I have no idea who he is. Somebody said there was a comedian that joked about Puerto Rico or something. And I have no idea who it was. Never saw him. Never heard of him, and don’t want to hear of him. But I have no idea.

Donald J. Trump/October 29, 2024

Maybe it’s a stupid, racist joke, as you said; maybe it’s not. I haven’t seen it. I’m not gonna comment on the specificity of the joke … but I think that we have to stop getting offended at every little thing in the United States of America, I’m just so over it.

Senator J.D. Vance/October 28, 2024

If you are going to compare Donald Trump to a Nazi, as his running mate did in 2015, describing him as “America’s Hitler, the least you can do is use the right metaphor.  J.D., if you think others get “offended at every little thing,” let’s see if you are “just so over” this.

For the record, Donald Trump is nothing like Adolf Hitler.  Hitler was responsible for the death of six million Jews and millions of other innocent people.  Trump, based on his incompetent response to the early days of the COVID pandemic, was only responsible for 400,000 preventable deaths, based on an analysis by the Lancet Commission on Public Policy and Health, of U.S. fatalities compared to other industrialized nations .  There is one other distinction.  Co-anchor Ronny Cheung suggested on last night’s edition of “The Daily Show,” Trump cannot be a Nazi.  Nazis served in their country’s army.

Back to J.D. Vance.  Hitler is the wrong comparison.  When I listen to this dysfunctional duo say things, like the above quotes, I do not think of Adolf Hitler.  The only Nazi that comes to mind is Sgt. Hans Georg Schultz (John Banner) in the CBS sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes” (1965-71). Maybe you remember his excuse after every incident when the Allied POWs whom he monitored outwitted him and the stalag commander.  To cover his incompetence, he would tell his superiors, “I hear nothing.  I see nothing.  I know nothing.”

There is one difference between Schultz and the Batty-Man Trump and his boy wonder Vance, when it comes to their response to insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe?  The only people who outwitted this dysfunctional duo were themselves.  Trump admitted what most of us already know.  “I had no idea.”  I guess, in this case, Trump did not even have the concept of an idea.  And he protests that the comic was unvetted even though the media reports Trump staffers watched him workshop the material at The Stand, a New York City comedy club.

However, in MAGA world one lie is only valuable if it is repeated and amplified.  On Monday night, Trump told Sean Hannity:

Now what they’ve done is taken somebody that has nothing to do with the party, has nothing to do with us, said something, and they try and make a big deal. But I don’t know who it is.

Not true, according the The Bulwark.

“He [Hinchcliffe] had a joke calling [Vice President Kamala] Harris a ‘cunt,’” a campaign insider involved in the discussions about the event told The Bulwark. “Let’s say it was a red flag.”  Campaign staffers had asked all speakers to submit drafts of their speeches ahead of time—before they were loaded into the teleprompter—according to the aforementioned sources. Once the objectionable “cunt” joke was spotted, the sources said, a staffer asked Hinchcliffe to strike it. He complied.

Pardon my rambling. It is so easy to get off track, but the brilliance comes from bringing it all together in beautiful “weave.”  Back to J.D. Vance.  What does his response say about his potential performance as vice president.? The joke about Puerto Rico and negative reactions were on the front page of every major U.S. newspaper and the lead story on every broadcast and cable news program.  But he did not see it, so he says.  Just imagine a situation where he is asked his response to the next mass shooting, natural disaster, health crisis or economic downturn. I can hear him “hedging” now.  “I haven’t seen it?  I’m not gonna comment on the specificity of the situation.”  

Let me close by asking, “Messrs. Trump and Vance, when the National Guard shows up at my door, will you be okay when I tell them, ‘I had nothing to do with this blog.  I never saw it.  I don’t know who wrote it.  You have to stop getting offended by every little thing someone writes about you. You need to just get over it.'”

I doubt it will work with them.  It should not work for us either.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP