Am I a traitor if I admit that I never gave a crap about Green Day? There it is: I never gave a crap about Green Day. When people in my generation were listening to Green Day, I was listening to… Fiona Apple, I think. Fiona and, like, classic rock. I was really into Led Zeppelin for a while. It’s only just now, at this very moment, that I’m realizing that Billie Joe Armstrong is years older than me (I always thought we were the same age). Anyway, Billie Joe and Green Day were always pretty political, but they did political music within a certain pop music framework, and that sort of worked for them. Billie Joe’s sensibilities are pretty liberal-progressive: he was an outspoken critic of the George W. Bush administration, and he endorsed Bernie Sanders last year, which I could have predicted even before I looked it up. So, what does Billie Joe think of this year’s election cycle? He thinks Trump is just flat-out Hitler.
Billie Joe Armstrong doesn’t label Donald Trump an American idiot. No, he’s compared him to someone much worse: Adolf Hitler. In an interview published in Kerrang, the Green Day frontman likened the Republican presidential hopeful to the historically villainous Austrian.
“The worst problem I see about Trump is who his followers are,” Armstrong told the British rock weekly. “I actually feel bad for them, because they’re poor, working-class people who can’t get a leg up. They’re pissed off and he’s preyed on their anger. He just said, ‘You have no options and I’m the only one, and I’m going to take care of it myself.’ I mean, that’s f—ing Hitler, man!”
He wasn’t finished there. “I don’t even know how else to explain it,” he added. “I wish I were over-exaggerating. And sometimes maybe I do over-exaggerate with Bush. But with Trump, I just can’t wait ’til he’s gone.”
This is funny to me: “Sometimes maybe I do over-exaggerate with Bush…” If Donald Trump has done anything, he’s made liberals and progressives almost nostalgic for George W. Bush. It’s true. In any side-by-side comparison between Trump and Dubya, Dubya ends up looking like a g-ddamn gentleman and statesman. Are we setting the bar too low? Of course. Because Billie Joe is right: Donald Trump is like Hitler. Godwin’s Law be damned.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I live in an affluent county in NJ. These are rich, highly educated people that have Trump lawn signs and bumper stickers. At restaurants they loudly discuss Trump as their savior and anyone but Killary for President. It’s sickening.
My crappy Alabama college town and your affluent NJ county sadly have very much in common.
I’m in Hunterdon County. Same thing here. It’s not poor folks – it’s bigots across the board. Seriously – million dollar homes and whining about what they “didn’t get”.
I saw an interview with a Drumplethinskin supporter on The Nightly Show last night. White and ignorant to the nth degree. She said no woman should be POTUS because it was a mans job. When she sees President she sees a man. She thinks women are too hormonal and might start a war because they are experiencing a hot flash. When the correspondent pointed out that men have started all our wars it stopped her in her tracks. She went silent as if she had just heard what shyte had spewed from her mouth and then laughed.
A man when asked about misogyny replied he is against misogyny. He was then asked to display the front and back of his shirt. The back said ‘Trump That Bitch’ and the front was another misogynistic phrase. He was quite proud of his shirt and the correspondent said you don’t see the irony and honestly I think the man was so pleased with himself and his shirt that the comment went right over his head.
Drumplethinskin supporters seem blissfully unaware that this man serves no one but himself. He is willing to drag everyone down to achieve his goals. He will help no one unless it serves in his interest and his election will harm ALL of us. He wants to win not govern or lead. He does NOT work well with others and never has. He will take his ball and and your ball and go home.
My daddy had a saying “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine” He also said “rich people don’t stay rich by using their own money”
Cran: Aussie here, and even I found your recount disheartening. I feel really bad for you guys.
Speaking of t-shirts, I was watching the excellent show, “Gruen” on our ABCTV on Wednesday night. One of the panelists, Todd Sampson, a Canadian, wears a different t-shirt every week. They are never mentioned, though. This week, it was a black one with large, white, block letters reading TUCK FRUMP. I want one.
Haha Drumplethinskin! I love it! :))
Tee hee…so clever!! 😂😂
Same thing in Warren County NJ. I’ve terminated one friendship already because if they could support him, their values are obviously completely opposite of mine. It’s so damn disheartening. I feel sick every time I see those lawn signs….
Warren County too and a lot of the neighbors have had their Trump signs for months. It is very scary and demoralizing – this is not a normal election I get that the county leans Republican but seriously! How about driving over to PA – they are even nuttier with their support for Trump.
I’m in Chester County and I’m not hearing a lot of people actually supporting Trump but they hate Hillary and will believe every bad meme about her. Most of the nice, white, upper middle class, Christian women I know will say they “just hate Hillary and always have,” they don’t have any actual examples of why they have always hated her but they always have so they “don’t know what to do” about Trump. That just makes me so sad and angry that they are so blissfully unaware that they have the privilege to be able to risk someone they will admit is unqualified and flat out dangerous because they personally just hate someone else.
Thankfully, the affluent place in NJ I hail from is full of liberals, which I am not, but at this point anything is better than Trump.
But now I’m in the south and know plenty of middle and lower class types who LOVE that trump will keep out the “illegals” aka “Mexicans”and he’s a businessman not a politician..and because they just don’t want a Democrat in office. That’s the only reason they support him; bigotry.
Sick sad world.
I agree. I am Canadian and watching the news, I kept thinking, how do these American people, that support Trump, not really see what the man is saying?
He is wrong, nasty and hateful on so many levels. I would not trust Trump to sharpen a pencil, never mind lead a huge, free world country like the United States. I will keep my hopes up for you all in this election.
nice to see so many Jerz folks on here – REPRESENT!
it’s funny, I live in an affluent but very liberal area of NJ that is RIGHT NEXT TO a fairly conservative area, and I was seeing a lot of Drumpf signs earlier in the spring, but now I haven’t see one in ages. all of the ones I would see on my way to work are gone. in fact, the only sign of Drumpf support I’ve seen lately (in person, that is…I’ve seen plenty online…) is ONE t-shirt while on vaca in DE. and that guy was getting dirty looks from EVERYONE in the market.
I am in Connecticut and I have seen very few Trump or Hillary signs.
Keep in mind that Republicans go to college in order to learn how to make money, hence, living in affluent areas. Liberals go to college to actually educate themselves. Highly educated can also mean dumb, especially when it comes to Trump supporters.
I just find that interesting, because higher education for me was enlightening and I’m fully humanitarian. Yes I’m still a capitalist, but support all viable social program for people animals and the environment. It must be a particular bent in a person’s psychology to become highly educated yet remain bigoted.
That’s because the poverty is coincidental- maybe even correlated – but it’s not the cause. Trump voters’ common threads are racism/xenophobia, a victim complex (IRONY ALERT) over not having everything they want, and intellectual laziness: its not that they’re incapable of seeing lies, they just LIKE the lies ,so they refuse to look or think further.
Sorry, Billy Joe, but after yet another TV clip of Trump spewing more rancid smoke from his dumpster-fire mouth, and seeing the crowd behind him gleefully cheering and stomping and howling for more…. I’m done feeling sorry for them. Oh, they ARE being victimized, for sure – they’re being taken by a con man – but they deserve it. If you latch onto someone like Trump because he makes you feel better about your crappy life being brown people’s fault, you deserve the world he wants to create. Problem is, people who don’t deserve it will be stuck there, too.
Same here…we live in a very affluent area in middle TN…went to a show Saturday nite and the host asked who was voting for Trump and the applause were astoundingly loud! Only about three claps when asked the same about Clinton. It’s not just “poor people” that support him. I can’t find it in myself to support either….come on Gary J!!
How about those Trump statues that popped up in cities across America yesterday? If you missed it, just google “the emperor has no balls”
The statue’s hands are too big.
😂😂😂
You don’t have to like Green Day to swoon for Billie Joe.
So true I’ve been crushing on BJA for years and years, but I do like Green day’s music also.
Yes and yes. We stopped in Cleveland last summer and the highlight of the trip was seeing his handwritten notes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
For years I thought my massive crush was weird. It settled now but I still like him. A lot.
“Boulevard of broken dreams” is a tune! A bit corny but I love it.
That is the one Green Day song I know. Sadly, I haven’t heard much of GD’s music.
Personally, I like Green Day but I don’t love them. I really like their message, and I enjoy a few songs, but mostly I just adore Billie Joe Armstrong. He’s beautiful to look at and seems like a really genuine person who speaks up about important things.
I will always love them because like every other graduating class on the planet in 1998 ‘Time of your Life’ was our exit song. Ahhhhh memories.
This is what I get for having three out of four kids with a stomach virus! I miss a Billie Joe post.
Billie Joe Armstrong was my very first crush. It went Billie Joe, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and Usher.
Damn if two out of the three don’t still hold up. Good job, Little Me.
@Byland You’re really speaking to me!!! JTT was my entire life once upon a time
It’s true. I was thinking the other day, maybe Bush wasn’t that bad and I loathe Bush. We’ve had 8 great years with Obama and I just can’t wrap my head around going back to the dark ages. Trump is Hitler and Satan rolled into one.
I hear you. You know these are crazy times when I found myself actually longing for Mitt Romney the other day.
Same here Esmom. Romney was an out of touch gazillionaire (remember the car elevator??) but I never feared he would burn the world to the ground on his first day in office. Trump is a mad man.
MItt Romney or John McCain; I both are statesmen, and yes I pine for them over the scary clown that is the trump act.
I hate him and Green Day, but I can’t find the lies here. He is right. Trump does make George Bush look like an almost decent president. And people shouldn’t stop bringing up the Hitler comparison. They both preach about patriotism, restoring the glory of yesterday, and blaming everything on foreigners.
I finished reading a book about the social climate of Europe prior to WWI and the nazi party; England systematically resisted fascism while Germany let it happen. It’s called “Winter of the World” by Ken Follett. A dark summer read, I realize, but I feel if more people were history aware we could see the authentic and frightening similarities.
I’ve watched and read a lot about Hitler and the rise of the Nazis and Trump is definitely using Hitler’s playbook. Hitler lied constantly, telling everyone what they wanted to hear. His supporters were poor, white and angry, and had no problem using violence against those who spoke out against the Nazi party. It’s chilling, actually, to see it happening right after I watched a documentary on it last week. There are a LOT of similarities. The main difference that I can see is that Trump comes off as more of a sleazy buffoon than Hitler, who was a much better, and more charismatic speaker, and he surrounded himself with much more intelligent people. Trump appears to be even more of an egomaniac than Hitler. It took a while before Hitler wouldn’t listen to experts and thought he knew better than everyone…Trump already thinks that.
I think it’s bad news when people lose all faith in politicians. It’s clear in the UK too, with a few exceptions (Nicola Sturgeon being one, at least in Scotland): politicians are seen as lying, greedy, unprincipled, only in it for themselves. That is certainly true of some. But when it’s applied to a whole group, people lose faith in the democratic process and start to look for alternatives: people who either aren’t politicians, or people who pretend not to be politicians. Then you get the bizarre spectacle of millionaires / billionaires adopting the ” I’m just an ordinary guy (or gal, in the case of Le Pen in France), just like you, not like those politicians, we’ve all had enough of them haven’t we”. It’s depressing. And it makes decent people even less likely to go in to politics.
I don’t know. Politicians have been seen as “lying, greedy, unprincipled, only in it for themselves” ever since I can remember. But then again, that’s the general opinion about rich people too. We just accepted that we’re always choosing between the lesser of two evils. You chose the plotical party that has the policies closest to your world view. But expecting politicians to have integrity is just naive.
I think in general people have got more cynical at least in the UK. Tony Blair was probably responsible for some of that, people had high expectations when he came in, but his legacy became the Iraq War. Maybe people were more naive but some leaders were regarded rightly or wrongly as principled people, at least by the people who voted for them. Despising all politicians opens the way to demagogues I think.
: I never gave a crap about Green Day
HELLO HELLO I AM YOUR PEOPLE!!! I really and sincerely don’t care in any way about their music, and he is off putting cause MY DEAR GOD HOW GIGANTICAL IS HIS MONDO SIZED HEAD!!! lololol
Loved Green Day, had the hots for BJA, and totally support his message.
He is, and he does.
Cannot stand Donald Trump… But Hitler, really? Billie Joe sounds as ignorant as Trump.
Why not? Hitler’s political speech was actually not very different from Trump’s. And Hitler wasn’t some dreaded guy who just happened to take the power. He was a charismatic leader who had a lot of followers. You may think Trump is no Hitler because he hasnt’ gased anybody (yet, and as far as we know), but other than that they do share a worrying lot of similarities.
I see a lot of worrisome similarities in many of our politicians today with those who have held power in the past and done awful things. I also find it pretty sad that so many comment here about how bad Trump is yet they think Hillary will make a good president. I see both sides waging class warfare and using racism in order to attempt to gain power. I don’t like Donald Trump. I think he is a joke. I don’t think he is good enough to be president of our country. I think the same about his opponent. They are two sides of the same coin.
His ex-wife Ivana reported that Trump kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches at his bedside while they were married. What does that tell you? Considering how incurious about reading he is in general – unless it is about him, what does that tell you??
A self important, ego maniac, that trades his wives in when he gets tired of them… Yeh, don’t doubt he read Hitler’s speeches. I totally believe it.
Love Green Day and their music and American Idiot is one of my favorite albums to listen to. Just scathing critique on a variety of things set to killer music. Also loved the show.
and no lies detected here
Comedian Bill Burr detests Trump—but makes a valid point when he says Trump is not in the same league as Hitler (he wishes!)….I think if given time and opportunity, he could get there.
I think potential Hitler is more accurate. The rhetoric is there, but he doesn’t have the opportunity to put it into practice, and hopefully he never will. But there may be other, similar out there: if it hadn’t been Hitler it would probably have been one of his henchmen at the helm. Trump has opened a can of very unsavoury worms.
But potential Hitler is why we need to be paying close attention. Hitler’s rhetoric, as I understand from history class and the few propaganda films I saw in college, was not hate filled. It was subtle.
So just because Trump doesn’t outright call for genocide doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous.
Totally agree Bettyrose.
Thanks Billie. Where would we be without your brilliant political commentary?/sarcasm. I don’t like Trump either, but this faux punk is such a loser. And he’s really reallllly late to the party.
You said what I really wanted to say about this guy.
He’s a bandwagoner to the core. He only says things that a large group of people are already saying, way after it’s already being said. He never has anything to add about anything. He’s just a talking head. He does it for profit and attention; I can’t think of a single thing he or Green day have actually done to get involved in anything that didn’t benefit themselves. Posers. They make me really mad, in case it was unclear lol
I remember thinking I was the baddest bitch in 4th grade because I listened to Green Day and the other girls liked Hanson.
And calling Trump Hitler only excites his followers more. They WANT a new Hitler. Have you seen them saluting and yelling racial slurs at his rallies? They’re frothing at the mouth for it.
You are joking right? I know lots of people who are voting for Trump. They are not bad people. There are people on the fringe of both parties who are awful. Most people in this country want the same thing. They just have different ideas about who can get us all there. If you really think people who support Trump are all for Nazi crap… You are just plain wrong. I know some very good people who are voting for him. I don’t like him either… But I know his supporters are not what is being said here.
Sure, Jan(e).
His support from white supremacists has been widely reported. David fucking Duke has given him the seal of approval. Anyone who continues to follow him after that is supporting that ideology. I don’t care if the Trump supporters in your neck of the woods have been kind to you. Those people would probably not treat me and many others like me with the same respect due to our skin color, religions and ethnic heritage. “Good people” have been convinced to commit acts of atrocity over and over throughout history. Stop playing dumb.
jane, at this point, the only people still supporting him are either 1) the same bigoted/xenophobic/misogynistic type of person he is, or they value party over country.
END OF. it doesn’t matter how “nice” they are to you, or how “good” you THINK they are (“good” Christians led lynchings, remember?). there has been ample evidence that Drumpf is WOEFULLY unprepared to be Prez and, if they’re STILL supporting them after everything he’s said/done and all of the people in politics and national security (republicans) who have spoken out against him and outright said they’re voting for Clinton, then YES, it’s because of his bigoted stances or, as I said, they hate Hillary more than they love their country.
it’s been proven over and over that he’s not the great businessman he say he is; there is story after story of how he screwed over the “little guy” because he could and how he defaulted on loans. evidence that he’s not a rich as he says he is and is in debt over $630 million to Russian oligarchs. he has not the knowledge (nor the desire to learn) nor the temperament to be the leader of our country. he has no policy plans other than “the wall” which has been shown to be financially and legally unfeasible, and his mass-deportation of Muslims…also financially and legally unfeasible. he’s called for a foreign gov’t to spy on his opposition; he’s soliciting non-citizens for donations (illegal); and he’s called for gun lovers to “do something” about Hillary’s second amendment stance (and yes, that was a dog-whistle for killing her no matter what he tried to claim).
and if, as you wrote below, that these people insist they they’re voting for him because his econ policies would be better for jobs and small businesses than Hillary (yeah right), read up, and pass along to these uninformed folks, on how he has mainly SHAFTED small businesses and how he sends his manufacturing jobs to China and Bangladesh, and how much worse his hotel/resort employees are treated than others in similar jobs in the same cities. he is NOT for the little guy, no matter how much he shouts it. he is for himself and ONLY himself.
People who support Trump are either really really evil or really really stupid.
Doofus, I’m not sure if I am replying in the correct spot but I wanted to respond to your comment especially since you obviously took the time to write something so thoughtful. I do not disagree with a lot of what you have written. I actually agree with most of it, with the exception of Trump secretly wanting someone to kill Hillary. I think trump and Hillary are fundamentally the same. I feel the same way about her as I do him. I do not like Trump. I think he is a disgrace. I think a lot of his voters are terribly misinformed. I am a conservative and he doesn’t stand for anything that I believe in. I think he is a spoiled little man that has been handed everything but believes he made it himself, and let’s face it… Those are the worst kind of people. I was wanting to address what a lot of people are trying to say… That all of his supporters are racists that would round up anyone that is different and lynch them on his command. I think that is ridiculous and I do not believe that. The same way I don’t believe that every Hillary supporter is a certain way. Or that they are all inherently bad. I think most of us are the same and just want to be able to live our lives. But a lot of people have different opinions about who is best to take us in the right direction. I wasn’t commenting on this to upset anyone or make enemies. Just giving my opinion.
“I think trump and Hillary are fundamentally the same.”
no. just NO. they are not even close.
“That all of his supporters are racists that would round up anyone that is different and lynch them on his command.”
most, if not all, are racists to some degree. not all of them wear white hoods, but likely at least feel some degree of prejudice or they’d find Drumpf’s comments disgusting and wouldn’t support him. no, not all of them would round up people and lynch them on his command; their racism is a bit more subdued than that. but be assured, SOME OF THEM WOULD. the ones who are yelling at, spitting on and beating up minorities would. at one of Drumpf’s rallies, one of them, an older white man, shoved a TEENAGE girl who happened to be black. she did nothing to provoke him. FFS, a man claiming support of Drumpf attacked and stabbed an interracial couple just yesterday.
“I think most of us are the same and just want to be able to live our lives.”
except that Drumpf supporters DON’T think this. they think that some segments of our population are “lesser” than the whites, and don’t want those types to be able to just “live their lives”. they want them deported.
“But a lot of people have different opinions about who is best to take us in the right direction.” yes, but if their opinion is based on things that are false, then it’s likely wrong. as you said yourself, his supporters are horribly uninformed. so, why should I take their opinion seriously? why should I even bother to consider it? most of them are WILLFULLY uninformed. meaning, they’ve been told what they believe is wrong and has been proven so in various media outlets, but they won’t budge. so, uninformed, stubborn, stupid, racist…take your pick.
Great posts doofus, exactly.
If I came off as being rude by calling you wrong, I apologize. That was probably a bit over the top. I was trying to make the point that there are always crazies on both sides. I was also trying to say that I do know people who are voting for trump because they are hoping his economic policies would be better for jobs and small businesses than Hillary’s. They are not “frothing at the mouth” racists. I see how they treat other people. They don’t care what color you are. I know that there are people who would like us all to believe otherwise, so we could keep hating each other, but not everything is about race.
I honestly can’t tell if you’re trolling or at Breitbart level delusion about race not being an issue in this election. I CAN tell that trying to educate you would be a massive waste of time. Either way lets not talk ever again. It’ll be better for us both. Peace!
Sorry, but no. Every single Trump supporter I have come upon–whether stranger, friend or even family member–is at best a closet racist. Do they go around bragging about how they want to start lynch mobs or how we’re overdue for another Holocaust? If course not. But, do they think Mexicans steal good American jobs & blacks are more likely to be criminals? Yup. If your friends were ‘good people’ they would be disgusted by Trump’s hateful, untruthful rhetoric. The Holocaust wasn’t just carried out by fervent outspoken Nazis. ‘Normal’ ‘good’ people turned in their Jewish friends and neighbors to cover their own arses and for their own benefit. Racism isn’t always blatant. It can be secretive and insidious, and that’s just part of why people liken Trump to Hitler.
Thank you for letting me in on how everyone that I know really feels. I had no idea that my friends and neighbors are all closet thugs. I wasn’t trying to troll or be rude to anyone… I just stated something that doesn’t fall in line with what you are convinced to be true. I was just trying to say that not everyone is what you believe them to be. Obviously I don’t know anyone commenting here and what they may have to deal with from different people on a daily basis. But I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful… Just offering a different point of view.
Agh… Doofus… I typed a response to you and it seems it got lost in interspace. I did read what you wrote and appreciate your thoughtful opinion. Hope you have a nice evening.
What a complete uninformed idiot.
A Nobel Prize-winning economist was quoted in the Huffington Post the other day. He said:
“Economic anxiety is not a very good predictor of who’s a Trump supporter,” Krugman said during an interview on Bloomberg TV. “Racial antagonism is a good indicator of who’s a Trump supporter.”
I think that would explain the college towns with those Trump signs on their lawns. Sigh.
I still have a huge crush on Billie Joe.
I wish people would understand that Hitler is not the same as Trump.
It deflects from the real reasons Hitler was able to come to power and the persuasive message that convinced the entire German nation to support him and his policies.
Trump is outright evil from the outset. Hitler revealed himself over time and AFTER obtaining power.
Sorry, no. Hitler was openly hostile toward the Jews in Mein Kampf, written in the 1920s. Hitler’s racial animosity was there for everyone to see before he ever came to power.
Bootsie: the entire European establishment was against the Jews. The entire European population were not friendly to Jews for centuries. Rhetoric against the Jews was something everybody, in everyday walks of life treated as a normal thing. Heck, it’s even in one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated plays – The Merchant of Venice – see how the Jew, despite that one great speech, is despised throughout the play and actually loses out.
Hitler’s mien Kempf wasn’t an abberation in the 1920s. He rose on a wave of promises of German patriotism and promise of German economic power and isolationism and exceptionilism. The world is against us, but we are the best!!
He was made Vice Chancellor long before he was leader on those promises.
As appalling as the Jewish question was, it wasn’t the big red flag that hindsight has made it.
And while we are here, the germans perfected their genocidal/ torture experiments on the Namibians in the early 1900-1905 before applying them to the Jews in Europe. Perhaps you want to look up Herero German concentration camps. Again, not a big deal and still no outcry to this day, but it shows that what happened to the Jews wasn’t a one off, nor was the general population appalled by it until towards the end of the 2nd world war.
“He rose on a wave of promises of… patriotism and promise of… economic power and isolationism and exceptionilism. The world is against us, but we are the best!!”
That doesn’t sound like Trump to you?
I think we all got way too caught up on the “trump is hitler” thing today. The real story here is billy joe’s hair. How has this not been addressed?
Wow, Kaiser. I just looked up his age and he isn’t that old, at least not to me–44–which means you are wise beyond your years. Honestly, you write beautifully and I love your posts! 🙂