If you stare too long into the abyss, you are probably at CPAC
— Alkali ?? (@alkali19) February 23, 2018
Trump recalls when he started running for president and people doubted his conservatism. "I think now we've proved that I'm a conservative." CPAC crowd cheers.
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 23, 2018
Save this tape for the inevitable moment a few years from now when conservatives insist he had nothing to do with them. https://t.co/BjjpA0eHtq
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 23, 2018
Look, I try not to overwhelm y’all with the far-fringe ‘Wanna See Me Eat A Bug?’ performers like Dinesh D’Souza, Charlie Kirk, and Gary ‘What Is Aleppo?’ Johnson. But in the decade or so since I first discovered CPAC (through Dave Weigel’s then-hilarious reports), it’s become increasingly clear that this year’s rabid hate-monger at CPAC is next year’s high-paid mainstream media figure — or even presidential candidate. It’s like screening for skin cancer; you don’t have to admire those weird scaly lumps and unhealing scabs, but you need to know about them.
Dan Dale, continuing his yeoman work for Toronto’s The Star:
Early in U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech Friday to the Conservative Political Action Conference, he paused to ask the audience a question.
His prepared text, he said, was “a little boring.” Would they mind if he went “off script a little bit”?
In truth, he had not been very on-script even before that. What followed the crowd’s endorsement, though, was the kind of rambling, inflammatory, oft-inaccurate, and captivating discursion he performed at his 2016 campaign rallies…
It is impossible to do the speech justice by summarizing a few key points. Here is a minute-by-minute account of what happened:
10:17 a.m. — Trump notes that he once faced skepticism about his conservative credentials. “I think now we’ve proved that I’m a conservative, right?”
The audience applauds heartily.
10:18 — Trump notices his image on a big screen to the left of the stage. He gives himself a compliment.
“By the way, what a nice picture that is. Look at that. I’d love to watch that guy speak.”
People laugh. Then he turns around and pats his hair. Then he does some rare self-deprecation.
“That’s a — I try like hell to hide that bald spot, folks. I work hard at it. It doesn’t look bad. Hey, we’re hanging in.”…
10:24 — Trump reiterates his theory of midterm elections: happy supporters of the president are less motivated to vote, “so you end up not doing that well because the other side is going — they’re crazed.” He adds that his opponents are “crazed anyway, these people.” He tells his supporters, “Don’t be complacent.”
10:28 — Trump says “somebody got on television recently” and said Trump “may be the only person that actually fulfilled more promises than he made.”
He was the one who said this on television recently.
10:29 — Trump says, “We have a very crooked media. We had a crooked candidate, too, by the way.” He is, of course, referring to Clinton, whom he beat 15 months prior.
A group of students starts a “lock her up” chant.
Trump continues: “Boy, have they committed a lot of atrocities when you look.”
He does not say who “they” are.
10:30 — Trump mocks Sen. John McCain, who is home dealing with brain cancer, for his vote against the repeal of Obamacare.
“Except for one senator, who came into a room at 3 o’clock in the morning and went like that” — he mimicked McCain’s thumbs-down gesture — “we would have had health-care, too.”
The crowd boos the party icon. Trump continues the mockery.
“I don’t want to be controversial, so I won’t use his name,” he says. “OK?” …
11:29 — Trump, referring to news reporters, says “all those horrible people back there” are going to support him when the election comes around, “because if somebody else won, their ratings would go down.”11:30 — Trump belatedly remembers the policy announcement his advisers promised he would make in this speech — new sanctions on North Korea. “We have imposed the heaviest sanctions ever imposed,” he says, providing no details.
11:31 — Trump concludes: “I will let you know in the absolute strongest of terms, we’re going to make America great again, and I will never, ever, ever let you down.” He gets another standing ovation.
And then he walked off stage…
I know it happened over and over on the campaign, but I still find it hysterical when Trump ends a speech with a promise that "I'll never ever let you down" and they immediately launch into "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) February 23, 2018
And, speaking of trading that dog whistle in for a bullhorn…
CPAC communication director Ian Walters at Reagan dinner
“We elected Mike Steele as chairman because he was a black guy, that was the wrong thing to do”
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 24, 2018
Michael Steele is literally right outside the dinner right now pic.twitter.com/j8WXqqfnra
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 24, 2018
Yes he was standing right next to @mschlapp — dinner still underway
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 24, 2018
This explains why over 90% of Trump’s nominees are white. (And so much for criteria like fair, independent, and highly qualified) https://t.co/cjRpQRnXBd
— Vanita Gupta (@vanitaguptaCR) February 23, 2018
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
They are nothing but vile people.???
DCrefugee
Mornin’! I can’t believe I’m up early enough to get a single-digit comment into one of these pre-dawn threads…
Anyone covering CPAC, especially someone from Canada, should be getting hazard pay…and some quality time off afterward.
JGabriel
rikyrah:
Oh, c’mon, that’s not fair. They’re also evil. Which, incidentally, makes them anagrammatic too.
Oh, and they’re also dumb. Like really, really, dumb. I mean, like, stupid enough to lie at a proffer meeting dumb.
Gozer
@rikyrah: I know, right?
Nothing this crew does ever surprises me, but I am continually amazed at how they (Jarvanka, the idiot sons, etc.) all are completely irredeemable as people. Nothing human or relatable.
JGabriel
@DCrefugee:
And emergency medical care to recover from the brain atrophy it’s sure to induce.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
I don’t often get the chance to say that Trump has a valid point.
JGabriel
@Baud:
I suspect that the only valid points Trump has are the points at the various tips of his winged combover.
Steve in the ATL
I have nothing to say, just wanted to snag the last coveted single-digit comment
Oh yeah
ETA: oh no—curse you, jgabriel! This isn’t over.
Cermet
Vile would be an improvement for that orange fart cloud and his massive piles of $hit that always seems to float.
JGabriel
Steve in the ATL @ 10:
Single-digit comment fail.
And your little dog too. Bwahahaha!
gene108
He spent the primaries slagging his opponents for talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare. In the early debates he promised to raise taxes on Wall Street. He also promised health insurance that would be cheaper and more comprehensive than Obamacare, i.e. some form of universal coverage.
He shamelessly lied at every point during the campaign to win votes.
I do wish the media would dig out those tapes of Donald, standing on stage telling other Republicans, during debates, how he was going to make Social Security and Medicare better, when Ryan and McConnell start floating ideas about cutting SS and Medicare to pay for their tax cut.
gene108
@Steve in the ATL:
Just look at it like getting the coveted first double digit spot ??????♀️???♂️??????
Baud
@gene108: The only promise that matters is his promise to hurt non-whites. He’s keeping that one.
JGabriel
@Steve in the ATL: What gene108 said.
Seriously, I didn’t mean to ruin your morning by stealing the last single digit comment slot. It was completely accidental. My sincere apologies and condolences.
OzarkHillbilly
CPAC 2 mornings in a row? Double blech.
gene108
@Baud:
I know. I wonder, whenthe drop off in immigration is going to start hurting the economy. More people create more demand.
And Trump, Kelly, Miller et. al. want keep more people from coming here, and native birth rates are not high enough to keep the population growing.
They are maki g an already cumbersome immigration process
harderactually hostile. At some point people will just say fuck it and take their talents elsewhere.Baud
@gene108: Probably, but the impact will likely be buried in then noise of economic data.
Steve in the ATL
@JGabriel: [sobbing] I’ll never post again!
Aleta
@rikyrah: Good morning!
OzarkHillbilly
@JGabriel: Bullshit. You enjoyed the hell out of it.
Aleta
Zinsky
The unregistered sex offender who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is about as funny as a chapped asshole, isn’t he? Conservatives are terrible at humor (Exhibit A – Dennis Miller) because they think they are superior and are always “punching down”. That isn’t funny – it’s pathetic and bullying. Look, I am old enough to remember that Donald Trump was considered to be a stupid, worthless, lazy, unfunny sexual pervert and degenerate in the 1980s. He hasn’t improved with age!
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Trying to gear up for the market today. Need moar coffee. And energy.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@gene108: Donald Trump is a Dixiecrat from Queens. I guess it takes a shithead Yankee to accomplish what Thurmond and Wallace couldn’t.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
He actually stumbled onto some truth.
they gleefully debase themselves saying “pivot” and they give him a free pass on stuff they would crucify a Dem over. imagine what they would do if a Dem paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal hush money to multiple porn stars.
Magda in Black
@Zinsky:
I first encountered Donald and Ivanna on Oprah….i was 20, and recognized the sleaze then.
With regard to the “humor” : their version of humor is basically trash-talking people. Funny with a ” certain crowd”, yes. Just as Ms. Loesch is sexy to a “certain crowd”
Immanentize
I’m just outside Burlington, VF, with the Immp.at the State Championship. Vermont is new getting into this competition, so they invite teams to get the required number of contestants to feed an official championship (30 teams I think). It was a bear of a ride here from Boston — sleet, freezing rain, high winds, jack knifed truck, car accidents and autos in ditches. But we made it and the Immp is
READY TO PROGRAM!
Immanentize
@satby: Stay strong! Sell soap!!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Exactly. It was never about balance budgets, smaller government, or standing up to the russians. It was always about white grievance.
SiubhanDuinne
@JGabriel: @Steve in the ATL:
Thoughts’n’prayers, dude.
Thoughts’n’prayers.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: To be fair, he has also advanced the tax cut and deregulation agenda.
mainmata
Trump also said that his 1st year as President accomplished more than any other President in US history. Much to FDR’s and many other President’s amazement, including his immediate predecessor. But Trump eschews facts and history as long as he can portray himself as the Sun King. Gagh!
satby
@Immanentize: thanks! Good luck to the Immp! And safe trip getting home.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: As a bigot that’s Trump’s biggest insight into the right wing American electorate. He went the full Wallace, and without anyone to split the racist vote with, he won.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
I hope Immp and his team do well! Look forward to a report later.
And be safe on the drive back. That weather sounds awful.
mainmata
@JGabriel: Nice. I’d never really thought about evil and vile being anagrams before.
SiubhanDuinne
@satby:
Have fun at the market. Opera for me today, but I still have a few hours before I need to get moving.
JGabriel
Damn. Never thought I’d know what it feels like to be Republican Senator.
OzarkHillbilly
@JGabriel: Heh.
Coffee at dawn ☕
Morning all.
That “lock her up” thing is exactly what happened to Yulia Tymoshenko when Manafort was in Ukraine. They really are misogynists.
NorthLeft12
@JGabriel:
Not to worry, us Canadians have coverage for that. I’m sure Mr. Dale would be fine with just your thoughts and prayers.
pablo
Trump is like a huge puss filled boil on Dr. Pimple Popper. Ugly to look at, but you can’t wait till it erupts and makes a huge mess!
K488
@SiubhanDuinne: Us too; what are you seeing?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Immanentize: Consider staying overnight if the driving looks that bad when it’s time to go home. Good luck to Immp.
father pusbucket
I thought for a moment you were talking about Sam Wang.
Starfish
This whole thread about what someone saw at CPAC was crazy especially the safe spaces coloring book.
rm
I don’t know if it’s been noted here, but CPAC is in the same conference venue as NADE, the Nat. Assoc. of Developmental Educators, i.e. a bunch of college and community college teachers. Not the kind who get paid well to do research, the much more numerous kind who get paid peanuts to help marginal students make it in college.
So, I’m hearing from colleagues about the “Kim Jon Un-iversity” panel and other anti-education craziness, which goes on a few doors down from a bunch of earnest do-gooders from public institutions of higher learning (sorry, that should be “government schools for indoctrination into communist atheism”).
Matt
“Trump picks judges he can relate to”
Funny, since any candidate who doesn’t tell Orange Julius to get bent has already demonstrated they utterly lack the ethics that we should expect from the bench. The day he’s out of office, every one of his nominees should be cleaning out their desks or getting an indictment.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@rm: Your colleagues have my deepest sympathies. They deserve far better than sharing a venue with people who would happily burn down their life’s works and dance around the flames.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@Zinsky:
As am I.
Shit, I remember when Trump was the butt of a lot of Bloom County strips.
The gold plated “Trump Dump” cat outhouse springs to mind.
rm
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Comrade, those people can’t dance.
But yeah, I’m awfully glad I didn’t go. Apparently there is some kind of wall separating the two groups so they don’t encounter each other in the halls.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Go Little Imma???
Tokyokie
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): I first heard of Trump from reading Spy magazine during the ’80s and wondering who this asshole the magazine kept ridiculing was.
SiubhanDuinne
@K488:
La Bohème — Met Live in HD.
prostratedragon
@pablo: Oddly enough, I’ve been thinking of him as Blister President lately. Blister for short.
Matt McIrvin
@gene108: International tourism to the US is already down, and it’s hurting the industry. I’ve seen people arguing over whether Trump really has anything to do with that, but the general hostility to foreigners can’t be helping.
Aleta
““we would have had health-care, too.” It would be so easy to patch together a campaign ad of sound bites ….
gene108
@Matt McIrvin:
It is definitely Trump. There is no other reason between 2017 and 2016 that would cause the change.
John Fremont
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Like Nixon going to China
mainmata
@Coffee at dawn ☕: Yes, this is why this utter nonsense about Dana Loesch or other radical (or even moderate) Republican woman being a viable GOP candidate for President is ludicrous. This is a party that has become a pack of rabid misogynist rats that could not ever countenance a female C-in-C in their demented heads.
Mnemosyne
That’s not self-deprecation. He’s still complimenting himself. It’s an indication that it stings him when people mock his bald spot, so he’s fishing for compliments and reassurance from his audience.
As Kay always says, it’s gross.
mainmata
@Matt McIrvin: Lots of Europeans who used to come here regularly are worried about their safety in what they see as Trump-aroused, red state vacation venues, mainly FL but probably also GA and SC, not sure. But this reporting was apparently based on surveys and anecdotal interviews. Let’s just say that Trump’s xenophobia and general hate-spewing is turning off some foreign tourists.
fuckwit
@Mnemosyne: narcissism