Joe Ferguson forever

Hell, yes it is. Who said it wasn't? I just believe that some redistribution is needed when !% has 50% of the wealth (close enough- not positive of the exact number) and people are listening to the Richmond song as an anthem...https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly-twice-much-wealth-rest-world-put-together-over-past-two-years#. Do I want to give money away? No. My tax rate is high. But I'm no where near the top 1% in the US and many of them find safe harbors. Owning yachts and golf courses and islands is just ridiculous imo. Maybe I'm crazy but there are others who agree.

tell it to Aristotle and his ideas on what makes a good knife "A broader and still more pervasive fallacy underlies Aristotle's ethics. It is the idea that an investigation of human nature can reveal what we ought to do. For Aristotle, an examination of a knife would reveal that its distinctive quality is to cut, and from this we could conclude that a good knife would be a knife that cuts well. In the same way, an examination of human nature should reveal the distinctive quality of human beings, and from this we should be able to conclude what it is to be a good human being. This line of thought makes sense if we think, as Aristotle did, that the Universe as a whole has a purpose and that we exist as part of such a goal-directed scheme of things, but its error becomes glaring once we reject this view and come to see our existence as the result of a blind process of evolution." Do you find FLW designs simple? The Guggenheim for example. Was it worth the effort?

think deeper. Open your horizons

It's buying trump and his merry men temporary liberty. The Enron crooks? We'd all be in jail by now. When did I say it bought happiness? As for life, there sadly are tiers in our medical system based on money and the affluent have longer life expectancies than the poor.

Man, no! It's a book about the unspoken social order and constraints in America. Even among the elite there are rankings. The gilded age is a great example. This writer explains it better than I (from the books description) "Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things." I agree with your statements on money. But it is the source of a great deal of political animus. Who said I don't want to have money? I just believe that the current distribution of wealth and status is leading to this point in history. And it's not a good point.

maybe I should recommend this to my bookclub. This is a well studied subject in the social sciences but no doubt you'll find the theme bs... https://www.amazon.com/Caste-Origins-Discontents-Isabel-Wilkerson/dp/0593230256#:~:text=Caste is the granting or,or standing in the hierarchy.

So those economic advantages don't segregate us into the American version of castes? Where we live? What we eat? Where we travel? Where and for how long we are educated? And lately, what political party we are associated with. Witness the push to recruit suburban women to each party. You don't care to admit it but it's a central political theme right now. Almost no one wants to say it out loud tho. my technique in pointing that out is obvious and ham handed. And you still don't get it....Did I mention that I like most of Bernie's policies?

Ignore then. But aren't you a trump fan? seems inconsistent with this statement. If not you, then at least 10 posters here. And he's compared to Jesus by them! btw, I'm not the poster that showed a pic of me and a fighter jet. But thank you for your service. Dangerous job.

We do not have a caste system like India. We certainly have "classes", in most cases defined by income: (upper, middle, lower, upper middle, lower middle). Indians are just more open about it and more rigid. There are jobs some castes can never hold, for example. He comes from that culture. I find it difficult to believe that all that culture washes away in a generation but maybe I'm wrong. He took full advantage of every opportunity including a philanthropic fellowship from the Soros family, which is great. His talents were recognized early. But didn't he bad mouth Soros last night? I think he's a phony but we'll see.

no one cares. Status in the US is largely based on money. I didn't come from wealth either but I got some advantages. Greatest were a strong work ethic, high parental expectations and self confidence. Based on money, Vivek was quantum jumps more successful but it appears his tools were similar. My point is that while crying about elites, many cons seem attracted to them politically. It seems inconsistent if not self defeating. Vivek is no man of the people from what littleI've seen. speak for yourself....

Anglican is pretty close as well.

You seem to deny a fairly rigid class structure in the US. It's a huge part of populism, resentment and anger. It's what the Richmond song is about. Pretending it doesn't exist doesn't help improve things. discussing the system in the context of the election is relevant and important.

Vivek is elite. No doubt about it. How he'd do as president is a major question (worry). The part about the Soros fellowship is hilarious. From Wiki: Ramaswamy attended public schools through the eighth grade.[3][19] He then attended Cincinnati's St. Xavier High School, a Catholic school affiliated with the Jesuit order,[3][20] graduating in 2003.[21] He was class valedictorian and a nationally ranked junior tennis player.[3] In 2007, Ramaswamy graduated from Harvard College with a Bachelor of Arts, summa ***** laude, in biology, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[22] At Harvard, he gained a reputation as a brash and confident libertarian.[23] He was a member of the Harvard Political Union,[1] becoming its president.[3] He told the Harvard Crimson that he considered himself a contrarian who loved to debate.[1] While in college, he performed Eminem covers and libertarian-themed rap music under the stage name and alter ego Da Vek,[3][24] and was an intern for the hedge fundAmaranth Advisors and the investment bank Goldman Sachs.[3] He wrote his senior thesis on the ethical questions raised by creating human-animal chimeras and earned a Bowdoin Prize.[22] In a 2023 interview, he also said that he was a member of the Jewish intellectual society Shabtai at Yale.[25] In 2011, Ramaswamy was awarded a post-graduate fellowship by the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.[26] In 2013, he earned a J.D.from Yale Law School.[22] At that time, Ramaswamy was already wealthy from his involvement in the finance, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries; he said in 2023 that he had a net worth of around $15 million before graduating from law school.[23] Since everyone has that opportunity, why not do the civics test?

One of his parents was a geriatric psychiatric doctor and the other a lawyer, I think. They were/are elite in most conversations. my Indian friends pregnant girl friend (now wife) is white, if that matters......He was Sikh. Smaller sized but I wouldn't advise getting him angry

Halellujah! well, of course. "Us" being MAGA...

He just learned what rabid meant and wanted to use it.

See above. His heritage has nothing to do with my opinion of him. I think he's a player and says whatever will help him win without the least bit of embarrassment. My scientist friends are not players. Just smart and hardworking. Some levity: I drove an Indian grad student (His brother who worked at Roswell picked them up later), my then girlfriend and his girlfriend to Lewiston to meet my parents. His GF was about 8 months pregnant. when we walked in the door, my stepmother said "and which one is Greta".

Don't fit that one either. Several Asian Indian grad student friends attended our wedding. Still friends. I'm just pointing out the strange way today's R's think. They want a voice and a leader who "listens" to them and then quickly champion a guy who clearly won't/hasn't. He was hedge fund manager, which is fine by me but isn't that the devil to many MAGAs? The "investor class".

"a person having a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries" My wife has a European passport. We're thinking of moving to Portugal if trump somehow wins. So, No.

It always makes me chuckle. When people say "we're going to the beach" it's understood they mean myrtle. There are several lovely, much less commercial and developed beaches nearby. But there's nothing better than t-shirt shops, crowded sand and deep fried, battered seafood. To each his own. If that sounds pompous, so be it. Many people think it but don't say it aloud. Neither do I except on this board.

not around here. Myrtle beach is the only vacation spot many people ever go to.

Yes, but I'm not a MAGA...here are some of the questions https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/questions-and-answers/100q.pdf Just like anything else, there are good and bad elites. He's a bad one. He's acting a part.

He suggested the test for citizenship that he and his parents had to pass. Sounds good to me.

Yes. But now the shoe is on the other foot. It would hurt the current R party much more than the current D, imo. not gonna happen tho.

I loved his civics test requirement to vote tho. Maybe knowing what a brahmin is should also be a requirement... What would FLW say?