Ramaswamy: 1. Who the fuck is he? 2. Where did he come from? 3. Who's funding him? . . . . .

[Stinky The Clown]

. . . . 4. How the fuck is he in 3rd place behind Dee Santis?

[kimbutgar]

1. Yes every time I see and hear him I am turned off

He is an angry man who is corrupted by his lust for money and power.

[UTUSN]

2. He's a variant of the MUSK virus - motormouth, self adoring, lawless oligarch

Last edited Sun Aug 20, 2023, 11:19 PM - Edit history (1)

For the glaring failings of MAHER, when he *does* go toe to toe with some wingnut a-holes, it's good enough, as he did with this one. Hilarious when this self deluded jerk bragged about his rapping in Iowa: MAHER said, "Yeah, I saw that. Don't do it again."

[hlthe2b]

3. It is curious, given the RW MAGA hatred for immigrants, non-Xians, and POC

But, he certainly does promote some of the most extreme positions that would certainly harm a lot of groups that MAGA hates, so...

[Stinky The Clown]

5. Yeah, but you can get that from any garden variety MAGAt. Who is _he_?

[viva la]

6. He's also the youngest candidate...

and wants to deny young people under 25 the vote.

IOW, he's someone eager in all ways to participate in the oppression of people like him.

[DFW]

10. But they already have a Tim Scott n/t

[Hortensis]

4. I haven't seen him but read that those appallling things he calls for

are delivered with the charisma and talent so missing in DeSantis. The usual demagogic appeal to people who yearn for a leader to follow, and his product is developed for what studies say the subsets he's chosen want in a leader.

He's also competing with the likes of Kennedy Jr and Cornell West for those on both right and left who share a peculiar certainty that Democrats are behind most of what's wrong with our country, and the rest of the planet.

[maxrandb]

7. He's a cruel, heartless, narcissistic dipshit "flim-flam" man

Saw him on some cable show and he just kept talking about firing underperforming workers.

Of course, the MAGAts would never include themselves, or consider themselves "underperforming", so, he's just another evil, rich, arrogant, sniveling little pissant that promises to hurt the people MAGAts hate...i.e. anyone not them.

Of course they love the little asshatted prick.

In the Navy, we would call him a "seagull manager".."flies in, starts screaming, shits everywhere, flies off"

[doc03]

9. I have been thinking the same thing, but thought everyone else would

know and I would look dumb for asking.

[PCIntern]

23. That's a terrific Navy expression.

Stealing!!!

[Hortensis]

33. That may essentially be the sum of him as a "candidate."

An attention-seeking "seagull manager."

[NewHendoLib]

8. He's a complete lunatic. Meaning a republican.

[Amishman]

29. He's completely nuts even by their low standards, and an absolute gift to us

As soon is he started saying 9/11 truther bullshit, I got excited.

He's nuts, absolutely unelectable in a general election - especially by a post-Trump electorate.

Every bit of funding and support he soaks up weakens their more dangerous candidates, or even better, forces them further off to the right and into the sludge of RW insanity - tainting them further for a GE as well.

[ITAL]

11. I don't think anyone is funding him

Apparently his net worth is at least 600 million dollars and perhaps as much as a billion depending on what source you see.

[hatrack]

27. He's a Peter Thiel protege, which is all you really need to know . . ..

But lest I forget, he's a Very Wealthy Businessman Who Knows Better Than Anyone Else, a type that's become depressingly familiar over the last 30 years in Republican circles.

[struggle4progress]

12. Former employees claim Ramaswamy company violated securities Llaws

William Skipworth

Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is facing two lawsuits from former employees who say that when they worked at the company he cofounded, Strive Asset Management, they were aggressively pressured into violating securities laws, according to Bloomberg, which first reported these lawsuits Friday morning ...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/willskipworth/2023/08/18/vivek-ramaswamy-sued-by-former-employees-claiming-his-company-pressured-them-into-violating-securities-laws/?sh=13719cb52dbd

Another Republican Presidential candidate eager to pardon himself?

[Bucky]

31. So he gets elected president and pardons himself?

🥱 that's what everybody's doing this year.

[dalton99a]

13. Another lowlife scumbag whoring for billionaires

[WarGamer]

14. Some States he's ahead of DeSantis.

To summarize...

He's a 38 year old first generation Indian-American who is a Harvard and Yale grad who is also a self made near billionaire.

He's married, has young children and is far from your average MAGAT on the surface.

Make no mistake... he's a Trump clone with a better BIO.

FWIW, polling shows he's excelling with college educated suburban GOP voters.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

21. willing to make bigoted comments about POC to get votes

[Bucky]

38. For republicans, that's just smart marketing

I never thought I'd say this, but I'm starting to miss dog whispers

[karynnj]

15. There are about 15 or so non Trump people vying for the nomination

Think of 2016, when the "frontrunner" in the Republican primary seemed to change weekly - including people most of us never heard of like 999 Herman Cain. Look at our primaries, how many ever heard of Marianne Williamson or Andrew Yang? Yang may be the closest counterpart to Ramaswamy -- and for a brief instance he ranked as high as Ramaswary.

This IS the time where someone could come from nowhere and get traction.

[DFW]

16. Chain reaction

Newsroom director: WHO?? Spell that for me!

Newsroom staff flunky: Hey, the boss needs the proper spelling for Ramaswamy. Who can help?

Rest of Newsroom staff: Never heard of the place. Where is it?

Newsroom staff flunky: Not where. Who. It seems he's a Republican candidate for president.

Rest of Newsroom staff: This is a joke, right?

Newsroom staff flunky: I doubt it. The boss wants the proper spelling of his name, like yesterday, and he doesn't give a rat's ass about South Asian geography. Everybody get on it, or we're in for a chewing out. We had better find out about him, too, because this is probably not the last time we'll be asked.

Suddenly the media ALL know his name. The guy is no less of a useless loon, but now he's news. See how this works?

[womanofthehills]

26. Actually - He and Robert Kennedy Jr. are running similar campaigns - basically internet campaigns

They both are on podcasts every day - often two podcasts a day. TV people don't know who he is, but he's all over the net.

[DFW]

28. I'll have to take your word for that

I don't go hunting for podcasts to listen to (Al Franken is an exception), so I wouldn't know. I should have expected it from Bobby, but I didn't know until you just told me.

[Hortensis]

34. Thank you. I hadn't picked up on this new, effective way to spread craziness.

Dangerously effective, bypassing "the press's" safety bumpers.

Time: The Podcast Campaigners

If you follow politics on social media, video clips of long-shot 2024 presidential candidates have likely been all over your feeds recently, sitting in studios or offices with podcast microphones pressed to their faces.

In recent months, Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy have embarked on a podcast blitz, using their campaigns as calling cards for any show that will have them on—from obscure history, wellness or crypto podcasts to Elon Musk’s Twitter Spaces and Joe Rogan’s popular program. It’s an approach driven by necessity: television networks and media outlets tend to give long-shots little airtime or attention compared to the leading candidates. But as Kennedy and Ramaswamy have recognized, hundreds of podcasts and livestreams are happy to offer fringe contenders the opportunity to expound on their views for hours, usually without being challenged or fact-checked. Video clips of the exchanges are then widely disseminated across social platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, reaching bigger audiences than many traditional media outlets.

Read More: ​​Inside the Very Online Campaign of RFK Jr.

It’s a test run of a new kind of strategy for the social-media era: make yourself impossible to ignore by flooding the online ecosystem with appearances on alternate platforms. The resulting headlines often inflate the candidates’ importance or support, and could ultimately become a headache for President Joe Biden or the Republican frontrunners. These kinds of candidates have “figured out a style of weaponized contrarianism that garners a lot of engagement,” says Graham Brookie, the director of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “It’s this ‘vibes only’ approach to mass media.”

For Kennedy, podcasts and alternative platforms offer a chance to speak to large audiences after more than 15 years of being relegated to the fringes for his anti-vaccine activism. Now, the views that once got him banned from social media for violating disinformation policies are being widely circulated on the same platforms through clips of his podcast appearances. ...

https://time.com/6289535/rfk-jr-vivek-ramaswamy-podcast-election/

[themaguffin]

17. He's a POS grifter

[DBoon]

18. Elon Musk is behind him

https://www.alaskacommons.com/meet-vivek-ramaswamy-the-elon-musk-backed-us-presidential-candidate/5819/

Indian-American lawmaker Vivek Ramaswamy found an unlikely ally in billionaire businessman Elon Musk this week. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO dubbed the US Presidential hopeful a “very promising candidate” and urged people to listen to an interview of Ramaswamy. The 35-year-old is one of three Indian origin Republicans set to contest against Donald Trump in the upcoming primaries.

and until now has been largely self funded:

Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy donated $5 million to his own campaign in the second quarter, bringing in a total of $7.7 million before Saturday’s deadline, according to his Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing.

The conservative entrepreneur ended the quarter with about $9 million in cash on hand. His total haul for the second quarter places him well behind the two frontrunners of the Republican primary race — former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — but ahead of most of the remaining candidates.

However, only about $2.7 million of Ramaswamy’s second quarter haul came from donor contributions. Since launching his bid for the Republican nomination in February, Ramaswamy has loaned his campaign more than $15 million.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4099716-ramaswamys-second-quarter-haul-includes-5-million-in-self-donated-funds/

I would strongly support a wealth tax - nobody should be able to buy a national elected office and someone like Elon Musk should NEVER be in the position of Kingmaker

[texasfiddler]

19. Mark this down. The first Indian/American President will not be GOP. NT

[dalton99a]

24. The MAGA cult will have their Hindu jokes ready

[texasfiddler]

25. I would say Muslim jokes. They don't know the difference.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

20. rich guy.. made some money, which lead to him wanting to rule over the rest of us

[Blue Owl]

22. He's the title character in the GOP's 2024 Swamp-A-Rama

[Bucky]

30. Republicans love them some entrepreneurs

He knows nothing about government. He's a perfect Republican candidate.

He probably thinks he's Ross Perot. I'm not sure he's old enough to remember Ross Perot, but he's definitely putting himself in that mold. But he smells like Andrew Yang and he's in favor of transgender rights

He'll probably get to about 9 or 10% in the polls max, but I think it goes without saying that he's not going to be nominated and he's only surging over more capable candidates because Trump is sucking up all the bigot votes

[Vinca]

32. 1 - A billionaire. 2 - It's a mystery. 3 - He's a billionaire. 4 - GOP voters are nuts.

[MistakenLamb]

35. He is in third place because the GOP loves his sell of Fascism

[Roland99]

36. He's slick. Snake oil slick. Notice he uses evangelical rhetoric yet claims he's Hindu

He reminds me of, say, the adult Damien from the Omen III.

[Yavin4]

37. He's the Republican version of Andrew Yang.

And he will have just as much success.

[jcgoldie]

39. Being in third place...

...Not as impressive as it sounds when you look at the field.

[JCMach1]

40. He's this year's Herman Cain

[tenderfoot]

41. He's probably backed by Peter Thiel

Here's an interesting tidbit from reddit:

The interesting cas(t)e of Vivek Ramaswamy
Analysis/Theory

So I am an Indian and still live in India. I maintain a surface level awareness of the political happenings in America. But I hadn't heard about Vivek until one of my American clients brought him up in a conversation. He was a conservative and praised Vivek for upholding American values, which he said helped Vivek achieve the American dream even though his parents were poor when they immigrated to America.

I would have forgotten about Vivek, but two things about him make him stand out in my mind. First, his parents were from Kerala, which is where I am from. See, this is odd. Because Kerala is primarily a left-leaning state. The right wing parties struggle to win more than even a couple of districts there. While there are conservative folks in Kerala, they are really rare. Secondly, 'Ramaswamy', Vivek's last name, isn't a Kerala name (or Malayali name to be precise. Malayalam is the language spoken in Kerala). It is more of a Tamil name (Tamil being the language of Kerala's neighbour state).

This bugged me. So I mentioned this to my friend who is also from Kerala. I also mentioned that Vivek is from Palakkad in Kerala. That's when it hit him. Apparently, Palakkad has a settlement of Tamil Brahmins and Vivek is from there. I googled Vivek's caste after the call and, voila, he IS a Brahmin.

Now why I am saying all this and pointing out Vivek's caste? Because of a couple of reasons. Vivek claims his parents came to the country poor and worked their way up. A lot of Americans don't realise that immigration in India is an expensive affair. And the majority of the immigrants you guys received from India until a couple of decades ago were Brahmins and upper caste folks. Why? Because a very few from the marginalized castes could afford it.

So when Vivek touts the same bullshit as Elon Musk and other rich guys, I hope you take it with a pinch of salt.

Also, Tamil Brahmins are generally the worst of Brahmins. Many Brahmins in modern India are introspective about the atrocities of their caste in the past and shun the caste system. In fact, many of them abandoned their identity as a Brahmin. But not Tamil Brahmins. They wear it as a badge of honour. They go around calling themselves "Tam-Brahms" and still subscribe to the false sense of superiority and look down on others. They also strongly argue for removing 'reservations", which is Indian equivalent of affirmative action to uplift lower castes.

Given all this, is there any surprise that Vivek will advocate for removal of all affirmative action, dismiss all discussions about inequality, and a return to the "good old days"?

PS: Also, as more and more Indians enter your country, I really recommend that Americans familiarise themselves with the Caste system. It will help.