Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

We will not go back.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

So many bastards, so little time.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

White supremacy is terrorism.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

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

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

You are here: Home / Politics / GOP Death Cult / RNC Con After Dark: Riveting TV Drama

RNC Con After Dark: Riveting TV Drama

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(Needless to say, it does not.)

Should’ve gone with the original opener proposal…

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  1. 1.

    lumpkin

    Trump is really proud of the TV situation on AF1. He’s bragged before about how he got all the tv’s updated, like nobody had ever done before.

    HOW CAN ANYONE BE THIS FUCKING STUPID and be in charge of anything?

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    “Yes, sir, we’re already finalizing the campaign for the DVD sales. Gonna be boffo. Which offshore account does the sales income go to again?”

    //

  5. 5.

    Jess

    My big excitement for the night was finally catching a mouse that’s been eluding capture for weeks now. I had to give up on the humane live trap, and go with the Sudden Death trap. Chocolate as a bait turned out to be the key ingredient.

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    @lumpkin:

    HOW CAN ANYONE BE THIS FUCKING STUPID and be in charge of anything? 

    Eight years of Rethuglicans mainlining racism and idiocy, and 20+ years of Clinton ratfucking.

  7. 7.

    KithKanan

    Do you think Trump has a clue what modern in-flight entertainment is like? How many decades has it been since he last flew commercial?

  23. 23.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Jess: You could also try having a cat :-)  Sometimes I think the cat doesn’t even have to be a good mouser; the rodents just avoid the smell.

  24. 24.

    Jess

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I have a cat. She’s the one bringing in the damn mice. She’s trying to teach me to hunt. Sometimes I manage to catch them right away and take them outside, and she looks so proud of me. Other times I don’t succeed and they settle in for awhile and poop all over the place. Fucking cat–she’s lucky she’s so cute…

  25. 25.

    Calouste

    @HumboldtBlue: I can see Falwell park his car into a tree at 110mph before too long. He’s struggling with drugs, alcohol, and/or a bad combination of stress and depression. No one in their right mind in a position like his would post a photo on Instagram (or wherever it was) with their fly undone.

  26. 26.

    prostratedragon

    I guess Nikki Haley embodies the alphabet that some Indian friends of mine used to recite: American-Born, Confused, Delusional, Ennervated, …

  27. 27.

    Repatriated

    Guilfoyle just got Dean Screamed.

    The yelling and overly-dramatic gestures would have worked if she had a live audience. If the sound levels were balanced appropriately and it was clear she was addressing a crowd instead of a set of cameras, the context would have saved it.

     

    This is a production failure, solely due to lack of prep time and production competence. Somebody should have stepped in and pointed out that what works for motivating a crowd does not necessarily play well on video.

     

    That didn’t happen.  Oops.

  28. 28.

    RaflW

    So, I bailed out at about 8:30 central time, went for a swim and then did a bunch of baking.

    By the time I returned to the computer, it was all over, especially the shouting. Has anyone in the WH said (officially, or better yet, off the record) why Trump didn’t speak in prime time?

    I was promised that he’s speak each of the four nights! (The man can’t promise for shjt, but anyway).

  31. 31.

    RaflW

    Is Trump’s TV obsession a sort of object permanence deficit? Nothing exists until it is broadcast?

  32. 32.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Calouste:

    There was a related thread in which former addicts/users called out every tic, hand movement facial expression and general demeanor and every single one came with a qualifier of how hard it was to watch.

    There’s a reason I don’t do coke and I learned that lesson in 1986. Freebasing was among the best highs I ever had if not number one (followed by shrooms, had a helluva great night in ’85)

  41. 41.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Repatriated: I didn’t know much about her, other than she was married to Gov. Gav., but she’s worked in TV for quite a while.  She should know how to work without a crowd.  I saw a clip HorseWhisperer had on Twitter, OMG.

  44. 44.

    sanjeevs

    Jerry Falwell has been talking to the WSJ

    “The board put me on leave, took away my duties as prez, and that’s not permitted by my contract,” Mr. Falwell said Monday night. “And they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.”

    He said he was still due his full compensation.

  46. 46.

    CatFacts

    Speaking of disasters, if any of you juicers have friends/family in the Galveston/Port Arthur TX area, they probably need to evacuate now if they haven’t. According to the latest models, soon-to-be-Hurricane Laura looks like she means business in that area.

  47. 47.

    Repatriated

    @NotMax

    For all we know that was her mellow mode.

    LOL

    (and also)@?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Some of this is on her, of course (it’s not like she’s a TV noob). But the underlying problem is a Public Speaking 101 fail: They didn’t know their audience. In a normal convention situation, the audience for the speech is the delegates, and media covers it as a speech in front of a crowd — switching from the cameras at the podium to crowd shots, and so on — and reports both the speaker and the audience reaction.

    With that context removed, the camera feeds from the podium look deranged. Ok, more deranged…

    And you may be right — this could be what they think is the normal way to persuade others one-on-one!

  48. 48.

    James E Powell

    Is anyone expecting Trump to get a bump from the RNC? The MSNBC reporter above appears to be hoping for one, but who doesn’t already have a fairly fixed opinion on Trump?

    Are these hateful speeches going to make anyone think he’s doing a good job with anything?

  51. 51.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Repatriated: I don’t know whether her portion was taped or live, but either way they knew ahead of time that there would not be an audience.  She’s been doing TV for what looks like nearly the last 20 years, she’s a professional, this should not have been a problem.

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    @James E Powell:

    Are these hateful speeches going to make anyone think he’s doing a good job with anything? 

    You just wait until Ghouliani loses his fucking mind again this year.

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @James E Powell:

    I haven’t seen but two minutes of this dog’s breakfast of a convention, but I’m pretty sure it’s like everything Trump says and does: red meat for a base that Trump doesn’t realise is shrinking.

  57. 57.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Falwell is going to try to brazen it out a la Trump and he just might get away with it—until the inevitable financial audit is completed, that is.

    Then he’ll meekly resign in lieu of going to the pokey (pun intended).

  58. 58.

    oclib

    @Repatriated:

    Public Speaking 101

    this reminded me of something I saw earlier today (yesterday to some) where students at Liberty were asked what were their favorite classes or something to that effect and the overwhelming response was…..pool maintenance 101…..

  61. 61.

    Repatriated

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Agreed. They should have known.

    Why didn’t they? Apparently nobody in the loop both had a clue and dared to speak up — or if they did, were promptly ignored in a fit of Dunning-Kruger.

  63. 63.

    Repatriated

    @mrmoshpotato:

    If you’re looking for an RNC not turned up to ‘Screaming Psycho’, I have some bad news for you.

    Which is sort of the point. Yeah, they should understand that there’s a difference between a talking-head type speech presentation and yelling at a crowd of fanatics…

    But they don’t, because for them there isn’t a difference.

    The people they’re trying to persuade already believe them, and just want validation. So they give it to them, good and hard. The ones that don’t already believe aren’t the audience, and don’t matter to them.

  67. 67.

    John Revolta

    Don Jr’s segment was also very strange. He seemed pretty high and his eyes looked awful. It’s almost like these were outtakes or rehearsals that they ended up having to use because-? And where was The Donald? Did they have to air a bunch of stuff at the last minute because he couldn’t appear?

  69. 69.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Repatriated: True, getting out the base and deplorables crawling out of the woodwork worked for them in 2016, but they’re the incumbent now and have a record to defend.  So fine they get their folk out to vote to prevent the Swamp Commie Joe Biden from getting into the White House.  The problem is they also have to rely on the opposition’s base to be somewhat unmotivated(or suppress their votes).  Watching the DNC last week, they did a pretty good job in motivating folk and making them aware of the suppression efforts they’d face.

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Also a good number of the speakers contradicted each other and sometimes themselves.  For example, Joe Biden is an awful person because he supported the 1994 Crime Bill(that the CBC supported) and put lots of Black Americans in the slammer.  But the same Joe Biden is aligned with the radical left and wants to defund the Police.

  75. 75.

    HumboldtBlue

    I’m pretty sure the coke-fueled rants were supposed to have been performed in front of a live audience and someone promised Trump they could CGI the crowd with Guilfolyle and Fredo with their recorded speeches.

  76. 76.

    Repatriated

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Worse, their Plan B (ditch Trump, work to maintain a firewall in the Senate) is a really narrow rhetorical path, which the impeachment and their subsequent support since has probably already closed off.

    The premature never-Trumpers already took that lane.

  78. 78.

    mrmoshpotato

    @HumboldtBlue: Haha – CGI crowd.  It would’ve been more laughable than the CGI crowd that was at baseball games for a bit.

    ETA – also canned crowds, haha.  I refer you back to 2020 baseball.

    ETA 2 – I mean canned crowd noise in my ETA.  Hilarious.  Cheering ghosts.

  79. 79.

    Repatriated

    @mrmoshpotato:
    Perhaps not literally, but careful camera-changes could make it look like they were speaking to the 300-odd assembled delegates. The audience reaction timing would be off because there’d be no feedback to the taped speakers as to which intended applause lines worked — and that was probably where the whole idea fell apart.

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @lumpkin:

    HOW CAN ANYONE BE THIS FUCKING STUPID and be in charge of anything?

    Someone has to be the kindergarten racism monitor. You know, to make sure there is some………  He’s the right development level, the right knowledge level, the right language level, the right food level, is about that skill level of applying makeup, he is on the low end of the maturity level and unlikely to improve, he is on the low end of the physical ability level, and his personality is underdeveloped – for kindergarten.

  82. 82.

    Repatriated

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Heck, they could have done it “live” remotely! Just set up a large projection screen and pipe in a video feed of the crowd so the speakers could get real-time audience feedback.

    But that raises awkward questions as to why they weren’t there in person, so… yeah.

  84. 84.

    Sloane Ranger

    @KithKanan: Bah, who wants to sit watching a screen about 9 inches big listening to dialogue through earphones? He’s upgraded to 60 inch screens in every room, including the bathroom, with full surround sound!

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    Out of curiosity, went to check a headline about the first night of the R’s 2016 convention. It was as remembered:

    “A Dystopian Night at the G.O.P. Convention”

    Same sh*t, different year.

  86. 86.

    Repatriated

    @HumboldtBlue: And that’s the problem. In theory, it ought to have worked.  It was a presentation suited for an audience in a convention hall, with the viewer surrounded by rabid partisans.

    It was experienced by the actual viewers as a one-way Zoom conference.

    It just never occurred to them that how they’d be seen would be any different from how they wished to be seen.  And why should there be any difference?  They had complete control over the process!

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Repatriated:

    But that raises awkward questions as to why they weren’t there in person, so… yeah. 

    Who in their right minds would want to be exposed to a deadly hoax virus?

  90. 90.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Repatriated:

     

    Guilfoyle just got Dean Screamed.

    The yelling and overly-dramatic gestures would have worked if she had a live audience. If the sound levels were balanced appropriately and it was clear she was addressing a crowd instead of a set of cameras, the context would have saved it.

    This is a production failure, solely due to lack of prep time and production competence. Somebody should have stepped in and pointed out that what works for motivating a crowd does not necessarily play well on video.

    Do you know where she was speaking from? According to CNN last night, they were planning on having an audience of about 50 in Washington but had to cancel the idea at the 11th hour due to COVID-19 restrictions in DC (which you’d have thought they would have familiarised themselves with before making the plan.)

  94. 94.

    Repatriated

    @opiejeanne: That’s because they don’t think they need to be good at it — the fix was in, so they didn’t need to cover their tracks.

     

    Reminds me of the mess around the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics bid.  All the potential host cities cheated/bribed for their city’s bid.  SLC got caught at it because in Utah the power structure (GOP, LDS Church, business interests etc.) wasn’t used to hiding their skulduggery since it hadn’t been necessary until then.  Everyone else expected oversight and investigations….

  96. 96.

    Repatriated

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Deranged trash yelling at other deranged trash in person? You know – context!

    LOL
    Yelling and gesticulating for the bums in the cheap seats is one thing, doing it point-blank into a Zoom window is something else entirely.

    But yeah, derangement abounded.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    I tried to hate-watch the RNC shit-show but only lasted about half an hour before fleeing to the balm of GBBO reruns. Here’s the clip of Ms. Gargoyle braying at a camera in an empty hall, just in case you were wondering if the descriptions of her performance were over the top:

    They were not. Kim Jong Un would have told her to tone it the fuck down or else.

  100. 100.

    The Moar You Know

    I took every recreational drug known to man in my youth and not just once.

    Just watched Don Jr. and Kimberly.  Verdict:   Not high.

    Also verdict:  Don Jr. is scared to death.  I wanna know why.  His rented girlfriend is…auditioning.  For something.  Not sure what.  I don’t think it’s for the Fourth Lady spot, although it kind of feels like it – regardless, she has an agenda.  I want to know what that’s about as well.

  101. 101.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker: I can’t improve on this.

    There are times I get online, see the latest news, and wonder how we are living in a world where Kafka writes for the Twilight Zone starring the Marx Brothers.— Dan Rather (@DanRather) August 24, 2020

  103. 103.

    opiejeanne

    @The Moar You Know: I thought Trump Sr hated her guts, for some reason.

    I watched a few seconds with no sound, and holee shit does she look like a lunatic. (Apologies to lunatics everywhere, I’m sure some of you are fine people)

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    KG’s mother was born in Puerto Rico, and KG was born in California. Allegedly, she called herself a “first generation American” in the speech. Republicans just can’t get it through their heads that Puerto Ricans are American citizens.

  105. 105.

    montanareddog

    @The Moar You Know:

    His rented girlfriend is…auditioning

    Performing for the audience of one: either she just wants to keep off his shitlist, or she knows where this is going and is auditioning for TrumpTV

  106. 106.

    mrmoshpotato

    @montanareddog:

    or she knows where this is going and is auditioning for TrumpTV 

    Do these Soviet shitpiles think there are TV studios in prison?

    Or will they (attempt to) flee to Moscow on November 4th to bunk up with FSB Eddie?

  110. 110.

    Matt McIrvin

    I was never going to watch this nightmare, but the 538 folks are doing exactly what I feared: talking about how it beat expectations, favorably comparing it to the first night of the DNC, generally normalizing the whole thing while admitting it wasn’t great for expanding beyond the base. You’re all talking about Guilfoyle; they’re talking about Tim Scott, who they apparently think gave a really good speech. Apparently he attacked Biden for voting for the ’94 crime bill, which, well, I guess a guy can be an anti-cop anarchist and too punitive at the same time

    Anyway, if their reaction is indicative of anything, this convention is going to be a win for Trump.

  111. 111.

    Morzer

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think 538 needs to go back to the days when it was a reasonably credible poll aggregator rather than a not particularly noteworthy horse race opinionator.

  112. 112.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mel: Perhaps she’s auditioning for the role of Mrs. Trump Senior, in case Melania flies the coop?

    IMO, she’s auditioning for a role ‘handling’ whichever Trump scion or hireling ends up running Trump Enterprises.   There’s still probably plenty of value in the holdings, if only for money-laundering purposes, and Murphy knows none of the adult males in the Trump cartel are capable of running a one-kiosk porta-potty rental on their own.

    Doubt Melania will stick around once the final check clears, and she’s done her best to keep Barron glued to her side.  And even if the Oval Office Occupant somehow manages to stay out of jail — maybe allowed to flee to a non-extradiction country? — he’s more likely to get assigned someone like Hope Hicks, Human Binky, as his next ‘wife’.   Someone who’ll keep him calm & not let him publicly blurt out embarrassing details about who his handlers were, starting back in the 1980s…

  113. 113.

    Matt McIrvin

    (The WaPo and the NYT, on the other hand, seem to be emphasizing the doom-filled and terrifying aspects of the proceedings, so there’s that.)

  114. 114.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Their reaction is not indicative of anything.  These constant attempts to play for the African-American vote are just sad.  It’s typical of racists that they think the Other is stupid, though.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It’s really conventional (and dull) analysis, though. They all started with the assumption that the goal was to make it look like a traditional convention. I’m not sure that was the goal of the Democrats and I’m also not sure that’s what people want to watch- what they would choose if they had a choice. The reason the Dem convention was better than the traditional convention was because it was a break from what we’re used to. That’s why I kept watching. I didn’t know what would happen next.

    It isn’t that political commentary is “conservative” in an ideological sense. It’s that it’s rigidly conventional. They are stodgy people. They don’t have any tools other than “this is like THIS other thing that happened before”. I think they weed out all the “creatives” in the hiring and promotion process and end up with very safe analysis that is really more conventional than ordinary people are.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    But they’re right. The R convention WAS more like all the conventions before. That is true. But that wasn’t the Democratic objective- the Democratic objection was “Trump is an extraordinarily, historically bad President and these are extraordinary times”.

    The conventions absolutely fit the two Parties- Democrats want to highlight the unusual nature of what we’re living thru and Republicans want to insist it’s normal. 538 is expressing a preference for “traditional”.  In my view, they’re expressing a preference for “dishonest” which has been pretty consistent in mainstream coverage- the dogged insistence that everything is FINE. It comes down to whether you think things are FINE or whether you think things are unusually bad.

  118. 118.

    Morzer

    @Kay: I think the 538 crew are people who grew up reading the nothing but the same old same old horse race pablum and have no idea that there could be any other way of analyzing politics.  They aren’t particularly good writers either.

  119. 119.

    Morzer

    @Matt McIrvin: They might be trying to peel off some of the male African-American vote which is a bit less pro-Biden than the female equivalent and might just be willing to vote for a misogynist.  See also: Kanye West and the amazing stealth GOP advisers who couldn’t even get him on the ballot in key states.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @Morzer:

    99% of it is like that. They “beat expectations”. Tim Scott “reached white moderates”. It’s just standard stuff. I personally think it’s a business error for 538 because they have to be different or they don’t add value, but there’s this return to the mean that always happens with these people where they end up saying the same things.

    What’s interesting about Scott (but won’t matter) is Scott has had experiences as a senator, that he has talked about, that really contradict what he chose to say to a national audience. He has described systemic racism in very personal terms. His speech was dishonest. He knows better. But it was conventional- it was the standard GOP “opportunity” speech, where everything depends on the plucky individual, and that’s what pundits want- they reward “conventional”.

  121. 121.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They are playing for the African-American vote.  I have seen it a lot online.  Note Kanye.  And Republicans do it in the same way as Bernie Bros, from whom in both 2016 and 2020 I witnessed tidal waves of “Don’t you dumb n- know that Sanders is the real civil rights leader???”

    Reassuring whites they’re not racist is absolutely in the mix, but Republicans truly are trying to at least split the African-American vote and think they can.  Like a lot of Republican positions, it’s so stupid you (universal you) instinctively rebel at the idea anyone could think that.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    @Morzer:

    And that IS appealing and comforting, right? Everything is fine, Trump is daddy, he’s got it under control, this virus thing is a blip that will “disappear”, there is no systemic racism – just “be best” and you too can rise. That isn’t the Democrats message so that wasn’t their convention. It isn’t that they failed at “traditional” and Republicans succeeded at it- it’s that Republicans have to, must, normalize this or Trump isn’t going to be reelected. Democrats have no duty to normalize it- in fact, their whole political approach depends on pointing out how bizarre and unprecedented it is.

    But if you’re someone who would much prefer for everything to be fine, it works for you.

  124. 124.

    Ken

    @TCS: Did that asteroid hit the earth?

    The asteroid is in November, the day before the election.  This week’s other scheduled disaster is Hurricane Laura as CatFacts said.

  126. 126.

    SFAW

    @Morzer: 

    a not particularly noteworthy horse race opinionator.

    What? I thought they predicted, in great and highly accurate detail, a Trump win long before November, 2016.

    Or maybe it was after.

  128. 128.

    Sloane Ranger

    From my perspective as a watcher of US politics, Republican outreach to African American people has, for years, consisted, of a group of white guys telling black voters what the important issues for them are, African Americans saying either no, they’re not important or they are important but not a priority at the moment, followed by those same white Republicans screaming you’re all brainwashed slaves on the Democratic plantation. No attempt to actually engage and listen.

  129. 129.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Repatriated: I still think that would have looked weird and crazy on TV even with an audience cheering. I think this the kind of stuff that plays well with the crowd at those MAGA rallies and the MSM was to polite to show .

  131. 131.

    Morzer

    @SFAW: They said that Trump had a chance to win the race when everyone else more or less assumed he did not.  They’ve milked that not especially interesting fact for all it’s worth over the last 3.5 years.

  132. 132.

    Another Scott

    @Calouste: … with his hand on the hip of a very young and pretty woman who also had her pants unbuttoned while having a drink in his hand while saying he was on his yacht…

    Yes, that boy ain’t right.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  133. 133.

    evodevo

    @M. Bouffant: Yes..good move on your part…too bad many people don’t understand this.  If you are one of the 17-20% of the American population who carries the opioid receptors in your central nervous system, you are a potential addict.  Their only solution is to avoid any opiates for the rest of their lives.  My mother and sister like the stuff…I hate it…all it does is make me nauseous and does nothing for the pain, so I assume I don’t have the receptors and they do.  It’s a crap shoot, and you won’t know until it’s too late or you are reasonably rational, like yourself…

  134. 134.

    Ian

    @sanjeevs:

    “And they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.”

    Somewhere in heaven an angel has gotten its wings.

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