Matthew Knott February 28, 2021 — 12.10pm https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-...ble-down-on-ex-president-20210228-p576gy.html Orlando, Florida: Even before you step inside the Conservative Political Action Conference, America’s largest annual gathering of right-wing activists, it’s clear who commands the hearts and minds of today’s Republican Party base. A cigarette-smoking man wearing a red “Bikers for Trump” hat is circling the conference venue on an oversized tricycle. His bike is emblazoned with a sign that reads: “Trump was right about everything.” A woman, wrapped in an American flag, waves a giant flag that says: “F--- Biden and f--- you for voting for him.” Tommy Zegan with his golden Donald Trump statue at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.CREDIT:MATTHEW KNOTT Inside four-star Hyatt hotel that is hosting the conference, the adoration for the former president is even more intense. The must-see attraction at this year’s event is a giant, glistening gold statue of Trump wearing thongs on his feet and holding a wand. On Monday (AEDT) the conference-goers will be able to see Trump himself, when the three-day event culminates in Trump’s first speech since leaving the White House. The artist who made the statue, Tommy Zegan, explains that it is taking a jab at former president Barack Obama, who once said of Trump’s promise to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States: “What magic wand do you have?” This year’s conference is taking place just over a month since Trump left the White House and Democrats took control of the US Senate. But it is accompanied by none of the soul-searching and internecine debates you might expect following such significant defeats. Then president Donald Trump hugs an American flag at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference. CREDIT:BLOOMBERG That’s because many of those attending the event do not believe Trump lost the election – despite there being no persuasive evidence of widespread voter fraud. In order to return to political dominance, so the thinking goes, Republicans don’t need a new candidate or to adjust their policy agenda: they must simply find a way to stop their opponents from cheating next time. A Trump supporter on a tricycle at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida. CREDIT:MATTHEW KNOTT “It was rigged,” Zegan says of the November election. “There were too many anomalies.” If Trump were to run again in 2024, Zegan says, he would definitely support him. Anna Villalobos, who is running a stall at the conference selling MAGA (Make America Great Again) hammocks, says: “The numbers don’t add up. How could 80 million people vote for Biden but only 20 million follow him on Twitter? I 100 per cent believe they stole the election.” Ronald Solomon, who runs the MAGA Mall, which sells pro-Trump paraphernalia, says he is already doing a roaring trade in “Trump 2024” flags and caps. “If Trump wants the nomination, he gets it,” Solomon says. It’s the same story on the main stage, where speaker after speaker offers the same formula for returning to power: doubling down on Trumpism. “Let me tell you this right now: Donald J. Trump ain’t going anywhere,” Texas senator Ted Cruz tells the crowd to loud applause. “These deplorables are here to stay.” Ronald Solomon, at the Maga Mall, says the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination is Trump’s for the taking.CREDIT:MATTHEW KNOTT Florida senator Rick Scott says abandoning Trump’s policies on trade, immigration and China would be like reverting to antiquated technology such as flip-phones or typewriters. “We will not win the future by trying to go back to where the Republican Party used to be,” he says. “If we do, we will lose the working base that President Trump so animated. We’re going to lose elections across the county and, ultimately, we’re going to lose our nation.” Democrats in Washington, Scott says, “are trying to turn this country into a communist ash heap”. Florida congressman Matt Gaetz says: “We proudly represent the pro-Trump America First wing of the conservative movement. We’re not really a wing, we’re the whole body.” Gaetz jokes that if Liz Cheney, the Wyoming congresswoman who voted to impeach Trump last month, had been at the conference she would have been booed off stage. “What does that say?” he asks. “The leadership of our party is not found in Washington, D.C.” As would be expected at such an event, there are panel sessions on abortion, gun ownership and foreign policy. Big tech bias against conservatives is a major focus, with several speakers advocating breaking up social media giants such as Facebook and Google. It’s an interventionist position that until recently would have been well oustide the conservative mainstream. But, by far, the dominant theme at this year’s conference is election integrity. Seven panel sessions in total are dedicated to “protecting elections”, with speakers proposing a series of new measures to tighten voting rules. “Democrats, not Republicans, installed ballot drop boxes on sidewalks, where nobody oversaw them,” conservative commentator Deroy Murdock says. “How many fraudulent ballots got deposited in these boxes unchecked and then got counted? Who knows.” T.W Shannon, a former state legislator from Oklahoma, appears to justify the deadly January 6 assault on Congress by saying: “The reason that people stormed the Capitol was because they felt hopeless because of a rigged election.” Donald Trump junior, himself seen as a possible future Republican presidential candidate, delights the crowd by using air quotes when referring to Joe Biden’s “80 million votes” and joking that the event should be renamed TPAC: the Trump Political Action Conference. Offering a preview of his father’s upcoming address, he says: “I imagine it will not be what we call a ‘low-energy’ speech. And I assure you that it will solidify Donald Trump and all of your feelings about the MAGA movement as the future of the Republican Party.”
I believed once cultism was a thing of the past, how sadly mistaken. It's alive and well, thriving in the US of A.
I thought most died in Jonestown, and the responsible genes would no longer be passed down to future generations. Guess not. Apparently, a certain type of personality really desires having a would-be hero-figure in their life; regardless his dishonesty, criminality, dumbness, inexperience, immorality, hatefulness, racism, incompetence, and overall piece-of-shitness
Trump knows how to work up a crowd. Tony Robbins could learn a thing or two. Billy Graham rest his soul would be proud of Trump. Nixon & Billy Graham
Trump has captured the Republican party – and that's great news for Biden The Trump party is only interested in appealing to its base. Democrats in Washington have the public square to themselves https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/28/trump-republican-party-biden-democrats Donald Trump formally anoints himself the head of the Republican party at today’s Conservative Political Action Conference. The Grand Old Party, founded in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin, is now dead. What’s left is a dwindling number of elected officials who have stood up to Trump but are now being purged. Even Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell’s popularity has dropped 29 points among Kentucky Republicans since he broke with Trump. In its place is the Trump party, whose major goal is to advance Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Its agenda is to exact vengeance on Republicans who didn’t or won’t support the lie or who voted to impeach or convict Trump for inciting the violence that the lie generated, and to keep attention focused on the former president’s grievances. As the Trump party takes over the GOP, anti-Trump Republicans are abandoning the party in droves – thereby weakening it for general elections while simultaneously strengthening Trump’s hand inside it. It is great news for Democrats and Joe Biden. Democrats couldn’t hope for a more perfect foil – a defeated one-term president who never cracked 47% of the popular vote, left office with just 39% approval and is now hovering at an abysmal 34%, whom most Americans dislike or loathe, and a majority believe incited an insurrection against the United States. The gift will keep giving. Courtesy of the supreme court, Trump’s tax returns will soon be raked across America like barnyard manure. Expect more of his shady business dealings to be exposed – more payoffs, cheats and cons – as well as civil and criminal prosecutions. The Trump party isn’t interested in appealing to the nation as a whole, anyway. It’s interested only in appealing to Trump and the base that worships him. All this is making it nearly impossible for congressional Republicans to mount a strong opposition to Biden’s ambitious plans for Covid relief followed by major investments in infrastructure and jobs. Lacking unity, leadership, strategy, clarity or a coherent message on anything other than Trump’s grievances, the Trump party is irrelevant to the large choices facing the nation. Democrats in Washington have the public square all to themselves. Biden is in the enviable position of getting most of America behind his agenda – and he can do so without a single Republican vote if Senate Democrats end the filibuster. Democrats have proven themselves capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. But if they and Biden use this opportunity as they should, by this time next year Covid will be a tragic memory, and the nation will be in the midst of an economic recovery propelling it toward full employment and rising wages. With the GOP in disarray and rabid Trumpism turning off ever more voters, the 2022 midterm elections could swell Democratic majorities in Congress. But the emergence of the Trump party is deeply worrisome for America. It is a dangerous, deluded, authoritarian and potentially violent faction that has no responsible role in a democracy. Its big lie enables supporters of the former president to believe their efforts to overturn the 2020 election were necessary to protect American democracy, and that they must continue to fight a “deep state” conspiracy to thwart Trump. This is an open invitation to violence. The big lie also justifies Trump Party efforts to suppress votes considered “fraudulent.” In 33 states, Trump Republican lawmakers are already pushing more than 165 bills intended to stop mail-in voting, increase voter ID requirements, make it harder to register to vote and expand purges of voter rolls. Democrats in Congress are responding with their proposed For the People Act, to expand voting through automatic voter registration across the country, early voting and enlarged mail-in voting. The incipient civil war pits a national Democratic party representing America’s majority against a state-based Trump Party representing a defiant and overwhelmingly white, working-class minority. It’s a recipe for a harsh clash between democracy and authoritarianism. Plus, there’s the small possibility Trump could run again in 2024 and win. What’s good for Biden and the Democrats in the short run is potentially disastrous for America over the longer term. One of its two major parties is centered on a big lie that threatens to blow up the nation, figuratively if not literally.
"Anna Villalobos, who is running a stall at the conference selling MAGA (Make America Great Again) hammocks, says: “The numbers don’t add up. How could 80 million people vote for Biden but only 20 million follow him on Twitter? I 100 per cent believe they stole the election...." Gee Anna, if you had only 80 million brain cells, which is probably about as much as a small bird, you'd realize that lots of folks don't use Twitter, much less follow politicians. Brainless millenial bitch.
Let's see the U.S. has a population of 331 Million. There are 68.7 Million Twitter users in the U.S. So roughly 20% of the population in the U.S. use Twitter. 80 million people voted for Joe Biden; 20 Million follow him on Twitter. 25% of his voters followed him on Twitter -- which is greater than 20% of the U.S. population being on Twitter. The reality is that Joe Biden over-achieved with his Twitter following.
After losing by 3 and 7 million votes red hats still haven't figured out The US doesn't want Trump as thier president.Im all for Trump being the nominee in 2024.
because she belongs to the new Generaation Fucktard where social media reflects all knowing truths and gospel. I bet she would be appaled to know a lot of people don't use social media to feel important haha