Bill Maher's guest lineup tonight at 10 pm EST---HBO

[Mira]

The Interview:

Rebecca Traister is the author of All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation. She is Writer-At-Large for New York Magazine, and penned the recent cover story: “Hillary Clinton vs. Herself: there’s nothing simple about this candidacy or candidate.”

Twitter: @rtraister


The Panel:

Josh Barro is a senior editor for Business Insider and an MSNBC contributor. He hosts the political radio show “Left, Right and Center” on KCRW, and the podcast, “Hard Pass.”

Twitter: @jbarro

Emily Miller is the senior political correspondent for One America News Network and author of Emily Gets Her Gun: But Obama Wants to Take Yours.

Twitter: @EmilyMiller

Lawrence Wilkerson is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the College of William & Mary, and former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell.

Mid-Show Interview

Ravi Patel is an actor, writer, director and entrepreneur whose documentary “Meet the Patels” is currently available on all streaming platforms. It will air onPBS on July 25.

[Warpy]

1. Thank you for this

I'm old so I rarely recognize who the guests are these days.

Why do I think Miller is going to talk over everybody else and end up being a chew toy?

[Doctor Jack]

2. Maher is way too much of a downer these days

Every episode seems to come down to "Trump could win and here are a bunch of reasons why". And some of his arguments come really out of left field. I think 2 months ago him and Van Jones stated that Trump had something like 40% of African Americans supporting him, which has never been seen in any poll in history. He also talked a lot about how large numbers of dems were supporting trump in the primaries, which it turns out wasn't true, and last week he spent quite a bit of time talking about how Trump and the republicans have more votes in any primary race in history. Again, not true. The dems this year have quite a bit more and even if GOP primary turned out more voters, the number of votes in a primary have no relationship with the number of votes in the general election.

It seems like he is either trying to prevent dems from being complacent or he is just a massive pessimist this year. Either way, its getting really hard to watch Real Time lately.

[Mira]

3. I think Bill Maher, like all of us,

has serious reasons for concern even pessimism.
Since voter turnout in this country is atrocious it matters critically that we show up and vote in spite of all the Republican efforts to suppress segments of us.
I think anybody of substance with a following and a voice who tries to fight complacency is doing a nationwide service.

I post these lineups for those of us who enjoy sitting down on a Friday night and take in that show, and a lot of us, like myself look forward to it.
Yes, I scream at the screen at times when inaccuracies raise their heads, or guests drown out others, or when Bill goes off on a tangent, yet I don't want to do without it, and wish there were more shows like it that have substance, humor and critical observation.

Isn't it a good thing that in your case, since you are not happy with it, you can just turn it off.

[maxsolomon]

4. Oh, Joy. Emily Miller will take the "Let's Do Nothing" Gunner side

and Gish Gallop so much RKBA horseshit that Barro will have to spend the entire time debunking it.

Bill's "Balanced" panels are rarely edifying.

[stopbush]

5. Bill's biggest problem is that he has only a surface understanding

of most issues.

He throws out a bromide that he and his staff worked on all day, and it's instantly countered by the RW guests. It matters not if he was right and they are lying, he doesn't have the knowledge set to call them out in (ahem!) real time.

Unless there's a very well-versed left-winger sitting on the panel, the bullshit goes unchallenged. A few seasons ago, Bill would offer a researched rebuttal the following week, but that only confirmed that he's not up to the job in real time, not to mention that it's unfair to counter a guest who is no longer around to defend themselves.