea of law is hollowed out and
rebranded as tyranny. And the longer the system hesitates, the deeper the
damage. Rule of law begins to resemble a punchline.
We’ve seen this before, just not here. From Orbán to Erdoğan
to Putin, we’ve watched elected leaders keep the outward forms of democracy –
elections, courts, legislatures – while draining them of substance. The systems
look intact, but their spirit is gone. Power is centralized, opposition is
marginalized, and the rule of law becomes rule by law. Trumpism is not some
American anomaly – it is part of a broader global drift toward strongman
politics cloaked in democratic rituals…
That’s the grim lesson for us now: there is no clean exit from this crisis, no perfect choice. But doing nothing is not caution – it’s capitulation. A constitutional democracy cannot survive if it’s afraid to enforce its own rules. If this moment doesn’t justify impeachment, then the mechanism is a dead letter.
And:
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