Rama, the Swami and all that Lolly

[Stavros]

“The climate change agenda is a hoax … The reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.”
Vivek Ramaswamy says ‘hoax’ agenda kills more people than climate change - The Washington Post

"Vivek Ramaswamy on X: "We will shut down the Department of Education, without apology. Much better uses for that money: put that money back into parents’ pockets where it belongs. Here’s the hard TRUTH: there is an *inverse correlation* between how much $$ a public school spends per student & the… https://t.co/8aq59Nhpsz" / X (twitter.com) ".

"“I think it is legitimate to say how many police, how many federal agents, were on the planes that hit the Twin Towers,”".
Vivek Ramaswamy’s 9/11 comments face scrutiny after CNN appearance - POLITICO

Rama: "a divine human, a mortal god, incorporating both into the exemplar who transcends both humans and gods." (Wikipedia)

A Swami: an honorary title for a Hindu man of woman who has chosen the path of renunciation (Wikipedia)

the Lolly, and lots of it-

How Vivek got rich, and richer than his college buddy JD Vance.

How Vivek Ramaswamy Became A Billionaire (forbes.com)

(But scrub out the money he got form the Soros family)

How Vivek Ramaswamy made a fortune before pivoting to politics - POLITICO

Then there is his views on Israel
6 Jewish facts about GOP hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who proposes cut to Israel funding | The Times of Israel

[Fitzcarraldo]

Ramaswamy ding-dong.

[filghy2]

Yet another indication (if we needed it) that making money doesn't imply intelligence that translates to anything else.

[Stavros]

Yet another indication (if we needed it) that making money doesn't imply intelligence that translates to anything else.

Are so many Americans fooled into thinking that if someone has 'made it' then they must be so much cleverer than they are, to the extent that they would allow them to influence the laws they live by and the quality of their lives?

Ramaswamy like most rich businessmen before him, is a 'self-made' millionaire who relied at some stage on his journey on the loans he got from others, but what strikes me most about him, is his lack of knowledge of the political system he wants to change.

Trump has admitted he doesn't understand the Constitution of the United States, he doesn't even understand it when a lawyer or a Court explains it to him, or rather he just doesn't care since his own opinion is all that matters. So here is Ramaswamy exhibiting his own ignorance of the political system he wants to change. Lastly, why do these people always bang on about 'system change' rather than the bread and butter issues most people deal with every day -the homeless, the cost of living, health care, the quality of their children's schooling and education?

I don't expect him to go far in the process, but he is symptomatic of the way so-called Conservatives these days don't want to conserve as much as destroy, making them revolutionaries in all but name -but a revolution for what?

In the UK Liz Truss tried to radicalize the economy, and within weeks was forced to resign -the policies just don't work in the existing framework of capitalism. Not that Trump or Ramaswamy care about reality.

Vivek Ramaswamy Wants to Rewrite the Constitution (yahoo.com)

[Stavros]

"The Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said that he wants Elon Musk as an adviser if he becomes president."

"Ramaswamy said in response that he wanted people with a “blank fresh impression” who do not “come from within” the government."

"“I’ve enjoyed getting to know better, Elon Musk recently, I expect him to be an interesting adviser of mine because he laid off 75% of the employees at Twitter,” NBC reports. “And then the effectiveness actually went up.”In an earlier interview this month with Fox News, Ramaswamy said of the layoffs: “What [Musk] did at Twitter is a good example of what I want to do with the administrative state … Take out the 75% of the dead weight cost, improve the actual experience of what it’s supposed to do.”
Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants Elon Musk to be his presidential adviser | Vivek Ramaswamy | The Guardian

Nothing new here. Carter and Reagan were both touted as 'Not Washington' people. As for 'fresh' -hardly the word to use about Elon Musk....

[Fitzcarraldo]

"“I’ve enjoyed getting to know better, Elon Musk recently, I expect him to be an interesting adviser of mine because he laid off 75% of the employees at Twitter,” NBC reports. “And then the effectiveness actually went up.”In an earlier interview this month with Fox News, Ramaswamy said of the layoffs: “What [Musk] did at Twitter is a good example of what I want to do with the administrative state … Take out the 75% of the dead weight cost, improve the actual experience of what it’s supposed to do.”

Yes, from what I hear Twitter is magnificent now.

[KnightHawk 2.0]

Vivek Ramaswamy is a slimy right wing loving toolbag.

[filghy2]

“What [Musk] did at Twitter is a good example of what I want to do with the administrative state … ”

He may have spoken the truth there.

[broncofan]

“What [Musk] did at Twitter is a good example of what I want to do with the administrative state … Take out the 75% of the dead weight cost, improve the actual experience of what it’s supposed to do.”

I also think this is unintended candor. He pretends he's talking about removing burdensome regulations and increasing efficiency, but what happened at twitter is cherrypicked regulation, which is probably his model for the administrative state.

Musk does ban speech that he doesn't like. He makes deals with authoritarian governments, he bans people who insult him, he prevents people from using block bc he's been blocked, and in general has turned twitter into a place where truth has no greater standing than misinformation, and severe, wanton wrongdoing is not considered worse than mild insults directed at the wrong person. In other words, it is the pretense of deregulation hiding behind the caprice of authoritarian fiat.

What Ramaswamy would do is promote corruption in place of regulation. Deregulate where the regulations burden some industries, regulate where the industries are benefitted by the regulations, and ignore conflicts of interest and self-enrichment in government.

As an irrelevant aside, I have to mention that Ramaswamy released a video of him hitting forehands the other day. I don't have anything to say that anyone else hasn't said. I will point out they were not terrible, just not very good. His footwork was awful and inefficient, his forehand was somewhat ugly but hit with the kind of coordination fo someone who plays a little bit of tennis. He wanted to give the impression of being very good and he probably is a usta 4.0 at best. Didn't show his backhand. In short, you can tell he's a fraud with a minimum of attention.

[filghy2]

What Ramaswamy would do is promote corruption in place of regulation. Deregulate where the regulations burden some industries, regulate where the industries are benefitted by the regulations, and ignore conflicts of interest and self-enrichment in government.

What you would have (and this is also true of Trump and De Santis to a fair degree) is not minimal government but activist government with different goals. Rather than addressing market failures in the public interest or improving equity, the aim of the state would be to reward ideological cronies of the government and punish its enemies.

In many ways, this is analogous to how capitalism operated under fascism, where profit maximisation was condoned as long as capitalists served the interests of the regime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economics_of_fascism

What is under-appreciated in relation to people like Ramiswamy and Musk is that venture capitalism is essentially a form of gambling. These people make risky bets in the hope that enough will pay off to make their fortune. The majority who don't succeed we never hear about, but those who do succeed then persuade themselves and others that success was due to their unique genius rather than luck (or some cases inside knowledge). They then try to leverage their fame and fortune to some other field, with the usual consequences that result when ignorance and overconfidence are combined.