Friday, November 11, 2011

Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar

Behold, a bare-faced liar! And behold a weakness of the Occupy movement, that a crowd gathers every time a famous face appears, ostensibly, to bless the movement and to express solidarity with the protesters, even though the famous face lives the lifestyle of the one percent and isn't about to give that up, as well as talking out of his ass.

Bill Maher:-



Catch the very end, when Maher credits Occupy Wall Street with forcing "Obama" to talk about jobs rather than fall for Republican talking points. This is the second big lie this year that Maher has told about the President. First, he's lied all year long about the President's perceived caving, when it's obvious that he's pimping pandering to a demographic for publicity's sake. You can read about that here.

Then there was the big, big, really big lie he told on his panel about Guantanamo Bay ... you know, the one where he actually says the President lied. Gee, that's something Bill Maher has in common with Republican douchebags like Joe Wilson or Joe Walsh. They called the President a liar too. Does that mean Bill Maher is a douchebag or a Republican or both? You can read about that fallacy here.

Now he adds to the list, by trying to say the President appropriated Occupy Wall Street's message to tout jobs, when he knows better than to propogate fertilizer like that. If you think about it, the President first addressed his proposal for major jobs legislation back at the beginning of September - before Wall Street or any other street was occupied. But Bill wouldn't remember that because that happened when his show was on hiatus, so anything that happened during those weeks didn't really count, because he wasn't there to parse the meaning for his collectively one-brain-celled group of followers.

No, OWS forced the President to talk about jobs and sent him on the road, and then to start signing executive orders willy-nilly-as-per-Billy. Ne'mind the Republicans, much less the Democrats on the Hill, who balked at the legislation the President proposed. Just like the Democrats who, effectively, continued the existence of Guantanamo Bay, they count for nothing in Bill's mind. After all, it's always easier to blame the black man.

And if that isn't enough ... the movement that denied John Lewis a platform, embraces an interview with the iconic Bill Maher, who knows just sooooooo much about how well the governments are functioning now in Europe, and who pushes the Democratic Party as the lesser of two evils, whilst giving grudging credit to the President for appointing a couple of "pretty good" Supreme Court justices (as if that's all he did). Watch this particularly inarticulate interview (on both counts):-



The three-minute mark stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. If Bill bothered to take note of what is happening in Europe right now - not the people stomping their feet on Greek cobblestones about the loss of paid sinecures, but what's really happening in the Greek Senate and in Spain and, over all, in Italy, and how all that incertitude reverberates onto governments like France, Germany and Britain, he'd realise that Europe is shit-scared, and so the US should be too. He'd also realise another thing that public elections bring (other than higher taxes) - politicos will get their backhanders elsewhere. They'll cheat on expenses, like the Brits and claim government money for cleaning a castle moat, or hanging flower baskets or pay-as-you-watch porn, or they'll take suitcases of cash at dinner parties like Sarko does from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Betancourt. The politicos in Europe are so morally and financially corrupt that they make ours look like choirboys. But, still, you know, Bill's an intellectual, and people listen to him, and anyway, there he is, dressed like a working class stiff, unshaven, and mingling at Occupy LA, which somehow looks like a county fair.

May it behoove me to remind all and sundry who read this that there is another reason Bill Maher has joined the communes in the Occupy movement - well, two, really. Bill's Real Time season ends this week, but thereafter, he's going on an extensive stand-up tour, with several gigs in and around the LA area. Oh, and did I mention he's got a book out too? Punters, people. The pitch for punters.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Jay-Z's taken the Occupy Movement to another level. His Rocawear clothing label has produced a gaggle of teeshirts, selling for $22 each, and emblazoned with the phrase, "Occupy All Streets", graffiti'd up, of course. However, there's a twist to the tale, as Sarah Ann Hughes, writing in The Washington Post's Celebritology blog states:-

The Roc4Life blog declares, “What better way to show your support for the Occupy Wall Street Movement than with a dope tee?”

I can think of another way: money. (Or paninis.) But that isn’t in Rocawear’s current plan.

The company said in a statement to Business Insider the shirt “is our way of reminding people that there is change to be made everywhere, not just on Wall Street. At this time we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement.”

Jay-Z is firmly a 1 percenter, a point best displayed by this blingy bathtub his future baby/beverages will use. So profiting from a movement that, in part, fights against corporate greed may not make his fans in the 99 percent very happy.

Yes, Jay-Z is a one percenter, like Bill; but, dammit, unlike Bill, he's got a growing family to support! And he's hypocritically profiting corporately from a movement that's against corporate greed. And Maher's doing the same thing, no matter how many lame excuses he can make for hitting corporations with a stick, when he works for one.

Bill's there to sell stand-up and a book. Jay-Z's selling teeshirts.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a pimp by any other name is still a pimp.

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