NEW: In a tense meeting Thursday, Secret Service officials told GOP leaders they were not moving protesters farther from convention arena — as GOP is urging— and were not granting GOP a meeting with the agency’s director. Now, a pressure campaign is on. https://t.co/fA6jnU0pEs
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) May 10, 2024
The RNC demanded to Speak to the Manager, and the manager told them to cry harder… Yes, I originally posted about this a few days ago, but the latest schadenfreude is too tasty not to share. Per the Washington Post, “GOP escalates fight with Secret Service over convention protesters”:
Top Republican Party officials are escalating their fight with the Secret Service over the party’s convention in Milwaukee in July, demanding that the agency expand the security perimeter of the event so that protesters can be moved farther away from the arena where the main events will be held.
A cadre of senior GOP officials had a lengthy argument with Secret Service officials in Milwaukee on Thursday afternoon, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting. The Republicans repeatedly pushed the agency to widen the perimeter so that a prominent city park about a quarter-mile from the arena could not be used by the city for a designated protest zone. The Republicans also again demanded a meeting with the head of the Secret Service to no avail, the people familiar with the meeting said.
The Secret Service officials — which included two senior officers — told the Republican National Committee that its director was not inclined to meet with them and that the agency was not planning to expand the perimeter to include the park, according to a person with direct knowledge of the meeting. That infuriated party officials.
Republican Party officials are now encouraging other top lawmakers to weigh in, with just two months before the convention…
The plan is being “overseen by an executive steering committee made up of Secret Service personnel on the ground, as well as representatives from other federal, state, and local agencies, who have the greatest understanding of the host city and the expected security environment for the event,” Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, said in a statement Friday afternoon. “The development of the security plan is based on security considerations, including risk and threat assessments, and is not a political matter.”…
The RNC fight centers on Pere Lafayette Park in downtown Milwaukee, where the city plans to stage a “First Amendment Zone” for protesters to gather. Republican officials say the park’s location means thousands of convention attendees will have to pass protesters while walking to the arena, which they say could lead to clashes and violence.
The city says that the park is the closest public park to the arena that is outside the Secret Service perimeter and that the city is legally expected to give protesters “sight and sound” to the venue. City officials also say they are facing criticism from others that the park is not close enough…
Arbitrarily moving the perimeter “without something to back it up” could lead to lawsuits, the officials argued.
“We have no information that there will be unrest related to that activity,” one Secret Service official said. Another official said most attendees of the convention would use buses, which would go through different checkpoints.
At the meeting, a Milwaukee police captain also said there were concerns within the community that Republican convention attendees might “terrorize Milwaukee citizens” and “harass minorities.”…
Over and over, Republican officials urged the Secret Service to reconsider. At the end of the meeting, one GOP official told the agency that he wanted all of the media to go through the one checkpoint by the protesters.
“Who does the messaging on the checkpoints?” he said. “I want to make sure the media sees it all.”
The Republicans argued that if clashes occur, they would be blamed and it would distract from the convention…
Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Milwaukee, said the city “expects a well-behaved group of protesters from a variety of viewpoints.”
There was a popular, if possibly apocryphal, story about the 1976 SF Worldcon in Kansas City, held immediately after that year’s RNC convo. The Worldcon committee warned that sf fans ‘could get a little rowdy‘, and the head of security at the main hotel said, Are your people gonna throw a hooker out a second-floor window? Because that’s the Republican standard for ‘a little rowdy’…
Jay
What, no 2nd Amendment Zone for the MAGAt’s?
Right in front of the convention?
Anne Laurie
@Jay: The RNC convention — just about *all* GOP gatherings — are strictly no-gun venues. They know their membership.
opiejeanne
That’s priceless, them being told to get stuffed.
I’m pretty wound up still from what I saw tonight: https://flic.kr/p/2pQtaxm
HumboldtBlue
Meh, the Secret Service has some deleted data to answer for, fuck this band-aid bullshit.
opiejeanne
Nodding my head at this: “At the meeting, a Milwaukee police captain also said there were concerns within the community that Republican convention attendees might “terrorize Milwaukee citizens” and “harass minorities.”…
Jay
@Anne Laurie:
Not IN the Convention,
just outside the Convention, the closest space out side the SS security zone, on the Bus route and walking route. Preferably a large circle space.
You know, like a perimeter.
JoyceH
Awwww, and poor Barron is going to have to miss all this, due to a “scheduling conflict”. (I really enjoy the spectacle of an eighteen-year-old claiming “scheduling conflict” for a few days in the summer. That’s such a perfect mimicry of GOP jargon that it must be tongue in cheek.)
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Nice photo’s.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: As I commented downstairs, nice shot.
opiejeanne
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks. I saw and responded.
opiejeanne
@Jay: Thanks. The iPHone did almost all of the work. It was all I could do to plant my feet and try not to fall down while looking up.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Funny thing is, for me, I have seen the Northern Lights, (and heard them) a lot of times, East Coast, West Coast, Arctic, never south of the 49. never seen pink, just greens and blues.
Must be a scientific reason.
opiejeanne
@Jay: I got a shot with a lot of purple in it, just before we went back inside. We thought the show was ending, seemed to be moving away from us, and I took that last one pointing to the northwest. I really couldn’t see any color without the phone.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay: A photographer caught them in Death Valley last year on camera, they were purple(very low on the horizon).
Jay
@opiejeanne:
When I was a kid in the Maritimes, one night, my Dad tucked us into bed, in sleeping bags. Weird right?
That was standard road trip procedure, but it was a week night.
I was maybe 9 or 10.
It was winter, he had set the Coleman camp cots up in the back yard, and built a fire in the firepit.
At around 3am, he carried us in our sleeping bags out to the camp cots, woke us up and directed our eyes north, towards the skyline.
Mom had made hot chocolate.
Tony Jay
@Jay:
Oddly enough we couldn’t see much of the lights over here (though other people in the area did – fuck you light pollution) but one thing that was noticeable was the almost neon pinkness of the sickle moon.
At the time I just put it down to a pre-Eurovision stunt by The Gay Agenda, but now that I think about it, it must have been a bit of Northern Light.
Gloria DryGarden
@opiejeanne: those are beautiful. I’d be wound up too.
I went driving, but couldn’t get past the lights.
JWR
A “First Amendment Zone” in a public park a quarter-mile from the arena and they’re complaining?! Well bless their little ol’ privacy minded hearts. Suck it up, big boys!
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: I love this story.
When I found out my dad saw the aurora near Philly, and that I’d been 5, I was miffed that he hadn’t ripped 5 year old me from my bed to come out and see them. Even if he had to put up w a cranky 5 year old the next day.
I’ve still never seen them
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: please tell me about the sound. I always imagine it makes a sound, but people tell me it doesn’t.
Jay
https://www.space.com/aurora-colors-explained
Baud
Gerald Ford partied hard.
Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
tends to be winter, a still night, as the sound reverbs off the snow, and the background quiet of winter, and the clear air, makes it more audible.
It sounds like the static end of a record, or somebody tearing a sheet of paper, in time with the pulses of the lights.
A crackling in time, (a few seconds off) of the light show.
It’s not loud, but in the quiet of a winters night, it’s the only sound.
OzarkHillbilly
WATBs. They’re afraid somebody might say something mean to them. But more than anything else, they’re afraid the protestors will be better behaved and make more sense than the GOP will on the convention floor.
catfishncod
@Gloria DryGarden: And that’s why our 4yo was allowed out just before bedtime to try and see them. (The real attempt was several hours later, but was fouled by light pollution. Le drat.)
That comment about the media worries me, precisely because I agree with the Milwaukee policeman: it’s more likely that brown shirts attack than that protestors do.
OzarkHillbilly
@JoyceH: I suspect the scheduling conflict is that he’d have to be there at the same time as his father.
p.a.
I’m sad to say there will be a considerable contingent among the various security forces involved itching to make a much larger de facto “security space” by whatever means available.
prostratedragon
These fucking people. In which connection, I don’t suppose there is such a thing as criminal conspiracy to commit contempt of court. Until recently, I guess no one would have thought it necessary.
@opiejeanne: I’ve been wondering about this, as Milwaukee is a fairly dark city.
prostratedragon
@JoyceH: Don’t suppose the lad surfs. Maybe some pre-college summer school.
JPL
@opiejeanne: Beautiful.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: I guess he didn’t inform Melania before announcing to the public that his son was going to be a delegate.
Geminid
@JPL: Mother and son made the right decision.
Spanky
Spaceweather.com has an aurora photo from the Florida Keys! Red aurora silhouetted by palm trees. Wild.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Yep. I wondered about that. It seemed to me to be nothing more than a cheap, sick political stunt.
eta he’s probably being written out of the will right now. No great loss that. By the time trump is done there probably won’t be anything left.
WereBear
It’s their only tactic, isn’t it? Aside from taking it literally, which is still illegal. Even for Thuglicans.
Nelle
@Jay: Glad to hear that someone m e else has heard them. We were 55 miles upriver from the nearest village in NW Alaska one September and would crawl out of our tent night after night. It is sort of a crackle, a static sound. My husband, who then was a bush pilot on the North Slope, said it’s weird flying in them. (I was only up there in summers when there was 24 hour sunlight, for the most part. He did relief flying sometimes in winter. Oh, and we were both down south in Fairbanks part of one winter. )
Baud
Mousebumples
@opiejeanne: Oooh, maybe I did see that last night then. I didn’t see any green, but that pinkish hue looks familiar from what I saw to the NW. Houses in the way on the skyline so it wasn’t super obvious like your photos, but still cool!
Re “couldn’t see any color without the phone” – good to know. I might try again tonight, and I can try using my phone to see what I can see.
Spanky
@Baud: The GOP and Hells Angels are probably in a turf war over drug trafficking
sab
@opiejeanne: @opiejeanne:
We saw a faint bit through the trees in our metropark. We tried to go out to Blossom Music Center but there were so many pickups trucks with their headlights on that we couldn’t see anyrhing.
You are right about trying to stay upright while looking up and holding a phone in the dark.
WereBear
We don’t have that much in the way of light pollution but often, cloud cover. Foiled us all for two nights.
I have seen a faint green flicking under the clouds during previous storms, but nothing big or spectacular. Still, I am fortunate to have that much, sounds like.
Spanky
All indications are that auroras will continue tonight, so there’s still hope.
smith
The only time I have seen an aurora was in Iceland, about fifty years ago. It was spectacular, a giant glowing green ribbon across the whole sky.
That was a landmark trip for me — in less than two weeks I not only saw the aurora, but also experienced an earthquake for the first time, saw glaciers and a volcano for the first time, and, to top it off, lived through my first hurricane the last two days we were there.
mrmoshpotato
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Thanks for the early morning laugh.
mrmoshpotato
@JWR:
What should they suck up – a horse’s ass?
JWR
@mrmoshpotato: Nah, I’m sure Trump’s a** will serve just as well. ;)
Omnes Omnibus
It’s Pere Marquette Park. JFC, Washington Post.
Ken
Or he did, and she hung up the phone, turned to Barron, and said “How would you like to humiliate your father?” And he grinned…
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus:
Did they write “Pier Marquette Park?”
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: No, Pere Lafayette. WTF? Pure Marquette/Joliet erasure.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Autocorrect.
artem1s
@JPL: I assumed this means Melania isn’t attending? Any particular reason this info is coming out this week? Donnie having prenup problems perhaps?
Geminid
@artem1s: Regarding the timing, Barron’s convention attendance as a delegate was announced only a few days ago, and evidently his mother decided to nip this project in the bud.
PaulWartenberg
I’m actually worried trump and the GOP will use this, hoping that rowdy protestors will be there and “cause a situation” that will allow the Proud Boys/Oathkeepers/Patriot Front brownshirts to “defend themselves” and make them heroes/victims of “Antifa anti-Americans”.
Take a page from the January 6th riots, everyone: don’t show up to protest. Just ignore them.
SteverinoCT
You would think that the GOP would know that old Russian saying: “Toughski shitski.”
currants
@Anne Laurie:
AND they know how unpopular they are too, apparently.
currants
@Jay: What a great thing for parents to do!
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: Last millenium when I was a fellow (space) traveler with the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS), their annual Balticon convention would be held on Easter weekend at the Hunt Valley Inn in the northern exurbs. The hotel absofuckinglutely LOVED us. For one thing, we filled the place on an otherwise moribund weekend. (Balticon would get upwards of 2000 attendees.) For another,,, I asked one of the managers how they felt about a bunch of rowdy folks in weird costumes taking over the place, and he said,
Some of the funnier scenes I’ve ever witnessed happened at the HVI on Easter Sunday, when the toney folks from the area and their kids would show up in their Paschal finery for brunch preceded by the annual Easter Egg hunt – and on the way from the entrance to the restaurant would intersect with the SF fans trickling down from the rooms, many of them in costumes. The two groups would stand there in shock, each reeling back at the outrageous getups of the other…
Tenar Arha
@opiejeanne: Wow, nice
I thought I caught a hint of pink in the sky (looking north near Boston) but not photographable.
MagdaInBlack
@opiejeanne: I saw your post to me on the previous thread and I’ll repeat my response here: Oh Wow! 🙂
MagdaInBlack
@Jay: Yes! TY for saying you’ve heard them. Rough camping north of La Ronge, Saskatechewan on Lake Nemeiben, 10 years old, most amazing thing I’d ever seen, and yes, I heard them 🙂
Eta: I’ve seen them many times way north like that but I’ve only seen the pink when they dip way south like this time
Ruckus
@Anne Laurie:
They not only know their membership, they encourage their membership to reenforce their ideals, fears and hate. Maybe not specifically, openly but it’s there.
Who invited whom to the capital on Jan 6?
Peke Daddy
@Jay: A brother’s love for a sister leads to a lifetime’s love of science.
https://youtu.be/tD_XAX–Ono?si=E3RFcCtZGPoTFseA
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
make more sense than the GOP will on the convention floor.
I know, given the participants outside, that this is rather a difficult concept to understand, but it is very likely normal. Their leaders are irrational but they attempt to not be as rowdy about it. I’d bet that’s one of the things their followers want them to do, be more like the followers, raise hell, be physical, be obnoxious, get shit done.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
Doesn’t seem like there is much left now, unless he’s stiffing his legal crew….
Another Scott
@Spanky: Reminds me of a ProPublica story about Chinese gangs dominating the illegal US marijuana market. Various mobs fighting over US spoils would be yet another explanation of the GQP’s antipathy to China, wouldn’t it??
(I haven’t read the story yet.)
Nothing is as it appears, or as they claim, with the GQP…
Grr…,
Scott.
Ruckus
@smith:
You obviously don’t live in SoCal, or didn’t 30+ yrs ago. In the Northridge quake, in a rather rude early morning wake up call, we got thrown about a foot in the air. With all the electrical damage to the wires and transformers the light show at 5 am ish made it look like middle of the day. We lived about 4 or so miles from the epicenter. Good times!
StringOnAStick
We went to Smith Rock state park in central Oregon, and were well rewarded for the 30 minute drive. The night mode on newer iPhones shows it in full pink and green, but we could easily see the pale green curtains dance slowly in the sky. At certain points it covered pretty much half the sky. So glad we drove away from city lights to see this! The tiny cresent moon was gorgeous too; we could easily see the dark part of the disk because the air was so clear.
Tehanu
@Ruckus:
My favorite story about the Northridge quake, which also kicked us out of bed at about 4:30 am, is that there were about 500 calls to 911 breathlessly reporting a “weird silvery cloud” in the sky. It was the stars, visible because all the electric lights in the city were out.