I mean that's a fair assessment. I do maintain that their claims to being descended from those Imperial families are stamped with big blue "X"s to call for doubt. But I'm also certain that those doubts probably was non-existential back in the day.
Taller ask, more like impossible. All the confirmed direct male-line descendents of the Byzantine Emperors all died out by the early to mid-16th century (assuming you count the Palaliogian marques of Montferrat to still be in that line of succession, that line having died out in 1533) That said...
A North American Dubai would be fairly interesting to see. Burj Tsalagi or something like that. (Yeah, I know "Burj" isn't Cherokee, but I don't really know what "tower" is in Cherokee)
That is true, though unlike the Orleanists, the Bourbons (and by that I mean the direct line of descendants of Louis XV) would be seen as a perennial threat, even if the Bonapartes are now firmly secure that the threat of a Bourbon Restoration is about as likely as winning the lottery after...
Didn't you know, Bohemian Engineering is the best in the world!
Also, I'm not sure how much clout Mexico would have in Europe to pull something like this off, but I do agree that the Mexican Habsburgs would at least make an attempt to help their Danubian cousins.
So now I'm trying to figure out who the heck is Mellon and why he was such a terrible guy to be in a position of power...I'm assuming he was in such a position IOTL and something he did was a contributor to OTL's Great Depression?
So I'm hazarding a guess: A far-left anti-imperialist paramilitary group in some far-flung part of the country akin to the Zapatista Army (let's say in Louisiana considering the EZLN's base of operations is based in Chiapas IOTL, which has a significant, if not predominantly, Mayan population...
I concur on this. Patagonia from what I imagine, is very sparsely populated compared to Texas. So I don't believe such a parallel could possibly exist.
You know what, same. That was a victory I was not expecting to see here. But you know what, unlike some, I'm at least willing to see where this rabbit hole goes, even if disbelief has gone past the point of suspension.