When I saw the headline at the Worldnutdaily that read “ROCK STAR QUESTIONS OBAMA’S PRESENCE IN WHITE HOUSE,” I didn’t even need to read the article to know that it had to be talking about Dave Mustaine of Megadeth. He didn’t just endorse Rick Santorum for president, he’s gone full birther:
“Why hasn’t somebody moved to impeach this man,” he asked in a recent interview with Infowars, which was posted at the Obama Release Your Records website.
“With all of the proof about his birth certificate being a fake, and you see the signs in Kenya saying, ‘The birthplace of Barack Obama.’ Hello! Come on, guys. How stupid are we right now?”
Who is this ‘we’ thing? You’re pretty goddamn stupid right now. And then there’s this:
He also said Michelle Obama, on her husband’s inauguration, “looked like the black widow turned upside down. You don’t just wear something like that … without some future message being told.”
Ah yes, moron as fashion critic.
49 comments
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Brett McCoy
August 11, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Never cared for Megadeth’s music that much (and I am an old school metalhead), this makes me want to listen to them even less. I’ll take those left-wing metal bands like Black Sabbath!
VeritasKnight
August 11, 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That’s not true. It could have been Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth as well. Though I don’t know what Metallica is like, it seems like American metal bands are fairly right-wing, whilst British metal bands are quite left-wing. Interesting difference.
heathermighty-lambchop
August 11, 2012 at 11:25 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh for fuck’s sake. It’s becoming more and more difficult for me to listen to Megadeth without thinking about Dave’s politics. (Which is a shame because “Rust In Peace” is such a great album.)
His frequent appearances with Alex Jones is so creepy. It’s time to leave Dave in his own corner of wingnuttery.
Even the metal blogs have given up reporting his lunacy as something interesting because it’s become so tiresome and stupid.
I guess this leaves more room for Slayer on my iPod.
Modusoperandi
August 11, 2012 at 11:27 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Guess what’ll happen if the GOP takes the Senate?
…
And what the hell is a Real American Patriot® doing on a foreign television program, anyway? You know what foreign shows are? UnAmerican! And on the CBC? You know what the “C” stands for? Communism! And also the other “C” does too!
Brett McCoy
August 11, 2012 at 11:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@VeritasKnight — hmmmm… maybe that’s why I tend not to like much American metal (with the exception of Savatage). Megadeth used to be fairly left-wing (“Peace sells… but who’s buying”), but Mustaine became born-again and apparently changed his view.
imrryr
August 11, 2012 at 11:38 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oh, how the sort-of mighty have fallen…
Olav
August 11, 2012 at 11:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed:
You should not be reading that outlet of sewage. Nothing of value ever comes out of there. Don’t read it for laughs either. It isn’t funny and it might even rot your mind.
erk12
August 11, 2012 at 11:41 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That Mustaine interview was the first time I ever saw Strombo actually question the lunacy coming out of the mouth of an interviewee. THAT’S how stupid Mustaine is.
dingojack
August 11, 2012 at 11:44 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Sooo Michelle Obama looked like Latrodectus hasseltii* therefore her husband should be impeached!
With arguments as mentally deficient (‘idiotic’ is too high functioning) as that, is it any wonder that nobody has “… moved to impeach this man…”.
Are we absolutely sure the band wasn’t really called ‘brain-death’?
Dingo
—–
* The female Red Back Spider has a red, orange, white or yellow stripe along the upper-rear of its abdomen.
Jasper of Maine (I feel safe and welcome at FTB)
August 11, 2012 at 11:50 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Doesn’t the president have to do something that’s an impeachable offense before being impeached? I didn’t think it was something they could just do because they felt like it.
whheydt
August 11, 2012 at 12:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re; #13 (Jasper of Maine)
Well…yes. But the House gets to decide what is “an impeachable offense”. Andrew Johnson was impeached for, basically, firing his Secretary of War (who had powerful political allies) and refusing to say why he’d done it.
The other thing people who call for impeachment tend to forget is that impeachment is akin to an indictment. It is merely bringing charges up and deciding if there is enough substance there to warrant an actual trial. Once impeached, the process moves to the Senate for an actual trial…and that’s where, if convicted, removal from office follows.
(But everyone *here* knows all that….right?)
–W. H. Heydt
whheydt
August 11, 2012 at 12:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ouch… Make that “Re: #10″…
–W. H. Heydt
Randomfactor
August 11, 2012 at 12:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Doesn’t the president have to do something that’s an impeachable offense before being impeached?
He’s black.
Michael Heath
August 11, 2012 at 12:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Randomfactor:
I’d add ‘uppity’ since Republicans like their Uncle Toms.
StevoR
August 11, 2012 at 12:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Michelle Obama looked like the black widow turned upside down? But, but but that’s a pulsar – B1957+20* – and :
1) Pulsars are sphercial and symetrical so really the upside and down side are identical in appearance. (Starspots aside?)
2) There’s no up or down in space anyhow.
3) Nobody tells a pulsar what to wear without getting majorly magnetically scrambled and irradiated!
* See :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widow_Pulsar
Yeah, what a maroon alright.
tbrandt
August 11, 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This is shocking to me. I always thought that Mustaine’s opening lyrics to Good Mourning/Black Friday were some of the most incisive comments on American culture:
In light of these revelations, zombies may have been eating Mustaine’s brain at the exact moment he composed those lyrics.
StevoR
August 11, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wait a sec, didn’t even the Republicans decide that “stinkyfroth” Santorum wasn’t electable when they held that whole long nomination contest thingy from six months or so ago until just recently and isn’t it now sorta decided that Santorum is NOT in contention for the role of POTUS any more?
Heck, Santorum can’t even make Veep now can he, with Ronmney picking Ryan as his choice there, right?
Is this Aussie really so confused or is what Dave Mustaine called for there just impossible under your system now anyhow?
koren
August 11, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No no! Dave and Alex are right, Obama is the Antichrist, his wife is the Spider Queen from DnD and those things that follow them around aren’t children, they’re actually Demonic Familiar Imps! We have to hurry up and purge them for their Libreal-Communist ways before they being the great White Genocide in October!
slc1
August 11, 2012 at 12:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Re Michael Heath @ #14
Now that Heath has shown up, perhaps he would like to comment on his hero, Fareed Zakaria, blotting his copy book.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/offering-apology-time-columnist-fareed-zakaria-suspended-for-copying-another-writers-work/2012/08/10/1cd8723a-e32e-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html?hpid=z10&wp_login_redirect=0
slc1
August 11, 2012 at 12:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I assume that Mr. Brayton will be commenting on Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his running mate tomorrow so I will refrain from posting links to his anti-gay and global warming denial positions until that time.
dan4
August 11, 2012 at 1:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@11: There was a commentator on a WND thread who actually thought that Obama being impeached would mean not only jail time for him but for his family as well (she was writing this in the context of supporting Obama’s impeachment).
dingojack
August 11, 2012 at 1:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dan4 – as I posted above: ‘With arguments as mentally deficient (‘idiotic’ is too high functioning)’ as the one you document …
Dingo
Hairy Chris, blah blah blah etc
August 11, 2012 at 1:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mustaine’s been going off the cliff for years. The guy is an ex-addict who found God in a big way, and unfortunately the God bit has really not helped him to not be a prick…
Zinc Avenger (Sarcasm Tags 3.0 Compliant)
August 11, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A fine example of fact-free reasoning.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 11, 2012 at 2:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I suspect there are two major factors in this: first, in the US, a disproportionate number of highly successful metal bands were formed in Florida, and “highly successful” usually takes a couple of decades, so “White Southerners in their 40s” are overrepresented. Second, metal culture in the US has flirted extensively with Libertarianism (as opposed to some Nordic metal bands, whose lyrics sound creepily like proto-fascist propaganda *cough*Hammerfall*cough*), and Libertarianism has for the most part been hijacked by wingnuts in the last 1-2 decades.
grendelsfather
August 11, 2012 at 2:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
See, kids! When adults tell you that years of drug abuse can destroy your mind, we are not kidding.
stevebowen
August 11, 2012 at 3:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Woah! Who says Spinal Tap isn’t a real documentary?
Rip Steakface
August 11, 2012 at 3:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
leonardschneider
August 11, 2012 at 4:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well… We are discussing a man whose friends were relieved when he stopped using cocaine in favor of crystal; speed’s effects are more simple and straightforward than coke’s. He really was much easier to deal with.
Or, he’s simply a product of his environment. Mustaine is from the suburbs of that glorified military tank-town known as San Diego, just like me. Hearing that someone from La Mesa supported Santorum during the primaries is like being told the sun rose in the east that morning: well, duh.
Dave, take the advice proffered on a Frank Zappa album cover: shut up and play your guitar.
mudpuddles
August 11, 2012 at 5:49 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Veritasknight, #2:
Yeah but that wasn’t always the case… I was a major metal fan in the late 80s & early 90s, and bands like Sacred Reich, Mordred, Atrophy, Anthrax, Testament, Nuclear Assault, Death Angel, Suicidal Tendencies and even Death had definitely left-leaning philosophies; pro-choice, anti-war, pro-socialist, anti-racist, pro-feminist and very environmentally-aware lyrics.
@ Heathermighty-lambchop, #3:
Yeah, one of the finest rock albums ever. Mustaine signalled his right-wing xenophobia and hysteria with that silly anti-UN album a few years ago, and since then I just see him as a complete and utter gobshite.
davidhart
August 11, 2012 at 8:12 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Why hasn’t somebody moved to impeach this man,” he asked
For just a split second, before I parsed it properly, I misread that as “Why hasn’t somebody moved to impeach this imam”.
Am I getting psychic signals from the wingnuts?
F
August 11, 2012 at 9:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Can we have a Mustaine Please Stop Releasing Records website? I’ll sign a petition there.
As stupid as the people who don’t believe the signs that say ‘Birthplace of Paul Bunyan’.
Eric126
August 11, 2012 at 10:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@BrettMcCoy An aside – Savatage is as metal as Dave Matthews is jazz. FTR – I highly dig Savatage, and have seen and thoroughly enjoyed TSO live, but Savatage is theatrical prog rock, and most definitely not metal, my friend.
Crudely Wrott
August 12, 2012 at 12:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mustaine is representative of heavy metal performers and right wingers in general. They know nothing of music or politics but they dearly love the noise that they make.
astrofiend
August 12, 2012 at 12:57 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dave who? Oh yeah – that guy who got kicked out of Metallica and then started some crap knock-off band.
Dave Mustaine: Still sucking as a human being.
Ichthyic
August 12, 2012 at 1:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Why hasn’t somebody moved to impeach this man…
the “recall election” of Arnold Schwarzenegger taught me that the rules of recall and impeachment are now open to complete and utter abuse.
the US hasn’t had a real representative democracy for most of my lifetime.
Ichthyic
August 12, 2012 at 1:53 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Doesn’t the president have to do something that’s an impeachable offense before being impeached?
ROFLMAO
no.
like I said, the process of impeachment in the US has been completely FUBARED.
seriously.
Clinton was revenge for Nixon, etc. etc etc….
go look at the history; it’s very rarely ever been used correctly, and instead becomes a tool of the majority party to impose punishment.
sosw
August 12, 2012 at 2:22 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Much of current and recent prog rock is also definitely metal (the most well-known example being Dream Theater), and I would definitely count Savatage in that category (wikipedia, for what it’s worth, says “Heavy metal, progressive metal”).
As an example of a recent non-metal prog band, I’d say Spock’s Beard…which is also kind of related to the topic; I stopped following Neal Morse’s musical projects when he went totally nutso for religion…
ZeLinator
August 12, 2012 at 5:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Crudely Wrott
I find your comment deeply dismissive and incensing, or at least the first part. I’d say the problematic ignorant political views of “heavy metal musicians” are actually consistent with political views of the overwhelming majority of music artists. There are only a few subgenres where well-formed political opinions are readily found (folk, some punk, some rap).
Most “heavy metal musicians” have a few similar views: 1. Large anti-authoritarian streak, which typically goes against conservative moral legislation and some “nanny-state” liberal policies, borders on libertarian at times. 2. Anti-war via vivid description of violence, which goes against the conservative military-industrial complex. 3. My favorite, a large disdain for organized religion or all religion, barring some aggravatingly heart-on-sleeve Christian (with a capital C) bands.
Off the cuff, some “heavy metal musicians” with a decent head on their shoulders: Gojira, Valient Thorr, Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Alex Skolnick of Testament and maybe Overkill. Lesson here: please get more informed before dismissing a whole group of people.
Reginald Selkirk
August 12, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess Ted Nugent is so washed up he doesn’t even occur to you any more?
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 12, 2012 at 2:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Their earlier stuff qualified even by the definition you’re using, and the proper definition and scope of “metal” is up for debate.
zmidponk
August 12, 2012 at 4:35 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
VeritasKnight #2:
Can’t say for US metal bands in general, or, indeed, the personal views of the members of Metallica, but their music is certainly not your typical right-wing stuff. Take, for example, their ode to the Christian God, ‘The God That Failed’ (the title really says it all on that one), their song about religion in general, ‘Leper Messiah’ (the title gives a hint, but look up the lyrics for that one to see what it’s really all about), their ballad written from the point of view of a soldier, grotesquely injured on the battlefield by a landmine, literally wishing for death, ‘One’, or their little ditty about soldiers in general, ‘Disposable Heroes’ (again, the title kinda gives it away there). Of course, not being terribly familiar with American metal, it could be that they are the exception, not the rule, but then you have to ask if that’s got something to do with the reason they’re quite often on any list of ‘the best metal bands ever’, and usually quite near or at the top.
Dave Mustaine was, at one point, Metallica’s lead guitarist, but got fired for being out his mind on drink and/or drugs way too much, which made him, basically, a violent maniac. From what I’m seeing here, the excessive drinking and drugs have definitely had an effect on his brain.
fifthdentist
August 12, 2012 at 6:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I just put up signs in my living room saying: “John Boehner molested my dogs.” So, why isn’t someone impeaching this terrible dog-fucker?
Also, “rock star?” Really?
aaronbaker
August 12, 2012 at 8:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A heavy metal rocker–in another words an untalented nobody as well as a bigoted fanatic.
Crudely Wrott
August 12, 2012 at 11:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ ZeLinator, #39:
You’ll have to live with the fact that I am not familiar with any of the bands that you name at the end of your comment. I tend to shy away from those who try to communicate with me by screaming and assaulting me with endless two or three chord repetitions all served up at maximum volume. Something about it puts me off.
Not to say that there are no valid messages in heavy metal music. I’m sure that there are. My problem is with the delivery. It grates every nerve in my body and mostly in my brain. Perhaps it has something to do with the music I chose to listen to as an easily influenced adolescent as well as the music that my parents played at home. There was no lack of political and social messages in the songs of Paul Robeson, for instance, or, for that matter, the Moody Blues. As far as sheer musical ability there a few that surpass Henry Mancini and the Hundred and One Strings or Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Several movie sound track recordings come to mind; Paint Your Wagon and South Pacific spring readily to mind.
The difference between these and heavy metal is that my favorites do not incite me to slam into people or whip my head about until my brain is bruised and damaged. I like to dance smoothly and with grace, spinning the girls around and polishing a belt buckle now and again.
If you like being screamed at and subjected to repetitive loud rhythms of little imagination at the decibel level of a Saturn V launch, have right at it. I kick back with It’s a Beautiful Day, John Prine, The Nylons, Roy Orbison, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, The Amazing Rhythm Aces and, now and again, some old Beatles, to name just a few.
While there is no accounting for taste and the times one grows up in, I just hope that you don’t turn your headphones up to eleven. It’ll addle your brains. ;-)
ZeLinator
August 12, 2012 at 11:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Crudely Wrott:
Better, but still too many assumptions and generalizations. I’ve long since past the point where I try to judge other genres as a matter of “taste.” I do not judge your music as inferior and then continue on to dismiss it as wholly uneducated, untalented, and unworthy of anyone’s consideration purely on aesthetic differences. My choice of genre is full of that exact imagination, talent, and even subtlety (!) that you credit to your chosen music. The only differences between are your “taste” and, again, your ignorance.
It’s like you’re tone-trolling about metal.
bmiller
August 13, 2012 at 5:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
aaron baker:
FOAD.
Many metal musicians, especially in the underground scene, are as talented as anyone in the musical world.
“Heavy metal” can be pretentious, if anything…but I prefer “pretentious” to the trite pablum of pop, the boring college navel gazing of mainstream “alternative rock” or the noodlings of modern jazz (jazz makes me ITCH). Modern “commercial” Country? ROFLOL.
Modern Heavy metal often incorporates classical instruments and motifs, complex structures, lengthy songs or song cycles. Theme albums discuss somewhat complicated philosophical and …yes…political topics. Some metal musicians have…questionable…political or ethical views, and violence is associated with some elements of the scene (but that is certainly true of other genres as well.)
Your blithe dismissal of an entire musical genre is sadly mistaken.
Reginald Selkirk
August 17, 2012 at 12:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Get a load of this from Dave Mustaine:
Megadeth Singer: Obama ‘Staged’ Aurora Shooting Massacre
.
I guess he’s out to make Ted Nugent look like the sane, calm one.
aaronbaker
April 11, 2013 at 11:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@47:
I only saw this thread again five minutes ago. You’re probably right–I shouldn’t have generalized.