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Aug 22, 2023
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Andy Kaufman once did a film called "My Breakfast With Blassie", where he and wrestling guy Fred Blassie were IIRC a Waffle House. Never seen it, but I assume hijinks ensue.

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Day-um: another gotcha post. Had me for two entire ‘grafs til I got a clue.

Meanwhile, also amused by this: all the never-Trumpers telling the media how bad a candidate their probable POTUS candidate is. Really, why should Dems dis Trump when Republicans doing so has at least some extra credibility ? Besides, the media listen to them more than to Democrats anyway.

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“I like that he wants to make it illegal for young people to vote,” said “Just Deb,” an elderly housewife. “I think he’s about the only young person in this world that I like, and I have seven grandchildren.”

I don’t know much about Vivek Ramaswamy, but what I do know is that he’s another “tell them what they want to hear” fraudster. He doesn’t believe half of the things he says, or at least he didn’t believe them a month ago. He was for pride month, now he’s against it. He was progressive about voting rights, including 18 year olds, until he realized they vote democrat 70% of the time. He was for privatizing Social Security before he realized 65% of seniors who vote republican, are against it.

So whatever the hell he stands for, your guess is as good as mine, since no one really knows, least of all Vivek Ramaswamy...:)

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Pfft, that just shows he's an honest populist! You can't be a populist unless you're popular! And that's genuine American freedom, the freedom to change your professed beliefs to suit your audience!

Gaaaah, I have to stop. I'm eating breakfast and this is making me ill.

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Touche! Although, is it really worth groveling to a bunch of misogynistic, homophobic, white supremicists and religious wing-nuts?

Sounds like he’s better suited for a straight jacket...:)

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He's definitely pitching to an audience of dire straights.

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I know just two things about young Vivek, and those are that he is the best Republican rapper I’ve probably ever heard, and that he is an absolutely terrible rapper.

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Nice....:)

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It sounds as though he toyed with running as a Democrat at some point, then decided that the grift was easier on the Republican side. Or that it would be easier to bamboozle Republicans. After all, Andrew Yang tried to do it with Democrats, and look where that got him.

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Oh sure, we laugh now. But wait until Ramaswamy runs third party as the No Labels candidate. If anyone thinks there aren’t enough Americans who would vote for a “Free The Ancient Aliens, Abolish The Government, and Let Elon Musk Be The Congress” ticket to swing the election to Trump, I have a bridge to sell you.

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Nah, I have it on good authority that No Labels is gonna offer up the Excitement that is Hogan&Manchin '24.

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Dark Brandon should have sent a Ninja assassin to throttle Manchin years ago. Don't know how he overlooked that threat.

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I want Joe to live to a ripe old age so he can witness the final death throes of the coal industry plus all the windmills and solar farms we built with subsidies from the bill HE voted for. Suck on THIS, Carboniferous Grandpa!

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"Hogan Mansion" is the title of my favorite daffy 70's sitcom that no one's heard about cause I just made it up.

Or did I?

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Ah yes, who can forget the theme song?

They're creepy and they're kooky

Mysterious and spooky

They're all together ooky

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They're coaly and they're oily

For elections they're so spoily

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I was thinking of the 80s sitcom The Hogan Family. Sandy Duncan, Josie Bissett, Jason Bateman, Willard Scott, and the fantastic Edie McClurg.

Or the follow up to Hogan's Heroes following their crazy antics after the war

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The actual Ramaswamy is like some kind of deadly walking parody. He has promised that, if elected, his first order of business on Day 1 of his administration will be to fire 75% of the entire federal government. Yep, just gonna shitcan three-quarters of the federal workforce.

Because that's obviously how things work, right? Ask any businessman and he'll tell you he could easily do away with 3/4 of his payroll and his business would be just fine! It's not like any federal employee actually does anything--look at Trump who spent four year alternating between watching TV and golfing!

Yep, Ramaswamy is definitely the candidate to watch. If you found Donald Trump too deeply philosophical, too thoughtful, and too prone to seeking good advice, then Ramaswamy's the man for you!

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Hey c’mon now, Elon fired almost everyone and look how well Twitter is doing!

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Let the Invisible Hand of the Free Market keep those airliners from colliding!

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Aug 22, 2023Edited
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I'm flyin' Qantas, because they NEVER crash.

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Congress (which, you know, *funds* the Federal Government) might have something to say about that. When TFG tried that even Republicans had to remind him where the money came from.

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This was funny! " My son's an elitist. "

HA!

I am so hoping to see Eminem kick Ramaswamy's ass.

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I bet he pays all her bills, and she still bites the hand that feeds her...:)

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Okay, this is my second comment because I wanted to investigate his past comments and rhetoric. Apparently, Vivek is a republican president’s candidate in the mold of Tucker “Toucan” Carlson; just asking questions.

On 9/11: “How many federal agents were on those planes. We don’t know, a lot! None! We need a commission because the people deserve to know Huh????

When asked whether 9/11 was an inside job on Blaze TV he answered: I don’t know,” Ramaswamy said, “I don’t believe the government has told us the truth,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m driven by evidence and data. What I’ve seen in the last several years is we have to be skeptical of what the government does tell us.”

Huh? What data are you referring to? The same data Giuliani found on voter fraud? Did you also meet with Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to confirm the data?

When asked about the J6th insurrection, he said, “ I don’t know,” Ramaswamy said, “but we can handle it. Whatever it is, we can handle it. Government agents. How many government agents were in the field? Right?” Huh????

I’m just waiting for the the “data” to confirm MTG’s assertion that it was actually “Jewish lasers from space, that caused the Wild fires in California.

My conclusion! Vivek may be very bad for America, but he fits in perfectly for the “tin-foil” hat party, I mean Republican Party....:)

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That line, “I am driven by evidence and data,” is what Ramasmarmy says before launching into a gish gallop of questionable evidence and dubious data.

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Agreed...:)

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And all the people whose gullible brains turn to pudding when they hear a Successful Techbro speak will accept the gish gallop at face value.

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But enough about Peter Baker and Dana Milbank...

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"Evi-dense"

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Did he ever claim to be driven by good evidence and real data?

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He's driven by all the evidence and data we can't see, because WHY can't we see it? Because it's being HIDDEN from us, that's why!

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It’s a conspiracy ouroboros!

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I just had a waking nightmare flash: Vivek and RFK Jr. on the same ticket.

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The amount of self-absorbed smugness would cause a temporal ripple.

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Truly a ticket that speaks to the Common Man!

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I thought the same. "A chicken in every pot and a tinfoil hat for every head." I wish I could say in 2024 America that wouldn't be a winning slogan, but...

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"A bat in every belfry and a bulb in every chandelier"

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These techbros need to lay off the drugs. Ketamine is not a reliable provider of evidence and data.

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Just Asking Questions - or, as folks over on RationalWiki appropriately call it, JAQing off.

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Media gotta write about something other than “Trump: guilty, guilty, guilty,” so Republican candidates get more attention than they deserve. I’m struck by how much Trump, and now Vivek, behave as if they read Altemeyer’s “The Authoritarians” and thought, “That’s how to get wipipo to make me dictator for life!”

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Some books need to have "Not a how-to manual" stamped on the cover, not that that would deter them.

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It's a cookbook!

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I would worry about Ramaswamy if some of the MAGAts weren’t already calling him “Ramashithead” and worse, noting his skin tone and sayin’ he’s a “Pagan Devil worshiper”.

Here in Redneckistan, There’s still the occasional kerfuffle when the god bothers decide they need to forbid teaching the furrin practice of Yoga as a slippery slope from the True Religion . (Google if you must.)

I hope he’s just Mr. Thiel’s new vanity candidate: and still expects money boys to back Youngkin. or attempt a Dark Horse Brain Kemp...

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"Ramashithead"? So uncreative, our nation needs better racists, when "RamaLamaDingDong" was right there, just waiting to be picked up.

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Well it is, and I'm stealing it now, as we type!!

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Those who can't remember past hit songs are condemned to bad racist nicknames

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Don't gotta Google; I remember that shit from when I was following the Christian Right back in the mid 80s. When a line of BS is that good, evidently it's a shame not to revive it occasionally.

But the New GOP is a big tent, where it's the content of your character yadda yadda - as long as your character matches the Outrage O' The Day, because conservatives are independent thinkers!

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About the "Pagan Devil worshiper" thing, we should remember this is Republicans we're talking about and regardless of their nominal religion, they all worship the same god: MONEY.

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I believe every word of this. And, to borrow a formula from our right-wing brethren, the fact that it all -could- be true is somehow even more significant. The VCHC, who likes to tout himself as a scientist, is just one more Wall St. grifter extraordinaire living in the realm of deals 'n deals, where pharmaceutical companies are like real estate to buy, sell, and shill to investor suckers. There's a long section in his Wikipedia bio titled "Roivant Sciences and subsidiaries" which details the swamp of swindles 'n grift of just this one company. A few quotes:

"The company's market value initially soared to almost $3 billion, although at the time it only had eight employees, including Ramaswamy's brother and mother."

"Ramaswamy took a massive payout..."

"He claimed more than $37 million in capital gains in tax year 2015..."

"Shareholders who lost money included various institutional investors, such as the California State Teachers' Retirement System pension fund. Ramaswamy was insulated from much of Axovant's losses"

"In 2019, Roivant sold its stake in five subsidiaries ...Ramaswamy made $175 million in capital gains from the sale."

"Ramaswamy remains the sixth-largest shareholder of Roivant,[33] retaining a 7.17% stake."

The punch line: "Roivant has never been profitable."

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Profitability? That’s Old School thinking! Get with the program Daddio!

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I have to admit, if I had made hundreds of millions of dollars off companies that never made a dime for anyone else, I too might imagine I'm King Shit and that I hold the Keys to the Universe.

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And only Republicans would look at America's pharmaceutical industry and say, "Eh, keep the vaccines, we'll take the CEO."

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Beautiful. The whole thing about Dizzy Missouri reminded me of red-bearded dobro man, who also appeared out of nowhere and is now apparently headlining arena shows. Could he be the VP candidate for VR? Dobro guy probably not old enough but constitution, we don't really need that...

Oh and his initials are VR, makes you think.

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Billy Bragg, bless 'im, has a response:

https://youtu.be/qGNFR7pgxDY

"...

If you’re struggling with your health, putting on the pounds

Doctor gives you opiates to help you get around

Wouldn’t it be better for folks like you and me

If medicine was subsidised and healthcare was free

Join a union, fight for better pay

Join a union, sister, organise today

It comes down to the self same thing

If you’re black or white or brown:

Rich men earning north of a million

Wanna keep the working folk down

Wanna keep the working folk down

We know your culture wars are there to distract

While libertarian billionaires avoid paying tax

You want to talk about bathrooms while the flood waters rise,

The forest is on fire and the wind burns our eyes"

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"now apparently headlining arena shows"

So he now has more than one song? I can imagine him plowing through a bunch of shit nobody's ever heard before while the audience shouts FREEEEEBIIIIIRD!

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FREEEEEBIIIIIRD!

Is what I yell and hold up a cigarette lighter, when the BF is bogarting a joint.

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I was wrong when I said Roy couldn't top his Rachel Maddow quip. A "buttermilk cosmetics company" raises the bar.

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And it's only Tuesday!

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I was going to say never listen to Gus Wallop’s codswallop, but I realized he’s making some accurate, if alarming, observations about the electorate.

Also, Dizzy, Missouri is genius. I assume the Batter Barn is ‘twixt the Fireworks Shack and the trailer park, if my memories of driving through rural Missouri are accurate.

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Love the Batter Barn, because why bother to cook stuff* before ya eat it?

*not responsible for Listeria infections.

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The article is better for having no pronunciation tip about "Dizzy"

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An obscure village in America's Restive Tribal Regions.

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There was a massage parlor back in Cleveland called 'The Batter Barn".

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Also an appropriate name for a boxing venue.

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Ripped from today's headlines, as they used to say. As I suspected might happen, it's getting harder to tell reality from satire, and we've got another year of this. Roy's gonna need a bigger boat.

The only thing about this scary haircut that cheers me up is imagining the massive clusterfuck a Rammalamma administration would be. Like Trump, he'd go in thinking he was CEO of America, Inc. and start rightsizing like a motherfucker. Many wacky situations would ensue, and foreign governments would take him to the cleaners. But it is not to be. He's Not A Politician, which is crucial, and I don't think the skin color thing is a deal beaker the way most do, but he lacks the secret sauce of connection. They approve of his jibber-jabber, but like DeSantis he's focused on the wrong thing. It's about making the voter feel special, not about driving their enemies before them and hearing the lamentations of their women. Necessary but not sufficient. You'd think Darling Nikki would get this, but she has the Hillary problem of having to Appear Tuff backwards and in low heels.

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All of these guys are running for Vice President. That's why the other GOP POC have clammed up. They figure Ramaswamy will run his course quickly and then they can get back in the game.

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It fits the facts, sure. The only problem I see for them is that Trump doesn't need any of them, where Manafort convinced him he needed Pence to get the evangelicals in line. They're gonna have to up their ass kissing game to get his attention, otherwise he might just go with Ivanka or Mike Lindell. Warm pitcher of piss and all that. Flynn is a lock for SOS or maybe Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (somebody's gotta get the military in line) otherwise it would be him.

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You're probably right, but who the fuck looks at Mike Pence's experience and says, "Yeah, gimme four years of that, please"? I will just NEVER understand these people. Including Pence himself. Dude, you're 65 next year, why not retire to a nice farm in Indiana and spend some quality time with the grandkids, assuming they all don't hate you?

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He doesn’t have much chance of getting the nomination because he’s:

1) the wrong shade of beige and

2) we as a nation will not elect a President whose name we can’t spell easily (see Giuliani, Dukakis, Fiorina).

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Right, for a Republican, skin color is a thing you acquire, through long hours on the golf course. You can't be born with it, that's cheating.

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