August 8, 2015

Bill Maher took apart America's obscene worship of extreme wealth in this Friday's New Rules segment: Bill Maher excoriates the rich, 'What about the sick culture of wealth?':

Bill Maher went after the excesses of the rich on this week's Real Time. He started the segment with the dentist who paid over fifty thousand dollars to hunt a beloved lion in Africa. "When a dentist has sixty grand to drop on a safari," Bill Maher said. "That's when we know there is too much sugar in the soda."

He continued. "We do have a moral crisis in America," Bill Maher said. "But it does not come from saggy pants, or gay wedding cakes, or Hillary's emails. It comes from worshiping obscene wealth."

He went on to illustrate how the not so rich poses and performs the senseless deeds of the rich in order to have the semblance of the super rich. "In the game of America money counts for everything," Bill Maher said. "This is how you let other people know you won. Because you did something horrible and stupid that only rich people can get away with."Bill then made that prescient statement. "We always hear about the sick culture of poverty," he said. "What about the sick culture of wealth?"

Maher continued by giving examples of the wealthy and selfish -- the rich man who complains about trick or treaters from a different neighborhood, the Californians complaining about water rationing because they can afford to get as much as they need.

"I am sure that the majority of rich people have always been greedy and selfish," Bill Maher said. "But this crowd today takes it to a whole new level. Somehow it is not enough to spend lavishly on themselves. They have to actively take from others, their water, their benefits, the last bits of beauty in the world."

He then segued to the amount of influence there billionaires are having on our political process: Bill Maher rips Big Money’s political influence: For that kind of cash, they should get to hunt candidates:

“Like our elections now,” Maher argued. “More than half the money given to presidential candidates so far has come from just 400 families. Perfectly legal. But you know, for that kind of money, the rich shouldn’t just get to tell politicians what to do — I think they should get to hunt them.”

A “trophy candidate,” he said, would be the perfect compliment to a trophy kill, or trophy wife.

“What could be better than a Republican candidate’s head on your wall?” he asked. “Scott Walker’s eyes already look like cheap taxidermy, and Chris Christie’s leg would make a lovely umbrella stand. And if that sounds wrong, we’ll make a law that says it’s legal.” [...]

Maher also went after Steve Yuhas, the conservative radio host who complained, “We’re not all equal when it comes to water” in response to an edict from California Gov. Jerry Brown that homeowners should cut down on their water use in response to the state’s drought. Yuhas also fretted about “property with brown lawns” and “golf on brown courses.”

“The only brown thing allowed on Steve’s golf course is the caddies,” Maher quipped, before showing the audience a picture of his own bare lawn and asking, “Who gives a sh*t?”

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