Vance and the Void
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
Ever since I found the AP Newsroom site where AP photographers upload their work, I’ve been following the presidential candidates’ campaigns through photos.
There’s something freakishly unsettling about JD Vance in these image collections.
First, let me show you a Voice of America post from Mastodon – VOA generally does straight reporting, not prone to leaning one way or the other which is appropriate for news media funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Note the two photos used in this post are fairly typical campaign material from a manufacturing facility; the photos are from the AP.
Thinking I’d take a closer look at the plant and its location in the AP Newroom feed, I did a search for “JD Vance” and scrolled through the results.
Those two photos VOA used are rather misleading, because that’s about it – what you see in those two photos are nearly the extent of the campaign appearance.
Look at this photo from the same event:
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at Wollard International, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Here’s another angle of the same event:
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at Wollard International, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wis. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
There’s a couple rows of employees behind Vance and a bank of reporters and cameras in front of Vance.
That’s it.
There’s a void where the crowd of campaign rally attendees should be. Vance is speaking into cameras and nothing else. If you’ve attended campaign rallies including those held at manufacturing facilities, you already know there’s usually a crowd of employees and guests to which the candidate speaks. The press operates from the back of the crowd or on an elevated platform so they are able to get good crowd reaction coverage while not obstructing rally attendees’ view of the candidate.
That wasn’t the case in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at this manufacturing facility’s campaign event.
How weird.
I scrolled back through the photos for “JD Vance” and I noticed there are zero, nada, no crowd shots for other recent events.
None.
Vance is trying to precede or follow the Harris-Walz campaign’s tour through swing states, like some stalker-y ex-boyfriend. It makes sense there’d be photos in AP Newsroom collection featuring the two campaigns in the same destinations regardless of Vance’s creepy campaign-by-stalking.
Except the photos of Vance are like Potemkin villages, all fronts and nothing back end behind the façade.
Here’s one of Vance speaking at the police department in Shelby Township, Michigan. The site is about a hour’s drive away from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), located in the white flight portion of the greater Detroit Metro area:
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks at a campaign event at Shelby Township Police Department, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Shelby Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Where are the people who came to see Vance? There are more photos of Vance in Romulus but they’re all similarly void of a visible audience.
Compare and contrast to the Harris-Walz campaign rally held at DTW:
Air Force Two arrives at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport for a rally with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in Romulus, Mich., on Aug. 7, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Roth/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)
Note where this photo was taken from within the site – the back edge of the crowd. There’s overflow outside this hangar at the airport. My god, there’s a crowd, even before Harris and Walz disembark from the plane!
This isn’t fair, you might say; this is a combined event with Harris and Walz and not Walz alone so I’m unfairly comparing apples and an orange dude’s veep choice. But it’s early yet for Walz to have his own campaign events; he’ll finish the swing state series before he’s appearing on his own.
This still doesn’t explain the void where Vance appears, the lack of a crowd in attendance.
There’s chatter about Vance pulling a stunt on the tarmac, approaching Air Force 2 while remarking it’s his future plane.
Except this stunt had no audience, just reporters and photographers who don’t appear in the images.
Worse, the photos are meme-worthy for the lack of an audience – like this wisecrack about Vance and his entourage:
Who would want to hear this guy speak when he and his portion of the Trump-Vance campaign lack the awareness necessary to appear less weird and creepy and more human?
I have to ask, though: is the Trump-Vance campaign throttling photographers from taking photos of anything besides Vance at Vance’s campaign events? Are we seeing just the opposite – an awareness their faux hillbilly is awkward and as competent at public speaking as a sixth-grade student? Have they stripped away the crowds to avoid problematic interactions?
With or without a crowd, the answers don’t look good. Creepy and weird, even.
I want to point out that the Associated Press is a not-for-profit coop news organization which does an awful lot of local reporting which in turn is distributed by national and local news outlets. They’re supported by many local news organizations.
AP lost one of their largest clients when Gannett/USA Today decided not to continue using their services. It’s another example of how fragile our news ecosystem is; imagine other larger news entities similarly deciding not to use AP’s services.
If you have funds in your media consumption budget, consider a donation to AP yet this year. They’re doing a lot of heavy lifting as they have for years when it comes to campaign coverage.
I worked one college summer writing local news for radio station (5.000 watts day, 1,000 watts night). I remember being surprised the first time I got a check from the AP. (I also remember pulling Nixon’s Enemies List from the AP teletype. I kept that for years but it may have have been mislaid in the course of one of my cross-country moves.)
Is there perhaps a detailed plan, parallel to project 2025, to be rolled out in the event Trump loses the election?
That’s not what this post is about.
Apologies! I was wondering if the oddities you pointed out might be an indication that the RNC is contingency planning for an election loss. Trump’s absence on the campaign trail this week is another thing that got me thinking along these lines.
Vance seeming to shadow the Harris/Vance swing-state trip is puzzling to me, and raises the figurative neck hairs.
Your point is that Vance not only appears to be running a Potemkin campaign, he is surely aware of this (a normal candidate would NOT want to appear at such) n yet he soldiers on.
So why?
Is the plan to run a fake campaign n cheat or coup to the WH?
Looks more n more like it.
Get SCOTUS to make a few rulings on states’ delayed election certs e.g. n voila.
Just speculating.
I have no idea what Vance is doing besides going through the motions of campaigning. He’s so bendy and hollow he’s a perfect puppet for the campaign team now and who knows in the future.
Thanks!
I noticed a description in a WaPo piece about Vance’s “hundreds of supporters” at his campaign event the same day The Guardian was reporting Harris/Walz seeking bigger venues for rallies because the 10,000 seat arena at Temple was over capacity.
I’m still chuckling at:
“THE GOP ON THEIR WAY TO
[pic]
YOUR OBGYN APPOINTMENT”
It’s not just the unimaginative stalking or the vitriolic and ‘Picasso of pettiness’ rhetoric, their policies are creepy, weird, and wildly unpopular.
We’re not going back.
I’ve also seen that as “Vance bringing his rally attenders with him”.
They all look rather relieved that they didn’t have to face Kamala or Vance in person.
Sorry, meant to type Walz, but typed the other guy’s name.
I’m so glad somebody used that particular photo for the OB-Gyn meme because that’s Vance and entourage immediately after his stunt approaching Air Force 2.
Did the campaign team think this photo made it look like Vance had just disembarked “his future plane”? Because nope. All that’s missing are speculums, white coats, and surgical gloves.
Thinking ahead to have one of his staff/attendants carrying a fake “football” would have been too much to ask.
Thank you both for the much needed, hand-over-mouth chuckles.
Who am I kidding? I’m cackling!
There was several days notice of his scheduled events. The lack of any crowds speaks to the lack of advanced campaign staff working to get locals involved. Or a lack of enthusiasm for the campaign.
Why not both? He has the personality of a piece of chalk.
My favorite is one I heard about DeSantis, but I think it applies equally to Vance: ‘all the charisma of a dead worm on a hot sidewalk’.
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Speaking only for the Eau Claire appearance, the lack of a crowd isn’t at all odd because it was not a rally, as Rayne termed it:
As the photo’s caption states, this was a campaign event — otherwise known as a photo-op. True, these things normally include a gaggle of employees who’ve been roped in to become set pieces. And there’s no question that this one had more than the usual Potemkin feel to it. But a rally it was not, so the lack of a crowd is neither here nor there.
Don’t get me wrong, though: His creepy shadow tour is pathetic. But so is the acceptance of the Press to go along with this bullshit, as though these types of appearances weren’t utterly deceitful.
There’s no need because they understand precisely that their job is to play along. That Vance’s campaign doesn’t even bother to ensure there are even a dozen or so props to form a ‘crowd’ is indicative of both the vapidness of today’s no-platform Republican Party and the inevitable emptiness of the modern media industry’s money-grubbing efforts to produce more circus with less gravitas.
“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.”
Re: “today’s no-platform Republican Party”
See:
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/08/nx-s1-5033015/rnc-republican-party-platform-2024
‘Fetal personhood’ and ‘mass deportation’ are included in the apocalyptic and vitriolic rhetoric.
“Have they stripped away the crowds to avoid problematic interactions?”
That’s the most charitable way to look at it, Rayne, but for whatever reason(s), people are certainly staying away from Vance appearances in droves.
That can’t be good for Trump/Vance 2024.
“people are certainly staying away from Vance appearances in droves. ”
…almost as if JDV (or as Charles P Pierce refers to him, J Divan Vance) has VD.
I prefer Junior Dunce and the WaddleSquad. A tuneless group for the new era ahead.
I too noticed the missing audience, just the press. Weird, to borrow a phrase. It feels very Four Seasons Landscaping to me.
Note that it’s just Vance out on the trail, Trump himself seems to be locked away (although with access to his phone).
I did see a clip of Vance fumbling the softball question “Why would a regular american have a beer with you?” Instead of the myriad of easy answers, he went with “Because I like beer, a little too much.” Weird seems to be a good call.
Trump’s having a presser at Mar-a-Lago because why?
https://mstdn.social/@[email protected]/112927762369783834
He’s whining and lying and generally looks like shit, yuuuge bags under his eyes.
“People say they’ve never seen such perfect eye bags…”
Eye bags the size of which have never been seen.
I saw a short clip from the convention. It was a closeup shot, first thing that struck me was he was sweating like a pig, second was the monotone delivery. It sounded and felt off. I may have overreached, but I had doubts he could survive till election day.
I assume it’s a substitute for campaigning, which he isn’t doing. As usual, it’s one gross lie after another, with no opportunity for push back.
He’s telling reporters to speak up: he can’t hear their questions. It’s his room at MAL, so I assume he did not provide microphones for reporters, so that viewers can’t hear the questions, and won’t know whether he’s answering them.
He claims he did not want to lock up Hillary Clinton. He told his staff to leave her alone. LMFAO.
He says “China needs more land, and Russia has it,” so they are natural enemies. China’s problem is not how much land it has, and its relations with Russia are…a bit more complex.
At NABJ q&a he complained about not hearing a question clearly but he answered the question without asking the reporter to repeat the question.
Too bad five years from now, we cannot have Bruno Ganz playing the Orange menace while he hides in his bunker at MAL.
TBI post bullet whiz
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Possible remake of “Sunset Boulevard”?
Saw something on Xitter the other day about the Shelby Township event, wide shot of the building with JDV & local police and no-one else. Caption was along the lines of – This is the entirety of who showed up.
One would think that in itself the lack of people showing up would be a newsworthy story, but so far, crickets. I suppose the MSM assumption is, hey, let’s wait, it’ll build, it’ll get better. But that’s not what the news is.
I have to say, many media types these days strike me as like magpies, that is, they’ll go after any shiny object which is dangled in front of ’em. God bless ’em, they try, but even on our local station, we get mostly half-stories, long on “human interest” (how I feel) but really really short on fact (what happened).
If you look at the aerial view on Google Maps, there aint a lot of room in front of the Shelby Township PD for any decent sized crowd.
If you look at the footage, there was even less of a crowd than there was room for. It was really sad.
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If there’s no room for attendees at his events, it means one of two things. Either the advance team setting stuff up is doing a lousy job or they already know that nobody will show a few days ahead when they set up the event. Neither option bodes well. The second seems more plausible and is worse.
Related to the first, IATSE laid down some great snark about the event where they had the big Kamala Chaos sign in the background but the Chaos part was covered by attendees.
“This is what you get when you use non union labor.”
“Kamala Chaos” sounds like an unforced error on the Trump campaign’s part. Kamala Chaos sounds awesome.
But the way they mean it is “January 6th isn’t the chaos, Kamala is the chaos, BLM protests are the chaos, the borders are the chaos.”
And if we get another Chicago Democratic convention for the history books, this time with protests over the war in Gaza, Kamala Chaos will mean that as well.
That’s the play they’re going for here, I think.
I saw a video clip of the Shelby “event”. The police officer behind Vance was frowning. He looked like Vance operatives had taken him hostage. I almost expected a series of eyeblinks for SOS.
The body language of the employees on the plant floor at Eau Claire also spoke volumes — they all looked coached, stiff, in the same position, but unsmiling.
Sad.
Wow – good points!
I’ve looked again at the photos. The banners up top look to be the flags of the several US service branches – Army, Navy, etc. They are suspended between two pipes, as one assemblage hung from the rafters. Is that part of the plant, there all the time? Or is that backdrop a part of Vance’s “entourage” that travels with him? Or, more likely, something cobbled together for this one occasion? I checked other Vance campaign photos on Google Images and didn’t see it again. Good placement, though, right behind the podium!
Wollard makes ground support equipment for airplanes at airports – stairs, loaders, etc. Not exactly warfighter equipment. On their web site, it’s all civilian except for the home page photo of an Air Force plane. If he was trying to contrast, at this event, with Walz’s military record, it’s an odd place to do so.
Also, there does not seem to be a lot of open floor space inside the plant. Why select a small, confined space, unless you’re not expecting much of a crowd? In contrast, the Harris/Walz DTW photo shows a crowd that takes up an entire airport hanger and then some.
Ah well, as they used to say on Car Talk, I’ve squandered another perfectly good hour here. But hey, fun!
“Don’t drive like my brother!”
“And on the third half of our show…”
“Also, many thanks to our Russian limo driver, Mr. Pekup Andropov.”
Re Car Talk: “If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much.”
FWIW the Tappet Brothers were quoting an earlier Boston icon, Ted Williams.
Cropping is a photographer’s best friend. Also, the published photos reflect editorial decisions which also depend on aesthetics for the look of their newspapers, web sites.
Cropping goes along with the manipulation of headlines to shape the reader’s opinions before they read a word of an article, which most times, people don’t bother to do.
These are not honest people running an honest race for the White House. Those manipulations amount to a drip, drip, drip on the minds of voters, and who knows what the outcome will be because of the propaganda they produce.
I still believe that Harris and Walz, together, will appeal to more voters than the 33% (or whatever) that find the fusty former guy more appealing. (Fusty, is the word-of-the-day over at Websters Dictionary. A perfect description of Trump. Walz should use that one, too.)
In (partial) defense of cropping: sometimes, even if you are at the event, even if (praise the aperture gods) you manage to photograph it, there is just too much other stuff surrounding the event, so you have to crop until you find the right framing to convey what happened. So it’s a tool is all.
That said, there’s no defense for cropping away vital information, such as – nobody really showed up. But again, editorial decisions about “what the story is” are what drive cropping decisions.
The magpies usually win.
The Soviets were experts at cropping and photo-manipulation long before the Adobe-types started monetizing it (and introducing thousands of security bugs into their products – perhaps intentionally.)
I’m guessing that everyone who reads this blog already knows that images may tell a thousand lies.
So, now there’s lies, damn lies, statistics and AI photoshopped images.
OT the main subject of this post, yet related to the AP Newsroom (thanks for the link, Rayne). Their collection “2024 Election” shows a variety of pics with the same caption: “Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).” A number of these photos display a seemingly complete right ear of Trump — which could (should?) be a reason to insist on his medical reports for the treatment after the assassination attempt. On the other hand: old stuff, not important anymore …
Most recent photos show that.
As Trump might say, cosmic surgery is wonderful, especially when performed by Dr. Ronny Johnson.
LOL. Cosmic surgery would take longer to heal than the original wound.
Cosmic surgery takes an astronomical amount of time to heal, but it makes you look like a star. Gas giant in some cases, but still.
Black hole.
(reply to Sherrie above)
For more context, I am thinking this is the result of Trump relying too much on digital media support. Counting he would campaign against Biden, Biden was too old to campaign, so the disinformation from the social media was all it was needed to artificially prop him in polls.
I believe they may have issues with money as well, JD Vance is left all alone to campaign but without any financial support.
What is weird to me, JD Vance making a point he talks to the media, but didn’t see him answering any questions, they are not media, they are photographers, no dialog, one way, Vance talks, they take a video of him talking.
Vance’s behavior mirrors the no crowd observation. He seems nervous and he breaks into false laughter often. Laughter like that would be unsettling if I encountered it in person.
Vance seems to not have any political issues to speak about, and without a crowd to encourage him, his anxiety shows through.
This election has to be giving heartburn to the “Fair and Balanced” adherents in the mainstream media. On the Democratic side, there are two appealing and photogenic personalities who are coherent and can command attention. On the Republican side, there are two men who look and are dyspeptic. The one who is coherent comes out with slightly off comments – as if he had just stepped out of UAP and had learned conversational English from 1990. The other sounds like he has assembled a montage of his greatest hits from the last 20 years and randomly uses it to generate an answer without regard to relevance.
The MSM will dutifully reconstruct Trump’s jumble into something coherent without commenting on his worsening incoherence. We are witnessing the Pravdaization of the MSM in real time.
Vance is more Himmler than Hitler. We see the flop sweat when he’s pushed out front to speak. He, and the campaign are marking time until J6#2. It’s very possible Trump has had concussive after effects from the “assassination attempt” added to his baseline cognitive decline. Combined with his raging tantrums everyone around him must be walking on egg(bomb)shells and watching the clock.
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I know some folks going to attend a fundraising lunch in my proverbial backyard tomorrow where the dotard will appear. This, after a hopefully large, locally organized Harris rally this evening. Our local Congress critter will be there, but they’re not letting the local party leader in (who is full-on MAGA). I suspect the organizers actually want a small crowd of venal and animus-filled donors (the ones I know attending are). Eagerly awaiting a medical/psychological analysis…
Criticizing Waltz’s military service- Bad. Criticizing the level of affection between Walz and his wife- Weird -judging marriages- opining on private life choices- MYOB. Challenging the adequacy of a onstage kiss. Weird weirdo. Vance is Hess.
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Love all of your points.
In re the “Fair and Balanced” media – you and I know it had nothing to do with either of those words, it was just a way to push a particular point while saying something about another view, back-handedly.
But the best point may be how the trump campaign/family/advisors can’t even use the new AI tools to extract the best of his “greatest hits” without making him still sound like an idiot. Come on, folks. Even 4th graders know how to get Chat-GPT to produce a term paper from Bert and Ernie.
The same tight focus photography was used for Tea Party astroturf efforts in 2009-2010. There was a big problem with Dick Armey being unable to get more than a few dozen people to show up to rallies, but the trick they used was getting some goober to dress up like Ben Franklin and that tended to be what editors ran.
Another thing they did was bus in LaR**che supporters to town halls to scream endlessly. If reporters had bothered to actually talk to these people, they would have gotten the full screeds about Queen Elizabeth running drug cartels, but all they wanted was the visuals of intense people screaming about government control.
It’s stupid from both the perspective of journalism and the business side of driving readership and ratings. Honest coverage of faceplants is better journalism and it drives engagement more than dull repetition of boring talking points. But once outlets settle on a narrative, they’ll stick with it even though it serves no purpose.
Everyone around me is energized for Harris/Walz. I just watched Trump’s press conference. He is a sad old man yelling at clouds about crowd sizes. I cannot believe anyone will stand in line to hear him ramble on about Hannibal Lecter more. Trump’s act is nearly as old and worn out as he is. But that’s not gonna give the press a horserace, is it?
I agree with RitaRita: “The MSM will dutifully reconstruct Trump’s jumble into something coherent without commenting on his worsening incoherence. We are witnessing the Pravdaization of the MSM in real-time.”
I read an opinion piece on the Trump “press conference”in the Washington Post by Karen Tumulty and reporting by Maggie Haberman in The NY Times on the press conference. The words “incoherent” and “meandering” were used. Maybe the news media is slowly beginning to report rather than interpret.
The small bit of the press conference i heard was his response to a question about abortion. He attributed the misstated Governor McAuliffe’s remark about abortion and attributed to Governor Walz. And then couldn’t remember McAuliffe’s name but said Governor Youngkin’s name and then had to make sure people didn’t think Youngkin said the remark that he misstated. All of this in about 2 minutes or less.
Ran across something relatively rare: an MSNBC clip from today devoted to fact-checking several lies in today’s Trump press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4wYjrT198A
Mind you, this was in a little-watched MSNBC weekday afternoon show and Chris Janssing is not one of their “superstar anchors”, but it was timely…
Lawrence O’Donnell did a scathing take down (IMHO) last night of all media who ran the incoherent dog & pony show instead of Kamala’s live and lively speech. And that they did no fact checking till end.
(Apologies if I read this here…thinking it was else web.)
-mamake- @ 10 am
Yep, saw that Lawrence segment last night – it was scathing. And he showed the full Kamala/Tim speeches at the UAW in Detroit after his rant, which even MSNBC did not show live. The mid-afternoon fact check on Trump’s ramble-and-lie-a-thon (clip link above) was done live while the ramble was still going on…
Lawrence’s rant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD-oTJ49nls
Nice catch on attendance. EVERYTHING about the Trump,campaign since the convention has been, for lack of a better word, weird. The lack of attempting to address anyone outside their on-line base is unusual, let alone the missing Pivot To The Center, but that can be explained away by pointing to Trump’s win in 2016 (while ignoring his loss in 2020).
A bigger weirdness is Trump’s abscence from his Happy Place, rallies. Is this some strategic pullback, waiting for Kamalamonium to subside before they Unleash Trump as their October Suprise? This sounds like a pitch his handlers would make to keep him quiet, but him agreeing to it is a better indication of a loss of stamina than any meandering press conference. The closest he’s ever been to happy is at those rallies.
You bring up a good point: Trump never had any problem doing things he liked to do on the campaign trail or when he was in office. And at least from 2016 and 2020, it truly did seem he liked to do rallies. You mention stamina, and that’s possible. Others have mentioned undisclosed fallout from his injury, that’s a maybe too. It may also be possible he’s gotten tired of it all this third time around, and like the petulant man-child he is, that means he just isn’t doing it.
I don’t think I’m imagining this: those standing behind Vance have all been coached to clasp their hands in front of them to form a V. Once I saw it, it was everywhere. Other photos from Shelby Township show it there as well. Choreography in place of enthusiasm.
Really? That’s absolutely corporate drone “public speaking 101”. The hardest thing about public speaking is what do to with your hands. Real salt of the earth workforce they got there?
I see V for Vance. They are not public speaking. Compare those standing behind any other politician. Some people may be doing that — it’s a fairly comfortable way to stand at ease — but everybody in the row? Consistently? Different people in different venues? They’ve been asked to do it.
In my estimation, there’s a good chance they’re just protecting their genitals.
“Grab ’em by the…” and all that, y’know.
V for Vance? These guys aren’t that sophisticated and you are giving them too much credit. These are corporate drones that have been to public speaking 101 where they tell you to do something with your hands instead of picking your nose/crossing your arms, etc. Which IS entirely your point, right? It looks staged.
Nixon used to hold his fingers up in V. How come they just don’t do that?
Pynchon fans.
Looks like there is a total of 58 employees at Wollard International. I don’t know how many of them work at the factory at a given time, but this could explain the thin crowd.
The more interesting question is: why would a VP candidate waste their time on a “rally” at factory with 58 employees? Why did they set such an event? My guess is: that’s what his operators want. They just wanted the photo-op at a factory, and some soundbites for the media. They don’t want him to have a larger rally, for all sort of reasons. Maybe they don’t believe he would be very good at energizing large crowd, they don’t want to overshadow his boss who likes boasting about his crowd size, and they don’t think he is ready. Or maybe they too are worried he would look too effing weird live. IDK.
I’m pretty sure it is a private-equity-owned factory (so right up Vance/Thiel’s alley) purchased by “Robert Priddy and Kilroy Partners” in 2019.
Best I can determine, Robert Priddy was associated with a sketchy low-cost ’90s airline, ValuJet, and resides in West Palm Beach FL (so right up Trump’s alley).
So they picked the easiest place they could find for a photo-op. Small, private equity owned, probably no union etc. Looks factoryish in the photo.
The Great Lakes states are known for resource extraction (mining, timber, agriculture) and related manufacturing – like the “aviation ground equipment” made by this company.
According to the private equity owners they “invest in entrepreneurial, family-owned and non-institutionally controlled businesses in the lower middle market.”
Wisconsin’s union membership has dropped, even in the last decade. But, anecdotally, given what I know about western WI, I doubt this plant has ever had union workers – prior to the ACA, using long-term “temps” was even a trend.
Valujet’s plane was the one that crashed in the everglades in 1996.
Leaving out the 9/11 events, there have been just 3 airline disasters killing more than 100 people since the Valujet crash.
You don’t have to watch Trump, you can go to Cspan and watch Kamala and Tim with the UAW. https://www.c-span.org/video/?537629-1/vice-president-harris-governor-tim-walz-campaign-detroit-michigan
This will show you again why Walz was a perfect choice.
Maybe Vance is worried about getting shot. He knows how many crazies are out there, having whipped so many of them up in the first place.
I would understand that fear. I also suspect Trump is afraid of campaigning. Body memory is powerful stuff.
Vance’s Kamala-stalking reminds me of the guy in “What a Fool Believes” (who appears to be stalking the woman).
The official version is posted on YT: exnHAdopRxA
Top 10 outro, though the whole thing is great. Top 10 lyric, too. Well worth 3:40.
I vaguely remember an article making similar observations about Trump’s Potemkin press conferences in the 2016 campaign, well before he became the presumptive nominee; might have even been in 2015. The reporter observed that Trump would fly into a place, set up at or near the airport, talk to a bunch of reporters, and fly to the next stop, while the press obediently followed him, filing reports on his “appearances” hither and yon. Thus the illusion of a real campaign was created and earned Trump lots of coverage, helping the campaign eventually become real. The press seem to have learned little since then.
Had a text chat earlier today.
Me: The Vance on the tarmac encroaching on Harris’ security was a creepy version of Trump walking behind Hillary during the debate. EXACT same vibe.
Friend: The disrespect is palpable,
Me: And men are offended over women picking the bear?
This. Is. Why.
Friend: Exactly!
Me: Well, I mean if the man was Walz, I’de be ok!
Friend: Right? You know he’d be able to diffuse the situation with kindness and respect to the bear, or at least dispatch it humanely and quickly with just his Swiss Army knife and his back-woods experience (or toss that baby pig at it to make an escape, hey, choices must be made! LOL).
Me: So now the meme is Walz or a Bear / Vance or a Bear!
Friend: Should we share this with Kamala?
Me: OHhhhh she knows!
Took me a moment to suss out the bear reference; I couldn’t figure out when RFKJr. entered the chat.
The bear reference is not to RFK Jr. it is referring to the “bear or man in the woods” viral debate:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/05/03/man-or-bear-many-women-say-theyd-rather-be-stuck-in-the-woods-with-a-bear-in-latest-viral-tiktok-debate/
Watched the entire, grueling press conference with the fusty old Trump. He looks wan, and his ear shows no sign of any injury. The opening of his “speech”, which was a re-run of all his other speeches, he stood with his hands by his sides. Wooden, almost. But,when the lies began in earnest, he started “playing’ his accordion. The usual drivel, with “the greatest ever in the history of the world,” “never seen before, ever, in the whole history of the world,” “the worst president in all history, not only our history, but the entire world,” [und so weiter, as his German immigrant ancestors would have said.]
It was all so boring, not even inciting outrage as it once would, just a question for the former “entertainer” (which is all he ever was), “Is this all you’ve got? Time for something new and fresh.” He hasn’t got it, and he knows it. Kamala is going to wipe the floor with his comb over
when they “debate.”
I was just about to comment about the same.
I only watched few minutes since it’s not easy to watch him without anti-nausea medication. But in addition to his usual lying and incoherent rambling, I noticed he looked really old and lacked energy.
He also looked absolutely pasty white—did he forget his makeup?
I noticed he looks old, also. And he’s changed makeup colors a couple of times – at one point, he was using one that was brown. Today, though – his face was almost the color of his combover.
He’s one of those dolls with the pullstring that plays the same half dozen sound clips. His mechanism is clearly wearing down.
Did the first questioner start by saying “hello, how are you?” as was required at NABJ interview?
The Trump campaign found a great pair of concrete shoes in Vance. He’s got all the charisma of a banana you forgot in the back of a cupboard and none of the value. His public presence is sad and flaccid, he can’t keep a crowd (let alone generate one), and he doesn’t have shit to campaign on from his time in the Senate. He has no major policy achievements to point to, no personality to fall back on, and political connections (such as those to P2025) that only serve to drag his reputation further down.
At least the banana can be used to make muffins.
that’s what I was gonna say, at least overripe bananas make the tastiest banana bread! Vance is beyond useless, he’s a creep!
Trump has been caught doing something similar, waving broadly whenever he exits or enters his plane at one of his hate-en-nannies, as if to throngs of his adoring worshipers. Photos have begun to surface that show that he’s waving to no one but the disinterested ground crew on the tarmac. Like everything else, it’s WWE kayfabe.
Oh no, Fox: “Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz pictured in 1995 Nebraska mugshot after DUI arrest”.
I think they missed the half dozen or so Trump bankruptcies and the Trump crimes before and after then.
Rayne – great stuff, thanks for sharing! The AP photo database is good to know about, as well. The Vance selection is going to go down in history as one of the worst Veep selections ever!
I cannot believe much of the coverage of Trump’s “Press Conference.” It wasn’t a presser, it was the insane rambling of an old senile man. He clearly could not remember the name Tim Walz (he said “She now has this person….. this man….). He ranted endlessly about crowd sizes (bigger than MLK!). He told a story about a scary helicopter ride with Willie Browen THAT NEVER HAPPENED! He said the Dem VP candidate “Is heavily into the trans world…. into all kinds of worlds…).
I ask the same question people asked of the Biden campaign: Why do you insist we are seeing what we are clearly seeing? These are the rantings of a madman.
On twitter.com the Harris people, Aug. 7, posted comparative crowds: https://x.com/KamalaHQ/status/1821337051087634437
The crowds in November will be more informative. GOTV is the clincher. All else is a warm-up act. Media horse race coverage, now, is shamefully framed. A hypothetical – if Trump had picked Rubio or Burgum would things be any different, or worse for Trump?
I have to think it would be better for him to have picked Rubio… at least he is well known and liked by the establishment and could have drawn some crowds for sure. Burghum I have no idea… perhaps he would have also been able to get some small crowds of magas out of sheer curiosity. The guy did seem pretty likeable at least.
But yeah, I do think it’s very clear now that any of them would have been better than Vance. Vance was a pick made out of a false sense of security in the race, of someone who would please his base of far-right Christian nationalist orgs.
Speaking of, apparently the head of the Heritage Foundation has delayed the release of his book about project 2025 until after the election (the one that Vance wrote the forward for). They’re clearly running scared, but here’s hoping that the GOP’s attempts to distance themselves from it don’t succeed. It should be a 1000lb weight around thier necks that they can’t escape from. Bunch of crazy nutters. Vance is thier progeny, that they should be forced to carry to term.
Great catch. Thank You Rayne. I bookmarked the AP photo website although I’m not one who has the ability to look at that much soulless right wing beings photos of.
What is interesting to me is most people are busy with everyday time. How this was relayed across the news sites was two campaign events crossing paths with an implication that both were huge & the VP jet photo 1st looking at story. They got away with that because in normalcy after a VP candidate was announced, the other party would campaign hugely.
I was totally fooled. Appreciate you & emptywheel.
TY : )