S19.E05: Adam Kinzinger; Markos Moulitsas; Peter Hamby

[PrincessPurrsALot]

The Interview:

Rep. Adam Kinzinger is a Republican congressman who represents Illinois' 16th Congressional District. He is the Founder of the Country First PAC and recently wrote a Washington Post op-ed urging Senate Republicans to convict Donald Trump.

The Panel:

Markos Moulitsas is the Founder and Publisher of The Daily Kos and co-host of “The Brief” podcast.

Peter Hamby is a Contributing Writer for Vanity Fair and the host of Snapchat's political show, “Good Luck America.”

Original air date 2021.02.12

[ShellsandCheese]

Loved Bill's rant against the Gig Economy / side hustle obsession. He was spot on with that. 

[Liamsmom617]

  I swear, "Real Time" has become a hate-watch for me at this point. Not even sure why I bother anymore, other than the occasional on-point "New Rules". If I hear Bill bitch one more time about those goddamn solar panels....I get that it's frustrating, but people have more daunting challenges right now, Rich Boy. Jesus.

   His First World Problem/Rich Guy rants are just so alienating. He made good points about how Americans are having to resort to OnlyFans pages and several "side hustles" to pay the bills, but it rings kinda hollow coming from someone who was just complaining about having to "write so many checks" and lose money (though he STILL profited) from owning the Mets.

    OK, rant over. Steve Schmidt scared the beJesus out of me, though it's interesting to know he's a registered Democrat now.

[Robert Lynch]

Wow. Interesting that Bill said to Adam Kinzinger that Republicans don’t do epiphany and Adam seemed very taken back by that comment.

[angelamh66]

Steve Schmidt is largely a blowhard but he makes some excellent points. My favorite was when Bill was trying to take him down the path that the liberal medi doesn’t allow debate or dissent and Steve shut it down by saying he has no interest in debating tax rates with fascists. There is an existential threat to democracy and that takes precedence over policy debate. 

Also yeah... Bill needs to STFU about the solar shit. It is the most unrelatable thing in the world. 

[BrownBear2012]

4 hours ago, angelamh66 said:

Steve Schmidt is largely a blowhard but he makes some excellent points. My favorite was when Bill was trying to take him down the path that the liberal medi doesn’t allow debate or dissent and Steve shut it down by saying he has no interest in debating tax rates with fascists. There is an existential threat to democracy and that takes precedence over policy debate. 

Also yeah... Bill needs to STFU about the solar shit. It is the most unrelatable thing in the world. 

Didn't watch (quit watching almost two years ago) but come on here to see what Bill's latest rants are about...anyway...did he actually say liberal media doesn't allow debate or dissent? Wait...what??? Has he watched Fox News, OAN or Newsmax in recent months? Has he listened to Rush Limbaugh or any of the other right wing radio people? OMG...is he just shit stirring or does he really believe the crap he's putting out there? And what does he have against solar panels? I thought he was an environmentalist...geez, the 2021 version of Bill Maher is a shadow of the 2008 version.

[Avaleigh]

48 minutes ago, BrownBear2012 said:

And what does he have against solar panels? I thought he was an environmentalist...geez, the 2021 version of Bill Maher is a shadow of the 2008 version.

Bill doesn't have anything against solar panels and wants to be able to use them. He's just having problems getting them working and hasn't been happy with the bureaucratic red tape that he's had to deal with regarding this.

[Pike Ludwell]

4 hours ago, BrownBear2012 said:

Didn't watch (quit watching almost two years ago) but come on here to see what Bill's latest rants are about...anyway...did he actually say liberal media doesn't allow debate or dissent? Wait...what??? Has he watched Fox News, OAN or Newsmax in recent months? Has he listened to Rush Limbaugh or any of the other right wing radio people? OMG...is he just shit stirring or does he really believe the crap he's putting out there? And what does he have against solar panels? I thought he was an environmentalist...geez, the 2021 version of Bill Maher is a shadow of the 2008 version.

Have you ever heard anyone on MSNBC say anything critical of BLM? If ever it is very rare. Hell. I think even Bill is scared of saying such things even though I know he thinks it. E.g., Watch how much he agreed with Kmele two weeks ago.

[AuntieDiane6]

10 hours ago, angelamh66 said:

Bill needs to STFU about the solar shit. It is the most unrelatable thing in the world.

Oh no it isn't. Blue states are NOTORIOUS for the incredible bureaucracy that permeates every aspect of life.  I live in NY where it takes 8 months for a bar to get a liquor license;  you need building permits for everything from a shed like Bill's to adding ROCKS to the shoreline of your tiny family lake cottage and 7 forms to get a 5% reduction of your co-pay for your medical bills.  Don't even ask me about experiences with the DMV.  

GO BILL!  

[littlepaw]

Ok, can somebody explain why Bill needs a solar shed? Is this in addition to or instead of panels on his house? We got solar (I live in San Diego County) a few years ago and there were no problems whatsoever. We waited maybe a month or so for permits, IIRC. I'm thinking this may be a local thing in LA County, and has little or nothing to do with the state of CA. I'm wide open to explanation/correction. 

[deirdra]

It's all very strange.  The shed is about the size of a 2-seater outhouse, out in his yard, but inches from a large tree.  At most it would hold one solar panel, but why would you put it under the shade of a tree?  That made me wonder if the shed was for a big-ass battery/generator for when the sun don't shine.  The proximity to a large tree and however it is connected to the mansion (which would need one or two dozen panels on its roof to be useful) may have something to do with the 1089 day delay.

[BrownBear2012]

6 hours ago, Avaleigh said:

Bill doesn't have anything against solar panels and wants to be able to use them. He's just having problems getting them working and hasn't been happy with the bureaucratic red tape that he's had to deal with regarding this.

So...rich guy problems.

[BrownBear2012]

3 hours ago, Pike Ludwell said:

Have you ever heard anyone on MSNBC say anything critical of BLM? If ever it is very rare. Hell. I think even Bill is scared of saying such things even though I know he thinks it. E.g., Watch how much he agreed with Kmele two weeks ago.

I think Fox News and other right wing media outlets do enough critical commentary on BLM and any other left wing protesters to satisfy their base and anyone else so inclined. Bill lost all credibility and respect when he used the N word a few years ago in an offensive and tone deaf way.

2 hours ago, deirdra said:

It's all very strange.  The shed is about the size of a 2-seater outhouse, out in his yard, but inches from a large tree.  At most it would hold one solar panel, but why would you put it under the shade of a tree?  That made me wonder if the shed was for a big-ass battery/generator for when the sun don't shine.  The proximity to a large tree and however it is connected to the mansion (which would need one or two dozen panels on its roof to be useful) may have something to do with the 1089 day delay.

Maybe he's growing pot in there?

[sistermagpie]

4 hours ago, Pike Ludwell said:

Have you ever heard anyone on MSNBC say anything critical of BLM? If ever it is very rare. Hell. I think even Bill is scared of saying such things even though I know he thinks it. E.g., Watch how much he agreed with Kmele two weeks ago.

But it's impossible to know what someone isn't saying because they're afraid to say it or isn't saying because they have no desire to say it. Iirc, Bill did criticize things about the protests he thought were wrong. I mean, I don't assume that Tucker Carlson is afraid say that systemic racism and white supremacy exists. I don't think he has any desire to say it.

[Thomas Crown]

I thought it was a good show overall and much better than the last few. 

While I appreciate and respect that Adam Kinzinger is putting his political career at risk by taking a stand against Trump, he did still vote for Trump last fall. WTF? I'm glad that Bill called him out on that.  Kinzinger had 4 years to see what horrible president Trump was and then you still vote for the guy. Kinzinger though did made an interesting comment about stoking fear for fund raising.  It's been a very successful tool for years now and the opposition parties (whichever side) love to use it. 

When it comes to self inflicted wounds related to the financial crisis, both parties are guilty of contributing to that IMO. There was a lot of financial deregulation during the Clinton years that greatly contributed to the events of the financial crisis in the 2000s. A financial crisis  just doesn't happen over night and it takes years (sometime decades) for the true effects of the deregulation to have an effect on the economy.  I wish Bill would have pointed it out to Moulitsas who just laid the blame solely on the Republicans because they were the party in power at the time.  

100% in agreement about Bill's comment on MSNBC (or CNN) which I once enjoyed watching.  There's barely any political debate happening there and this equally applies to the right leaning media stations too.  They are all reporting carefully calculated a one sided views of the news so they can retain a specific targeted audience.  They are afraid to have any real debates or discussions that would go against the views of their target audience.  It's pretty awful that our news media has come to this.   Bill even said it, there are so many news worthy events and topics happening that could be covered on a 24 hour news show yet they spend the majority of the time catering to their target audience by repeating the same news discussions day after day so they can maintain their precious ratings.  Multiple episodes this season that Bill has brought up this attack on the media and I have no issues there. 

Schmidt is a Democrat now? Yikes not sure I want him influencing the Democratic Party.  Bill did go easy on him over the Lincoln Project scandal. The amount of money that goes through super PACs is mind blowing.  So easy to have illicit activities passing though there.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Thomas Crown

[ZoqFotPik]

On 2/13/2021 at 5:54 PM, littlepaw said:

Ok, can somebody explain why Bill needs a solar shed? Is this in addition to or instead of panels on his house? We got solar (I live in San Diego County) a few years ago and there were no problems whatsoever. We waited maybe a month or so for permits, IIRC. I'm thinking this may be a local thing in LA County, and has little or nothing to do with the state of CA. I'm wide open to explanation/correction. 

I believe the shed is for equipment that connects the panels to the house. Considering he lives in Beverly Hills next door to Jay Leno in a house that was owned by Ben Affleck, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the problems are some local regulations and/or some NIMBY stuff. 

[littlepaw]

2 hours ago, ZoqFotPik said:

I believe the shed is for equipment that connects the panels to the house. Considering he lives in Beverly Hills next door to Jay Leno in a house that was owned by Ben Affleck, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the problems are some local regulations and/or some NIMBY stuff. 

Thanks for shedding (ha) some light on this (ha again). That's pretty much what I was speculating, that it's  local regulations rather than state bureaucracy. We just have a panel on the outside of our house that contains the solar....switches I guess they are (my technical knowledge being zilch). No shed needed, but maybe Bill has special needs for himself and his mansion. Again, I'm open to correction that it's some sort of state thing instead. I'm also thinking that perhaps COVID has affected the solar industry, as far as (perhaps) installers available and/or less people to process paperwork. We don't know, but damn it's getting tiresome to hear the same whine ad nauseam every week. 

 

 

[IvySpice]

Bill could do a much better job explaining how his solar panel issue is connected to real, widespread problems with over-regulation and NIMBYism in California that drive housing insecurity and homelessness. It's almost impossible in some California cities to improve properties in ways that increase density and allow more people to live in comfort. My family in the Bay Area fought for literally years to get permission to finish the basement and put in a second bathroom. In the intervening years, a family of 5 made do with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath. No wonder any house with two bathrooms is worth millions! Never mind actually building affordable apartments near mass transit. It's more or less impossible. THAT is what Bill needs to be talking about -- his shed could shed light on the larger issue.

I liked that Bill had Kinzinger and Schmidt on. We need a loyal opposition, not a QAnon opposition. But I wanted to smack him when he started making fun of Kinzinger for believing in the Devil. I'm an atheist who thinks it's idiotic to attack our allies. I mean, our republic is at stake. I don't care if he believes in sky fairies -- he also believes in vaccines and votes! If he's on our side when it comes to Trump, then make the man welcome.