In his endorsement of Donald Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr. continued to insist he remains "independent" and not a full-blown MAGA crank, laughably claiming that he has meaningful political disagreements with Trump. Kennedy argued that he was making a strategic alliance with the GOP against the Democratic Party, which he accused of being "the party of war, corruption, censorship, [and] big pharma." All nonsense, of course. Trump doesn't hide his support for Russia's war on Ukraine, routinely calls for the imprisonment of his critics, and wishes to repeal legislation that has allowed Democrats to lower drug prices. Mere days before endorsing Trump, Kennedy showcased his opposition to corruption by begging Vice President Kamala Harris for a job in exchange for not backing Trump. The "corrupt" Democratic candidate refused to bribe Kennedy.

The far-right has learned how to leverage the woo-woo world's tendency to romanticize the past and demonize the present for the MAGA culture war agenda.

On Monday, Kennedy offered another example of how his claims to "independence" are nonsense when he joined a Capitol roundtable hosted by the far-right Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc. titled — don't laugh! — "American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion." As Elaine Godfrey of the Atlantic wrote, "The alliance was the natural culmination of a broader trend in American politics that has seen the Trumpian right meld with the vax-skeptical, anti-establishment left: Woo-woo meets MAGA, you could call it, or, perhaps, the crunch-ificiation of conservatism." Funny but Godfrey is missing the mark by invoking the "left." The panel was replete with reactionaries whose alleged "liberal" pasts are asserted or assumed, yet not in evidence.

There's Jordan Peterson, a psychologist whose very public history of transphobia and misogyny had led to court battles over losing his license to practice. Peterson's last conversation with Kennedy was yanked off YouTube for promoting vaccine misinformation. The two are also scheduled to appear later this week alongside Johnson at a right-wing gathering in Washington, D.C.

Then there is Jillian Michaels, a reality TV "fitness" host whose efforts to hide her MAGA leanings fall flat when she hints at beliefs in........

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