Althouse: He's got the touch.

April 22, 2025

He's got the touch.

J.D. Vance:

Watch on TikTok

47 comments:

RCOCEAN II said...: Can he pay a visit to Judge roberts?; 4/22/25, 9:23 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Far and away — Vance is the most memeable politician out there.

Vance is the jester of the king. He is as caricatural and funny in his way of demonizing himself. He puts in a little too much heart into it though. A real talented actor.; 4/22/25, 9:34 AM
Jaq said...: "Can he pay a visit to Judge roberts?"

The more you look at international affairs, and the more closely you look at it, it becomes plain that extortion and blackmail are standard tools of governance.

Epstein didn't kill himself. Zelensky knows that had he signed the deal that would have left Ukraine intact that was available to him in March of 2022, he would now be just as dead as the Ukrainian negotiator who helped draft the deal. Etc, etc...; 4/22/25, 9:35 AM
Kakistocracy said...: ^^ Critical piece missing in this analysis: the eyeliner.; 4/22/25, 9:53 AM
narciso said...: it is somewhat amusing,; 4/22/25, 9:57 AM
Peachy said...: Crook Joe and the embarrassing Kamala Puppet are not on the stage. Thank the Lord.; 4/22/25, 9:58 AM
Peachy said...: A gentle handshake for a elderly dying man.
What's the big deal?; 4/22/25, 10:00 AM
Peachy said...: btw- that image of the trophy falling apart - that trophy was obviously meant to fall apart. Just look at it.; 4/22/25, 10:01 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Two points do not a trendline make unless you discount all the other people/places/things he touches that do NOT fall apart. Sure, have your meme fun. It distracts from the fact the news business wants to talk about anything other than the roaring stock market and the dirt DOGE has dug up.; 4/22/25, 10:02 AM
Achilles said...: Kakistocracy said...
Far and away — Vance is the most memeable politician out there.

Vance is the jester of the king. He is as caricatural and funny in his way of demonizing himself. He puts in a little too much heart into it though. A real talented actor.

Vance is at least 30 IQ points to the right of Rich.

Rich is a drooling moron compared to either Trump or Vance. Just keeping things in perspective here.; 4/22/25, 10:04 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Just look at it

Yep. You never see a Lombardi Trophy or the Stanley Cup fall apart when being handled. And my two examples are trophies that get manhandled quite a bit.; 4/22/25, 10:04 AM
Achilles said...: Peachy said...
A gentle handshake for a elderly dying man.
What's the big deal?

People cannot deal with the substance of the things that Vance says. Any time they face him straight up in an intellectual match he destroys them.

He has destroyed all of the stupid media whores live on public TV. He fact checks and humiliates every leftist that shows up on these shows.

So they must resort to things like this to bring him down.

The worst part of Trump and Vance for the leftists is their entire world view is built on being elite, expert, and superior to everyone else. When they are on stage with either Trump or Vance they both show the world what true competence is and make them look like the bumbling idiots everyone has realized they are.; 4/22/25, 10:08 AM
Leland said...: https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/nhl/5-instances-nhl-s-stanley-cup-damaged.
https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/rob-gronkowski-dented-the-lombardi-trophy-when-he-used-it-as-a-baseball-bat-at-fenway-park/; 4/22/25, 10:10 AM
rhhardin said...: “Supposing truth to be a woman — what? is the suspicion not well founded that all philosophers, when they have been dogmatists, have had little understanding of women? that the gruesome earnestness, the clumsy importunity with which they have hitherto been in the habit of approaching truth have been inept and improper means for winning a wench? Certainly she has not let herself be won – and today every kind of dogmatism stands sad and discouraged. If it continues to stand at all!”

Vance strikes me as one of the dogmatists with respect to truth. Trump gets the problem.; 4/22/25, 10:16 AM
Kate said...: The joke is too soon.; 4/22/25, 10:17 AM
Charlie said...: The Left has to demonize Vance at every opportunity because he is the logical and probable successor to the Bad Orange Man. This will go on non-stop from here on out.; 4/22/25, 10:26 AM
wildswan said...: Borg Beware. A tiny needle in JD's cufflinks shoots out and stabs your hand, injecting you with untraceable venom from the fer-de-lance. You will never realize what is happening unless you watch his eyes carefully for the pattern of the blinks which neurotransmits a message to his watch -seemingly so innocent - but which in term activates via AI-Secured P-Bluetooth the Venom Activator of the Neuro-Cobra Executioner. ASP to VANCE. A pinprick, a mere prickle and you're gone. Mistah Kurtz, he dead. Your desk is cleared, and your children grow up in Indianapolis, some as Christians, some as men, some, both. The horror, the horror.; 4/22/25, 10:51 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: Leland reinforces my point. You CAN dent the Stanley Cup or the Lombardy Trophy but they don't fall to pieces.

"Used it as a baseball bat." Geez!; 4/22/25, 10:54 AM
Ann Althouse said...: The "That's Not Funny" discussion continues in the following post.; 4/22/25, 11:00 AM
Kakistocracy said...: Cheney never had a large popular base of support. But his decades in Washington working in both the executive and legislative branches put him in an incredibly powerful position when matched up with a political light-weight like George W. Bush. Bush didn't really start to assert himself until 2007 after getting crushed in the mid-terms. By that point his presidency was already marked as a failure.

Vance in contrast is someone without deep ties to DC or a large popular base of support. He has Peter Theil and Silicon Valley relationships -- those are the things that got him on Trump's ticket. Cheney had the relationships with a much broader range of insiders -- oil and gas interests, neo-conservatives, weapons manufacturers, financial services, pharma and insurance companies, etc.

Vance lacks Trump's charisma as well. As the say goes, "he has no juice". Trump has started to deepen his ties in DC, but the source of his power is still his political base combined with his relationships with the global super-rich. Vance's source of power is Peter Theil and Donald Trump. He doesn't have the skill or the talent to hold Trump's coalition together. Not clear who does at this point.; 4/22/25, 11:04 AM
Drago said...: It seems like only months ago LLR-democratical Rich declared kamala to be brilliant and unstoppable as a political force while also declaring Jazzy Spirit Fingers Stolen Valor coward Walz to be both a war hero and the epitome of midwest macho.

Important context for Abacus Boy's assessments of political figures.; 4/22/25, 11:19 AM
Kakistocracy said...: I look forward to the day Drago quits using his Althouse go-to template for his comments. 🥃🥃🥃; 4/22/25, 11:21 AM
narciso said...: its not even creative metaphor, I suspects it's dana ward the pomona professor that used to haunt a favorite blog of mine, about a decade ago, except for the obscure anarchist references,; 4/22/25, 11:26 AM
narciso said...: https://babylonbee.com/news/dalai-lama-quietly-cancels-scheduled-meeting-with-jd-vance; 4/22/25, 11:30 AM
narciso said...: just drop the alternet or common dreams and go on,; 4/22/25, 11:31 AM
Iman said...: kaKAW… kaKAW!!!

I’m reminded of Breitbart’s fatal dinner with Bill Ayers.; 4/22/25, 11:32 AM
mikee said...: The Trump coalition will "hold together" as long as the Democrats continue their idiotic push to the left. It isn't love of Trump that got us here, he is a pretty vile person whose most, perhaps sole, redeeming feature is sharing our revulsion at what the Dems are doing. Imagine if we had a politician of Reagan's skills in the Republican Party today. The Dems would go the way of the Soviet Union, and be just as confused as to why it happened to them. Any port in a storm, any leader in a crisis. Make fun of Vance all you want, he'll laugh along with you and then go off to do another foreign relations trip where substantive decisions get made. He ain't no Quayle, and he sure ain't no patsy for the Left.; 4/22/25, 11:35 AM
Achilles said...: Kakistocracy said...
I look forward to the day Drago quits using his Althouse go-to template for his comments. 🥃🥃🥃

He is just pointing out the multiple times you said something that turned out to be wrong and stupid.

What is really interesting about Rich is that he still thinks anyone would take a word he says seriously after being wrong so many times.

Rich has zero self awareness.; 4/22/25, 11:45 AM
Lem Vibe Banditory said...: VP JD : My dinner with Justice Thomas 😈

They probably couldn’t, even if they were on a deserted island.; 4/22/25, 11:49 AM
narciso said...: the Dems like the cicadas buried their way into academia and the media, the next tributary, thinking they could wait out the storm, the Possum Bush elder, gave them a whole lot of breathing room, in so far as his policies started the 'shock therapy that set Russia on the path we see some thirty years later,' prefigured by the Zhirinovsky boomlet,; 4/22/25, 11:49 AM
narciso said...: the likes of Ayers who were not prosecuted, Cloward and Piven who were allowed to conjure their dark deeds, the scrolls of Alinsky,

even then, this fetishism with off shoring companies that started small, john kass has some receipts on that in his area,; 4/22/25, 11:51 AM
narciso said...: this is where the mouth of the Flint River, got his start, and we've had to listen to his belching for years,

a mild recession, certainly compared to '82, gave the Democrats a second wind,; 4/22/25, 11:57 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: "he is a pretty vile person whose most, perhaps sole, redeeming feature is"
Are you saying this about Donald Trump? Only libtard pieces of shit think this way about Trump. AYFKM?After all we see of DJT, and that's your take? What a ridiculous asshole you must be.; 4/22/25, 12:00 PM
Drago said...: ChatGPT Addict LLR-democratical Rich: "I look forward to the day Drago quits using his Althouse go-to template for his comments."

Shorter Rich: Please stop recalling my non-stop serial lies and purposeful misrepresentations!

Every Rich comment is a confession by projection.

But only every single one....and every single time. Unexpectedly.; 4/22/25, 12:03 PM
Lazarus said...: That trophy thing was a real-life reenactment of the SNL sketch where Desmond Tutu (Eddie Murphy) handle's Doug Flutie's Heisman Trophy and it breaks, and he has to have it welded back together.

The Pope story brings to mind "Torch Song," John Cheever's
Angel of Death" story, though 88-year-olds with Francis's health problems are fragile. You don't need to be a jinx for one of them to die the day after your meeting.; 4/22/25, 12:04 PM
OldManRick said...: It happens to trophies more than you would expect
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7X8mqQSJgY
https://www.slyke.co/collection?collectionId=216; 4/22/25, 12:09 PM
Drago said...: I suspect LLR-democratical Rich is experiencing some cognitive dissonance and schizophrenia as he now does not know if he should continue with his Harry Sisson-y mimicky commentary or fully embrace and internalize the David Hogg philosophies for which Rich has already demonstrated a clear affinity.

It will be interesting seeing this internal conflict within Abacus Boy resolve itself.; 4/22/25, 12:13 PM
JAORE said...: VP Vance "reaches across the aisle".
The Senate is now 53(R) and 11 (D).
Filibusters are a thing of the past.; 4/22/25, 1:52 PM
Kakistocracy said...: US markets rally as Treasury secretary says China trade war is ‘unsustainable’ ~ WSJ
‘Scott Bessent tells investors he expects two countries to reach a deal that would end restrictions on flow of goods’

Oh, you don’t say! I guess we had to go through all this to make the point.

Good for him, going out on a limb and saying that the trade war is unsustainable. Now the challenge will be for Trump to find some way to declare a victory. I wonder if Bessent's days are numbered?; 4/22/25, 1:56 PM
victoria said...: Yes, he hs the touch for disaster. Worst VP ever, and that's a pretty low bar.; 4/22/25, 2:03 PM
Jim at said...: Yes, he hs the touch for disaster. Worst VP ever, and that's a pretty low bar.

Nope. No hate and division from Vicki. It's all those stupid, evil Magats who are full of hate and division. Vicki's nothing but unicorn farts and rainbows.; 4/22/25, 2:49 PM
Kakistocracy said...: @Jim : The reality is that the opposition to the current administration now covers a very broad spectrum of persons, and is by no means confined to “liberals”. It extends to all those who think that laws should be applied, agreements enforced, treaties respected, institutions preserved, and human beings treated decently. It extends to all those who object to lies and deceptions, the support of dictators, or the betrayal of allies. Last time I checked those were supposed to be conservative values. Liberals have no monopoly on decency or sanity.; 4/22/25, 3:07 PM
Achilles said...: Kakistocracy said...
@Jim : The reality is that the opposition to the current administration now covers a very broad spectrum of persons, and is by no means confined to “liberals”.

This broad spectrum doesn’t include Kennedy democrats, private sector union members, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, evangelicals, or working class people.

It does include women’s studies majors, AWFLs, government bureaucrats, lawyers, NGO Workers and illegal immigrant advocates.

Rich is just trying to say the dumbest things possible at this point.; 4/22/25, 5:33 PM
RMc said...: Small sample size.; 4/22/25, 6:25 PM
traditionalguy said...: James David Vance is mega talented as a public leader. Expect him to be our next President.; 4/22/25, 6:30 PM
Rusty said...: "Rich is a drooling moron compared to either Trump or Vance. Just keeping things in perspective here."
I've met smarter Crows.; 4/23/25, 8:28 AM
mikee said...: Michael Fitzgerald, thank you for the No True Trumper argument against me. I am not a True Trumper, I suppose, because I just don't personally like the guy. I love his actions this time around in both domestic and foreign policy, but were he a figure more like Reagan and less like the Left's caricatures, then the Left, the CCP, illegal immigrants, etc., would be going away much faster. That's all I'm saying. We live in times of social decay, and Trump personally is a manifestation of that. I refuse to treat him as an idol to be deified. But please, go get 'er done, Mr. President, I don't have to like you to admire your effects.; 4/23/25, 12:27 PM