Feeling Petty About Ramaswamy

 

What Vivek Ramaswamy said last night regarding his quotes to the Atlantic about 9/11 compared with the audio that disproves his claim that he was misquoted. pic.twitter.com/FXNJjRovJ8

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) August 23, 2023

So anyway, last night, our lad was like "Caitlin, Caitlin, Caitlin" about being called out for being a regular humbug.  Just a total condescending, deflecting, argumentative self-justifier. He went on to call her a "petulant teenager" for calling him out when she had performed a act of journalism on him.  Which is fun and sexist and totally for the bros and everything, but I think I know what he reminded me of:

He could stand to grow up a little if he wants to do this politics thing. Maybe he could try not even thinking he should start from the top. Maybe run for mayor of Uphisass City. Population, himself.

Also speaking about his being a CEO did you know he was getting sued?  I think the Trump Handbook says you are supposed to claim "election interference" as a defense, but I don't know if that is a real thing. 

Carl Paladino is Gross

My opinion that Carl Paladino of NY is not a well person isn't really related to his aberrant behavior fairly recently as a Trump campaign persona.  Oh heck no, I was following his very weird self back in 2010 when he was running for NY Governor as the GOP candidate.  He was quite obviously loathsome six years ago, so I don't find his current outburst all that astonishing.

Of course he still thinks using racist or sexist invective amusing and doesn't care who hears him use it. He didn't win as NY Governor in 2010, but he was a trusted campaign official in Trump's rise, right? That is a kind of validation, isn't it?

But his recent comments are really quite something else:

Mr. Paladino’s comments were published in Artvoice, a weekly Buffalo newspaper. They came in response to an open-ended feature in which local figures were asked about their hopes for 2017.

“Obama catches mad cow disease after being caught having relations with a Herford,” said Mr. Paladino, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010, making an apparent reference to the Hereford cattle breed. He said he hoped the disease killed the president.

Asked what he most wanted to see “go away” in the new year, Mr. Paladino — who has a reputation in New York political and business circles for speaking in an unfiltered manner reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s — answered, “Michelle Obama.”

“I’d like her to return to being a male and let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla,” he said.

That is appalling and distinctively bigoted. I understand not all Trump followers might recognize it as being quite the disgusting hate speech it is.  But it is flagrantly bigoted. It isn't really my business to suggest the Trump near and dear remove him from their circle--oh hell no! But I think they should explain why he was in their inner circle for a wee while. This guy. This obvious and assholish actual guy. Whose opinions would not have ever been unknown to them.

Giuliani is the Worst Surrogate Ever.

I think former NYC mayor Rudolph Giuliani has reached a very interesting place in his political career. Post-mayorality, he's had some success on the "giving speeches and writing books" deal, with many comfortable positions to lay his arse and discuss things like "What was it like to cope with 9/11"and "What do you think about police brutality?" on television. People have been astonishingly kind to Rudy Giuliani.  This is the guy who defended the NYPD over the Patrick Dorismond slaying, the violation of Abner Louima, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo. This is basically the embodiment of what Black Lives Matter is about--his kind of clueless worship of authority over the rights of the accused.  As for his being "America's Mayor" when 9/11 happened, the funny thing about that is that it turns out that everything about his "leadership" was super wrong. For one thing, he repeatedly forgets that this enormity occurred during the presidency of a Republican. He also never really answered for how he chose one of the Towers to house the emergency command center, knowing that the World Towers were a previous terror target, and he failed to address faulty radios during his mayorship--resulting in the deaths of many first responders.

His competence was not all it was cracked up to be. We get this now--but Giuliani has never received the memo and thinks things he says are still things people can take to heart. Like whether maybe he is the right person to discuss whether former president Bill Clinton's infidelity should reflect on his spouse. (As for Giuliani, he'll have you know he is washed in the blood of the Lamb, sir! So be shushing yourself about his personal improprieties which are like eye-popping.) He also thinks everyone is violating that adultery commandment, any way. Well, maybe in his circle.

He also thinks it's okay to just outright say Trump is better than a woman. Like that. Wow. Not really how I'd put it knowing my candidate was behind with women as a demographic, but whatever. Also he said all kinds of things that didn't pass fact-checking.  He didn't do anything to remedy any of what Trump put out there--he actually just reminded us that Rudy Giuliani is a total asshole who should not be treated like an honest contributor to our public discourse because--everything about his contributions suck and are disingenuous.

I hope the sinkhole that is the Trump campaign basically pulls this dude under.

Here's a Deplorable!

This lovable old codger just wants you to know that the world would be a better place if Hillary Clinton actually was married to a spousal abuser with homicidal tendencies as in--he thinks it's great when uppity women are killed by their partners because: bitches.

Bask in the knowledge that in the Trump milieu  this is probably not that uncommon a sentiment, going right along with the "Lock her up" and "Firing squad" comments. These are the simple sons of the night soil who think that Clinton "did" Benghazi, as in, pulled on her camouflage pantsuit and sensible combat ballet flats, and went to town on a US embassy which housed a friend of hers.  These are the people who think she probably invited other women to do stuff to her husband, because she was too busy assassinating business associates to get around to being wifely.

Yeah. That's actually deplorable. That's actually sickening. It's ignorant-on-purpose. These are the people I want to deliver the world's biggest "Shush, mature folks are speaking" to. This old-ass man who thinks domestic violence that leads to murder is fun, fun, funny? Is anything but funny to me. This is the story of women in unhappy homes too much of the time, and no one should wish it on anyone.  This is the story of women dying because they are deemed disposable when they cease to please.

This is a white man exulting over the concept of a black man killing a liberal woman because he ascribes to some deeply wrong ideas about how social justice works, how race and gender disparities should be pitted against each other, how women need to shut up because worse can happen to us.

This is probably a guy who thinks being "deplorable" is funny, too. If only he knew how true it was! He's ridiculous, and deplorable. And too old, most likely, to fix any of it. A pity. Does his wife know he thinks spousal abuse and killing women is funny? Ach! Maybe she hates Hillary too! And it's just fine, if it's just Hilz.

I can't wish worse on anyone than being this. This is the worst. This man is maybe someone's grampy, and he is the worst.