Well hey, surprise, it turns out that Elon is big into employing some of the people MAGA wants to deport.
Some influential MAGA fanatics proceeded to vent at Elon on X, and so the inevitable response from the very thin-skinned one happens …
- Link to the above article is here.
- Quote: “After several hours of back and forth arguing between Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Loomer, and other MAGA influencers, Musk took the extraordinary step of stripping Loomer and others of their verified blue checkmarks, along with their paid subscriptions.” .. and he went further and suspended Loomer’s X account.
Where does Trump stand on all this?
Oh come now, it’s not hard to guess. He no longer needs MAGA and will follow the $$$, so he tosses them all under the bus …
- Trump likely has no H1Bs on his property. Maybe H2Bs (non-agricultural, unskilled labor), but he wouldn’t know the difference. This is his usual bullshitting.
- So basically while Elon is telling us the H1Bs are all super geniuses we also have Trump telling us they are cutting his grass.
It’s a change from his opposition to H1B in 2020 …
- I did err by suggesting he has a position on something. He does not. Instead he just says what is needed to get to the people he wants to influence. He no longer needs to be the MAGA whisperer, and now instead is the Oligarch whisperer.
But what is all the fuss about H1B visas?
It basically means the oligarchs get highly skilled offshore workers on a low wage that they can abuse and demand they work excessive hours. They can’t quit because the moment they do they are out. That’s why Musk loves it – cheap very abusable labourers who will not complain.
It really does indeed confirm that the following X response to Elon is one of the very best ever …
So where are we now?
The Trump Admin’s immigration policy is to increase the number of people from other countries who come in and take high-skilled, high paying American jobs and so avoid the cost of educating anybody, and at the same time deporting everyone else doing physically grueling jobs for shit wages because poorly educated MAGA can now do those.
A lack of domestic skilled workers is because Republicans have done everything in their power to bring maximum enshittification to the education system.
OK, let’s move on from this and see what other crazy stuff has popped up during the past holiday week.
Matt Gaetz Report goes public
It was tempting to lead with the Matt Gaetz “revelation”. It was a reveal that was so deeply astonishing that it told us all what literally everybody already knew. For the curious reading this over in New Zealand and wondering, here it is …
… and here are the central substantial findings (from page 7 of that 42 page document) …
We all already knew most of this, and yet the Orange turd knowing all this, still nominated him to be the Attorney General.
- As we all know, Mike Johnson follows orders from the big guy, and by that I mean the orange one.
We now have hard evidence of statutory rape and yet the man still walks free, how is that possible?
Can you guess which member of the WH press corp will now ask Trump, “Should Americans question your judgment after you nominated a pedophile and drug abuser to be AG?“
The answer is none of them will, and that’s been the problem this cycle. We are now living in a world where corporate media is to journalism what McDonald’s is to nutrition, and that perhaps explains why so many are now mentally obese.
Are we being unfair to Gaetz. After all, he does have some truly excellent character witnesses standing with him …
So what else has been happening?
The Cult of Trump
It truly is amazing how a guy who is not president can fix a thing that was never broken …
Who you endorse and vote for really does have consequences
The Firefighters union has entered the “finding out” part of the sequence …
- Leopards Faces … It’s hard to pity people who voted they way they did because they thought like this: “I know he would F**k people over, I just didn’t think it would be me“
As for this next item, what can one say now except of course once again repeat the very obvious – FAFO …
We did also see promises of utterly pointless stuff
Christian Values
They have been sending us all a very clear message telling us exactly who they are.
- Speaker Johnson claims to be a Christian, yet demands we turn away immigrants and kill people. Meanwhile he also worked hard to protect Gaetz and hide the truth about him.
- Johnson’s framing in the above implicitly suggests Biden let those guys out of prison and that is simply not true. It’s stuff like this that tells you what his values really are.
- “When they go low…”, really should not be a cue to simply take another nap.
Literally anything that is not them tips some into a rage …
- Side Note: For those unfamiliar with Kawnzaa, it’s an annual celebration of African-American culture from December 26 to January 1, and rather a lot of people do celebrate it.
Meanwhile, let’s not forget that they voted and supported literal sexual predators …
- The Christian message that now prevails is one that is very firmly rooted in Hypocrisy.
- They say “we just want to keep men out of the women’s restroom.” To which we can all point out that y’all literally voted for the cis man who was in a girls’ dressing room.
When Book Bans happen
From the “Wait no, I didn’t mean that book” category we have this excellent bit of passive resistance by a superintendent…
- I love that superintendent!! – “How dare he apply this authoritarian rule evenhandedly and not in a manner that favors Christians!‘” says the guy who tried to ban books.
- You can read more on it via Hemant’s article.
- Hemant Quote: “He wasn’t wrong to interpret the law this way. After all, the Bible has depictions of incest, rape, incestuous rape, allusions to bestiality, other forms of sexual assault, and prostitution. If those scenes were in some young adult novel, Christian parents would be up in arms about it.“
Media Madness
- Greenland, Panama … and CANADA … FFS!
- The CNN use of the word “Teasing” … as in … “Hitler was teasing about Czechoslovakia and Poland?“
- This newish CNN Framing will be rendered for Matt Gaetz along these lines … “Matt Gaetz repeatedly made love to young woman and pays her bills after”
Some in Canada had a few rather inevitable responses that illustrate how things are far far better for them …
And as contrast Rolling Stone truly nails it with some excellent reporting …
- Link to their article … here (but paywalled).
- Rolling Stone has been getting things right for decades. People just didn’t see it because we had actual news sources. Now that we don’t they stand out.
Weirdest of the Weird
- True for the vast majority of atheists … who are 4-year-olds, maybe.
- Fascinating that this is laced with the word “fervently”.
- Such results are what happens when a pollster asks that question to people who have a bunch of kids with them. In other words this feels very much like a “Yes, Virginia” moment.
Political Cartoons from the past week
As always, there are many excellent cartoons, and that remains true even during a holiday week. Here are a few samples. Each comes with a link to the cartoonist putting the cartoon out via BlueSky. If you are on Bluesky then you can use the link to follow them.
Clay Jones (yes a second one from him) …
Reactions to the Xodus
For all of you that did it, it really was a wise move to make the transition to Bluesky …
- For anybody wondering, about the fighting going on back on X, it is basically Elon saying that immigration makes us better and that H1B should be expanded. Vivek saying American culture makes us stupid. Racists angry because H1B steals jobs from Americans. Infighting about legal vs illegal immigration. A LOT of open racism against Indians.
Finally…
Did anybody spot a very mysterious drone last week?
As for this item, to be fair, I speculate nobody tuned in to actually hear Kay Adams so perhaps the … [SOARING INSTRUMENTAL MUSI …
- Perhaps she just broke up with the technical director.
Anyway, it’s time to get 2025 rolling …
