In the 1960s, an activist group of mothers coined the slogan “war is not good for children and other living things”. Apparently this message didn’t get through to Bill Maher and his guests on Friday realtime Panel when everyone was openly talking about how we need to boost things in Ukraine based on some nuclear hypotheses.
This week’s panel featured CNN anchor Michael Smerconish smerkonian,‘ and Neil Degrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist and TV personality. After some ritualistic whining about the conclusion of the Jan. 6 hearings this week, the conversation turned to Ukraine. Maher confessed “I love Ukraine” and wondered why we can’t pinpoint an attack with as much precision as we used to hit an asteroid with a satellite.
Smerconish agreed that “there must be a response” in the event of the apparent use of nuclear weapons, likening inaction to not bombing the railroad tracks to the death camps in World War II.
Degrasse Tyson argued that radiation from modern nuclear weapons is not the problem being touted and the real concern is the minor inconvenience of “being vaporized or blown to bits by the shock wave”. He added: “There is a reaction to nuclear weapons that is disproportionate to what they are actually doing.”
Maher urged, saying he fears the radiation in the atmosphere could travel around the world. “Now you’re telling me that’s not the case?”
Degrasse Tyson made the switch. “Well, if they used nuclear fission bombs…”
Maher said he hoped Degrasse Tyson’s belittling of radiation was correct, musing, “Maybe dying for Donbass province is the right thing to do.”
Despite that agreement, there was a point of contention during the panel discussion on a different topic when Degrasse appeared to blame Tyson Maher’s measures on vaccination and the pandemic. Degrasse Tyson argued that lower population densities meant other countries didn’t have the same circumstances that led to the lockdowns experienced by the US, while Maher strongly argued. He claimed there should have been different approaches to the pandemic rather than “one size fits all”.
Degrasse Tyson argued that the actions taken were based on the “best available evidence at a given point in time”. He also pointed out that Maher was “disputing the evidence.”
Maher countered that instead of being totally obedient in a situation where no one could really be sure, the right approach should be, “Let’s keep discussing.”
In his New Rules editorial, Maher attempted to explain why Republicans still back Herschel Walker, whose odd remarks and history appear to make him unfit for political office.
Maher detailed Walker’s history of multiple personalities, playing Russian roulette, threatening violence against family members, stalking a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and claiming to be an FBI agent, turning to a translation of why Republicans still support the man : The worse a candidate appears, the more it suggests that they oppose what the other side stands for.
Maher turned to a strange story involving a trans man sporting huge breasts while teaching at school. “The left never stops them,” he said. “That’s when Republicans say, ‘Then we have to do it. It’s their way of saying how serious we are about blocking this.”