He’s doing better than Jeb Bush. Jeb had to ask his audience “Please clap”, but JD is so dynamic he can fire up at least one person to clap on their own.
Maybe we will get a chance to see him narftle the garthok.
Just wanted to come back and say I realize now the photo is altered. It still made me laugh.
Vance says that the best way to (bone)spur military recruitment is to elect Trump:
…A second Donald Trump administration, on the other hand, would spur an influx of new recruits, Vance insisted. “We know that we can have a strong military. We just need strong leadership, Laura, and I think if we want to fix that recruitment problem, the best thing we can do is reelect Donald J. Trump. People trust his leadership.”…
Vance hates his wife and children, so I suppose it’s to be expected that he hates his pets as well.
Vance today: Kamala Harris destroyed San Francisco
Vance in 2016: San Francisco is so much nicer in every way than that shithole I grew up in
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1831492947348705559
And the chaser;
I haven’t seen any evidence of this.
I don’t think he’s actually wrong about that, but for different reasons.
A whole lot of people join the US military for economic reasons - it’s the best job they can get to get them out of a depressed local economy, wherever it is they grew up. Electing Trump will kill most of the economic progress that Biden has made, making more people more desperate, and looking for the golden* ladder that the military can provide.
*Ladder may not actually be “golden”, offers made by military recruiters are not legally binding on the US military.
An interesting aside as to potential recruits from dead-end environments, be they dying industrial towns, far-flung ruralia, or blighted urban ghetto / barrio / etc. …
To what degree do they seize upon the military as a more acceptable reason / excuse in their families’ eyes to leave town than just “I’m moving to a bigger city / better place in search of better jobs and mates”
Inherent in the idea of enlisting is that you’re taking on a full time job for a temporary term of 3 (or whatever) years. At the end of that temp gig you’re coming home to your birthplace. That same return is certainly possible after taking a civilian job in the big city, but it sure doesn’t have that air of inevitability.
So if Vance is such a dully unlikable pound of flesh, why is he still out there making the rounds. Apparently it’s because in MAGA world he is a good pick.
My favorite bit: Trump “has privately praised Mr. Vance by comparing himself to Vince Lombardi, telling people that his eye for political talent was now on par with the Hall of Fame football coach."
Does anyone remember the “Spitting Image” program from the 1980s? It was a British TV show, and on my side of the pond, they are best known for making a classic Genesis video. Anyway, ISTR that “60 Minutes” did a piece on them, and I remember that John Major’s puppet was in grayscale. The puppets for Vance (and Pence, too for that matter) also could be done like that. (I hadn’t seen that video in ages; it looks like Mike Rutherford’s puppet is playing a guitar borrowed from Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.)
I thought that was a Hot Wheels car.
JD’s child care plan. Get grandma and grandpa to babysit. OR… there are lots of people who love kids but can’t get the certification so make that easier.
Chester the Molester is about to make a yuge comeback.
Has anyone read the book Hillbilly Elegy? I was forced to watch the movie (don’t ask) and the movie came across as Vance wanting everyone to know how awesome he was for risking his law career to help out his loser family.
Honestly, if you want to understand Vance, I’d recommend The Red and the Black instead. It’s about a cynical, intellectual young man living through the Bourbon restoration in 1820s France, who’s an atheist but memorizes the Bible from front to back because he sees the Church as the route to power and wealth, while pining for what he imagines was a lost golden age when Napoleon was in charge and life was good.
JD Vance says school shootings are a “fact of life”
I read it. There’s no cohesive lesson to take away from it, really. He had a chaotic childhood, somehow managed to get into Ohio State despite what he says was spotty attendance in high school and at least was self-aware enough to know that was wasn’t prepared to attend college right after high school - he didn’t know where the money was going to come from either.
He spoke to some out-of-town relatives who suggested he join the military. For a lot of kids who grow up in environments like he did, that’s not a bad choice - it gave him a sense of structure and stability and a place to actually mature a bit, and he credits the Marine Corps for giving him that.
Throughout the whole book though, you get a sense that he’s floundering around trying to figure out what he believes in, and trying to find an anchor somewhere - anywhere. I think he’s still doing that now (unfortunately for the rest of us). He has nothing to teach us about the environment he grew up in, which is how the book was marketed.
I’m not one bit surprised he was attracted to Catholicism, and I’m sure Agent Orange sensed the lost soul he is and is taking full of advantage of it. If he’d been VP instead of Pence back in 2020, things may have played out very differently.
One more time…
I read it back when it was current, and I recall thinking at the time that I just didn’t believe most of his anecdotes. That’s not to say I don’t believe the general story line. But I recall when he talks about maybe being gay and his grandmother asked something like “Do you want to suck dick? No? Then you’re not gay” I just didn’t believe that exchange happened. I don’t know why. That’s just one example.