The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. — Emerson
As always, readers are encourged to follow the many links embedded below to acquire a far more detailed understanding of the underlying evidence and to link to details contained in our other relevant articles.
Is there something about Mr. Ramaswamy, something you can’t put your finger on, that does not seem quite right? You’ve come to the right place. If you swoon over TED Talks, this may not be for you.
Many have been conned by Vivek Ramaswamy’s fast-talking routine. Including far too many on the Right. His act is growing stale after six months. Once examined closely, it becomes obvious we are confronted with a highly flawed individual attempting to convince us he is something other than his reality. In this first in a multi-part series we will examine his backstory to discover the disturbing methods used to generate his wealth. His contrived persona serves to further his commercial endeavors. Contradictions abound, but few of his media interlocutors have bothered to investigate either his background or the specifics of his ever-shifting narrative. Those who have made initial journeys down this path, including Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, have discovered a hollow shell underneath his contrived exterior. Most concerning, for a blog focused on examining aspects of the ongoing class war, are his true class affinities, the subject of a separate article.
Ramaswamy’s anti-woke commercial endeavors reflect an astute business plan. Two words: Bud Light. Ramaswamy is in the vanguard of those recognizing a huge profit opportunity. If Bud Light can make hundreds of millions of dollars vanish overnight, taking the opposite side of that issue offers an equally positive opportunity. Yuengling Beer’s profits have been fine lately. The dollar amounts at stake are astronomical. Auto manufacturers are busy self-immolating on an electrical vehicle pyre because they have bought into the climate hysteria hoax. Retailers are bankrupting themselves with woke policies. Investors are fed up with negative returns from investments predicated upon ESG and DEI criteria. In a series of articles we will examine why and when Ramaswamy abruptly abandoned active participation in the pharmaceutical field and transitioned into the nascent anti-woke industry.
It’s all about the money. He founded Strive Asset Management last year to hawk anti-woke ETFs to compete with the BlackRocks and Vanguards in that lucrative field. Anti-wokeness is suddenly profitable. His candidacy advertises his brand. It’s clear that after his political career flirtation ends, he intends to use his new-found notoriety to advantage in marketing his ETFs.
Unaffiliated voter Ramaswamy embraces Trump’s agenda, but wants to go further:
I'm doing what Trump set out to do in 2015, but my commitment is I'm going to take that same America first agenda and actually take it even further, but also unify the country in the process. I'm all for putting America first, but to put it first we have to rediscover what America is, and I think that starts the conversation about what are the principles that put this nation into motion and then we talk about the policies against this backdrop, just like Ronald Reagan did in the 80s. I can go further than Donald Trump in getting it done, if we do so with moral authority. . . .Most Americans do not want a national divorce. Most want a national revival and I think conservatives are hungry for walking the walk when it comes to family values, reviving the faith in God. And from my perspective I was raised in a stable two-parent household. I've got two children, we've put faith in God, that's important to us and when you are walking on that level of moral foundation and moral authority you can go further than Trump did.
“Starts the conversation” and “rediscovering what America is” appropriates Kamala's lexicon. This is not a conservative talking. These vapid expressions are no more conservative (or meaningful) than Hope and Change. Or Biden’s promises to unite the country. How well did that work out? Such phrasing represents tools of demagoguery. The problem is political discourse has become so slanted to the left that as soon as anyone begins making even faintly conservative noises, conservatives swoon. “Actually take it even further, but also unify the country” is a dig at Trump, but done indirectly, rather than openly.
Ramaswamy’s routine requires deciphering to uncover what he really means and intends. He uses very specific language for a purpose. Once you see what lies behind his impassioned delivery, you can never unsee it. To grasp the essense of his speech it is better read, absent the impassioned delivery, than heard. Contrast empty phrasing with Trump’s lexicon of specificity: build the wall; drill baby drill; China bad; etc. When a fast-talking politician tells us we need to have a “conversation” on the “national character” and Americans “are hungry for meaning,” take a deep breath.
Take a field trip to your local saloon or VFW. As an experiment, see how long it takes them to run you out of there after asking if they are desperate for meaning and purpose in our empty lives and want to hold deep conversations to rediscover what we are as a country. Ramaswamy boasts about having visited the south side of Chicago or Kensington in Philadelphia. Does anybody believe he held deep conversations with individuals desperate for meaningful lives there? This is the kind of discussion you have with rich college kids with nothing better to worry about. Realize he alters his messaging based on the audience. Liberal audiences are told one thing, conservatives another. Ramaswamy gets an A+ for hypnotism, an F for substantive content.
He dons a morality mantle and uses “revolution” gratuitously, only slightly less frequently than his incessant reminders of how moral he is. Preaching God, family, morality, anti-wokeness, anti-bureaucracy, anti-climate hysteria, etc. are as mainstream as asserting two genders.
When he says, “I'm all for putting America first, but” pay attention to the “but.” It’s a big but. Once you penetrate to the essence of his routine, it becomes clear why he uses that word. He is not a conservative, but plays one on TV. He is not part of the MAGA chorus. When this 38-year-old narcissist informs us Trump was great, the finest president of this young century, but says he can do so much more, become suspicious. Very suspicious.
Candidate Ego tells us he possesses a deep understanding of our Constitution and laws, and will therefore be able to accomplish what Trump could not. After a certain point his blather becomes too much to endure except in brief bites.
Part of the reason Ramaswamy has so far received a pass from the Right is that he is useful in pushing back against the woke agenda. He does it better and cleaner than anyone else, filling a vacuum. The problem is the political universe has been so thoroughly infiltrated by incompetents and grifters that when someone appears who is actually able to assemble an effective sales pitch, they stick out. Talented individuals do not need political careers to acquire wealth. They seek careers in the Real World. After six months of his roadshow it is time to look beyond his anti-woke take downs, entertaining though they might be, and peer behind the curtain. He is not alone in attempting to appear more Trump than Trump. This has been tried before, without success.
Yale Law grad DeSantis promptly crashed and burned, flanking Trump on the right, a futile strategy. Shhhh, don’t tell anybody, but he’s no radical right-winger — Trump is a centrist, as was Reagan. If Trump wasn’t a centrist, he would never have been elected. DeSantis apparently ran after billionaire backers promised him Trump would be eliminated. Rather than await 2028, DeSantis now skewers eggs, idling in case Trump disappears. If, as Trump suggests, DeSantis is about to chase a Senate seat before his polling disintegrates further, Ramaswamy would inherit much of his support.
Yale Law attorney Ramaswamy now occupies the right lane, magnanimously offering to make Trump an advisor and mentor in the 38-year-olds’ administration, and tossing in a pardon. Ramaswamy lists 10 truths as his manifesto — obvious, uncontroversial banalities, synonymous with the concerns of Trump’s supporters.
Consider Ramaswamy’s closing statement during the August GOP debate. Rather than listen to his rapid-fire, impassioned delivery, read it and question whether this is all just a bunch of bullshit simply sophistry masquerading as passionate rhetoric.
I was born in 1985 and I grew up into a generation where we were taught to celebrate our diversity and our differences so much that we forgot all of the ways we are really just the same as Americans. Bound by a common set of ideals that set this nation into motion in 1776 and this is our moment to revive those common ideals:
God is real,
there are two genders,
fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity,
reverse racism is racism,
an open border is not a border,
parents determine the education of their children,
the nuclear family is the greatest form of governance known to man,
capitalism lifts us up from poverty,
there are three branches of government, not four,
and the U.S Constitution it is the strongest guarantor of freedom in human history.
That is what won us the American Revolution, that is what will win us the revolution of 2024. Thanks for letting me introduce myself tonight. Thank you.
He begins by noting his youth, a means of differentiating from older candidates and an effort to appeal to a certain demographic. Saying he is “really just the same as Americans” appears to be a way to address concerns about his ethnicity. News flash: nobody cares. But it sounds good. Then a dual repetition of “common ideals,” a reference to 1776 to make patriotic hearts race, a recitation of his 10 banal and trite points of universal agreement, closing with a second reference to the Revolution and a call to repeat it. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He might as well have waxed on about the appeals of apple pie. A salesman attempting to sell us what we bought long ago.
These are hardly profound or radical positions. What they are is a reflection on the warped times in which we live, a juxtaposition to the insanity now abounding. If you haven’t noticed, we live in crazy times when some consider supporting the Constitution to be extremism. Is there anything in his list which Trump or MAGA supporters could disagree with? Nope. And that is the point. This list is contrived to be innocuous. Deliver it with enough passion and speed, and a certain percentage of the population will eat it up. But any discussion of the wholesale trashing of the rule of law, comprehensive election fraud, arrests of the political opposition, establishment of an internal gulag system, and all we get from the Boy Wonder is crickets. What Ramaswamy does not mention is even more concerning than what he does discuss.
Candidates stealing appropriating chunks of Trump’s platform must be skeptically scrutinized. Are they sincere or Trump plagiarists? Is Ramaswamy globalists’ backup when DeSantis stumbles? He possesses no backstory of participation in public affairs, a point Levin has emphasized. He earned a fortune, then, when it became apparent his existing game plan was crumbling, he bailed and wrote books. Upon announcing for president in February he targeted China: “We must even be willing to bar U.S. companies from expanding into China until its government abandons theft and other mercantilist tactics” yet minted money in China. Given his history and investments (not his rhetoric) he unsurprisingly advocates reversing Trump’s exit from Obama’s TPP trade deal. He talks from both sides of his mouth while trillions of dollars and millions of jobs are at stake if Trump’s TPP exit and China tariffs are reversed. Ramaswamy’s anti-woke routine is chaff, diverting from this overarching, existential issue.
“The billionaire biotech mogul has railed against socially conscious companies. But his financial disclosure shows he has a stake in some of the leaders in the field.”
His disclosure form’s extensive investments are a Who’s Who of World Economic Forum sponsors — everyone from BlackRock and Vanguard on down — prior to liquidating many positions before declaring his candidacy. His holdings have included everybody’s favorite vampire squid banks (JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs).
A self-described vegetarian and animal rights activist [two broad demographics to pander to], he owned Tyson Foods. Tough talk on terminating the Ukraine fiasco rings hollow after having recently divested positions in Lockheed, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics. But don’t worry, he has a simple explanation for how Mr. Anti-Woke came to own shares of all these companies: it was all somebody else’s fault,he had no idea. According to his flack spokesperson,
“The first time Vivek learned of these positions was when he saw this financial disclosure report. Vivek’s stock portfolio is independently managed by a third party. The filer has authority to make trades and invest in stocks without his expressed consent or knowledge.”
Uh huh. If this were true, it means his portfolio manager independently decided to divest all the hypocritical holdings in preparation for the announcement of candidacy, while simultaneously electing to retain many other positions. Once you learn his initial employment was working as an investment analyst at a hedge fund, the notion of a third party independently managing his portfolio becomes absurd. Apparently, he was not even curious to peek.
Ramaswamy founded Swiss-based Roivant Sciences, which has never been profitable but mastered the art of parting investors from their cash, riding the market’s biotech bubble. A separate article will examine Roivant’s disturbing history. Its business model consists of: a) buy discarded drugs for pennies, b) issue an IPO, c) spawn a dozen subsidiaries, d) insiders bail[to the tune of $15,657,114.60 documented just at this link], e) most drugs go nowhere. f) Rinse and repeat.
Sensing political daylight soon after Trump left office, Ramaswamy authored Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam. This April, the former hedge funder released Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For. In between, he wrote Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence. He has made numerous appearances on Murdoch's Fox News to oppose the Left’s hyper-radicalism. This is a riskless strategy since few buy such nonsense. More Tony Robbins than Donald Trump. We need a leader, not a life coach.
Slip #2: “It chills me to see the Democratic Party moving in the same direction.”
Only Democrats get chills from this, explaining his unaffiliated voter registration and campaign dontations to radical leftists. Fortunately for him, Ohio has open primaries.
He is a pretend Republican, a new voter, whose first GOP primary vote will be for himself in 2024. Author Ramaswamy addressed a somewhat different audience than politician Ramaswamy now woos.
Ramaswamy’s campaign slogan is “Truth.” When Biden ran as a unifier, then promptly divided, gratuitous slogans no longer suffice. Fool us once, and we demand solid evidence the next time. Not empty rhetoric. Ramaswamy is unlikely to keep his shifting promises if elected. His error (shared by DeSantis) is assuming the MAGA phenomenon reflects the tired left vs. right, woke vs. reality, dichotomy.
Glenn Greenwald realizes the true controversy is existential, financially and liberty-wise: “It's anti-establishment versus pro-establishment.” Matt Taibbi recognizes the same: “Not left versus right, but affluent versus everyone else.” These two paleo-liberal (i.e., objective and honest) journalists speak for millions.
Crawling out on a limb, let’s assume Ramaswamy (Rama-swampy?) is an establishment shill. It makes sense to campaign on superficial issues dividing Americans, while avoiding the Big One uniting millions and crossing ideological divides, thereby not antagonizing fellow globalists. Rather than address the decades-long class war that has created a nation of permanent debt slaves, he avoids this existential issue like the plague. This is not the second coming of Trump.
Do yourself a favor, skip his sophomoric books. Skip his lame rapping. He’s not ready for prime time. Ramaswamy got this far because Trump’s other opponents are hacks. Take a carnival barker, used drug salesman, add a televangelist preacher and a scoop of caffeine, blend on low — you’ll get Ramaswamy. With Ramaswamy we don’t need a weatherman to tell us which way shifting political winds blow.
Great news: the Universal Basic Income serial loseradvises Vivekhow to win. Birds of a feather. Meanwhile, the establishment actively promotes Ramaswamy, a big clue. Once DeSantis stumbled, Ramaswamy became the establishment’s designated Trump stalking horse. Not giving a straight answer on 2020 election theft is unacceptable. Stating “big tech stole the election” sidesteps the elephant of “massive, systemic election fraud.” DC Draino has the receipts. “Our movement” and “our party” strain credulity when uttered by an independent registered voter.
Trump has attracted plenty of enemies in the billionaire class. Enemies who would gladly use Ramaswamy as a stalking horse, praying he becomes enough of a threat to force Trump to expend funds in response. Be alert to this aspect of the narrative. Note who gives him free publicity. For example, Murdoch’s NY Post allowed him to author a campaign adpuff piece two days before the GOP August debate., hosted by Fox using its two most anti-Trump talking heads. (To be fair, Brian Kilmeade is as rabidly anti-Trump as they come, but is not exactly debate hosting material.)
Murdoch’s Fox News has propelled Ramaswamy to the forefront with his numerous appearances. Another example, from Murdoch’s Kayleigh McEnany’s fawning description when introducing the candidate on Fox and Friends, the network’s flagship morning talk show:
He's smart, he's authentic and he is the O-word, an outsider. Remember Donald Trump 2016, he was the outsider, he was authentic, he was real. That's what Vivek has. But we have seen hit piece after hit piece over the last few days. That's not by accident. That's likely his rivals planting these stories. . . . He's got to be the same authentic person we've seen. He knows how to take people on. We've seen him take on Don Lemon, Dana Bash, Chuck Todd, these media figures. We've not seen him on a debate stage, we'll be watching tonight.
Ainsley Earhardt: "What about those videos he's been posting. The tennis one. A few days ago, he has the one with the shirt off, was that yesterday? And then this morning we saw the one of him working out with his wife doing the burpees." [Background video playing of Vivek and his wife performing vigorous calisthenics in their exercise room.]
That's what people love, they love these kinds of retail politics. They love when they see Donald Trump when he goes to a Dairy Queen and just talks to people. Same kind of thing with Vivek Ramaswamy. Showing us his workouts with his wife. Showing us what he's doing behind the scenes. It's real, it's authentic, and in a day of organic social media content, it works.
We could use a number of adjectives to describe this substantial in-kind contribution to Ramaswamy’s campaign, but organic would not be among them. This episode, and too many others, have become embarrassing as Fox hosts follow orders and shill the owners’ pet. How much of this pumping up interest in their own debate can be ascribed to the Murdochs' desperate efforts to retain relevancy (and viewership) in an era Trump now controls? Firing Tucker Carlson was the network’s death rattle. As more people have recently gotten a good look at Ramaswamy, his unfavorables have steadily climbed. As more clue in to his act, unfavorables may soon overtake favorables.
Unsurprisingly, regardless of what the media hype might imply, his support took a hit in the wake of the August 13 GOP debate. It’s the oldest story in the world: The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted out spoons.
He tends to attract the least support from voters who are 65 or older. Emerson College’s two August surveys found Ramaswamy polling best among the 18-to-34 and 35-to-49 age groups, but at just 2 to 3 percent with the 65-plus crowd. The Fox News survey found Ramaswamy attracting 11 percent each among voters under 45 and 45 or older, but only 4 percent among those 65 or older.
Be alert to the possibility certain Fox News or NY Post actors might be attempting to get out ahead of skeletons tumbling out of Ramaswamy’s closet by revealing them first, thus placing as positive as possible a spin on them. Other Fox hosts (including Levin and Hannity, more so the latter) appear to have been somewhat restrained in their handling of Ramaswamy. We can speculate what they would do if posssessing free rein. To their credit, both have provided valuable insights into the man’s character, attempting to caution the nation.
