“Crappy New Year!” John Buss, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
It’s only 3 days into 2025. It feels a lot longer. I’m exhausted. It’s difficult to wake up one day and be asked by the FaceBook AI to mark yourself safe from the Attack on New Orleans. It was good that I hadn’t sipped that hot tea yet because buying a new computer was way out of my budget. Yesterday, my news feed was flooded with notifications from friends and neighbors marking themselves safe. It was surreal. All I see everywhere is Attack on Bourbon. We even have one of those newsroom theme songs.
The 2025 chaos has already started. They held the Sugar Bowl at a heavily fortified Super Dome. Bourbon Street reopened with several of the city’s preachers leading a second line. People went back to work because even if you do work you’re desperate from the affordable housing shortage plaguing the entire country. We’re still stunned and tired.
People got to see our lousy governor and our very drunk Senator while the New Orleans leader contingent paid second and third fiddles and was blamed for not doing what they’ve been doing for decades superbly. The presser included a drunk Senator John Neely Kennedy spitting tobacco into a red plastic cup while looking like he’d been drinking still. He shoved the FBI Special Agent–a black woman–away from the microphone where she was answering a reporter’s question. Social Media is not treating him kindly and righteously so.
That said, during times of crisis, it’s our local, state, and national leaders who are expected to act with prudence and do their best to avoid placing personal grievances and their egos above what’s best for the citizens who elected them to serve.
That’s not what we saw from Louisiana Senator John Kennedy yesterday.
The press conference, where the bodies of the victims were still lying on Bourbon Street, was not the time to make cheap political points by taking shots at the director of Homeland Security or the media.
Senator, I know you. I know you’re better than that. You’re smarter than that. Act better than that because it embarrasses our state and our city.
Again, I know you. And that comedic rooster act yesterday isn’t who you are.
You’re a U.S. senator, for the love of God. Act like it because calling for unity while making cheap political points at a press conference is nothing other than contradictory.
If you disagree, call in, please, because I’d love to talk to you about it. As I understand it, we tried to get you on yesterday, but you refused. You didn’t have time to come on WWL—the official emergency management station of New Orleans—but did have time to go on Fox and spread misinformation, like claiming the federal government doesn’t have, or will care to provide, the necessary resources to investigate and deal with this horrific attack.
Senator, do yourself and the state of favor: resign your damn seat and let another Republican take over—someone who won’t do a Foghorn Leghorn impersonation and make a mockery of themself during one of the darkest moments in their state’s history.
Just so you can see that Kennedy’s Schtick isn’t real, these clips compiled by Ron FilipKowski will show the difference between the Senator when he was the State Treasurer and now. He’s really not that stupid. Kennedy graduated from Vanderbilt University and the University of Virginia School of Law before attending Oxford University. He just plays stupid for the state’s swamp billies and KKK remenents.
I made this montage of clips of LA Sen John Kennedy. The old clips are when Kennedy was a Democrat and was Treasurer for LA. The new clips are after he switched parties to Republican. Check the difference.
I’m always left with the big question of why it is that suicidal cis men can’t commit suicide without taking a contingent of innocents and law enforcement folks with them. They must be deluded into thinking they have the last word. It’s the ultimate Act of ManSplaining.
The entire MAGA contingent and their propaganda media whores are still suggesting that this American who served in the U.S. Army and was the Son of Americans was somehow a border-crossing invader instead of a man who just couldn’t deal with the challenges of modern life in American and found purpose in radicalizing his religion to the detriment of the world.
Then, we got the Tesla bomber. A Green Beret on leave making some kind of statement while wiring a Tesla to burn in front of a Trump Property. At least he shot himself, and no one else got killed in whatever statement he was trying to make on the way out the earthly door. The more we learn about him, the more I want to stay indoors and away from people I haven’t known for a long time. This is from the Daily Beast. “Suspected Las Vegas Cybertruck Bomber Was a ‘Big’ Trump Supporter: Source. Sources say, Matthew Livelsberger, a Green Beret who enlisted in the U.S. Army as a teenager, was a fan of the president-elect.” I’m waiting for a J6 “rally” and a Charlottesville march with very “decent people on both sides” now. It’s deja vu all over again.
The man suspected of being behind Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas was a “big” supporter of Donald Trump and voted for him in November, a senior law enforcement official tells the Daily Beast.
That revelation came from an interview between Matthew Livelsberger’s loved ones and investigators, the source said. His family added that they believed the 37-year-old Green Beret, who died in Wednesday’s blast outside Trump International Hotel, had Republican leanings.
The revelation tracks with old Facebook comments and what Livelsberger’s uncle, Dean, told The Independent about his nephew’s politics on Thursday.
“He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American,” Dean said. “It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years.”
Records in El Paso County, Colo., indicate that he registered in 2020 with the No Labels party, which supports centrist “commonsense” candidates, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The same email Livelsberger used to sign up for LinkedIn was listed in a data breach last year that revealed he had an account on the far-right news website The Post Millennial.
Much remains unknown about what allegedly drove Livelsberger to rent a Cybertruck in his hometown of Colorado Springs and drive it to Trump’s Las Vegas property.
The truck was filled with explosives and, perhaps miraculously, only injured seven when it burst into flames just steps from the hotel’s front lobby. Livelsberger was the only fatality in the blast.
These two stories completely ran this one off of the news for days. This is from People Magazine. “10 People Injured After Multiple Males Fired Over 30 Shots in N.Y.C. Nightclub Shooting. “Let me start by saying that there’s zero tolerance for these senseless shootings,” NYPD Chief Philip Rivera said at a press conference.” Notice a trend here?
Police say the venue was at capacity with 90 people inside at the time of the incident, therefore a line of about 15 people formed outside. The venue is named Amazura, according to ABC7, The Guardian and FOX5.
“Three to four males then opened fire over 30 times in the direction of the group standing outside the event space, striking multiple victims,” Rivera said.
The suspects fled the scene and were seen getting into a Sedan with out-of-state license plates, according to authorities.
Police noted that out of the 10 victims, six were females and four were male.
All victims were taken to nearby hospitals and “are expected to recover with non-life-threatening injuries,” per the NYPD.
Rivera encouraged people to speak up if they have any information about the crime, saying, “The public has been very instrumental in the recent weeks to help us capture dangerous individuals like these four men.”
Police are investigating the cause of the crime, though Rivera said it was “not a terrorist attack.”
ABC7 reports that the gathering was to celebrate the birthday of Tae’arion Mungo, a 16-year-old who was fatally shot in Brooklyn in October 2024.
The Republican House Speaker Brawl is headed to new lows this month. President Eject Incontinentia’s buttocks are lobbying Republicans to support Moses on the Bayou. John Thune is now the Senate Majority Leader. It will be an interesting few years with these razor-thin Republican majorities and a fairly united Democratic Party. This is from AXIOS and the analysis is by Andrew Solendar. “House GOP tensions erupt ahead of speaker vote.”
House Republicans’ chronic infighting is resurfacing in spectacular fashion in the run-up to Friday’s vote to elect a speaker of the House.
Why it matters: Right-wing hardliners and allies of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are at each others’ throats in a likely preview of what is to come in the next two years.
Johnson is struggling to secure the support he needs to retain his gavel, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) digging in in opposition and claiming to reporters several of his colleagues will join him in voting no.
With a 219-215 majority and Democrats firmly behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Johnson will likely not be able to afford multiple GOP defections.
A number of House Republicans, mostly members of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, still refuse to commit to voting for Johnson.
Driving the news: Johnson’s skeptics are circulating an unsigned memo, a copy of which was obtained by Axios, outlining his “4 ‘successes’ and 26 ‘fails’ for House Republicans” since taking office in November 2023.
The document homes in on the government spending bill Johnson shepherded through Congress last month along bipartisan lines.
It also takes aim at Johnson for not pushing harder for spending cuts, passing aid to Ukraine and reauthorizing FISA.
“The House must be organized to deliver on the historic mandate granted to President Trump and Republicans. It currently is not,” the memo says.
The other side: Johnson allies are growing increasingly frustrated with their right-wing colleagues.
“Anybody who’s voting against the speaker to try to get personal favors or to try to get publicity needs to rethink why they’re in Congress,” fumed Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.).
Another House Republican, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Axios there is “a very small group within our party who are trying to extract something, not for the country … but for themselves.”
At least Matt Gaetz is gone. Punchbowl News has information on what’s going on today as the House changes hands. “Johnson’s jam: It’s a new Congress but the same problems.*
Legislative business starts today at 11 a.m. with the closing of the 118th Congress. The new Congress begins at noon with the quorum call and the vote to elect a speaker.
And the 119th Congress will kick off with drama. Speaker Mike Johnson is facing an alarming revolt from conservative hardliners. Does this sound familiar? President-elect Donald Trump hasbeenlobbying Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Johnson’s behalf, as we scooped for you on Thursday. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a frequent Johnson critic, is backing him. But this may not be enough.
Johnson has a tenuous single-digit majority, while a dozen hardliners have publicly questioned whether he deserves to remain speaker.
Let’s be clear: It’s entirely possible that Johnson could lose the speakership today or this weekend, or that the balloting goes more than one round.
The latest. Johnson spent Thursday making phone calls and holding meetings in his Capitol office in a bid to shore up his vote count. Johnson met with members of the House Freedom Caucus, including Roy and GOP Reps. Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.), both of whom are still publicly undecided on whether they’ll back the Louisiana Republican again.
During the meeting, hardliners aired various grievances about Johnson while laying out a number of process reforms they want enacted. These include assurances on spending cuts, pay-fors and the use of the so-called suspension calendar, among other things. Johnson told reporters he’s “open” to some of these ideas.
Yet the most controversial topic discussed by far was whether Johnson should appoint Roy as chair of the Rules Committee. This has been one of the asks from some of the Freedom Caucus holdouts, we’re told by multiple sources. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) even raised it publicly in an interview on OANN. We wrote about the Roy-for-Rules-Committee-chair push Thursday morning.
But GOP leadership sources insist Johnson isn’t considering making Roy the Rules chair.
Roy has been a huge problem for Johnson and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy since he was added to the Rules panel, which controls what legislation gets on the floor and how it’s considered. Making Roy the chair would be an incredibly risky move for Johnson. It would give Roy gigantic sway over what gets to the floor and spur a backlash from moderates.
Roy was tight-lipped leaving the speaker’s office Thursday, as were other holdouts. The conservatives said they expect to speak with Johnson again before the roll-call vote today. Johnson, however,insisted on multiple occasions Thursday he’d win on the first ballot.
Remember this — for every inch Johnson yields to conservatives, he risks losing trust with the middle of the conference.
The team of reporters outlines three possible outcomes from today’s mess. One includes Sleazy Steve Scalise, which always makes me gag. This is the horse race analysis from The Washington Postteam. I chose my favorite part.
What might a delay in choosing a speaker mean for Trump’s agenda?
If there’s no speaker by Jan. 6, the House not only risks delaying the certification of the 2024 election — which is scheduled to happen on that day — but also delaying the implementation of Trump’s agenda. The incoming administration wants the GOP-led Congress to quickly pass policies addressing border security and energy-related reforms before working on reauthorizing Trump’s 2017 tax law.
I’m exhausted and plan to use my last few days without student obligations, being lazy. I hope everything is going well for you and yours!
I’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Welcome to the return of this century’s lunatic. We need a recut of this with a new slide show. This one shows Reagan, Saddam, and a bunch of the end of last century’s lunatics.
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10 people were killed and 30 injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ Canal and Bourbon Street
The suspect in the New Orleans truck crash that killed 10 people and injured 30 revelers in New Orleans on New Year’s Day was killed after a firefight with police, law enforcement officials told the AP.
The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
The suspect rammed a vehicle at high speed into a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district at 3:15 a.m. Wednesday along Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties, and with crowds in the city ballooning in anticipation for the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome later in the day.
At a news conference, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a “terrorist attack” and the city’s police chief said the act was clearly intentional. But an assistant FBI agent in charge declared that it was “not a terrorist event.” The news conference ended before authorities could reconcile the two characterizations.
Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials were investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said police officers would work to ensure safety at the Sugar Bowl, indicating that the game would go on as scheduled.
“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said. “It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could.”
Two police officers who were shot after the driver emerged from the truck are in stable condition, she said.
Officials in New Orleans were assessing the damage in the city’s French Quarter on Wednesday morning after an attack left at least 10 people dead and at least 35 injured, including two police officers.
A man drove a pickup truck at high speed into the crowds on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. before crashing and opening fire, according to police officials. The attacker died in a shootout with the police.
“He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” the New Orleans police superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, said.
The F.B.I. said it was investigating the attack as an act of terrorism, and officials urged the public to stay away from the area.
Security personnel investigate the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ Canal and Bourbon Street. Wednesday, Jan. 1. 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
At least 10 people were killed and dozens more were hurt in the early hours of New Year’s Day after a man drove a pickup truck into crowds in the French Quarter of New Orleans and then opened fire. Officials called it an attack, and the F.B.I. said it was investigating it as a potential act of terrorism….
Here’s what we know so far about what happened.
The man sped a truck into crowds on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. After crashing, he opened fire, officials said. At least 10 people were killed and about 35 were injured.
Investigators said they later found what appeared to be improvised explosive devices in the truck and were trying to determine whether the devices were viable. It is not clear if any such devices were detonated….
The carnage occurred in the area of the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets in the city’s historic French Quarter, one of its most crowded areas and the heart of its tourism industry.
Officials asked the public on Wednesday morning to stay away from a half-mile stretch of Bourbon Street as the F.B.I. investigated….
Officials have not yet released the man’s name. He crashed the truck and died after a shootout with police officers, according to the F.B.I.
The attack on New Year’s Day targeted New Orleans’ most recognizable tourist destination.
The French Quarter is the historic colonial heart of the city and the center of its tourism industry, one of New Orleans’s leading economic engines. The six-by-13 block area on the curving bank of the Mississippi River is known for its colorful buildings and ornate balconies. Vibrant festivals and parties along famed Bourbon Street, where the attack took place, attract revelers from across the United States and abroad.
“You’re talking about one of the most iconic cities, and one of the most recognizable streets in the world,” Oliver Thomas, a New Orleans city councilman, said on Wednesday after the attack.
“So when you think about it, this isn’t really a message and a shot at New Orleans. This is at America. It’s the world and the environment we live in right now.”
Mr. Thomas said that New Orleans often hosts more people per capita than some of the largest cities in the world and that it was crucial that the city not shut down.
The city’s annual Mardi Gras, with its marching bands and beads flung from floats and balconies, is perhaps the most popular and celebrated event on the calendar, but New Orleans hosts more than 135 festivals each year, according to city figures, and attracted more than 18 million visitors in 2018.
Hours before the attack, the annual Allstate New Year’s Eve Parade moved through the French Quarter, attracting huge crowds. The parade is a buildup to one of the city’s largest annual sporting events — the Sugar Bowl — which falls on Jan. 1 this year and has now been overshadowed by the violence.
Emergency services attend the scene after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The suspect’s gun was described as a “long gun” and had a suppressive device attached.
In a statement, the FBI confirmed its lead role in the investigation.
“This morning, an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. The subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism.”
After plowing through the crowd, the suspect crashed his vehicle and shot two responding officers. The officers fired back and struck the suspect.
An improvised explosive device was also discovered at the scene, prompting the FBI to take over the investigation.
“We are working on confirming if this is a viable device or not,” FBI Special Agent Alicia Duncan said.
Moreno said the suspect was able to drive down Bourbon Street because the bollards were down for repairs.
I’m going to post this as is. I made a mistake, and WordPress has changed the post to “block mode.” There isn’t a way to indent news articles, so I hope this makes sense. We will have some updates in the comment thread.
Take care everyone. Somehow, we will make it through 2025 together. I love you all.
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Thank you for your service, President Carter. John (repeat1968) Buss
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Yesterday, we lost a good man, a veteran, a fine president, and an outstanding public servant. I gave my very first vote to Jimmy Carter in 1976. I could not put the man who forgave Richard Nixon back in office. Former President Carter helped rebuild New Orleans after Katrina and spent many days and weeks in the 9th ward. He led an amazing and good life. This is from the Carter Center.
Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. He was 100, the longest-lived president in U.S. history.
President Carter is survived by his children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Rosalynn, and one grandchild.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.”
There will be public observances in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., followed by a private interment in Plains, Georgia. The final arrangements for President Carter’s state funeral, including all public events and motorcade routes, are still pending. The schedule will be released by the Joint Task Force-National Capital Region at https://jtfncr.mdw.army.mil/statefunerals/.
Members of the public are encouraged to visit the official tribute website to the life of President Carter at www.jimmycartertribute.org. This site includes the official online condolence book as well as print and visual biographical materials commemorating his life.
The Carter family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to The Carter Center, 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307.
I found this article in the Washington Post intriguing. “11 facts about Jimmy Carter that may surprise you. The peanut farmer-turned-president, who died Sunday at 100, put solar panels on the White House and once spent 89 seconds inside a melting nuclear reactor.”
Jimmy Carter,the Georgia peanut farmer who became the 39th president of the United States, was known for his no-frills lifestyle, early focus on climate change and concerns about growing divisions in the country.
During his single White House term, from 1977 to 1981 — almost one-third of which was clouded by the 444-day-long Iran hostage crisis — the Navy veteran brokered a historic peace accord between Egypt and Israel and pioneered renewable energy as a cheaper alternative to foreign oil. He was the first Democratic president since 1888 not to win reelection. As the United States’ longest-living former president, he spent decades working to advance peace and humanitarianism, efforts for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Here are some facts that may surprise you about Mr. Carter, who died on Sunday at the age of 100 at his home in Plains, Georgia.
Jimmy Carter was the first future president born in a hospital
James Earl Carter Jr. was delivered on Oct. 1, 1924, in a 60-bed hospital in Plains. — becoming the first future president to be born in such a setting. A hospital birth may seem unremarkable today, but at the beginning of the 20th century, nearly all childbirths still took place at home, including the majority at the time of Mr. Carter’s birth. His mother, Lillian, was a registered nurse at the unit in which he was delivered, and his father, James Earl, was a farmer. Four years later, the family moved from Plains to a nearby farm — where his father grew corn, cotton, peanuts and sugar cane.
He was the first president to be inaugurated by a nickname
When Mr. Carter was sworn into office in 1977 on a family Bible held by his wife, Rosalynn Carter, he took the presidential oath of office using the name “Jimmy” instead of “James” — his actual first name, which he rarely used. Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, who also used their nicknames in the White House, opted to be sworn in using their full names during their inaugurations. After Mr. Carter was sworn in, the organizers of his inauguration ceremony floated a giant peanut-shaped balloon in a parade to honor his roots.
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married longer than any other presidential couple
They were married for 77 years. The day after Jimmy took Rosalynn on a date to the movies — in 1945 — he told his mother that he knew he wanted to marry Rosalynn. A year later, when he was 21 and she was 18, they were married. “Over the years, we became not only friends and lovers, but partners,” Rosalynn said close to seven decades later, at Jimmy’s 90th birthday celebration. “He has always thought I could do anything.”The pair had known each other for all of Rosalynn’s life; she lived down the road in their hometown of Plains and was a frequent playmate of Ruth Carter, Jimmy’s little sister.
You may read more at the link. Former President Carter was a man of principles and strongly held ethics. He stands in contrast to what gets put into the White House again next month. This is just out from the AP. “An appeals court upholds a $5 million award in a sexual abuse verdict against President-elect Trump.” No wonder this piece of trash is selling merch while supposedly preparing for his next 4 years running the country into the ground. How could people vote for a felon and adjudicated rapist?
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for defamation and sexual abuse.
The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room.
Trump skipped the trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened. But he briefly testified at a follow-up defamation trial earlier this year that resulted in an $83.3 million award. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.
In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the appeals court rejected claims by Trump’s lawyers that trial Judge Lewis A. Kaplan had made multiple decisions that spoiled the trial, including his decision to allow two other women who had accused Trump of sexually abusing them to testify.
The judge also had allowed the jury to view the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump boasted in 2005 about grabbing women’s genitals because when someone is a star, “you can do anything.”
“We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the 2nd Circuit said. “Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
Meanwhile, we’re about to get steamrolled. Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice has this analysis today, as the Vivek and Elonia comments on American workers hit them below their belts. “Trumpers discover a type of bigotry they oppose (against themselves). Vivek Ramaswamy gives MAGAs a taste of their own medicine.”
Donald Trump hasn’t even been inaugurated yet, and his leading supporters are already tearing at each other’s throats like a pack of frothing and foul-smelling Klansmen over whether there are any good immigrants.
“Take a big step back and F**K YOURSELF in the face,” Elon Musk tweeted Friday night in defense of immigrants who worked for him, in response to a Trump supporter with a more hardline view.
The spectacle of billionaire Musk, techbro Vivek Ramaswamy, would-be Goebbels Steve Bannon, and gibbering Islamophobe and Trump-whisperer Laura Loomer all screaming and bellowing at each other is entertaining in a morbid way. Acrimony is inevitable in a coalition held together by bile, hatred, and racism. And if Democrats can get their act together, they may well be able to take advantage of MAGA dissension.
At the same time, it’s important not to not over-interpret the intra-Trumper feud. Racism is a lie, which means it’s always incoherent — and racist coalitions often therefore end up fighting amongst themselves about who’s in the in group and who gets targeted by the regime.
But historically, these arguments at the margins have often coexisted with massive human rights abuses. Ramaswamy and Bannon may disagree about the exact trajectory of MAGA. But they can still come together to hurt a lot of people — and that is exactly what they will try to do.
For MAGA, all bigotry is not created equal
This week’s round of MAGA on MAGA violence was ignited by Loomer, who was most recently in the news for her oddly close relationship to Trump in the weeks following the Butler shooting.
On December 23, Loomer attacked Sriram Krishnan, who Trump selected as an advisor on artificial intelligence, criticizing his support for H-1B visas. H-1Bs allow highly skilled workers to come to the US to work and are especially prevalent in tech, where they’re used by many Indian and Chinese engineers. Loomer tweeted that support for H-1Bs was “not America First policy.”
…
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo pointed out that the MAGA spat is the inevitable outcome of “Trump’s deep-seated and extreme transactionalism.” Indeed, Trump has few real policy commitments beyond self-aggrandizement and revenge.
Various people — Musk, Loomer, Bannon, RFK Jr., whoever — glommed onto Trump for fame or fortune or to advance their own agendas. Now they have to fight among themselves because Trump himself doesn’t really care enough to impose a vision, much less any kind of discipline.
That’s certainly part of the dynamic here. But it’s also important to note that the ideological divisions on display are in part the natural result of founding a movement on racism and bigotry.
Racism is as thoroughly debunked as any ideology can be. There is no consistent difference in intelligence or ability between different groups of humans; we’re all the same race. That means that “racial differences” are all made-up nonsense.
And that in turn means that two racists are likely to make up slightly different nonsense from each other. MAGA can hate all immigrants, but idolize Musk — or, if they hate Musk, they can idolize Melania. Ramaswamy can spew a bunch of racist tropes and apply them to Americans as a group rather than to other groups we’re more used to seeing get picked on.
Again, there is more to read at the link. Just in time for the man who botched COVID-19 with deadly results, we have a new Virus sweeping the country. This is from The Hill. “Norovirus outbreaks surging across the US: CDC data.”
Norovirus cases are surging across the country this winter, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
There were 91 outbreaks reported by state health departments during the week of Dec. 5, up from 69 in the last week of November, according to the CDC.
The highest number for the same period over the last several years was 65 outbreaks.
But the data are not comprehensive. Currently, state, local and territorial health departments are not required to report individual cases of norovirus illness to the CDC, and only 15 states participate in the National Outbreak Reporting System.
Additionally, the CDC pointed out some people may not seek health care for their illness, and most hospitals and doctor’s offices do not generally test for norovirus.
Norovirus is extremely contagious and can cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain within 12 hours to 47 hours after being exposed, the agency said.
Most people with norovirus get better within one to three days, but they can still spread the virus for a few days after.
Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the United States. Each year, there are about 2,500 reported outbreaks. They can occur throughout the year but are most common between November and April, the CDC said.
Just in time for the Republicans who want to dismantle the FDA. Speaking of today’s Republicans, this may or may not shock you. This is from AXIOS. “Nearly half of GOP voters support using military to put immigrants in camps.”Russell Contreras has the analysis.
Almost half of Republican voters believe the U.S. military should round up undocumented immigrants and put them into detention camps until they can be deported, a new survey finds.
Why it matters:President-elect Trump has suggested that he’ll use the military in immigration raids and turn to a 1798 law to put immigrants in camps.
His base appears to support those plans despite the likely fierce opposition from most Americans.
By the numbers: 46% of Republicans endorse using the military in mass deportation raids and placing immigrants in camps, according to a nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) post-election survey.
That’s more than double that of independent voters (19%) who agree with the idea.
And that’s more than five times as Democratic voters (8%) who supported this policy.
What they’re saying: “There have been questions in the Trump era where I’ve thought…I can’t believe that we need to know the answer to this question,” Robert P. Jones, president and founder of PRRI, tells Axios.
“I guess the good news is that three-quarters of the country rejects this idea that we should be putting immigrants in the country illegally into internment camps guarded by the military.”
Jones said the bad news is that nearly half of people who consider themselves members of a mainstream political party do.
Trump in the TIME interview suggested deporting 21 million people, which would likely require an increase in detention centers to hold people suspected of being in the U.S. without authorization before they’re deported.
Reality check: Study after study shows there are 11 million undocumented people in the country, not 21 million, as Trump has repeatedly and falsely said.
There are roughly 24.5 million noncitizen immigrants in the U.S., including those here awaiting asylum decisions or otherwise here lawfully, according to the Pew Research Center.
This is the annual American Values Survey. You may read about their methodology at the link. Ask me again why I never leave Orleans Parish anymore. I try not to run into these kinds of folks.
Zoom in: The PRRI survey also found that American voters who hold highly authoritarian views were six times as likely to endorse putting undocumented immigrants into such camps than American voters who reject authoritarianism (48% v. 8%).
Lawyer Marc E. Elias suggests you watch him discuss how Joe Biden and Senate Democrats had a big victory in confirming federal judges with Brian Tyler Cohen.
So that’s it for me this year! I will see you in the New Year!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
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It’s a slow news day, as expected during the dead zone between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Most of the mainstream outlets are covering the ongoing battle between MAGAs and Tech bros over H1B visas, which Dakinikat in detail in yesterday’s post. Here’s one update to the story by Hafiz Rashid at The New Republic: Steve Bannon Joins War Against Elon Musk as MAGA Implodes.
Steve Bannon has joined the MAGA war between hard-line immigration opponents and tech executives like Elon Musk, taking the side of xenophobia on his War Room show Friday.
“H-1B visas? That’s not what it’s about. It’s about taking American jobs and bringing over essentially what have become indentured servants at lower wages,” the former Trump adviser turned pundit said, referring to the visa program that allows immigrants in specialized fields to work in the United States temporarily.
“This thing’s a scam by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens, give them to what become indentured servants from foreign countries, and then pay ‘em less. Simple. To let them in through the golden door,” Bannon added.
Musk set off the MAGA faithful on social media on Wednesday morning, posting on X about how more foreign tech workers need to be allowed to work in the United States because “there is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent.” Vivek Ramaswamy, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency sidekick, generated his own backlash from the right Thursday by suggesting American culture was to blame for why employers seek tech employees from overseas.
Many on the right disagreed vehemently, particularly racists like Laura Loomer, who spent most of Thursday on her X account attacking Musk and tech executives who share his views. Musk then retaliated against Loomer and his other MAGA friends turned critics that evening, allegedly censoring them on the platform by removing their verification badges and hurting their engagement.
Neither side is right on the issue, though. Bannon, Loomer, and other anti-immigration conservatives are motivated by nativism and racism in their opposition to foreign tech workers, and tech CEOs like Musk seek low-wage immigrants to work for long hours in their companies instead of American workers who don’t have a fragile visa status hanging over their heads.
Steve Bannon has labeled Elon Musk a “toddler” after the tech billionaire urged opponents of H-1B skilled migrant worker visas to “F*** YOURSELF in the face.”
Bannon, who served as Donald Trump‘s White House chief strategist for seven months in 2017, made the comment on social media platform Gettr, which is primarily used by conservatives….
Bannon’s comments are just the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter row within Trump’s MAGA [Make America Great Again] coalition over H-1B visas, and legal immigration more generally, which has pitted some of his key supporters in big business and Silicon Valley against more nativist elements.
Once in office Trump could struggle to placate both those in business who believe skilled legal migration boosts the U.S. economy, and those of his supporters who think it takes place at the expense of American workers….
In a post on his X social media platform, formerly Twitter, South African-born Musk commented: “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B.
“Take a big step back and F*** YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.”
A screenshot of the post was shared by Bannon on Gettr, with Trump’s former strategist and 2016 campaign manager adding: “Someone please notify ‘Child Protective Services’— need to do a ‘wellness check’ on this toddler.” [….]
The H-1B visa allows American companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. These typically require theoretical or technical expertise in fields such as information technology (IT), engineering, mathematics, finance, medicine, science, or other professional disciplines.
The number is currently capped at 65,000 per year, though an additional 20,000 visas are made available annually for foreigners who graduate in the U.S. with a master’s degree or doctorate.
Luna from Sailor Moon
On a more serious note, as Trump prepares to take office, the U.S. faces the strong possibility of another pandemic. That is frightening, considering how badly Trump handled the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that Trump has nominated anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Junior as head of the Department of Human Services (DHS).
A new report from PBS highlights the potential danger of bird flu turning into a full-blown pandemic in the United States.
In particular, PBS spoke with several experts who said the United States has been behind the ball when it comes to keeping a handle on the pandemic and they point to the fact that the United States Department of Agriculture has only recently started testing milk nationwide for bird flu contamination.
“It’s disheartening to see so many of the same failures that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis reemerge,” explained Tom Bollyky, the director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Health Program….
Tom Peacock, a bird flu researcher at the Pirbright Institute in the United Kingdom, said that the real danger could come if the bird flu virus mutates in a way that makes it easily transmissible between humans.
“Even if there’s only a 5 percent chance of a bird flu pandemic happening, we’re talking about a pandemic that probably looks like 2020 or worse,” he told PBS. “The U.S. knows the risk but hasn’t done anything to slow this down.”
Keith Poulsen’s jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack.
But the scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They showed videos of systems they built to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In 14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus.
“It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating hundreds of wounded soldiers,” he said.
Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now at least 875 herds across 16 states have tested positive.
Experts say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the outbreak.
“We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.”
To understand how the bird flu got out of hand, KFF Health News interviewed nearly 70 government officials, farmers and farmworkers, and researchers with expertise in virology, pandemics, veterinary medicine, and more.
Together with emails obtained from local health departments through public records requests, this investigation revealed key problems, including deference to the farm industry, eroded public health budgets, neglect for the safety of agriculture workers, and the sluggish pace of federal interventions.
Case in point: The U.S. Department of Agriculture this month announced a federal order to test milk nationwide. Researchers welcomed the news but said it should have happened months ago — before the virus was so entrenched….
Far more bird flu damage is inevitable, but the extent of it will be left to the Trump administration and Mother Nature. Already, the USDA has funneled more than $1.7 billion into tamping down the bird flu on poultry farms since 2022, which includes reimbursing farmers who’ve had to cull their flocks, and more than $430 million into combating the bird flu on dairy farms. In coming years, the bird flu may cost billions of dollars more in expenses and losses. Dairy industry experts say the virus kills roughly 2 percent to 5 percent of infected dairy cows and reduces a herd’s milk production by about 20 percent.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her agency will need to start taking “extraordinary measures,” or special accounting maneuvers intended to prevent the nation from hitting the debt ceiling, as early as January 14, in a letter sent to congressional leaders Friday afternoon.
“Treasury expects to hit the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23,” Yellen wrote in a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership, at which point extraordinary measures would be used to prevent the government from breaching the nation’s debt ceiling — which has been suspended until Jan. 1, 2025.
The department has in the past deployed what are known as “extraordinary measures” or accounting maneuvers to keep the government operating. But once those measures run out the government risks defaulting on its debt unless lawmakers and the president agree to lift the limit on the U.S. government’s ability to borrow.
“I respectfully urge Congress to act to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” she said.
The news comes after President Joe Biden signed a bill into law last week that averted a government shutdown but did not include President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demand to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit. The bill was approved by Congress only after fierce internal debate among Republicans over how to handle Trump’s demand. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a statement.
After a protracted debate in the summer of 2023 over how to fund the government, policymakers crafted the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which included suspending the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing authority until Jan. 1, 2025.
Notably however, Yellen said, on Jan. 2 the debt is projected to temporarily decrease due to a scheduled redemption of nonmarketable securities held by a federal trust fund associated with Medicare payments. As a result, “Treasury does not expect that it will be necessary to start taking extraordinary measures on January 2 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations,” she said.
Muta from Whisper of the Heart
Will the Republicans have a Speaker of the House by mid-January? They not only have to deal with the debt ceiling, but also they will need a Speaker in order to count and certify the electoral votes on January 6, 2025.
Trump has promised to take a number of steps on “day 1” of his administration, including pardoning people who were convicted of crimes on January 6 2021 and beginning plans for mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. A couple of related stories:
With Donald Trump winning back the White House, his Big Lie that Jan. 6 was just an enthusiastic rally that got out of hand, rather than an insurrectionist mob he unleashed to disrupt the count of the 2020 electoral college, has new currency.
A new congressional Republican report, spearheaded by MAGA lapdog Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) has recommended a criminal probe of former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) for co-chairing the House Jan. 6 investigation. Loudermilk’s report reached a through-the-looking-glass conclusion that Cheney & co. had promoted “a false, pre-determined narrative that President Trump was personally responsible for the breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and should therefore be held accountable.”
Trump is returning to the Oval Office with an explicit agenda to rewrite history — and upend convictions. He has vowed to issue “Day One” pardons to Jan. 6 criminals and defendants, whom he has called “great patriots,” “hostages,” and “warriors.” During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump referred to Jan. 6 itself as “a day of love.” And when he recently summoned tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg to Mar-a-Lago, Trump reportedly prompted his guests to rise and place their hands over their hearts, while listening to a rendition of the national anthem sung by jailed Jan. 6 defendants.
It is not precisely clear whom Trump wants to pardon. But the list of Jan. 6 convicts includes many serving long sentences for serious felonies — ranging from injuring police officers to sedition. In mid-December, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., who has handled many Jan. 6 criminal cases, spoke out from the bench. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said the idea that Trump could pardon the former head of the Oath Keepers militia haunts him: “The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved is frightening — and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy,” Mehta said, per a courtroom report in Politico. In 2023, Mehta handed down an 18-year sentence to Rhodes for “seditious conspiracy.” (The prison term included a terrorism enhancement.)
Asked by Rolling Stone if Trump planned to pardon Rhodes — or others imprisoned on seditious conspiracy charges, like Enrique Tarrio, the ex-honcho of the Proud Boys — the presidential transition team didn’t rule it out. “President Trump will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis for those who were denied due process and unfairly targeted by the justice system,” says Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
In the buildup to Jan. 6 and in its aftermath, Rhodes spearheaded militia activity that that saw Oath Keepers lieutenants stockpile weapons across the border in Virginia, creating “Quick Reaction Forces” or QFCs, that could be activated in the hoped-for scenario that Trump would invoke the Insurrection Act and summon militia groups to battle his enemies to help him cling to power.
Rhodes was outside the Capitol during the rioting, but communicated with members in the building. When Rhodes received a report that members of Congress were in danger and looking to flee, he replied, per court documents, “Fuck ‘em.” At sentencing, Rhodes compared himself to the Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Mehta told Rhodes to his face that he was no “political prisoner” — but rather an “ongoing threat and peril to this country.”
Daren Humbert Vaughn:, Gikkingen from The Cat Returns
Mexico is developing a cellphone app that will allow migrants to warn relatives and local consulates if they think they are about to be detained by the U.S. immigration department, a senior official said Friday.
The move is in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s threats to carry out mass deportations after he takes office on Jan. 20.
The app has been rolled out for small-scale testing and “appears to be working very well,” said Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs.
He said the app would allow users to press a tab that would send an alert notification to previously chosen relatives and the nearest Mexican consulate. De la Fuente described it as a sort of panic button.
“In case you find yourself in a situation where detention is imminent, you push the alert button, and that sends a signal to the nearest consulate,” he said.
U.S. authorities are obliged to give notice to home-country consulates when a foreign citizen is detained. Mexico says it has beefed up consular staff and legal aid to help migrants in the legal process related to deportation.
DENVER (AP) — A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.
Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested Dec. 18 in Grand Junction, Colorado, after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed and attacked because he is Pacific Islander.
After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a U.S. citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”
Alex, who had been out reporting, then drove back to his news station in the city. After he got out of his vehicle, Egan chased Alex as he ran toward the station’s door and demanded to see his identification, according to the document laying out police’s evidence in the case. Egan then tackled Alex, put him in a headlock and “began to strangle him,” the affidavit said. Coworkers who ran out to help and witnesses told police that Alex appeared to be losing his ability to breathe during the attack, which was partially captured on surveillance video, according to the document.
According to the station’s website, Alex is a native of Detroit. KKCO/KJCT reported that he was driving a news vehicle at the time.
The office of New York’s attorney general released body camera footage Friday showing the fatal beating of a state prisoner this month by correctional officers who punched and kicked him repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.
The incident, which has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the officers’ union as “incomprehensible,” is being investigated by state Attorney General Letitia James. The inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, died in the hospital a day after the Dec. 9 attack.
“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” James said at a virtual news conference.
“These videos are shocking and disturbing,” she added.
Brooks can be seen in the videos with his hands cuffed behind his back. In one video, he is sitting up as an officer presses his foot down on him. He is then punched by two officers.
At another point, he is forcefully yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and held up above the ground, his face visibly bloodied.
Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to begin the process of firing 14 workers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, where the incident occurred. They include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse. In the interim, all have been suspended without pay, except for one officer, who already resigned.
In a statement following the release of the videos, Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the state corrections department, said his office has launched its own investigation in an effort to bring “institutional change.”
Read much more at the NBC News link.
Those are my recommended reads for today. Take care, everyone.
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On this Boxing Day, let’s call it for what it is. Elder Abuse. John Buss, @johnbuss.bsky.social
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated in the United Kingdom and some of the commonwealth nations. Boxing Day used to be a day to donate items and food to the needy, but like everything Decemberish, it has been melded into the Crassmas season and has become a shopping event. It was never a literal “boxing day,” although other sports events often coincide with the holiday. It was also a day to share the haul with employees and tradespeople. It’s been around since the 1740s but has morphed into just another day to go shopping for deals, much like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The original holiday dates back to the 1660s. It was generally a day that the aristocracy gave their servants a break to visit family and bring home a few leftovers and bestowed gifts. Funny how those things morph the more that Corporations take things over.
I liked John’s cartoon take, and today, it seems more literal than usual since there is much unhappiness in the MAGA house as the rank and file learn more of the plans the Tech Dudes have for the country. I’ve always wondered how Kash and Vivek, with their swarthy complexions, sat with the obviously xenophobic and angry wipipo that make up the MAGA base. Maybe the base thought they were just an extension of the old Memsahib days of Colonial India. After all, Memsahib Incontinentia Buttocks certainly needs an entourage since he’s incapable of doing much of anything these days.
It appears, however, that Memsahib Laura Loomer recognized some boundary overstepping from Vivek even though it all popped up on Boxing Day when giving the help a break was in order. Any job that takes more tha basic math and a lot of technological training does not have a large pool of Americans able to do the work. I experienced this first hand getting quite mathy degrees in Finance and Economics, which require the same kind of math that astrophysics, rocket science, engineering, and climatology require. Grad school degree programs with heavy math are full of students from the Middle East and Asia. Most Americans wind up with an MBA where the courses really don’t even go beyond the early undergrad level. One of my grad school colleagues from Punjab was a great gift to me during my grad school year. He lived with me after Katrina for a while and helped me get through the mathy parts of my qualifiers. His first calculus class came in the 5th grade. Imagine that!
So, given that the Tech Bros need math geeks there was bound to be an issue inventually. And this year’s Boxing Day has proven to be a MAGA match-up between the base and Memsahib Incontinentia Buttocks and her entourage of Tech Bros. With all things MAGA, one’s race and nationality eventually become the screaming points.
I have to useThe Times of Londonas my first source. It just seems so fit for a replay of Victorian Colonial Politics and nativism. I just hope they don’t take it out on the Indian Diaspora and their children, which includes my colleagues and family. “Maga’s uncivil war: Musk and Ramaswamy under fire in ‘culture war.’ Vivek Ramaswamy, who will co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, blamed American ‘culture of mediocrity’ for a lack of talented specialist workers.” Ouch. We may have put a man on the moon back in the day, but you may also remember that was due to many black women doing the math for the dudes. We’re not what we used to be because of the long-term war on education by Republicans and their Fundamentalist crusaders who like those low educational attainment voters.
Elon Musk’s tech bros have clashed with the Maga rank and file over immigration for Silicon Valley workers, exposing the fragile alliance forged to put Donald Trump in the White House.
The chief executive of Tesla — who spent $277 million backing Trump and other Republicans during November’s election — believes America must attract top engineering talent to secure technological dominance over China.
Musk, 53, who has been put in charge of cutting government waste in Trump’s incoming administration, joined other prominent Silicon Valley figures in criticising a lack of highly-skilled workers to meet the industry’s demands at a time of intense competition over artificial intelligence.
Trump’s base — energised by the president-elect’s harsh rhetoric — is broadly opposed to immigration, however, whether skilled or unskilled, and argues that Americans should be prioritised over foreign workers.
Much of the debate is over H-1B visas, which Silicon Valley relies upon to bring in specialist workers with technical skills. Critics say that the visas have been exploited to allow in mediocre talent at the expense of Americans who demand higher wages.
Vivek Ramaswamy, 39, a biotech entrepreneur who ran for the Republican presidential nomination before dropping out to back Trump, ignited a furious response on X by sharing a lengthy post outlining why he thought America lacked the necessary technical talent.
Ramaswamy, who will lead the Department of Government Efficiency with Musk, blamed culture for the perceived shortfall.
“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long — at least since the Nineties, and likely longer. That doesn’t start in college, it starts young,” he said.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”
Ramaswamy referenced the television shows Boy Meets World, Saved by the Bell and Family Matters as examples where a bookish character played second fiddle to a cool kid to bolster his point.
Over the past few days, a fight has erupted within the MAGA right over legal immigration, specifically about whether the country should admit more high-skilled immigrants.
On the one side, you have opportunistic tech oligarchs like Elon Musk and David Sacks. These are incredibly wealthy figures who are open about using their newfound influence in government to serve both their ideological and their private business interests. On the other are figures like Laura Loomer, Nick Fuentes, and other nativist (and often openly racist) online personalities who had been vocal Trump supporters long before the Silicon Valley right joined the coalition.
The two sides began to argue on Sunday, after Donald Trump appointed Sriram Krishan, a partner at Andreesen Horowitz, as a White House policy adviser on Artificial Intelligence to work with Sacks, the Trump administration’s crypto and AI czar.
This may seem like a relatively minor White House appointment. However, Krishan has also been a proponent of removing country caps on green cards and H1-B visas, which allow American companies to hire foreign workers for certain specializations.
To the far-right, nativist influencers that have from the start glommed onto Trumpian scapegoating of immigrants, Krishan’s position crossed a line. Loomer, an anti-immigrant provocateur who traveled with Trump during his campaign, called it “deeply disturbing.” Sacks replied, perhaps not fully understanding his audience, by noting that Indian immigrants face an 11-year wait for green cards.
This was catnip for Loomer, who replied by suggesting that Sacks was in on a new version of the great replacement theory, and spent the next several days making vile statements about immigrants, accusing those who disagree with her on H1-B visas of hating Americans, and demanding that senior Trump officials denounce their Silicon Valley allies. Sacks, whose recent political positions have included strident opposition to American support for Ukraine, denounced the “crude” attacks.
Soon, other Trump-involved tech oligarchs, like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, jumped into the fray. Musk wrote that “the number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low. Think of this like a pro sports team: if you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win.”
Ramaswamy swooped in on Thursday to explain his view that American companies were forced to hire foreign skilled labor due to a deficit in homegrown American culture itself.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy wrote, adding later: “More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers.”
As you might imagine, MAGA nativists of various stripes regard this Silicon Valley defense of skilled immigration with a paranoid and often racist eye. Fuentes, the groyper leader, described Ramaswamy’s position as an attempt to get “500 million indians to move here.” Others reacted to Ramaswamy’s premise that there may be something wrong with America. Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the nativist Claremont Institute, pushed back in a gentler fashion while still suggesting that Ramaswamy’s vision would “destroy the things that actually make America great.”
Ah, the fury of a mediocre white male! Never fear! MAGA Super Karen Laura Lurid to the rescue! “‘Should MAGA stay home in 2026?’ Laura Loomer wages ‘racist’ war against ‘tech bros’ over Indian migrants. The far-right provocateur is taking aim at Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over their support of highly skilled workers from India, claiming that the country’s residents have a low IQ and describing Indians as “third-world invaders.” This is from The Independent and was written by Justin Baragona.
Trump acolyte and self-proclaimed “proud Islamophobe”Laura Loomer is threatening to tell MAGA to “stay home” during the next midterm elections amid an escalating feud with “tech bros” Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over Silicon Valley’s reliance on foreign-born workers.
Loomer has engaged in a multi-day social media tirade over President-elect Donald Trump’s recent appointment of Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as a senior policy adviser for AI, prompting the loyal MAGA supporter to rage about Krishnan’s support of H-1B visas for Indian immigrants.
With the Trump administration promising an immediate crackdown on immigration, Loomer has launched a series of attacks on Indians described as “racist” following Krishnan’s appointment, which she called “deeply disturbing.” Describing workers from India as “third-world invaders,” Loomer also took issue with Musk and Ramaswamy defending the tech industry importing “super talented engineers” from overseas.
“The average IQ in India is 76,” Loomer tweeted at one point, along with several other posts disparaging Indians and their home country.
Loomer, who previously sparked backlash for making bigoted remarks about Kamala Harris’s Indian heritage, has found supportamong what some have described as “OG MAGA” in her civil war against Trump-supporting tech entrepreneurs. In particular, she has received quite a bit of backing from “groypers,” the followers of notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes.
Conservative tech leaders quickly jumped to Krishnan’s defense. David Sacks, who Trump has tapped to serve as White House AI and crypto czar, said the Andreessen Horowitz partner was arguing for the elimination of per-country caps on green cards.
“Sriram still supports skills-based criteria for receiving a green card, not making the program unlimited,” Sacks wrote on X. “In fact, he wants to make the program entirely merit-based. Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!”
Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Technologies, also argued that Krishnan is “America First.”
“For USA to have the highest standard of living, generous govt services, and strongest military, we need to recruit the best and brightest and build the best companies,” Lonsdale said. “I’m against more low-end H1B immigrants; but let’s win at the talent game.”
The discussion of Silicon Valley’s hiring practices comes as Trump prepares to implement an ambitious and controversial immigration strategy, promising mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and potentially naturalized citizens. Musk and Ramaswamy have both voiced support for Trump’s immigration plans.
Several conservative critics of billionaire Trump surrogate Elon Musk were stripped of their verification badges on X after publicly challenging Musk’s stance on immigration.
Trump ally Laura Loomer, New York Young Republican Club president Gavin Wax, InfoWars host Owen Shroyer, and the pro-Trump ConservativePAC were all stripped of their verification badges after criticizing Musk’s controversial remarks about American workers and foreign H-1B visa holders.
“[Musk] has removed my blue check mark on X because I dared to question his support for H1B visas, the replacement of American tech workers by Indian immigrants, and I questioned his relationship with China,” wrote Loomer in a post on Musk’s social network X, formerly known as Twitter.
She continued:
Looks like Elon Musk is going to be silencing me for supporting original Trump immigration policies.
I have always been America First and a die hard supporter of President Trump and I believe that promises made should be promises kept. Donald Trump promised to remove the H1B visa program and I support his policy. Now, as one of Trump’s biggest supporters, I’m having my free speech silenced by a tech billionaire for simply questioning the tech oligarchy.
Elon has decided to retaliate by removing my blue check and demonetizing me.
I guess he doesn’t really believe in Free speech after all.
Loomer ended her post with a link to Truth Social – President-elect Donald Trump’s own social network.
While several Musk allies claimed Loomer had been stripped of her verification for changing her photo, Loomer dismissed those claims and called the move “retaliation.”
Responding to the suggestion that her verification check was removed for an unrelated reason, Loomer wrote, “I mean right after @elonmusk called me a troll today, my account verification was taken away, my subscriptions were deactivated and I was banned from being able to buy premium even though I was already paying for premium. Clearly retaliation.”
Where has she been that this is actually news to her? I’m going to finish with this analysis from The Daily Beast. This comes under the heading of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to MEN. “All-Out MAGA Civil War Engulfs Trump Already. TECH BROS UNDER FIRE. Trump’s winning electoral coalition couldn’t quite make it through the season of goodwill.” Nico Hines has the analysis. It’s a Skunk Fight!!!! Even Matt Gaetz got into the rift!
Well, that didn’t take long.
The logic-twisting alliance between Silicon Valley’s new oligarchs and the home-spun patriotism at the heart of the Republican grassroots movement is shattering before our very eyes.
MAGA stalwarts like Laura Loomer and Matt Gaetz are already turning their fire on the tech bros who helped bankroll Donald Trump’s comeback bid for the White House before he is even sworn in as president for a second time.
It was always going to end in tears, but few observers predicted that an all-out MAGA civil war would erupt before we even reach the New Year.
Overnight, Trump cheerleaders have used Elon Musk’s platform to attack the world’s richest man—and many now claim Musk is using his social media omnipotence to shut them down.
“Never insult the monarch,” MAGA chronicler Mike Cernovic warned his 1.3 million followers. Musk replied: “I am constantly insulted on this platform.”
That was the final straw for Laura Loomer, a failed Republican congressional candidate who got so close to Trump during the campaign that she accompanied him on the plane to the presidential debate with Kamala Harris.
“This is America. We don’t have a monarchy. This is outrageous,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after claiming that she was being censored on the platform by Musk.
Loomer waded into the Boxing Day culture war sparked by Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial post claiming that “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.” A debate over H1B visas has quickly descended into a bitter feud between those—led by the tech crowd—who believe importing highly skilled workers from abroad will boost the American economy and those—like Trump himself—who have long argued that the visas are being abused by companies seeking cheaper foreign labor to the detriment of American workers.
The traditional white working-class bedrock of the MAGA movement, which sprang from the Tea Party, has always been intensely focused on reducing immigration, something Trump championed during his first term, symbolized by his promised wall along the border with Mexico.
Musk tried to steer a path between the two sides, with a “clarification” of his DOGE partner’s comments by saying that H1Bs should only be used for the very top talents, but the MAGA majority appeared not to be placated.
Loomer claimed Musk and Ramaswamy infiltrated the movement for their own ends. “I have been more loyal to President Trump and his agenda than ANYONE. And I have only been punished for it. Pay attention MAGA. This is how you will all be treated now that Big Tech has infiltrated MAGA. “President Musk” is starting to look real,” she said.
I can only imagine what watching this soap opera evolve as we get farther into January. Goddesses Bless us, Everyone!
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The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
People got to see our lousy governor and our very drunk Senator while the New Orleans leader contingent paid second and third fiddles and was blamed for not doing what they’ve been doing for decades superbly. The presser included a drunk Senator John Neely Kennedy spitting tobacco into a red plastic cup while looking like he’d been drinking still. He shoved the FBI Special Agent–a black woman–away from the microphone where she was answering a reporter’s question. Social Media is not treating him kindly and righteously so.
Then, we got the Tesla bomber. A Green Beret on leave making some kind of statement while wiring a Tesla to burn in front of a Trump Property. At least he shot himself, and no one else got killed in whatever statement he was trying to make on the way out the earthly door. The more we learn about him, the more I want to stay indoors and away from people I haven’t known for a long time. This is from the 
These two stories completely ran this one off of the news for days. This is from 
The Republican House Speaker Brawl is headed to new lows this month. President Eject Incontinentia’s buttocks are lobbying Republicans to support Moses on the Bayou. John Thune is now the Senate Majority Leader. It will be an interesting few years with these razor-thin Republican majorities and a fairly united Democratic Party. This is from AXIOS and the analysis is by Andrew Solendar. 
The team of reporters outlines three possible outcomes from today’s mess. One includes Sleazy Steve Scalise, which always makes me gag. This is the horse race analysis from 
I found this article in the 
You may read more at the link. Former President Carter was a man of principles and strongly held ethics. He stands in contrast to what gets put into the White House again next month. This is just out from the AP. 
Meanwhile, we’re about to get steamrolled. Noah Berlatsky at 
Again, there is more to read at the link. Just in time for the man who botched COVID-19 with deadly results, we have a new Virus sweeping the country. This is from 
So, given that the Tech Bros need math geeks there was bound to be an issue inventually. And this year’s Boxing Day has proven to be a MAGA match-up between the base and Memsahib Incontinentia Buttocks and her entourage of Tech Bros. With all things MAGA, one’s race and nationality eventually become the screaming points.
Ramaswamy is not wrong about the culture here, but he really is not the best messenger for the MAGA crowd. As I said, those of us in techy Grad School areas have known this since the 70s, although a huge number of my colleagues were from Iran or Hong Kong back then. That’s changed, obviously. However, if you really want to get down with the American brainiacs at University these day,s you need to speak with the women. Black women are excelling in these areas. 
Ah, the fury of a mediocre white male! Never fear! MAGA Super Karen Laura Lurid to the rescue! “‘Should MAGA stay home in 2026?’ Laura Loomer wages ‘racist’ war against ‘tech bros’ over Indian migrants. The far-right provocateur is taking aim at Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over their support of highly skilled workers from India, claiming that the country’s residents have a low IQ and describing Indians as “third-world invaders.” 
This just makes me go all Kipling with the thoughts of 
Where has she been that this is actually news to her? I’m going to finish with this analysis from 
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