CPAC is now Burning Man for people who commit tax fraud
— sean hannity's bottomless pasta pass (@MenshevikM) February 26, 2021
CPAC’s always been a grift bazaar — excuse me, celebration of capitalism. But until a couple years ago, it was also a gathering where the old pros could parade their laurels and the young hopefuls could strut their stuff, like a right-wing political ComicCon. Post-Trump, it’s reduced to one of those flea-market-adjacent ‘popular culture shows’ where you can buy signed photos with Scott Baio’s understudy, two of the recurring characters from the Dukes of Hazzard, or Clint Eastwood’s orangutan wrangler…
Walking into #CPAC and I see this pic.twitter.com/3NljOwNFJZ
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) February 27, 2021
How is “it’s a total freak show” not an acceptable explanation?
It may not be morally sound, but the reasoning is fairly straightforward. https://t.co/d3GJKu9N4a
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) February 26, 2021
Only thing that stops CPAC from being a Second Insurrection is that the attendees all have a fossil fuel lobby luncheon to get to.
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 26, 2021
Best twist on that viral (as in, diseased) opening clip:
He's wearing shorts so you can see the golden calves. https://t.co/W7ZNbiaGsC
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) February 26, 2021
#CPAC2021 could easily be mistaken for an utterly bonkers LaRouchie convention in the 1990s, except for presence and participation of prominent US Senators.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) February 26, 2021
congrats to the insurers! https://t.co/FcyYNIZ1Ic
— kilgore trout, ted’s travel agent (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 26, 2021
Ideally, they'd not meet this year, but since they insist, they're welcome to work that special kind of magic in any *other* American city that will have them. Poor, poor, Orlando.
Have folks already started asking how to get to the Golden Idol Hyatt?
2/x
— Hugh McAloon (@HughMcaloon) February 26, 2021
#CPAC pic.twitter.com/YPzzAIGf3Q
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) February 26, 2021
my CPAC takeaway is it totally rules that the only official plank of the GOP is tripling down on the extremely online culture war brainworms that lost them the house, senate, & oval office while the other guy implements broadly popular policies
— kilgore trout, ted’s travel agent (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 26, 2021
The National Rifle Association, which recently filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection, is here at #CPAC with credit card readers at its booth. pic.twitter.com/PpooBjB67V
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) February 27, 2021
CNN’s Jim @Acosta interviewing Matt Schlapp pic.twitter.com/I1riZuKY1i
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) February 26, 2021
The crowd surrounding CNN’s Jim Acosta begins to chant “CNN sucks!” #CPAC pic.twitter.com/2PliJ5e7mg
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) February 26, 2021
Another eleceted offical violating #CPAC mask rule: Rep. Madison Cawthorn pic.twitter.com/jCO5HOXYwI
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) February 27, 2021
I dunno. I'm so old I remember Seb Gorka ranting about Democrats fulfilling Stalin's dream of banning cheeseburgers. https://t.co/mJ4t0314GY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 27, 2021
I would like for the professional drunk dancer lady to explain how. https://t.co/g2oflxQWCX
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 27, 2021
The NYTimes hired Elaina Plott as their Trumpist whisperer, now that Maggie Haberman is busy steno’ing from Marred-A-Largo working on her book. Plott does not stint the shovelling!
New: Trump loyalists spurn ‘failed Republican establishment of yesteryear' and deem policy all but dead. On CPAC's opening salvo with @jmartNYT – https://t.co/Zak7Lb4EHg
— Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) February 27, 2021
trollhattan
Roger Stone video will haunt my dreams for weeks.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Why the press covers CPAC and not liberal confabs? Everyone loves a freak show and slows for a really bad car wreck.
Spanky
and opt for “failed Republican establishment of today.
ETA: Turd!
Spanky
@trollhattan: Wait, you actually clicked on it?!?! Why, man?
patrick II
Have all members of Congress been immunized? Do they get to walk among those people not wearing a mask as if it isn’t important knowing that they themselves are safe, but risking the spread of disease among others?
debbie
What is that Trump statue holding in his hand?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
You guys already do Hegseth? I used to keep a pretty good scorecard in my head, but I grow old. Hegseth is a professional “As a veteran of the armed forces…” on Fox, right? I think he’s wearing boat shoes for this performance.
ETA: from his wiki page, which also tells me he married Jennifer Rauchet as soon as he divorced the mother of his other children
trollhattan
@Spanky:
From the still frame I had assumed he was representing the Amish.
NotMax
Hey, don’t knock the pop culture meet-and-greets. They provide a better (and in many cases, for those on limited income, salutary) boost to finances than the occasional residual check for 31 cents.
mrmoshpotato
Wow. What a shitshow. And I didn’t even watch any of the videos.
bjacques
Roger Stone has the same sloping forehead as Spiro Agnew and in that getup he looks like the portrait the eternally young Alex P Keaton keeps in the attic.
EDIT: 11th! That’s 2nd in Roman numerals!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: A hambender.
Stuart Frasier
@bjacques: Roger Stone’s weird head shape is probably from abusing human growth hormone.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@bjacques: Pretender, I got #2.
Urban Suburbanite
Oh wow, it’s Kurt Jantz, aka Forgiato Blow, aka DJ Failson. I spent waaaaayyyy too much time getting baked and trolling that tubby dork on Facebook until he got banned. I wonder where his meteoric rise to irrelevancy had led him.
dmsilev
Speaking of Madison Cawthorn, the Post has a long piece on him nicely summarized by the headline:
The making of Madison Cawthorn: How falsehoods helped propel the career of a new pro-Trump star of the far right
I was particularly impressed by the part where he accused a long-time friend of leaving him to die in an auto crash, and then when called out on that lie changed his story to ‘had no recollection’ of the details of the accident. Now that’s a level of shameless sociopathy that will take you far in the GOP.
Subsole
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You kidding? They journos’d never make it inside. Too busy interviewing the brocialists protesting outside for more “Democrats collapsing and finally going away so we can spend all our time gazing dreamily into a Republican’s eyes” wishcasting pieces.
Gravenstone
@debbie: Allegedly the Constitution. In reality, probably some fast food menu for the place they stole the unpainted statue from.
Subsole
@Stuart Frasier: Yep. Look at the jaw. That’s the tell.
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
To be fair, that sort of thing is in fact quite Biblical. So, he’s just doing what he can to bring back the morality of lets say King David to name just one.
debbie
The artist who sculpted that statue is hoping it will end up in the Trump Library. Who knew so much symbolism was packed into a gold-plated atrocity?
Baud
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Hah! 22.
NotMax
@NotMax
Or not. There’s always a catch to 22, isn’t there.
:)
dmsilev
@debbie: Isn’t he also hoping to be paid for the thing? I see a basic contradiction.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
I remember reading about some convention the cast of BTTF was going to be at, and I was shocked at the prices these people wanted for autographs and pictures. It was some obscene amount of money.
I’m fan of the movies, but I’m not a fan for hundreds of dollars for an autograph
Damned_at_Random
I hope the sex workers know they need to get their money up front with these jerks
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
It’s the ones not held as part of a convention, usually modest affairs, to which I was speaking. Fairly regularly take place in and around Los Angeles.
Ivan X
Getting Bob Roberts vibes from Cauthorne.
Both the Stone video and the picture of the three women worshiping the golden idol is enough to make me want to take it real, real easy for the rest of the night.
Calouste
@debbie: A gold-plated atrocity made in Mexico, where the sculptor (and I use that word in the broadest possible sense) lives, with the help of, I presume, a few Mexicans.
Steeplejack (phone)
Off topic but thematically related:
Damned_at_Random
@debbie: Non-disclosure agreement in the right hand and a magic wand (?) in the left
Cameron
Y’all have really gotten me psyched. I haven’t watched any of this shit – I’m an old guy with a limited number of brain cells to sacrifice – but will mos def be tuning in at 3:40 tomorrow.
Calouste
@dmsilev: King David? Did Hegseth send his mistress’ husband on a suicide mission?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax:
He goes by the nym, Baud.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
I know. Your comment reminded me of that BTTF thing and it was tangentially related : )
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Calouste:
Some of them are good people. //
Just Some Fuckhead
It IS a little weird the conservative happenings always get national coverage and progressive gatherings get zip. I don’t think “the freakshow” is a complete explanation.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Damned_at_Random:
Most photographers call the one in Photoshop, “The Tragic Wand”.
Steeplejack (phone)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Hey, sorry to hear about your dog Conni. I was late going through the threads last night. Condolences.
??
dmsilev
@Calouste: It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Uncle Cosmo
Yeah, that’s 2.3 seconds of my life I’m never getting back…
Steeplejack (phone)
@NotMax:
That Catch-22 is a tough one.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Damned_at_Random:
Phrasing!
NeenerNeener
I’m still giggling at the answer to the question of how coked up Dancing Guilfoyle is: “the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for both nostrils and a small hand mirror.”
zhena gogolia
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Me either. I hate all the coverage this thing gets, including on this blog.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Your internet all fixed, shiny and new?
stinger
@debbie: It appears to say “Bill of Rights” at the top (in case nobody else has answered this; now I’ll continue reading comments).
ETA: Gravenstone @18 has the better answer.
Ken
Persuade some Trump-addled rich fool — of which CPAC has an over-supply — to buy it and donate it to the Trump library
For bonus points (and $$$), sell it to two or more marks.
Mary G
Sad!
Ken
@Mary G: No independent grifters allowed. Unless perhaps they give a cut to the organizers?
Just Some Fuckhead
@zhena gogolia: It’s like the press hasn’t figured out they are a fringe group with an extremist agenda.
Subsole
@Just Some Fuckhead: Or the press just agrees with them to some degree.
Y’know, “they’re not racist. They just like the jokes” kinda deal?
There go two miscreants
@NotMax: Nice save.
The Pale Scot
So much to gawk at, so little time.
Stirred up a memory of a Tales From Crypt story with Don Rickles and Bob Goldthwait. Don’s a ventriloquist with a parasitic twin on the end of his arm.
It’s on uBube, The Ventriloquist’s Dummy
“I’m splitting up the act!”
I hadn’t thought about this in decades, WTF?
oatler.
@The Pale Scot: Youtube had some nice eps but then banned them, apparently due to nipples.
catclub
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I have no problem with that. I also have no problem with babe Ruth earning more than the president, and not just because he had a better year.
I only wonder why melania has taken so long to file divorce papers.
Another Scott
In other news, BlueVirginia:
I’m reminded that one of the reasons that Nixon had a blowout win in 1972 (but only one) was that 18 year olds were able to vote. Imagine the electoral impact if Democrats make federal legalization happen by the 2022 (or 2024) elections…
Cheers,
Scott.
Just Chuck
There’s some great stuff going on in the text in that Danziger cartoon.
“Speakers: Loonies, Nazis, Laura Ingrahm, TBA.” To say nothing of the sign: “CPAC: Welcome Complainers”
hitchhiker
Really, there’s no need to slather all this outrage over CPAC. Have a couple of good journos listen in, collect video, and write stories.
We know what it is, and what will happen. What matters now and every day until the 2022 midterms is that Democrats do their jobs and make sure they get ALL the credit for every good thing that happens.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well that video really underscores the actual talent a lot of black rapers have.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So when the press is gone does CPAC drop the shorts on the Trump statue and start with the kissing booth?
opiejeanne
@trollhattan: This might help. Stone was trying to steal this guy’s moves, but no, not even close.
https://youtu.be/wCDIYvFmgW8
opiejeanne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I think you mean rappers.
hotshoe
@NotMax: words can hardly describe how much I enjoy y’all playing the “two” game ;)
Uncle Jeffy
Busiest guy at that shitshow is the orangutan wrangler…..
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Bill,
The little photoset of Conni with your Cocker was so sweet. Obvious why you miss the little guy so much.
Again, condolences for your loss!
and Take Care!
ETA: 67th — woot !!!!
Beat that, counters~!~
lowtechcyclist
@Subsole:
Oh lordy. Last time I checked, Nancy Smash was talking about how we can’t do without the Republican Party, and Joe Biden was going on about his ability to get along with them.
I see a lot more lefties than moderates saying the GOP is beyond redemption and needs to be overwhelmingly defeated.
trnc
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Got a link to an MSM outlet describing it as such? What I’ve seen is pretty much the same coverage it gets every year. They point out the anti-masking but it’s almost a footnote.