• Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Wrestling fan for over 40 years.

    Honestly, given the options that Trump could dredge up from the 9th circle of hell, this isn’t the worst choice.

    Linda McMahon sat there for 50 or so years and did nothing while her husband committed all sorts of atrocities. And she deserves everything she gets for doing that. All the criticism surrounding that is 100% valid. But I want to point out the key words there. “Did nothing.” Because that’s pretty much Linda McMahon’s resume.

    As CEO, she did nothing. Vince called the shots. She just signed the paperwork – at best. Her position was mainly a figurehead position just to ensure McMahon’s power in the company was that much more entrenched. She has all the charisma and personality of cigarette ash, and her on-air persona was literally to sit in a wheelchair and say nothing because she wasn’t capable of better acting.

    She had a cabinet position during Trump’s first administration, and did a whole lot more nothing.

    I would expect the same thing here. Linda McMahon is an unqualified hack who shouldn’t be in the position, but if there’s a silver lining, it’s this: Left to her own devices, McMahon will likely do nothing. Education won’t get any better, but it won’t get any worse either. She’s smart enough to know when she has no idea what she’s doing, and if the past 50 or so years is any indication, she’ll spend the next four years doing a lot more nothing and hoping nobody notices.

    Yes, she absolutely will follow Trump’s directives to the letter. But Trump’s attention span is worse than Linda McMahon’s acting skills. I hate to say it like this, but if Trump stays focused on removing all the brown people and forcing his cronies to buy his watches, there’s at least the possibility that McMahon could just keep her head down for 4 years and at least not leave the DOE worse off than the way she found it. She’s got a 50 year resume showing her skills at doing nothing. Hopefully she’ll continue that trend.

    • dfecht@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      There’s a huge issue with that, though, that seems all too often overlooked: by doing nothing, our systems will still fall behind. They will continue to decay, to lag increasingly behind our peers and adversaries. At absolute best, the inevitable death of 1,000 cuts marches on.

      • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        Well, I think did nothing and let Vince do whatever he wanted while she signed the paperwork is the more relevant and scarier bit of what you’re responding to and what that person missed. There’s no silver lining to a Yes Man with what these people want to do to education.

        • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          You’re missing my point slightly.

          Yes, if Trump is dead-set on killing the DOE, we’re fucked. You’re right there. But unlike many of Trump’s other yes-men, Linda McMahon is not known to have the drive to do anything by herself. Go watch any of her WWE footage or any time she’s made a public statement. That woman hasn’t lifted a finger in her life without calling on her assistants to check on her nails. And we all know that Trump has the attention span of a methhead with ADHD. The silver lining is that if Trump decides to set his sights elsewhere, she’ll do little damage on her own, unlike a more ambitious yes-man who will take the initiative.

          Think of it this way. It could have been Boebert. Or MTG. Or Jim Jordan. Plenty of cronies exponentially worse than McMahon if they were chosen, and all of which would have the initiative to do it themselves if Trump’s attention was focused elsewhere.

      • skulblaka
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        1 day ago

        Sure, but I’ll take the thousand cuts over being shot right directly in the face, pretty much every time.

        • dfecht@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          At least that would illicit a reaction out of the masses; that’s exactly why these authoritarians aim to slowly strangle our safety nets. We will apparently happily let them do it, as long as it doesn’t cause us immediate and perceivable harm.

    • adarza@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      will the tva even survive the circus about to (re)invade washington? i know it’s entirely self-funded, but still… it is a federal agency. a socialist-like one, at that… the og ‘new deal’ programs and a signature of fdr’s administration. every one of those is like a trigger for donvict crazy mode.

  • ATDA@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I don’t know what DOE employees did in a past life to deserve devos and whatever the fuck choice this is.

    • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I dunno about their past lives either, but in this they made the eternal fuck up of wanting to impact American education at a time when the country was sliding into fascism.

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The amount of his picks that are involved with sexual abuse of minors seems pretty over-the-top even for a republican administration. At this point, do any of them not have histories of involvement with sexual abuse and/or harassment? Maybe Oz… idk.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Given that the US education system is wrestling with so many problems, maybe she is the right choice. /s

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    Is anybody in the Republican party in the senate, congress or whichever not freaking out over his picks? Don’t they have a final say?

    • Furbag@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      When you swear ultimate fealty to a cult leader, the officers of the cult are by default the best picks. If you can’t see it, it’s a problem with you and not a problem with the cult leader.

      Until those folk are no longer needed, outlive their usefulness, or turn on Trump of course. Then the handpicked officers in question were actually agents of “The Enemy” all along and needed to be purged.

    • Fester@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      They confirmed her 81-19 for administrator of the Small Business Administration. That was dumb but they were ok with it then.

      She was on the state board of education in Connecticut for a little over a year under their last GOP governor. So I guess that’s some experience at least. Totally qualified to run education for the entire fucking country.

      🔥 This is fine. 🔥

      The real danger is what Heritage Foundation ghouls will be running the show under her, and the other cabinet members. All these clowns are just the people Trump wants in the room with him. They don’t need to be qualified or do anything but kiss his ass on camera. It’s the Project 2025 deputy-weirdos we should worry about.

      • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        Maybe if Trump really doesn’t care about project 2025 and just keeps on going with his celebrity cabinet, then maybe they’re going to fuck up so bad they’re all doing to be ridiculed and Trump could be impeached over some incredible fuck up or fraud.

          • vaultdweller013
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            1 day ago

            He could still die. Would throw the GOP into a massive internal power struggle for probably another decade or so.

            • SteveNashFan@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Imagine if he lives and runs write-in campaign, or endorses Gaetz or Lake for '28 and throws the GOP primary into chaos… at this point I’m rooting for him to live out his term since Vance could execute the Project 2025 agenda more competently.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Heard plenty of GOP noise against Gaetz, but that’s about it.

      And yes, Congress has the say unless Trump’s people convince them to approve interim appointments. Even McConnell said, “Fuck that noise.”

      And now witness decades, like since the 50s decades, of the Legislative branch ceding power to the Executive. And here we are.