Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

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

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Let me file that under fuck it.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

In my day, never was longer.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Another Bad Day for the RNC Convention Planners

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Another Bad Day for the RNC Convention Planners

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I get the feeling Annie Karni is enjoying herself writing up the epic of the RNC Flying Dutchman Flaming Dumpster rather more than her NYTimes masters would appreciate, if only they understood her:

When Republicans read the platform their party is using for the 2020 campaign, they may be surprised to see that it is full of condemnations of the sitting president.

“The survival of the internet as we know it is at risk,” the platform reads. “Its gravest peril originates in the White House, the current occupant of which has launched a campaign, both at home and internationally, to subjugate it to agents of government.”

The warning about speech online is one of more than three dozen unflattering references to either the “current president,” “current chief executive,” “current administration,” people “currently in control” of policy, or the “current occupant” of the White House that appear in the Republican platform. Adopted at the party’s 2016 convention, it has been carried over through 2024 after the executive committee of the Republican National Committee on Wednesday chose not to adopt a new platform for 2020…

Before the convention was overhauled, Trump campaign officials, along with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, had been looking at a menu of options for a new party platform, including a slimmed down, one-page rewrite as well as a reworking of the 66-page document the party passed in 2016.

When Axios first reported on efforts to rewrite the party platform that involved Mr. Kushner, grass-roots activists were livid, and some of those discussed organizing an effort to resist what they viewed as his changes — even though the options had been drafted primarily by the campaign, a person familiar with the process said.

The decision to simply let the current platform stay in effect, rather than try to pass any new platform, was ultimately driven by logistics, officials said. Republican officials decided it did not make sense to ask about 5,000 delegates and alternates to pay to fly to Charlotte, N.C., when the speeches and most of the action of the convention, including the hallmark speeches by the president and the vice president, would be happening in another city altogether…

Now, the party is stuck with a platform with positions that already seemed outdated to a large segment of its members four years ago. Meanwhile, Republican officials have discussed with the White House the possibility of putting out Mr. Trump’s vision for America and the platform he would have pushed for if the committee had been able to meet, and blaming Governor Cooper for making it impossible to do so.

Campaign operatives, for their part, defended the old document. “President Trump won in 2016 with this platform and he’ll win again in 2020 with this platform,” said Justin Clark, senior counsel to the campaign…

Except, of course, Trump lost the popular vote in 2016, and right now his 2020 opponent looks to garner more electoral college support as well as a greater-than-3,000,000 vote margin. Repubs in disarray!

My only question: Does the Biden campaign advertising team have to claim the resulting clips as an in-kind donation for finance reporting purposes?

Former political operative Ed Kilgore, at NYMag:

… Republicans debating platform planks cannot be allowed to distract attention from POTUS’s moment of glory, particularly since its actual platform is basically Ecce homo! (Behold the man! as the Gospel of John describes Pontius Pilate’s Latin introduction of Christ to the Jerusalem multitudes). Who needs policy statements that might handcuff the Very Stable Genius as he plots his erratic course across the landscape of American public life? In a very real sense Trump is the platform…

As someone involved in the drafting of past party platforms on occasion, I can testify that it’s not that hard to update the previous model to accommodate changing circumstances or at least get rid of embarrassing language. It says something about the current value of ideas in the GOP that they are going to get far less attention from Republicans this year than the size and shape of the balloons that will drop on Trump’s adoring fans when he finishes his acceptance speech.

Reader Interactions

69Comments

  2. 2.

    mrmoshpotato

    My only question: Does the Biden campaign advertising team have to claim the resulting clips as an in-kind donation for tax purposes?

    Hahaha

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    Campaign operatives, for their part, defended the old document. “President Trump won in 2016 with this platform and he’ll win again in 2020 with this platform,” said Justin Clark, senior counsel to the campaign…

    Trump’s base don’t care about policy or principles. They just want Trump to promise  to hurt the people they hate.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    Eh. It’s not like anyone really reads those things anyway. There’s a far greater scope for amusement in generally watching the RNC try to plan in two months an event that usually takes the better part of two years to prep for. There’s going to be at least one and probably several, highly visible logistic fuck-up from the rush. Balloons dropping in the middle of Trump’s speech or no water for all of the overheated attendees in an arena with overloaded air conditioning, little things like that.

  6. 6.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Meanwhile, Republican officials have discussed with the White House the possibility of putting out Mr. Trump’s vision for America and the platform he would have pushed for if the committee had been able to meet, and blaming Governor Cooper for making it impossible to do so.

    Yes, let’s blame the Demonrat governor for a second wave of a pandemic that Trump mishandled and continues to mishandle

    The warning about speech online is one of more than three dozen unflattering references to either the “current president,” “current chief executive,” “current administration,” people “currently in control” of policy, or the “current occupant” of the White House that appear in the Republican platform.

    I do wonder why the RNC didn’t use Obama’s actual name. Perhaps it’s being “professional” but it comes across more as minimizing Obama by not referring to him by name

  11. 11.

    Cckids

    Christ, these people are so. damn. lazy. They all went through school copying off others.

  12. 12.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @dmsilev:

    Governors in Blue states should enforce a mandatory quarantine on anyone returning from the Plague Arena.

    Absolutely

  13. 13.

    CaseyL

    Is this shitfest going to be televised?

    At last year’s convention, they had T* emerge from dry ice clouds onto a stage lit like America’s Got Talent.  The whole thing was a madhouse version of a variety show.

    What wonders of staging await us this year?

    T* re-enacting Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra entering Rome?  Riding in topless on a horse, a la Putin? (Won’t that be a sight for the ages!)

    Will the networks send correspondents to do color commentary?

  14. 14.

    feebog

    The convention itself is going to be like a game of Russian Roulette.  Only with a bunch of sweaty bald men and a virus.

  15. 15.

    lumpkin

    Meanwhile, Republican officials have discussed with the White House the possibility of putting out Mr. Trump’s vision for America and the platform he would have pushed for if the committee had been able to meet, and blaming Governor Cooper for making it impossible to do so.

    So one governor, by requiring face masks can stop the president of the United States and the entire republican party dead in their tracks.

    They don’t see how pathetic this is.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    Here’s an amusing story. In computer programming and some other fields, the term master/slave has been historically fairly commonly used, typically to describe a situation where a thing of some sort tells another thing what to do or how to behave. Anyway, the authors of one particular software package decided that ‘slave’ was both a poor description of what their code did and was just generally a nasty term all things considered, so decided to change it.

    Whiners started to whine

  17. 17.

    Heywood J.

    At last year’s convention, they had T* emerge from dry ice clouds onto a stage lit like America’s Got Talent.

    That wasn’t dry ice. He was just letting off some steam from that second bucket of KFC.

  18. 18.

    Yutsano

    All they had to do was update the platform and get him to sign it. They couldn’t do that one simple thing. I’m just amazed at how lazy this is. No it’s not laziness. It’s outright incompetence. They. Had. One. Job.

  19. 19.

    lumpkin

    @dmsilev:

    Governors in Blue states should enforce a mandatory quarantine on anyone returning from the Plague Arena.

    And what about the protesters? At this point engaging in an argument over whose side is spreading the disease more is a pointless proposition.

  20. 20.

    Chetan Murthy

    @CaseyL:

    Will the networks send correspondents to do color commentary?

    Don’t envy those correspondents, feh.  Wonder how they’re gonna protect themselves?  Maybe only send people who show high antibody titer ?  But even that …. no guarantee.  What a shitshow.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    Trump is not a strategic thinker who looks beyond winning the moment, beyond always being the big man. The party platform is just details he and his base won’t read or care about. So why the hell not recycle the 2016 platform?

  22. 22.

    West of the Rockies

    Speaking of schadenfreude, anyone notice that Sean Hannity has been kinda quiet lately?  I’ve not seen his name headlined at Mediaite for days.

    He’s being divorced.  That is a miserable experience, one I am pleased he is going through.  Perhaps he will learn a little humility, gain perspective and compassion…

    Nah, who am I kidding?  He will come out ever more hateful.  And so I hope he is embarrassed, angry, scared, and feeling like he’s been kicked in his wee little winky.

  23. 23.

    lumpkin

    @dmsilev:

    Yeah, that master/slave thing always bothered me but nobody I ever worked with seemed to see it in a broader context. Still, I think even though this is entirely innocent as far as I know, I think it still has some tiny effect on the culture and I’m glad there’s an effort to get rid of this and I’m not surprised that some people are whining about it.

  24. 24.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lumpkin:

    And what about the protesters? At this point engaging in an argument over whose side is spreading the disease more is a pointless proposition. 

    Let COVID-19 do the protesting for them.

  28. 28.

    Martin

    Putin must be pissed his delegates won’t get any say on the platform like they had in 2016.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    @lumpkin: 
    It’s actually been quite a few years since I’ve seen that terminology. These days primary/secondary is the standard phrasing, at least in the areas I work.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    Guess repeating it here won’t hurt. (Via WaPo.)

    Under the current schedule, Trump would accept his nomination on Aug. 27. In Jacksonville, that is the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday, when a mob of 200 white people chased peaceful civil rights protesters with ax handles and baseball bats. Events to commemorate that anniversary are already planned in a park not far from where Trump would accept the nomination. Source

  34. 34.

    sfinny

    @lumpkin:

    An insurance company I worked for had a program in the late 90’s that promoted their best producers as “masters” .  I was invited to give a talk at a week long event that brought admin people to the home office for a week of training courses, etc.   I made so many edits to my talk to avoid saying “master”.  No one else seemed to see the problem.

  36. 36.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    It should be held in Erie, PA because anything involving Stephen Miller is going to be erie ; )

  42. 42.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    there’s also a Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. In the middle of the state.

    ….Why? That’s like having “woods” in the name of place in the middle of a barren desert

  45. 45.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @James E Powell:

    I traveled through there last year on vacation to Philadelphia and later Atlantic City. I did a double take when I first saw that name on a highway sign

  47. 47.

    JoyceH

    @sfinny: “An insurance company I worked for had a program in the late 90’s that promoted their best producers as “masters” . I was invited to give a talk at a week long event that brought admin people to the home office for a week of training courses, etc. I made so many edits to my talk to avoid saying “master”. No one else seemed to see the problem.”

    Were ANY of its ‘best producers’ female? If there were, were the females called masters, or mistresses?

  50. 50.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    Sounds like an interesting show! I’ll have to check that out on Prime. I used to love watching Modern Marvels, Wild West Tech, and Mythbusters, so that seems right up my alley

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    If you should run across it, World’s Toughest Fixes had its share of interesting and informative episodes (as well as some clunkers). Neither on Netflix nor free on Prime at this time, it seems.

    Plus the host bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Venture from The Venture Brothers.

  55. 55.

    joel hanes

    @lumpkin:

    what about the protesters?

    Not saying that you don’t have a point, but

    1.  mostly masked.   Trumpies won’t be.

    2.  mostly outdoors.   Trumpies won’t be.

  56. 56.

    Alien Radio

    A female Martial arts master is a Master not a mistress, There is such a thing as a female Old Master, because they have mastered their respective arts. It’s a different Meaning of the word master than Master/Slave

  57. 57.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    Just wait. Someone will bring back that proclamation from 2012 that Michelle Bachman was trying to get the candidates to sign about how slavery was better than Obama because slave masters cared more about keeping families together. The timing couldn’t be better. //

  58. 58.

    Ken

    the speeches and most of the action of the convention, including the hallmark speeches by the president and the vice president, would be happening in another city…

    … to be named later.  Maybe even before the convention.

  59. 59.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lumpkin: What about the protesters? At this point, it seems pretty clear that having an outdoor protest (whether it’s their side or ours) is not a huge deal compared to “opening up the economy”, giving the impression that it’s all over and encouraging people to cram into offices and restaurants unmasked.

  63. 63.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @feebog: In AUGUST in Florida, been there done that, Hell NO.

    Can I hope for an A/C outage at the convention center!! oh please, oh please.  I mean north Florida’s weather, in August especially is a thunderstorm promptly at 3 every afternoon.

  68. 68.

    Just Chuck

    @dmsilev: The master/slave terminology had been going away a long time.  We’re talking 1990’s when companies started changing it to things like primary/secondary.  OpenZFS using “dependents” is goofy, but like the article says, more descriptive.

    And yes, the computing field is full of immature over-privileged white male fuckwits.  I suggest anyone who uses the term “SJW” in the comments (didn’t read them, don’t care to) be instantly banned from the repo. 

  69. 69.

    Just Chuck

    Why not hold the convention outdoors in a large open area?  When night falls, they can all light their tiki torches and march in fun formations, sing anthems, and praise their leader.

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