Yes, the VP position can remain vacant indefinitely, or at least until the end of a term when another VP can be elected through the normal process. The only thing that is lost is the tiebreaking vote. Well, and the fact that if the President has a colonoscopy and is put under sedation nobody is available to be acting President. I don’t think the House Speaker is able to take that job for just a few hours like the Vice President can.

Kamala Harris was actually Acting President for 85 minutes in 2021, and probably at least once after that.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/19/politics/kamala-harris-presidential-power/index.html

(nope, she did it just that once. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acting_President_of_the_United_States )

It has never happened before, so we don’t really know. What I think would happen is that Vance would just get immediately sworn in as the President on Jan 20 if God exercises His Ultimate Veto on Trump’s second term.

But the Presidential Succession Act only covers vacancies for the Presidency. Once the office of the President is filled again, nothing else happens. It’s not like everyone else “moves up” a slot. Mike Johnson would probably see the VP position as a demotion honestly.

The Office of the VP would remain vacant until President Vance nominates a candidate, and then it must be approved by both houses of Congress in order for the position to be filled.

I’m kind of hopeful, actually, that the fact that they are publically whining so much about escalating to a world war is an indication that they don’t have the means to do so, short of going Nuclear, and I think even Putin realizes how that will end up.

I mean, he is already bringing in foreign fighters. isn’t that a concession that Russian fighters can’t do the job in Ukraine themselves? If they had the means to escalate while still fighting in Ukraine, they wouldn’t whine about it, they would just do it.

You are making the mistaken assumption that the brute squad will bother to differentiate between them. How many second+ generation immigrants carry around proof of citizenship, anyway? They can be detained just like anyone else who doesn’t look right.

(And it’s super easy to carry that now, the passport card is cheap, fits in your wallet, and is a good first line of defense against being disappeared.)

He did that so quickly because he knows how to skim money out of campaigns. I bet he will start a campaign fund for 2028, even though he is ineligible, “just in case”.

Hegseth also has deep connections with the so-called TheoBros, a collection of ultra-conservative and extremely online millennial Christian men who follow an Idaho pastor named Douglas Wilson. Some of Wilson’s followers believe that the United States should, as Mother Jones’ Kiera Butler has written, “be subject to Biblical law.”

Interesting. The only difference between these guys and Islamic Fundamentalists who are in charge in places like Afghanistan are which book they want to use as the basis of their laws, and the color of their hats.

If I recall correctly, back then Lemmings didn’t want to vote for her because she was a cop.

No, Newsom has a chance to win, because he doesn’t have a vagina. Apparently having one is a disqualifying factor for many voters.

How is Mint internationally?

I think it will, because local police dont really want to be involved in this stuff, it’s not their job. Blue states will be very likely to tell the Feds “We can’t stop you, but we won’t help you either”.

I understand all this stuff. This shit is hard. But all that is preferable to just being plucked off the street and effectively disappeared. As bad as it was for non-whites here before, it’s about to get much worse.

And the Blue State thing matters because I believe that Trump will not get Congress to go along with a militarization of this deportation effort, and the existing Federal infrastructure is not enough to pull it off. So he will have to heavily lean on red states who will be happy to send State Police to violate these people’s rights as long as the Feds look the other way. Moving to a state that will not go along with that will go a long way toward keeping them safe

“It would be a mistake,” Lindsay Aime, a Haitian immigrant who has temporary protected status until 2026, said of the deportation plan. “All the businesses across Springfield, if you lose good, beautiful workers, you will feel it economically.”

I am surprised more non-citizens (and even the naturalized citizens) aren’t leaving that town and state right away. I understand it’s hard to uproot your family and just move to a different state. But they are going to be forced out in a few months regardless, and if Trump does it they will get put in detention until they get flown back, no questions asked. And we all know Trump is starting there. At least if these people go move to a Blue state the local police won’t help the Feds find them.

And people shouldn’t think they are safe just because they have permanent residence, or even are citizens. I expect whoever Trump recruits to round up these people to not ask those types of questions. They will detain anyone who looks like they don’t belong, confiscate their ID, then conveniently lose it, leaving them with no proof. Do you think AG Gaetz will care about that?

All my shit is in the Google ecosystem. I am fairly confident that Gmail is not going away anytime soon. However, I am more afraid that some obscure ToS violation will forcibly disconnect me from their ecosystem, and I will have to scramble to make sure all my contacts have my alternate info. I am doubly screwed, as a Google Fi customer. If we all get suddenly degoogled, I lose a phone number that I have had for over 20 years.

As good a deal that Fi is for me (I normally don’t use bandwidth unless I travel internationally), I may switch soon just to reduce my exposure to Google.

This image leaves out the giant bags of money that spez carries around everywhere

I think the reason why Democratic politicians have so much trouble articulating their vision is that their voters will call them out on blatant lies, so their positions need to have some logical consistency, or else those politicians will not win their support.

Republicans are not so encumbered. I think their base enjoys being lied to.

The Democratic Party resembles the horse, or at least part of it.

1. Burn it all down
2. ???
3. Profit

There is another point, at least for Americans. While I know a few people who have emigrated to the US and still maintain ties with their original homeland, I know others who have intentionally given up their privileges back home. While they may still be citizens of their home country, they owe them no obligations.

The US is different, they tax your income no matter where in the world you make it. if you are living in a country with a tax treaty in the US, you can fully deduct all foreign tax payments so you will likely end up owing nothing to the US. But you still have to file. And in return for that you retain the right to vote from the state you last resided in. Furthermore, it is quite hard to give up your US citizenship. It can be very costly, because we will make you pay taxes on assets as if you sold them before they let you leave, including any retirement funds.

Americans living abroad are much more likely to still consider themselves Americans first, because we remind them about it every April 15th.

For those not paying attention, this race has already been settled and is still part of the 47 Senate seats that most major media report Democrats hold. The only seat that is technically not settled yet is in PA, where the Republican is ahead, but couldn’t clear the .5% margin needed to avoid a mandatory recount.

But it is extremely unlikely that a recount would find enough votes that weren’t counted in the first place to matter, and most media counts that seat as Republican now, leading to the final 53-47 count. Chuck has even invited the Republican to things for new Senators, even though his victory is still not technically final.

Right, I think without the Open Internet, we would still be getting fast broadband, but likely tied to your Cable or Telco provider’s network, and things that are currently websites would have to arrange for a presence on each network they want to do business on. And they would probably meter access, just like they do with your electric bill, or your cable company does with a basic tier but then paid access to anything important.