Intellectual capital. Food fight. Trump gets it right. Some friends want meritocricy and H-1B visas, some friends want white supremacy, and he agrees with his friends. JD, today? UPDATED

Just a few links now, and where's Bezos on the fractioning of Trumpists. Agreeing with his friends?

Updating perhaps, but it needs to be thought over.

The Economic Times, here and here.

MSN with video embedded, here. (The item transits one video clip, other clips.)

And an AI dimension, where the crypto base members are a separate faction.

Soon it will be time to govern, Trump agreeing with his friends.

Readers likely have from other sources seen reporting in parallel to the links here, but if not, the links give enough of a background. What's the answer? Agreeing with one's friends.

Enjoy yourselves transiting into 2025.

UPDATE: And there is JD Vance, he has not been a press presence lately, and this food fight is not about Haitians. Closer to home. Nikki Haley having done better than DeSantis, ultimately, because she's taller, smarter. Aren't things great, again?

FURTHER UPDATE: Bannon, https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-bannon-calls-h1b-support-a-dark-contempt-of-americans-just-hours-before-trump-publicly-supports-program/

WaPo, here and here. (Jeff Bezos has money in WaPo and in Amazon Web Services, where the latter might be hiring a substantial workplace percentage via H-1B, so read those items in light of Bezos having intruded himself into WaPo editorlal decision making to kill a proposed Harris endorsement over Trump).

When we don't know we can guess. Infer. But killing the Harris endorsement is fact of record. Journalists should ask Jeff of his opinion on H=1B. Whether WaPo has a touch of conflicted interest, Musk is clear, as the Bannon link notes.

Trump has been reported to be aligned more with Musk on this than with Bannon, that item stating -

“I’ve always liked the visas. I have always been in favor of the visas,” Trump told the New York Post in a phone interview. He added: “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.”

FURTHER UPDATE: Breitbart, when reviewed 12/29 12:30 central time, was not posting a story on the H-1B issue.

However, they posted 

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/12/29/exclusive-roger-stone-republican-party-was-completely-remade-by-historic-trump-election/

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/12/27/microsoft-bill-gates-went-all-in-for-kamala-harris-as-trump-taps-anti-big-tech-hawks-for-his-administration/

Things need to sort themselves out. Food fight over, one way or the other?

FURTHER UPDATE: I queried Copilot in the Edge Browser, and the DuckDuckGo web search: "Is there a dispute over H-1B visas, and what's Trump's position?"

Rather than posting detail, try it yourselves.  

FINAL UPDATE - Trump is correct. Trump has strongly endorsed the H-1B program, and was favorable to it first term. His position is correct. Where highly skilled or highly specialized labor is the question, go with the best to be the best, as a nation.

For fungible labor jobs, go with unions which favor white people and non immigrants in collective bargaining against ageism and other cost cutting things employers can do. The bias is unfortunate, but there. Unions are a bulwark against rogue management and their efforts result in collective bargaining for fair treatment of all workers doing fungible labor tasks. Which makes sense. But some are better trained and experienced, and more skilled, and are who you want if the job requires or favors it. Should you need heart or brain or kidney surgery you do not care where the surgeon you turn to grew up. It is a fact that by example surgery is where consumers want the best, not merely "a man or lady who grew up here."

Cori Bush could try at least to flip over Rham Emanuel's table at the DNC.

Politico, 

 I probably could have flipped over a few more tables.

If it is turning the tables on the money changers in the Temple, run to head the DNC.

 

Tom's Hardware has an interesting post, still current although it's from October.

 https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/servers/first-in-depth-look-at-elon-musks-100-000-gpu-ai-cluster-xai-colossus-reveals-its-secrets with an embedded video.

UPDATE: Same embedded video: https://www.maginative.com/article/inside-elon-musks-colossus-xais-world-leading-ai-supercomputer/

Memphis a critical hub in the global AI race? Elon has ventures outside of the Bay Area. And he does not like California's regulatory Gestalt. Stay tuned.

This is not one of those started in someone's garage ventures. This is Big Brother in Grandma's clothing, as in "Grandma, what a long nose you have . . . ".

FURTHER: https://www.servethehome.com/inside-100000-nvidia-gpu-xai-colossus-cluster-supermicro-helped-build-for-elon-musk/1/ A multi-page toute item, with the same video embedded. And with some Elon hate/skepticism in some reader commentary. One of the linked items notes the embedded item was produced by Supermicro.

FURTHER: The necessity of scale-to-train LLMs seems what Microsoft loves about adding Copilot to its stuff. Red Hat Linux is not going to be competitive with Windows on that battleground.

Useful Idiot

https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/4Q5A4HHL5FBI5OMR5D5LN4KJCM.jpg

 

How can House Democrats be this fucking stupid toward their chances to survive and prosper?

 search = nancy pelosi AOC House overesight committee

She should stop dying her hair, accept her being older than Biden, and go away.

Image. There comes a time . . .

_______________UPDATE_________________

This is related. As is this. A needed change without unwilling mean animosity getting in the way. Pelosi's due to be primaried. Not that she'd lose. But that it is in the best long term interest of the Democratic Party. Especially if she loses.

From DWT

At 84 It's Time For Pelosi To Retire Instead Of Spending Her Last Rotten Days Sabotaging AOC

Some People Just Don't Know When It's Over

 

There is more, but the two panels say enough.

 

____________FURTHER UPDATE__________

Yes, Bernie is old too. But he's sharp as a tack, and a soulmate to AOC.

____________FURTHER UPDATE__________

AOC is 35 years old. Pelosi has been in the House 36 years. Going stale while serving corporatist aims. The difference is Tomorrow and yesterday. Dawn and dusk. New and old. And then there is Bernie. Ageless. Fresh. AOC's colleague.

DWT gives an update on whether the government shuts down over Christmas, New Year's Day, and a deal was a deal, so is a deal.

https://www.downwithtyranny.com/post/trump-threatens-freedom-caucus-with-primaries-how-s-bob-good-doing-and-they-voted-no-anyway

Previously

https://www.downwithtyranny.com/post/following-musk-s-lede-trump-called-maga-mike-s-spending-deal-a-betrayal-of-our-country  

From that second item -

The election for Speaker is on January 3— two weeks from today. Because of Trump’s support, MAGA Mike nearly had a lock on it— until co-president Musk, hopped up on ketamine or whatever he takes, started tweeting manically all his government shutdown bullshit Wednesday, which blew up the carefully-negotiated government funding deal. As Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) noted, “It is dangerous for House Republicans to have folded to the demands of the richest man on the planet, who nobody elected, after leaders in both parties came to an agreement to fund the government and provide this disaster aid.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Musk had tweeted a veiled threat: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” After he tweeted at 4:15pm, “This bill should not pass,” the deal was pretty much tanked and the House GOP leadership was in complete disarray. “Over the ensuing 12 hours, Musk went on a prolific tirade against the bill— with more than 60 updates, some of which boosted false claims— that stood out even for a chronic poster who has commanded an audience of more than 200 million followers by broadcasting his largely uninhibited views on the site he owns.” Among the other ways Musk described the bill: “terrible,” “criminal,” “outrageous,” “horrible,” “unconscionable,” “crazy,” and “an insane crime.” If MAGA Mike didn’t know who the boss was before that, he does now.

So on Wednesday evening, before sundown, Capitol Hill energy began flowing into a whispered debate about who the next speaker would be. And, yes, there were even some Republicans suggesting it should be Musk. This imbecile (Musk, not Marjorie Traitor Greene this time) who knows less about how the American political system works— beyond what he can buy with his vast fortune— than a high school freshman.

Longtime political observers were stunned by the swift impact of Musk’s intervention.

Trump stayed largely silent on the measure through Wednesday afternoon, putting Musk in the unusual position of exerting more influence on the bill than the incoming president. Finally, by late afternoon, Trump, too, aired his opposition.

“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” he said in a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance. “… THIS CHAOS WOULD NOT BE HAPPENING IF WE HAD A REAL PRESIDENT. WE WILL IN 32 DAYS!”

But it was Musk who seemed to force the tipping point.

“Elon is having an incredible effect,” said Gordon Gray, executive director at Pinpoint Policy Institute, a center-right think tank, who noted the “real-time” shift. “I am struggling to recall another instance where an unelected public figure has exercised that kind of influence.”

Still, Musk’s campaign relied on or repeated at least some false claims.

He reposted a claim that the legislation includes a “40% pay raise for Congress,” calling it “unconscionable.” The DOGE account also said on Twitter that the legislation would raise pay for members of Congress to $243,000, up from $174,000.

It is unclear where that number came from. The legislation includes language allowing a 3.8 percent pay bump to take effect, which would result in a pay raise for lawmakers of $6,600— far short of what Musk claimed, according to a statement from Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who said he would oppose the bill because it allowed the pay raise. Congress has blocked its own cost-of-living allowance increases since 2009.

Musk also amplified false claims that the legislation included $3 billion in federal funds for a new football stadium in the District. In fact, the provision would transfer the land where RFK Stadium sits to the local government, but it provided no funding, and the city would still have to negotiate with the National Football League’s Washington Commanders over a stadium deal.

[...] 

Read it all at DWT. I voted for Harris. Some voted for Trump. None voted for Musk. 

So what you say? He wants more power than Putin, give him more? What?

T-shirts don't vote, but as noted time and again in posting, the first party that sincerely tries to get Medicare for All will carry the day.

 Mangione's shooting Thompson to death on a sidewalk has instigated repressed opinion resurfacing: via merchandise that Amazon/Bezos is suppressing.

https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/12/universal-healthcare-now-deny-defend-95171156.jpg?quality=75&strip=all

For the context, the report explaining this and that -

https://nypost.com/2024/12/11/us-news/amazon-yanks-deny-defend-depose-free-luigi-merch/

BOTTOM LINE: The man shot, making millions yearly off of questionable grief to those who bought insurance thinking it meant something Thompson's firm too often said it did not mean, gets less popular love and support than the man that gunned him down. If that does not suggest to you HEALTHCARE REFORM IS OVERDUE, you might have a problem understanding clear news. 

Opinion outlets can spin however much and long as their owners and editors want story control, but the public is writing its own story control, and more people died at the hands or were bankrupted as a result of Thompson's decision makers than at Luigi Mangione's gun point, Luigi pulling the trigger. 

That is real. 

That is truth. 

Truth can only be suppressed for so long, but truth is now out and vocal. 

UPDATE: Worth adding, Luigi was not in it to profit. Thompson had that reason. Each acted accordingly. Each can be judged by public reaction as well as at law. That law has tolerated Thompson's corporation's actions in any way at all is, subjectively, viewed by Crabgrass as intolerably wrong. More so, given reporting that Thompson was under investigation for insider trading. Opinions can differ.

 FURTHER UPDATE: How does this ring your bell? International Business Times Nov. 2024, reporting:

UnitedHealth's $33B Deal With Hospice Provider Blocked By DOJ

 "Unless this $3.3 billion transaction is stopped, UnitedHealth Group will further extend its grip to home health and hospice care, threatening seniors, their families and nurses," Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said.

UnitedHealth was allegedly already on the road to creating a monopoly, after last year buying one of Amedisys' competitors, LHC Group.

UnitedHealth also owns the country's largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare. It also owns Optum, an expansive network of clinics and physicians.

The DOJ's complaint was filed along with several states including Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey and New York.

UnitedHealth addressed the accusations by proposing to divest some assets, specifically merging Amedisys with Optum, but the DOJ remained focused on preventing further consolidation in healthcare.

It can be argued that if they die postponing care over coverage considerations, United could get them going out, if monopolizing hospice care. Think it over. 

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Or if they are people of the sort JD Vance wrote about, perhaps unable to afford health coverage as today's market pricing goes, United could still get a bite if hospice is affordable, if that deal does ultimately go through -  DOJ efforts nothwithstanding. 

Hopefully JD and Bondi and the Trump team will keep that merger opposition effort going; not killing the case in taking the White House over. Hopefully Senators ask about it at confirmation hearings.