Cobain Continues: A Kurt Cobain Survives Collaborative Timeline

February 12, 2002-Christopher Hitchens opens another salvo in his feud with Cobain when he pens an article praising President Bush's strategy, and demands a fight against what he refers to as "Islamofascism."

February 13, 2002-Cobain gives a short response. "There goes Hitch again, opening his gob in fawning over the illegitimate president and his plans. I think the brandy's really gone to his brain."
 
February 17th, 2002: Journalist Hunter S. Thompson begins writing what he claims will be the "unofficial sequel" to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas entitled Woe and Witlessness in DC.
 
I'm hoping the Hitchens-Cobain feud leads to the more tolerant wing of atheism being stronger. I'm atheist myself and have ended up quitting every Facebook group because of this, one because the admins borderline condoned Islamophobia.
 
Yes. It's not Islamaphobic to be honest and admit that Islam, not just the fundamentalist strain, has problems. But of course, many go well beyond that in atheist groups. In addition, many of the Islamaphobes are antifeminist, even when they say that they are not. They attack Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn and the like and say they're not "real feminists", but sound like the feminists they decry when saying "Islam is evil and oppresses women! Oh noes!" It's really fascinating, and it's why I lately only watch videos on the subject of atheism by the likes of AronRa these days.
 
February 18, 2002-Cobain sits for another interview with Jon Stewart, in which he discusses his anger at Hitchens. "You know he hasn't been relevant since he went apeshit about Mother Teresa. Do I think she was a saint? No, of course not. But she was far from the villain Hitch described her as, not to mention he only looked at her hospice through the lens of Western civilization, not India's own. He represents such a breed of arrogance that gives the Bible thumpers the ammo they need to attack non-religious people. And like I said once, even though he always talks about the need for conscience and reason to run the world, he doesn't seem to have any of his own. You saw what he did to the Clintons and to Al Gore."

February 19, 2002-Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes give a special memo to the staff of Fox News on how to cover Cobain. It states: "Question his patriotism. Give statements and interviews questioning his career and the people he surrounds himself with. Open targets on so-called grunge leaders." Bill O'Reilly then has his producers try to secure an interview with Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell.
 
February 23rd, 2002: Chris Farley returns to SNL to host that week's episode. He parodies Vice President Cheney and his anger over Cobain's comments. Farley himself stated in an interview that: "I think it's ridiculous how much the President cares about what Kurt is doing, he's allowed to have his opinion and without him, I probably wouldn't be here today."
 
February-March 2002: The Senate hears testimony over the bankruptcy of Enron, trying to assess who in the company bore the responsibility for the collapse. Notably, CEO Kenneth Lay, former CFO Andrew Fastow, and many other key players take the Fifth. Former COO and one-time CEO Jeffrey Skilling, however, gives full testimony, in which he states there was no real problem other than a lack of liquidity, and that the collapse was a mere run on the bank. Skilling is evasive over questions of how much stock he cashed in prior to the company's collapse. Cobain, not one to let up, uses Enron as another attack on President Bush, especially as he moves to distance himself from the company. "It's obvious that Enron played a big role in electing him, first to the governor's mansion, and then to the White House. I remember touring through Texas, and when I was in Houston, I saw this big building with a crooked E, and I wondered what it actually was. And now we all know. You can't be in charge of the second biggest state in the Union, and not know what it's biggest corporation is, or have some kind of relationship there."
 
March 2002-Cobain accepts an offer to do supporting solo shows for The Who on their summer tour in North America.

March 2002-After having security fears assuaged and any all problems with Sony Music's management settled, Michael Jackson finally begins a lengthy world tour to promote his album Invincible as well as his charity single "What More Can I Give." It is the King Of Pop's first proper tour in more than five years, and once again, the tour is a massive financial success. Sales of the album spike enormously, and the seven singles receive respectable, if not dominating, airplay and MTV rotation. (Obviously, with Michael on tour, the Martin Bashir hatchet job is never made, because he's occupied at this moment with many things, rather than left to his own devices and helping launch the "Sony Sucks" campaign)
 
March 5, 2002-The first units containing female combat troops arrive in Kandahar and Kabul. For the moment, no activity out of the ordinary occurs. As the units fly over, massive protests continue to be held referring to the war they're fighting in as illegitimate.

March 6, 2002-Osama bin Laden releases a new videotaped message mocking the new combat troops and gloating over the rising tension America's citizens have with their government. This of course, further plays into the Bush Administration's messaging and stating that blind support is necessary.
 
March 11th, 2002: Nirvana embarks on a tour across North and South America.

March 28th, 2002: At a tour stop in Dallas, Texas, Cobain changes some lyrics of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to reflect his feelings towards the Bush administration.

April 24th, 2002: In Santiago, Chile, Cobain meets several anti-Bush protestors who tell him that he has to continue fighting against the President, even if it costs him his reputation. Dave Grohl and Krist Novosellic record the conversation.
 
April 25, 2002-While preparing for a performance at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Cobain and the Nirvana team receive word that many promoters are threatening to sever their ties with them and cancel dozens of previously planned shows because of the Dallas performance. Promoters are also threatening to cancel Cobain's solo dates supporting The Who. In addition, several radio stations in the South begin banning Nirvana and Cobain albums and singles from airplay.

April 28, 2002-After the South American leg is finished, Nirvana makes their case during an interview with Kurt Loder at MTV Studios. "If radio stations in red states don't want to play our music, that's fine. If they want to go full 'Beatles Ban' and burn our albums and books, whatever. They'll probably have bought it just for the burning. But the fact that promoters are worrying and want to pull out, that isn't remotely fair to anyone. The promoters are just shooting themselves in the foot canceling shows they would've made oodles of money off of, the fans are getting robbed of their chances to see us, and this will have a ripple effect on other promoters just because of their beliefs. I know that other performers with liberal beliefs are going to get shafted because of this, and they don't deserve it."

April 29, 2002-Ted Nugent gives a response during an interview with a radio station in Austin, Texas. He condemns Cobain's statements as "pissy, toxic goofball liberal whining. He thinks he's so entitled to dictating what's best for us, to tell Americans how to live. I know the real America, I belong to the real America, and the real America rejects him. He's just reaping what he sowed, and he should retire if he's going to preach to us."
 
May 1st, 2002: After much deliberation, promoters decide not to cancel the remaining tours and allow Nirvana to finish out the remaining leg of their tour, nor do they cancel Cobain's shows with the Who, as too many fans have paid for the shows already to cancel them and the controversy surrounding Cobain might attract potential newcomers.
 
May 12, 2002-The final date of the Nirvana U.S. Tour is held in Gainesville, Florida, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, home of the Florida Gators. Tom Petty joins the band onstage for renditions of "Serve the Servants", "Refugee" and "Won't Back Down."

May 25, 2002-During the brief decompression period between the end of the Nirvana tour and rehearsing with his solo group, Cobain sits down for an interview with Hunter S. Thompson to be included in his new book and an article in his "Hey Rube!" column. Cobain mentions that "All the stops are going out to sell this invasion of Iraq. Hopefully, the tide of opinion will prevent Congress from agreeing to it. I mean, using WMDs as the justification is pretty fucking thin."

June 1, 2002-During a firefight near Kandahar, 25 U.S. soldiers are killed by Taliban forces. Five of the victims are women, and two were killed in a friendly fire incident. Photos of the carnage leak to the world, and mass protests are held across the nation, as well as in London to protest British Prime Minister Tony Blair's support for the war effort.

June 3, 2002-Cobain gives an interview to a Seattle radio station. "Clearly, our forces simply aren't up to standard we have to be if we're trying to wipe out terrorism. It'll only be worse if we invade Iraq. Our resources will be spread too fucking thin, and we can't coordinate our efforts like we should."
 
June 6, 2002-Uproar in the streets, as protests continue to emerge, as well as candlelight vigils for the 25 dead soldiers. Many state that President Bush has become a tyrant garbed in the clothing of a republic. During a concert that night at a state fair, Ted Nugent goes on a lengthy and expletive-laced rant against the "towelheads", the "toxic liberal goofballs", Al Gore, the Clintons, and Cobain.

June 8, 2002-Cobain tells an MTV News crew covering his rehearsal period "I'll personally send Ted a pair of tickets if he wants. Maybe he can learn something in stagecraft."

June 10, 2002-Cobain has a videoconference with the members of The Who. It becomes clear to Cobain that bassist John Entwistle is flirting with danger as he continually chain-smokes and uses cocaine recreationally while on medication for heart disease, in addition to indulging in expensive wine and uncontrollable shopping sprees.
 
June 8th, 2002: Vice President Cheney urges Bush to take action against the protestors, fearing that if they become too influential that they will lose the 2004 election. In response, Bush begins to sign executive orders that greatly limit the power of protest. In a press conference, he justifies his decision by saying: "We need to stand together now and this protesting will only tear us apart! They're against us and we can't deal with that now!"
 
June 12, 2002-Protestors work around the executive order by organizing Internet chat rooms, flooding email servers, and placing phone calls to elected officials. Jon Stewart and his fellow correspondents also launch their own website to redirect everything to President Bush's government email. PACs begin springing up to support Democratic candidates, and some commentators wonder if a paradigm shift on the level of the 1994 midterm elections could be possible.

June 14, 2002-Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton gives a speech denouncing President Bush's actions and states that "the foundation of our country is freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Now, that freedom is being taken away. We can't sit by as loyal Americans are scapegoated as unpatriotic traitors." In addition, thanks to the investigation of reporters like Eric Boehlert, the effects of votes against President Bush were silenced and muzzled become clearer, and more and more articles come out calling Al Gore the real winner of the 2000 election. Calls to change the Constitution to allow for a revote process begin to rise, along with calls for impeachment.
 
June 17th, 2002: In one of the most controversial news casts of the decade, Bush's father and former President George H.W Bush denounces the investigation against his son as being: "Unpatriotic, unproven hogwash that has no basis in reality. While a disagreement with policy is certainly expected, it is disgraceful to accuse the President of the United States of being guilty of a crime to this degree. The protestors should cease and desist for the betterment of our country and accept that while you may not agree with the invasion of Iraq, it is going to occur and it's part of being an American."
 
June 18, 2002-In a followup to the elder President Bush's comments, Vice President Gore gives his own response. "In the year 2000, we were in the middle of the greatest period of prosperity in our nation's history, and we had a record $170 billion budget surplus. Social Security was going to be kept solvent for another century in a lockbox, Medicare and health care was going to be reformed, and America was going to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Since George W. Bush has occupied the Oval Office, there have been tremendous job losses, especially in the dot-com and telecom companies, the budget is once again deep into defecit, our White House has troubling connections with a company guilty of accounting fraud, and the person responsible for the tragedy of September 11th has escaped into friendly territory. If I were in the White House, I can assure you that while I wouldn't have been able to keep every promise I made, I would have made far more headway and progress than the Bush Administration has."

June 19, 2002-President and Senator Clinton give a statement agreeing with Vice President Gore's comments, and go further. "If you look at what happened in 2000, nothing makes sense. Al ran a terrific campaign, and he didn't give Mr. Bush an inch. He took charge like he needed to, and the polls had him 20 points ahead. Even factoring in Mr. Nader, this should've been a comfortable win. But clearly there's something more than we see going on with our voting booths, and our state parties. We have to get to the bottom of this."
 
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