The Ramaswamy Stratagem

[d4m10n]

Reading an opinion piece on Vivek Ramaswamy this afternoon; realized he might be the perfect anti-skeptical ******** artist, someone with zero-to-negative commitment to truth-seeking and truth-telling:

Now let’s fast-forward to the present moment. Instead of offering a plausible explanation for their mistakes — much less apologizing — all too many politicians deny that they’ve made any mistakes at all. They double down. They triple down. They claim that the fact-checking process itself is biased, the press is against them and they are the real truth tellers.

I bring this up not just because of the obvious example of Donald Trump and many of his most devoted followers in Congress but also because of the surprising success of his cunning imitator Vivek Ramaswamy. If you watched the first Republican debate last week or if you’ve listened to more than five minutes of Ramaswamy’s commentary, you’ll immediately note that he is exceptionally articulate but also woefully ignorant, or feigning ignorance, about public affairs. Despite his confident delivery, a great deal of what he says makes no sense whatsoever.​

Since there is a separate thread for the FL governor, there may as well be one for anyone who has a better chance of gaining the GOP VP slot. I expect Ramaswamy will play an outsized role in the near future, or else fade away like Andrew Yang.

Your thoughts?

 

[a_unique_person]

Andrew who?

 

[Trebuchet]

I suspect that while Trump is genuinely ignorant, Ramaswamy is feigning. I'm not at all sure which is more dangerous.

 

[Stacyhs]

"They claim that the fact-checking process itself is biased" which is exactly what my GOP BIL did when I quoted Snopes to disprove one of his claims. According to him, Snopes is 'well known to be liberally biased and partisan'.

 

[Venom]

I think I've found the guy even more shameless than Ron DeSantis in pandering to the MAGA base.

There's not a hint of hesitation in his ass kissing.

 

[dirtywick]

I suspect that while Trump is genuinely ignorant, Ramaswamy is feigning. I'm not at all sure which is more dangerous.

it's a pandering ignorance. they have a real ignorance is matters of government and public interest, but a real talent for self gratification.

 

[Orphia Nay]

I don't think he's feigning ignorance. I think he genuinely believes he's a wonder kid. Dunning-Kruger and all that.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

I don't think he's feigning ignorance. I think he genuinely believes he's a wonder kid. Dunning-Kruger and all that.

Every con artist ends up believing their own lies. And Ramaswamy has spent his whole life running cons.

 

[ahhell]

I don't think he's feigning ignorance. I think he genuinely believes he's a wonder kid. Dunning-Kruger and all that.

I think he he's just a BS artist. There are too many examples of him taking opposite opinions on issues with a few days or weeks.

 

[Donal]

Every con artist ends up believing their own lies. And Ramaswamy has spent his whole life running cons.

He may not realize they were cons. These finance dude bros are raised to believe they are legitimately brilliant.

 

[Donal]

I think he he's just a BS artist. There are too many examples of him taking opposite opinions on issues with a few days or weeks.

He's more of a BS content creator than artist.

 

[Hans]

Andrew who?

I've heard of Andrew Who but who was Andrew Yang?

 

[Donal]

He's the shortstop

 

[Hans]

He's the shortstop

Who's on First and I don't care is the shortstop!

https://mpregional.org/documents/2015/1/Whos_on_First.pdf

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

He may not realize they were cons. These finance dude bros are raised to believe they are legitimately brilliant.

Well if he took a drug that failed to pass the relatively weak US regulations four times, failed to do anything to make it compliant, and resubmitted it expecting it to pass (his company's business model) believing it to work from the get go, then I can't see him have the intelligence to stand at a podium for a few hours.

 

[Norman Alexander]

"They claim that the fact-checking process itself is biased" which is exactly what my GOP BIL did when I quoted Snopes to disprove one of his claims. According to him, Snopes is 'well known to be liberally biased and partisan'.

Any source is liberally biased and partisan if it doesn't support Donald Trump's lies.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

the "stratagem" seems to be to drain votes from DeSantis and hold them for Trump if he makes RamaSwarmy his VP.

if that doesn't work, build on name recognition for future elections - not that that ever worked on anyone but Donors.

 

[LongFuzzy]

Well if he took a drug that failed to pass the relatively weak US regulations four times, failed to do anything to make it compliant, and resubmitted it expecting it to pass (his company's business model) believing it to work from the get go, then I can't see him have the intelligence to stand at a podium for a few hours.

Wasn't that his pump and dump scheme?

 

[Mike!]

I watched Al Sharpton interview him on MSNBC. He makes me want to throw a shoe at him.

 

[Brainster]

Anybody mentioned his flirtation with 9-11 Truth?

"I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers. Maybe the answer is zero. It probably is zero for all I know, right? I have no reason to think it was anything other than zero. But if we’re doing a comprehensive assessment of what happened on 9/11, we have a 9/11 commission, absolutely that should be an answer the public knows the answer to,” Ramaswamy told the reporter, John Hendrickson.

Yeah, it's zero, and why would anyone think it was another number? The lives of all those people on the planes were pored over with a magnifying glass. When confronted about his conspiracy theorizing, Ramaswamy issued a detailed statement on X/Twitter that highlights probably the main legitimate issue with the 9-11 Commission Report: the question of the involvement by Saudi intelligence.

A key question confronted by the 9/11 Commission was whether the Saudi government was involved in planning the attacks. The report concluded there was neither Saudi government nor royal family involvement. At the time, questions swirled around a 42-year-old graduate student who welcomed, housed, set-up bank accounts, and gave rent money to the first two Qaida hijackers after they landed in Los Angeles in January 2000 – concerns which the FBI and 9/11 Commission flatly dismissed.

The Saudi student, Omar al-Bayoumi, claimed to have met the two terrorists entirely by chance; The 9/11 Commission report verified that Bayoumi’s altruism was in the name of hospitality as he claimed. And FBI official, Jacqueline Maguire, testified to the 9/11 Commission in 2004 that Bayoumi’s first meeting at a café with the hijackers appeared to be “a random encounter.”

Later:

Now over 20 years later, the FBI has changed its story. In documents declassified last year, the bureau affirmed that Bayoumi was in fact an agent of the Saudi intelligence service who worked with Saudi religious officials and reported to the kingdom’s powerful ambassador in Washington.

Did not realize that had been admitted, but yeah the whole al-Bayoumi meeting two of the terrorists (high level AQ agents, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar) story sounds like something out of a 1960s spy novel; the terrorists met al-Bayoumi in a restaurant and apparently signaled who they were by dropping a newspaper on the ground. So the points he raises in the tweet are ones that are well-established, but...

WTF does all that have to do with police or federal agents on the planes that flew into the towers? Zero and all his bitching about having legitimate questions are made laughable because given a chance to raise those questions with the Atlantic, he chose to highlight a very stupid question. I mean, even the idiot Troofers have learned not to talk abut the passengers.