From February 21st to February 24th, I wandered away from the Great Land (bear in mind that it gets more difficult and uncomfortable every day for me to leave Alaska for any reason at all, except maybe visiting kids and grandkids.) But this was, as I reckoned it, a worthy reason: I went hither to National Harbor, Maryland, to attend the 2024 Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. It was a considerable journey: A 90-minute drive to Anchorage, a nearly 6-hour flight to Denver, and then a 4-hour flight to Reagan International Airport. While at CPAC I had occasion to compare notes with a colleague from the UK and determined that, yes, I had traveled farther than he had.
When I arrived, I went to check into my lodgings, only to find myself refused – and, yes, I will call the bastards out, I had reservations at the Club Wyndham, a short walk from the venue, and they were massively overbooked; I managed to find lodgings at a cheap-sleep motel in Arlington, about a fifteen-minute drive away. This led to the necessity of taking an Uber ride each way instead of walking, but I took the opportunity to make some lemonade out of those lemons and, on my morning and evening trips, I conducted an informal survey of my Uber drivers, every one of whom was an immigrant. You can read the results of that here.
On the first day, I slipped away from the venue with a couple of my RedState colleagues to see the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery, which was a deeply moving event; if you’re ever in the area, I can’t recommend it enough. The ceremony, the precision, the tradition; it was, to understate it a little, impressive.
While there were a lot of speakers, I spent a lot of time wandering around the venue rather than parking myself in the “Media” pit. I spent some time outside in the smoking area, enjoying a cigar and talking with some guys who represented the informal “Maple Leaf MAGA” movement, and they had the caps (and accents, eh) to prove it. These Canadian types realized as they told me, that Canada’s economy depends in large part on the U.S., and they are convinced that the election of Donald Trump would benefit not only America’s economy but also Canada’s. They were not friends, buddies, or guys of Justin Castro Trudeau but didn’t offer any opinions as to when the Canadian PM might be set adrift.
I was also interviewed briefly by Newsmax’s John Tabacco of “Wise Guys with John Tabacco,” who was interested in getting to chat with an Alaskan.
Several of the CPAC speakers stood out. Mark Levin was absolutely on fire during his segment, and he had the crowd on their feet several times. Tulsi Gabbard spoke about her political evolution, and she sure seems to have been red-pilled in the last few years.
And, of course, on the last day, there was Donald Trump.
Whatever anyone thinks of Trump, he knows how to fire up a crowd. He told jokes, and he repeatedly went off-script, walking away from the mike a couple of times to act out parts of his long-winded stories. He does a great impression of the befuddled, shuffling Joe Biden. About halfway through his speech, he wandered off into a stream-of-consciousness story which started in Mexico and wandered over to Iraq, describing a harrowing night landing in Air Force One, then he went on to meet some generals and an unknown soldier named “Raisin” Cane. The story eventually wandered back to Mexico and how he negotiated Mexico’s help in closing the border, but whereas if Joe Biden had wandered off like that, people would have wondered just what the hell was going on; somehow, though, Trump made it work, producing laughter and cheers from the crowd. This crowd, at least, loved the guy. Trump was predictably Trump, right down to showing up almost an hour late. He gave a noteworthy speech, showing humor, a penchant for storytelling, some needle-pointed jabs at Joe Biden, and in short, came off as what he is – a real-estate guy from Queens.
I hung around to see Argentinian President Javier Milei, who was uncharacteristically subdued and wonky, but he has a good command of the value of free-market economics. I felt for him, though; following Trump was a tough row to hoe with that crowd.
One of the greatest things about events like this is the occasional chance to shake hands with someone and say “Hey, I’ve always wanted to meet you!” During this event, I not only got some face-to-face time with my RedState colleagues, but also with pundit and author Kurt Schlichter, Townhall’s Larry O’Connor, and a bevy of motivated and enthusiastic attendees. I was interviewed by Newsmax’s John Tabacco, and just generally spent a lot of time gassing with people hanging around.
In summary? The whole thing was, for me, worth the trip. Now that I’m pretty firmly established in a second career in journalism, this was worth attending not only for the presenters but also for the chance to meet other people in the business. Will I go back? Probably not until the next presidential election year.  Part of the reason I attended this year was because of all the hooraw about this fall’s election, and I doubt I’ll make that long journey in a year when there just isn’t as much going on.
But then, who knows what might happen next?
The Achilles’ heel of Trump’s speaking style is that the very thing that fires up an in-person crowd is what produces a gold mine of oppo soundbites. And soundbites have a much bigger reach than you will ever get in-person.
And my very first First. I feel so . . . special.
You’re not.
So fucking special?
Weirdo.
So I don’t belong here?
You know, special is another word for handicapped.
Finally, somebody gets the joke.
Yes. He goes off script, and he often has a poor choice of words that are easy to follow in context, but that can be easily taken out of context.
yeah, it’s tied to the “seriously vs. literally” thing with him
A huge part of the divide is the people who hate him the most are often pedants, and that will drive them insane.
Calling them pedants is backwards. They are willfully finding the worst possible spin and they go to great lengths to do so, which makes them seem pedantic.
Agreed. That “bloodbath” thing last weekend tells you all you need to know.
Yup. Even I cringed when I heard the context. It was obvious what the left was going to do with it.
So, they get pedant on?
Russian Pedant Hookers.
Great band name or the greatest band name?
Very much this.
When I arrived, I went to check into my lodgings, only to find myself refused – and, yes, I will call the bastards out, I had reservations at the Club Wyndham, a short walk from the venue, and they were massively overbooked
Sorry.
It’s good you found something.
I have the survey queued up for later reading.
obligatory
Did you catch Peter Navarro’s speech as he’s about to head to prison on a ridiculous charge?
https://youtu.be/RMMR_HRE-aQ?feature=shared
Tulsi Gabbard spoke about her political evolution, and she sure seems to have been red-pilled in the last few years.
She was at Liberty Forum. I viewed her speech as a bit empty. The moderated Q&A session had a little more interesting stuff to it.
A bunch of folks have been pushing a Defend the Guard bill in NH. It passed the state house but for some reason had to go back into committee. It sometimes happens as some bills with fiscal impact have to go through the fiscal committee before heading to the state senate. I’m not sure of the fiscal impact here but I’m digressing.
The moderator asked Gabbard about the bill. Gabbard supports the bill. She thinks if we go to war, Congress needs to do its job and declare war. She also said her father is a state senator in Hawaii who is pushing a version of this bill in Hawaii. I found the bill, he’s not the sponsor, but maybe he’s working behind the scenes? References in another comment because I’m at the two link limit.
Tulsi Gabbard’s dad’s wikipedia page
Hawaii state senate version of Defend the Guard.
Relevant:
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/gearscout/2018/10/05/this-is-the-special-m17-pistol-that-will-guard-the-unknown-soldier/
If that is anything other than a Colt New Service, something has gone terrible wrong with this country.
/Reads article, sighs.
The 21-round mags have more space for engraving.
Shiny.
whereas if Joe Biden had wandered off like that, people would have wondered just what the hell was going on; somehow, though, Trump made it work,
It helps to not have dementia.
If Joe had wandered off, he wouldn’t have come back.
One of them is your uncle who’s still sharp and who gets on a roll telling rambly stories that everybody likes to listen to. The other is your uncle who was always bitter and nasty, and is now clearly demented. He’s a walking corpse and everybody knows it.
Nice writeup, thanks Animal!
Glibs’ not so cryto-Republican allegiance confirmed!
/sarc
Thanks mr Animal!
Seconded. Great to see what this is like.
Now OMWC has to take one for the team and go to a Biden rally.
Eror 404 – event not found.
Canada’s economy depends in large part on the U.S
I wish more of their retailers would depend on the US. It was a royal pain in the maple leaf to find one that would ship Canada West boots to the US. Glad I persisted though. So much better romeos/chelseas than are sold here. Made in Canada not China and have construction that boots used to have, not the godawful sneaker style crap.
My new hire sent me this today.
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department
I weep for our future if this is what kids think libertarianism is
.
Sad /trump
Disappointed. No Mexicans or ass sex.
You should fire them.
Didn’t one of our one write a spoof version of that?
And yet, still funnier than Hannah Gadsby.
It’s not even well written enough for me to bother reading past the first paragraphish span.
Ah The New Yorker, the magazine for those who enjoy shitty cartoons and bad analysis.
“Christ what an asshole.”
There was a nugget of funny in that shit pile.
“The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.”
Is it wrong that I enjoyed it? I have no problem with poking fun at libertarians. Like the “AM I BEING DETAINED?” articles on the Bee, those are funny.
Where they go wrong is thinking that “muh roadz!” is a comprehensive criticism of libertarianism, rather than the easily refuted jab at a theoretical situation that’s not going to happen in reality.
What self-respecting libertarian would rent his gun? “X as a service” and “you will own nothing and like it” are leftie-coded.
Kids don’t think that. People in the depths of the Narrative Bubble do.
What gives it away? It’s in the New Yorker.
They got one thing right: at least a privately funded police force might actually try to get your stolen property back.
I didn’t even bother with the last stolen trailer.
Speaking of “faculties” CNN has an article up about how Biden’s campaign schedule shows how incredibly vigorous and dynamic he is compared to Trump, who is just hanging out at Mar a Lago playing golf between court appearances.
Hey, I’ll have you know Trump was at a rally just a few short miles from my house in SW OH when he made the notorious “bloodbath” comment! (I was not at the rally.)
Wow! Years from now that will be known as the place where the Diet Coke Rebellion started.
It’s pretty insane. If you watch Biden’s press conference addressing the Hur report (where he also bizarrely mixes up Mexico and Egypt while talking about the Gaza situation), it’s clear that the press badly wants him to quit. But as long as he doesn’t, they’ll carry water for him, and do everything they can to drag his dead horse carcass across the finish line.
I’ve said this before, but it has to be demoralizing to work so hard to defend that corrupt senile POS. They have to do so much drinking at the end of the day.
This is the funniest possible outcome, so I’m glad it’s happening. The only thing that will make it funnier is if Trump wins.
LOL
My new hire sent me this today.
I was waiting for the funny part.
Ah The New Yorker, the magazine for those who enjoy shitty cartoons and bad analysis.
And haughty disdain for the lower castes.
What’s lower caste than journalist?
Games Journalist?
This. Gaming journalism is filled with people who don’t like games and want to be “real” journalists, yet are too incompetent to clear that low bar.
Politician?
Actor.
Actors have some redeeming qualities, what with their overlap with prostitutes.
what with their overlap with prostitutes.
I was going to defend the hookers, then choose to remain silent instead.
https://www.quora.com/During-the-Classical-Antiquity-is-it-true-that-actors-and-entertainers-had-roughly-the-same-social-status-as-prostitutes-That-is-to-say-they-would-not-be-elevated-to-celebrity-status-nor-would-their-opinions-be-held
What’s even more bizarre is that, apparently, comedians are at the top of the actor/hooker/journalist stack.
They were the only group to get invites to Caesar’s Palace.
Good thing you maintained your cool when the hotel was overbooked. It could have been a bloodbath.
I knew a guy in that situation who actually slept on a couch in the hotel lobby. They found him a room next day.
Great write-up Animal. I also really like legal immigrants. Many work for me and I work for others. Hard working people with great attitudes and real perspective on what immense opportunities are available for those who want to work for it.
I can even say I am okay with illegal migrants who are putting in hard work for a better life. The issue is the process is so damn broken.
^This^
I also know that there are several guys I worked with at a previous company who were from Spain, Mexico, Philippines and India who were all doing very well as software developers who are really stuck in the green card process because of all the illegals clogging the system.
The System is to give preference to poor people who hoof it over the border instead of giving green cards to smart people who pay lots of taxes.
Illegals who work are at the top of the illegal immigrant stack.
But they’re still illegal. At this point, I’m not particularly willing to make exceptions. Because look where that has gotten us. Absolutely, fix the damn laws. But until then, enforce them. In fact, enforcing them is what will put fixing them on the fast track.
FedGov agencies issue iPhones like candy and then turnaround and sue Apple for iPhone monopoly?
I missed the whole morning thread. Was this stupid lawsuit discussed this morning?
Apple got outbid by Android?
Alphabet calling in a marker.
Great write-up Animal. I also really like legal immigrants. Many work for me and I work for others. Hard working people with great attitudes and real perspective on what immense opportunities are available for those who want to work for it.
If only we could trade our Ivy League know it alls for them.
Donald is the betht at speechthes!
Having had to listen to a lot of Trump speeches, I have heard that Raisin Cane story before. I should have sent you a stack of stickers to plaster all over the venue.
Heh heh.
I had this vision of you, hunched over a computer and marking timestamps for Hat and Hair. And chugging a 2 liter soda bottle.
said in the Hats voice “its not soda, its Mountain Dew! Elixir of the gods.”
Back in the 80s, we bought a new computer systems to build simulators from a new vendor. The system had issues. So the vendor dispatched one of their software geeks to come fix the system.
He showed up in a ratty sports coat with an ugly tie. He put a bag of double stuffed oreos and a two-liter bottle of jolt cola on the table and started to work.
In a couple of hours, things were moving smoothly.
Used to be you could only get away with that when you really knew your stuff.
Nowadays any lazy schlub does it and doesn’t deliver results.
Great roundup Animal. Thanks for the boots on the ground.
Looks like my bracket is going to be busted right out the gate.
OT – I’m sick of dealing with people so fucking stupid it’s a marvel that they remember to breathe.
I feel like I’m being attacked.
I feel like he’s quoting from my journal.
Let me see if I can cheer you up some.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBNss2PMj60
🎶 I gotta get out of this place…🎶
“Where Globalism Goes to Die”
We can only hope. What an about face from the Bush years. That dynasty defined (and wrecked) repubs for decades.
Turn the clock back before it’s too late
In a report released Wednesday, the U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union and research arm UNITAR said some 62 million tons of “e-waste” was generated in 2022, enough to fill tractor-trailers that could be lined up bumper to bumper around the globe. It’s on track to reach 82 million tons by 2030.
——-
The U.N. says 22% of the e-waste mass was properly collected and recycled in 2022. It is expected to fall to 20% by the end of the decade because of “staggering growth” of such waste due to higher consumption, limited repair options, shorter product life cycles, growing “electronification” of society, and inadequate e-waste management infrastructure, the agencies said.
We’re killing Mother Gaia with unrestricted access to modern technology. Only the cloud dwellers should be permitted to have such things.
But also we need all cars to be EV’s.
If you are among those permitted to have personal transportation.
Otherwise, walkable, err, wheelable city for you!
And loaded with tech!
Nice business there. Shame if anything were to happen to it.
Elizabeth Warren Urges SEC to Investigate Tesla Over Board Independence
Nice Satellites there, be a shame if they never get off the ground.
Are you suggesting that FedGov’s preferred “partner” Boeing is having some kind of issues?
We’ll never know since their whistleblower committed “suicide”.
I hope Tesla’s next set of financials mention the risk of politically-motivated prosecutions in the risk portion.
Loved this side-track. I too am impressed with the grit the legals have.
Missed that. Thanks for pointing it out!
I meant to add you’re unlikely to find any illegals at Uber or the like. They are pretty high-profile and already under The State’s radar for reasons that make no sense to me other than spite.
The whole article comes so close and yet completely misses.
It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/03/covid-grief-trauma-memory-biden-trump/677828/
Bonus:
President Donald Trump mishandled the crisis and peddled misinformation about COVID. But with 2020 a traumatic blur, Trump seems to have become the beneficiary of our collective amnesia, and Biden the repository for lingering emotional discontent.
But enough about “non-essential jobs” and forced medical procedures.
Is it wrong that I enjoyed it?
Nope.
Some days I’m more sensitive than others, but I found it dripping with all-too-predictable supercilious sneering.
President Donald Trump mishandled the crisis
As far as I’m concerned his biggest mistake was not firing Foochy and Birx as soon as they started trying to stir up the panic.
Trump is a notorious germaphobe. He got spooked, and then let the “experts” run wild. It’s not clear to me that Trump would have corrected course if he had been sworn into office in 2021. But we know that Biden made everything worse than it was when he took office.
I remember reports that he was going to lift the lockdown because of what it was doing to the economy. I don’t think I can find those right now, but he was indeed going to change course. Also he did not mandate the shot for everyone under penalty of job loss. That was Biden, all over. The original announcement was for the infirm and elderly.
That would be a good study to go back and read the news records.
Trump was terrible on the pandemic.
Biden, to no one’s surprise, was worse.
Great write-up, thanks for sharing! I’m surprised they had Millei follow Trump, the organizers should have known better. Did Bukele speak there, and did you catch it? I thought I heard he was going but didn’t follow the news that closely at the time.
” I wandered away from the Great Land (bear in mind that it gets more difficult and uncomfortable every day for me to leave Alaska for any reason at all, except maybe visiting kids and grandkids.)”
It gets harder and harder, doesn’t it? My g’daughter and husband (and now great grandson) are there. My trips to Alaska gave me a lot of wishful thinking time. OTOH watching the weather makes growing old here a bit easier.
Thanks, Animal, for taking good notes to share with us
it’s like they pulled the youngest reporter they could find with no idea about the subject or the vocabulary associated with the story.
Tilting.
Underside.
https://apnews.com/article/japan-south-korean-tanker-capsized-coast-guard-b947a1a32ae089882edc6b033bfa2fef
I remember reports that he was going to lift the lockdown because of what it was doing to the economy.
He was at least going outside the CDC panic bubble, and listening to Atlas and others. The evidence was rapidly accumulating, for those willing to look, that the Plague wasn’t what the hysterics were claiming.
Apparently he wasn’t really listening to Atlas, because he just kept on doing whatever Fauci and Birx wanted.