I was about to say, didn’t we write in a confirmation vote by the Senate as, effectively, a sanity check? To prevent the President from stuffing his Cabinet with toadies and yes-men?

Ahh, but this is why he’s already forming a board to throw out any officers that are brash enough to get in his way, bypassing official channels. The endgame, as I see it, is a complete reorganization of the command structure, ending with something that looks like Russia, where specific orders come directly from the top of the government all the way down the chain, to squad-level sometimes. This gets rid of the extremely effective tactical flexibility that made the US so effective in WWII, but it also makes it so you can just axe any part of that totem pole that’s stupid enough to get in your way without much problem.

Because he admitted to illegally staying here to start his business after running out his student visa? And that he knew this was entirely illegal the entire time?

I believe him when he said he didn’t read it, because his staffers say he won’t read a goddamn thing unless it glowingly mentions him several times (or it’s a book of Hitler’s speeches). Trump himself has said he considers reading a waste of time.

What I DO believe is that he’s being spoonfed lists of appointees by the Heritage Foundation.

He THINKS he’s fine because he lives in a bubble with other people who are willing to accept and normalize his unmedicated issues at great personal cost. And now, instead of being kicked to the roadside or reckoning with the idea of “maybe I’m the asshole here”, he plans to make the whole US into his safe space so he doesn’t have to be confronted with an idea outside his sphere.

Don’t forget that a lot of people are working extremely mentally or physically exhausting jobs, often raising families or caring for children or just scrambling to SURVIVE. After working 12+ hours, the last thing I’d want to do is actually go through ANY news article.

Considering this was happening before the election was declared as well, I’m willing to take the stance that Ohio is just a magnet for trash Nazis.

Actually, people DID die from these pathogens, in droves, before pasteurization. Most of those didn’t get a chance to “get used” to it, because they were CHILDREN, who hadn’t had a lifetime to get used to it. They’d get sick from this, and either die of some foodborne pathogen, or an opportunistic infection taking advantage of their weakened immune system would kill them off - scarlet fever, mumps, measles, tuberculosis, etc.

It’s not just “well if you drink it you die”. Thousands would likely die from this - in fact, if you pay attention to the raw milk weirdo cultists on Facebook and other outlets, their kids do get sick and die way more often, usually because those people also don’t believe in things like modern medicine. Combine everything ABOVE with a man who has literally stated, multiple times, on microphone, that modern medicine is a sham and he’d love to see the whole modern pharmaceutical industry disappear, and one hopes you can begin to see where the “fear mongering” is coming from, logically.

Don’t forget delicious parasites and their eggs.

He also likely killed some people with his anti COVID vaccine rhetoric back in 2020.

Famously, not really. He’s always stuck to business casual at best to make himself look more like a “man of the people”.

I think some would likely float off to other charismatics like Flynn, RFK, Carlson, and various other grifters like Rogan. I can’t see the movement uniting behind another figure that I know of right now - Trump WAS the syncretic glue, and I don’t see anyone else being able to be all things to all men.

Some will, some won’t. Cults of personality don’t tend to fare well without their personality, and Vance has all the charisma of a used tissue, so it’ll come down to how skillfully he can navigate things.

Remember, a LOT of right-wing Christians think Trump is either a prophet, an agent of God, or (in some cases) literally Christ Himself. That’s an awful hard act to follow when your prophet doesn’t get taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, or your Messiah doesn’t rise again after 3 days.

I think you should be able to DISTINGUISH it’s a joke. Also, as anyone who does politics will tell you, ANYTHING that comes out of your mouth into any form of microphone can and should be expected to be used against you, and should be expected to be believed.

“Joking” in politics should’ve died with Reagan’s press sec laughing about gay men dying of AIDS.

She’d better get the ball rolling fast. States are already looking at their divorce laws anticipating that no-fault divorce will get SCOTUS’d.

Nah, he says nice things to and about Trump.

That’s all it is. RFK knew how to kiss ass, and because of knowing how to kiss ass, he’s likely going to get some sort of Cabinet position. It has nothing to do with wealth or status (although that helps).

More and more I remember Kreia telling The Exile that “apathy is death”.

Nah, this one’s OFFFICIALLY non-governmental and just makes “suggestions”. Because you can’t just create new departments, nor get rid of them, without Congressional approval.

Don’t do my man Viktor von Doom like that. Latveria is a dictatorship, but he’s literally the platonic ideal of a benevolent dictator - his people love him, everyone else outside Latveria thinks he’s actually a pretty decent dude when it comes to ruling too (aside from Richards).

An efficiency department that apparently needs two leaders, as well. Sounds…inefficient.