I think Vance is a very scary candidate for any political office. He really has no qualifications and has an authoritarian temperament He lacks a moral core.
"Everybody okay out there? None of you ruptured your diaphragm laughing? No eye rolls so severe they got stuck up there? Great, just checking."
Yes, laughing to keep from crying knowing that some insane number of people are going to vote for this truly unserious, deeply hateful ticket to lead America.
I think that Vance's disingenuous call to cease with name calling is in no small part related to the the tactics being used by both the Lincoln Project and George Conway's Antipsycho PAC, pointing out Trumple Thinskin's descent into dementia and madness. I am 100% behind this approach as one tactic, not just because I find it satisfying to know that it's really getting to him, but more importantly because you are not going to find much, if anything, in the corporate media about his mental health and rapid decompensation. Sure, part of it may appear to be hitting below the belt, but it is also backed up by the truth observable to highly esteemed mental health professionals, as well as any voter paying attention to the things he believes and the way he verbalizes them. Vance knows this. His attempts at righteous indignation come across as phony. Like his boss, he has no idea how to behave like a normal human.
I am not at all clear by the article title "You’re Allowed to Call Trump a Threat to Democracy", that I was somehow previously aware being not allowed to do publicly or in print media.
From my understanding of Trump's statement recently of investigating and possibly criminally charging any or all those supporting his opponents Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, including campaign officials, donors, lawyers and other prominent Americans who expressed Trump's threat to Democracy, Freedoms and women's autonomous personal health choices, including Abortion, if he were to regain the Presidency.
I therefore maybe disinclined to call Trump a threat to Democracy if I felt intimidated about doing so, as will so many unwilling to stand against tyranny and for their own best interest.
I hope others take up the mantle of what a significant sign the selection of Vance was to Trump as the sycophant and implementer if P 2025.
But, given his history and sponsorship by Thiel I think there is more to the story. There is an attempt to buy the Presidency by billionaires PT and EM who can’t be President but who can OWN the President by these two craven GOP money-grubbing grifters.
I like remembering Trump's family name in the old country, "Drumph." Thank you Linda. Perhaps it seems cruel, but Trump is all about giving nicknames that are derisive and with Kamala taking seeming joy in mispronouncing her first name.
But to Vance, VP's do matter, or can matter. Just think of John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson. Removing Agnew before Nixon spared us that discomfort. I know that Ronny Jackson told us that Trump might live to 150, but somehow, I think not. At his age the VP matters as it would and did with Biden. So Vance? We look at what he started with the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Let's be clear, he told Dana Bash last two days ago that "If I have to create stories, that is what I am going to do." I read primarily non fiction. How can it be interpreted as anything but fiction. He didn't say "if I'm going to pass on non verified rumors from constituents to focus on the larger issue, Immigration, that's what I'm going to do. Hold him to what he said, not what was in his head.
I don't know what happened to Vance post Hillbilly Elegy and today, but it seems to me that not much of it is good. I would like to counter Vance to Ohio's conservative governor, Mike DeWine. I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, for most of the 1990's. It is near Dayton, roughly midway between Springfield and Middletown where J.D. Vance grew up. I recall DeWine running for the U.S. Senate against the loved John Glenn ("Godspeed John Glenn"). He, or his campaign, ran an ad making fun of Glenn as an astronaut. Recall that Glenn orbited the earth three times and retuned to earth but there were major worries about his heat shield and he might be incinerated on re-entry. He and his capsule survived. DeWine lost, but his political career did not end. To cut to the chase I am a birdwatcher by hobby and profession and I loved to birdwatch at Shawnee State Park along the Ohio River near Portsmouth. There is naturalist there that takes some 5000 kids on the trails every year. The busses come nearly every weekday. Not long ago, Mike DeWine came to see the state park and she led him about. The visit was to be for a few hours, but it lasted for much longer. He wrote her a hand written letter and not long afterwards he visited the park where she guided him. He wrote another personal note. Who does that, especially a politician. Note how DeWine campaigned against the abortion initiative in 2023. He didn't agree with it, but tried to find common ground. I would have voted for the initiative. All I'm trying to say is DeWine is thoughtful, appreciative and decent and is now decrying what Trump and Vance are doing and is standing up for the immigrants. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump will tweet that "I hate Mike DeWine" as he is upsetting the narrative. Shouldn't DeWine as governor and their mayor know more than Trump, or even DeWine, whose job is carrying Trump's water and salving his gaffes. Here Vance started it, or Trump's conspiracy lady in-chief, Laura Loomer.
As for the danger Vance might pose, let's remember that he wrote the foreword to Kevin Robert's "By Dawn's Early Light, scheduled to come out in a few days but now delayed until just after the election. The reasons for its delay seem obvious to me, it's damaging to the campaign. I write books on birds, I write forewords. I always carefully look at the content in advance to make sure I want to promote the book. I assume Vance did this too and in fact he celebrates and repeats Robert's incendiary statement that it's fine to be more neutral in the times of daylight, but as darkness approaches and the wolves howl (wolves were extirpated from Ohio in about 1840), it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets (or now AR 15's). Rhetorical, maybe, but let's remember that Vance is buds with Roberts who is President of the Heritage Foundation and the funder for Project 2025. He writes off Project 2025, but his dismissive brush-off is hardly convincing that look back on Vance's recent history.
By the way we as Americans don't pronounce the name of the country right as the Haitians do. It is pronounced like the letters I and T. I always try to be respectful to say the name of the country, or city as they do. It is simply the decent and respectful thing to do. I did not vote for DeWine, but respected what he has done in recent years. For Trump and Vance, not so much. DeWine stood up prominently for what was wrong. Where are the rest of the GOP who seem to have gotten their tongues caught by an uneaten cat.
For nine years, this man has at the very least been whispering intonations of violence. Along with voicing overt inducements: "fight like hell, J6ers, or you won't have a country anymore." Totally OK for his rally fans to beat up any attendees who don't love his rhetoric. Mike Pence deserved that noose, for his disloyalty on J6. We all know the violent overtones that have been an integral part of his schtick. He loves it, and so do his crowds. American carnage, bloodbaths. He mashes these images into his speeches with just enough offhand other detail to be confusing: did he really say that? Hard to be exactly sure..... what was the context, exactly?
That's why it's rich beyond belief to be "framing" the democrats for this last awful episode at the golf club. He and YaleBilly have been inflaming emotions and inciting hate lately. Not the dems. My wickedly funny mother had a lot of old timey sayings that have not lost their sting. Such as the pot calling the kettle black.
Dems need to keep shouting from the roof tops the very real danger, and threat DT and JD represent. Not melodramatically, or shrilly. But under no circumstances should they accept this current attempt to be muzzled, or be seen as somehow complicit. Too much is at stake for this disingenuous attempt at deflection.
DT is indeed a Domestic Terrorist. That should be his well-deserved nickname: Domestic J. Terrorist. Witness what is happening today in Ohio with his and their own senator's blessing and rhetoric. Outrageous.
JD Shillbilly Vance can stuff it. We've listened to Donald John Drumph hateful rhetoric since he and Melanoma graced the USA as they rode down his fake-gold escalator in summer 2015. Now, Shillbilly has joined the bloated bully with his own vile rhetoric. News flash, Shillbilly! We're ignoring you until you and Drumph STFU. 💙🇺🇸🌊
Violence, political or otherwise is not just an intolerable threat to our nation it is a human instinct and, in our case, a unique American way of life. Empirical data doesn't lie. "Threats", intolerable or otherwise now qualify as a bona fide self-assertion badge of honor in our national lexicon, where one's self-expression may just prove fatal. The heroic glamourization of gunplay has fostered, for some, license to be aggressively individualistic, to scoff at rule of law or paying taxes et al. Proclaiming it newly discovered is now as pointless as citing legal precedents to understand our current political landscape. None of that matters anymore. It's a new day: The era of post decency and post truth is upon us. There is no precedent. All is a tabula rasa now.
Very informative. It’s not the first time they have been demonized, but this time seems particularly cruel and heartbreaking as they see their new and productive lives in Springfield destroyed.
That is laughable coming from Trump and Vance, considering that Trump has openly advocated for violence against protestors, and the media, at his rallies. He has talked about a bloodbath. He told his people they needed to go to the Capital and fight like hell or they’re weren’t going to have a country anymore. The election was over at that point, am I right? There was nothing left to fight over. And let’s not forget telling baseless lies about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield. What did they think they were going to get out of that?
I understand that both individuals that attempted to assassinate Donald Trump were Republicans. Is that correct? If so, how in the world do Trump/Vance justify their attacks on Democrats as perpetrators of violence? This gets more ridiculous by the day. And, yes, Donald Trump is and always has been an existential threat to democracy. I'm fighting and voting for the party that wants to turn the page on hate and open the door to possibility.
Who knows what either one thought. Routh clearly has more than a few screws loose with his tweets to celebrities, begging them to buy him planes, missiles, whatever. The one who died I'm guessing wanted his name up in lights; instead, he ended up dead.
I think Vance is a very scary candidate for any political office. He really has no qualifications and has an authoritarian temperament He lacks a moral core.
“Pet eating Vance” is way more scary than Trump.
"Everybody okay out there? None of you ruptured your diaphragm laughing? No eye rolls so severe they got stuck up there? Great, just checking."
Yes, laughing to keep from crying knowing that some insane number of people are going to vote for this truly unserious, deeply hateful ticket to lead America.
We know that even though Trump may lose, he's permanently damaged not just the GOP but 40(ish)% of our population's mindset.
There is not a vaccine for this.
And to make matters worse, the ones who needed the vaccine would be the very ones who refused to take it.
I think that Vance's disingenuous call to cease with name calling is in no small part related to the the tactics being used by both the Lincoln Project and George Conway's Antipsycho PAC, pointing out Trumple Thinskin's descent into dementia and madness. I am 100% behind this approach as one tactic, not just because I find it satisfying to know that it's really getting to him, but more importantly because you are not going to find much, if anything, in the corporate media about his mental health and rapid decompensation. Sure, part of it may appear to be hitting below the belt, but it is also backed up by the truth observable to highly esteemed mental health professionals, as well as any voter paying attention to the things he believes and the way he verbalizes them. Vance knows this. His attempts at righteous indignation come across as phony. Like his boss, he has no idea how to behave like a normal human.
I am not at all clear by the article title "You’re Allowed to Call Trump a Threat to Democracy", that I was somehow previously aware being not allowed to do publicly or in print media.
From my understanding of Trump's statement recently of investigating and possibly criminally charging any or all those supporting his opponents Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, including campaign officials, donors, lawyers and other prominent Americans who expressed Trump's threat to Democracy, Freedoms and women's autonomous personal health choices, including Abortion, if he were to regain the Presidency.
I therefore maybe disinclined to call Trump a threat to Democracy if I felt intimidated about doing so, as will so many unwilling to stand against tyranny and for their own best interest.
Great column today - so many important points!
I hope others take up the mantle of what a significant sign the selection of Vance was to Trump as the sycophant and implementer if P 2025.
But, given his history and sponsorship by Thiel I think there is more to the story. There is an attempt to buy the Presidency by billionaires PT and EM who can’t be President but who can OWN the President by these two craven GOP money-grubbing grifters.
I like remembering Trump's family name in the old country, "Drumph." Thank you Linda. Perhaps it seems cruel, but Trump is all about giving nicknames that are derisive and with Kamala taking seeming joy in mispronouncing her first name.
But to Vance, VP's do matter, or can matter. Just think of John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, Teddy Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson. Removing Agnew before Nixon spared us that discomfort. I know that Ronny Jackson told us that Trump might live to 150, but somehow, I think not. At his age the VP matters as it would and did with Biden. So Vance? We look at what he started with the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. Let's be clear, he told Dana Bash last two days ago that "If I have to create stories, that is what I am going to do." I read primarily non fiction. How can it be interpreted as anything but fiction. He didn't say "if I'm going to pass on non verified rumors from constituents to focus on the larger issue, Immigration, that's what I'm going to do. Hold him to what he said, not what was in his head.
I don't know what happened to Vance post Hillbilly Elegy and today, but it seems to me that not much of it is good. I would like to counter Vance to Ohio's conservative governor, Mike DeWine. I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, for most of the 1990's. It is near Dayton, roughly midway between Springfield and Middletown where J.D. Vance grew up. I recall DeWine running for the U.S. Senate against the loved John Glenn ("Godspeed John Glenn"). He, or his campaign, ran an ad making fun of Glenn as an astronaut. Recall that Glenn orbited the earth three times and retuned to earth but there were major worries about his heat shield and he might be incinerated on re-entry. He and his capsule survived. DeWine lost, but his political career did not end. To cut to the chase I am a birdwatcher by hobby and profession and I loved to birdwatch at Shawnee State Park along the Ohio River near Portsmouth. There is naturalist there that takes some 5000 kids on the trails every year. The busses come nearly every weekday. Not long ago, Mike DeWine came to see the state park and she led him about. The visit was to be for a few hours, but it lasted for much longer. He wrote her a hand written letter and not long afterwards he visited the park where she guided him. He wrote another personal note. Who does that, especially a politician. Note how DeWine campaigned against the abortion initiative in 2023. He didn't agree with it, but tried to find common ground. I would have voted for the initiative. All I'm trying to say is DeWine is thoughtful, appreciative and decent and is now decrying what Trump and Vance are doing and is standing up for the immigrants. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump will tweet that "I hate Mike DeWine" as he is upsetting the narrative. Shouldn't DeWine as governor and their mayor know more than Trump, or even DeWine, whose job is carrying Trump's water and salving his gaffes. Here Vance started it, or Trump's conspiracy lady in-chief, Laura Loomer.
As for the danger Vance might pose, let's remember that he wrote the foreword to Kevin Robert's "By Dawn's Early Light, scheduled to come out in a few days but now delayed until just after the election. The reasons for its delay seem obvious to me, it's damaging to the campaign. I write books on birds, I write forewords. I always carefully look at the content in advance to make sure I want to promote the book. I assume Vance did this too and in fact he celebrates and repeats Robert's incendiary statement that it's fine to be more neutral in the times of daylight, but as darkness approaches and the wolves howl (wolves were extirpated from Ohio in about 1840), it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets (or now AR 15's). Rhetorical, maybe, but let's remember that Vance is buds with Roberts who is President of the Heritage Foundation and the funder for Project 2025. He writes off Project 2025, but his dismissive brush-off is hardly convincing that look back on Vance's recent history.
By the way we as Americans don't pronounce the name of the country right as the Haitians do. It is pronounced like the letters I and T. I always try to be respectful to say the name of the country, or city as they do. It is simply the decent and respectful thing to do. I did not vote for DeWine, but respected what he has done in recent years. For Trump and Vance, not so much. DeWine stood up prominently for what was wrong. Where are the rest of the GOP who seem to have gotten their tongues caught by an uneaten cat.
For nine years, this man has at the very least been whispering intonations of violence. Along with voicing overt inducements: "fight like hell, J6ers, or you won't have a country anymore." Totally OK for his rally fans to beat up any attendees who don't love his rhetoric. Mike Pence deserved that noose, for his disloyalty on J6. We all know the violent overtones that have been an integral part of his schtick. He loves it, and so do his crowds. American carnage, bloodbaths. He mashes these images into his speeches with just enough offhand other detail to be confusing: did he really say that? Hard to be exactly sure..... what was the context, exactly?
That's why it's rich beyond belief to be "framing" the democrats for this last awful episode at the golf club. He and YaleBilly have been inflaming emotions and inciting hate lately. Not the dems. My wickedly funny mother had a lot of old timey sayings that have not lost their sting. Such as the pot calling the kettle black.
Dems need to keep shouting from the roof tops the very real danger, and threat DT and JD represent. Not melodramatically, or shrilly. But under no circumstances should they accept this current attempt to be muzzled, or be seen as somehow complicit. Too much is at stake for this disingenuous attempt at deflection.
DT is indeed a Domestic Terrorist. That should be his well-deserved nickname: Domestic J. Terrorist. Witness what is happening today in Ohio with his and their own senator's blessing and rhetoric. Outrageous.
DT, Domestic Terrorist. Perfect name. Maybe that makes JD Junior Demon Seed.
JD Shillbilly Vance can stuff it. We've listened to Donald John Drumph hateful rhetoric since he and Melanoma graced the USA as they rode down his fake-gold escalator in summer 2015. Now, Shillbilly has joined the bloated bully with his own vile rhetoric. News flash, Shillbilly! We're ignoring you until you and Drumph STFU. 💙🇺🇸🌊
Violence, political or otherwise is not just an intolerable threat to our nation it is a human instinct and, in our case, a unique American way of life. Empirical data doesn't lie. "Threats", intolerable or otherwise now qualify as a bona fide self-assertion badge of honor in our national lexicon, where one's self-expression may just prove fatal. The heroic glamourization of gunplay has fostered, for some, license to be aggressively individualistic, to scoff at rule of law or paying taxes et al. Proclaiming it newly discovered is now as pointless as citing legal precedents to understand our current political landscape. None of that matters anymore. It's a new day: The era of post decency and post truth is upon us. There is no precedent. All is a tabula rasa now.
Reminds me of the old Vaudville joke
'Doc, it hurts when I do this.'
'Well, don't do that!'
Team Harris! There's a youth organizing call from the Harris/Walz campaign TOMORROW, please spread broadly to your youth networks! Registration link: https://events.democrats.org/event/698345/?fbclid=IwY2xjawFW5W9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdHZG6FtLf1fV6lhOXKopJTdy1hwQvX6xTY_f_jHv4mcv5hvLGH1bPZeaA_aem_i9C0ELdtR5aWa7gfBLiwnw
The Haitian Question
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-haitian-question
Very informative. It’s not the first time they have been demonized, but this time seems particularly cruel and heartbreaking as they see their new and productive lives in Springfield destroyed.
That is laughable coming from Trump and Vance, considering that Trump has openly advocated for violence against protestors, and the media, at his rallies. He has talked about a bloodbath. He told his people they needed to go to the Capital and fight like hell or they’re weren’t going to have a country anymore. The election was over at that point, am I right? There was nothing left to fight over. And let’s not forget telling baseless lies about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield. What did they think they were going to get out of that?
I understand that both individuals that attempted to assassinate Donald Trump were Republicans. Is that correct? If so, how in the world do Trump/Vance justify their attacks on Democrats as perpetrators of violence? This gets more ridiculous by the day. And, yes, Donald Trump is and always has been an existential threat to democracy. I'm fighting and voting for the party that wants to turn the page on hate and open the door to possibility.
Who knows what either one thought. Routh clearly has more than a few screws loose with his tweets to celebrities, begging them to buy him planes, missiles, whatever. The one who died I'm guessing wanted his name up in lights; instead, he ended up dead.