Trump fundraiser in Orange County featuring Mike and 'The Beach Boys'

[Reverberation]

If a moritiorium on political talk is going to apply to Trump supporters then it should absolutely apply to everyone then. But this topic kinda forces us to talk about politics because politics are one of the reasons many are so upset about The Beach Boys playing this event. And if one side is allowed to share their viewpoint on the political aspect of this discussion then I think the other side should absolutely have this right as well.

Nope, nope, back up.

There is a difference between discussing how politics plays into a development in the Beach Boys world and just lurking on a Beach Boys board (or near lurking) and then just swooping in with a political post with zero BB content just to offer a rebuttal to something they don't like.

Obviously, any time someone in the BB world (meaning almost always Mike) does something involving politics that many or most find abhorrent, there's a quick slippery slope from discussing how it impacts the BBs to then just turning into another tired political debate that could be had anywhere.

But the people I'm talking about are a small group of members here who rarely post, whose post history clearly shows that they don't participate or add much to any regular BB discussions, and seem to mostly post only quick, often snide political posts with zero BB content.

So yeah, if someone posts *about* the BBs and also talks about politics, that *is* different than someone plucking a political comment *out* of that post and then just rebutting political talking points. This often seems to happen with posters who otherwise mostly lurk, which indicates to me that they don't have much interest in posting about the BB's, but do have interest in posting about politics. There are other places for that.

In short, I'm much less suspicious of the motives of a poster here who posts something veering into politics who *also* has regularly posted about the BBs. It tells me they might be getting roped into some political stuff, which may or may not end up working well on the board, but that they're coming from a place first and foremost of being a BB fan. I'm more suspicious of lurkers who mostly or exclusively appear out of nowhere only to A) Defend Mike Love in general, B) Defend Mike Love's politics, and C) Defend Trump, et al. While I can't assume such people have *no* interest in the BBs if they're on this board, this posting pattern indicates they don't seem interested in contributing to the board in terms of BB fandom or scholarship, and that's fine if folks want to lurk. But when someone only goes out of shy lurker mode to post political talking points, that's unfortunate and indicative of all the things I've already laid out.

Sorry, I was asking in earnest, really, just trying to understand. Maybe I should have looked more in to it. I genuinely LOVE the BB, and have lurked over the years, but rarely posted on different accounts. I've just fallen into a BB kick/rabbit-hole again. I meant no offense. I like reading your posts a lot. I like to think of the BB as apolitical.

RE the masks that someone asked about, I think the idea is that the virus is carried via water particles, which are trapped by even surgical masks. I've heard the argument that they don't work because the micron-sized virus can easily fit through the loosely woven non-respirator masks, but it's the water droplets which are caught. They're more of a safety precaution against transmitting the virus between people rather that a barrier against, I think, which is why there's the disclaimer on the boxes. I think the whole thing about inhaling dangerous levels of CO2, micro-molds, and respiratory dangers are overblown compared to any benefit. N95 respirator masks do work and protect you against the virus, though they used to be extremely difficult to get anywhere.

I am very worried about the band staying safe during this time, especially after so many high profile individuals across the world have gotten it, and I'm sure they still do a fair amount of traveling even without touring regularly.

[Reverberation]

One of the things he did mention is that Mike Love is actually a bit more liberal than he gives off and that the environmental stuff was a big hot topic for him.  Turns out Bruce is more conservative than Love is.  Take that for what you will, but I am not aware of any reason why Love might be deliberately insincere in his views on this.  

This only furthers my theory that Mike is that much more of a phony in so many ways, because his asskissing of Trump is at least partly (if not mostly) linked to trying to angle to get some sort of reward from being buddy-buddy with Trump. Look, Uncle Jesse hung around the Beach Boys for a number of years before he gradually got to not only start playing live with them, but he also got to record with them and sing lead vocal on one of their studio albums. The same theory surely holds true in Mike's mind regarding Trump.

Mike is that much more of a disingenuous sicko for gluing himself to Trump - when Mike probably doesn't even agree with a bunch of Trump's policies - because Mike's in the pro-Trump game for reasons that Mike prioritizes higher than ANYTHING else: Mike's dream of an Ego Oscar award, given to him by Trump, and all the attention Mike thinks he can get from his frothing MAGA fans.

But that is all wholly subjective and speculation.  You clearly have an agenda against both these guys (not attacking you with that assessment) which explains why you would feel this way.  However it is not impossible to consider that a person could lean politically one way but still harbor views from the opposite side.  Not everyone is a political monolith.  I believe Love has always identified as a Republican, albeit a more liberal one.  If he had no interest in environmentalism it is a bit baffling as to whom he was trying to appease by writing/recording these type of songs at all.  

That is a pretty interesting to me. I didn't know Mike was explicitly Republican. Not just the environmentalism but Michael is also a vegetarian who meditates and has an interest in astrology. I'm sure many other atypical things too. For the general public, I would imagine a lot would assume that of not just Mike, but the band as a whole. I don't think the whole image of them as basically hippies (at least in the late 60s and throughout the 70s) is well known among mainstream folk. Maybe they known of Pet Sounds, etc., and the biopic has probably changed things at least for Brian to be seen as that (again) for casual audiences. But outside of the Jack Rieley years, I'm not sure if that aspect of the band as a whole was widely publicized.

[HeyJude]

There's no great mystery to Mike's politics if you know the history, read the articles/interviews, etc.

Fans have been pointing out for 30 years or more the irony that Mike and Bruce stump for some environmental stuff yet are both self-indicated conservative Republicans, supporting a party and politicians who are very much NOT pro-environment. Bruce has I suppose been more unequivocal about that. I think Mike has tried to hedge a bit over the years, but the events of the last four years indicate he's becoming *more* conservative, not less.

Many pieces on Mike, including that excellent feature Rolling Stone did on him in 2016, point out the seemingly odd dissonance of being a sort of hippy-dippy TM practitioner while also being socially and economically sharkishly conservative in many other areas.

But I've been reading Mike defenders for decades now mention the Surfrider foundation or whatever it is, as if that disproves Mike and Bruce are conservative Republicans. It's just an anomaly. But 500 years into this Beach Boys saga, with everything that's gone down, I have say no, sorry, no brownie points awarded for associating with one foundation and writing a few pro-environmental songs. Those songs are arguably more offensive knowing the people and things the guy writing and singing the song supports.

[joe_blow]

A former coworker  of mine passed away this morning due to Covid...next person who claims Covid is a hoax is out of here . Take that sh*t elsewhere

Agreed.

Even the cesspool that is Twitter is at least taking some measures to block factually misleading stuff about COVID.

It boggles my mind. Empathy/sympathy requires next to no effort, and yet some people just can't even muster that.

Absolutely.

Billy, my sincerest condolences for your loss. That's terrible.  

It's remarkable how Trumpy people, who then firsthand experience a loss due to Covid of somebody who wasn't necessarily even in a high-risk group, might be the first to change their tune if they were previously downplaying it. Just look at Chris Christie as a recent example. Granted he himself was in the high risk group, but there are countless people who have died who seemed healthy and were not obese or elderly. I'd like to see the people in this thread who are downplaying Covid and observe how they would react if their own healthy spouse or child died from Covid, would their tune change? Not that I'm wishing that on anybody, but I have a suspicion that they would not be of that same mindset anymore if something like that happened to them.

Why is it that it takes a personal experience to do that as opposed to proactively empathizing with others? Boggles my mind. That's the same mindset as Narcissist Mike "he's never been anything but nice to us" Love.

Did you feel that way when the dems called closing the borders xenophobic? How about when Pelosi said don't worry, come down to the street part y in Chinatown? Or when Deblasio said to come out into the streets and not be afraid. Please let us know.

[Join The Human Race]

Trying to own someone's political stances on a Beach Boys forum by playing what about-ism. Seems kinda counterproductive to the purpose of this site; we should be talking about why Adult/Child and Sweet Insanity aren't officially available.

[Pretty Funky]

Trying to own someone's political stances on a Beach Boys forum by playing what about-ism. Seems kinda counterproductive to the purpose of this site; we should be talking about why Adult/Child and Sweet Insanity aren't officially available.

I see what you did there....

[mtaber]

Adult Child and Sweet Insanity... obvious references to Biden and Pelosi...

[Nathan Snyder]

I have no agenda with this post other than to throw this historical occurrence out there...

In 2006 (pretty sure on the year without looking at photos), I took my wife and family to downtown Harrisburg (on the riverfront) to see a Beach Boys 4th of July concert free with fireworks to celebrate.   Like most of the board members, I've seen the Beach Boys individually and separately on countless occasions, but this was the first time I could drag other relatives along to hear the greatest music.   During that timeframe, our Governor was Ed Rendell (Democrat).  Opinions aside, he was a very liberal Governor.   Gov. Rendell gave a welcoming speech that went on at length how much he loved the Beach Boys music and how he was a longtime close friend of Mike Love.   He also stated that Mike 'squeezed' this extra concert in at little to no charge for the city of Harrisburg as a personal favor to Gov. Rendell and that he appreciated it. 

[DonnyL]

A former coworker  of mine passed away this morning due to Covid...next person who claims Covid is a hoax is out of here . Take that sh*t elsewhere

Agreed.

Even the cesspool that is Twitter is at least taking some measures to block factually misleading stuff about COVID.

It boggles my mind. Empathy/sympathy requires next to no effort, and yet some people just can't even muster that.

Absolutely.

Billy, my sincerest condolences for your loss. That's terrible.  

It's remarkable how Trumpy people, who then firsthand experience a loss due to Covid of somebody who wasn't necessarily even in a high-risk group, might be the first to change their tune if they were previously downplaying it. Just look at Chris Christie as a recent example. Granted he himself was in the high risk group, but there are countless people who have died who seemed healthy and were not obese or elderly. I'd like to see the people in this thread who are downplaying Covid and observe how they would react if their own healthy spouse or child died from Covid, would their tune change? Not that I'm wishing that on anybody, but I have a suspicion that they would not be of that same mindset anymore if something like that happened to them.

Why is it that it takes a personal experience to do that as opposed to proactively empathizing with others? Boggles my mind. That's the same mindset as Narcissist Mike "he's never been anything but nice to us" Love.

Did you feel that way when the dems called closing the borders xenophobic? How about when Pelosi said don't worry, come down to the street part y in Chinatown? Or when Deblasio said to come out into the streets and not be afraid. Please let us know.

"Closing the borders" as a concept in and of itself is not xenophobic. Trump's rhetoric however, is not only xenophobic but also blatantly racist - under any definition of the term. He's a failed and dangerous leader. Look at us today vs. the Obama years. As a whole. Come on man. And I'm no fan of Obama (or Biden). But at least Obama was a reasonable leader. Even George W Bush was. We're in lala land at this point.

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

[CenturyDeprived]

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

I can't wait to hear the whataboutism, and pretzel-twisting responses you're gonna get to those by deranged pro-Trumpers.

Or how about when Trump mocked the disabled reporter? (Oh yeah, that was just Trump accidentally moving his arms in a way that was not intended to be a mockery, right?)

But you know, mocking people with challenges is par for the course with the Trumps and with Mike, those guys have no problem mocking Brian, a guy who continues to suffer from various issues but has bravely overcome *so* much in his life... Mike just last week was talking in an incredibly disrespectful way about Brian, as if Brian's a child, in Mike's recent interview talking about Brian "coming out to play"...  or Trump Jr. bragging with glee about having "successfully triggered" Brian Wilson into being outraged about killing animals for fun.

And Mike simply standing by, like the Proud Boys, with no response to that "trigger" comment whatsoever. Mike has zero tact and zero class, and neither do the Trumps. And that just scratches the surface of how awful the Trumps are, and how gross it is for the BBs brand to be associated.

But yeah, I'm sure these wonderful, ethical pro-Trump BBs fans will excuse all of these things, too.

Trump and Mike deserve each other.  Absolute trash.

[rab2591]

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

I can't wait to hear the whataboutism, and pretzel-twisting responses you're gonna get to those by deranged pro-Trumpers.

Or how about when Trump mocked the disabled reporter? (Oh yeah, that was just Trump accidentally moving his arms in a way that was not intended to be a mockery, right?)

But you know, mocking people with challenges is par for the course with the Trumps and with Mike, those guys have no problem mocking Brian, a guy who continues to suffer from various issues but has bravely overcome *so* much in his life... Mike just last week was talking in an incredibly disrespectful way about Brian, as if Brian's a child, in Mike's recent interview talking about Brian "coming out to play"...  or Trump Jr. bragging with glee about having "successfully triggered" Brian Wilson into being outraged about killing animals for fun.

And Mike simply standing by, like the Proud Boys, with no response to that "trigger" comment whatsoever. Mike has zero tact and zero class, and neither do the Trumps. And that just scratches the surface of how awful the Trumps are, and how gross it is for the BBs brand to be associated.

But yeah, I'm sure these wonderful, ethical pro-Trump BBs fans will excuse all of these things, too.

Trump and Mike deserve each other.  Absolute trash.

Re: the Chinese virus.

- Asian media called it the "Wuhan Virus"... Example here and here.
- New York Times called it the Chinese Coronavirus.
- Washington Post called it the Chinese Coronavirus
- I can list a plethora of more examples of these headlines that dated around January before Trump started calling it the Chinese virus - at which point the media called him racist and then proceeded to not mention "Chinese" in the name subsequently.

My point being that, whether or not it is right or wrong to name a virus (or call a virus) after it's place of origin (such as Zika, Marburg, Lyme, etc), NO ONE on the left is calling the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post racist for mentioning China/Wuhan in their description of the virus. It's these types of double standards that give Trump a bit of leeway with moderate voters. Does Trump keep calling it the Chinese virus because he hates Asians? I doubt it, as 30% of Asian-Americans support him (as of last month) and he needs their votes. It's more likely that since the media called it the "Chinese" virus at the beginning of the pandemic it just further proves a point about double standards whenever someone calls him racist for saying it. Billy Hinsche or Carls's half Asian-American sons may absolutely hate Trump because of his continued mentioning of "Chinese virus", and more power to them if so - however, that 30% of Asian Americans still support the president proves that some Asian-Americans are not offended by Trump naming the country of origin when referring to the virus.

On a side note, he did call it the Kung Flu on one (or more) occasions - I'm not sure how this could be construed, perhaps racist? A really stupid/bad joke? Both?

As for Trump mocking the disabled reporter: this video shows that Trump made the exact same hand/flailing gestures when mocking other people he disagreed with...and the footage is taken from events that took place before the date he supposedly mocked the reporter's disability. If he was mocking the reporter's disability, then absolutely shame on him. But the fact that he made the exact same hand gestures on multiple occasions when referring to people who didn't have that disability makes me question the validity of the claim.

Re: the Proud Boys. Not that you really delved into that subject, but I do want to clear up confusion about that too. As I heard that the Proud Boys were supposedly a white supremacist group (Joe Biden claimed this at the first debate). The Proud Boys leader is a half-Cuban half-black male. The Proud Boys have African American members. That does not at all sound like a white supremacist group to me, or they have an absolutely abysmal screening process. There was actually a Joe Rogan podcast where the founding of the Proud Boys was explained: it was created as a joke to help a jewish intern get laid...again, if they are a white supremacist group they are really doing a poor job. CD, not that you said they were white supremacists, but I have heard this rumor a lot and thought I'd clear it up for anyone who didn't know this.

Is Trump a jackass? Yes! In fact, someone posted a great cited response earlier about all the garbage stuff Trump has done. But I just wanted to throw my two cents in about the above topics.

[CenturyDeprived]

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

I can't wait to hear the whataboutism, and pretzel-twisting responses you're gonna get to those by deranged pro-Trumpers.

Or how about when Trump mocked the disabled reporter? (Oh yeah, that was just Trump accidentally moving his arms in a way that was not intended to be a mockery, right?)

But you know, mocking people with challenges is par for the course with the Trumps and with Mike, those guys have no problem mocking Brian, a guy who continues to suffer from various issues but has bravely overcome *so* much in his life... Mike just last week was talking in an incredibly disrespectful way about Brian, as if Brian's a child, in Mike's recent interview talking about Brian "coming out to play"...  or Trump Jr. bragging with glee about having "successfully triggered" Brian Wilson into being outraged about killing animals for fun.

And Mike simply standing by, like the Proud Boys, with no response to that "trigger" comment whatsoever. Mike has zero tact and zero class, and neither do the Trumps. And that just scratches the surface of how awful the Trumps are, and how gross it is for the BBs brand to be associated.

But yeah, I'm sure these wonderful, ethical pro-Trump BBs fans will excuse all of these things, too.

Trump and Mike deserve each other.  Absolute trash.

Re: the Chinese virus.

- Asian media called it the "Wuhan Virus"... Example here and here.
- New York Times called it the Chinese Coronavirus.
- Washington Post called it the Chinese Coronavirus
- I can list a plethora of more examples of these headlines that dated around January before Trump started calling it the Chinese virus - at which point the media called him racist and then proceeded to not mention "Chinese" in the name subsequently.

My point being that, whether or not it is right or wrong to name a virus (or call a virus) after it's place of origin (such as Zika, Marburg, Lyme, etc), NO ONE on the left is calling the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post racist for mentioning China/Wuhan in their description of the virus. It's these types of double standards that give Trump a bit of leeway with moderate voters. Does Trump keep calling it the Chinese virus because he hates Asians? I doubt it, as 30% of Asian-Americans support him (as of last month) and he needs their votes. It's more likely that since the media called it the "Chinese" virus at the beginning of the pandemic it just further proves a point about double standards whenever someone calls him racist for saying it. Billy Hinsche or Carls's half Asian-American sons may absolutely hate Trump because of his continued mentioning of "Chinese virus", and more power to them if so - however, that 30% of Asian Americans still support the president proves that some Asian-Americans are not offended by Trump naming the country of origin when referring to the virus.

On a side note, he did call it the Kung Flu on one (or more) occasions - I'm not sure how this could be construed, perhaps racist? A really stupid/bad joke? Both?

As for Trump mocking the disabled reporter: this video shows that Trump made the exact same hand/flailing gestures when mocking other people he disagreed with...and the footage is taken from events that took place before the date he supposedly mocked the reporter's disability. If he was mocking the reporter's disability, then absolutely shame on him. But the fact that he made the exact same hand gestures on multiple occasions when referring to people who didn't have that disability makes me question the validity of the claim.

Re: the Proud Boys. Not that you really delved into that subject, but I do want to clear up confusion about that too. As I heard that the Proud Boys were supposedly a white supremacist group (Joe Biden claimed this at the first debate). The Proud Boys leader is a half-Cuban half-black male. The Proud Boys have African American members. That does not at all sound like a white supremacist group to me, or they have an absolutely abysmal screening process. There was actually a Joe Rogan podcast where the founding of the Proud Boys was explained: it was created as a joke to help a jewish intern get laid...again, if they are a white supremacist group they are really doing a poor job. CD, not that you said they were white supremacists, but I have heard this rumor a lot and thought I'd clear it up for anyone who didn't know this.

Is Trump a jackass? Yes! In fact, someone posted a great cited response earlier about all the garbage stuff Trump has done. But I just wanted to throw my two cents in about the above topics.

Going to have to disagree with you there, rab. You seem like a fine person and I have no doubt that your heart is in the right place, but Trump is an absolute gutter trash POS. Not just a mere jackass. There's nothing in his narcissistic personality that would tell me it would be out of character for him to mock a disabled person. Nothing whatsoever. I don't think anything is below him. At all.

That said, do I think that sometimes the media spins things a bit far and twists some of the things he did in order to push a narrative? To some degree yes. There are some incidents of things being taken out of context and twisted a bit. But the overwhelming amount of time, it's him acting like an absolute piece of crap without an ounce of tact.

Neither Trump nor Mike Pence could muster even a tiny morsel of empathy or understanding about the idea of racial injustice and systemic racism. They don't necessarily have to agree with every single talking point that the left might say on that, but to 100% literally completely stonewall that, when there is so much evidence to the contrary? And then to have the *unmitigated chutzpah* to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln in terms of being a great president for black citizens?  Well that's literally like Mike Love saying he has 10 times more talent than Brian Wilson. That's the level of ridiculous such a quote is. That's so unbelievably insulting and tactless. It's abhorrent.  Those guys are experts at gaslighting, just like Mike.

Every single day when Trump does something new that is more abhorrent than the next, I have to double check that I'm not reading The Onion.

Again, massive narcissism on a massive scale, gone unchecked. It's so incredibly troubling. You can hear the contempt Trump has in his voice when he annunciates "Chiiiiiiiina virus", it's all about his deflection for trying to distract for his massive shortcomings during Covid. Even if the term was coined and used elsewhere, he still INSISTS on using that term solely for that purpose. To get a bunch of frothing, uneducated MAGA yokels in trailer parks riled up and chanting USA, USA, and getting them embittered at foreign countries. Sounds like a great thing for a US president to be deliberately inciting for the sole reason of pumping up his own ego and to disguise his shortcomings.

And Mike, well not nearly as big of a POS as Trump, is also absolute trash for continually either mocking/belittling Brian or rubbing the "Wilsons did drugs" line endlessly - just look at that lifestyles of the rich and famous clip where he says it, directly followed by talking about how great he is. It's just to puff himself up. It's that same disgusting warped mindset. Both Donald Trump and Mike Love have very sick narcissistic tendencies, and warped senses of right and wrong.

[rab2591]

Thanks for the reply, CD. I do understand where you're coming from and I very much agree with you on many points of this discussion. I know my "devils advocate" viewpoints can get tiring when it comes to Beach Boys topics and now politics haha. But I do think that people should be judged based on the absolute truth...and especially when that truth doesn't really need to be manipulated, I don't understand why the media manipulates it constantly because it ends up making them look incompetent in the end.

That said, do I think that sometimes the media spins things a bit far and twists some of the things he did in order to push a narrative? To some degree yes. There are some incidents of things being taken out of context and twisted a bit.

I think this is where so much of my distrust comes from...and it's been happening most of my life and it's to the point where I don't trust any network/publication. There was a story about Cheney or Rumsfeld leaking the false WMD story to some newspaper in 2003 and they used that unverified published story as a way to convince the PM (Blair at the time?) to help us start the illegal war with Iraq (it was something like that, saw it on Frontline a few years ago). There just seems to be little journalism done anymore - very little verification, anything to get a clickbait headline (and as we saw, it can help lead to an actual war). I saw this most recently when Rittenhouse was accused by several networks of being a white supremacist when the networks had absolutely no facts to back this claim (and still don't). The media loves chaos (because it brings them ratings) and will do almost anything to get clicks/views.

The way I see it, if our leader sows divisiveness by manipulating the facts and making up stories, the media should not do the same thing. We deserve better than that.

When it comes to anything: politics, Beach Boys, anything, the truth is the most important thing. We really don't need to twist the truth in order to convince people that certain humans are awful people - and when the truth is twisted the source from then on becomes completely questionable....and from that point on it is so hard to know what the truth actually is.

[mtaber]

Lots of politics in here. Now anyone who is voting for Trump is “deranged”. 

[CenturyDeprived]

Lots of politics in here. Now anyone who is voting for Trump is “deranged”.  

Please don't paint things with completely wide brushes or put words in people's mouths in order to try to prove some sort of point. Not every Trump voter by definition is necessarily "deranged" in my book.

There are lots of people including some very decent people who in my opinion have severely Jedi mindtricked themselves to compartmentalize many things, including certain aspects of Trump's personality that are so completely abhorrent, reprehensible, and unquestionably unacceptable for the leader of the free world... while other trump voters are in my estimation outright deranged, and truly as vicious, frothing, vile, racist, and hateful as he is.

And then there is a subset of people who really just care about themselves and what Trump can do for them personally, either to their bank account or to their ego. I think Mike falls squarely in that category.

Trump has not shown that he is capable of empathizing with anybody who is not him and does not share his worldview. That's a straight up fact. He is mentally unwell. Really, truly he is. Do you realize how important empathy is? As a human trait? It's incredibly, incredibly important that a president have that trait. I am not exaggerating when I say that Trump is a sociopath.

There's a whole wide spectrum of how I would classify his supporters; all of it in my mind is incredibly deeply unfortunate and tragic.

[rab2591]

Lots of politics in here. Now anyone who is voting for Trump is “deranged”. 

I really detest the talk of any sort of politics on this forum, but as this topic does relate directly to a controversial political figure, I think it's fair to talk about the politics and I felt it was somewhat necessary to share my opinion about some viewpoints which I thought were being portrayed unfairly.

And I would hope people certainly wouldn't think that everyone who is voting for Trump is deranged - there are people from all walks of life, cultures, races who support him. In fact, the latest polling from likely African American voters was at 45% for Trump (up from 25% last week!). I wouldn't be calling people from those walks of life deranged.

But I think this partly proves why Mike shouldn't play this gig: politics are divisive. Especially these days. If anything, Mike, Bruce, Brian, and Al (and Blondie) should be making music together to help bring us together (where politics seems to be just pushing us apart). In a perfect world...

[CenturyDeprived]

Lots of politics in here. Now anyone who is voting for Trump is “deranged”.  

I really detest the talk of any sort of politics on this forum, but as this topic does relate directly to a controversial political figure, I think it's fair to talk about the politics and I felt it was somewhat necessary to share my opinion about some viewpoints which I thought were being portrayed unfairly.

And I would hope people certainly wouldn't think that everyone who is voting for Trump is deranged - there are people from all walks of life, cultures, races who support him. In fact, the latest polling from likely African American voters was at 45% for Trump (up from 25% last week!). I wouldn't be calling people from those walks of life deranged.

But I think this partly proves why Mike shouldn't play this gig: politics are divisive. Especially these days. If anything, Mike, Bruce, Brian, and Al (and Blondie) should be making music together to help bring us together (where politics seems to be just pushing us apart). In a perfect world...

It is absolutely essential that this be discussed, because it's the very reason why Mike was trending on Twitter. For Mike to trend on Twitter at age 79 must mean it's a massively huge ripple in the world of pop culture  that he chose to play such a show. Mike is really a washed up has-been, and normally somebody his age would only trend if they passed away.

If anything, the fact that he is such a has-been and that the brand has been devalued so much thanks to his whoring it out, might help a little bit in this making not quite as big a dent as it might otherwise. But it's still going to hurt.

People and especially huge swaths of fans of the band are massively incensed and will not forget this.  It's going to follow him and the brand around like herpes for the rest of his life. It's very sad to say but it's true. The association between the brand and Trump never should've happened. Brian and Al had a right to be part of that conversation, yet Mike went behind their backs because he could. He's an absolute dick for doing that.

And for Mike to do that right on the heels of Mike dicking over Dennis Wilson on FF? It's no wonder that Brian's social media is giving Mike the middle finger in a passive aggressive way. God that's the greatest thing, a highlight of my week. I hope Brian's team keeps it up.

[rab2591]

Completely agree.

[joe_blow]

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

I can't wait to hear the whataboutism, and pretzel-twisting responses you're gonna get to those by deranged pro-Trumpers.

Or how about when Trump mocked the disabled reporter? (Oh yeah, that was just Trump accidentally moving his arms in a way that was not intended to be a mockery, right?)

But you know, mocking people with challenges is par for the course with the Trumps and with Mike, those guys have no problem mocking Brian, a guy who continues to suffer from various issues but has bravely overcome *so* much in his life... Mike just last week was talking in an incredibly disrespectful way about Brian, as if Brian's a child, in Mike's recent interview talking about Brian "coming out to play"...  or Trump Jr. bragging with glee about having "successfully triggered" Brian Wilson into being outraged about killing animals for fun.

And Mike simply standing by, like the Proud Boys, with no response to that "trigger" comment whatsoever. Mike has zero tact and zero class, and neither do the Trumps. And that just scratches the surface of how awful the Trumps are, and how gross it is for the BBs brand to be associated.

But yeah, I'm sure these wonderful, ethical pro-Trump BBs fans will excuse all of these things, too.

Trump and Mike deserve each other.  Absolute trash.

Re: the Chinese virus.

- Asian media called it the "Wuhan Virus"... Example here and here.
- New York Times called it the Chinese Coronavirus.
- Washington Post called it the Chinese Coronavirus
- I can list a plethora of more examples of these headlines that dated around January before Trump started calling it the Chinese virus - at which point the media called him racist and then proceeded to not mention "Chinese" in the name subsequently.

My point being that, whether or not it is right or wrong to name a virus (or call a virus) after it's place of origin (such as Zika, Marburg, Lyme, etc), NO ONE on the left is calling the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post racist for mentioning China/Wuhan in their description of the virus. It's these types of double standards that give Trump a bit of leeway with moderate voters. Does Trump keep calling it the Chinese virus because he hates Asians? I doubt it, as 30% of Asian-Americans support him (as of last month) and he needs their votes. It's more likely that since the media called it the "Chinese" virus at the beginning of the pandemic it just further proves a point about double standards whenever someone calls him racist for saying it. Billy Hinsche or Carls's half Asian-American sons may absolutely hate Trump because of his continued mentioning of "Chinese virus", and more power to them if so - however, that 30% of Asian Americans still support the president proves that some Asian-Americans are not offended by Trump naming the country of origin when referring to the virus.

On a side note, he did call it the Kung Flu on one (or more) occasions - I'm not sure how this could be construed, perhaps racist? A really stupid/bad joke? Both?

As for Trump mocking the disabled reporter: this video shows that Trump made the exact same hand/flailing gestures when mocking other people he disagreed with...and the footage is taken from events that took place before the date he supposedly mocked the reporter's disability. If he was mocking the reporter's disability, then absolutely shame on him. But the fact that he made the exact same hand gestures on multiple occasions when referring to people who didn't have that disability makes me question the validity of the claim.

Re: the Proud Boys. Not that you really delved into that subject, but I do want to clear up confusion about that too. As I heard that the Proud Boys were supposedly a white supremacist group (Joe Biden claimed this at the first debate). The Proud Boys leader is a half-Cuban half-black male. The Proud Boys have African American members. That does not at all sound like a white supremacist group to me, or they have an absolutely abysmal screening process. There was actually a Joe Rogan podcast where the founding of the Proud Boys was explained: it was created as a joke to help a jewish intern get laid...again, if they are a white supremacist group they are really doing a poor job. CD, not that you said they were white supremacists, but I have heard this rumor a lot and thought I'd clear it up for anyone who didn't know this.

Is Trump a jackass? Yes! In fact, someone posted a great cited response earlier about all the garbage stuff Trump has done. But I just wanted to throw my two cents in about the above topics.

That has been debunked by the way. But hold onto the theory if it is convenient.

[joe_blow]

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

I can't wait to hear the whataboutism, and pretzel-twisting responses you're gonna get to those by deranged pro-Trumpers.

Or how about when Trump mocked the disabled reporter? (Oh yeah, that was just Trump accidentally moving his arms in a way that was not intended to be a mockery, right?)

But you know, mocking people with challenges is par for the course with the Trumps and with Mike, those guys have no problem mocking Brian, a guy who continues to suffer from various issues but has bravely overcome *so* much in his life... Mike just last week was talking in an incredibly disrespectful way about Brian, as if Brian's a child, in Mike's recent interview talking about Brian "coming out to play"...  or Trump Jr. bragging with glee about having "successfully triggered" Brian Wilson into being outraged about killing animals for fun.

And Mike simply standing by, like the Proud Boys, with no response to that "trigger" comment whatsoever. Mike has zero tact and zero class, and neither do the Trumps. And that just scratches the surface of how awful the Trumps are, and how gross it is for the BBs brand to be associated.

But yeah, I'm sure these wonderful, ethical pro-Trump BBs fans will excuse all of these things, too.

Trump and Mike deserve each other.  Absolute trash.

Re: the Chinese virus.

- Asian media called it the "Wuhan Virus"... Example here and here.
- New York Times called it the Chinese Coronavirus.
- Washington Post called it the Chinese Coronavirus
- I can list a plethora of more examples of these headlines that dated around January before Trump started calling it the Chinese virus - at which point the media called him racist and then proceeded to not mention "Chinese" in the name subsequently.

My point being that, whether or not it is right or wrong to name a virus (or call a virus) after it's place of origin (such as Zika, Marburg, Lyme, etc), NO ONE on the left is calling the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post racist for mentioning China/Wuhan in their description of the virus. It's these types of double standards that give Trump a bit of leeway with moderate voters. Does Trump keep calling it the Chinese virus because he hates Asians? I doubt it, as 30% of Asian-Americans support him (as of last month) and he needs their votes. It's more likely that since the media called it the "Chinese" virus at the beginning of the pandemic it just further proves a point about double standards whenever someone calls him racist for saying it. Billy Hinsche or Carls's half Asian-American sons may absolutely hate Trump because of his continued mentioning of "Chinese virus", and more power to them if so - however, that 30% of Asian Americans still support the president proves that some Asian-Americans are not offended by Trump naming the country of origin when referring to the virus.

On a side note, he did call it the Kung Flu on one (or more) occasions - I'm not sure how this could be construed, perhaps racist? A really stupid/bad joke? Both?

As for Trump mocking the disabled reporter: this video shows that Trump made the exact same hand/flailing gestures when mocking other people he disagreed with...and the footage is taken from events that took place before the date he supposedly mocked the reporter's disability. If he was mocking the reporter's disability, then absolutely shame on him. But the fact that he made the exact same hand gestures on multiple occasions when referring to people who didn't have that disability makes me question the validity of the claim.

Re: the Proud Boys. Not that you really delved into that subject, but I do want to clear up confusion about that too. As I heard that the Proud Boys were supposedly a white supremacist group (Joe Biden claimed this at the first debate). The Proud Boys leader is a half-Cuban half-black male. The Proud Boys have African American members. That does not at all sound like a white supremacist group to me, or they have an absolutely abysmal screening process. There was actually a Joe Rogan podcast where the founding of the Proud Boys was explained: it was created as a joke to help a jewish intern get laid...again, if they are a white supremacist group they are really doing a poor job. CD, not that you said they were white supremacists, but I have heard this rumor a lot and thought I'd clear it up for anyone who didn't know this.

Is Trump a jackass? Yes! In fact, someone posted a great cited response earlier about all the garbage stuff Trump has done. But I just wanted to throw my two cents in about the above topics.

Going to have to disagree with you there, rab. You seem like a fine person and I have no doubt that your heart is in the right place, but Trump is an absolute gutter trash POS. Not just a mere jackass. There's nothing in his narcissistic personality that would tell me it would be out of character for him to mock a disabled person. Nothing whatsoever. I don't think anything is below him. At all.

That said, do I think that sometimes the media spins things a bit far and twists some of the things he did in order to push a narrative? To some degree yes. There are some incidents of things being taken out of context and twisted a bit. But the overwhelming amount of time, it's him acting like an absolute piece of crap without an ounce of tact.

Neither Trump nor Mike Pence could muster even a tiny morsel of empathy or understanding about the idea of racial injustice and systemic racism. They don't necessarily have to agree with every single talking point that the left might say on that, but to 100% literally completely stonewall that, when there is so much evidence to the contrary? And then to have the *unmitigated chutzpah* to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln in terms of being a great president for black citizens?  Well that's literally like Mike Love saying he has 10 times more talent than Brian Wilson. That's the level of ridiculous such a quote is. That's so unbelievably insulting and tactless. It's abhorrent.  Those guys are experts at gaslighting, just like Mike.

Every single day when Trump does something new that is more abhorrent than the next, I have to double check that I'm not reading The Onion.

Again, massive narcissism on a massive scale, gone unchecked. It's so incredibly troubling. You can hear the contempt Trump has in his voice when he annunciates "Chiiiiiiiina virus", it's all about his deflection for trying to distract for his massive shortcomings during Covid. Even if the term was coined and used elsewhere, he still INSISTS on using that term solely for that purpose. To get a bunch of frothing, uneducated MAGA yokels in trailer parks riled up and chanting USA, USA, and getting them embittered at foreign countries. Sounds like a great thing for a US president to be deliberately inciting for the sole reason of pumping up his own ego and to disguise his shortcomings.

And Mike, well not nearly as big of a POS as Trump, is also absolute trash for continually either mocking/belittling Brian or rubbing the "Wilsons did drugs" line endlessly - just look at that lifestyles of the rich and famous clip where he says it, directly followed by talking about how great he is. It's just to puff himself up. It's that same disgusting warped mindset. Both Donald Trump and Mike Love have very sick narcissistic tendencies, and warped senses of right and wrong.

Has systemic racism been accepted as fact? By some I guess.  By others it has been clearly debunked. Please have a look at Adam Carolla's experience with "white privilege".  Mocking a disabled person? It has been fact checked by many that it wasn't the case. Also remember Trump is still considers an anti-semite despite his Jewish family and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Also blamed for building Obama's cages. Why bother getting the facts out when a narrative can be kept?

[CenturyDeprived]

But seriously you think calling coronavirus "the Chinese virus" is okay? You understand people commonly use the term "Chinese" to refer to Asian-Americans, right? So you'd be okay with the President of the US referring to a spreading disease as "the white person virus" if it originated here? Since we're on a Beach Boys forum, how about letting an Asian-American like Billy Hinsche know your thoughts? How might Carls's half Asian-American sons feel about this?

It's hard to have a civil discussion when you guys are either: 1- insensitive, selfish assholes, and/or 2- idiots.

I can't wait to hear the whataboutism, and pretzel-twisting responses you're gonna get to those by deranged pro-Trumpers.

Or how about when Trump mocked the disabled reporter? (Oh yeah, that was just Trump accidentally moving his arms in a way that was not intended to be a mockery, right?)

But you know, mocking people with challenges is par for the course with the Trumps and with Mike, those guys have no problem mocking Brian, a guy who continues to suffer from various issues but has bravely overcome *so* much in his life... Mike just last week was talking in an incredibly disrespectful way about Brian, as if Brian's a child, in Mike's recent interview talking about Brian "coming out to play"...  or Trump Jr. bragging with glee about having "successfully triggered" Brian Wilson into being outraged about killing animals for fun.

And Mike simply standing by, like the Proud Boys, with no response to that "trigger" comment whatsoever. Mike has zero tact and zero class, and neither do the Trumps. And that just scratches the surface of how awful the Trumps are, and how gross it is for the BBs brand to be associated.

But yeah, I'm sure these wonderful, ethical pro-Trump BBs fans will excuse all of these things, too.

Trump and Mike deserve each other.  Absolute trash.

Re: the Chinese virus.

- Asian media called it the "Wuhan Virus"... Example here and here.
- New York Times called it the Chinese Coronavirus.
- Washington Post called it the Chinese Coronavirus
- I can list a plethora of more examples of these headlines that dated around January before Trump started calling it the Chinese virus - at which point the media called him racist and then proceeded to not mention "Chinese" in the name subsequently.

My point being that, whether or not it is right or wrong to name a virus (or call a virus) after it's place of origin (such as Zika, Marburg, Lyme, etc), NO ONE on the left is calling the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post racist for mentioning China/Wuhan in their description of the virus. It's these types of double standards that give Trump a bit of leeway with moderate voters. Does Trump keep calling it the Chinese virus because he hates Asians? I doubt it, as 30% of Asian-Americans support him (as of last month) and he needs their votes. It's more likely that since the media called it the "Chinese" virus at the beginning of the pandemic it just further proves a point about double standards whenever someone calls him racist for saying it. Billy Hinsche or Carls's half Asian-American sons may absolutely hate Trump because of his continued mentioning of "Chinese virus", and more power to them if so - however, that 30% of Asian Americans still support the president proves that some Asian-Americans are not offended by Trump naming the country of origin when referring to the virus.

On a side note, he did call it the Kung Flu on one (or more) occasions - I'm not sure how this could be construed, perhaps racist? A really stupid/bad joke? Both?

As for Trump mocking the disabled reporter: this video shows that Trump made the exact same hand/flailing gestures when mocking other people he disagreed with...and the footage is taken from events that took place before the date he supposedly mocked the reporter's disability. If he was mocking the reporter's disability, then absolutely shame on him. But the fact that he made the exact same hand gestures on multiple occasions when referring to people who didn't have that disability makes me question the validity of the claim.

Re: the Proud Boys. Not that you really delved into that subject, but I do want to clear up confusion about that too. As I heard that the Proud Boys were supposedly a white supremacist group (Joe Biden claimed this at the first debate). The Proud Boys leader is a half-Cuban half-black male. The Proud Boys have African American members. That does not at all sound like a white supremacist group to me, or they have an absolutely abysmal screening process. There was actually a Joe Rogan podcast where the founding of the Proud Boys was explained: it was created as a joke to help a jewish intern get laid...again, if they are a white supremacist group they are really doing a poor job. CD, not that you said they were white supremacists, but I have heard this rumor a lot and thought I'd clear it up for anyone who didn't know this.

Is Trump a jackass? Yes! In fact, someone posted a great cited response earlier about all the garbage stuff Trump has done. But I just wanted to throw my two cents in about the above topics.

Going to have to disagree with you there, rab. You seem like a fine person and I have no doubt that your heart is in the right place, but Trump is an absolute gutter trash POS. Not just a mere jackass. There's nothing in his narcissistic personality that would tell me it would be out of character for him to mock a disabled person. Nothing whatsoever. I don't think anything is below him. At all.

That said, do I think that sometimes the media spins things a bit far and twists some of the things he did in order to push a narrative? To some degree yes. There are some incidents of things being taken out of context and twisted a bit. But the overwhelming amount of time, it's him acting like an absolute piece of crap without an ounce of tact.

Neither Trump nor Mike Pence could muster even a tiny morsel of empathy or understanding about the idea of racial injustice and systemic racism. They don't necessarily have to agree with every single talking point that the left might say on that, but to 100% literally completely stonewall that, when there is so much evidence to the contrary? And then to have the *unmitigated chutzpah* to compare himself to Abraham Lincoln in terms of being a great president for black citizens?  Well that's literally like Mike Love saying he has 10 times more talent than Brian Wilson. That's the level of ridiculous such a quote is. That's so unbelievably insulting and tactless. It's abhorrent.  Those guys are experts at gaslighting, just like Mike.

Every single day when Trump does something new that is more abhorrent than the next, I have to double check that I'm not reading The Onion.

Again, massive narcissism on a massive scale, gone unchecked. It's so incredibly troubling. You can hear the contempt Trump has in his voice when he annunciates "Chiiiiiiiina virus", it's all about his deflection for trying to distract for his massive shortcomings during Covid. Even if the term was coined and used elsewhere, he still INSISTS on using that term solely for that purpose. To get a bunch of frothing, uneducated MAGA yokels in trailer parks riled up and chanting USA, USA, and getting them embittered at foreign countries. Sounds like a great thing for a US president to be deliberately inciting for the sole reason of pumping up his own ego and to disguise his shortcomings.

And Mike, well not nearly as big of a POS as Trump, is also absolute trash for continually either mocking/belittling Brian or rubbing the "Wilsons did drugs" line endlessly - just look at that lifestyles of the rich and famous clip where he says it, directly followed by talking about how great he is. It's just to puff himself up. It's that same disgusting warped mindset. Both Donald Trump and Mike Love have very sick narcissistic tendencies, and warped senses of right and wrong.

Has systemic racism been accepted as fact? By some I guess.  By others it has been clearly debunked. Please have a look at Adam Carolla's experience with "white privilege".  Mocking a disabled person? It has been fact checked by many that it wasn't the case. Also remember Trump is still considers an anti-semite despite his Jewish family and moving the embassy to Jerusalem. Also blamed for building Obama's cages. Why bother getting the facts out when a narrative can be kept?

Duuuuude... Without question, folks of color have been treated unfairly in the legal system or in police raids, etc., that's statistically a provable fact, and incredibly sad that people want to try to say that's not true.

It doesn't mean that *every single time* things are unfair, and it also doesn't mean that some people don't cry wolf. Imbeciles like Jussie Smollett and those who endlessly defend him prove that crying wolf is a thing, and those who still continue to defend him at this point prove that extremists exist, and are willing to compartmentalize and bury their heads in the sand, and that is a sad human trait that happens on both sides of the political spectrum. And it's a reprehensible when people are that ridiculously blind to the truth.  
 
There are people on both sides who want to become super extreme, either painting every single thing as being about race, or no thing being about race, ever.

But that said, to completely outright deny that systemic racism is a thing whatsoever is a patently absurd mindset. It really wouldn't have taken a lot for Trump or Pence to have at least conceded that there are systemic race problems with the system, and that they want to fix those problems and address them. And then they could say, they don't necessarily think that as many things are about race as some might claim.

But instead, they take an extremist mindset which is 100% lacking in empathy whatsoever, unable to at least show that they give (or would even try to give) a token iota of two shits, but they can't even be bothered to do that, lest they alienate the white supremacist contingent of their fan base.

And that's Donald Trump in a nutshell. No caring, no empathy, the man doesn't have an empathetic bone in his body.

Unless you are a person of color, you haven't walked in their shoes and you cannot speak for their experiences. Just as I am not a trans woman, nor could I pretend to understand what they might have gone through in their life. But I can certainly try to understand. It's called being a human and having empathy. That's not to say that some folks from disenfranchised groups can't be asshats. Asshats exist in *every* group on the entire planet, again, because it's part of the human experience that some people unfortunately are that way.

I used to be a fan of Adam Carolla, but he has turned into a raving jackass and I have lost all respect for him. I don't intrinsically mind that he "speaks his mind" - I think nuanced conversations are important - but he seems to be missing a few microchips and comes across as a total douche. But that won't stop me from still enjoying his voice work on old episodes of Crank Yankers.

[mtaber]

Here’s what I think should be the focus of this thread.

Mike Love shouldn’t play a concert to support a political figure in this day and age, because no matter who he supports, a large number of people are gonna be pissed off by it.

Everything else should go into a separate thread in “the sandbox”.

[Shady]

Lots of politics in here. Now anyone who is voting for Trump is “deranged”.  

I really detest the talk of any sort of politics on this forum, but as this topic does relate directly to a controversial political figure, I think it's fair to talk about the politics and I felt it was somewhat necessary to share my opinion about some viewpoints which I thought were being portrayed unfairly.

And I would hope people certainly wouldn't think that everyone who is voting for Trump is deranged - there are people from all walks of life, cultures, races who support him. In fact, the latest polling from likely African American voters was at 45% for Trump (up from 25% last week!). I wouldn't be calling people from those walks of life deranged.

But I think this partly proves why Mike shouldn't play this gig: politics are divisive. Especially these days. If anything, Mike, Bruce, Brian, and Al (and Blondie) should be making music together to help bring us together (where politics seems to be just pushing us apart). In a perfect world...

I Mike is really a washed up has-been, and normally somebody his age would only trend if they passed away.

That is such a bullshit statement and you should be banned for being so disgusting

[CenturyDeprived]

Lots of politics in here. Now anyone who is voting for Trump is “deranged”.  

I really detest the talk of any sort of politics on this forum, but as this topic does relate directly to a controversial political figure, I think it's fair to talk about the politics and I felt it was somewhat necessary to share my opinion about some viewpoints which I thought were being portrayed unfairly.

And I would hope people certainly wouldn't think that everyone who is voting for Trump is deranged - there are people from all walks of life, cultures, races who support him. In fact, the latest polling from likely African American voters was at 45% for Trump (up from 25% last week!). I wouldn't be calling people from those walks of life deranged.

But I think this partly proves why Mike shouldn't play this gig: politics are divisive. Especially these days. If anything, Mike, Bruce, Brian, and Al (and Blondie) should be making music together to help bring us together (where politics seems to be just pushing us apart). In a perfect world...

I Mike is really a washed up has-been, and normally somebody his age would only trend if they passed away.

That is such a bullshit statement and you should be banned for being so disgusting

Um, how about no. I'm being realistic. How often do 80something musicians trend on Twitter?

Whenever I see an elderly actor trending on Twitter or popping up in my newsfeed... before I have read the headline, I am immediately worried "did they pass away"?

And that thought crosses my mind regularly about elderly celebrities if I see their names pop up out of the blue - it has nothing to do with Mike or my thoughts on him. For crying out loud.  And plenty of other people are that same way. I've seen jokes about this very topic (seeing an old person's name and having that same fear) made by comedians, it has nothing whatsoever to do with Mike. It's a general thing.

It seems that maybe 8 times out of 10, unfortunately that's exactly why they did get their name in the headline or trend on Twitter. It's not a completely unfounded fear.  Occasionally it's for other reasons, like in Mike's case. And in Mike's case, it's because of the massive amounts of outrage over what he did.

There was nothing sinister or insidious in that comment that you took such offense to, unless you are so grossly offended that I called Mike a has-been. Again, for crying out loud.

[CenturyDeprived]

Here’s what I think should be the focus of this thread.

Mike Love shouldn’t play a concert to support a political figure in this day and age, because no matter who he supports, a large number of people are gonna be pissed off by it.

Everything else should go into a separate thread in “the sandbox”.

That would be all well and good if people were in agreement that Mike shouldn't have played the show for those reasons you stated. There are still people who are totally fine with that, and discussing Trump and his abhorrent policies is an attempt to show how flawed their logic is. It would sure be nice if people could not dig in their heels so deeply, and be willing to budge a few inches here and there. There are some people who can, but plenty of other folks who are way too fargone.