A lot of people are going to die because of this conspiracy theorist.
I think of someone very close to me who takes mediation for depression, medication that RFK thinks is bullshit, and medication that is regulated by the FDA.
She got a bad batch of something from a generic supplier and became dangerously suicidal. We were able to report this to the FDA and send them the medication so people wouldn’t die.
I can’t see how less staffing is going to make things better. We need more people on the ground so inspections are more regular and so deadly manufacturing problems are caught early.
I can’t see how less staffing is going to make things better.
Oh it makes things better alright. Better for the drug companies who now don't have to deal with pesky things like "safety" and "consequences for killing people".
Not only are a lot of people going to die, the EU is going to be on some "bad" list very soon, because free travel and any kind of "free" shipping won't be possible anymore - and I'd say even some Asian, African and maybe even Australia are going to follow that, heck, maybe even Canada. Although I'm not sure if Canada is able to actually do that...
I would have figured losing 1-2 million Republicans would have helped in voting, but my Mexican neighbors decided they like Trump. Guess I'll report them to ICE. The leopards must feed.
And do you think there will be a single Republican willing to do anything about it?
Mark my words, they will vote 100% in lockstep every single time. And if what Trump is doing is illegal (like that matters anyway), they'll just write legislation to make it legal. Not a single one of them is going to even think about criticizing him, out of fear of either violence, political suicide, or both.
The government will be crammed with unqualified hacks from top to bottom. The corruption will be open and blatant.
And every single Republican senator will vote to confirm. Every single time.
RFK in charge of healthcare. Musk in charge of spending. Aileen cannon is either getting the AG job or a Supreme Court seat. Whichever one she doesn't get, Alina Hobba gets. Steve Bannon gets pardoned and gets communications director. Alex Jones is probably going to crawl out from whatever rock he crawled under too.
They'll all get jobs. The Senate will confirm them all. And far-right conspiracy theories will become official US policy.
Jones hasn't crawled under any rocks, he's been going strong even with a billion dollar judgement against him and filing for bankruptcy. Infowars is being auctioned off in a week so it might be bought by someone who will just keep him exactly where he is, but he's been openly setting up a backup business and directing people to it, which he's said ON AIR he'll just fold into the existing business if all goes well. His dad has a completely independent supplement company and he's got completely unaffiliated mates selling his merch.
The only reason he's less prominent now is because the politicians and the mainstream media in the US are so fucking unhinged that he's struggling to stay relevant in his niche.
There may be one or two, but as soon as they imprison or execute one (my bet is that it will be Kinzinger), they'll all fall in line. Or mysteriously vanish.
Hell, why should he care if any of it is legal or not? Him being inaugurated after inciting an insurrection is a direct violation of the constitution. His entire second presidency will be illegal.
There is a ray of hope. Historically when the GOP gets power, infighting flares up.
Trump himself has been shown to be quite malleable in the face of hollow flattery, without much in the way of things he actually cares about doing specifically, apart from whatever inflates his ego. Those different camps have had a long time to meditate on how people have manipulated Trump and are likely to be better at manipulating him Putin style.
So while they all may have decided they must be in line with Trump, they may work toward changing what policies that means. So even as they must be behind Trump, that may narrow the fixed outcome to just proclaiming Trump the most awesome president ever, with policy related stuff a bit more malleable.
I would have preferred not to risk this scenario, but for now I'm choosing to hope that there's a more mundane path forward that avoids permanent damage to the political structure, despite this very risky situation.
I wouldn't be surprised though if Trump just ignores him and appoints a drug company lobbyist instead. RFK Jr. forgot Rule #1 when dealing with Trump: get paid up front.
While they didn't help, I suspect their numbers were small enough to not matter in the scheme of what happened.
The answer is likely mundane. My guess is overall turnout was lower because things didn't feel as 'crisis' like as 2020. The needle for people barely aware of politics even as they vote stayed at the same place as it was in 2020: Things aren't great, kick whoever is in office out in hopes the alternative does better. Last time they came out for Biden because Trump was at the wheel. Now they show up for Trump because the president was a democrat.
This segment of the electorate is not particularly politically aware, let alone active, and likely has little to no opinion about the broader world. The relative likelihood of them turning up at all depends on how badly things are going (less likely to show up this time compared to the unprecedented mess of 2020), and to the extent they show up they just vote against whoever is in charge that day.
However, those people are generally quiet, and so we turn our focus instead to the loudest folks proclaiming a refusal to vote for Harris.
If it was close, I would agree. It wasn't even close by such a huge margin the more mundane factors I think are the only ones big enough to explain things.
It doesn't matter. A vote that was not cast or cast for anyone other than Harris we warned them and warned them, and they didn't listen.
If I ever hear someone say "Gen Z will save us" again, I'm going to have some strong words for them. Gen Z is a bunch of knuckle-dragging Neanderthals and they'll be the death of us.
The people who stayed home are not the people on the left. The people on the left voted against fascism. The people who stayed home for the election are also going to be useless in an anti-fascism coalition, seeing as they couldn't be bothered to do the bare minimum.
I'm not punching left, and I refuse to accept your categorisation of anything short of completely trashing the DNC is not left enough.
The reason I voted for Harris is because I care about the lives of Palestinians. You can try to claim that this isn't true, but you're just wrong. And none of your bullshit purity tests will change that.
If you call yourself a progressive, and you stayed home on Tuesday, I want nothing to do with you. There's my purity test. Fuck right off.
I feel like you have a misconception about how democracy works. When there's position that enjoys broad popular support (such as universal health care, or a cessation of the genocide in Gaza), it isn't on the democrats to take that position so the electorate will vote for them, it's on the electorate to either change their mind on the issue, or vote for the democrats regardless.
It's important to internalize this lesson. Next cycle you'll likely get to practice it with trans rights, if the talking heads on MSNBC who are blaming wokeness for the democrats losing the election are any indication. The idea that politicians and their policies are responsible for losing/winning elections is silly. You're here for them, not the other way around.
They won't hear about the bad things, or they'll be told it was the Democrats that did it, and they'll be believe it. Convincing MAGA of reality is pointless while they're still feeding from the trough of conservative shit. We're better off protesting and being disruptive in combination with getting our shit together for next round, where hopefully we'll have real primaries and get our first competent general election candidate since Obama.
Given his age, there is a non-zero chance that he may die while in the presidency?
JD Vance isn’t exactly a charismatic individual (some might even go so far as call him ‘weird’); so this entire neo-fascist movement may very well fragment and flounder in the not too distant future.
Most, if not all in some cases, funding for state-level regulatory agencies comes directly from their federal counterparts. This will essentially kill state agencies as well.
Or at the very least, they will be severely reduced in terms of staff and purview.
And that's just the states that don't decide to follow the administration's lead and do the same thing to their state level agencies.
Eh, as an Italian I had to endure years of bunga-bunga jokes and such... turns out Berlusconi was a class act compared to what you guys managed to elect.
The haters will downvote us for it but damn is it a good time to have a dark sense of humor. It's out of our control but its still bad to see the humor in the absurdity I guess.
I'm still holding out for 'President running the country from prison' which would almost make it worth it.
I mean nothing new, Mr. Brainworm has been ranting about this for a while now and Trump has specified that gutting agencies was always his project 2025 plan so why would anyone be surprised here?
While RFK Jr is the same worm man, let's please remember all the cries about drugs being expensive and regulators stifling competition there, and that (from what I've read, I've never been to US) what can be put into food is already not very well regulated in your country.
Those agencies are problematic. Just like actions aimed at something good may have negative side effects, often outweighing the effect in the intended direction, similarly it is here.
And after typing the previous I've read the article and that's what he's saying, mentioning Canada as the good example. Unfortunately by analogy this would mean that for drug regulation he'd go the same way, only with his antivaxxer views. Also talking about kids being healthier is cringe.
The agencies are problematic because they generally aren't allowed or don't have the budget to properly regulate things. Eliminating departments isn't going to help anything, and I really don't think the guy that picks up roadkill for a snack will improve the overall quality of food in the country.
And somehow, their idiot supporters will find a way to blame someone else when all of these preventable diseases start making a comeback. It'll be wokeness, or immigratns, or whatever, just anything other than their idiotic decisions.
Edit: Literally they're going to put an "ivermectin covid" guy in charge despite the fact quality studies show it at best does nothing and at worst may be slightly harmful
I always imagined him as the guy at the end of Road House where Patrick Swayze ripped his throat out and round-housed him into the pond. But he survived, left the redneckville and turns out half of his vocal cords was left intact.
Yeah - it's the FDA and CDC that are the true money pits in the US government... Let's eliminate the IRS and EPA while we're at it - really smash those guardrails and let the altruistic market fix it - that always works..
Ohhh look - we're cutting taxes for those that need it least again - but that's responsible spending - it's all been accumulating for over half a century, so it's got to start trickling down any day now, guys.
If this is an actual problem, the solution is to use the FDA to make food healthier or have less junk ingredients or whatever. Getting rid of oversight isn't going to do that. The FDA is what's keeping rat turds from being the main ingredient
Even if it does, trading fewer additives for more outbreaks of easily preventable diseases is probably not going to be a net gain. I'm also curious how this kind of thing would be enforced if we also gut the departments.
Note also that it's not the FDA mandating those additives, the companies want them. Reducing oversight means more additives and/or worse additives so long as it aligns with the company's interest.