The Texas GOP Held Its Convention on Zoom - and It Was a Comic Disaster

[muriel_volestrangler]

Any lingering doubts that this year’s Texas Republican convention would be a goat rodeo of galactic proportions surely dissipated around 10 p.m. on July 13, when Walter West, a member of the party’s executive committee, swung a bottle of Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey toward his webcam and, by extension, at James Dickey, the party’s much put-upon chairman.“Don’t drink the Kool-Aid,” West warned colleagues as he waved the open bottle. But despite his protestations, it was West who had drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid, and so had the Texas GOP. The only thing left to do was to watch the bodies fall.
...
At this point, some SREC members were still pushing to hold an in-person convention of some kind—perhaps dozens of in-person meetings across the state. Dickey, displaying an almost supernatural patience, tried to explain that this was impossible. Many did not seem to believe him. Walter West, the Skrewball guy, replaced his Zoom background with a photoshopped black and white image of his face with glowing red eyes, captioned “I TOLD YOU SO,” displaying a kind of touching obliviousness to the reality that his intransigence was, in fact, part of the reason this thing was becoming a disaster.

Dickey suggested they might be able to use other software to fix the mess, but that the convention would have to be pushed back. Members began working on a proposed new schedule in Google Docs. But because the URL of the draft was shared on the Zoom stream, anyone was able to edit it. First, some clever troll started scribbling yellow lines across the doc. Then, someone made an addition to the proposed Saturday schedule. “Peepeepoopoo,” it read.
...
One of Allen West’s first acts was to make Walter West, of the Skrewball bottle, the party’s new sergeant at arms—putting him in charge, essentially, of enforcing discipline at party gatherings. It is now Allen’s duty, with Walter at his right side, to plan that second convention. Dickey, no doubt, will be watching at home in a bathrobe with a tall glass of Skrewball in hand. Your problem now, suckers!

https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/texas-gop-convention-zoom-disaster/

As Texas Monthly says, apropos of nothing, did you hear that schools are opening back up in a few weeks?

These guys couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery.

[yankee87]

1. Allen West!!!!!!!!

Only the best for the Rethuglican Party.

[onetexan]

2. "Hours of confused Zooming"

the writer has a wry sense of humor

"For years, attending the Texas GOP convention was like walking around the lower decks of the Death Star. And I mean that as a compliment... They fought bitterly and a lot of them hated each other. And yet, somehow, they reliably came together so that when old Grand Moff Tarkin turned the ignition switch, something big always went boom."

[salin]

3. Fyre Festival - texas gop convention version.

Funny - but in a really disturbing sort of way given the power these folks wield in Texas.

[yellowcanine]

4. The fact that they had to go to the carpetbagger Alan West tells you what you need to know about the

Texas Republican Party. Kind of reminds me abut the time the Illinois Republicans recruited Alan Keyes to run against Barack Obama for U.S. Senate. Of course, they denied that it had anything to do with the fact that Keyes was black, but everybody else knew that was so much horseshit.
Mother Jones has a lot to say on the subject.
https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/07/what-the-return-of-allen-west-says-about-the-delusional-state-of-the-republican-party/

[Gothmog]

5. The Texas Democratic invention was online and was a great event