To not understand the JD Vance weird face meme all over the Cotswolds?

[BlueJuniper94]

So I understand he is not popular and has recently been holidaying in the Cotswolds. But I don't understand this big exaggerated AI face some group has been putting on billboards and driving around.

Firstly, are they mocking his appearance? That's not very nice, no matter what someone's politics are, their actions should be the target not what they look like.

And if it is about his remarks about free speech - again, I really don't understand how this image "owns" him, he's a foreign politician. UK gov aren't going to care about that, wouldn't it make sense to prove the point by criticising power that is actually British?

Fill me in please, I don't understand - what am I missing?

Is Vance one of the Project 25 authors?

Especially when marrying the female minor gets you out of a rape charge.

Well said. And it's the lack of a constitution that makes many Americans think that we dont have rights, or free speech. We do, it just hasn't been written down. Mind you, look how the Orange Donkey & Chucky Vance have trodden all over the rights of numerous people in the USA.

You are right. The difference is that one pled guilty and the other didn't. All those Southport protestors who were told to plead guilty shouldn't have done so as those who didn't got off. Moral of the story? Do not plead guilty.

OK, so the BBC with its much vaunted 'neutrality' really isn't an unbiased source of news any more given who runs it. There's a thread on the Lucy Connolly/Ricky Jones situation where a lot of experienced posters with an understanding of how the law actually works in the UK explain why the two can't reasonably be compared. The Secret Barrister also has some explainers on the topic (and he's hardly a leftie).

Looks like staff at a local pub (which has previously hosted Kamala Harris) threatened to walk out if his booking was honoured. Good on them.

I’ve added the pub to my list of places to visit.

Oh, yes indeed.

No. One was charged with encouraging violent disorder and the other was charged and prosecuted under section 19(1) of the Public Order Act 1986 under which a person is threatening or abusive and intends to stir up racial hatred. The prosecution's case was that there was not only intention to incite serious violence but also to directly encourage activity which threatened or endangered life. This placed the offence on the A1 category of the relevant sentencing guidelines, which meant a starting point of three years in prison, which could go up to six years.

Not similar offences, not similar circumstances, not similar outcomes and different pleas.

She pled guilty. No trial. He pled not guilty and was cleared by a jury. No two tier at play. I know you'd really like there to be, but no.

You're heroic in your persistence, but OP doesn't want to know the truth. Too many people don't.

We have to persist or people believe disinformation and end up in an echo chamber.

I agree with you, and I will also persist. I'm just not always going to be sweetly nice about it.

I’ve booked for next week. Not cheap. 😬😖

What does this actually mean and how is it different in the US?

It's ironic given that that some US visa applicants now are required to share their social media accounts so that the government can check that they aren't posting anti-American sentiments before issuing their visa. What's free about that?

J D Vance is nasty. He’s on holiday in a country which he apparently despises, so he can just fuck right off.

He's a fucking hick goon.

American logic apparently is that their freeedoms don’t extend to non US citizens. “Land of the free” indeed.

so they don’t have the right to free speech, due process etc, despite their constitution, and I believe the Supreme Court on multiple occasions, stating otherwise.

you’re only free if you’re American. Like I said though, the mental gymnastics doesn’t extend to realising that if there’s no due process, you have no right to establish your US citizenship at any point, so you are no more free than any non US citizen.

And, increasingly, you're only American if ICE agree, no matter how loudly you're shouting about your constitutional rights. The vaunted constitution is worthless.

Nowhere is these days is it.

best put it on the “someone’s birthday” list then!!

Indeed I have/had a a few relatives in the US. One family relocated back to UK about 18 months ago, they said the writing was on the wall if you looked closely.

Another family are reviewing their options. She married an American and took American citizenship after the children were born. The children are dual nationality but always travelled under an American passport. They have recently got British Passports for the children. They work in the education sector at one of the larger universities and they have said that things are very different to 12 months ago, the US government is slowly implementing Project 25 despite Trump denying it, and one of the big Universities is likely to be the scapegoat to bring all the others in line.

To me, sitting here in the UK it sounds very far-fetched and over-dramatic. But these are level headed people so I am not sure what to think.

Also all this clamping down on what museums and schools etc can and can't say about American history and societal matters doesn't sound very freedom of speechy. Not to mention the 'jokey' threats about getting rid of American citizens who don't agree with the Trump way of thinking.

Friend escaped Communist Czechoslovakia in 1967, came here, political asylum granted then emigrated to USA a few years later. Lived there, marrying and raising a family until 3 years ago when, for the second time in her life, the writing on the wall again said 'It's time to leave'. Thankfully had dual citizenship and they moved to a European country. To anyone, thousands of people, who fled political oppression to the guaranteed safety of the USA, the current circumstances of US politics is completely traumatising.

@maudelovesharold

"J D Vance is nasty. He’s on holiday in a country which he apparently despises, so he can just fuck right off."

I haven't seen anything from Vance where he has said he despises the UK.

But whilst we are on the topic Cornwall has plenty of English tourists that most definitely and openly criticise the Cornish and they can most definitely fuck off.

But because ICE is subjected to extremely unrealistic targets, they won't bother even asking themselves what your actual status might be. So you're screwed if they get you.