Ad-Vance JD where?

I haven’t had much to say about JD Vance, Drumpf’s running mate in the election, and I’m kind of glad about that, cos his story has got marvellously sillier as it’s gone on. I suppose we can begin with his memoir Hillbilly Elegy, whose somewhat mixed reception (especially among the Appalachian folks whose way of life—among which Vance himself grew up—it apparently takes a dim view of) already meant he was a complicated figure, popular enough to win Senate election two years but not really liked per se. This, at any rate, is what I’ve been able to gather. In spite of that, there was some speculation before the Republican convention that Trump would pick him as his running mate, which wound up being the case, and…

…oh. THAT’s unfortunate. And because Nick Fuentes is a fucking Nazi piece of shit, he’s not a fan of Vance’s wife either:

An opinion I’m sure a large segment of the party shares but they’ve had more sense so far than to admit it. Of course, the strangest thing about the Vance-as-VP thing is that, well, he’s quite frankly said these things about his putative future boss in the past:

And he meant “America’s Hitler” as a bad thing, not a good one. I wonder at what point he switched from “never Trump” to “whatever Trump”? I know people’s political opinions change, but it’s quite a swing from calling a guy Hitler to happily being that guy’s Himmler… and it just makes him look like a stranger and stranger choice for Trump’s second. But I said the story gets sillier, and it does…

No, REALLY. The story that Vance supposedly refers to in his book about having fucked a couch is, alas, about as real as the stories from years ago about Ted Cruz having been the Zodiac Killer… but it’s out there in the same way and it’s making him look like a fool in the same way too; I see Bluesky running with the gag in the way Twitter would’ve done once (maybe it is, I’m just not there much to see it) and it’s been kind of gold:

Incidentally, this is what I meant when I said the other day about the limited shelf-life of the “Let’s Go Brandon” meme. Shepard Fairey’s art is not only iconic, it’s durable and eminently adaptable over a decade and a half later. I don’t know how you make the current affair fit the “Brandon” frame. Anyway, obviously the story is absurd on the face of it, but what a weapon it makes, especially given Vance’s existing wobbly popularity and the way he’s been revealing himself as a piece of shit, especially with his comments about childless women—you know you’ve probably got a bunch of those in your base, JD? Maybe not a lot, but you will have a lot of childful women who’ll find that stuff just as offensive. Indeed, none other than Meghan McCain appears to be worried about just that:

This, of course, is precisely who the Republicans are, and Meghan’s clearly frightened that women on her side might actually recognise this fact at last and not vote for Trump. Quelle tragedy. So Vance is making himself look like enough of a cunt as it is, but the couch business is delightful icing on the cake… There is some speculation that Trump will see the error of his ways sooner rather than later, and this guy is speculating that he might pick Nikki Haley instead. I find the idea of Trump picking a woman for the role unlikely at best, but if he did pick here that would be kind of magnificent, given that one of the first groups to offer their endorsement of Kamala Harris was a PAC of former Nikki Haley supporters. I think Haley replacing Vance would be about the funniest way this story could end.