I’ll “allow” that Maher is therefore a bigger coward than, say, John Oliver, an immigrant and therefore much more at risk yet who continues to say mean things about Trump anyway.
Well, maybe Maher saved himself. They say drowning people would give anything for one more breath of air… or in his case spotlight, relevance or fame ( infamy seems a better word though). I’m left to wonder though: when HBO has their payroll dept. print his check… and when the clerk sees his name on it, do they handle it with revulsion? Do they stuff it into an envelope and look away quickly the way dog walkers do when they fill a blue baggie?
And Maher… that dinner: Did he enjoy it, like being in a seat in the fastest and tallest roller coaster in the world? Inside, was he screaming in terror?
Or was he replaying in his head some scene from X-Men where someone counts to three and he has to move a coin or Rump will start having people he knows shot ?
I couldn’t have ‘imagined’ the “Alternate Slate of Electors” scheme.
So, that’s not a game in which I engage. I’m neither a criminal, nor a sociopath, nor do I have that kind of people – in large numbers – working for me.
You’ve been gracious enough to share bits and pieces of your history within your country’s.
Isn’t it fair to say that people react differently when tyranny and oppression run rampant?
I know nothing about the actual circumstances of Maher vis-a-vis Oliver, but I think we are at a point where we have incontrovertible evidence with which to fairly characterize Trump.
Maher isn’t my enemy. Maher isn’t an existential threat. Trump is.
To me, Maher has had too much money and too much privilege for too long. I could probably say the same thing about some rock acts that I used to love 
Well, quite frankly I could never have imagined the whole shit-show that is Trump 2.0. I started a thread in P&E just after the election describing the compendium of horrors that I believed would happen, and the reality is about 100x worse that anyone could have imagined.
But I totally reject the idea that Maher was praising Trump as “gracious and measured” out of any sense of self-preservation. Maher is wealthy and very well connected, he’s not some immigrant who’s at risk of being deported to El Salvador. Maher has an enormous ego and it’s driving his motivation here, which is just what I said before – he fancies himself the Great Mediator who has seen things that no one else has seen, and wants to enlighten everyone – as if no one has ever personally spoken to Trump before! Volodymyr Zelensky certainly has – maybe ask him how “gracious and measured” Trump is. We all saw it for ourselves.
Maher isn’t doing this out of fear. That’s a preposterous assertion. He’s doing it because he’s an egotistical ass. I still think his show has value, but the guy can be a really ignorant asshole at times.
It irks me that I forgot to mention that Maher contributed $1 million to the Obama campaign. Maher is rich but I believe him when he says that it was painful to part with that amount of money. He’s well off but he’s no billionaire.
Not really. He says as much:
“And, honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That’s just how it went down. Make of it what you will.”
“I feel it’s emblematic of why the Democrats are so unpopular these days,” Maher said.
Two old White dudes who have an over inflated sense of self and hate “woke”, of course they are comfy with each other.
IOW talking to Clinton and Obama he’d be uncomfortably aware of not being their intellectual peer and worried about saying the wrong thing and getting a look of moral scorn. Which someone confident about his own intelligence and values would not have to be.
Right; that’s certainly one part of Maher’s comments that I think is legit.
I would also feel in an intellectual “safe space” in trump’s company; I’m not going to have any points put to me that will need me to recall any civics, economics or history.
Though I definitely think (hope) I would have a better rapport with Obama.
And there is truth in the perception of the democrats being “elite”. The reality of course is both parties are largely occupied by the ivy league children of wealthy families, but one side has successfully tarnished the other with this image.
Well said, thank you. The whole thing was a very poor reflection on Maher. His praise of Trump and the “let’s just talk amongst each other so we can understand each other better” schtick is totally asinine. Trump is a demented asshole who is completely beyond reach.
A variation on this theme: Warren Hinckle, onetime editor of the New Left muckraking magazine Ramparts, once said that he was more comfortable talking to right-wing patrons in cop bars than hanging out with certain pain-in-the-ass fellow left-wingers.
He probably would have turned down Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s have-a-beer-with-me offer.
As far as personal preference goes, Obama might not be bad company for a brief sit-down lunch, Clinton would require extra napkins due to anticipated grease output, and no way as regards Trump. He might start stripping off his clothes to show off his “beautiful” body that supposedly enthralled the doctor(s) at his physical. 
*for those unfamiliar with Ramparts, it got headlines for its revelations in the '60s and '70s. Staffers went on to found their own magazines, Rolling Stone and Mother Jones.
In today’s (04/13-2025) Doonesbury, I saw B.D regretting that he didn’t vote for Kamala Harris. And now this.
It’s hard to tell which has me more gobsmacked.
Sure. Some are cowards, and some are not.
No. You do know one of these did a suck-up visit, and one has, so far, not.
Note that both are on the same network, too, so it’s not like they’re swimming in different seas. Oliver is, like I said, under more threat than Maher.
I think it’s simpler than that: Maher has a TV show, Trump had a TV show. They’re both showbiz people, they speak the same language, and Maher is flattered easily.
Jeff Teidrich, who does not mince words and does not like Maher, wrote a column about it.
for fuck’s sake, of course Donny was gracious and polite. that’s how getting conned by a conman works, Billy. Donny was carnival-barking you, telling you exactly what you wanted to hear — and you pounced on the bait like some backwoods rube who just fell off the turnip truck. step right up and win a prize! all it will cost you is your credibility.
smug, whiny and easily-conned is no way to go through life, son.
I enjoy reading Jeff Teidrich. This time especially.
I wish I had written that!
Newsom said something similar about Trump being very nice in person. He thinks it’s down to Trump being almost pathologically obsessed with pleasing people. When he’s in the room with you (especially if you’re a big public figure, like Maher or Newsom), he’s all charm.
The difference is that Maher seems to have basked in it and enjoyed it, while Newsom was skeptical; he asked Trump, “What happened to Newscum?” And says that Trump got visibly flustered and embarrassed.
I can’t find it now, but back in 2015 there was an essay going around that described how Trump pushed around developers in New York, and it said much the same - he’s all smiles and charm up until he declares that he isn’t paying you, and you’re left feeling whiplash that the guy who took you for dinner at Per Se and picked up the check has suddenly turned on you.
Maher should’ve known this, but the egotist that he is, he probably thinks he won Trump over with his natural charm and intelligence and bold truth-telling ways.
In case it’s not already abundantly obvious, the “Trump dinner” event has reduced my respect for Maher by several big notches. I still think he has the comedic wit that has served him well for many decades and that those who claim “he’s just not funny” are just sourpusses. I think he appears to be well-informed because of the news that his staffers provide him with. But I also concede that, most of all, I don’t think he’s actually very bright. Trump is even more stupid, of course, but Maher was just enthralled by the trappings of power and superficial courtesies. Those are not the markers of an intelligent or discriminating person.