Jello Biafra isn't happy about Dead Kennedys' "dumb and clueless" praise of Mitt Romney
Aux Features Music
First things first: Jello Biafra hasn’t been affiliated with anti-establishment punk outfit Dead Kennedys for a very long time. Following the band’s 1986 breakup, Biafra saw the rights to the Dead Kennedys name awarded to his former bandmates, who continue to tour with various singers standing in for the vocalist. A guy named Ron “Skip” Greer currently leads the band. It ain’t the same.
Just look at this post fired off by the Dead Kennedys’ Twitter on Wednesday night, just hours after a loony pro-Trump mob descended upon the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the results of the presidential election. The band, once a leftist powerhouse spitting hits like “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” and “Let’s Kill The Landlord,” now has ample praise for Mitt Romney and Lindsey Graham, dipshit Republicans who, after years of enabling Trump’s lunacy, have decided an attempted coup is a step too far.
It wasn’t long before Biafra weighed in. “As if today couldn’t get any weirder, look who posted this!!” he wrote on Facebook. “How dumb and clueless can you get?? Was it scab singer Skip, who recently denied DK’s are a political band, just, ‘a social satire band’?? Ea$t Bay Ray?? It sure as hell wasn’t me, and in no way represents anything DK’s ever stood for. Cmon, guys, take this down – NOW. Haven’t you disgraced our inspiring legacy that means so much to people enough???”
As the dunks rolled in—see some of the best ones below—the band continued to stan for Romney and assure fans that Biafra hates Trump “as much as we do.” This is true, obviously, but what Biafra seems to get that the band doesn’t is that “standing up to Trump” doesn’t mean shit when you’re a member of the party that paved the way for him. (Look at his voting record!)
At least they didn’t go the Johnny Rotten route?
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92 Comments
I was about to not care but as an old DK fan that last tweet really set me off.
It’s never not a good time to post Mom Jeans Mitt:
Body-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody-ody
What is he playing Charades?
He’s doing that thing where you try to unbunch/unstick your testicles without using your hands.
not in those pants he isn’t!
Jfc lookit that front butt!
Smoooth like a ken doll. Just like I like em.
Are we sure that’s not just his head photoshopped onto a lesbian?
Geez Mitt. Save some pussy for the rest of us!
“Let me stretch over to the family entertainment center and put on the latest from The Osmonds. Their joyful voices make me forget I have no genitals.”
the best part is the Baha Men cassingle.
So they’re praising him for doing the bare minimum of not backing a coup. Like, he’s still backing shitty policies and has for the most part backed Trump’s shit in the past. But no, he gets a cookie for not wanting to outright overthrow the government.I doubt the Democratic leadership is going to use this inertia for doing anything. They’ll take the confirmation of Biden’s presidency at face value from the traitors like Cruz and try to claim things are “back to normal”. Effectively allowing this shit to not only happen again but get worse.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they impeach trump again once they have control of the senate. yeah too little too late but if it prevents him from holding office again I’m all in favor (bonus points if it takes away his secret service detail). Altho not holding my breath that 17 repub senators would do the right thing.
When are the Baha Men going to speak out against Romney?
I’m no Mitt fan, but he certainly didn’t just decide to stop backing Trump. He voted to remove Trump from office in 2019. He was the only Republican who did.Was that symbolic because he knew Republicans had the votes anyway? Of course. But it’s a pretty big symbol.
Mitt has always tried to have his cake and eat it too – he wags his finger at Trump occasionally so that he can appear to be reasonable, but falls in line with some truly awful policies the rest of the time.
Now you’re just being ridiculous! Cake is too spicy for Mitt Romney. The most exotic he gets is saltines with the salt wiped off.
. . . and a glass of water on the side for dipping!
He has a little more leeway to act like an actual human being since in Utah the label of Mormon seems to carry more weight than Republican. But yeah, never mistake that for someone that is working for the common good.
The primary difference between Romney and Trump comes down to a disagreement over how polite you should be while cutting taxes for the rich and limiting civil rights. Romney might not be totally mentally disconnected from reality in the same way Trump appears to be, but “not a literal crazy person” is a low fucking bar for a Senator.
Yup! I remember him trying to relate to the poors by talking about when he and his wife were just getting started, living off the dividends from their family’s stocks…with seemingly no understanding of how rare it is to have so much money in stocks that you can live off the dividends, even in a dorm room furniture kind of way.
That’s so ridiculous that I did some back of the envelope math. The average stock dividend yield per year is 2.5%. The federal poverty line for a household of two people is $17,240. I don’t believe he was ever living on anything close to that, but for the sake of argument, that means his humble beginnings started with a stock portfolio worth at least $689,600 in today’s money.
He still voted for Barrett and has more or less backed the GOP agenda. He doesn’t deserve a cookie because he won’t outright back a coup.
I ain’t never been in jail!
I take care ‘a my kids!
Ya low-expectation-havin’ motherfucka!
This guy gets it
he looks good by comparison b/c the rest of the repubs are so awful. But i fully remember his time as governor of MA, as soon as he was elected he couldn’t wait to start travelling around the country talking about how bad MA was. And let’s not forget that 50% of the country are takers according to Mitt. btw what in the world kind of name is Mitt in the first place
maybe it’s a short for kerMitt. or Mittney.
I assume it’s short for Mittens.
Fuck him and his symbols stop sucking his horrid cock just because he, a FEW times when it was most politically important to him, didn’t back Trump.
Mitt has integrity and stands by his beliefs. It just so happens those beliefs are just as garbage as the rest of the party, he just prefers being polite when acting on them.
I would be with you on this if he hadn’t voted to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court pick. Mitt showed his whole ass with that one.
I like Mitt, but even I have to admit he’s not exactly punk rock.
And if Jello ain’t happy, ain’t nobody’s happy.
Jello has never been happy though.
I just can’t believe that.
Personally I think Romney deserves binders full of praise for the 47% of his soul that isn’t evil.
+1 Car Elevator
Something something car roof dog.
The best dunk:
Aging punk rockers fighting on twitter is SO FUCKING PUNK!!!
Jello once called the nu!Dead Kennedys “the world’s greediest karaoke band” and it’s a spot on fucking description.These clowns say DK aren’t a “political band”, merely a “social satire” one. Like holy shit, how low can you even get?
If DK isn’t a ‘political band’ then ‘political bands’ just don’t exist.
This article seems to have conflated “Let’s Lynch the Landlord” and “I Kill Children” into “Let’s Kill the Landlord,” but I feel like the fact that it’s so easy to amalgamate Jello’s writing actually helps make his point stronger re: the consistency of this politics and pet themes…
Counterpoint: How political can a karaoke band be?
‘nothing political about the name dead kennedys’
“Like holy shit, how low can you even get?”I think praising Lindsey Graham might be the answer, unless they started actively playing at fundraisers for Republican candidates or something.
Have they even written any new material since Biafra left or have they just been covering their own shit for the last 30 years or so?
Lol no, not even their live albums contain footage from the 2000s. The current band is basically a grift by East Bay Ray (he’s the only one to stay throughout – even Peligro and Flouride took at least a break from this shitshow) designed to fish the last bits of ‘80s punk nostalgia out of people.It’s a worse band than the Black Flag reunion, and the BF reunion is fucking atrocious.
I’m in general for most punk reunions. If people like it, and they enjoy it, great. X is still good live and their new album is pretty good. Jawbreaker were fantastic during their reunions shows. I’m looking forward to seeing the circle jerks tour. the footage of FLAG! was awesome. But fuck if I am going to see the dead kennedys without Jello. There is no point. It’d be like seeing the Stooges without Iggy. And THE far-left american political punk band stanning for a republican is just gross. It would be gross if they stanned for Pelosi. Ugh.
I wouldn’t vote for Romney, but I think he’s a good senator. He’s an intelligent moderate conservative, and that perspective is important for the national discussion. I suspect he speaks for a lot more people than AOC does, for example.
He sure does…on some issues. Others I’m perfectly happy to let AOC take the lead on (namely environmental regulations and taxing the rich more)
Depends what age demographic you’re talking about.
“He’s an intelligent moderate conservative”
There’s a few words that don’t belong in the same sentence
I remember isolated members of that tribe roaming the land as late as the early ‘00s but they’ve been a dead breed for nigh on 15 years.
I don’t like Romney because of the “conservative” part of that description but you’re lying to yourself if you don’t think he’s intelligent, or a lot more moderate than most of the goons in the Republican party.
TLDR: “I would vote for Romney.”
Would you vote for him in a box? Would you vote for him with a fox?
After all, he’s the BOMBney!
he could have been a formidable center-right presidential opponent if center-right politics still won presidential campaigns. or existed.
Well, thanks for telling us you’re an upper class white male, I guess.
i think the fact that you’re comparing the reach of someone who’s been in politics since the 90s to someone who was born in 1989 says volumes about how much ground AOC has made up in a short time. i bet when she’s 77 she’ll be speaking for a lot more people.
I mean, sure… in the same way that a cattle prod looks moderate when sitting next to a machine gun. That said, I don’t really think either of them are interested in making my life better.
I mean, I wish Romney represented the Republican party so that I could still actively do all I could to keep them from having a governing majority but not fear our nation would devolve into white supremacist facism if they got power. What I really want to happen is for the Republicans to go away, the Democrats to become the center right party they pretty much already are, and a new progressive wing become the left wing party.
I agree that the current Republican party is a major problem. It offers no new ideas or plans, actively attacks useful institutions, denies reality, and promotes conflict. One possible future is that it dissolves into factional infighting and can only ever win the senate for the foreseeable future. A few years of that sounds pretty good, actually.
But the country is 34% conservative, 36% moderate, and 26% liberal by self-identification (Gallup Poll: Fewer Americans Identifying As Conservatives, More As Liberals Since Outbreak Began (forbes.com). It’s not your fault or mine that the the “Conservative party” has ruined itself, but I don’t think disenfranchising conservative-minded people at the national level is a long-term solution. Romney (the “least terrible Republican senator”) is the sort of person who should be running the Republican Rehab program, IMO.
As far as Johnny Rotten goes, has anyone ever taken his politics seriously? Has he ever taken politics seriously? I always saw him as “punk” in the trying-to-piss-people-off mold, not like Crass or Discharge who were actually political… and these days, what’s more troll-y than supporting Trump and Brexit?
And I’m actually shocked to hear the Dead Kennedys (sort of) still exist. A name change to Living Romneys wouldn’t be uncalled for.
That link in the article is from 2017, when Lydon was just saying he liked Trump’s outsidery, stir-the-pot qualities. Recently he’s gotten much more conventional in his support of Trump, dismissal of BLM, fear of Antifa, etc…https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/11/johnny-rotten-sex-pistols-trump-good-morning-britian/
👁
Lydon’s criticisms always had a political edge and in particular a class edge. I mean “God Save the Queen” wasn’t political? And as much as he’s enjoyed enhancing his reputation as a provocateur, he’s been fairly ideologically consistent for most of his career; he spent most of the 2000s vocally criticizing Bush. It’s only in the last few years that he suddenly made a swerve into angry Facebook dad territory.
You sexually molested me in 2015.
We already know you think sexual assault is a joke
“We”? Who do you think you’re speaking on behalf of? All of the right thinking and morally proper people on the internet? I’m sure everyone’s thrilled that you think you’re speaking on their behalf. You know why? Because you’re a fucking asshole. “We” already know that. I cringe deeply when I see you express any opinion I agree with. It makes me reconsider that opinion. Do I really want to agree with this self-righteous cock-sucking jackass?
Damn you got real mad. Also thanks for the homophobic insult, that’s just another way of showing us how you really think.
There’s always room for Jello….’s opinions.
That last one, man… 😀
It reminds me of this http://www.cc.com/video-clips/33m31h/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-the-clash
Nice to see a middle-aged musician who defrauded his former bandmates out of hundreds of dollars worth of royalties telling people how to properly be punk.
I guess that’s more punk than thinking for yourself and acknowledging that a shitty person did the right thing even though it’s not “on-brand”.
I’m going to just brag about seeing the original DKs, with The Crucifucks opening. How did I get so old?!?!
Where was that?
Harpo’s in Detroit. Angry Red Planet was also on the bill. I just looked it up and saw the flyer. Nov 4th 1985. $7! I have the ticket stub somewhere lol. I remember Jello telling the audience “you’re not doing a very good job catching the stage divers”.
Fuck you for reminding me of how old I am too!
I’ll say this about good ole Mittens, I once was wandering lost in the dessert on the verge of death due to dehydration when suddenly Mitt rolled up besides me in his stretch limo. As he rolled his window down with the A/C on full blast I heard him say, “That’s a shame.” and told his driver to step on it they had an engagement to attend. What a guy that Mittens. What. A. Guy.
I disagree with Romney on most policies. But at the same time I respect him for having and sticking to his personal moral code. He is a republican who I can respect, while still disagreeing with him. He is an actual patriot, not a grifter or traitor like almost all the rest are. He is competent, sane, and would have been a better president than any other republican since Eisenhower.
Yeah, I can’t really disagree with Biafra here… Mitt is being the opportunist he’s always been (and he’s positioned himself for this moment for a couple years now… he wants back in for 2024), and I really don’t understand how Graham is even able to keep his balance considering he’s turning in circles trying to stay on the ‘right’ side of things. He said ‘enough is enough’ because Trumps future is fucking dead as dead, and this was a golden opportunity to try to erase the fact that he was soliciting sedition from GA a couple weeks before Trump did.Both of them are cowards, nobody in that party stood up to Trump in any meaningful way, and they all voted yes for fucking everything that man pushed for.Here’s my analogy for the rats trying to jump ship: If you bet it all on black, and you see the roulette wheel coming to a stop on red, you don’t get to pull back your bet… you’re already invested, and trying to weasel out of it only makes you look worse.
The real question is what the Dead Milkmen (an infinitely better band) has to say on the subject.
I guess it depends on which party is more concerned about what the queers are doing to our soil.
“Stuart” kind of predicted Q-Anon. The landing strips for gay Martians outside Des Moines theory is only slightly more absurd than Pizzagate.
Johnny Rotten is a proper cunt.
The ironic part is that he’d probably be the second one to agree with you.
Some people are beyond insult.
Jello Biafra came to speak at my college when I was a student there. He whined about the other band members using the name without him for over an hour, then there was an intermission kind of break thing and my friends and I decided we would not be going back in to hear the second half of him crying about it.