Nice Democracy You Got There
It'd be a shame if something happened to it...
The visible deterioration of Donald Trump’s cognitive ability on the campaign trail, including babbling, disinhibition, and canceling media appearances has intensified focus on vice presidential candidate and Washington newcomer J.D. Vance. Vance has less political experience than any vice presidential candidate in the last nearly 60 years, has held one elected office for just twenty-some months as of this writing, and none of the 34 bills he personally sponsored became law. Media-and-politics website mediaite.com labeled Vance the Marjorie Taylor Greene of the Senate, “stomping and shouting but getting nothing done.” In his article “Why Trump Chose J.D. Vance,” Time magazine’s Eric Cortelessa suggests that Vance was chosen as “a leading light of the right-wing populist movement spawned by Trump’s rise….” This is at best a nuanced characterization as Vance has an extensive record of critical comments and remarks about Trump, dating back to at least 2016.
In June Vance participated in a Trump fundraiser at the home of David Sacks, who with fellow investors Peter Thiel, and Elon Musk, among others, founded PayPal and went on to form other tech firms. Vance met Thiel in 2011 when Thiel spoke at Yale Law School where Vance was a student. Vance subsequently described Thiel’s talk somewhat obtusely as “the most significant moment of my time.” In 2015 Vance became a partner at venture capital firm Mithril Capital, which Thiel had co-founded. Mithril is the fictional precious metal in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, described as harder than steel and more beautiful than silver. As documented by Disconnect.blog’s Paris Marx, Thiel has named at least nine companies after people, places, and things from Tolkien’s world.
Tolkien’s Middle Earth apparently holds an almost mystical appeal to many Silicon Valley denizens....