On Bill Maher’s “Real Time,” Russell Brand and Senator Bernie Sanders take on the status quo

Russell Brand and Senator Bernie Sanders are crazy like crazy, and they don’t want you to take it any longer. This is Real Time’s recap of Friday with Bill Maher as the actor/comedian politician who raged against the machine and said the system needs to be changed to give the working class a voice.

For once, Maher largely let her do her thing. He disagreed with some of Brand’s statements and wondered what Sanders was proposing. But neither he nor panelist John Heilemann of Showtime’s “The Circus” could launch a blistering attack on the information fire department, which both guests spat out.

Sanders promotes his new book, It’s okay to be angry at capitalism. He said we need “the right mix” in our economic system as we have “more wealth inequality than ever”. As a result, the United States is “rapidly evolving into an oligarchic form of society,” he argued.

Maher claimed to be “philosophical with you” when it comes to taxing the wealthy. “But the government takes more than half and you want more?”

Sanders fired back, citing the large number of people who were paid to paycheck, a child care system that was an “absolute disgrace,” adding to homelessness and student debt.

How could raising taxes on the wealthy solve this, Maher wondered. Sanders said education is the key to making college free and “taking on the greed of the insurance companies. “Make Medicare for everyone,” he boomed. He also called for more electricians, plumbers and plumbers to be trained

But we must also fight the “diseases of despair”, he said.

“We must restore hope to the American people,” Sanders concluded.

Russell Brand was equally wild in his passion for the little guy. Whether it was the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, the role of Big Pharmacy in society, or the media bias of certain networks, he kept coming back to one theme: we need to change the way things are done, and stop to focus on it. trivia like Talking Heads’ political leanings.

After Maher and Heilemann used the “this/that” argument in defense of the pharmaceutical industry, Brand pounced. “Out of respect for you and your show, I brought some facts,” he said. Then he rattled off a laundry list of how the pandemic created new pharmaceutical billionaires, how Congress received funding from Big Pharm and how Pfizer profited.

“All I ask is that when drug companies profit from emergencies, you will create conditions of perpetual crisis.”

Brand ended his night by challenging Maher. “You’re telling the American people that it’s impossible to improve,” he said. “And you’re better than that, Bill.”

Maher’s New Rules editorial dealt with the proliferation of trigger warnings, which he called “a mask for your mind.” See the video above for details.