DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Trump Picks JD Vance for VP as His Running Mate

j/c



He traveled to a community he didn't live in with a semi automatic weapon to confront protestors. This wasn't "his community". Yes, that's the virtues we want instilled in our youth. Go somewhere looking for a confrontation with a loaded weapon and when you find one kill him.

White knighting perpetuates the white supremacy . Do better.

BY DHRUV MEHROTRA, TIM MARCHMAN, AND ANDREW COUTS
SECURITY
JUL 18, 2024 1:02 PM
J.D. Vance Left His Venmo Public. Here’s What It Shows
The Republican VP nominee's Venmo network reveals connections ranging from the architects of Project 2025 to enemies of Donald Trump—and the populist's close ties to the very elites he rails against.
JD Vance
PHOTOGRAPH: HANNAH BEIER/GETTY IMAGES

US senator J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican and former US president Donald Trump’s pick for vice president, has a public Venmo account that gives an unfiltered glimpse into his extensive network of connections with establishment GOP heavyweights, wealthy financiers, technology executives, the prestige press, and fellow graduates of Yale Law School—precisely the elites he rails against. A WIRED analysis of the account, the people listed as Vance’s friends, and, in turn, the people listed as their friends highlights sometimes bizarre and surprising connections. Experts, meanwhile, worry that the information revealed by the peer-to-peer payment app raises the potential for stalking, trolling, and impersonation.

More than 200 people appear on Vance’s Venmo “friends” list. Among them is Amalia Halikias, government relations director at the Heritage Foundation—the conservative think tank coordinating the controversial Project 2025. So is an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, among many other lawyers for the Department of Justice, frequently decried by Trump loyalists as enemies and part of the “deep state.” So are Jeff Flake, the famously anti-Trump former Arizona senator and current ambassador to Turkey; lobbyists from organizations like the Government Strategies Group; people affiliated with other conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute; journalists and media personalities like Bari Weiss and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson; and tech executives from Anthropic and AOL. (None of these people responded to requests for comment.)

Lanny Davis, a well-known political operative and former lawyer for Trump antagonist Michael Cohen, is among those who denied being Venmo friends with Vance despite seemingly appearing in Vance's contacts. (The account in question, which Davis declined to confirm or deny was his, was also linked to someone named Michael Cohen.) This points to one important caveat—being friends on Venmo does not mean two people have transacted together, or even know the payment app has designated them as friends.





According to Venmo, when someone first uses the app, they are prompted to allow it to access their phone contacts. If they agree, Venmo will find any contacts already using the app and automatically populate the user’s friend list. Users can also intentionally add or remove friends. Along with the user’s transactions, their friends list is public by default. This means it’s likely that Vance’s list of friends was largely populated by the contacts in his phone when he set up his account in December of 2016.

Vance’s Venmo account was first discovered by a law enforcement and extremism researcher who asked to remain anonymous, citing security concerns. WIRED verified the senator’s account through its connections to his wife, Usha Vance, as well as actors or producers in the 2020 film adaptation of his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. In total, Vance is connected directly to 211 people.

On Monday, Trump officially named Vance as his pick for vice president, reflecting the prominence of the party’s growing populist wing. Vance has frequently positioned himself as anti-elite, writing in Hillbilly Elegy: “Sometimes I view members of the elite with an almost primal scorn.” In an April post on X, Vance, who graduated Yale Law School in 2013, condemned “elite universities,” calling them “expensive day care centers for coddled children.” His network is largely made up of attorneys, the vast majority of whom received their law degrees from Yale Law around the same time he did.




Despite his anti-elite stance, Vance's connections reveal a more complex relationship with establishment figures. At the same time, as the former president distances himself from Project 2025—a right-wing policy roadmap aiming to purge the federal government and reshape the executive branch and turn the US into what critics characterize as a Christian nationalist autocratic state—Vance’s Venmo network reveals his ties not just to Halikias but to others associated with a maximalist interpretation of MAGA. Gladden Pappin, for instance—president of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and a figure with close ties to the intellectual wing of the far right—shows up as one of Vance’s friends.


Senator Vance’s office declined to comment on the record for this story. In an interview with Newsmax earlier this month, he said that the Project 2025 document has good ideas in it, as well as things he disagrees with. Vance did not elaborate on what exactly those good or bad ideas are. At the time of publication, Vance’s Venmo account remains fully public.

Vance’s friends have an average of 277 friends each. This wider network of associates shows an extended web of accounts who share names with high-profile political figures like Cohen, Nick Ayers, Todd Ricketts, and Michael Flynn Jr., as well as far-right activists like Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe, Laura Loomer, and Ali Alexander.

“What you guys need to realize is that Vance is influenceable,” wrote Andrew Torba on X. Torba is the founder of Gab, a social network popular with conspiracy theorists and Christian nationalists. He has long promoted antisemitic content on his social media accounts. “We have plenty of people in his orbit. Plenty of our guys can be put into positions of power because he’s there.”

“This appears to be his actual personal contacts," says Jordan Libowitz, the vice president of communications for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. He notes that the data found on Venmo is much more personal than what campaigns typically share through official channels, warning that “the more personal data that is public about someone the more points of pressure or influence there are on that person.”

Few of Vance’s transactions are public, and those that are seem mundane, like a payment to a staff member for doughnuts in January. WIRED also uncovered the Venmo account of his former Senate campaign manager, Jordan Wiggins, which shows a more extensive and occasionally eyebrow-raising transaction history, including more than 50 payments from as early as 2015, some labeled for things like “Back waxing & Happy Ending," and "adult 🎥". While these descriptions are likely jokes between friends, Wiggins didn’t respond to a request for comment.

After WIRED reached out to Vance’s Senate office on Wednesday, Wiggins made his account transactions private.

Experts say that the visibility of Vance’s account could create problems for the high-profile individuals connected to it. “Access to anyone’s social connections can reveal sensitive private information and expose them to security risks,” Jennifer Lynch, general counsel at civil liberties nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation, tells WIRED. High-profile politicians like Vance, Lynch argues, may be especially prone to social engineering attacks and impersonation. “If someone who is a candidate for vice president hasn’t changed his privacy settings, I don't know how a company can expect the rest of us to stay on top of this.”




This is far from the first time a government official’s Venmo account and list of friends has been discovered by the public. In 2017, the account of Sean Spicer, a former press secretary to Trump, was sent scores of joke payments through the app. In 2021 the Daily Beast reported that US representative Matt Gaetz had used Venmo to send payments to a person who was later convicted of sex trafficking a minor. (Gaetz, WIRED found, is friends with at least five people in Vance’s contact list.)

Last year, the Guardian reported that several lawyers, including one who successfully challenged race-conscious admissions at universities, used Venmo to pay a top aide to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (The payments appeared to be related to a holiday party.)

Privacy advocates at the EFF have long criticized Venmo for its permissive privacy settings and the associated risks. It wasn't until reporters at BuzzFeed News found president Joe Biden and his family members on the app in 2021 that Paypal, the company that owns Venmo, allowed users to make their friends lists private. Even now, this option is not the default setting and must be manually adjusted.

In a statement, Venmo spokesperson Caitlin Girouard tells WIRED that “Venmo takes our customers’ privacy very seriously, which is why we let customers choose their privacy settings—and we make it incredibly simple for customers to make their account private if they choose to do so.”

In spite of the attention Venmo’s privacy shortcomings have garnered, it seems like many haven’t gotten that message. WIRED easily identified other high-profile individuals through Venmo, such as former NSA director and Open AI board member Paul Nakasone.

https://www.wired.com/story/jd-vance-venmo/

Truth over rhetoric every time.

Hmmmmm........

Hillbilly Elegy?

Was J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy Really a True Story? All About the VP Candidate's Controversial Memoir

Critics have also noted that Vance’s packaging of the memoir as “an Appalachian narrative” is a bit of a misnomer, because his family moved away from the Appalachian region two generations before Vance was born. “Lots of times in the book when he’s talking about Appalachia, it’s almost like he’s never been to Appalachia,” House pointed out. “This is a Rust Belt story, but Appalachian stories, Appalachian literature, is its own genre.”

“If you read the book, you realize that hardly any of it is set in Appalachia,” he added. “He’s saying, I guess, that generationally you can’t escape Appalachia, because here he is, his grandparents left there when they were very young, his mother never lived there, he never lived there, and suddenly, after the book came out, he’s on every news show as the representative of a region that he barely knows.”

https://people.com/is-jd-vance-hillbilly-elegy-true-story-all-about-the-memoir-8678366

The article is quite long and also addresses the stereotypes used that are certainly not an accurate depiction of many people in the region. Yes, there are some people in that region which fit the description. But that's no different anywhere else. It is hilarious to know that his family never actually lived their during his life and all of the stories of him spending his summers there visiting his family was pure BS.

But then that certainly helps qualify him to be trump's running mate.

Vance's story is 100% true. The headline is disingenuous garbage that infers something that has never been stated in print OR out loud.

Did Vance say he spent the summers there? Nope. Didn't think so, and I know because I read the book. Did you?

The book is about living through generational depression and stereotypes. The kind you put down all the time unless it's convenient to your talking points. And many of the people in Middletown were transplants from Appalachia. And if someone calls it "Appalachian literature", that's on them, not J.D. Vance.

And no, obviously ALL the people don't represent the people talked about in his book... just like all whites aren't racist, all women don't drive bad (I was going to say Asians but I didn't want anyone to poop their pants, oops, I just did), and all boys aren't girls... yet.

The crazy thing is someone trying to make a big deal about something he never said when the town he grew up in is a total of 30 miles from the western border of what is considered the Appalachian region. Talk about pulling teeth to reveal your ugly-ass smile.


Keep digging.

Papaw played banjo in the holler. I know hillbillies. Vance didn't tell Appalachia's story.

I’m from one of the 32 counties that make up Ohio’s portion of Appalachia. When I read JD Vance's memoir, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' I was aghast at the depiction of my community.

Riley Crabtree is a Columbus Dispatch opinion writer. The first-generation college student was raised near Jackson, Ohio and attends Miami University.

Like JD Vance, I am from the great state of Ohio.

I knew about the first-term U.S. senator long before Donald Trump announced him as his running mate.

Vance's memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy," piqued my interest when I first saw it featured in a bookstore's local author section.

I have a natural affinity for so-called hillbillies.

I’m from one of the 32 counties that make up Ohio’s portion of Appalachia. I grew up in a small town near the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky.

Papaw played banjo in the holler. I know hillbillies. Vance didn't tell Appalachia's story.
I’m from one of the 32 counties that make up Ohio’s portion of Appalachia. When I read JD Vance's memoir, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' I was aghast at the depiction of my community.
Riley Crabtree
Columbus Dispatch

Riley Crabtree is a Columbus Dispatch opinion writer. The first-generation college student was raised near Jackson, Ohio and attends Miami University.

Like JD Vance, I am from the great state of Ohio.

I knew about the first-term U.S. senator long before Donald Trump announced him as his running mate.

Vance's memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy," piqued my interest when I first saw it featured in a bookstore's local author section.

I have a natural affinity for so-called hillbillies.

I’m from one of the 32 counties that make up Ohio’s portion of Appalachia. I grew up in a small town near the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky.

The memoir was supposed to be about life in Appalachia and the struggles the region faces, but Vance’s family didn’t reside in Appalachia — they lived in Middletown, a place with over 50,000 people less than 45 minutes from Cincinnati.

Jackson, Ohio, the largest city near my hometown, has a population of a little more than 6,200 people.

Vance's family hadn’t lived in Kentucky since right after World War II. He spent time in Kentucky during holidays and over summers.

JD Vance didn't depict the Appalachians I know

When I read the memoir, I was aghast at the depiction of my community.

Papaw played banjo in the holler. I know hillbillies. Vance didn't tell Appalachia's story.
I’m from one of the 32 counties that make up Ohio’s portion of Appalachia. When I read JD Vance's memoir, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' I was aghast at the depiction of my community.
Riley Crabtree
Columbus Dispatch

Riley Crabtree is a Columbus Dispatch opinion writer. The first-generation college student was raised near Jackson, Ohio and attends Miami University.

Like JD Vance, I am from the great state of Ohio.

I knew about the first-term U.S. senator long before Donald Trump announced him as his running mate.

Vance's memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy," piqued my interest when I first saw it featured in a bookstore's local author section.

I have a natural affinity for so-called hillbillies.

I’m from one of the 32 counties that make up Ohio’s portion of Appalachia. I grew up in a small town near the borders of West Virginia and Kentucky.

The memoir was supposed to be about life in Appalachia and the struggles the region faces, but Vance’s family didn’t reside in Appalachia — they lived in Middletown, a place with over 50,000 people less than 45 minutes from Cincinnati.
Ohio has 32 counties in the Appalachian Regional Commission, mostly along the Ohio River and the hill counties of Southeast Ohio.

Jackson, Ohio, the largest city near my hometown, has a population of a little more than 6,200 people.

Vance's family hadn’t lived in Kentucky since right after World War II. He spent time in Kentucky during holidays and over summers.
JD Vance didn't depict the Appalachians I know

When I read the memoir, I was aghast at the depiction of my community.

Vance painted Appalachia as a place to escape. While there are moments of admiration, he insinuated Appalachians were stubborn folks with no value and no real culture, fueled by drugs, self-pity and lack of motivation to work hard.

Vance’s portrayal of my part of America was personal — not universal.

Substance abuse, poverty and a wide range of problems have afflicted the region for years, since most industries in the area have faded – like coal mining or timber harvesting. When these industries left the region, it also left the communities behind to fend for themselves.

One main message to interpret from the memoir was Vance’s own way to success: Join the military, find a way to go to Yale and then you’ll end up a millionaire.
He makes it seem so achievable. Unfortunately, for the vast majority — nearly everyone, that is — of Appalachians, achieving even a career that can provide for your family is difficult.

My grandparents worked in factory after factory as plants closed. My parents couldn't afford to get the college educations they craved.

After reading "Hillbilly Elegy," I believe Vance would say they didn't work hard enough — that they didn't want it enough, but I know better.

Real Appalachians want upward mobility

Nobody invests in the area. JD Vance, for his small part, ran a start-up fund to help business leaders in the region.

These communities need investment and are willing to put in the work, but they don’t have opportunities for upward mobility. Many students in the region, like myself, are first-generation college students whose parents couldn’t even afford to set aside money to help fund their college expenses.

Many families want job training, social programs, recreational facilities, improved educational resources and steady employment, and most important, we want industries to see the potential and the thriving culture that exists in the region.

Children and families are being left out of a conversation Vance can start, given his political and Silicon Valley ties.

There is potential for growth in the region, but we need cooperation from employers, politicians and those with a platform to uplift the area.

Readers of “Hillbilly Elegy” have heard Vance’s message: I escaped Appalachia.

Because of Appalachia, I have lived a wonderful life with supportive parents, grandparents and a tight-knit family.

I have found memories with my papaw playing the banjo and in the “holler,” of bluegrass music and my mamaw’s slight southern drawl.

As I prepare to enter my career, I appreciate the support of the Appalachia I know and love.

It's quite different from Vance’s image of the region.

https://www.dispatch.com/story/opin...lbilly-elegy-jd-vance-papaw/74454972007/

Even with all of your tantrum like faux outrage, you're welcome.

Thanks for more trash, I'll take it out with the rest. BTW, you went crazy with the copy/paste function, that's a mess, making it an even bigger waste of time, not that you care.


This dude's mad because he wanted Vance's book to be about something different??

WTactualF?

I'm mad because I want ice cream, should I write a scathing article about the inconsistency of the local ice cream truck?


You're going to need to dig way deeper than that. Find a functioning keyboard while you're down there.

I know what an Hillbilly Elegy actually is. My entire family on both sides grew up there. J.D. Vance gave the worst examples of that life. Nothing reflective of something I have witnessed first hand throughout my life. Hard working, Christian people. I know anything contrary to those whom support the type of garbage he wrote which is supposed to be reflective Appalachian life is the type of things you label as trash. Showing the accuracy of the situation has nothing to do with anger.

Of course when all is said and done, per usual rather than have a discussion you throw trash around in response. Some things never change.

I'm sure the ice cream truck will be along shortly to make you feel better.

Yeah? So did my family, for generations, all the way back to our roots as Native Americans.

Cherry pick much??

My mom tried to light my dad on fire and scared me so badly I had to run to the neighbors house isn't hillbilly story. It's a story that could happen anywhere. The story of industry leaving is a story that holds just as much true for Cleveland, Akron and all of the rust belt as it does anywhere else. What he wrote was a story that could hold true in many areas and is not restricted to hillbillies. And unless you think Middletown, Ohio is in the Appalachians, then nothing about his book isn't related to hillbillies. If I lived 30 miles north of New York City that wouldn't make me an expert on telling stories about the people that reside in city of New York.

Telling his story is not the same thing as making false claims it's about Appalachia. He never lived in Appalachia and obviously you think that makes this all okay. His story fits people in many parts of the country.

I missed the part where he said this was all restricted to hillbillys. There you go again with the "all or nothing" form of strawmen. Just like in the Newsome thread where you say crap like "So you're saying ™ that teachers should be forced to report everything about their students directly to the parents?" It's bush league cop-out at it's finest.

Did you ever hear the term "memoir"? The definition isn't that it has to describe accurately the life-experience of Pit@Dawgtalkers.




Pit@Dawgtalkers: "It sucks, I hate it! My mamma never set no one on fire!!"

So you missed the title of the book? Here ya go. Anything I can do to help you out with that.

Hillbilly Elegy

Since it was a hillbilly story she must be one of the few who didn't. The only one here throwing a tantrum is you. I guess the ice cream truck still hasn't made it to your house yet.

All these books contain the word white, that must mean the authors think ALL white people are racist.


"White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism" by Robin DiAngelo
"White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better" by Regina Jackson and Saira Rao
"White Men's Law: The Roots of Systemic Racism" by Peter Irons
"White Out: The Continuing Significance of Racism" by Ashley W. Doane and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
"Being White: Stories of Race and Racism" by Karyn D. McKinney
"Dear White Women: Let's Get (Un)comfortable Talking about Racism" by Sara Blanchard and Misasha Suzuki Graham
"White Racism" by Joe R. Feagin, Hernán Vera, and Pinar Batur


See how easy that was?

You really need to figure out where the hell that ice cream truck is. I have no idea what that has to do with a man claiming he is telling the story of Appalachia when that story applies widely to many other areas of the country when he isn't from there, wasn't even born there and has never lived in Appalachia. But please, do go on.

Once again, back to the beginning. It's always an endless loop of madness and ignorance with you. He never claimed he was telling the story of Appalachia. That's #fakenews

You're going to need a bigger shovel.

I guess I need to type slower.

In every title you listed, it plainly states who the message is to and about. White people.

J.D. Vance did that exact same thing when he used hillbilly in the title of his book. So you are claiming that the word hillbilly is not referring to his relatives and the very region in which they had formerly resided in which was in Appalachia then?

You've already filled the shovel.

Sure it's about hillbillies, just not all of them.

Saying that's not the experience in your family shows you're not capable of a shred of critical thought. And that's all it shows.

He. is. telling. about. his. experience.

So far we have one snowflake questioning whether his story is "true" because it may not be true of everyone; another cry baby saying it should have been a different story; and Pit@Dawgtalkers, all peed off because Vance didn't tell his families story.


This can not really be that hard. Well, nevermind.

Your juvenile response is all one needs to see to show the mentality you choose to display. It's quite sad. Many comments in his book have nothing to do with "his story".

I'm not sure how you can possibly call some of his depictions of Appalachian people as lazy, helpless, drug addicted and violent people as part of his story. That's nothing more than rude, negative, editorial comments about an entire culture. But maybe since you can't seem to use that same approach in your own posts helps explain the issue.

Now go on and whine some more. Try making up the fact that many of his comments have nothing to do with his own story and sound like a petulant child. I take it the ice cream truck never came yesterday.

j/c...

It appears the things you've been saying aren't that accurate. It seems he's saying he isn't old or experienced enough to fully understand what he's talking about and that the book is actually absurd. Thanks.

Just an FYI for you. It's national ice cream day and there are sweet deals on it everywhere! I know you didn't manage to get any yesterday so I didn't want you to miss out today. This should should help indicate to you just how much I care.

Sweet.

J.D. Vance went from a never trumper who said everything nasty about him one can think of to now bring a MAGA boot licker. It just goes to show Vance has no conviction. But I guess since his running mate has 34 of them that makes up for it.

J.D. Vance is to Appalachia what The Olive Garden is to Italy.

[img]https://img.ifunny.co/images/c1202ed2ce840dea9605aa2d352849c327788600bb7233a70401ce2641ecd058_1.webp[/img]

You should point out when you don't have an original thought.

At least I have thoughts. It's odd how you keep repeating GOP talking points and then point the finger when someone else does it. But I'm not surprised by that. Pot meet kettle.

You being told what to think is not having thoughts. But nice deflection by you again.

Agreeing with what you see isn't being told what to think. If you had bothered following the thread you could easily see this is what I've been saying all along. But that would take thinking instead of reacting.

So you merely plagiarize to look smart?

Most libtards are parrots.

I had no idea that I was trying to present it as my own or profit by it in any way. For someone who parrots every GOP talking point out there I wouldn't be trying to preach to anyone about originality or being desperate to look smart on here.

Coming from the biggest parrot on the board.

I know you have a hard time coming up with original thoughts but presenting someone else's as your own is plagiarizing, no matter if you are doing it for profit. But you try to deflect.

As the Dawgtalkers self appointed legal expert I suggest you sue me so someone who actually knows the law can explain what constitutes plagiarism is. I never claimed it was my work or quote to begin with. Maybe you should start there.

Coming from a person who can't hear his own words and thoughts is hilarious. Trying to claim your mind is deaf is not attractive.

The voice in your head finds a lot hilarious it seems. Why don't you go roll on the floor laughing for it some more? It seems to enjoy it when you do that, and doing what it says seems to be what you do best.

Fortunately, I wasn't trying to attract you. I'm generally repelled by you. Sadly, I'm also fascinated by oddities, the insane, and many other strange phenomena that are exhibited here.



Why are train wrecks so hard to look away from?

That would be you. Here's a peanut.