Ep. #722: Gov. Josh Shapiro, Anthony Scaramucci, Lloyd Blankfein

Welcome to an HBO podcast, from the HBO late night series Real Time with Bill Maugh. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, great to see you. Thank you so much, people. Look at that, please. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Look at that. Look at all these people. We sold the place out again every week, please. We're a sell out here. So listen, I'm glad you're in a good mood because little scary stuff here, you know, what the war going on. They say, Iran may be sending war drones to attack California. California. Why California? Well, they say maybe because there's so many Iranian dissidents here. Or it may be a last-ditch effort to get on Trump's good side. You don't know, but we're looking into it. But you know what it is. Here we are, week three of the war, and Americans want to know two things. What is the strategic objective and to the should I get from Amazon? Does that go through the straight or her movies? Yes. If you haven't been following this closely, you know Iran. One of the greatest oil producers in the world. A lot of them. Oil comes from Iran, and it all goes through this bottleneck called the straight of her moves. And the administration seems to be caught off guard. If you attack a country, they might use their best asset for leverage. This way is all in the sequel to the art of war called the no-shit of Sherlock. So it kind of fucked up the straight of her moves. And of course this has driven up the price of oil a lot. But Trump yesterday said, you know, the United States is the biggest oil producer in the world. He said, "When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money." Who's we? What's my question? I think Exxon Mobile makes a lot of money. We dig for change in the cup holder. But Trump said that the Iranians have no navy, no communications, and no air force. And they shot back and they said, you have no affordable housing, no function in Congress, and no attention span game on. But don't take that the wrong way. I'm on our side. Okay, I'm for us winning. I'm not on that page of Trump did it, so I'm with the Ayatollan out now. But I gotta say, they are looking a little nervous in our war room. The Pentagon banned photographers this week for the briefings, because Pete Hegseth said some of the pictures of him looked unflattering. He watched you don't know two things about our military. This is the new alpha male, very masculine, non-woke military. Also, don't get my bedside. [ Laughter and applause ] Oh, yeah. So this is the most macho administration we've ever had. Also the gayest. I gotta say. I don't mean literally, I'm just a lot of redecorating. I'm just saying, I also, Trump has a new thing, I'm not making this up. He, guessing other men's shoe size. Am I making this shit up? I'm not. He has been. He looks at other men and guesses their shoe size and then they sends them a pair. The entire cabinet is wearing shoes. He got them, including Marco Rubio, where they didn't fit. So he's in clown shoes. I'm just saying. It's a little weird demand to look at other men and go. What's he got down there, and I didn't have it. But I don't know. Of course, it's also today Friday the 13th. We're applauding that. I'm not so prestigious, but if you're in Taran, I wouldn't walk under a leader. [ Laughter and applause ] Yeah. Well, they have a new Supreme Leader over there. Oh, good. We didn't applaud that. Yes, it's the late Ayatola community son. He goes by the name Nepo Cablui. [ Laughter and applause ] And he's a very holy man, like his father. Holy man. Very holy man. But it's a big tidbit. Four times, he has traveled to a clinic in England to treat impotence. Yes, I love the Ayatolas. They hate the Infidel West until their dick doesn't work. And then it's. Definitely on the 2 p.m. to Heathrow, okay? Yeah, four trips. Four trips to this clinic. This guy's got a real problem. I mean, when he gets to paradise, he's going to stay to the 72 virgins. Can we just talk? [ Laughter and applause ] We're not even sure if he's still alive. Trump said yesterday he's alive in some form. [ Laughter and applause ] Like Mitch McConnell, I assume he means. [ Laughter and applause ] Yeah, it's a tough time for the new Ayatola, but he is trying to stay positive. He said, "If I live, I'm the leader of Iran. And if I die, I'll finally be hard." All right, we've got a great shoot. We've got Anthony Scaramucci, Roy Blankfine. The first up here is the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, whose new book is called "Where We Keep The Light Stories of the Life of the Service." Governor, Josh Shapiro, back with us. [ Cheers and applause ] There he is. [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] All right, you're back with us. You must have done good the first time. I guess. Yeah, the back. Thank you. That's what we do here, my popular demand. And you have a book. I do. What is the title? "Where We Keep The Light." What is the story with always writing a book when you're running for president? I wrote a book. I wrote a book to try and highlight the people that bring light in my state, the people I see every day doing good things, because our politics don't match the goodness of what I see on the ground every day, the goodness of the people. And I think, hopefully, this book will inspire our politicians to start taking the cues from the people who are doing good. If politicians are -- if they're elected by the people, aren't they the representative of the people? Doesn't it have to go back on the people? If you were in some country, would they just top down like you're in? Of course, the leaders on the people, but they are a reflection of us. Are they not? I think for a long time, it was a righteous cycle, right? Where the people would elevate folks who reflected the goodness of community. That has changed, particularly over the last decade. And I think what we need to do is figure out a way to get back to that. We've got all kinds of incentive structures in our media, in campaign fundraising, in the way we conduct our politics, to go to the extremes, and to go to the lowest common denominator. I think people are frustrated with that rightfully so, and we've got to figure it a way to turn that around. Yeah. [ Applause ] What is that way? I think that way is to be a GSD Democrat, which is what I am. I get shit done Democrat. I think one of the reasons -- can I say that here? Yeah, I can say it anywhere now. I get shit done Democratic. [ Cheers and applause ] There are nobody in politics if you don't use bad words. Is there? Yeah. No, but look, I think it speaks to part of the frustration people have is they don't see many of their elected leaders put in points on the board for them. Solving a problem. And when you don't solve a problem, when you don't fix a system, when you don't deliver the thing they need for their kid, or for their household, or job in their community, or a safe community, they get more frustrated, more cynical, and our politics gets more broken. I think there's a number of people doing a great job of that across the country. Unfortunately, the people who tend to make the headlines, the people who tend to dominate on social media, are not the ones who are delivering real results for the people, in my case, the people of Pennsylvania, but I think the people of this country deserve it. I think in cities, people would say it's dominated by one party. Certainly, that's right. the problem, I think, here in California. Now, you had a bridge collapse and you got it back up in 12 days. That's right. Unfortunately, that is not the story we usually hear. What we usually hear is nothing can get built and nothing can. We see it all the time. We couldn't build a railroad here in California. We tried to connect to ends of this date. It just didn't happen to many environmental reviews, too many consultants, too many, too much lawyering, too much bureaucracy, too much red tape. It just doesn't get done. I feel like this is something your party really needs to take on. Maybe you're the guy to do that. Well, we've tried to do that in Pennsylvania. In '95, it was a great example of that. The expert said it was going to take four to six months to get that rotary open. We did it in 12 days by getting rid of the sort of bureaucratic red tape, the dominates thing, by putting the Philadelphia building trades in charge and empowering them to be innovative and by getting out of their way, breaking away all the things that hold people down and slow things down and instead make it work. We didn't stop there, though. We reformed our permitting system in Pennsylvania, went from the bottom of the pack to the top of the heap, a business license that used to take eight weeks in Pennsylvania. The day I got sworn in, you get that the same day. Buildings that would take three years to get their permits. They're now getting it in three to six months. Can you move here? Can I go stand and say, "That is not our experience for it?" I know it sounds nerdy and wonky, but if you want to give people. No, it sounds wonderful. If you want to give people hope and less cynicism in the process, you've got to show them government can work. We can still protect public health, public safety and the environment and move quickly. I mean, it was a rough winter back east and I read, I can't remember what the number now is, but it was approaching like 30 people, homeless people who died in New York freezing on the sidewalk. And it just made me think, "Why can't the Democrats just have the balls to say, 'Well, one, the sidewalk is not for you, for anybody. It's public. It's public. And just for compassion's sake, we're going to make you get off the street and into a shelter. Why can't we even build shelters?" And that's what I think people look at. They say, "Democratic rencities, they can't even do that." And people died for it. I know you're giving me an example from another state. I'm less familiar with that. I can just tell you in our cities in Philly and Pittsburgh, run by the way by Democratic mayors, we've addressed homelessness. We built a shelter in Pittsburgh. We're treating people humanely and getting them the help they need, but also making it so businesses can thrive in those communities so that they're clean streets and safe communities. Look, to me, foundational to everything is a safe community. You don't want to live in that area. You don't want to work in that area if it's not safe. I made a commitment when I was running for governor to hire 2,000 police officers, invest a half a billion dollars in violence prevention initiatives. Crime is down 13% in Pennsylvania. Fatal gun violence is down 43% in Pennsylvania. We're delivering safe communities. And part of that is having compassion, but also helping people who are living on the street, get off the street and get in a place that's safer for them and better for them. So it sounds like you're well on your way to the nomination. It's well refused to take any of your bait here. Good for you. But I don't know if you're clapping for me or you, but it doesn't matter. We're both on the same show. I get the credit either way. But here's the question I have to ask you, which is something I would have never guessed. I would be asking a Democrat in this year, which is that you're a Democrat running possibly for the nomination for real action as governor of Pennsylvania and your Jewish. And this is somehow maybe a complete deal breaker in the Democratic Party. I mean, the speed at which anti-Semitism has gone to a place where I never imagined it would go. I mean, just this past week, bombings at synagogues in Toronto, Belgium, Michigan, the guy drove a truck with explosive into the largest synagogue in West Bloomfield, Norway, the arrested summoned, suspicious behavior outside of synagogue, Rotterdam, and the Netherlands, synagogue. I see a pattern here. And somehow it got to, and among the young people, anti-Semitism got to be kind of cool. You think you could, if you did run for president, you could fight this and convince the Democratic Party that being Jewish isn't like the worst thing a person could be now? Let me address both pieces. The anti-Semitism and sort of the politics of being Jewish as you ask. When I ran for governor, the first ad that I put on TV was something to search show who I am, what motivates me to serve, which is family and faith. And the first ad was my family and I doing what we do nearly every Friday night, which was sitting around the Sabbath dinner table, having a meal together. We ran that ad despite a whole bunch of political consultants saying, hey, don't run that, they're going to know you're Jewish. I'm like, I think they know I'm Jewish. But Bill, I share that with you because after we ran that, I'd show up in North Philly and folks would tell me about their iftar after Ramadan. They were excited to share that with me. I'd show up in rural communities where I might increase the Jewish population by 100%. When I get there and they tell me about what lunch is like after church on Sundays. The point I'm making is that I believe people are good and they are decent and they want to know who you are at a deep level and when you are open with them, they're more apt to be open with you. I want that election, got more votes saying in the history of Pennsylvania running for governor because I'm proud of who I am, I'm proud of what motivates me, the servant I'm proud of my faith. I will tell you at the same time, anti-Semitism is a real problem in this country. And unfortunately, one of the things that has seemingly united the extremes of both parties is a pervasive sense of anti-Semitism and bigotry and hatred toward Jews. And I think all leaders, Democrat and Republican have a responsibility to call it out, to speak and act with moral clarity. I'll give you an example of that moral clarity, Governor Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan today, spoke out with moral clarity about what happened in Michigan, pardon me, yesterday. But I think it is also important that it not only be words after a violent incident, thank God no one was killed in Michigan. There are seeds of anti-Semitism being planted all over this country. People are being platformed. Folks are looking the other way and nodding toward it and allowing it to happen in their businesses, on their screens and in their politics. And we have to speak up about it. And I don't care if it's coming from people in your own party, people you agree with. People you need to vote for you, you've got to call it out. We cannot let this in our country continue the way it is. So final question, your fellow Pennsylvania John Fetterman, he's one of the few people in the party who has come out and said, "Look, I don't understand that everybody in my party said we can't allow Iran to have nuclear weapons and yet when we do something about it, they're against it." Now our chief negotiator said they were talking Iran up until the war started, and he said they're opening salvo was at the negotiations. We're a couple of weeks away from having 11 bombs. They were bragging about it. If you were the president and you got that information, you'd still do nothing? I never said, "I'm asking." No, what I would do and what the president of the United States failed to do was be clear with the American people about what the hell we were doing here. Was the plan to go after the nuclear weapons? The weapons, by the way, he said were destroyed seven years ago, or seven months ago, pardon me. Was the plan to go and do regime change, in which case, who the hell is going to take over? I don't think the sun's any better than the father. Was the plan to go in there later, but then you got forced because Netanyahu forced your hand? Remember they said that? So it's a matter of clarity. You don't have clarity on why you're going in. You have no way of knowing how the hell to get out. And so we are in a situation now where we have a commander in chief and his sidekick Pete Higgseth, who were acting like a bunch of eight-year-olds playing with toy soldiers. We've lost 13 American soldiers in a war that the American people and, by the way, most of the global community has no idea why the hell we went there in the first place. And the President and the United States are commanding our chief. I think they have an idea. I think people have an idea. What was the reason we went in? Well, everything you said, the nuke's regime change and just to reshuffle the deck in the Middle East. But nothing was ever really going to get better there until that regime went away. But we'll see how it -- we'll see what happens. No, but by the way, understand, understand, I want to be clear, because I've heard your commentary on this. I'm not seeing the eye. It's all a good person. They chanted for five decades death to America. These are people who blew up and killed Americans. These are not bad -- these are not good people. And I am not shedding a tear for them being killed. What I am saying to you, though, is if you're the commander in chief, you have your responsibility to the people you send in harm's way. You're responsible to the American people. to explain why it is you're doing what you're doing, and how the hell you get out of it once the mission is accomplished. The president has yet to look the American people in the eye and explain that, and that is a failure of leader. Thank you, Governor. I appreciate you coming by for the be of you. Good to see you later, right? Okay. Governor, Josh the panel, everybody. All right. Let's read our panel. [ Cheers and applause ] Okay, hey, guys. All right, here's the former White House communications director under Donald Trump, whose new book, "All the Wrong Moves," "How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Prom," comes out this fall. Anthony Scaramucci. [ Cheers and applause ] And here's the -- former CEO of Goldman Sachs, an author of the new book, "Street-wise," getting two and three Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfine. Lloyd Blankfine, welcome to the show. [ Cheers and applause ] All right, so we're going to talk about the war, but first, because I've never had two wall street guys on the show at the same time. So let's talk about money because you both have a lot of it and you like it. Who doesn't like money? Because I think this is much more actually on people's minds. I mean, Forbes came out this week with their richest list. I guess you guys have been on it, I don't know. We're close to it. Musk, $840 billion. We are approaching the first trillionaire. I looked it up, you know, John D. Rockefeller at the early part of the last century was worth 2.5% of GDP, but they did something about it. They broke up standard oil. There was anti-trust laws that were passed. I mean, they were just saying, "You can't one person have 2.5% of our gross net." It's just not. Musk has now 2.7. There's a lot of talk about a wealth tax. What we should do when people have this much money. But when they want it, they proposed it here in California. And also in Washington state, they leave. Zuckerberg has left decamped to Miami. Schultz, the Starbucks dude, he's out of town. Musk did it, Sergei Brinn, Stephen Spielberg moving. I'm the farthest from a socialist or a communist, because unlike the kids today, I don't get my information from TikTok. I know the history. I know communism and it doesn't work. And neither does it dance socialism. But what we have now, I can't make the case that's working either. What is the answer to this income and equality problem that we do have? Next question. All right. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] I was getting the right to look at my old boss, but I'm asking time at first. Go ahead. Well, listen, there's a lot to unpack there. I think you're right. But I've been going through our history, Teddy Roosevelt, who was actually a Republican, and the founder of Progressivism, he went and broke up the trust. But there's something called Citizens United where since January of 2010, Bill, you're allowed to give unlimited money to the politicians. It's up eight times the campaign donations. And 36% of the donations are coming from the top 0.1% of the people, and guess what they're doing? They're talking the politicians into not breaking them up, giving them corporate tax cuts, and et cetera. And so there's a lot of things we have to do to reform it, but you are right. But monopoly-busting is something that was done in the beginning in the Renaissance era, and we're not doing it anymore because of the undue influence of these people. So what's-- again, I hear no answer. Look, by the way, busting up. And Citizens United got to break up some of these big businesses, and you got to have some type of tax to equalize the situation. So taxing more? That's one of the things that's-- Say we'd say we taxed Mr. Musk. He's got $840 billion. Say we took away $500 billion and left him with a morph, mere $340 billion. [LAUGHTER] Do you have confidence that would solve the problem? What would we do with that $500 billion? Like actually just pass it out to poorer people? I'm not mad at Elon Musk. Elon Musk makes those-- he put in all those satellites that are going to make everybody's telephones work better. He has those rocket ships landing in tandem. Unlike the people of Rockefeller's era, like the Carnegie's, these guys who generated all that wealth today are still in the game, still competitive, still, I think, creating wealth in the country and advancing our economic interests. They have a lot of money. That money gets reinvested. I think the answer to solve the problem has to be a more progressive tax system than we have today. And to give more people for free the necessities of life, like childcare, health care, other things that rich people can afford, that poor people have to scrum too, to give those things have the higher minimum and to pay for it with a progressive system. And hopefully-- and I know this is everybody always says this-- knock out some of the waste. And maybe you don't have to raise too much the absolute level of tax. But we certainly have to have a much more progressive tax system, and that's the way to do it. The economic system that we have has done a great job creating wealth. Now, it's created wealth by increasing the value of assets. And so people with assets have gotten a lot richer. But the people without assets haven't participated. They don't have assets, so their assets aren't going up and down. And I don't know what the billionaires don't get about. Those people are going to get mad. I mean, the CEO of Davidia and the CEO of Anthropic, they both said, tax mean more, because they're going to come after us with pitchforks. Read the room. Luigi is a hero. The guy who shot the health care executive-- Tragedy, yep. Yeah, tragedy for that guy. It could be a tragedy for everybody. You had James Talleriko on earlier. He said something people should really think about. He said, you know, we have policies that can help and satisfy the poor. But we have no policies that can satisfy the rich, implying that when you make suggestions like Lloyd is making, you get tremendous amount of resistance bill, and you get unlimited money at politicians that will stop that type of progressive tax movement or would stop those changes that need to be made to make the system fairer. I don't know. If I had that kind of money, I sure wouldn't act like the way these guys do and flaunt it. Yeah, well, you're right. You know, I wouldn't buy a yacht, you know, a piece of mind. Much more valuable, I think. I think all the guys you're naming are working like dogs. They're competitive. Again, the people that you named earlier from a different-- from a different century, they retired at 40, and they did the world tour, and they bought pieces, and they donated to museums. They didn't stay active in their businesses. These guys are killing themselves. They're going crazy because one guy's model-- and one guy's model is working better than his, and they're doubling their efforts. This is why they have this-- I'm glad they're working and incentivized. I mean, I think a lot of these people are national assets. Now, if you want to put on-- I think it's really the political sector that's failing here. I'm not mad at these people that are creating wealth and are creating jobs and advancing the interests of America. We're mad at them. We're just saying-- But they're not doing it. It's the political sector has to-- They're not going to voluntarily give it back. No, but it's the politicians, I think, the political sector has to deal. Again, doing very good job at creating wealth, we have to distribute according to our values, but the distribution part is not the burden of the generators. It's a political sector. I think Bill's saying something different. I read your book, it was phenomenal. You grew up in public housing more or less in Brooklyn, and you had this aspirational life as did I. And when you have a funnel at the top like this, it's so concentrated. People that grew up the way you and I grew up, they feel economically desparational as opposed to aspirational. So there's a sense of unfairness going on. No problem with the LMUS have added. I'm all for unlimited upside. But we really do need a platform of equal opportunity to get people to the starting gate to make them feel that they too can make it. And I'm telling you right now, the reason why we have so much populism, Bill, is people don't feel they can make it anymore. The people that grew up like you and me, Lloyd, they feel left out of the system and they're angry. (audience applauding) I don't feel they're hearing this, I'm thinking, that's helping. (audience laughing) Maybe it is, I don't know. I'm not quite sure what we're saying here. All I know is, like these people who think that you can, you said they keep working, they keep working. They also need a lot of security now. Because, is it worth it to have to have bodyguards around you all the time, that when you go out knowing that people hate you so much because you're so rich, and because you live so ostentatiously, that you can't just freely walk about. To me, there's no greater freedom than that. There's no greater asset than that. I don't think the ostentatial, you must. What? I don't think. Were you at Bezos Wedding? (audience laughing) No, that's not us. (audience clapping) I hang out with it, hang out in a different crowd. Yeah, I do too, but, you know, come on, there's a lot of. I think living the Bob Warrer, MacMan. and a security compound while your fellow neighbors of suffering is really bad for the economic growth of society. We gotta fix it. - Okay, so interesting story in the news this week. Donald Trump put out an executive order. You worked for him for a while, remember? - 954,000 seconds, actually. (audience laughing) I'm gonna say it that way, it makes me feel better. (audience cheering) - Yeah, I had to, dole-dole lasted longer than you. (audience laughing) He put an executive order, it is the policy of the administration to restore federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting, to remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage. Okay, this is my issue with so many things. The pendulum never stops in the middle. Have we watched history somewhat? Yes, we have. But Trump comes in, he wants to, you know, because the left, very often, let's be honest, they don't appreciate America enough. They don't have it in perspective. It's all we did terrible things. Well, we didn't just do terrible things, but Trump wants to whitewash all that. So he has said that the move to scrub national park sites of signs that cast America to negative light and leaked an interior department here. A leaked interior department database reveals that U.S. plans to revise historical information. So this must already be happening. We went to this Smithsonian and got some pictures. Would you like to see what's going on? Oh, my God. For example, George Washington famously said, "I can tell a lot, and every future president should be able to as well." When George Wallace stood in the doorway of an Alabama schoolhouse, he did it because he thought he felt an earthquake. (audience laughing) These are definitely not. (audience applauding) On December 7th, 1941, Greenland attack Pearl Harbor. I don't remember it that way, but. (audience applauding) The first thing Neil Armstrong did after he set foot on the moon was dance like he was jerking off two guys at once, that does not sound. (audience applauding) Most of the U.S. soldiers who landed on Normandy Beach during D-Day were killed by windmills. That. (audience applauding) Ronald Reagan said to Garbageef, "Mr. Garbageef, build this big, beautiful wall." (audience applauding) Thomas Jefferson had sex with his slaves because when you're a star, they let you do it. (audience applauding) The man who assassinated Kennedy was really named Lee Harvey Ortega. (audience applauding) That's not true. And in the 1850s, over a million Irish immigrants came to America escaping starvation because Rosie O'Donnell had eaten all the food. Oh, that's not true, but. So, let's talk about. Let's talk about the war for a minute. Okay. (audience laughing) Good segue. Trump says, "No air force. Iran has no air force. No missiles and no navy." He says, "There's nothing left to bomb." Yeah, we have nothing left to bomb. Apparently, they have something left to bomb, which is the straight of her moves. I don't understand this. We have complete military superiority. We're bragging about that. Except for the one place where we apparently need complete military superiority. Do you understand this? Why we can't control the straight of her moves, the one place we need to control in Iran? I don't think it takes much effort to create an obstacle on a very narrow bottleneck there. So, I think they don't have to have much firepower. They're gonna need. If they're gonna accomplish something, it's gonna be by bringing the regime down and getting some sort of compromise on that. It doesn't take much to fire cheap drones and menace ships that they don't go through. But we took four of our minesweepers in September and we redeployed them to other parts of the world. And so, that was bad war planning because if we were gonna make that attack and anticipated that they were gonna close the straight bill, we would have had those minesweepers in place. That's been one of the things that's preventing us from getting our navy in there to take on the convoy. Do you worry that the oil was headed to China? That's 90% of Iranian oil went to China. Venezuela, which we took over. A lot of that oil went to China. You remember what caused Japan to attack Pearl Harbor? It was that we caught off the oil. That's why they said they had to pre-entably attack Pearl Harbor. Do you think China's gonna see this as that kind of a threat? - If things go on a long time, the way it's gonna happen is that the Iranians will let the Chinese ships go through, that ships going through China go through. - Which they have been, by the way, the Iranian ships have been going through heading for China, so they know where the mines are. - The Iranian ships are getting through? - The Iranian tankers have been getting through. - And we're letting them through. - And we are letting them through because we don't wanna escalate the situation with China. - So, what is your estimation as how this ends, how quickly and what's the upshot because everyone seems to be taking a bet on this? - Well, I'm pretty sure that nobody knows at this point. - That, I would say, is a safe bet, yeah. - That's it. (audience laughs) - That's no way we know that. - Yeah, I just want you to know. (audience applauds) I'm not running for governor, and for president, and I didn't fire the first shot. So, I'd say, I don't know how long this will last, but I know I think the strategy is, and I think the question that you pose to the governor more sharply is, they are a big burden on the safety and health of the world, and we decided to do something about it. I wish that we had done something similar to North Korea when we still had the opportunity to do that because they'll probably be, they'll probably be the source of a lot of mischief to come, and there's nothing we can do about it because they have nuclear warms. - There's nothing we can do about it. - And here, there's something we could do about it, and they don't call it up and tell you when the last minute is, and also, my algorithm and whether to decide to do it or not, is how close are we to them getting it? And also, is this an opportunity that's fleeting? And we had a moment of time where there's civil, there's practically a civil war inside Iran. Their capacity to deflect missiles has been removed. And generally, it may be, and we have all these machines in the area, this was an opportunity that we could do something that needed to be done, and you don't know when the last minute is. - I think the outcomes bill, or I think what the president wanted was like a Delci Rodriguez to a secularist to take over that he could negotiate with and make a friendly. I think that's less likely now based on what has gone on over the last couple of weeks. And so I think that the next move would be to completely degrade the system and the infrastructure. And then it'll either end up as a failed state, or it'll end up as a different form of Iran. And then the question is, will the Koreans, North Koreans, come in and give them nuclear weapons, which he has said publicly, he's interested in doing. - The North Koreans are going to give the Iranians, okay? - Well, Jung said that yesterday, he made a statement. - Well, that's not going to happen because we're going to make sure that there's not that kind of a reason. - I understand that, so it's either a failed state or a very severely degraded-- - Well, also a public opinion. - Civil, you mentioned Civil War. - Yeah, that's the failed state. - Let me show you two pictures. There's the picture of people dancing, and this is right after the attack. And I mean, this is what I think of as Iran, because I talk to the Iranians who live here in Los Angeles. They love this. We have that picture of people dancing or-- (bell ringing) Okay, that's one Iran. Then there's this picture. This was a few days ago. Look at that crowd. That's for the regime. Those are the people, so it's not one way. To me, I look at these two pictures, and I see, that is a Civil War. And maybe it needs a Civil War. Maybe know what, maybe this doesn't happen in the other way. I just don't want us to be involved in their Civil War. That might be good for the Israelis, though, if we could be dead. (applause) It wasn't so-- we weren't in such a great position. I know people are worried that because of what we're doing, the Iranians are going to get mad at us now. But I think they were pretty mad at us before, and I think they were trying to accomplish as much mischief as they can. We've not-- we've not convinced them to lose that motivation. But we have done, as we've certain week in their capacity, to do as much mischief as they were doing in the past. So I think we're better off now. Now, is it a risky proposition? Do we know how it's going to be resolved? No, it could work out, and it could get worse from here. But I would say, from a bet to make, given where we were, and where we were headed with them, being motivated and having the capacity, I'd rather have them slightly more motivated, but infinitely let with less of a capacity. [APPLAUSE] Then we get the straight open mark. I mean, I'm not going to get the big picture. I think Islam needs a reform. A lot of people have been saying that since 9/11, and even-- what, that funny? No, I'm thinking that we would probably not be appointed to the committee to reform it. [LAUGHTER] >> That is true, although I think we can do a pretty good job. >> Somebody needs to do a pretty good job. And maybe this is the place where it starts. I mean, this is not an unsophisticated society. And a lot of the people there do want to live it. I mean, obviously, we're not asking you not to be Muslim. We're just asking you not to be a theocratic state. I mean, my question is, if we did take, if the best part of it happened, and Iran is now a democratic state, and they can have free and fair elections. What if the wrong people win? Because that has happened before, Egypt, remember the Arab Spring, and then Egypt had free and fair elections, and they elected the Muslim Brotherhood. That's that second picture of that crowd who likes the regime, Algeria in the 90s. Same thing happened. Free and fair elections, they elected the wrong people, and by the wrong people, I mean, religious fanatics. You know, it's very easy to pretend like the ruling class likes to do in the West that it's just a few bad apples. But actually, a lot of people in those societies want a theocracy. Then what do you do? >> I think that's the biggest issue, Bill, because you've degraded the place, and maybe you've pushed more people towards the regime as a result of all the things that are going on economically inside the country. I'm not pro- I'm not pro-democratic, I don't think they have any history, going back thousands of years of being democratic, I just want them not to have the capacity to blow us up. So whatever government they end up with, I hope a George Washington figure on a white horse emerges there, but I put a low likelihood at that. I just don't want them to- I just don't want them to wreak havoc in the world, and I don't want them to have the capacity to reach the United States with its ballistic missiles. >> That isn't good enough. You guys bet on our markets for a living. What is the long-term prognosis? What are you telling people who say, oh, you're a financial master? What do I do now with this- >> I'll go first. I think the war is going on. What should I do with my money? >> Well, first of all, I think we have to support the president in the action because we're all Americans and we want to wish our troops safely, and I think the ultimate outcome will be that streak it's opened no later than mid-April. >> But my money- >> What do I do with my money? >> Yeah, so stay sit tight, sit tight, because there's going to be a lot of volatility between now and April, but I do think that the mission is ultimately going to be successful. The straights going to get open- >> The straights are crypto. >> Yeah, I do. I do own some Bitcoin. I know you don't like it, but I know- >> I know. >> I know I should set that very quietly. >> Wow. >> I mean, I want you to show. I mean, I- >> I want you to show, I want you to see your pocket. >> I hate it. >> I hate it, too. >> I hate it. I like- >> I mean, okay, we just- >> I don't have a position to hold this people on the panel. >> It's like it. >> It's like it. >> It's like I'm sure to, because every time it goes down, it makes me happy. Even though I don't have anything involved in it. >> Tell me that before we got on the panel. >> I don't know that. >> For my feelings. >> But you don't see it as a big slush fund for every criminal in the world. >> You know, I tell you what, if you gave me two hours with you, a loan, and I laid it out for you. His buddies like Stan Druckemiller, Ray Dalio, you pick the guys who've done the homework, Paul Tutor Jones, Mike Novigratz. If you do the homework, I would just say nine out of ten people end up owning some of it. And, you know, but if you've made the money in fiat currency and you're of a certain age, you know, people aren't necessarily inclined to do that homework. >> I guess I'm too old to like it. >> I can't figure out what it does, it's a medium of exchange, you can't buy anything with it. It's a store of value that's very volatile. And I think, and it's not a hedge of anything because when the bullet start to fly, gold went up and crypto went down, I think it's the highest purpose is, you know, to pay ransoms. And to extortionists. And I don't know why the US government, I don't know why the US government, or any official sector which supports something where you couldn't tell whether or not somebody was paying the North Koreans. >> Right. Okay. Well, we had a form of CIA director right on white paper on that saying how easy it is to track these things because of the blockchain. So that is an early statement about crypto that's no longer the case. But I hear you, you don't like it. But your team at Goldman Sachs never really did 100% research on it. And they still don't like it. And they've missed a $2 plus trillion market and our friend Larry Fink who didn't like it. Now has the largest Bitcoin ETF in the world. So all I'm saying is it's a lot of smart people that like it. And somebody like you Bill, if you really sat down and learned about it, I think you'd be less skeptical. You're saying you wouldn't be, I believe you would be. >> Well, I learned about it. I know. I have to be a chicken to know what an egg is. Okay. Exactly what it is. >> Yeah. >> All right. Well, thank you guys for lightening us on the economy. It's time for Neural. [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] >> Okay. Neural, now but a new study reveals that young people want male characters and movies to move away from masculine stereotypes and toward vulnerability and connection. The next James Bond must be Ed Sheeran. [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] Say hello to the next Jen 007. He likes his soy milk, shaken, not stirred. He has a license to kill, but prefers to listen. [ Cheers and applause ] And Pussy Galore, it's in his girlfriend. It's his nickname. [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] Neural, now that Michael Jackson's brother, Marlon, claims that Michael was taught the backward dance move we call "Moonwalking" by an eight-year-old boy, someone must ask him, "Are you sure the kid wasn't just trying to get away?" [ Laughter and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] [ Cheers and applause ] Neural, the San Diego Bishop who resigned this week for allegedly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars has to try and get Trump to give him a pardon. [ Laughter and applause ] Here's what you do. Change your twiddle handle to "Mega Bishop Dude" with lots of American flags, post daily that you've been treated unfairly by the radical anti-Trump Pope. And then, well, you'll need to move 50 million into untraceable Trump family crypto via a bank and guitar. [ Laughter and applause ] So, maybe try embezzling more money? [ Laughter ] Neural stock photo companies have to come up with a different way to depict male impotence than the guy sitting on the edge of the bed in shame. [ Laughter ] Maybe it's not even his fault, not to point fingers, but isn't it the same woman in every picture? [ Laughter and applause ] Maybe he should be shooting daggers of disappointment at her. Well, she sits on the side of the bed asking, "Why can't I get a dick heart?" [ Laughter and applause ] The new call, a boomer, pay phone that connects students at Boston University to a senior living complex in Reno, Nevada, might not wind up getting the cross-generational communication they were looking for. You think we want to listen to a bunch of tiktok educated nidix talk our ears off about Palestine and your gender identity? [ Laughter ] You want to hear something from my generation? [ Cheers and applause ] And finally, Neural, as this Sunday's Academy Awards show is the 10th anniversary of the Oscar-so-White campaign, someone must wear a ribbon that says, "We won." [ Laughter ] Just as a way to remind progressives, "Hey, your progressive progress is what you're selling. Take the win." The Oscars are no longer a long, boring show full of white people. It's a long, boring show full of all people. [ Laughter and applause ] In the last decade, best picture has gone to everything everywhere, all at once, Green Book, Parasite, Coda, Shape of Water, Moonlight, not to mention No Mad Land, which might be about Somalia, but no one has seen it, so it's impossible to know. [ Laughter and applause ] Acting Oscars have gone to Will Smith, Michelle Yoza, we saw Donna, Davei and Joy Randolph. You young Yoon. [ Laughter ] I apologize already for some of these names. Regina King, Viola Davis, Kiku Wan, Daniel Golua and Marish Ali Ali, twice. Eight of the last ten best director prizes have been won by underrepresented groups, not to mention 60% of the honorary awards. You can't argue with a straight face, or even a gay face. [ Laughter ] That the Academy in 2026 still overlooks me. minority achievement, or that Hollywood is biased in favor of all white people. Just Australians. (audience applause) But come on, man, can we live in the present? No academy member this year filled out their ballot thinking, "Well, I didn't think Shalamay was very good, but I'll vote for him because he's white." Hollywood isn't a secret cabal of racists. It's a secret cabal of people terrified of looking like racists. And I'm just tired of no matter how much progress is made, social justice warriors feeling the need to gaslight us as if none of it had happened. A couple of years ago, the academy established a very complex rulebook that said you couldn't even be considered for best picture unless you met certain criteria like 30% of the crew or two department heads had to be from underrepresented groups, and a main storyline had to be as well. Well, there goes my idea about a polka band in a ski town. (audience applause) I mean, please don't get us wrong, we're not saying you can't hire who you want or make a movie about whatever you want. Okay, that's exactly what we're saying. I'm surprised Trump hasn't sued them over it, but seriously, by this standard, you couldn't make Titanic today in hope to get nominated or Braveheart or Amadeus. Apollo 13 was about a bunch of white people because white people have done some stuff, but somehow, without a production code, hidden figures got made and completed the historical record about how we got to the moon. Centres this year is up for more Oscars than any movie ever. Centres is good, it doesn't need affirmative action. Neither did parasite or shape of water where she fucks a fish. How much more diverse can you get? A few years ago, Denzel Washington said, "We ought to be at a place where diversity shouldn't even be mentioned like it's something special." Exactly. Sometimes I'm the equalizer, sometimes it's an old English dude, sometimes it's Queen Latifa. I mean, the whole thing. The whole thing is so Hollywood, a room full of no-nothings who call themselves the academy, making everyone tremble before their judgment. Even other judgment is often terrible and fails the test of time. Maybe the hashtag should be "Oscar's so wrong." But it's in Cain, it's a wonderful life, 12 angry men singing in the rain, Dr. Strangelove raging bull pulp fiction goes on and on, not a single best picture among them. Brilliant, brave, groundbreaking, intellectually honest films constantly lose to much more forgettable, trifling, sentimental stuff, saving private rye and lost to Shakespearean love. Sunset Boulevard lost all about Eve, glory to driving Miss Daisy, gangs in New York to Chicago, Munich lost to crash. Citizen Cain lost to how green was my valley, whatever the fuck that was. Reds lost to chariots of fire, Shawshank Redemption lost to Faris Gump, some of the most iconic directors of all time. Hitchcock, Kubrick, Tarantino, Karasawa, Bergman, Fellini, Rob Reiner, have zero wins for best director. The Oscars should give out a new award. The Kanye West, I'ma let you finish a war. Yeah, just put Kanye in the audience every year to jump up and say, "I'ma let you finish, but Shawshank is one of the greatest movies of all time." And the acting awards? No better. They're constantly giving out the makeup for a snub Oscar when an actor gets one because the Academy stepped on its dick the first 10 times the guy should've won Al Pacino in the Godfather. Godfather too, Sarpico, Scarface, Dog Day afternoon, I could go on crickets. When he plays a blind guy, he was screamed, "Oh, hi," and welcomed to the winner, Sarpico. It's like honoring Michael Jordan for when he played baseball. But you know why he won that one, blind guy. I mean, afflictions win. Oscar has been given to so many people with diseases. It should wear a hospital gown. I mean, blind, deaf, ALS, cerebral palsy, Alzheimer's, amputee, there's nothing more automatic, well, except if you're mentally challenged in some way. In Hollywood, never say the R word, but if you play it in a movie, they will give you a trophy. And the Academy is also constantly giving it to an actor when they're really giving it to the character the actor played. Not that these weren't all fine performances, but if you, as a nominee, are up against someone who played Gandhi or Lincoln or Aaron Brockovich or Norma Ray or Ray Charles or Harvey Milk or the guy in Philadelphia or the dude at the Dallas Buyers Club, just stay home. It was never going to happen. So stay home if you're up against someone who, you know, we suspect might not be up for an award again or just up again. Art Karnie and Harry and Tonto be Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, John Wayne in True Grit and Refonda, Jack Polans, I call this the grandpa's last Christmas award. And it's always a lot. The only thing the Academy prize is more than this is if an actor makes the ultimate sacrifice, gaining weight or losing weight or even dare I say it. Making themselves unbeautiful. Fake ugly nose, please, do you even have to ask? Oscar should have another new category this year. Best glue. All right. It's our show. I want to thank my guest, Anthony Sgaranucci, Lloyd Blankfun, and Governor Josh Superior All Club Brandon. And drops every Monday on YouTube. Or listen, maybe you get your podcasts. Now go watch overtime on YouTube. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Catch all new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher every Friday night at 10, or watch him anytime on HBO on-demand. For more information, log on to HBO.com.