We have a new entry in the ‘You can’t make this sh!t up’ (pun intended) category. In his own unique way VP Vance showed just how much of a clueless dumbass he is in a meet with the troops and cheer them up visit and speech at Ft. Campbell in Kentucky. He actually told troops who cheered when asked if they like turkey they were “full of sh!t.
No, you haven’t been re-directed from Politizoom to a really bad story from The Onion. However, if instead of watching football after eating your Thanksgiving (turkey) meal or like my in-laws back when I was married won’t be eating until tonight and are online I thought I’d share this with you. I actually assumed the headline was one from The Onion which never appears in my news feed but it was actually an article from HuffPost. It recounts Vance’s cheer up the troops, so many who are far away from hometowns and families on this Thanksgiving holiday. Not content to serve meals in the chow line and just mingle with the troops, Vance had to also give a speech. It was a speech in which he trashed not just turkey but soldiers who said they liked turkey.
The linked article tells us the day went along with the kind of stuff you’d expect from a politician spending time with the troops on a holiday for a photo op. As I said, he (it seems wifey Usha tagged along) did the standard serve up a portion of food to soldiers in line, and as also is common at such events took to a podium to address the troops. One of those ‘Americans truly appreciate your service, and send you greetings and well wishes’ types of addresses.
HuffPost notes that after Kid Rock (THAT was the entertainment?) introduced Vance as the man he hoped to one day call the 48th President Vance took the microphone and launched into a speech filled with standard patriotic fare. Then for reasons that like the smile on the Mona Lisa will forever be a mystery Vance went off the rails. Clearly the man has issues with turkey. Brain Bleach alert – back in college I saw a tasteless cartoon of a guy and a chicken in a college teammate’s skin magazine he was shoving in everyone’s face. (Only one such cartoon we had to put up with was worse) I had a flashback and wondered it Vance who ‘people say’ (to put it like Trump likes to do) likes to boink couches he tried to do it with a turkey which was to wily and quick for him.
Ok, so he doesn’t like turkey. No big deal. Lots of people don’t like things (including popular foods) that most people like. If Vance doesn’t happen to like turkey I figure so what? Just don’t eat it. Problem solved. But nooooooo. He had to go and make a BFD about trashing turkey as awful. That was bad. And stupid too but he didn’t stop there. He spoke of Thanksgiving being a uniquely American tradition which it isn’t. Then he brought up why, as in because ‘turkey’ and that where things turned to… well sh!t:
“Think about turkey,” he continued, before taking the speech in an unexpected direction.
“Who really likes ― be honest with yourselves — who really likes turkey?” he asked, prompting some soldiers in the audience to cheer.
“You’re all full of shit. Everybody who raised your hands,” Vance replied.
“I know. Think about it. And here’s how I know that every single one of you who raised your hand is lying to me. How many times do you roast an 18-pound turkey just randomly? Just, you know, a nice summer afternoon, we’re gonna go get an 18-pound turkey. Nobody does it, because turkey doesn’t actually taste that good.”
Now, I know some of you (especially our conservative lurkers) are thinking something along the lines of Vance would never say that, at least publicly. AND for damned not on an Army base to a bunch of troops the day before Thanksgiving. Surely Vance wouldn’t be that tone deaf and clueless! Well, if a transcript isn’t enough to convince you perhaps the tweet, or X or whatever the hell they’re called these days will convince you:
Vance: Who really likes — be honest with yourself, who really likes Turkey? You are all full of shit. Everybody who raised your hands… Turkey doesn't actually taste that good. Chicken is good all the time. pic.twitter.com/4TDDHAihUv
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 26, 2025
As the old saying goes (sort of) It’s better to be quiet and be thought of as a dumbass than shoot off your mouth and remove all doubt. Let’s face it, Vance is a MAGA asshat minus the hat. I’m sure a picture exists but I’ve never seen him wearing an actual MAGA hat. I’m sure Vance is far from the only person who doesn’t like turkey but I’m and old fart who’s been around and lived (and celebrated Thanksgiving in) multiple states and have yet to hear anyone say they didn’t like turkey. Much less call it sh*t and tell people who say they like it they are lying right to their faces.
As for Vance’s reasoning that nobody bakes turkey except on Thanksgiving being proof no one actually likes it I call bullshit. We’d sometimes have it (albeit a much smaller than the well over 20lb version mom would get for Thanksgiving on Christmas or even at Easter. My granny would sometimes buy a half turkey breast, at most three pounds even in the summer. If stores out east would sell it that way I’d sure as hell roast one up now and then. Love those leftover turkey sandwiches. The thing is, a full size turkey or even a good sized turkey breast of seven or eight pounds takes some work to cook and have it come out well.
As for the once a year thing most people love prime rib. How often do they cook a good sized one at home? Maybe once a year (Christmas or Easter) if that. And that was before the price of beef shot through the roof. Also, like turkey not everyone is able to get prime rib cooked just right using their own oven. So between price (it costs way more than turkey) and maybe not cooking it to the quality you get at a restaurant like I said most people cook a family sized (enough to feed five or six people and have some left over for steak sandwiches) prime rib does that mean no one likes it? And that people who claim they do are liars? I don’t think so and neither do you.
So what could have and should have been a simple ‘feel good’ photo op with the troops on this holiday turned into a PR debacle. Vance made himself and by extension Trump look bad. Out of touch. NO proverbial common touch and right now with approval cratering blowing such an easy gig is going to get him a trip to whatever is the Mar A Lago version of the woodshed. Of course, Vance is pretty weird and might get off Susie Wiles in Dominatrix gear teaching him a lesson. Well, I’m sure Trumpty will find some way to punish Vance that actually feels like punishment to him.
Effing this photo op the way he did, going off script on a riff that popped into his head and he couldn’t keep from shooting out his fat stupid mouth actually gives me a little hope. Many, including our fearless PZ leader Ursula have concerns about the addle-brained Trump being gone (whether by mother nature’s hand or the 25th amendment) and Vance taking over. I suppose there actually is cause for concern that Vance might install people who actually know shit as in how government stuff actually gets done. People who could do a LOT more to implement Project 2025 than Trump has managed to do.
However there are times when Vance, despite a Yale law degree was never all that swift in the management department. His benefactor Peter Theil tried to set him up running a couple of businesses and Vance was a failure. Hence the shift to politics, Theil bought Vance his Senate seat and a whirlwind later the Vice-Presidency. Has Vance learned much about the arcane workings of government or managing something significant? We’ll have to wait and see.
Vance seems to wholeheartedly believe he’s the heir to the MAGA throne. He was lucky to get that Senate seat and his Hillbilly Elegy image has been shown to be bullshit. Even MAGAs are realizing it. Worse for him, so far only Trump has proven able to get away with being Trump. Yesterday’s gaffe suggests Vance won’t be able to pull of Trump’s magic trick either. Hell, even Trump is now having trouble pulling it off!
Again I say we’ll have to wait and see. However if you click on the link to HuffPost you’ll see Vance was already taking fire on Xitter. Maybe if for one reason or another he has to finish out Trump’s second term we’ll get through it with less damage than we’ve feared.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Your comment about keeping quiet is very genteel. The version I’ve heard is: “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re stupid, rather than open it and prove it beyond a doubt.”