Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Republicans in disarray!

He really is that stupid.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Let me file that under fuck it.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

No Justins, No Peace

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Point & Mock Open Thread: RNC Convention of the Damned

Point & Mock Open Thread: RNC Convention of the Damned

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Actually, per the Washington Post, it sounds to me like the RNC may have made a mistake by assuming Trump’s words were a command, and not just a negotiating tactic…. or the Oval Office Squatter’s habitual whining. “Trump said ‘we can’t do social distancing’ at convention as he made personal appeal to North Carolina governor”:

… In a Friday phone call, Trump told the Democratic governor he would accept his party’s nomination in an arena filled with cheering supporters, coronavirus pandemic or not.

He pulled from his own history, citing the June 2015 event at which he announced his candidacy for president after gliding into the lobby of Trump Tower in New York.

“Since the day I came down the escalator, I’ve never had an empty seat and I find the biggest stadiums,” he told Cooper on Friday, according to two people familiar with the call who requested anonymity to share its contents. “I don’t want to be sitting in a place that’s 50 percent empty,” Trump said.

Trump’s obsession with crowd size and the spectacle he insisted should greet his renomination came on a day during which extraordinary pressure was building on other fronts, as protesters against police violence began to mass near the White House and in cities and towns across America.

Trump, in the roughly 15-minute conversation, casually dismissed any health concerns that might arise from squeezing thousands of supporters — wearing masks only if they choose to — inside an arena to hear his acceptance speech. The full details of the call have not previously been reported. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The president’s call to Cooper — who unsuccessfully pleaded, by praising Trump, that the president abide by restrictions set by health officials — came on the same day Trump called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, to see whether he might host the convention on Trump’s terms…

The fallout has sent RNC officials shuttling around the country to consider other options. Possible replacements include Jacksonville and Orlando in Florida, Nashville, New Orleans and even Las Vegas, the only other city that submitted a formal bid to host the convention back in 2018. Also in play are Phoenix, the site of a major anti-Trump rally in 2017, and Dallas, according to a Republican operative…

Only two cities offered real bids to host the Republican convention in 2018, with Las Vegas proposing a plan that lacked backing from city leaders or tourism officials. Charlotte only went forward with the convention after a contentious city council meeting that had over 100 people debating whether the city should host such an event…

Of course, once Preznit Bully Baby ‘got what he demanded’ from the RNC, he started upping the ante. MOAR CROWDS! BIGLY ARENA! By this time next month, he’ll be demanding a full parade down into the chosen venue for ‘the biggest MAGA rally ever’… like, a real parade, with GOP elephants! And clowns! (Well, no problem finding GOP clowns.)

Ed Kilgore, at NyMag:

… It seemed in public that the back-and-forth between Trump and Cooper was moving along predictably toward a compromise, but apparently the president demanded an unconditional commitment to a full convention venue with no social distancing or masks, and no responsible governor was going to go along with that 12 weeks out.

Or maybe one will. NBC News reports:

Two days after President Donald Trump said he was seeking another state to host the Republican National Convention in August, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is raising his hand.

DeSantis, a Republican, was asked in a Fox News interview Thursday why he thinks Florida can hold the convention and whether he would allow a full stadium of people, as Trump has been calling for.

… Similar vague but positive mumbling has been emanating from Republican governors’ offices in Georgia, Texas, and Tennessee (where the RNC is already conducting a site visit). There’s also talk of splitting up the convention (perhaps a sneaky way of making it “virtual”) by holding some low-profile business sessions in Charlotte to satisfy RNC contracts with the city and then staging the only event Trump really cares about elsewhere: a presidential acceptance speech in front of a full-arena, no-mask, hootin’ and hollerin’ MAGA assemblage of many thousands.

What’s unclear at this point is whether Trump is indeed determined to have an old-school experience even if it threatens to devolve into a coronavirus super-spreader event, or simply wants to be able to call the shots without any resistance from a “Democrat governor” like Cooper…

Maybe not Texas:

Although Dallas is on the Republican Party’s short list as it scrambles for a new convention site, Mayor Eric Johnson made clear Friday that he has serious qualms because of the COVID-19 risks.

Nor has the city heard from the GOP, let alone sought to lure an event that entails packing an arena with 19,000 cheering party activists — despite a claim from the party’s national chair that site scouts are focusing on cities offering to step in on short notice.

“I am completely indifferent to the politics involved of any organization that we’re talking about, but I am very much not interested in accelerating the spread of this disease in our community,” Johnson said during a taping of Sunday’s Lone Star Politics, a partnership of KXAS-TV (NBC5) and The Dallas Morning News.

Dallas is one of a half-dozen cities the Republican National Committee is eyeing as it scrambles to replace Charlotte for the four-day event set to begin Aug. 24. The others, according to several party officials, are Orlando and Jacksonville, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; Phoenix; and New Orleans. Las Vegas also seems to be in the mix…

“A large gathering during a public health pandemic is not what our community needs right now,” said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Dallas Democrat and nurse whose congressional district includes the American Airlines Center — the venue at the heart of the 2016 bid — and the city-run convention center next to City Hall, where President Ronald Reagan was nominated for a second term in 1984.

In April, the Center for Public Integrity issued a report tallying $1.82 million that the Trump campaign still owes to 14 cities for security at campaign events, including $569,000 in unpaid bills from a February 2019 rally in El Paso.

“I do not want to see our city be among those not reimbursed in a timely and thorough manner,” the congresswoman said…

National political conventions have a reputation second only to the Olympics for promising glory and delivering nothing but huge bills, local turmoil, and enduring embarrassment to host cities. And of course Trump was a well-known deadbeat long before he got into politics, so good luck finding a venue that isn’t desperate or dishonest, Repub loyalists!

Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Aleta

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) announced Friday they will introduce a bill that would hold law enforcement officers criminally liable for not providing medical care to people in their custody.
    The two Massachusetts lawmakers will bring forth the Andrew Kearse Accountability for Denial of Medical Care Act, named after Andrew Kearse. Kearse, a 36-year-old black man, died of a heart attack in the back of a police cruiser in 2017 after begging the officers for help. The officers did not face charges in relation to his death.
    “Andrew Kearse died begging for help and the police officer who looked the other way got off scot-free. Our bill will make sure that officers who fail to obtain potentially life-saving care for people in their custody are held accountable,” said Warren. “This legislation is just one step – I will keep working with my colleagues for a complete overhaul of our policing and justice systems.”
    “Andrew Kearse should be alive. To be denied medical care while in police custody is cruel and inhumane,” added Pressley. “Far too many Black Americans have died in police custody. As the COVID 19 pandemic ravages our communities, including those behind the wall, we must codify in law that officers should be held criminally liable for denying medical care to people in custody.”

  2. 2.

    MattF

    If DeSantis offers an arena event with a release of green balloons at the climax, it’s a done deal.

  3. 3.

    Another Scott

    Dunno if it’s mentioned in the links above, but here is a story that the contract with NC means that at least part of the GOP convention must be held there.  So whatever new state venue would only be for the other part of the proceedings.

    In a statement shortly after the president’s Tuesday night tweets, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Charlotte would continue to host the “official business of the convention.”

    That could include everything from meetings of the platform and rules committees to the actual roll-call nominations of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

    Trump’s acceptance speech would come elsewhere. It would be the first time a party convention has been held in two cities since 1860, when Democrats met first in Charleston and then, after a dispute over their slavery plank, in Baltimore.

    At least part of the convention business would be held in Charlotte to abide by the city’s contract with the GOP’s Committee on Arrangements, party officials told the New York Times. There is no concrete definition of what constitutes a convention in the contract.

    Yeah, states are going to be beating down the door to hold this half-a plaguefest.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  4. 4.

    Wag

    A hope that Trump gets his wish.  A GOP focused super spreader event would help depress GOP turnout.

  5. 5.

    patrick II

    I’m thinking Minneapolis.  You know the police crowd control alone will get great ratings.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    It will be interesting to see which Republicans suddenly realize they have to wash their hair that night. I give it a 50/50 chance the germophobe demands the arena be packed, then chickens out and only shows up virtually on the jumbotron screen.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    “BROKERED (RNC) CONVENTION!!!”

    ”REPUBLICANS IN DISARRAY!!”

    I love it SO much ❤️?

  10. 10.

    Jay C

    As much fun as it watching the Republicans scramble around to try find a venue for their Masque Of The Red Death convention, has anyone heard what the Democrats are planning to do?

    It seems like the late-August dates in Milwaukee are still – technically – “on”, but I haven’t seen any news from the DNC for a while.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    I’m sure Carnival or similar would give them a decent discount to charter a ship or two.

  12. 12.

    Cameron

    I hope Governor Pinhead keeps this freak show away from Florida or, if he feels he absolutely has to host it, far away from Manatee County.  I have enough goddam problems in my life.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    @Jay C: They’ve been talking for a while about a range of options, including scaled-down in-person, all-virtual, and so forth. I haven’t heard that any decisions have been made.

  14. 14.

    Citizen_X

    @Another Scott:

    It would be the first time a party convention has been held in two cities since 1860, when Democrats met first in Charleston and then, after a dispute over their slavery plank, in Baltimore.

    Hey, and that turned out OK, right? Ignoring that little civil war thing, that is.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    and no responsible governor was going to go along with that 12 weeks out.

    Or maybe one will. NBC News reports:

    Two days after President Donald Trump said he was seeking another state to host the Republican National Convention in August, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is raising his hand.

    Does not compute.

  18. 18.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev:

    They’ve been talking for a while about a range of options, including scaled-down in-person, all-virtual, and so forth. I haven’t heard that any decisions have been made. 

    Dump screaming his fascist, orange face out into the silence.

  23. 23.

    JaneE

    If cities ran like businesses, they would require payment in full up front for any group that had a history of leaving unpaid bills.  At the very least they would need to see some real guarantee that the bills would be paid.  I would recommend demanding to see the “paid in full” stamp on the outstanding bills they have left around the country before even considering letting them put on any activity at all in a city.  Deadbeat Republicans should have to pay their bills like everyone else, no matter what Trump thinks.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    @Barbara: Maybe as a hearty “thank you Mr. President sir” after the massive, well-organized,  non-partisan, and corruption-free Federal relief effort following Cristobal’s landfall?

  25. 25.

    The Moar You Know

    What’s unclear at this point is whether Trump is indeed determined to have an old-school experience even if it threatens to devolve into a coronavirus super-spreader event

    Fucking media.  There was nothing unclear about what he is demanding at all.

  27. 27.

    SFAW

    @Aleta:

    I’m sure you know that Senator Snek Warren is just trying to pretend that she’s a progressive. Or should I bro-splain it to you?

  28. 28.

    Sloane Ranger

    Don’t know if it’s been posted previously but CNN is saying that the good job numbers released a few days ago were due to a “misclassification” and the numbers of unemployed are about 5 million more than reported.

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    What are Trump’s options, if he can’t find a city to host the kind of convention he wants?

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    I’m not seeing the problem here. Give Trump what he wants. Pack them all in. His supporters believe that the virus is fake news. Or that the infection will burn out in the summer. No problem.

    Pack them all in. Hand out packets of malaria pills and bottles of disinfectant with a little syringe. Trump and this bunch of dopes deserve each other.

  33. 33.

    Jinchi

    Only two cities offered real bids to host the Republican convention in 2018, with Las Vegas proposing a plan that lacked backing from city leaders or tourism officials.

    How does a city propose a plan without backing from it’s own leaders?

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    To help these stalwarts along, I think there should be a series of op-eds talking about Darwinian natural selection, and how the RNC and delegates should either “show that it’s wrong” (from a RWMF) or “don’t tempt fate!” (from a libtard snowflake). The Cleek-ian response to either/both of those should provide interesting results.

  37. 37.

    Aleta

    OT
    At the Post, by Jenn O’Connor 

    What is toxic stress? It’s prolonged adversity and/or abuse — not having enough to eat or being exposed to violence. It’s the kind of stress that puts you on edge and keeps you there, day after day after day.
    [snip]

    Four or more ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) can result in chronic health conditions such as heart disease or diabetes. In the long term, living with ACEs or other negative factors, such as poverty, can literally change your brain chemistry.

    “Ms. Apple said that I have a traumatized brain,” my daughter, Cleo, said matter-of-factly after school one day. Her counselor had shown her a video and talked with her about why she reacts the way she does to certain triggers, such as someone blocking a door. Telling me this, Cleo sounded relieved, even empowered: It finally made sense to her.

    As a director at a nonprofit group for preventing child abuse, I’ve known about ACEs for a long time. But it wasn’t until I brought a 12-year-old foster child into my life that I fully understood their impact. What does it look like for a young person to live with several ACEs and no supports? As custodial guardian to my daughter, now 16, I can only speak from my own observations.

     

    It’s been four years now. We persevere. We’re in this together, and we are resilient. I’ve taken pains to build a fortress of protective factors around my girl. [snip] Some of us are born with built-in protective factors (a supportive family, enough money); others need to collect them (a family made up of friends, perhaps).

    For Cleo, protective factors include school supports — not just teachers and staff who are kind, but trauma-informed teachers and staff who understand how ACEs can be reflected in behavior.

    [snip]

    Her biggest protective factor? A dog who shows her unconditional love.

    There are so many young people like my daughter everywhere. National data shows that more than 20 percent of children up to age 17 have experienced two or more ACEs. I’ve given a lot of thought to the ways that we, as a society, could help to ease and hopefully heal trauma in children. Here are my ideas:

    First, we need to acknowledge that brain toxicity exists. [snip]  We need to educate ourselves about ACEs and look at all people through a trauma-informed lens.

    We need to admit that ACEs are not limited to low-income neighborhoods, and that the domestic violence and substance abuse that take place in higher income homes are just as toxic.   We need to stop asking “What’s wrong with you?” and ask, instead, “What happened to you?”

    Second, we need to stop treating children who’ve been affected by trauma as if their behavior doesn’t make sense.
    [snip]

    Finally, we must not see these children as damaged or doomed. They’re only lost causes if we make them so by giving up on them or telling them they’re worthless. Treating them as if their trauma is their fault, or as if their reactions make no sense, doesn’t help anyone.

    When I told (my daughter) that I was writing this piece, she said that she wanted adults to know this:  “Records only tell part of the story. Nobody takes into account what the kids are dealing with.You can’t treat kids with trauma like kids without trauma. You have to treat us differently — but don’t make us feel different. You can’t tell us how to feel, or drug us up with medication. You have to listen.”

    Cleo is remarkably resilient. How do I know this? Because she gets up every morning and tries again.

    [snip]

    Jenn O’Connor is director of policy and advocacy at Prevent Child Abuse NY and director of the NYS Home Visiting Coordination Initiative. This essay originally appeared on Pulse — Voices From the Heart of Medicine, which publishes personal accounts of healing.

  39. 39.

    Frankensteinbeck

    it sounds to me like the RNC may have made a mistake by assuming Trump’s words were a command, and not just a negotiating tactic

    They’re a tantrum.  Nothing else.  Trump has devolved too much cognitively and is way, way too miserable and stressed to negotiate.  He’s demanding he be given everything he wants.  It’s not rational or thought through.  And the people around him are scrambling to pacify the whiny ass titty baby before he ruins something else.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    And then they infect the rest of us.

    OK, so maybe there are a couple of kinks to work out. Sheesh. How about if they follow the “Carnival Cruise Lines 12-week vacation” plan?

  41. 41.

    Mike in NC

    Nuremburg is the obvious choice, if that nasty woman Merkel doesn’t try to take away Fat Bastard’s gold-plated pacifier. We’ve seen the remains, and it isn’t anywhere like in its ‘glory days’, but the GOP can dress it up with some bunting and balloons.

  43. 43.

    Calouste

    The RNC could make their search a lot more efficient if they just start looking for a large city with a Republican mayor in a state with a Republican governor. Because that is the combination they need to deny reality.

  44. 44.

    ThresherK

    @SFAW: Tangent on your idea:

    The GOP can hold their convention on a ship. Hire out one of those unused cruise ships and hold it in international waters. No governors or rules or CDC to tell them what to do. No nothing but their own self-preservation and communal cooperation to keep them safe.

    I’ve already named it the Garbage Barge to Nowhere II.

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Sloane Ranger:

    the numbers of unemployed are about 5 million more than reported.

    That makes Trump’s announcement even more phenomenally stupid.  Like COVID, the economy does not care what self-congratulating show you put on.  If we’re still in the 15% unemployment range – or worse – then Trump’s popularity will remain in the gutter.  Lie and say it’s 3%, the out of work people everywhere will still be royally pissed.

  47. 47.

    Jay C

    @Jinchi:

    How does a city propose a plan without backing from it’s own leaders?

    IOKIYAR? Most likely, the “proposal” was pitched by the NV state GOP apparatus to the RNC, and they only later found out that nobody else thought it was a good idea.

    Also, two years ago, no one thought there likely to be a pandemic….

  49. 49.

    Suzanne

    Go to Phoenix. LOL. They’re having a COVID outbreak and it’s hot as balls. And Jake Paul looted the fancy mall.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @ThresherK:   And they can insist on “America first!”  Demand only U.S. citizens staff those RNC Plague ships.  Why should those jobs go to Filipinos and Asians and other browns and whatevers??

    Insist on MAGA hat wearing citizens — volunteers, if you can persuade them.  It’s an honor.  The cruise of their lives.  Bedmaking and Buffet for Trump. (c)

    Carnival’s got just the ships for you fools.

  52. 52.

    Jinchi

    @Sloane Ranger: CNN is saying that the good job numbers released a few days ago were due to a “misclassification” and the numbers of unemployed are about 5 million more than reported.

    Strangely identical headlines on the news sites: Wonder if the story was pitched.

    (CNN)  May’s unemployment numbers were shocking. Here’s how everyone got it so wrong

    (FOX) May’s unemployment report was stunning — here’s what happened, and why economists got it wrong

    (Washington Post) Economists predicted 20 percent unemployment in May. How did they get it so wrong?

  53. 53.

    JMG

    Jacksonville, Fla. has a Republican Mayor as well as Gov. DeSantis. It also does not have anything close to the hotel space needed for a national convention. When it had the Super Bowl back in ’05, they brought cruise ships up the St. John’s River and used them as hotels. I’m sure the delegates won’t mind bunking on plague ships for a week.

  54. 54.

    The Moar You Know

    It won’t be Orlando.  Disney simply won’t allow 25,000+ Typhoid Marys to descend on their theme park after spending hours and days marinating in coronavirus.

    I find it fascinating that only one other city tried to put in an offer.  I guess Trump’s reputation as a no-pay deadbeat has finally gotten through some people’s heads, and is having some consequences.

  55. 55.

    Jinchi

    @Jay C: Also, two years ago, no one thought there likely to be a pandemic….

    That’s why this is so stupid. No one wanted to host this thing before the plague. Who will want it now?

  57. 57.

    mad citizen

    @Citizen_X: Had to go back and reread the story excerpt–Democrats, as you point out.  I started reading the Team of Rivals book once and it begins with the 1860 Republican convention, which was held in Chicago May 16 – 18.  Lincoln was a longshot, if I recall correctly.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @The Moar You Know:   Besides which:  is it Orlando that is going to host the upcoming NBA games?  Vaguely think a friend said they’d be hosted at a Disney property; 22 teams made the cut and they will not be traveling all over the country.  And not playing before fans.

  59. 59.

    Geoduck

    Re: Las Vegas. Evidently the mayor, who has very little actual power, is a major-league doofus. Wouldn’t be surprising if she pitched the idea without getting anybody else on board first.

  62. 62.

    Captain C

    @Cameron: Roughly the odds of me signing with Liverpool and leading them to a Treble next year as I turn 50. Or me signing with the Mets and leading them to a World Series title.

  63. 63.

    Aleta

    @Another Scott:

    GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Charlotte would continue to host the “official business of the convention.” … At least part of the convention business would be held in Charlotte to abide by the city’s contract with the GOP’s Committee on Arrangements, party officials told the New York Times.

    So T announces the deal is off but  GOP “party officials” won’t let the city out of “at least part of” the contract?  (Or is the city requiring the committee to pay the expense of the GOP’s prearrangements.)

    Dealing with the GOP’s Committee on Arrangements and the convention committee (grifters to the max, ‘some say’) sounds like a total nightmare.  Unrealistic of me, but I wish the city would put any forced meetings entirely on zoom-like distancing, and bill the GOP like there’s no tomorrow.

    Otherwise the jerking around will continue.

  65. 65.

    Kent

    @Calouste:The RNC could make their search a lot more efficient if they just start looking for a large city with a Republican mayor in a state with a Republican governor. Because that is the combination they need to deny reality.

    They need more than that.  Vegas, for example, has a Republican mayor, but they will need to negotiate with the culinary and hospitality workers union if they want anyone to make their beds, clean their rooms, and operate the convention center.  And they are a very serious progressive union that very much looks out for the health of its members.

    I don’t know if there is any major city in the country that is so under universal GOP control that they won’t have to negotiate with any Dem constituency to hold a convention.

  66. 66.

    Jay C

    @mad citizen:

    Yes: Lincoln wasn’t the favorite going into the Convention, but the guys who were seem to have  each pissed off one Republican faction or another, so they went with Old Abe as a compromise. And because he was good at speechifying.

    Also, in 1860, the Democrats actually held three nominating Conventions: the first one (in Charleston) didn’t get anywhere, so they adjourned to Baltimore, where the anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions each ended up holding their own meeting – and nominating two different tickets. The source, I guess, of the “Democrats in Disarray” meme…

  67. 67.

    Aleta

    @JMG: Great idea.  The cruise co.s say they’ll start up again in August.  (Despite all the ports that say no.)  Let them take the whole convention out to sea in a flotilla.  Hurricane season may start early.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Frankensteinbeck: OTOH..

    I'm logging off for the weekend, BLS isn't cooking the books, the misclassification issue has been there for months, unemployment fell no matter how you cut it, but double digit unemployment is unacceptable and should not be our standard for victory

    — Martha Gimbel (@marthagimbel) June 6, 2020

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Michael Cain

    @Calouste: 

    …start looking for a large city with a Republican mayor in a state with a Republican governor. Because that is the combination they need to deny reality.

    Come now. The Republicans would adore the optics of holding the convention in a city with a Democratic mayor occupied by the National Guard under command of a Republican governor :^)

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Another Scott:

    I didn’t keep a link, but when I first saw this mentioned, it was because there was a note from that office saying that this miscalculation has been there, except it was much, much bigger in the last month than usual.  They said they needed to track down why and what the actual figures were.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @ThresherK:

    The GOP can hold their convention on a ship. Hire out one of those unused cruise ships and hold it in international waters. No governors or rules or CDC to tell them what to do. No nothing but their own self-preservation and communal cooperation to keep them safe.

    Also: make sure each person has at least one AR-15, and as many clips magazines as they need.

  73. 73.

    Kent

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    @Another Scott:

    I didn’t keep a link, but when I first saw this mentioned, it was because there was a note from that office saying that this miscalculation has been there, except it was much, much bigger in the last month than usual.  They said they needed to track down why and what the actual figures were.

    Washington Post has a detailed explanation today

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/05/may-2020-jobs-report-misclassification-error/

  74. 74.

    Kent

    @Michael Cain:Come now. The Republicans would adore the optics of holding the convention in a city with a Democratic mayor occupied by the National Guard under command of a Republican governor :^)

    Is the National Guard going to run a municipal owned convention center under occupation?  Are they going to clean the hotel rooms and make the beds and serve the food for convention attendees?

  75. 75.

    RepubAnon

    @Jinchi: Remember this fun statement from the mayor of Las Vegas back in April?

    Carolyn Goodman, the independent mayor of Las Vegas, has said she wants the city’s casinos, hotels and stadiums to quickly reopen in an interview that attracted widespread criticism.

    “I want our restaurants open. I want our small businesses open. I want people back in employment,” Goodman told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who was clearly flabbergasted, in an interview on Wednesday.

    ‘I’d love everything open’: Las Vegas mayor’s coronavirus interview sparks ire.

    I’m guessing Las Vegas is willing to gamble on this… and they could hold it at the Trump International Hotel, too!

  76. 76.

    Burnspbesq

    If I were a big-city mayor of a certain age, memories of Chicago 1968 might sort of temper my enthusiasm for hosting the Repubs this summer.

  77. 77.

    Burnspbesq

    @Aleta:

    There are plenty of legitimate con-law based reasons to feel queasy about Federalizing criminal law.

    There’s also one big fat practical reason: you really want to give BARR more prosecutorial discretion to exercise?

  78. 78.

    Kent

    @RepubAnon:I’m guessing Las Vegas is willing to gamble on this… and they could hold it at the Trump International Hotel, too!

    They would need the culinary and hospitality workers union to go along, which is one of the most organized and powerful unions in the country, representing primary people of color who care so deeply about their health that they actually run their own health clinics.

  79. 79.

    trollhattan

    @Jay C:

    The nominee attending the convention and delivering an acceptance speech is a 20th century development. Doubt there are any rules dictating the current model must be followed.

  80. 80.

    Yutsano

    @Suzanne: Did you see the video where his brother decided to get woke? For some reason I thought it was funny. You make a channel where you’re basically a professional asshole and now you want to be taken seriously? Get the fuck out.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Moar You Know: Disney World is planning a phased reopening in July, and there will be all sorts of onerous measures in place but I really wonder if they know what they’re doing. It’s not as if Florida’s infection rate has really gone down.

  82. 82.

    bcwbcw

    I want to point out that the Diamond Princess is available – lot’s of space – great buffets and they can take it outside the border and make their own social distancing rules without having to negotiate with any governors.

     

    -Not to mention the perfectly manly name for the ship.  And, they’ve already got a supply of body bags on hand from the last time.

     

    _ now I see others made the same suggestion. If the Princess isn’t macho enough they could rename it the Titanic to go with the massive something of the Trump campaign.

     

    MAGA!

  83. 83.

    Feathers

    @RepubAnon: The Strip and the Casinos are in the county, not the city, so she has control over shit. Apparently, also a real loon.

  84. 84.

    bcwbcw

    @RepubAnon:  Yeah but the Vega Strip where all the hotels and casino’s are is outside the city of Los Vegas proper. The mayor has no authority.

  85. 85.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Brachiator: 
    Get Rodney Howard Brown to be master of ceremonies. He can make it a religious sevice, so God will not let anyone get sick.
    He’s already part o T’s pastor cohort and has prayed over him.
    T’s personal minister Paula White shoulnwalk through the venue, praying over every step!

  87. 87.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Kent:

    Is that where the super reactionary Christianity Doug Wilson has his church and school. He’s written a book about how much better slavery was for blacks than anything that came after

    Of course his views women as 2nd class. Encouraged a naive young woman in his church to marry a pedophile—he was ‘redeemed’

  88. 88.

    Heywood J.

    If Dear Leader is so confident that the plague is over and his idiot fan club can now congregate jowl-to-jowl, what exactly is stopping him from holding a rally in a red state? It’s not like man-baby gubnor Tate (short for Potato) Reeves will say no. Wyoming, Idaho, Alabama, they’d all love for him to have a rally, right? Come on, do it. I’ll be there with the Magic Clorox Cure Shotz tent, a couple jugs of bleach and a bunch of Dixie cups, making money hand over fist from those disgusting rubes.

  89. 89.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Sloane Ranger: The only reasonable interpretation to these events is that George Floyd is actually deeply disappointed in Trump, rather than proud as Trump claimed.

  90. 90.

    Origuy

    The mayor of Las Vegas claims to be an independent, but talks like a Republican. However, she has little say on what goes on. The big casinos and hotels along the Strip are not in the city; they are in an unincorporated area called Paradise. The convention center is in Winchester, another unincorporated area. Both are governed by the Clark County Commission, which is made up of seven Democrats.

  91. 91.

    Anonymous At Work

    I’ve been saying this for a while now: Georgia, Texas and Florida don’t have convention centers.  Cities within the states do, and the cities are run by Democrats.  There isn’t enough time to reschedule and rebook if anyone resists or delays.

    Nashville, TN has a Democratic mayor too.

    Oh, and hotels and restaurants and bars would need to agree to operate at full capacity for unmasked guests, would be my guess as part of the deal.

    GOP Convention might end up being virtual for lack of a place to hold it.

  92. 92.

    Barry

    @bcwbcw: “Not to mention the perfectly manly name for the ship. And, they’ve already got a supply of body bags on hand from the last time.”

     

    A supply of cider blocks for any burials at sea.

  94. 94.

    Brendan in NC

    @Barbara: Tell them their MAGA gear can be their passport. Just don’t tell them that it doesn’t guarantee re-entry.

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @Anonymous At Work: GOP Convention might end up being virtual for lack of a place to hold it.

    I think you’re being optimistic. Trump’s gotten personally involved, so he’ll keep demanding more, sure that the other side will back down. When no one does, the RNC will have to scramble to put something together in the last week, and will be lucky if they manage a free Zoom account with a 40-minute limit.

    I suspect that’s why the RNC is saying that they’ll still have the business part of the convention in Charlotte.

  97. 97.

    SW

    There is a feed lot just outside of Lamar Colorado that I think would be perfect for the GOP convention. It has everything they need.

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