Real Time With Bill Maher Show Weekly Update

Today's writing by Bill Maher is entitled, 'Making America Great Again!'

Everyone knows that under President Obama the nation has suffered a horrendous setback. Meanwhile, other nations are laughing at us. They don’t respect us. That’s why we need to restore this country and become the leaders of the world that we used to be.

…That’s the refrain we hear from the Republican candidates, and one that is believed by the Republican Party. That’s why they say we need to vote a Republican into office, so we can put in place some pro-growth policies that get this country back on top again.

Well, the World Economic Forum just released their world competitive ranking, which measures a host of economic data and determines which countries are the most economically competitive. And among countries with populations of 10 million or more the United States was, oh, #1. Among all countries, we’re #3 behind Switzerland and Singapore.

Yes, we’re beating China and Japan all the time. Bet you won’t hear that in the Republican debates.

The monologue starts up tonight with Bill going into the lies from the GOP Debate. Like the fact that purple pill or drug Dr. Ben Carson took to cure his Prostate Cancer. because Dr. Ben went ahead to have the surgery to remove it anyway just be a 'role model.' I understand that spin is just that, spin. but man are the GOPer's delusional about what they have candidate wise on that side compared to what the Dem's have substance wise on that side. Let alone how subtenant the Democratic debate was compared to the one that happened this week.

The debate was awful.

I do NOT know what the likes of Marco Rubio is thinking but then again, it is just mere spin.

I am not saying that Hillary Clinton is the answer but man oh man do the GOP candidates suck. At one point, Jeb Bush told us that he was 7 - 0 in fantasy football this year. We did NOT get those antics in the Democratic debate.

And ironically, this was the most subtenant debate for the GOP and it was still just awful.

The candidates just lied. From Ben Carson trying to talk about his pseudo 9, 9, 9, tax plan in so many words (really 10 as in 10%) to Marco Rubio's defense of his homes he bought in corrupt ways. Trump literally was caught in a bold faced lie and actually two lies because John Kasich was never a partner at Lehman and Trump said that he was back in 2008. (Carly) Fiorina stated that 92% of the job losses in President Obama’s first term belonged to women — a number that sounds shockingly high and if the number sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney cited the same figure during his 2012 bid. And fact-checkers back then also said the claim was misleading

It was unreal. I get that politicians lie but in this debate, there were no follow ups by any moderators to the answers to some of these questions which were just lies. I stand correct because the woman moderator did follow up with the one Trump lie.

And, there is more spin from the GOP side today as Nicole Wallace states that even though he lied, that Marco got some point across about him raising kids in the 20th Century and its because the people that vote for the GOP are clueless and in that bubble. They are so stupid that they do not even care that what is said even though it is a lie. Its wild to watch.

Jeb Bush was horrible. He told us about his fantasy football record and then he repeated it in an interview afterward. Marco Rubio compared himself to Barack Obama and John Kerry.

If anyone did well, it was Chris Christie but he is still too much for the likes of me. He scolds people and he is just so condescending.

The moderators were a mess. They had zero control over anything that night and actually, I think Donald Trump also did OK too. he did not do badly is maybe the correct way to describe his performance in the debate. But him, Christie and maybe Ted Cruz did well but everyone else did an awful job at this last debate.

And, in the early debate BTW, Lindsey Graham shined big time. He did amazing and that was overshadowed by the late debate. Lindsey is on the show today and so is Chris Christie.

But also, there was no substance. Everyone just said theyu would do things without telling us how. Like how will Rand Paul abolish the IRS because I would love it that happens. How would we get money to build a wall or how would we handle the immigration issue? How will we get rid of corporate taxation and they did not even get into anything about ISIS/ISIL and Syria.

Oh, and then the statements about the Republicans against the media or vise versa. Republican presidential candidates tore into CNBC's moderators at Wednesday night's GOP debate, issuing the sharpest attacks on the mainstream media of the 2016 election cycle.

Sen. Ted Cruz accused the moderators of trying to instigate a cage match, Sen. Marco Rubio called the media a super PAC for Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump slammed the "ridiculous questions."

In the final minutes, sources told CNN, angry representatives from the campaigns began confronting Republican National Committee officials to voice complaints about the tone and substance of the debate.

When the faceoff was over, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus blasted CNBC for asking "gotcha" questions and said the network "should be ashamed."

"I was very disappointed in the moderators. I'm disappointed in CNBC," he told reporters in the spin room in Boulder, Colorado. "I thought they would bring forward a pretty fair forum here tonight. But I think it was one gotcha question, one personal low blow after another."

He continued, "It's like they tried to design a Rubik's cube for every question to take the worst element, I think, of what the moderators and what the media should bring to the table. And all I can tell you is that while I'm pretty much proud of our candidates for pretty much sticking together, I'm very disappointed in the moderators and I'm very disappointed with CNBC."

Priebus went even further in an official statement: "One of the great things about our party is that we are able to have a dynamic exchange about which solutions will secure a prosperous future, and I will fight to ensure future debates allow for a more robust exchange," he wrote. "CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled."

Brian Steel, CNBC's senior vice president for public relations, stood by the moderators' performance.

"People who want to be President of the United States should be able to answer tough questions," he said in a statement late Wednesday night.

The candidates' attacks on the media were red meat for the conservative base, which already has a deep mistrust of the mainstream press. But even by conservative standards, the candidates' broadsides on Wednesday night were aggressive and unrelenting, and delighted the audience in Boulder.

The candidates' fierce criticism of CNBC -- the first sustained volley against the media of the current campaign -- immediately called to mind the frequent attacks against the press during debates in the 2012 elections.

CNBC's moderators struggled to maintain control of a debate that, according to many journalists on Twitter, they appeared ill-equipped to handle. The panelists, usually familiar with covering Wall Street and finance, were left scrambling to talk about a presidential race they seemed to know little about.

At one point during the debate, Jeb Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz began pounding on the control room door, shouting at the CNBC producers about how the network wasn't giving equal time to all the candidates, a source with a rival campaign told CNN.

The night left GOP hopefuls and reporters wishing for the previous Republican debate moderators from Fox News and CNN.

Politico's John Bresnahan joked that CNBC was frantically calling CNN and Fox "to ask how to run a debate," while Matthew Continetti, the editor of the conservative Washington Free Beacon, wrote: "Winners of GOP Debate so far: Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper."

On stage, Cruz was the night's most vocal media critic, condemning CNBC for trying to instigate fights between the candidates while ignoring issues that mattered to voters.

"The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media," Cruz said, after being asked about the debt ceiling. "This is not a cage match."

"How about talking about the substantive issues people care about," Cruz added to thunderous applause from the audience.

The audience in Boulder was electrified by Cruz's attack. Social media mentions of Cruz blew up during his attack on the media -- it was the top moment on Facebook, the social network said -- while pollster Frank Luntz said his focus group "burst out in applause at Ted Cruz's media attack."

"Ted Cruz's focus group dials [hit] 98 with his attack on media bias," Luntz wrote on Twitter. "That's the highest score we've ever measured. EVER."

The Texas Senator wasn't the only one to slam the mainstream media at the debate: Rubio, asked to respond to a Florida Sun Sentinel editorial that had called on him to drop out of the race, charged that it "evidence of the bias that exists in the American media."

Later in the debate, Rubio declared that the mainstream media was so biased in favor of Clinton that it was effectively functioning as her Super PAC.

Trump, who had predicted before the start that the debate would be "unfair," criticized CNBC's moderators for asking "ridiculous questions," and later called a question posed to Mike Huckabee "nasty."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie looked one moderator in the eye and said, "Even in New Jersey what you're doing is called rude."

At various points in the debate, both Rubio and Trump accused the moderators of having their facts wrong.

CNBC's problems were further compounded by the network's meandering commentary between the night's two debates, which was widely panned on Twitter.

"CNBC does underscore that the only people sometimes more vapid than candidates are journalists talking about candidates," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted, echoing the sentiments of many journalists and political operatives.

"Is this a public access channel?" asked Jon Favreau, the former speechwriter for President Barack Obama. CNN's Maeve Reston in Boulder, Colorado, contributed to this report.

The Interview is with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), the Congresswoman from Hawaii’s 2nd district, serving since 2014. She is the first American Samoan, first Hindu, and one of the first female combat veterans elected to Congress. Rep. Gabbard sits on both the Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is a Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee.Twitter: @TulsiGabbard.

Bill Maher tonight spoke with Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard about an issue they agree on: the frustrating refusal of President Obama to accept “Islamic extremism” as a global threat.

Gabbard said it’s “crazy” because it’s important to “identify our enemy so that we can defeat them.” She said it’s ridiculous to blame poverty or thrill-seeking because just giving someone a house won’t solve the problem.

Maher brought up how sensitive liberals are about the mere suggestion that certain Islamic beliefs are considered “barbaric” in the Western world. Gabbard agreed that this kind of liberal philosophy “gets in the way” of being able to address serious matters.

Gabbard recalled how she was treated, as a woman, when she went to Iraq, by soldiers the U.S. was trying to train, though it did have a happy ending.

The Panel is with Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) whom is the Congresswoman from California’s 35th District. She is the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee and is a member of both the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. She was first elected to Congress in 1991. Twitter: @MaxineWaters. And, it is with Grover Norquist, the Founder and President of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), which opposes all tax increases and advocates for a simpler, flatter tax system. All but three Republican Presidential candidates (George Pataki, Donald Trump and Jeb Bush) have signed ATR’s pledge opposing any effort to increase income taxes. Twitter: @GroverNorquist. And, Roger Stone, the former senior advisor to the Donald Trump presidential campaign and a New York Times bestselling author whose newest book, The Clintons’ War on Women, is on sale now. Twitter: @RogerJStoneJr.

What are their worst weaknesses? Bill and panelists Rep. Maxine Waters, Grover Norquist and Roger Stone discuss the "humblebragging" GOP candidates and assess their true weaknesses in this clip from October 30, 2015.

What are the real weaknesses of the candidates in that main debate stage this week? Ted Cruz' is that everyone hates him. Trump's is that he does not forgive which Bill and the panel actually seem to agree with him. But he does relate that being very mafiosa like and Dr. Ben Carson is certifiable but anyway, we know who he really is in life. He is a nut. Marco Rubio's weakness is his inexperience and that he has done nothing in Congress. Jeb Bush's problem is his last name but the real weakness if that he is just stupid. Like I said above, he acts like Willard. He says the oddest things that make no sense to me. He's referred to as wonk (aka a dork) but he is just weak and yes, Marco Rubio slapped the white off Jeb. The panel believes that American's are against dynasties.

Do not forget to read the book entitled 'Everybody Shoots'.

The mid-show guest is with the man, David Spade. He of course is a comedian and actor. And, he is the author of a new memoir, Almost Interesting. From 1990-1996, he was a cast member on Saturday Night Live and will be performing stand-up with Bill Maher on New Years Eve and New Years Day in Hawaii. Twitter: @DavidSpade.

He is going as Pizza Rat on Halloween andhis wekness is that he 'is the 5th smartest person in the room'. I have to say that he has fast become so humble these days. He was humble this week in interviews and he is again tonight. Maybe the book he just wrote has guided him that way. David Spade has pointed the finger at who he thinks the worst host on “Saturday Night Live” ever was.

Spade, who was promoting his new memoir “Almost Interesting” on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens: Live,” was asked by host Andy Cohen about which former cast mate was overrated. Spade quickly spun it to which host was the worst with which he had a quick answer: Steven Seagal.

“Maybe the host. Steven Seagal,” he said. “He was a little tough. I mean, he was actually tough, and he was tough to work with. It was hard. He did not want to play along.”

Spade isn’t the only person from the “SNL” cast to make this claim. Creator Lorne Michaels also pointed it out that Seagal, who appeared in episode 18 of Season 16, was less than pleasant to work with.

There have been stories that Seagal treated the cast and writers poorly during his time as host. It was even reported that he refused to leave his dressing room to perform a Hanz and Franz sketch because the characters, played by Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon, claimed to be able to beat him up.

And, its time for New Rules folks, new rules. Bill issues his latest decrees for society and calls on politically correct liberals to stop ruining Halloween.