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JD Vance's visit to Vermont ski resort interrupted by pro-Ukraine demonstrators after Zelensky exchange (nypost.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by HowRu68@lemmy.world to c/ukraine@sopuli.xyz

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Vice President JD Vance was met with hundreds of pro-Ukraine protesters while visiting a Vermont ski resort on Saturday, following his public dust up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House.

Vance and his family, on a trip to Sugarbush Resort, were greeted by the outraged protesters lining the snow-covered streets of the small Vermont town of Waitsfield.

Protestors displayed signs that labeled Vance a “national disgrace,” accused him of being a “traitor” and encouraged the family to “go ski in Russia.”

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[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 97 points 2 weeks ago

We need to start throwing couches at him. Everywhere he goes, we need to throw a couch at him.

Look, I know it is going to take dedication, and be costly. You gotta buy a couch for the sole purpose of throwing it in his general direction.

But I'm not saying you can't buy the shittiest couch at the thrift store. Or even buy YOURSELF a really nice new couch and throw your old one at him.

Come on. Do you have ANY idea how funny it would be seeing people going skiing, riding a couch down the slope. Then throw it at vance at the bottom of the hill???

There would be a moment where he realizes that people hate him so much that his entire life is everybody throwing couches at him!

It's a group effort, but lets make it happen.

[-] mfuga@feddit.dk 24 points 2 weeks ago

Would be great indeed but I fear there won't be"that moment where he realizes ...". In his view he's doing everything right for his audience (grifter in chief, Putin, billionaires). Nevertheless "chapeau!" to the protesters, well framed in the ski resort setting - always to remind the amount of taxpayer paid relaxation while others suffer from their actions.

[-] WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Scooby Doo cast in their van, with most of them recoiling in horror but with J. D. Vance's face pasted over Freddy's with the caption "That's my fetish."

[-] NoForwardslashS@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

And he would fuck every single one.

[-] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

The couches were showing too much skin, they were asking for it!

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 2 points 2 weeks ago

Many free couches on Facebook marketplace

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Just use blowup couches. Cheaper and I think gets the message across just as well given other blow up sex toys.

[-] HowRu68@lemmy.world 72 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

It wasn't only Vermont, but across the US ( Guardian link)

"Protesters took to the streets in New York, Los Angeles and Boston, with hundreds gathering to express support for Ukraine and its president"

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 71 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

"KAMALA IS A DO NOTHING VICE PRESIDENT!" - JD Vance

"Well, I tried gaslighting a world leader who is our ally in a crucial war, that didn't work, so I'm out of ideas. Time to go skiing I guess." - Also JD Vance

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 2 points 1 week ago

I mean it is something..... Is it a good thing? No. But its still a thing!

[-] TheBrideWoreCrimson@sopuli.xyz 27 points 2 weeks ago

Go ski in hell, Vance.

[-] CtrlAltDyeet@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 2 weeks ago

I am struggling to comprehend the insanity of contrast with one leader dealing with mangled bodies daily while the other mocks them then goes skiing.

[-] boonhet@lemm.ee 7 points 1 week ago

That's why he's mocking Zelenskyy. He could've sold his country to Putin and gone skiing, but instead decided to fight.

[-] a_wild_mimic_appears@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

the comments below the article are disgusting shudder

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 16 points 2 weeks ago

I've stopped reading those. I might have put myself in a bubble, but I prefer a bubble over a heart attack because of rage bait comments from the antisocial dregs of society.

[-] margaritox@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Every time I dare to read those comments, I end up regretting it. Can you please tell me what is wrong with those people? I really don’t like thinking that people are hopeless and the majority is probably not. But i need help dealing with those.

[-] madjo@feddit.nl 3 points 1 week ago

I wish I knew. All I can think of is that they've fallen into the alt-right pipeline and are now living in some alternative fact land, and there are people who lack empathy, who think that having empathy is a weakness.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Is that the best you can do America? Wave a sign, chant slogans, while occupying a sidewalk as he laughs at you and skis with his family? I can't tell who's more pathetic in this scenario.

EDIT -

[-] Mister_Feeny@fedia.io 73 points 2 weeks ago

Apparently, he fled

So it seems it was somewhat effective.

[-] mfuga@feddit.dk 25 points 2 weeks ago

... and it's great to get it on to Fox News to reach their clients. There's increasing suffering among them and at some point people will join the protesters.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 weeks ago

Probably a different more luxurious and private ski resort where they won't be bothered anymore.

[-] Mister_Feeny@fedia.io 34 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe. But you know what? Protestors ran off the VP from his weekend getaway. Even if he did just go to a "more luxurious" resort, he still went running tail between his legs from his originally planned vacation, and at the very least had to spend a bunch of time traveling instead of doing the skiing he planned to do. I can definitely tell who's more pathetic in this scenario.

[-] IsThisAnAI@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Naw. Unless your hiking up or taking a copter there are only a few major mountains with high end accomodations.

The 16 trail and two lift mountains, while nice, are anything but luxurious.

[-] Embargo@lemm.ee 41 points 2 weeks ago

There were literally people holding signs that said "Go ski in Russia, traitor". Stop dragging everyone down to your miserable level, please.

[-] kokolores@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 2 weeks ago

I’m European and I’m thankful for each American showing their disgust with Trump, Vance or Musk.

And I truly hope for more getting to the other side.

I’m curious though, what exactly are you doing to contribute to do something against Trump, Vance or Musk?

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Started in 2003 when I was 13 and would fundraise at middleschool against the war in Iraq.

Somewhat prioritized political literacy and critical thinking as a young lad, though I was lofty and idealistic in those days I was at least trying to do something. Genocide in Sudan and watching Schindlers List when I was 13-14 also fueled that fire.

Got extreme at one point, friends and I used to attack-on-sight Nazi's and KKK every chance we could get, in some cases endangering their lives. I cooled off that stuff and attended the Occupy protests in 2011, was one of the 800+ people that got herded onto the Brooklyn Bridge by police and mass arrested. Did you hear about that one?

2013 I (naively) worked for Greenpeace for a few years, alongside environmentalist charities and activists in the SW Pacific (New Zealand, Fiji, Australia). Got there with $15 to my name after hitching a ride on a sailboat, ended up dressing up as an Orangutan in the boiling Australian sun and making police chase me (they never did catch me.) Worked with the Wilderness Society, worked alongside Bob Irwin (Steve Irwin's dad) on the Fight for the Reef campaign to protect the GBR from getting dredged for coal shipping (our campaign successfully delayed them for a year, after which they dredged a world heritage site anyway.)

Since then I worked small, working with various charities from deaf kids to blind persons, attending every protest I could physically attend. A recent diagnosis of Graves Disease has put me on my arse for a while, but despite that I still stood up to the pogroms in the UK, using my body to block protestors from bricks. A brick hit my bad knee too, but i'd take a million more.

Does my resume satisfy you? Now lets see your card, what have you done?

[-] kokolores@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 2 weeks ago

That’s an impressive „CV of resistance“, although I only asked what you’ve done specifically against trump, Vance and musk, and if I’m nitpicking, I can’t see much apart from protesting. The same thing you expressed your disgust about saying „is that the best you can do“.

I do hope, that you continue to do as much as you’ve already done and I’m thankful for every single thing you do.

I also hope, that you start to inspire others to follow in your footsteps instead of making them feel bad for not doing enough.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 2 weeks ago

I can’t see much apart from protesting.

I mean to quote them:

A recent diagnosis of Graves Disease has put me on my arse for a while

They've got their excuse.

that you start to inspire others to follow in your footsteps instead of making them feel bad for not doing enough.

To be fair those are two sides of the same coin. If you can't get people to think "I'm not doing enough and that's a problem" you'll never get them to get off their asses. This is particularly relevant in America because Americans have forgotten what it means to actually resist their government.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Thank you. I just want to add that they saw all that and said "just looks like protesting" as if personally helping organize action against the coal industry using grassroots techniques to some small success is "just protesting," or raising money for disabled people in community "not much apart from protesting." The gall, from someone who probably hasn't been to even a measley protest. And yes, I am saying protesting isn't enough, speaking from someone who's done it for 14 years. Waving signs does fucking nothing. It disrupts nothing. You have to put your bodies on the road and your safety on the line like we did.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 8 points 2 weeks ago

I just want to add that they saw all that and said "just looks like protesting" as if personally helping organize action against the coal industry using grassroots techniques to some small success is "just protesting," or raising money for disabled people in community "not much apart from protesting."

To be fair to them too, they were specifically asking what you did to resist Trump and co. As to everything else they said:

I do hope, that you continue to do as much as you’ve already done and I’m thankful for every single thing you do.

I get that you're angry—hell, I'm angry and I've never been to the United States—but it seems you're responding to something other than what the other person actually said. Also getting Americans to get off their asses is one thing, but you do have a bit of a holier than thou attitude you should probably work on if you want to be successful at getting them off their asses. If you don't want to succeed at it then you do you I guess; like I said, you and everyone else who has been fighting this fight since the beginning have the right to be angry.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I am responding to something other than what the person actually said. People like myself (and the countless nameless faces who actually stick their necks out) have been screaming about this to people who metaphorically can't see or hear, for decades, only for them to be the "holier than thou" one trying to look for hypocrisy or hatred in other people who've done more than them. Why focus on idols like Trump and Co when they're just symptoms of the greater problems - capitalistic greed/corporate irresponsibility - and then after listing our many years of efforts to fight it and then say "Yeah but what did you do to stop Trump and Musk specifically?" That sort of nitpicking, missing the forest for the trees attitude is what angers me so, it's proof of how blind people are to the realities of what it means to be in a democracy. "If you want a democracy, you have to be a player."

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 4 points 2 weeks ago

Oh, I see; you're a dyed in the wool "down with capitalism" lefty. In this part of history it'll be necessary to tolerate the presence of normies—people who want to stop the backsliding of democracy but don't really understand or care about the down with capitalism stuff. Those people can then be radicalized into full fledged lefties, but at least at present it's important to accept their aims not being as ambitious as yours, even though as you said they're missing the forest for the trees. They with proper education can and do stop going after individual trees and start burning the whole forest, but you have to be patient (or not, you do you). That aside the holier than thou attitude I'm talking about is mostly the bragging. That's probably not what it feels to you, but to an external observer you definitely sound like you're bragging about the fascist bricks you got hit with, so.. uh... yeah.

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[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

making them feel bad for not doing enough.

If you feel bad for not doing enough that's on you.

[-] kokolores@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 2 weeks ago

So you honestly think, that it is more beneficial to the cause to look down on people not doing enough instead of encouraging them to continue what they’re doing?

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

I'll believe it when I see it. People are not doing enough, myself included. The reality around us is proof of this.

[-] kokolores@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 weeks ago

I know, it is frustrating, I also feel like everything’s doomed a lot of times, but I refuse to get drowned in this frustration.

If we can encourage others to engage more, then that’s a lot. Don’t underestimate what you’ve done so far. You can be an inspiration to others!

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

inspiration to others!

Even if they think organizing the community to raise local funds for deaf and blind kids, as well as grassroots organizations to delay big coal for a year, laying our in front of bulldozers and police cars, as "just protesting"? The same way these people are peacefully and safely holding signs outside a goddamn ski resort?! I'm not special, yet even I and others like me can risk our safety to get real results instead of peacefully be taken unseriously by the opposition. Just look at all the critical enlightened centrists in this thread.

___

[-] kokolores@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 weeks ago

You can’t win without them, you’ve got to work with them.

Only if you work with them then you have the chance to radicalise some of them. If you don’t work with them the movement stays as small as it is.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

I've had better luck turning MAGA towards leftism than any liberal. At least they have the balls to storm the US capitol, these so-called "protestors" with their JD Vance signs outside a ski resort are groupie cheerleaders for the status quo.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 3 points 2 weeks ago

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/dfd026e3-5de2-4a6b-9132-8cd2c25c3b66.webp

Kind of but not really relevant: As someone from an authoritarian state where you don't really get to protest, I'd always wondered just how the whole protesting thing is supposed to work. Like you go out, hold some signs and chant some slogans and then politicians just listen to you??? Is that how democracy works??? In the last few years as I grew to understand how all that stuff works I learned the answer to that question, but I think many Westerners and Americans specifically really need to start thinking once about how what they're doing is supposed to lead to results.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

This was 100% relevant to what i'm trying to say, you just said it better than I could. They think that it goes "Protest, sign petition, that'll magically make politicans think oh we should listen to them, they sign our best interests into law." They also think the only blood spilled in the name of democracy are from our troops who fought overseas - but forget the protestors who were gunned down by land-barons when workers were killing cops so that we can have weekends, or lives without slavery. That's why there's so much importance held to democracy, because of all the horrific sacrifices people have had to make, and will have to continue to make, to make it even possible. But even that's been lost on most people, people now "vote with your wallet" instead of voting with a soul.

[-] Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 5 points 2 weeks ago

I'm very happy that people like you exist. It's just not as easy as you make it seem. I live in Germany and we face a very similar political fate. I feel pretty helpless. I go to protests, I donate money to causes that work against nazi shit. I invested heavily in changing my lifestyle to a much greener one. But all of that has just a tiny impact unfortunately. I'm too old to get physical plus I have to take care of my daughter. Many people are reliant on a functioning society.

As long as social media exists the way it does now, nothing will really change. I will be writing EU officials to boycott American tech. If Europe stops using that shit, propaganda is reduced to traditional media, which isn't nearly as effective. But again, this is just a tiny drop in an ocean of things we would have to do.

[-] in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

Everything you mentioned is 1000x better than occupying a sidewalk (that oligarchs dont walk on) with signs that try and make JD Vance feel shook. I'm not against occupying sidewalks with signs, just think we should be doing outside mansions and gated communities, where billionaires in their pajamas can see us. Megaphones all night long, i'd be helping to hand out free coffee.

[-] Ibuthyr@lemmy.wtf 3 points 2 weeks ago

Wouldn't the fediverse actually be a good starting point for getting organized? That always seems to be the most difficult part. The Nazis have it easy because they have plenty of money to use the algorithms for their own advantage.