Bill Maher, an American comedian, political commentator, and television host, posted on YouTube.com, on November 20, 2020, a monologue with some videos to illustrate his points comparing Keith Raniere and Donald Trump.
Among the videos are endorsements for Vanguard by three women who also were convicted of felonies. One of them, Clare Bronfman, is in prison already with 79 months to go on her 81-month sentence – and the other two, mother and daughter Nancy and Lauren Salzman, are currently awaiting sentencing.
Before we get into the Maher monologue, let us take a moment to consider how poignant are these statements about Keith by his three convicted followers:
CLARE BRONFMAN: Has your being a part of my life, enhanced my life? I don’t have words to tell you how much it has.
LAUREN SALZMAN: And a heartfelt tribute to Vanguard. You make it possible for us to grow ourselves every day into the people that we want to be.
NANCY SALZMAN: A very amazing man in many, many, many ways.
Certainly, these statements have to be explored in their fullness. Clare, for instance, is now living in prison. Her life has drastically changed – and one wonders if she still feels it has been enhanced.
Lauren spent days on the witness stand describing a brutal monster named Keith Raniere.
And Nancy, his partner for 20 years, what does she think of this amazing man, as he sits in prison and she awaits sentencing?
Without further ado, here is the video, followed by a transcription of the monologue.
https://frankreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/maher-ranieri-trump-jokes.mp4
BILL MAHER: Well, recently there’s been another large group of people who had a great disappointment and will not accept their loss. And the challenge, for us, is how do you get people out of a cult, especially when every time you present evidence of what is obvious reality, They take it as proof of you being in a conspiracy to destroy them?
And for the answer to that question, we must turn to – and I’m sure many of you have already guessed who I’m going to say now – Catherine Oxenberg.
Yes, Catherine Oxenberg, actress, star of Dynasty, European royalty, and “the lady in front of you at Whole Foods”.
Catherine Oxenberg, because she got somebody out of a cult, and I know about 70 million other Americans I’d like her to talk to.
Now, if you don’t know what I’m referring to, Catherine Oxenberg was recently featured in not one, but two documentaries about a cult called Nxivm that brainwashed her daughter, India. Nxivm was led by a conman, now serving 120 years, named Keith Raniere, a.k.a. Vanguard – was the name he gave himself – Vanguard.
And as I was watching this documentary, I couldn’t stop thinking that Raniere, I mean, Vanguard, reminded me of someone but I couldn’t put my finger on who.
For example, like most cult leaders, Vanguard had an extraordinary need to be surrounded by ass lickers, telling him how great he was,
Videos
CLARE BRONFMAN: Has your being a part of my life, enhanced my life? I don’t have words to tell you how much it has.
LAUREN SALZMAN: And a heartfelt tribute to Vanguard. You make it possible for us to grow ourselves every day into the people that we want to be.
NANCY SALZMAN: A very amazing man in many, many, many ways.
Back to Maher
BILL MAHER: Uhm. Who did that remind me of?
Videos:
MIKE PENCE: I know that I’ve ever been more proud to be standing next to you.
WOMAN: Thank you, President Trump, for allowing us to have you as our president.
MAN: You’re living up to every everything I thought you would. You’re one heck of a leader.
BILL MAHER: Oh, yeah, that guy. That’s right. The one who is also always bragging about what a genius he is.
TRUMP: But I’m smarter than, I’m smarter than anybody. I’m a very stable genius, Donald Trump’s very, very large a brain.
BILL MAHER: Well, get this: “Vanguard’s” followers believed he was the demonstrably single smartest person in the world. Because he told them. he told them he spoke in full sentences when he was one. And also that he invented his own math, just like Dr. William Miller.
And both Trump’s and Vanguard’s status as cult leader sprang from their creation myths as “off the charts business savants” when in reality, Vanguard’s Consumer Byline business was a pyramid scheme shut down by the state of New York. And about as successful as the three casinos Trump drove into bankruptcy in the 90s.
Oh, and they both started fake schools.
And then there’s the fact that both men were such unrepentant sex creeps, that they literally could not stop themselves from bragging about it.
Videos
KEITH RANIERE: If we conquer a woman, if we grab the thing we want to fuck – whatever it is – and fuck it, and if we do whatever we want, and they like it.
TRUMP: When you are a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, whenever you want. Grab them by the pussy.
BILL MAHER: Yeah, you didn’t notice that. Okay. It seemed rather parallel to me – and like all cult leaders, they had to have that one queen bee around them who they deputized to recruit others into their sick games.
Vanguard had Smallville actress Allison Mack.
Trump has Lindsey Graham.
And you know when you’re fighting a cult, you’re not just fighting the leaders, but all the enablers who see you as an enemy. Truth is a threat to them. That’s why what Catherine Oxenberg did was so instructive. You’ve heard the phrase ‘Hate the sin, love the sinner’. Well, she practiced ‘Hate the cult, love the cultist’. She didn’t scream at her daughter “that she was stupid”. She didn’t cut her off. She just kept trying to remind her of who she used to be. I think we need to try that on QAnon.
You know, the ones who believe that rich liberals are running a massive pedophile ring. And eat babies, and in some cases are really lizard people wearing a human mask. And they were assured that Trump was going to win reelection as Dr. Miller’s followers were that the world was going to end in 1844.
They were told to trust the plan that Trump would get a second term devoted to busting the democratic sex trafficking ring. But now, on message boards, we can see, they have doubt and despondency. One of them wrote, “My faith is shaken. I followed the plan. Trump lost What now?”
What now? opportunity to lift the scales from their eyes. But it’s not going to happen from mocking them, or calling them stupid, or making smart remarks. Like “if Camilla Harris really is a lizard person. Why didn’t she eat that fly on Mike Pence’s head?”
Don’t do that. I’m saying don’t do that. No, really. One more and then don’t do it.
Rather if you have Trump relatives over for Thanksgiving, understand they have been through a traumatic event. Their savior their strongest, smartest, manliest hunk of a leader who ever lived, just got his ass kicked by the 2000-year-old man.
So, don’t gloat. Don’t even try to argue because arguing with cult people only makes it worse.
CATHERINE OXENBERG: If there’s hope. It’s not in any of the words that were communicated. It’s in here.
BILL MAHER: And so it is for me, to all of you in the audience. Thank you so much You put up with so much just to be here.
