Musk Runs Rival Out Of Town

President Elon "Heil" Musk (a.k.a. Kekius Maximus, a.k.a. Maximus Anus), fresh from the controversy ignited by his Nazi salutes yesterday, reportedly was responsible for elbowing out his co-leader of the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency," the terminally obnoxious catch-fart Vivek "Rama-smarmy" Ramaswamy. According to Politico:

"Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days, according to three people familiar with Musk’s preferences who, like others for this article, were granted anonymity to discuss them. An ill-received holiday rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise.

Just 69 days after Trump announced the team, Ramaswamy is now leaving DOGE and planning to announce a run for Ohio governor next week. Musk’s ability to ice out Ramaswamy, who for a variety of reasons had irked some Republicans in Trump’s circle, is the latest sign of his influence in the incoming administration. And it presages an encore of all of the infighting that marked Trump’s first term.

Ramaswamy 'just burned through the bridges and he finally burned Elon,' said a Republican strategist close to Trump advisers. 'Everyone wants him out of Mar-a-Lago, out of D.C.'"

Frankly, we'd like him out of the U.S. altogether. We wonder whether Musk bothered to inform the Malignant Fascist of his executive decision, not that the MF would buck his sugar daddy. We note the prediction of infighting among the assorted misfits, ignoramuses and overt fascists populating the MF's regime, and couldn't be happier. (We realize this runs counter to clueless, institutionalist Dems who are constantly seeking "bipartisanship" and "common ground" with them. Eff em.)  

(photo: Strange bedfellows. NBC)

 

QOTD: The Insufferable Ramaswamy

The estimable Michelle Goldberg, writing in the op-ed page of the New York Times, about right-wing tech bro and GQP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's appeal to the right:

"The question is what Ramaswamy’s supporters see in this irksome figure. Some Republicans, clearly, appreciate the way he sucks up to Donald Trump, whom Ramaswamy has called “the best president of the 21st century.” But that doesn’t explain the roughly 10 percent of Republicans who tell pollsters they’re planning to vote for Ramaswamy instead of Trump. It can’t only be his shtick as Fox News’s “woke and cancel-culture guru,” as one anchor called him, since at this point even the Florida governor Ron DeSantis has learned that railing against wokeness is a losing message. Nor is Ramaswamy’s appeal tailored to the downwardly mobile Trump voters who appreciated the former president’s pledges to protect their entitlements, since Ramaswamy’s promise to “dismantle Lyndon Johnson’s failed ‘Great Society’” makes Paul Ryan look like a social democrat.

Instead, I suspect that Ramaswamy’s fans are drawn to him for all the reasons his critics find him insufferable. Conservatives love being championed by representatives of groups that they think disdain them."  (our emphasis)

Think of past candidates for their presidential nomination like Herman "999" Cain, Dr. Ben Carson, and Alan Keyes and you'll see Goldberg's point. It's the political variation of "some of my best friends are black / Jewish / etc." to shield bigots from criticism, especially when the "friends" mimic your views and philosophy. Read her whole column to see how Ramaswamy fits the mold with his obnoxious and opportunistic style.

BONUS: Rapper Eminem tells Rama-smarmy to stop performing his songs at campaign events (as he's pictured above) or face legal action.

 

Quotes Of The Day -- The Demagogue-In-Waiting

 

"He thinks the climate crisis is a hoax, supports Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine and would gladly pardon Donald Trump on day 1 of his would-be presidency. A wealthy biotech entrepreneur, the 38-year-old has never before run for public office.

"Despite all of this (or maybe because of it), this week’s Republican debate became a national coming-out party for Vivek Ramaswamy.

"Suddenly, this inexperienced and dangerous showoff is almost a household name..."  -- The Guardian's  Margaret Sullivan on Vivek "Ramasmarmy" Ramaswamy, "America's Demagogue-in-Waiting," and his performance at the Republican "debate" in Milwaukee this past Wednesday.

____________________

In her op/ed, she references The Bulwark's Charlie Sykes' take on Ramasmarmy. Here's his salient quote:

"Vivek is a facile, clownish, shallow, shameless, pandering demagogue, but he is exactly what GOP voters crave these days. So, he will likely get a bump in the polls, at least in the short-run.

"Last night, Vivek was Trumpier than Trump. He touched all the erogenous zones of the MAGAverse with a fluency and zeal unmatched by anyone on the stage, from his anti-Ukraine memes to his fawning praise of the absent God King..."

We have to hope that, however much this grinning, facile "ChatGPT" demagogue appeals to the MAGAt lizard brain, he repulses everyone else for the reasons Sullivan and Sykes lay out.  Since they're deathly afraid of attacking the Malignant Loser directly, the rest of the pygmies running should compensate by training fire on this dangerous MAGA vessel.

Ramaswamy: I'll Appeal To Voters Of Color. Riiiight!

Biotech mega-millionaire bro and slippery master bullshitter Vivek Ramaswamy (ram-ASS-wommy) is making some headway in the Republican / New Confederate contest for their Presidential nomination, nipping at the boot heels of failing Florida Gov. Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis.  Ramasmarmy, er, Ramaswamy optimistically told Fox "News" that he would be able to "bring along voters of diverse shades of melanin in droves and win this election in a landslide,” according to a report in Politico. It's as if he thinks voters vote according to the skin color of candidates, not issues. Talk about the "race card," but we digress.

There may be some voters of color that will fall for his cynical appeal out of ethnic pride, but Ramaswamy needs to understand that MAGA white Christian nationalist voters will NEVER support a man of the Hindu faith like Ramaswamy for President. Of course, he's been trying to appeal to them, by being more "Christian"-values-proclaiming than DeSantis, Pence and others, but it comes off as insincere and manipulative (which should be his campaign slogan).

Then there's the matter of Ramaswamy's Eastern elitist bona fides: Harvard and Yale graduate, big Pharma mega-millionaire (Forbes: $630 million in 2023). Not very appealing to the MAGA mouthbreathers who prefer a <cough white cough> "populist" leader with at least the whiff of being like them. It also didn't take long from looking at Ramaswamy's Wiki page to see that he benefitted from a post-graduate fellowship from the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Yes, that's Paul Soros, the late brother of MAGA nemesis George Soros. It's a connection that weaselly Ramaswamy actually tried to pay Wikipedia to erase from his page. Truth!

The glib and radical Ramaswamy, who promises to take a cleaver to the Federal government in the way that right-wing hero Elon Musk has crippled Twitter / X, is someone who belongs back among his wealthy right-wing tech bros and not in the Oval Office.

(photo: Cognitive dissonance: sign and man. Paul Sancya / AP)