American Idiots Assemble!

I didn’t watch Green Day’s performance on New Year’s Eve, but kudos to Billie Joe and the band for knocking the MAGA crowd.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/green-day-maga-agenda-lyric-american-idiot-1234938852/

I’ve given up trying to understand people who want to see Trump back in the White House. They can’t see that it’s a case of, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” They’re idiots, and I say that admitting Trump probably would have been re-elected in 2020 if not for his incompetence in managing the pandemic. Incredibly, based on recent polls he stands a very good chance of being elected again.

My purity test for Trump supporters:

    1. What is your level of education?
    2. Did you watch The Apprentice?

The mess we’re in goes back to Reagan, who was “Goldwater Lite,” saying government is the problem. What’s astounding to me is that, in the 60’s, both Reagan on the Right and the Hippies on the Left had the same message at the same time. They were both against government intrusion in the lives of Americans, but with very different ideas of what that meant.

Shecky’s Perfect Joke

[Last week was I going to publish this post about a joke by old-school stand-up comedian Shecky Greene, but then I put it off. Now I wish I had published it, while at the same time being glad I didn’t, because Shecky died today.]

It’s a perfect joke for multiple reasons:

    • It was based on an actual event
    • It’s very short, with a minimum of only ten words, maybe even nine
    • It requires a certain knowledge, albeit dated, but perfect for its intended Las Vegas audience
    • It’s self-deprecating while also sticking it to someone else
    • It isn’t dirty and there’s no swearing.
    • It’s funny in a way that could have made club management uncomfortable

The joke:

Frank Sinatra saved my life…
He said, “that’s enough, boys.”

Ten words. Boom. Perfect.

The Ram Ones

On the Movies! channel I happened to catch a bit of the Ramones in 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School with — wowee! — P.J. Soles, who’s five years older than I am.

Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy, their original drummer turned producer, are gone. Only Marky carries on the proud name of Ramone, inspired by Paul “Ramon” McCartney in the Silver Beatles.

Note: I didn’t bother seeing if this is available on YouTube, because it’s a video experiment in converting MTS to MP4. Making it browser-compatible turned out to be rather tricky. Let me know if you see or hear a problem.