Politics Today Bulletin 34, 12/27/24

OG MAGA v. Tech Bro MAGA Rages On

… Elon Musk retaliated against Laura Loomer and other MAGA activists late last night after they spent the entire day roasting him and Vivek Ramaswamy after they said more immigration should be allowed for foreign workers/students in the tech industry.

… Essentially, their message was that there just aren’t enough smart Americans who have the work ethic to satisfy the Tech Bros, so those migrants should be allowed to come into the country to work for them while we mass deport the others who are working in the construction, agriculture, food processing and hospitality industries, where they fill jobs many Americans don’t want to do for low to modest wages.

… But Vivek took things even a step further than Musk, which further infuriated them, by blaming American culture for the Tech Bro’s labor shortage: “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.”

… Some of MAGA may have been with him up to this point, but then Vivek went too far: “A culture that venerates Cory from ‘Boy Meets World,’ or Zach & Slater over Screech in ‘Saved by the Bell,’ or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in ‘Family Matters,’ will not produce the best engineers.”

… Now he’s talking in a language they can understand, and they aren’t liking what they are hearing.

… But he wasn’t done: “I know multiple sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates. More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of ‘Friends.’ More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

… Talk about smacking a MAGA hornet’s nest with a baseball bat.

… I knew right away as soon as I read it that Vivek was in deep trouble at that point, but apparently Vivek couldn’t figure that out. Probably why he couldn’t get out of the Iowa Caucus.

… Some really big right-wing social media influencers went nuts. Small ones too. Elon and Vivek were hammered all day and night by their new friends. The Vivek post drew 35,000 replies from irate right-wingers.

… Finally, right around midnight, the petulant child who bought X removed dozens of blue checks from his MAGA critics’ accounts, notified everyone that he was changing the algorithm to suppress their engagement, and removed their ability to get subscriptions from users.

… In other words, all the things they loved about him he took away from them because they were mean to him.

… For some reason, legacy media almost completely ignored this story. I guess MAGA activists close to Trump with millions of followers attacking Elon Musk and Vivek wasn’t an important story for them. But we were on top of this every step of the way for the past 36 hours straight. I would like to thank every one of you who is able to help us do that so we don’t have to work for the Oligarchs or Tech Bros!

… Musk: “It comes down to this, do you want America to WIN or do you want America to LOSE. If you force the world’s best talent to go play for the other side, America will LOSE. End of story.”

… That Elon post drew 15,000 replies from irate right-wingers.

… As the day went on, Musk tried to continue to make his case to his friends before he finally gave up and just started punishing people: “I would prefer to hire Americans, and we do, as that is much easier than going through the incredibly painful and slow work visa process. However, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

… This did not help matters.

… Laura Loomer: “The elephant in the room is that Elon Musk, who is not MAGA, is a total f*cking drag on the Trump transition. He’s a Stage 5 clinger who has overstayed his welcome at Mar-a-Lago in an effort to become Trump’s side piece and be the point man for all his accomplices in Big Tech to slither in to Mar-a-Lago.”

… The irony of this is that Loomer was accused by some Trump supporters of being exactly this same thing a few months ago. But that seems like 10 years ago.

… Musk responded: “Loomer is trolling for attention. Ignore.” But they did not ignore.

… NY Young Republican Club President Gavin Wax: “No more sleep overs! No more fun! Must work! Discarded if you can’t keep up! Who the hell is advising Vivek?” Nobody is advising these people. This is what they believe. It is what they have always believed. MAGA is just now starting to realize it.

… Wax then went on Steve Bannon’s show and said, “At the end of the day, they simply do not want to pay American wages for American jobs. They want to pay Indian wages for Indian workers in American jobs, and that’s a disgrace.”

… Bannon: “This whole thing from Musk about ‘Oh, they’re only geniuses - H1B 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 thing’s a SCAM by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens and give them to what become indentured servants from foreign countries, and pay them less.”

… Ann Coulter: “American workers can leave a company. Imported H1B workers can’t. Tech wants indentured servants, not ‘high-skilled’ workers.”

… I feel like I need a shower after agreeing with Steve Bannon and Ann Coulter.

… MAGA influencer and Musk fan Ashley St. Clair: “And now you learn that there is an asterisk next to ‘Free Speech.’”

… Senior Trump Advisor, Pastor Darrell Scott: “All Elon Musk had to do is say, ‘Hey everybody, I was talking about them taking the jobs of BLACK Americans, not ALL Americans,’ and the tide against him would immediately turn.” I agree with Darrell too.

… Loomer just after midnight: “X removed my verification, my subs, and my ability to get premium again.” Elon Musk, Free Speech Absolutist, is teaching them that free speech doesn’t mean you are allowed to criticize him. Loomer better watch out, if this keeps up Musk might get his mom after her.

… Musk then suspended Loomer’s account for 12 hours.

… Meanwhile, what was Trump doing while all this controversy was raging throughout the day between many of his biggest supporters? Playing golf and saying nothing. That is because he already made his deal with the Tech Bros. They went all in with their cash and social media platforms during the campaign , and he agreed to give them what they want. And expanded H1B visas for foreign workers in tech is one thing they wanted badly.

… They bargained for so much more than that with Transactional Donny, but that is for another day.

… One X user: “I hope Barron is explaining all of this to Trump.”

… JD Vance has said nothing about the controversy.

… After Loomer’s suspension was finally lifted tonight, she seemed pretty disappointed that Trump decided not to get involved: “What’s also sickening is the silence over the extreme disrespect toward the MAGA base that worked so hard to get Trump elected. I guess since we don’t have billions of dollars we don’t really matter anymore. I hope Team Trump addresses this digital class warfare against MAGA.”

… Fair. OG MAGA got hung out to dry by Dear Leader because he got a better offer from Tech Bro MAGA. That’s who Trump is. Next.

… The election for Speaker is January 3, and it appears Mike Johnson is in serious trouble. Former Freedom Caucus Chair Rep Scott Perry (R-PA): “I think that Mike has done an admirable job under tough conditions, but I’m going to keep my options open.” Not exactly an enthusiastic vote of confidence.

… Current Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-MD) on Johnson: “Before the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what’s the best path forward. We need to consider, if we’re going to advance Trump’s agenda, whether the current leadership is what we need.”

… Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said her biggest complaint with Johnson is lack of communication: “There needs to be some changes. We should not see our speaker shaking hands on a deal (with Democrats) without first coming to the conference and getting buy-in, making sure that we’re building consensus.”

… Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY): “I will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson. I’m not persuaded by the ‘hurry up and elect him so we can certify the election on J6’ argument.” He said that he thinks that Johnson is just too “beholden to the swamp.”

… Sen. Ted Cruz came to Johnson’s defense though on his podcast, warning that if Johnson isn’t reelected, the House will end up “with a Speaker who is much, much more liberal than Mike Johnson. He’s undoubtedly the most conservative Speaker we’ve had in our lifetime.”

… When asked on MSNBC if Democrats would bail Johnson out if it looked like there would be a chance someone even worse would take his place, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said that after Johnson double-crossed them on the budget agreement they are done with him: “There will be no Democrats available to save him because of the breaching of a bipartisan agreement.”

… Massie also dropped this little nugget in between griping about Mike Johnson: “Congress has secretly paid out more than $17 million of your money to quietly settle charges of (sexual) harassment in Congressional offices. Don’t you think we should release the names of the Representatives? I do.”

… Jake Chansley, previously known as Q Shaman on J6, now going by the name ‘American Shaman,’ announces that he is prepared to take on Mike Johnson for