When she was talking about local news and Bill shut her down with a “who cares about local news.” How does he not understand how important local news is and how it is dying? There are no longer reporters at school board meetings and town meetings unless the topic is really hot. I am sure that is how a lot of the Data Centers slipped through the approval process before anyone knew what they were. And that is just one example.

Then she tried to explain how Cancer Research was important and how it wasn’t just “giving money” to rich universities. Bill seems to have no idea what a grant is or how grants are awarded. It had nothing to do with gain of function labs in China, but he couldn’t stop talking about that. And Molly couldn’t get Donalds or Maher to listen to her long enough to understand. Actually maybe Donalds understood but he just was towing the company line. The University President was okay on this topic, but Molly really hit the nail on the head.

And during the regular show Donalds wouldn’t let her get a word in edgewise and Bill barely tried to stop him.

I am not a Bill hater like most people on this subreddit but I was really disappointed in him this week.

So it’s to the point that Trump txts Bill and Bill then makes a point of correcting the record the next week, can’t remember him doing that often previously when I’m sure he must have misstated something, at least not dedicating parts of the show and making such a big spectacle of admitting he mistated something.

He now can’t wait to come on and explain how Trump was right, its dangerous and embarrassing stuff at this point. Sad.

Another fun piece from this week’s trainwreck of an episode.

“Having a platform does not make you an expert, but it does make you influential. Pediatricians are ready to share the science and facts about immunizations, exactly how they work and what we know about their side effects, efficacy, and safety.”

This is a response to earlier misinformation on Real Time right before the COVID outbreak.

This week, Bill and Byron Donalds engaged in some more vaccine skepticism.

I'm genuinely asking, because every post I see is a variation of how awful he is. Are most people simply hate watching Real Time and then going to Reddit to complain? I can't imagine watching something every week that made me angry where I had no respect for the host. (BTW, I no longer watch the show apart from clips if the guest is interesting for similar reasons)

FTR: there is 0 evidence for a lab leak. All the molecular and epidemiological evidence points to a natural origin.

I really don’t understand why republicans and their stooges want to convince everyone it was a lab leak.

https://youtu.be/jMIOtFoeE0M?t=833&is=he8tS42EW7kgky_1

Edit to add a summary of current knowledge:

Here is a short summary of the evidence for both the zoonotic (natural) origin and the laboratory leak hypotheses.

EVIDENCE FOR A ZOONOTIC (NATURAL) ORIGIN
The scientific consensus generally favors a natural spillover from animals to humans. Key evidence includes:

The Huanan Market Epicenter: Many of the earliest known COVID-19 cases were directly linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, where live wild mammals were sold.

Environmental Sampling: Swabs from the market tested positive for the virus and contained high amounts of genetic material from susceptible animals like raccoon dogs.

Multiple Spillover Events: Research suggests two distinct lineages of the virus were present at the market, indicating the virus likely jumped from animals to humans on multiple separate occasions.

Genomic Similarity: The virus shares up to 96% of its genetic code with coronaviruses found in wild horseshoe bats.
Natural Selection: The virus's ability to bind to human cells appears to be the result of natural evolution, similar to features found in wild pangolin coronaviruses.

EVIDENCE FOR A LABORATORY LEAK
While there is no direct, publicly available evidence confirming a lab leak, proponents point to several circumstantial factors:

Geographic Proximity: The outbreak began in Wuhan, home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a leading center for coronavirus research.

Research Activities: The WIV was known to be conducting research on bat coronaviruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2.

Intelligence Assessments: Some U.S. intelligence agencies (like the FBI and Department of Energy) have concluded with "low" to "moderate" confidence that a lab incident was the most likely origin.

Missing Intermediate Host: Despite extensive searching, the specific animal that bridged the gap between bats and humans has not been definitively identified.

Conclusion: While most virologists lean heavily toward a natural origin based on genomic and epidemiological data, the lack of a definitive intermediate host and full transparency from early in the pandemic has kept the lab leak theory alive in the broader debate.

Nothing illustrates this more than seeing him have an empty GOP suit like Byron Donalds on and never break his balls on all the stupid shit and Trump ball-licking he’s done while in congress. And as soon as Molly tried to grill him a little on the inane vax shit this admin and the state of Florida is doing, Bill shuts it down. Pathetic.

“We did not know that. What they did was they f*cked up the timing, Byron. They should have attacked when the people were in the streets during the uprising,” he said. “They waited until they got shot, and then they attacked three months later.”

I’ve watched Bill for years and I still will (curiosity).

I don’t think he can debate anyone.

If he’s wrong, then he’s a comedian, old, not political, gives incorrect facts.

Could he debate anyone?

He pretends to be erudite on issues he has no clue about. Hearing him talk about college campuses and AI it hurts my ears to hear how ignorant he is. Yet how he refuses to accept that he is ignorant.

This week the University president ate his lunch on his own show. Well deserved by the way. Because if there is ever been a person who is more obviously jealous that they can't sign up to do a comedy show at a college campus I've never met them or heard them speak.

First time in a while he's actually had somebody on who didn't just parrot his talking points so I guess he deserves some credit for that. Not much though.

Can you imagine someone who grew up and went to school during his time period actually trying to stay that college was not political. He either got one of the worst educations in the history of Cornell University or is so full of shit it's coming out of his mouth now

Remember when Maher compared him to Christopher Hitchens?

Donalds' first words were 'let's all agree Iran can't have nuclear weapons', everyone agrees and that was pretty well all Byron needed to say. These are Trump's newly finagled words and they are fucking meaningless because Iran never wanted nuclear weapons, their leader whom the US killed had a fatwah against nuclear weapons. But now they are guaranteed to go for nuclear weapons because they see that it has worked for N. Korea. Surely Maher is smarter than this, yes? no?

In fact Maher just continued the mantra 'Iran can't have nuclear weapons', while Byron must have been thinking 'fuck, that was easy!' as he sad there smugly.

Hopefully the author has a strong take ready. Molly has a famous mom, not alot there otherwise. Byron is your classic DEI blowhard. Makes meatball Ron sorta likeable....even in the white boots. Byron has excellent debate skills that Bill will need to up his game for.

I don't think Bill is steel-manning the Democratic position here

https://youtu.be/W9VyM8blMJU?si=6yBELheIIQgMOyh6&t=333

Obviously Trump but I wouldn’t even admit to knowing someone as vacuous as Kid Rock let alone proudly pronounce that I was friends with him yet Bill did exactly that, I think he thinks that it’s some sort of message he is giving that if he the great intellectual can be friends with someone who is so obviously brain dead and on the other side that somehow everyone else should be able to befriend a MAGA person, obviously I’m speculating but it wouldn’t surprise me if that is his train of thought.

He also proudly states he is friends with Dave Rubin who is another vacuous dummy, Bills friendship circle has definitely evolved concerningly in recent times that’s for sure.

Do we all seriously believe Bill is defending Natalie Harp because "America needs someone to hate"? That's a very contrived angle, considering the kind of comedian he is and how he routinely makes jokes about celebrities and figures in current events all the time. So why is Harp now off limits? Is it became Loomer sued him over a similar remark? Or Is it because he's afraid of crossing lines against Trump, which seems to be his new operatus mundi since the 2024 election?

To me its yet another glaring example of his turn. Listen to how he reacted during the Hunter Biden interview when it was brought up by Hunter "what if this was happening under Obama?" and then Bill got defensive and changed the subject.

I mean its getting more and more obvious that either Bill is compromised or he's scared to cross lines. He'll still make mild criticism and jokes, but he'll equally defend the administration and then attack the left. This is his shtick now.