January 19, 2019

The Daily Beast calls this — from Bill Maher — a "sexual harassment meltdown."

I'm reading "UNBELIEVABLE/Bill Maher Has Sexual-Harassment Meltdown Over Bernie Sanders Story on ‘Real Time’/The HBO host appeared to minimize the allegations of sexual harassment in Bernie Sanders’ campaign, saying, 'It didn’t seem like it was the worst kind of sexual harassment'" — about this segment on last night's show:



I hate the overuse of the term "meltdown," which I believe used to be more common. I don't like the implication that a person speaking with passion is becoming mentally incompetent. In fact, I'd prefer to promote a counter-theory — that a person speaking in a flat, emotionless manner is lacking full mental competence. (He's not engaged, he's not expressing something that he really thinks, he's mechanically mouthing rote nothings.)

A lot goes on in that short sequence. Maher says Democrats are hurting themselves too much by attacking their own over things that aren't really all that bad. He says things like: "If the Democrats are going to keep killing their own—Al Franken, Eliot Spitzer, Gore didn’t support Clinton from the blowjob horror—I don’t know where it ends."

He gets a lot of pushback from Catherine Rampell (a WaPo columnist). And Barney Frank is there and quite amusing taking Maher to task for saying that the Sanders campaign worker may have misread "signals." The idea that women are "signalling" deserves examination and gets it.

Meanwhile, at HuffPo, they're attacking Bill Maher over something else: "Bill Maher Jokes About Penetration Between Donald Trump And Vladimir Putin":
"He did nothing when they told him Russia was meddling in our elections, he fired Comey when he was looking into that shit, he wants to get out of NATO, he met Putin five times," Maher said. “That’s a lot of times in just a couple of years, always with nobody around. Nobody can know what they’re doing. Forget collusion, I want to know if there’s penetration”...

47 comments:

madAsHell said...

Forget collusion, I want to know if there’s penetration”...

Fonzie just jumped the shark!!

Gunner said...

Elliot Spitzer was a degenerate hooker addict so of course Maher sees him as good.

mccullough said...

Maher has outgrown his usefulness to the Left. I’m not going to defend him from them. His people are coming to get him. He’s on his own like Louis CK.

Shouting Thomas said...

Keep in mind, guys, that the women's fashion magazines Althouse worked for when she was a kid were pushing free love and one night stands back in the 70s as the ultimate "liberation."

Women love fashion, which means that they love costume changes, all of which are deemed "revolutionary." (I have to remind myself, when I get angry at the prof, that the words "revolutionary," "liberation," and the like, are to be understood as they are used in women's fashion magazines to describe this year's designer styles.)

So, some years from now, women will tire of this fashion and return to the Age of Aquarius. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll live long enough to see it.

Mike Sylwester said...

Elliot Spitzer resigned before the public knew about his inter-state purchases of prostitutes. The public learned about these activities of his for the first time from his resignation statement.

Spitzer did not resign because he was "attacked" or "killed".

mccullough said...

Very sad to hear that Bernie’s campaign like Kamala’s AG Office were lairs of sexual harassment. They should both resign from the Senate since they are responsible for everything that happens in their campaigns or offices.

Gunner said...

Maher is devastated that his views on male/female interaction are closer to The Hated Trump than the SJW Democrat base as personified by Barney Frank. He can't admit this, so he just overreacts about Trump more and more to appease libs.

Kevin said...

Maher says Democrats are hurting themselves too much by attacking their own over things that aren't really all that bad.

Maher knows there is no way the party can survive its own rules.

Shouting Thomas said...

One or two generations hence, kids will be fed up with this repressive sexual hysteria, just like kids of Althouse's generation became fed up with the WWII generation's repressive sexual hysteria.

The kids will rebel and struggle to figure out how to enjoy pure Dionysian sex... of the hated heterosexual variety.

Althouse's Marxist feminist allies placed butch lesbians in every critical point in the educational system. They want all the young, fresh pussy to themselves.

It's going to be quite a fight in the future. And it's going to be wrapped up in the collapse of the student loan graft bubble.

Mike Sylwester said...

Did Maher say that Trump's remark about pussy-grabbing was no big deal?

Paco Wové said...

"Barney Frank is there and quite amusing taking Maher to task..."

Barney Frank? Ah, yes. That paragon of moral rectitude.

Skeptical Voter said...

Ah Maher has now gone full Whoopi Goldberg----it wasn't really rape rape.

Maher is simply a silly tool. Always has been, always will be.

rhhardin said...

Who's conceding that sexual harassment is a problem. It's normal human interaction to be dealt with in normal human ways.

robother said...

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, Maher
It tolls for thee!

rhhardin said...

I mentored two women at work but it was by email so I'm probably retroactively safe.

Wince said...

What upsets these people the most is that Trump is turning out to be the political centrist who has already achieved a compromise with the right that has turned into a "crawl over glass" allegiance.

chuck said...

Maher is a relic of the age passing into history, a victim of younger folks competing for power and glory.

Those were the days my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way

buwaya said...

There wont be revolt over PC, unless it is launched from the Right, in the form of, effectively, a cultural revolution. A complete rejection of institutional authority.

And very likely a violent revolution, as no other will remain possible.

You won't see a 1960s because your media system is now far too easy to control. There is less scope even for personal, verbal dissidence as the available sanctions are ubiquitous and reliable - threats to careers and livelihoods. Media, speech and social controls are improving and increasing.

AndyN said...

I think it's worth noting that Maher once said, on live television, that he thought kids beating up other kids was worse than adults molesting kids. It shouldn't surprise anyone that he doesn't believe any sexual offenses are that big a deal.

robother said...

"I mentored two women at work but it was by email so I'm probably retroactively safe."

Only up until mansplaining is identified as sexual harassment.

ALP said...

From the article, I gotta say I agree with Bill on this: "And what about just saying, hey, get your fuckin’ hand out of my hair?!”

We just had our mandatory sexual harassment training. Had to watch a video, made by the staff*, modeling bad behavior at a meeting. In particular - mansplaining and interrupting the sole woman in the group. We were lectured and hectored that "we must stand up and stop this behavior whenever we see it." Yada yada. How about STANDING THE FUCK UP FOR YOURSELF? Jesus, this is BigLaw. Supposed to be cream of the intellectual crop. Top notch law schools. Decades of feminism yet we still can't produce an adult woman that can say "EXCUSE ME I was TALKING." Tip to anyone reading this who needs a lawyer - skip the female lawyers. Too timid to even stand up for their own rights. How on earth do you stand up for your clients if you can't even tell a person you've worked with day in day out "I am speaking be quiet"?

*Decent production values - stupid content but done reasonably well for amatuers.

Gunner said...

Can we take away Erick Ericksons Sanctimonious Christian card? Earlier in the show, he sat speechless while Maher denigrated Karen Pences marriage and school. For someone so "offended" by Trumps crudity, you would think he would speak up.

Sebastian said...

"He did nothing when they told him Russia was meddling in our elections"

One of the tells in the whole collusion narrative is that the O administration did nothing about the supposed "meddling," except to exploit claims about it in going after Trump.

Ambrose said...

I love Ms Rampell's initial instinct to excuse the Democrats with the (technically true - but very very technically) claim that Sanders is not a Democrat.

alanc709 said...

At which point during the run-up to the 2016 election, when the supposed Russian collusion occurred, did Obama abdicate his authority to Trump? How can even a fool claim it's Trumps' fault?

Temujin said...

Barney Frank was famous for a lot of bad things. Among them hosting a young man prostitution ring out of his Washington DC apartment while screaming at the rest of us from his Congressional seat. He was also the driving force behind the horrid mortgage fiasco of the early 2000's that ended up giving is the blow-out in 2007 and 2008.

He's a cretin of a person. Fit's exceedingly well in the company of Bill Maher, discussing the nicer sides of people such as Elliot Spitzer (you've got to be kidding me), Al Franken, and those who parade around for Bernie Sanders.

Never did get Maher's appeal. The first time I heard him claim to be Libertarian, I chuckled, shook my head, and changed the channel. Haven't gone back since.

Drago said...

"Never did get Maher's appeal."

Well, you are no LLR Chuck/gadfly, thats for sure.

Not Sure said...

The idea that women are "signalling" deserves examination and gets it.

"Idea" isn't the word I'd use to refer to a statement of obvious fact. Men signal, too. It's called "flirting." Surely you've seen it depicted in a couple of romcoms from pre-neoPuritanical times.

I recently had a second date with a woman who'd worn her hair in a severe pullback on our first date. This time she let it hang loose in its full, down-to-the-waist glory. Turned out to signal exactly what I thought it did. But how on earth did I find that out? Doing exactly what the BernieBro in question did.

Signalling is a pretty tame way for people to see if there's mutual interest. These new rules really do seem like they've been made up by spinster cat ladies who think everyone else's lives should be as joyless as theirs.

n.n said...

Rape, rape-rape, teabags, and a rarefied transgenderism, separate and "=", trending on... the left.

Ann Althouse said...

"I recently had a second date with a woman who'd worn her hair in a severe pullback on our first date. This time she let it hang loose in its full, down-to-the-waist glory. Turned out to signal exactly what I thought it did. But how on earth did I find that out? Doing exactly what the BernieBro in question did."

It wasn't exactly the same because you were on a date. In the Bernie scenario it was the workplace and I believe the man who touched the woman's hair was in a position of superiority where he could affect her career.

By the way, I was once in a discussion at the law school with one of my colleagues, a male, and he reached out and touched my hair. My response was to act like it didn't happen. I did nothing. And I have never named this man, and I won't name him. But things like that have happened for a long time, and for the most part women have, I think, reacted the way I did, which was to be somewhat sympathetic to human frailty and not to want to upset the person by taking him to task.

I did confront this person once, however, when I was a very junior faculty member for using the word "bitch" to refer to Justice O'Connor. I was treated as if I had done something wrong by derailing the conversation.

William said...

Franken preemptively resigned. He took the decision out of the voters' hands. He wasn't lynched. It was auto erotic asphyxiation........Elliot Spitzer was truly awful. How does a man like that reach high office in the first place? Inherited wealth. A sense of entitlement. Apparently this is only bad when done by someone like Trump. Spitzer was patently sleazy. Trump at least puts a gilt frame around the sleaze and looks like he's having fun. Spritzer looked like some kind of Grand Inquisitor who indulged in sex as a form of penance........My guess is that sometime in his life Barney Frank touched someone who didn't want to be touched. Frank has some protective cover. He's cuddly and lovable like Bill Cosby. Nobody wants to come forward........Is there any man alive who hasn't had his hand brushed away at some point in his life? Is there any man alive who has had his hand always brushed away during his life?

Not Sure said...

I agree that the situation was different, but Maher's correct point about signals is that they're indirect and therefore capable of misinterpretation.

I think you handled both situations you describe well. But it's nevertheless true that women do signal. Doesn't mean "all women, all the time." The difference between their signals and men's is that men don't usually mind really strong signs of interest.

buwaya said...

If I hadn't "sexually harassed" my now-wife at our workplace, there would be several fewer US citizens about today.

I wonder how much this anxiety and the reactions to it have reduced the US birthrate, especially among the more productive segments of the population.

Officially indulging such neuroses probably has a substantial demographic cost.

Everything has unintended consequences. Unintended because unpredicted and unpredictable. Thats why custom is so valuable. It integrates experience over the depth of time in an unconscious process.

Jay Elink said...

Barney Frank? Ah, yes. That paragon of moral rectitude.
*************

I think you meant rectaltude.

buwaya said...

I suspect Spitzer was on the take.
For instance from the cabal that got him to take out Maurice Greenberg at AIG.
This lot went on to use AIG to set up what should have been seen as a criminal scam, wildly trading derivatives.

chuck said...

> Thats why custom is so valuable.


Yes. That is why "new" often means "crap", especially for things like architecture.

John henry said...

Re Connor and not knowing the context what is wrong with calling her a bitch? Was it the use of the word? Or was it because you didn't think her behavior justified it? I get the impression thait was the former

Would you complain if someone called justice thomas a dick in similar circumstances?

With regard to Connor the cromulent word would probably have been "cunt". Perhaps better because it would have made you swoon and you would not have complained

John Henry

Clyde said...

Re: Democrats "killing their own," there are some places where "he needed killing" was a valid defense. Just sayin'.

tim in vermont said...

Think of this as similar to when Stalin let the Poles and the Nazis fight while he kept back, since the Nazis were doing his work for him. The press is a kill zone right now, and the people who have the serious organizations behind them are probably staying out of it.

Think of it like the multiplayer video gave “Fortnight” A hundred players drop in and the inexperienced ones get gunned down almost as soon as they leave the drop zone. The best strategy is to hide out, gathering resources, and when there are only a couple of players left, reeling from the fight, wounded, resources depleted, come into the fight and finish them off.

Dem Primaries as Fortnight <<--- Another great meme!

Ralph L said...

Women need to work on their scornful, withering stares and ear-boxing for aggressive drunks.

glenn said...

Next thing you know Ol’ Bill will be defending Ol’ Harvey Weinstein because he was a rainmaker.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Can someone please castrate the insufferable piece of shit Barney Frank? Just so that his testicle situation better matches his voice?

I can't think of a single person in politics that annoys me more than that fat whiny transgender hippopotamus. He is as useless and full of shit as a leaky doggie poop collection bag. I am more goddam sick of him than I would be of syphilis, and I've never had syphilis. He should seriously get typhus and die. Or whatever it takes for him to go away.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"I wonder how much this anxiety and the reactions to it have reduced the US birthrate, especially among the more productive segments of the population.

Officially indulging such neuroses probably has a substantial demographic cost.

Everything has unintended consequences."

Environmentalists, feminists, and "anti-racists", individually and intersectionally, aren't UNINTENTIONALLY reducing the birthrate among whites.

narciso said...

and Frank was a defender of fannie and Freddie, against any reforms, and pushed for Obamacare, seeing it as a first step toward single payer,

Maher has long been a degenerate piece of filth, no his criticisms of Islamic radicalism aren't enough to justify him,

DEEBEE said...

our counter theory seems to have the same issue as the “meltdown”. Are you having a meltdown?

JAORE said...

The first time I heard him claim to be Libertarian...

If you substitute Libertine, it rings truer.

Rigelsen said...

But things like that have happened for a long time, and for the most part women have, I think, reacted the way I did, which was to be somewhat sympathetic to human frailty and not to want to upset the person by taking him to task.

Your response was the virtuous one. In the modern call-out era, as exemplified by me-too, we’ve forgotten that true virtue also requires a measure tolerance for human imperfection and frailty. True paragons only exist in the realm of ideas, not in reality. We understand this for us and ours, but vocal subcultures have taken to casting aspersions on every foible of those who are not ours, or even those previously ours but we now deem no longer useful to us.

We even increasingly threaten livelihoods of those we’ve chosen to expose and sometimes even enroll government or economically powerful agents to the cause. This way lies tyranny. How do we get off this train?