I read Vance's memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, a few years ago and watched the movie sometime after that.

There's no doubt that Vance is being groomed for the presidency.

His backstory is in every respect that of a 'white Obama' - a son of Appalachia, born into poverty, surrounded by family dysfunction and community despair...

Trump may be a possible vehicle to the White House, but he is only the pontoon for Vance - the great Republican hope.

With Trump's attention span like that of a child, I'm predicting that if Trump wins the election, it will be Vance, with a presidential level of security clearance, who will be the goto for the security and defence agencies.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Jul 19^th, 2024 at 1:32pm:


Not Appalachia, according to this:

Hillbilly phony': Appalachian tears back curtain on J.D. Vance's 'fictional' background

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) is a "hillbilly phony" whose memoir of growing up in Middle America deflects the hard truths Republicans don't want to acknowledge about poverty and opportunity, wrote Caleb Miller for The Daily Beast.

Vance, now former President Donald Trump's running mate, grew up in Middletown, Ohio, left that life to be a venture capitalist in California, and made his fame writing his "Hillbilly Elegy" memoir that essentially concluded people in Appalachia are lazy, violent, and unable to work hard enough to solve the social problems holding them down. But that's not right at all, wrote Miller.

"When viewed from a distance, the arc of my life looks remarkably similar to his," wrote Miller. "Unlike Vance, my story actually starts in Appalachia. I was born in 1997, one town over from Coal City which doesn’t have luxuries like hospitals. My parents were white but that was basically their only advantage. My father is chronically ill and disabled. After getting a hysterectomy, and on the advice of her doctors, my mother started taking OxyContin. This prescription turned into an addiction that would carry her to an early grave." He detailed how they subsisted on cornbread and garden vegetables, and how his grandmother sold her jewelry when he needed a computer.

Ultimately, Miller managed to find success, getting into Harvard and working in finance. But it was not through his hard work alone, as Vance would have people believe was the case for himself.

"The problem with Vance’s conception of the American Dream is that it is just a dream. A fiction. A convincing lie that successful people tell themselves in order to claim all the credit for their accomplishments," wrote Miller — in reality, he needed hand-ups at every turn to get where he is. "I never would have gotten into Harvard if my alumni interviewer hadn’t pleaded with the admissions committee to seriously consider me. I never would have visited Harvard if not for a generous mentor offering to pay for flights for me and my grandmother."


Moreover, he wrote, his mother's death had nothing to do with a lack of morals.

"Although she struggled, she was a great mom who loved her family with her whole heart and we loved her – and will forever miss her – just as fiercely. In Vance’s worldview, my mother died because she’s a bad person who made terrible choices. That’s another lie. My mother died because the American healthcare system is broken. She died because senators buckled to pharmaceutical lobbyists. Now I’m worried about the rest of my family. If Republicans gain power, they want to eliminate Medicare, which would hurt my grandma, and eliminate Medicaid, which would destroy my dad."**

Vance's life story about growing up a hillbilly, concluded Miller, is "just another tool for Vance to wave around when it’s convenient, and hide in the shed when it isn’t. JD Vance isn’t a hillbilly. To me, he’s a parasite, feasting off a culture that he really doesn’t understand ... This is the core of why Vance fills me with rage. He wants you to believe that he pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and he wants you to look away as he pulls up the ladder behind him."

** Trump didn't mention Medicare and Medicaid today (mentioned almost everything else in a rambling, off the cuff speech); does he intend to remove them? (If so, that is his weakness, most Americans are in favour of that support).   

Agreed, but you're assuming there's a plan.

The big fella doesn't take advice, acts on whims and forgets them after five minutes.

If JD starts competing for publicity, he'll be on the Mike Pence list for a lynching.

Remember, every charismatic new white hope in the big fella's "A Team" ended up the same way - Sloppy Steve, the Mooch, Gary Cohn.

And the grey beards - the oil execs, Goldman Sachs boys and four star generals quit in disgust. Every last one. The only ones to last all the way through were his family.

JD has to survive in the most dysfunctional workplace imaginable - a Trump administration. He'll have no allies. He'll have to compete for funds, staff and office space. He'll have to tolerate the bullying, gaslighting and temper tantrums.

The good thing about VP is it's the only position the big fella can't fire. VPs are elected, so the job is safe. But who'd want to do it?

JD will have his role undermined from day one. He'll have his projects tampered with, leaked and sabotaged. He'll have the family sticking their noses in and fighting him at every turn. Don Jnr and Kim-ber-ley will be hanging out in his office, feet on his desk, advising. JD, a self-described hillbilly, will be taking orders from the rich kids, patronizing him to his face, laughing at him behind his back, rolling their eyes at each other in meetings.

Sure, JD's made a deal, no doubt: sit through a year, let the big fella do his dictator for a day bit, then take the offer of the top job and pardon the big guy.

But the big fella has reneged on every deal he's made. When it's time, there will be another prob-lem to sort out, and another. The big fella will stall, craving the attention that comes with the top job. I doubt we're looking at four more years of the big fella, but it's going to be a helluva long time to wait.

In the meantime, grocery prices will not come down, the border will not be secured, the foreign wars will not be stopped. You only need to look at the big fella's statements and policy hints to know that. As for his track record, we know that too. The Trump administration cannot possibly deliver on its promises, as if that were the point to begin with.

All Americans want is a walking, talking president, which they'll get.The big fella can talk and he can walk - if there aren't any slippery ramps.

In return, and pending the vote of Congress, they'll get tax cuts for the rich, subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, tariffs on all foreign goods and the biggest government deficit yet. The next Trump administration will see the biggest transfer of wealth to the rich we've ever seen.

JD won't mind changing his position on this, right?

In return, the American voters will see Russian troops advance towards Kiev and the Chinese invasion of Taiwan. They'll see the middle east heat up, raising their gas prices even more. They'll see their Leader's much promised trade wars raise the price of foreign manufactured goods, breaking up supply chains and the past half-century's equilibrium of global trade.

JD won't mind changing his position on that, right?

And on the border, they'll see the exact same number of people, seasonally adjusted, entering the US illegally. Without any actual policies, plans or agreements with Latin American and source countries, this is a given. One man can't possibly control an invisible line.

JD won't have to change his position on that, they can just massage the stats and continue to talk in cliches, as they do. Suddenly, foreign governments will no longer be emptying out their jails, mental hospitals and mental asylums. For some reason, you'll see - we'll never hear that line again.

The question is, will JD want to keep changing his mind about everything? Sure, he can change his position America's Hitler, but can he do it with everything else? At some point, they all crack - Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, even the most loyal and devout. Every man has his breaking point, including JD. The question is when. At what point does JD wake up, feel it, and ask himself the inevitable question:

Ever get the feeling you've been fingered?

JD says it's okay for women to live in violent relationships.

Is Vance a wife-beater himself?

Quote:

Of course the 'American Dream' is an ideal... That's why it's called a dream.

And, unlike us, Americans are inspired by triumph over adversity as opposed to glorious failure and defeat.

Nothing inspires Americans more than soaring grand visions and grandiose ideals.

"we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal"

"government of the people, by the people, for the people”

'I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade [] not because they are easy, but because they are hard".

greggerypeccary wrote on Jul 19^th, 2024 at 4:46pm:

I'd bet Trump is on a short, tight leash with the Republicans.

If Trump tries passing on Vance, they'll be pissing on him.

thegreatdivide wrote on Jul 19^th, 2024 at 4:54pm:

Back to Asia for you, then?