2020 in a single tweet pic.twitter.com/M7vKHBjNnh
— Alice Beryl (@base2wave) January 1, 2021
These happy disease vectors walk golf-cart among them…
Trump loses no opportunity to scam people. None. That he scammed the suck-ups who frequent Mar-a-Lago, is a rather fitting ending to 2020 and his presidency. https://t.co/edirJqjbJx
— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) January 2, 2021
… Without the President as the centerpiece, the wattage of Thursday evening’s party was somewhat dimmer. Performers whose heyday came decades ago — Vanilla Ice and Berlin — performed from the ballroom’s main stage. Guests angled for selfies with Giuliani, who was wearing a blue velvet tuxedo jacket, and Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, along with personalities from the right-wing television network OANN.
Instead of their father, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump mingled among the guests with their respective significant others, Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lara Trump. Tiffany Trump also attended, though Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were not seen.
Tables set for 10 people, with no social distancing, were clustered in the ballroom with white floral arrangements and candles encased in a sculpture meant to look like the New Year’s Eve ball. The menu consisted of “Mr. Trump’s Wedge Salad” — the club has kept “Mr. Trump” instead of “President Trump” on the dish — cheese tortellini and Wagyu beef.
Many guests and entertainers were left disappointed upon learning from CNN late Wednesday that Trump would be leaving Florida early. Ticket prices for the New Year’s Eve gala have steadily increased since Trump took office, and reached up to $1,000 this year, a person familiar with the matter said…
Like other gatherings at Mar-a-Lago this year, almost no guests wore masks.
That provided a bookend to the start of the pandemic, when a similarly maskless birthday party for Guilfoyle held in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom proved to be an early spreading event.
Here was the New Year’s Eve celebration at Mar-a-Lago last night during deadly pandemic… pic.twitter.com/Seh9dbJRV9
— Rex Chapman???? (@RexChapman) January 1, 2021
COVID theme song https://t.co/Ijc01JKYUB
— Grudgie the Whale (@grudging1) January 1, 2021
Vanilla Ice was booked for NYE at Mar A Lago per @meridithmcgraw https://t.co/exLur7RhLB
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) January 1, 2021
Guess the poor bastids might as well accustom themselves…
… In anticipation of Trump setting up permanent residence at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach after leaving the White House in January, Trump allies, conservative media firebrands and MAGA-boosting activist groups are setting up the next Trumpy hub of GOP power.
Some Trump supporters have settled in South Florida, drawn by Florida’s friendly tax climate and the state’s current GOP leadership. Other prominent MAGA groups, like the student organizing outfit Turning Point USA, are holding events in the area. And the next Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of the GOP’s most conservative factions, will even be held a couple hours drive north, in Orlando.
Meanwhile, the president and First Lady Melania Trump are renovating their private quarters at Mar-a-Lago to prepare for a permanent return. And, with an eye toward their political future, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have reportedly bought a multi-million dollar property in an exclusive part of Miami. The Trump kids plan to spend more time in Palm Beach, unless Eric’s wife Lara Trump ends up running for Senate in North Carolina, according to a person close to the family…
I very much doubt Jarvanka will spend significant time in Florida, but the state’s generous bankruptcy homestead exemption is presumably a comfort, as well as a useful tool in their post-regency financial planning.
Trump is reportedly angry about the remodel of his Mar-A-Lago living space. It should be noted that dementia patients don’t like change. He’s at the point where home modifications are done for patients if they have the means to bring care in & avoid the assisted living facility
— Tom Joseph (@TomJChicago) December 31, 2020
Any Member of Congress who attended the mostly mask-less Mar-a-Lago New Year’s party shouldn’t be allowed to go in person to the joint session on January 6th. Below are photos of Rep Gaetz and Senator Rand Paul at the party with no masks on. pic.twitter.com/Qw6BWSuxiB
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) January 1, 2021
(Gaetz & Paul have both insisted that their personal bouts with COVID-19 exempts them from mask-wearing, of course.)
dmsilev
Honestly, anyone who would be willing to pay for a ticket to that thing deserves to be bilked by Trump.
Alison Rose
Not that I’m trying to defend Trump’s feelings or anything, but that Tom Joseph guy needs to chill. You cannot insist that someone has advanced dementia because they’re unhappy with some home renovations. I don’t doubt that Trump’s mental faculties are, shall we say, declining, but every tweet I see from that guy is a reach that would leave his fingerprints on the moon. Lots of people, like for example………me……don’t like change. We don’t all have Alzheimer’s, FFS.
The Moar You Know
Giuliani and Vanilla Ice? I’d start a fire in the fucking bathroom. A party that bad is a war crime.
Also: Berlin. Ouch.
Comrade Colette
I haven’t seen a good boat parade in months.
The Moar You Know
@Alison Rose: Trump’s not senile. Stupid, yes. Lacking any taste, yes. But he’s not remotely close to senile. I’ve seen that good and up close.
Anne Laurie
I chose to consider this Mr. Joseph’s comedy ‘bit’.
If only because it so deeply irks the MAGAts…
burnspbesq
ICYMI, Louie Gohmert’s feeble-brained lawsuit was dismissed (by a Trump-appointed District Judge) for lack of standing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Moar You Know: the Hoarse Whisperer had a thread the other day tying it all to the wounds peculiar to a narcissist
Alison Rose
@The Moar You Know: Yeah, Trump’s issue here is that he’s deeply stupid and has the same spoiled child temperament that he had when he actually was a spoiled child.
Alison Rose
@Anne Laurie: I mean, if it makes them cry, that’s a beautiful thing. Just hard for me to see people throw those terms around so casually after seeing my grandpa go through it.
Leto
If all the grifters and shitheads are relocating to Florida, then Bugs had it right the entire time. We need to start a BJ Betty Cracker & Family relocation fund.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Moar You Know:
Trump has cognitively declined a lot since 2016, when he had visibly declined since 2000. Whatever the cause, he is much less coherent than he used to be.
Suzanne
@dmsilev:
Yes, seriously. Who GAF if a bunch of douchebags missed out on partying with Trump?
Good Lord, I can’t imagine paying money for that privilege.
Delk
I wonder if Berlin got the dance floor jumping with “Sex (I’m a)“?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Vanilla Ice singing “Play that funky music white boy”. You can’t make this shit up.
Is he a known RW asshole? He has to be to play this joint during the pandemic and not observing safety recommendations.
Also, that really sucks about Berlin. I really liked their music
: (
Random question: what was it during the 70s and 80s when bands named themselves after places and geographic locations? Berlin, Asia, Europe all spring to mind
Frankensteinbeck
@burnspbesq:
I read lawyer summaries of these lawsuits, and a lawyer I like said that this one has succeeded in being stupider even than the Kraken lawsuits. That although the formatting wasn’t as nightmarish, the content was even worse. 75 pages of a 104 page document are arguments that fraud happened, when the actual lawsuit is a declaration that the courts have no authority to decide if fraud happened. The non-fraud section is an endless repeating of how everything is invalid because a constitutional right they completely made up out of thin air isn’t being followed in the swing states (or anywhere).
mrmoshpotato
Hell of a thing – living 30+ years in the past.
burnspbesq
@Frankensteinbeck:
Even worse, they flat-out misled the court (by leaving a page out of one of their exhibits) about what happened with the Trump electors in Arizona.
Yutsano
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He’s local. It gets him back in the spotlight. He needs money. Pick one, two, or three. But I would bet the booking is based on locality more than anything. He could be a flaming right-wing asshole as far as I know. But sometimes a paying gig* is a paying gig.
*I am aware I am making a lot of assumptions here.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): And so many countdowns! (Not really.)
Delk
@Yutsano: his divorce revealed he pulls in $800,000 a year.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT:
I’ve been doing some reading about the AfD in Germany and I’m very disturbed. In October of last year (2019), they made significant gains with voters under 30 (a majority voted of those under 30 AfD) in Thuringia. The state party’s leader was (and probably still is) under federal investigation and has even questioned Germany’s culpability in WW2. The rise of the AfD is dangerous and must be stopped. I hope the Biden administration has a plan to deal with this
In addition, I’ve read that AfD has generally been bizarrely pro-US and pro-NATO. Does anybody think this will change now that Biden will be president?
frosty
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Boston. Kansas. Alabama.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Yutsano:
Yeah, but it’s Donald fucking Trump’s NYE bash. During a pandemic! One would think Vanilla Ice wouldn’t want that notoriety. Besides, I thought he had a home renovations business that is the subject of a reality tv show? The guy can’t be hurting for money that bad
Or what Delk said. Of course, the guy could have a lot of debt he has to pay off
West of the Rockies
That video just made me sad. Not sympathetic, mind you. It’s just sad seeing these stupid, empty people singing along to a song that was briefly popular and then was pretty much loathed… and the participants actually think they’re cool.
Oh, and I wish Gaetz’s enormous gopher head would implode.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@frosty:
Oh yeah! How could I forget about Boston and Kansas? I saw Boston perform a few years back with my father and his friend. I like a few of their songs, but I’m not a superfan or anything
Delk
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): add Chicago to the list.
Richard
Oh jeez, look at those people. Better yet, don’t.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@mrmoshpotato:
I unironically like that song. 1986 was a great year for music
Darkrose
@The Moar You Know: I’ve said for years that he reminds me very much of my mother when she was in late-stage dementia, in particular the paranoia and constantly repeating himself.
Yutsano
@Delk: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s possible spousal and child support eat up that lucre. Not to mention performance gigs are a good way to get cash rapidly. Plus just greed? He knows his reasons. We can just point and laugh at the partygoers.
VI I minorly understand but Berlin? Really? I think the bookers are on their own side grifts.
prostratedragon
Oregon
LeftCoastYankee
I don’t know why I didn’t see it sooner, but Matt Gaetz looks exactly like Beavis.
Delk
@Yutsano: no State Fairs this year for them to perform.
mrmoshpotato
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Metal version :)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You missed “America”, what are you, some kind of Commie?
The Dark Avenger
@Alison Rose: One word: Paresis.
Hungry Joe
People paid $1,000-plus to attend? Well, as Canada Bill Jones (1837-1877) said, “It is immoral to allow a sucker to keep his money.”
Punchy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Chicago, Boston, LA Guns…..
Ruckus
I met Vanilla Ice 25 yrs ago, not as an entertainer but as a sporting event volunteer worker. Seemed a lot more normal than the press made him out to be. But I have zero concept of his political views, then or now. He did what he was told, seemed relatively competent. How he’d make 800 large a year is well beyond me.
@Darkrose:
My dad suffered from Alzheimers for almost 2 decades and yet he seemed cheerful even as he had no idea what was going on or who anyone was. He lived in 2 separate care facilities for the last about 12 yrs and I got to watch the progression for the entire time. I’ve also had a number of friends with a parent with this and I’ve had exposure to other relatives with different forms of dementia. trump seems to me to be getting into dementia territory. That along with his basic personality disorder(s) will make his decline differ from other people but that is not as unusual as some seem to think. And he is in decline. That doesn’t mean he won’t/can’t have lucid moments or time spans.
JoyceH
MSNBC has been airing a series about the Obama presidency. Do you guys realize that a mere 12 years ago, when huge crowds roared a three word chant, it was “yes we can” instead of “lock her up”?
Mai Naem mobile
I heard some successful band guy on the radio talking about how they have to be on the road to make a living anymore. Streaming means less $$$ from sales. There was a songwriter on Bill Maher a couple of years ago who was the writer of a current at that time big hit song(Ariana Grande?) who said he had only made $2000 off the song. It was the kind of song that in the past you would have made several hundred thousand dollars off. The internet has not been good for a lot of businesses.
West of the Rockies
@JoyceH:
Were you watching The Way I See It with Pete Desouza? It is sooo good. Yes, the distinction between Barack and the pustulent toad is astonishing. Happily, just 18 more days of Trump.
Calouste
@frosty: UK. Japan. Texas. Portishead. E17.
JoyceH
@West of the Rockies: No, this was a special short series. Just called Obama. I just chanced onto it; haven’t seen any ads about it. The first hour was about the campaign, and man did that take me back!
Mary G
Damn. DeJoy has got to go. My entire Amazon monthly subscribe and save order (5 items) has once again been handed to USPS and routed to Brazil. One of them is cat food which was down to the shake the bag to get the last very crumbs out stage. Next I’ll get the “your order is undeliverable and we have refunded your money” email. Sent the housemate to the pet store to get a smaller bag for a higher price. First world problems, but freaking annoying.
JWR
Berlin? Oh well, maybe they’ve always been RW a-holes?
But speaking of Stupor-Spreaders, here are two people I almost hope are forced to watch the first 15 seconds of this video over and over and over again, while gasping for breath in an ICU somewhere.
But let their guard down they most certainly did! (From local CBSLA news, about our “beloved” Orange County, CA.)
Kent
I mean fuck, the party doesn’t get better when he arrives, it gets worse. They got a bargain.
Kent
I buy my mail order cat-food from Costco.com It always seems to get here, dropped off on my front porch. I don’t even know who brings it.
Kent
I grew up in Eugene OR in the 1970s and didn’t even know there was a band called Oregon. I guess they didn’t penetrate my suburban HS bubble.
opiejeanne
Apparently 2020 isn’t quite done with us yet. A 17-yo just drove through the fence and totaled his Jetta. He wasn’t drinking, the streets are just wet and he rounded the curve at our corner too fast.
At least I hope this is just a holdover from 2020. I really don’t want this to be an omen for 2021.
I realize that this is just a tiny drop of a problem in an ocean of really horrible ones, I’m just frustrated because the fence is only a few months old.
HumboldtBlue
Happy new Year.
Shit is just starting to get crazy.
JWR
Last Wednesday, this woman, I call her “Kovid Test Karen“, was also on my local CBS News. Seems she was disappointed at not being able to butt in line at the local Covid testing center. I Googled her name, and I’m pretty sure she was on local NBC news back in 2013 for busting an up-skirt video creep.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kent: I buy canned and dry cat food from chewy.com and the orders arrive immediately. I mean, like the next day, delivered to my door. This means they are not sent via USPS; my guess is UPS. And my latest order was during the Christmas surge in December.
Mary G
@opiejeanne: You are under attack! Of bad luck, that is. Did they figure out what happened to the greenhouse?
Mary G
@JWR: Oh, for fuck’s sake OC.
Though I did notice the smug white couple who said they were sticking it to Newsom were labeled as tourists.
JWR
@Mary G: “Visitors” I think it was. But yeah, those two were on a ‘mission’, which was to trash-talk Newsome. And these Covid scofflaws really get my goat when they go after him for trying to save their beautiful little lives!
Spanky
@Kent: Fed Ex brings my Chewy order.
You know, I’ve seen multiple mentions of Rudy’s blue velvet jacket, but no one has reported whether or not he wore pants.
(And I’ve got a “Blue Velvet” earworm.)
Ruckus
Watching a good show on Netflix.
Roll With Me, a film about a paraplegic who hand powers his way from Santa Monica, CA to Long Island NY by wheelchair.
Goes along with another Netflix show, Resurface, the story of how Vets are learning to overcome PTSD by surfing. A long time surfer thought that it might be better to surf than commit suicide, as the rate of suicide by Vets is rather high.
I tried watching Death To 2020 but will have to try again, I think it’s funny but I guess I’m still not ready to laugh about the last 12 months yet.
Steeplejack
Late, late, late-night music: Patrick Williams Big Band, “Mandeville.”
Bookended with Henry Mancini, “Lujon.”
opiejeanne
@Mary G: No. There’s no way to tell, really.
We rescued a few things from the wreckage with the help of two people from the clean-up cpmpany who came to write up the bid for the insurance company. They’re sending a larger crew on Monday to scrape the site bare. They’re hauling away everything including the gravel base that was under it, because of possible contamination from chemical residue, burnt polycarbonate, melted plastic.
We managed to save the metal heads of a few tools so we can replace the handles if we choose, but David bought two shovels today, a hoe, a garden rake and two trowels. I’ve got replacement pruning tools coming on Wednesday.
Abnormal Hiker
@frosty: I will add Chilliwack since Jay isn’t here
Warren Senders
@Kent: Oregon was pretty far from the top 40 world; their primary instrumental line-up was oboe, classical guitar, bass, and tabla. Very beautiful and intelligent music that never drifted into New Age wooziness.
SFAW
I guess my memory is starting to go, because I don’t remember Vanilla Ice’s “heyday.”
Gvg
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): vanilla ice is a known RW asshole who has been constantly in the news for it since Bush that I have noticed, possibly further back.
opiejeanne
@prostratedragon: Sleater-Kinney. A band formed in Olympia, WA named after an off-ramp.
Wag
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think the easiest conclusion is that, yes, Vanilla Ice IS a right wing asshole. From day one his entire persona has been that of a self centered entitled jerk.
scav
I’m rather, well, astonished I guess, at how much the M-a-L decor looks like what was thrown up in your average high-school gym for a dance. That’s it? For that much?
Well, that, and why are they dragging out old waiters in white coats to play swing instruments, but then, they may have gone willingly.
WaterGirl
@scav: That was my first thought, too. Living in a 40-year nightmare where you’re stuck at your prom.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
There was never anything to miss.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
The prom looked like that? Sorry I missed it. Not.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I was thinking proms that were a generation older than mine, that that’s what they would have looked like.
susanna
@Mary G: Huh, interesting. Brazil!? Whose leader is pal of Trump and moreso, of Bannon. Wonder if Dejoy arranged this to “hasten” delivery of ballots coming or going? The suspicious mind that’s developed these past 4 years appears to be a constant now.
Richard
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Funny comment. Canada and Mexico were also not mentioned.
Richard
@JoyceH: thank you. That was the chant. Yes we can. I like that one better. That lock em up crowd is just asking for trouble. Do they think it couldn’t happen to them?
Richard
@SFAW: i do remember vanilla ice because i remember thinking what bullshit. His music was not anything i would listen to. That’s been about 30 years ago. What happened?
At the time he was a wannabe rapper , same along with “Milli Vannilli”. What, they think he is cool?
The road goes on forever and the party never ends. What a bunch of jerks.
Richard
@The Moar You Know: i agree.