Bill Maher - New Rule: End The American Military Empire

[Truth2Tell]

Run time: 03:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vgm1fPXaHY   Posted on YouTube: March 30, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 01, 2009 By DU Member: Truth2Tell Views on DU: 2166

 

[rcrush]

1. Thank you.

Why is there 50,000 troops in Germany and 30,000 in Japan? It seems like the world would be a better place if we didnt have military bases all over the planet.

[Echo In Light]

6. Militarization is generally a very bad thing, indeed

[BobTheSubgenius]

2. Sometimes goes over the top,

but Bill is a treat, nonetheless. Thanks!

[Mr Rabble]

16. Im curious- what was "over the top"?

Are you referring to the hyperbole or the analysis?

[Lethe]

17. the rape comment

i think was particularly insulting to the armed forces

i think it was funny overall, but that was a cheap shot.

[Mr Rabble]

23. Did you not understand the reference?

High profile rape cases have defined our relationship with Okinawa. It may not make the news here but be assured that it is routinely covered in the "host countries".

We may not want to believe it, but there is a rather rich history of US military personnel being involved in high profile rapes overseas.

I dont particularly see how that is a cheap shot.

I was also hoping for a response from the person who posted before me.

[libodem]

3. Glenn Beck

would have to send out for more batshit. :rofl:

[pleah]

4. K&R 150 countries!

I just can't laugh at that.

[pberq]

5. This needs to be repeated over and over - nt

[phantom power]

7. Lou Dobbs would become a suicide bomber...

:rofl:

[pam4water]

22. Now that would scare me!

[ihavenobias]

8. Excellent clip!

A couple of the jokes fell flat, but the substance was great.

[DutchLiberal]

11. The jokes fell flat because the truth is too unsettling to laugh at...

[kaygore]

9. Thank you for sharing

[DutchLiberal]

10. I was shocked to learn this. I never knew those numbers...

That's unsettling. No wonder you have no money to provide decent health care for all. You've go an empire to maintain. And yes, the question is: WHY? And once again, it's up to a comedian to ask the tough questions the 'real journalists' (*cough*) are ignoring. I think his last point is the strongest: what would Americans say if 15.000 armed Guatemalans build permanent military bases on US soil? It's not just comedy, people!

[defendandprotect]

13. 100 different countries -- $1 TRILLION A YEAR . . .!!!

And while we know some small bit of the damage we've done --

imagine how much we don't know!!!

[defendandprotect]

12. Right . . . cut the MIC by 75% . . ..!!!! Let's go -- !!!!

[defendandprotect]

14. That's Bill Maher as he should always be ---

[Yavin4]

15. Our Defense Budget Is Bigger Now

Than during the Cold War.

[swilton]

18. Saddly only a comedian can say such heresy

If someone was saying this outside of the comedy venue he (or she) would be marginalized and labeled as some communist, pinko, unpatriotic, freak, etc., etc.

Peace to the powerful!:applause:

[Echo In Light]

24. Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Hicks - there's a long tradition

Carlin and Hicks definitely come to mind re VERY harsh social critiques of America ... things that, as you pointed out, had it been said by another would lead to heavy degrees of scorn and ridicule.

Just the other day there was a Carlin/video thread in the GD - "who really controls America" - and it received many overwhelmingly favorable responses.

Yet, if any DU posters makes similar claims on their own, the observations are either ignored altogether, or the snide thought police go apeshit and heap big doses of verbiage "conspiracy theorist!" lynchings on them. Funny, eh?

[Yukari Yakumo]

19. The problem is...

On one side, we have a crazy motherfucker in Putin.

On the other, we have China that will almost certainty dispose of the niceties now the Olympics are over.

Yeah, we still live in a fucked up world.

[Flaxbee]

20. Putin isn't crazy

...that might be the scary part.

[Truth2Tell]

25. Neither of those countries

have said or done anything even remotely threatening to the United States.

Put down the cool-aid.

[swilton]

26. I agree - why does China or Russia have to be a threat?

During the Cold War we loved to believe that there was a 'Russki' hiding behind every tree. There navy was used to justify our pushing the limit vis a vis the military industrial complex - bells and whistles, aircraft carriers, ballistic missile submarines, enough arms to blow up the planet several times over if we only were to use a fraction of our arsenal. Then surprise surprise. In 1986 a Russian nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine sank in the western Atlantic. We also had Chernobyl. Gorbachev was trying to reform Russia and no one believed it was real......one of many major intelligence failures was the inability to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some threat! :wtf:


I do not think that Putin is a saint - I also think that there are enough problems in the world that we don't need to go around manufacturing threats. I do not believe the world should be hierarchically structured with one or two hyper-powers. There is enough power to go around and we can accomplish more with cooperation.:rant:

[Truth2Tell]

27. No doubt, Putin is no saint.

But that's a far cry from being a strategic threat deserving of mortgaging our future to combat.

[Ex Lurker]

21. Maher is an asshole

the fact that he occasionally says something I agree with doesn't change that.