Gwar, an American heavy metal band, has been contacted by the Secret Service because it held a mock execution of President Trump onstage. A theatrical “science-fiction musical project” formed in 1984, the satirical band has been doing this kind of thing at its concerts for decades. Fake Trump was “killed” during the group’s performance at Warped Tour in Washington, D.C. this month. There’s a video: someone in a Donald Trump costume walks onstage and is disemboweled by the band, fake blood spurting.
The Band’s mock murders of public figures have offed such prominent figures as former President Barack Obama, former President Joe Biden, Queen Elizabeth, Elon Musk, Hillary Clinton, and Kanye West, and others. This is clearly non-partisan sick humor.
Trump’s Justice Department does itself, Republicans and conservatives no favors when it engages in dumb abuses of process and power like this. It is even more futile and less defensible than arresting James Comey for posting a numerical threat to President Trump written on the beach in sea shells. Demonstrating a sense of proportion as well as humor would be wise as well as endearing. I mean, Gwar’s manager is named Sleazy P. Martini. Reacting with fear as if a theatrical bad joke is a genuine threat makes the Administration and the President look weak, thin-skinned and foolish.
Ethics Alarms 
H/T to F.I.R.E.!
PWS
GWAR is mostly off my radar but I know one song (Slaughterama) and even managed to acquire a t-shirt. Never saw the show, which reportedly is full of crazy drama.
For those of you who wish to experience their tasteless yet funny camp / slaughter, this is a good place to start.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=453AdO5L_m8
The game show has three contestants, all of whom are killed on stage when they can’t compete effectively in the game show.
May the souls of the hippie, the art fag, and the nazi skinhead rest in peace.
charles w abbott
rochester NY
P.S.: methinks GWAR are superior space aliens who kill us for their sport. Or something like that. Wikipedia has myriad details.
P.P.S.: If you can’t hack the whole song, which has a good driving riff, even just the first minute gives you the picture.
“And what the people want could only be the senseless slaughter of the gutter slime that litters this nation for cash and prizes…”
GWAR is vaudeville in the 21st Century. Gwar skewers everyone.
jvb
Are the agents deliberately intimidating, or is there so much to investigate that occasionally they get it wrong? I cannot recall this much vitriol in politics. So many death threats are real and so many of our youth believe that political violence is justified. Their protocol is to investigate everything, just in case. If they made a call or two, this is overblown. If the band was interrogated under harsh lights – maybe a bit much.
There have been multiple attempts on the President’s life. If you publicly mock-murder him, you’re going to get a call – live with it.
I think the bigger story is that Gwar has somehow managed to retain enough of a fan base to still play live – talk about a micro-micro genre of music. It makes me smile to know they’re still out there doing their weird shows.
I think Frank Zappa would approve.
It’s not the bands or Springsteen or Kathy Griffin or De Niro that the Secret Service needs to worry about. Those people vent their feelings in a public format and, while most/all of them are TDS sufferers who have the mistaken notion that we love the sound of their voices as much as they do, the rants are where their rage ends.
It’s the others, who hear the desires for violence from these people as an actual “call to violence”, that the Secret Service needs to deal with. The true assassin doesn’t stand out in the public square, doesn’t make statements for a camera and microphone, and doesn’t disembowel Presidential dolls on stage.
Boringly, predictably pathetic.
It’s just so tiresome to read about this kind of transparent, face-plant level stupidity. Conservatives darken billions of pixels purporting to defend the First Amendment, and when their ox gets gored, demand investigations and prosecutions.
Weak, lame, unethical, immoral, idiotic, hypocritical…etc.
I guess non-partisan absurdity makes it a little better? I agree with your overall argument, but because of how many attempts have been made on his life and how there is probably secret coordinating going on, I think it’s fair to send in the Secret Service to check it out in nearly all cases.