Here are the top 10 California employers who hired H-1B visa workers in 2024
Jason Hidalgo and James Ward – January 3, 2025
The H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers is in the spotlight nationwide after causing a split among President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters.
The visa program is fueling a debate within the conservative MAGA faction even before Trump takes office for a second time, pitting H-1B supporters such as Elon Musk on one side against H-1B critics like Steve Bannon on the opposing side.
At the crux of the issue is immigration.
Immigration is one of the key cornerstones of Trump’s agenda — which includes pushing for a border wall between the United States and Mexico — and remains a focus for the Republican leader as he gets ready for another term as U.S. president.
That leads to a question: How many H-1B workers were hired in California last year?
Here’s what you need to know about the H-1B program both nationwide and in California.
Who were the top California employers for new H-1B visa workers in 2024?
In California, the H-1B program was used to hire just more than 78,000 workers in 2024, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency.
https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/21015878/embed
Most 2024 H-1B recipients were in the tech industry, with Silicon Valley powerhouses Google, Meta (Facebook’s parent company), and Apple leading the hires.
Since 2009, California has had the highest number H-1B recipients of any state, with just over 1 million workers, driven by the tech industry.
https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/21016359/embed
Since 2009, India-based IT services company HCL has led all California employers with just over 41,000 H-1B recipients, followed by Google with just over 40,000. The other leading H-1B-hiring companies include Silicon Valley-based companies Google, Apple and Meta.
Tesla’s Deadly Trump Tower Cybertruck Explosion in Vegas Mocked as ‘Perfect Metaphor’ for 2025
Benjamin Lindsay – January 1, 2025
Chaos erupted outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday after a Cybertruck, Tesla’s popular-but-maligned electric pickup truck model, exploded into flames. The New Year’s Day event killed one and injured an additional seven, according to authorities.
CEO Elon Musk responded Wednesday on X, writing that after the “whole Tesla senior team” investigated the matter, they’d “confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.”
“All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion,” he said.
And while there’s apparent reason for concern over the event, the tragedy also garnered a fair amount of ridicule and mockery on X, the social media platform Musk owns.
Many users expressed that it’s a “perfect metaphor” for what’s in store for 2025 under President-elect Donald Trump and Musk leading his DOGE advisory board.
“A real photo and perfect metaphor heading into 2025,” MeidasTouch News editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski wrote.
“Have you seen the footage? Looks like it deliberately blown up,” responded another. “If it was, you’re probably spot on, just not in the way you thought.”
In a Wednesday morning press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shared that the police were informed of an apparent explosion at 8:40 a.m. local time, detailing that at the time of the event, a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck “pulled up to the last entrance doors of the hotel” before exploding, killing one person inside.
“We saw that smoke started showing from the vehicle, and then a large explosion from the truck occurs,” McMahill said.
McMahill additionally drew comparison’s to Wednesday morning’s vehicular terrorist attack in New Orleans, saying that investigators are “very well aware of what has happened” there.
“As you can imagine, with an explosion here on an iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe,” he said. Police had also determined at that time that there did not appear to be any additional public safety threats.
“Earlier today, a reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas,” Eric Trump, a Trump Organization leader and the President-elect’s son, wrote on X, a message later echoed by the hotel’s official account. “The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority.”
And while the news circulated into Wednesday afternoon as more detail emerged of the cause and nature of the explosion — along with surveillance video that appears to the vehicle exploding (watch that below) — many took to social media to confess that no matter the cause, the optics of Trump- and Musk-world literally burning didn’t bode well for the upcoming presidency.
A Tesla Cybertruck in flames in front of Trump Tower Vegas?
Melanie D’Arrigo: If you were going to choose a metaphor for our current state of politics, a Tesla Cybertruck exploding and burning in front of a Trump Tower in a city where millions of Americans go each year to lose their money, is pretty spot on.
You couldn’t script a better metaphor.
A fire-prone status symbol of excess parked outside the shrine to grift and failed promises—it’s almost poetic.
FBI finds 150 homemade bombs at Virginia home in one of the largest such seizures, prosecutors say
Sean C. Davis – January 1, 2025
FBI finds 150 homemade bombs at Virginia home in one of the largest such seizures, prosecutors say
SMITHFIELD, Virginia (WAVY) — Residents worried about the large FBI presence and numerous explosions heard in Virginia’s Isle of Wight County in mid-December finally have answers.
According to federal court documents, agents had just uncovered a massive trove of pipe bombs, and deemed them too unstable to transport — so they blew them up. The FBI said it believes it’s the largest amount of homemade explosives it has encountered in its history.
“FBI bomb technicians, who X-rayed the devices on scene, assessed them as pipe bombs,” the newly-filed document reads. “The majority were found in a detached garage, organized by color. … Some were hand-labeled “lethal.”
“Some were preloaded into an apparent wearable vest,” it continued. “In the garage were also found numerous tools and materials for manufacturing explosives, a home-made mortar, and riot gear.”
The filing also describes how the the pipe bombs were made — with two layers of plastic tubes.
“[I]n between the tubes were metal spheres which ‘would enhance the fragmentation effect of the device upon its explosion.’ it quotes an FBI analysis of one bomb. “The lab concluded that the device was ‘capable of causing property damage, personal injury and/or death.’”
Spafford was released on $25,000 bond earlier this week. The new details in this case come from new filings from the defense, arguing to block his release.
Defense attorneys argued in a motion Tuesday that authorities haven’t produced evidence that he was planning violence, also noting that he has no criminal record. Further, they question whether the explosive devices were usable because “professionally trained explosive technicians had to rig the devices to explode them.”
“There is not a shred of evidence in the record that Mr. Spafford ever threatened anyone and the contention that someone might be in danger because of their political views and comments is nonsensical,” the defense lawyers wrote.
Spafford’s original, and so far only charge, is for violating the National Firearms Act — for possessing a rifle with a barrel shorter than 16 inches. His Dec. 30 preliminary hearing found enough evidence to allow the case to move forward.
Most of the evidence prosecutors relied on for the firearms charge came from a person Spafford apparently believed he was friends with. Spafford showed the man his illegal rifle and the two went shooting together.
“[The source] also noted that the defendant was using pictures of the president for target practice at shooting at a local range, stated that he believed political assassinations should be brought back, and that missing children in the news had been taken by the federal government to be trained as school shooter,” the prosecution’s filing reads.
Prosecutors reiterated why they believe Spafford is dangerous, writing that “while he is not known to have engaged in any apparent violence, he has certainly expressed interest in the same, through his manufacture of pope bombs marked ‘lethal,’ his possession of riot gear and a vest loaded with pipe bombs, his support for political assassinations and use of the pictures of the President for target practice.”
Spafford also allegedly joked about someone assassinating then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris. The document describes a casual meeting at his newly-purchased farm.
“He also discussed fortifying the property with a 360-degree turret for a 50-caliber firearm on the roof, and noted how he could block the driveway with a vehicle so no other vehicles could access,” the filing reads.
Why brain rot and bed rotting aren’t all bad — and the reasons why Gen Z and millennials are so drawn to this form of escape
Elena Sheppard – December 30, 2024
Why people – particularly Gen Z-ers and millennials — are so drawn to “rotting.” (Getty Creative)
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Oxford University Press’s word of 2024 was “brain rot.” The year also gave us a flurry of TikToks documenting “bed rotting.” What’s with all this rotting — and is it a trend we should be taking into 2025?
But first: What do these terms, generally used by Gen Z-ers and millennials, even mean?
“‘Brain rotting’ typically refers to the idea of engaging in mindless content consumption, like scrolling social media or binge-watching TV shows, which over time, feels like numbing or dulling your brain,” explains mental health therapist Brittany Cilento Kopycienski, who owns Glow Counseling Solutions. “‘Bed rotting’ involves spending excessive time lying in bed, contributing to physical and mental stagnation.”
Both activities, it seems, are about checking out of whatever your reality is at the moment — and checking into the often good feeling of doing nothing. Is that good for our mental health? Here’s what experts say.
Why are we so drawn to ‘rotting’?
“Let’s face it—bed rotting or brain rotting is not a style of lazy living. It’s about escape,” psychologist Caitlin Slavens tells Yahoo Life. “The world is noisy, chaotic and often overwhelming. ‘Rotting’ is like pressing a giant snooze button on life. When you’re inundated with expectations (of work, family or even yourself), shutting down might seem your only option.”
She adds, “These trends are a response to a world that’s made us feel like we must be performing in every moment of our lives — for work, for social media, for each other’s expectations. The rise of rotting says we’re burnt out, together.”
That may be especially true for younger adults. “Our brains are experiencing unprecedented levels of stimulation through constant notifications, social media and digital engagement,” Sophia Spencer, a social psychology and mental health therapist, tells Yahoo Life. “For Gen Z and millennials in particular, they are the first generations to live like this from a young age and for this to be their norm. Essentially, their brains are subject to a level of information that was once unthinkable, and not what our brains are designed for.”
But others argue that this urge to disassociate from life isn’t new, but rather something past generations have also felt as they settle into adulthood.
“Do you remember the ‘adulting’ movement?” Slavens points out. “People began to celebrate even the most basic life tasks, like doing laundry or paying bills, as if they were a win in a world so large it felt overwhelming. Or hygge — the Scandinavian midcentury concept of warm living — where we all collectively agreed that it was candles and blankets we needed to feel better when burned out. “All of these trends speak to the same need: to ease up, to take a breath, to feel fine about not doing it all.”
Is rotting a bad thing?
It really depends on the intention behind it — and how much time is being spent staring at screens in lieu of actually resting. Many people see bed rotting as a particular form of self-care: a day spent in bed, with a sole focus on recharging. “Our brains are not meant to be on overdrive all the time. Intentional breaks, time away from screens and the permission to veg out can be restorative,” says Slavens. “The issue is when rotting turns into avoidance, when we’re evading responsibilities or feelings we’re afraid to confront. So yes, a little rotting? Great. Full-blown decay? Probably not ideal.”
As for “brain rot,” who among us hasn’t mindlessly scrolled on our phone? “‘Rotting’ in moderation can be seen as a chance to mentally reset,” says Kopycienski. “It can allow for a break from constant stimulation where emotional recovery can occur.”
How do we move forward?
Thinking all this rotting through, the long and short of it seems to be that it’s about burnout. And burnout isn’t best handled by festering, or rotting; it’s best handled via intentional rest, experts say.
“The best thing we can do is redefine what rest looks like in a digital age,” says Spencer. “Rather than reactively rotting, [we should be] having a system of proactive healthy habits.” That might involve proactively setting better work-life boundaries, scaling back our commitments or being less online to minimize burnout in the first place. Spencer doesn’t rule out more radical change.
“When our ancestors went through significant social change, such as during the Industrial Revolution, people moved from agricultural rhythms that followed daylight to the factory 9–5 schedule,” she notes. “I think we need to take the digital age as a significant change to our life … and adapt our lives ourselves as appropriate.”
How extreme car dependency is driving Americans to unhappiness
Oliver Milman in New York – December 29, 2024
A new study has found there is a tipping point at which more driving leads to deeper unhappiness.Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/Alamy
The United States, with its enormous highways, sprawling suburbs and neglected public transport systems, is one of the most car-dependent countries in the world. But this arrangement of obligatory driving is making many Americans actively unhappy, new research has found.
The car is firmly entrenched as the default, and often only, mode of transport for the vast majority of Americans, with more than nine in 10 households having at least one vehicle and 87% of people using their cars daily. Last year, a record 290m vehicles were operated on US streets and highways.
However, this extreme car dependence is affecting Americans’ quality of life, with a new study finding there is a tipping point at which more driving leads to deeper unhappiness. It found that while having a car is better than not for overall life satisfaction, having to drive for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is linked to a decrease in life satisfaction.
“Car dependency has a threshold effect – using a car just sometimes increases life satisfaction but if you have to drive much more than this people start reporting lower levels of happiness,” said Rababe Saadaoui, an urban planning expert at Arizona State University and lead author of the study. “Extreme car dependence comes at a cost, to the point that the downsides outweigh the benefits.”
The new research, conducted via a survey of a representative group of people across the US, analyzed people’s responses to questions about driving habits and life satisfaction and sought to find the link between the two via a statistical model that factored in other variables of general contentment, such as income, family situation, race and disability.
The results were “surprising”, Saadaoui said, and could be the result of a number of negative impacts of driving, such as the stress of continually navigating roads and traffic, the loss of physical activity from not walking anywhere, a reduced engagement with other people and the growing financial burden of owning and maintaining a vehicle.
“Some people drive a lot and feel fine with it but others feel a real burden,” she said. “The study doesn’t call for people to completely stop using cars but the solution could be in finding a balance. For many people driving isn’t a choice, so diversifying choices is important.”
Decades of national and state interventions have provided the US with an extensive system of highways, many of which cut deep into the heart of its cities, fracturing communities and bringing congestion and air pollution to nearby residents, particularly those of color.
Planning policies and mandatory car parking construction have encouraged suburban sprawl, strip malls with more space for cars than people and the erosion of shared “third places” where Americans can congregate. As a result, even very short journeys outside the house require a car, with half of all car trips being under three miles.
Most of the decisions driving this are made at a state level, although Joe Biden’s administration vowed to help rebuild public transit networks beleaguered by the Covid pandemic and to tear down certain divisive highways. However, the federal government has continued pouring far more money into building and expanding roads than in any alternatives to driving. Next year, more than $60bn in federal funding is planned for roads and bridges.
A small sliver of the American public actively chooses to live without a car because they are able to live in the few remaining walkable communities in the US, but for most of those without a car it is a forced deprivation due to poverty or disability.
Being without a car can itself be expensive and isolating, according to Anna Zivarts, who was born with a neurological condition that prevents her from driving. Zivarts, based in Seattle, is the author of the book When Driving Is Not an Option and advocates on behalf of those unable to drive.
“Seattle has a solid bus system but everyone who can afford a car has a car. I’m often the only parent going to any sort of event without a car. Everything is built around cars,” she said.
“We are just locked into a system of driving that is meant to be more enjoyable but isn’t. I walk five minutes with my kid to the school bus stop and yet other parents make that journey to the stop by car. Is this really how you want to spend your life?”
A long-term effort is required to make communities more walkable and bolster public transport and biking options, Zivarts said, but an immediate step would be simply to consider the existence of people without cars.
My Mom’s Support For Trump Divided Our Family. Then I Found The Crack In Her MAGA Armor.
Tim Durnin – December 30, 2024
Busà Photography via Getty Images
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The Trump presidency divided my family. The “Trump Effect,” as I called it, infected us shortly after he descended into the lobby of Trump Tower to announce his presidential candidacy. It ended seven years later, around my kitchen table, with three generations of my mother’s progeny mowing their way through Italian takeout. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My mother was a Reagan Republican and had voted along party lines since 1980. While none of her four children were fully aligned with her politically, the Trump Effect created the greatest distance between my mother and me.
We fought every time we talked. Before Trump secured the nomination, I argued that his morals were in direct conflict with those she and my father had been driving into my head for decades. Furthermore, I argued, he did not even embody conservative values. He twisted them into grotesque manipulations of what had been reasonably sound policy.
I pleaded with her not to vote for him. She wouldn’t budge. In the wake of his election, her choice took on the weight of a betrayal. Her blindness to Trump’s white nationalist tendencies was an affront to my wife, who is a proud Latina, and angered my biracial, high-school-aged children.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images
The more egregious Trump’s violation of social norms, the harder she dug her heels in. In Northern Idaho, her political views went largely unchallenged. It was her excursions into Eastern Washington that afforded her the opportunity to proselytize and be heard. Any poker table became her pulpit as she would expound on the virtues of the new savior of the GOP. Having earned respect with her poker skills, she changed peoples’ minds.
At some point, after the Mueller investigation, she was so self-assured that she stopped fielding challenges or questions from folks on the left. We stopped talking about everything except cursory questions about my life and detailed reports about her current ailments. I longed for a return to our political discourse. It never came.
She voted for Trump again in 2020 but did not embrace the “big lie” that he’d won the election with anything close to enthusiasm. She did defend the honor of her chosen candidate afterward, but her Ultra MAGA armor started to crack when Trump’s attacks were directed at Republican icons like Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and the Bush dynasty. Then Jan. 6, 2021, shook the foundation of her political fortress. The damage was considerable and lasting.
I wasn’t with my mother for the insurrection’s explosive violence that day. But our family has always been patriotic. My father served in Gen. MacArthur’s honor guard during the Korean War. We flew the flag, sang the anthem and respected servicemen and women. My mother and I shed patriotic tears on Jan. 6, 2021, and while admittedly from very different places, the tears ran into the same river. We both knew the America we loved was significantly diminished by the relentless attacks of a small percentage of Americans hell-bent on defining the world by their petty grievances and perceived injustices.
I didn’t reengage in political discourse with my mother, in spite of an obvious opening for a kill shot. The sadness that surrounded her settled in like a dense fog. Surprisingly, her depressed mood was less about Trump’s defeat and more about her own foolishness in the certainty that Trump was a hero and savior. As for me, I couldn’t even muster an “I told you so.”
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
Sixteen months later, I was having dinner with my mother and some Trump news flashed on the screen. She shook her head in mild disgust. I hadn’t planned what happened next, although I had fantasized about this “intervention” countless times.
Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and started talking. “Mom, I am going to ask you a huge favor, something that may be jolting at first, but please, sit with it.” She started to speak, but I raised a finger, pleading with her to hear me out.
My voice was shaky and weak as I began, but grew confident as the memory of each Trump atrocity was replayed in my mind ― his near-constant appeal to our worst instincts, his undisguised racism and Islamophobia, and his blaming of anyone and anything besides himself. I was hot when I reached the point of my diatribe, asking what I believe to be the single most important question I will ever ask my mom: “Will you please apologize to my children for voting for Trump?”
I continued: “My fear is that, when Trump is seen through a clear and objective lens, the support you gave him will define you.”
A few days later, my mother, aka G-Ma and Grams, sat at the head of a round table. At 92, she was still larger than life and a commanding presence. She did not need to call for the attention of those gathered. At her first syllable, heads turned and phones were silenced. She would hold the room until she decided not to.
Before saying our traditional grace, she stood up, and the room came to attention. She took a moment to compose herself, and with her signature confidence, said, “I want to apologize.” Looking around the table, she did not falter. “I made a horrible mistake voting for Trump. Had I known then what I know now, I never would have voted for him. I hope you will forgive me.” And it was done.
There was a collective sigh of relief as she released our attention and laughed as she said, “That wasn’t so hard.” We hugged and I whispered my thank you as we embraced. “Let’s eat,” she said. And we began, “Bless us our Lord and these Thy gifts …
In the months that have followed, I have elected to continue the moratorium on political discourse and opted instead to explore our common ground — which, I have discovered, is fertile and vast and refreshingly friendly. Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts affirmed that her divorce from MAGA and Trump was the right choice.
My children’s wounds have started to heal. They have forgiven her, and through them, my grandchildren will as well. In the end, the “intervention” we staged was a gift, a blueprint of sorts for a divided time. She showed us how to admit you were wrong in a world where it seems everyone has to be right. That’s the real takeaway, the kernel of truth I hope will grow and thrive.
CORRECTION: A prior version of this article incorrectly stated that the author’s father served in Gen. Patton’s honor guard.
Musk has been staying at $2,000-a-night Mar-a-Lago cottage – just hundreds of feet from Trump’s main house
Mike Bedigan – December 31, 2024
Elon Musk is getting closer and closer to Donald Trump, quite literally, with a new report that the tech billionire is currently renting a cottage on the grounds of the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
According to The New York Times, Musk is staying at Banyan – a cottage located just several hundred feet from the main house of the estate– which costs at least $2,000 to stay in per night, per sources with knowledge of the costs.
The news comes as concerns continue to grow in Washington about the extent of the SpaceX boss’s influence over Trump, having sat in on personnel meetings, conducted talks with foreign leaders and helped to tank a bipartisan spending bill in congress.
Musk is reportedly staying at Banyan – a cottage located just several hundred feet from Trump’s main house – which costs at least $2,000 to stay in per night (AFP/Getty)
The property contains multiple cottages that have reportedly been used by others in Trump’s inner circle, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, during the transition period.
The Times reports that Musk moved into the cottage around Election Day and watched the results at Mar-a-Lago with Trump and other MAGA cheerleaders including Marjorie Taylor Greene.
He left the property around Christmas and has been expected to return some time in the New Year.
It is unclear how much the tech boss is paying for the cottage, though guests at the Mar-a-Lago club are typically not billed until the end of the stay.
A US Coast Guard boat manned by armed officers patrols the Lake Worth Lagoon off Mar-a-Lago (AFP/Getty)
The ultimate cost of Musk’s stay may come down to the president-elect.
The “best buddy” relationship between the pair appears to be going strong.
Last week Trump posted what appeared to be a personal message to Musk on Truth Social, claiming that fellow billionaire Bill Gates asked to come to Mar-a-Lago.
“Where are you? When are you coming to the ‘Center of the Universe,’ Mar-a-Lago. Bill Gates asked to come, tonight. We miss you and x! New Year’s Eve is going to be AMAZING!!!” Trump wrote.
He signed it “DJT.”
The story comes as concerns continue to grow in Washington about the extent of the SpaceX boss’s influence over Trump (AFP/Getty)
“X” appears to have been a reference to Musk’s son, X Æ A-Xii, who he calls X for short,
While staying at Mar-a-Lago, Musk has been accompanied by at least two of his children — though he is reported to have at least 11 — and their nannies.
The Times also reported that the Tesla boss is known to make inconvenient requests like meals outside the normal kitchen hours.
Big Tech companies rely on those visas, while Big Racism people on the internet claim the visas are another example of foreign workers taking jobs from the “forgotten” men and women of America who Trump promised to protect.
(Spoiler alert: Trump sided with Musk and the tech bros this weekend because they gave him lots of money and money is all he actually cares about. Sorry, xenophobes!)
Trump sells out supporters to back Elon Musk on H-1B visas
Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy face MAGA backlash over possible visa program expansion
Here’s how the whole unbelievably stupid thing unfolded.
About a week ago, Trump named venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as an advisor on artificial intelligence. Because Krishnan had previously voiced support for expanding the H-1B visa program, hardcore anti-immigration loudmouths like Laura Loomer – one of the most loyal Trump loyalists – and Steve Bannon got mad and outraged. That’s kind of their thing.
Bannon said the H-1B program is a threat to Western civilization, which makes sense if your soul is so filled with hate it has choked off oxygen to your brain.
Vivek Ramaswamy tells MAGA that Americans are kinda dumb and lazy
Ramaswamy posted on social media: “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer)…Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-lead with Elon Musk of the newly established Department of Government Efficiency, arriving for meetings at the US Capitol on Dec. 5, 2024 in Washington.
Many MAGA folks read that as Ramaswamy calling them dumb and lazy, probably because that was Ramaswamy calling them dumb and lazy. The MAGA base swiftly turned its ire on Ramaswamy, prompting Musk to call them “contemptible fools.” He later clarified that “contemptible fools” was only referring to “those in the Republican Party who are hateful, unrepentant racists” and will “absolutely be the downfall of the Republican Party if they are not removed.”
I’m not quite sure how that narrows things down, but whatever.
MAGA fans find themselves discovering where they stand in Trump’s world
The bottom line is this: Members of a political movement fueled almost entirely by a hatred of immigrants were getting told by Musk, an immigrant, and Ramaswamy, an American via birthright citizenship, that they are racist and dumb and lazy and should support a program that allows foreign workers to get U.S. jobs.
It prompted prominent MAGA figures like former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who like all these other people is a disreputable dipstick, to post this about Musk and Co.: “We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid the 3rd-grade teacher picking their kid’s gender – and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline. We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy.”
Somebody pass me the popcorn – this is getting GREAT!
Musk tells MAGA to … well, it’s profane and not too nice
On Friday, Musk took to the social media platform he has ruined and wrote of the anti-worker-visa crowd: “Take a big step back and F–K YOURSELF in the face. I will go to war on this issue the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.” (I’m not sure how one of the most influential people in president-elect Trump’s orbit saying “F—K YOURSELF in the face” squares with the evangelical part of the MAGA base, but I can only deal with one group of suckers getting burned at a time.)
President-elect Donald Trump attends Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., on Dec. 22, 2024
Second, Trump constantly peddles xenophobic nonsense about how he’s fighting for the little guy, how he loves his “real American” supporters and how he alone can save them from the scourge of scary immigrants and elitists.
But when a couple of elite billionaires go off on his base and effectively call them a bunch of non-skilled, racist dopes while rallying around a specific immigration program they like because it helps them … well, guess whose side Trump is on?
And the Laura Loomers and Steve Bannons and the MAGA loudmouths online and the voters who let themselves get conned into believing Trump was in it for them? Well, I hope they enjoy looking at the underbelly of the bus. That’s going to be their primary view from now on.
Ex-GOP Lawmaker Predicts What Trump’s Going To Start Doing On Day 1
Former Rep. David Jolly said it may start happening as early on as during the president-elect’s inauguration speech.
By Josephine Harvey – Dec 30, 2024
Donald Trump is going to start revising history to suit himself as soon as he takes office, former Rep. David Jolly (Fla.) predicted over the weekend.
“I think one of the things Donald Trump wants to do this term, starting on day one, is rewrite history,” Jolly, who served as a Republican in Congress but later renounced his affiliation with the GOP, told MSNBC’s Alex Witt. “We’re going to see it on COVID, having RFK Jr. there. We’re going to see it on Russia, having Tulsi Gabbard there. We’re going to see it with a lot of the prosecutions by having Kash Patel there, should these people get confirmed.”
Jolly was referring to Trump’s picks for health secretary, national intelligence director and FBI director respectively. Critics have sounded the alarm over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism, Gabbard’s sympathetic views toward Russia, and Patel’s fondness for dangerous conspiracy theories and his fixation on Trump’s supposed enemies.
“I think we’re also going to see a retelling of January 6,” Jolly went on. “And the question is, does that start with his inauguration speech? Or is it something that happens by way of pardons? Or is it a prosecution — an attempted prosecution — of Liz Cheney?”
“I do think Donald Trump wants to rewrite history,” he concluded. “And to do that, he’s going to force upon the American people a narrative that largely is untrue, but that he hopes, with conservative media’s influence, he can win out with.”
Trump has vowed to pardon people convicted for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Trump’s favor.
Even though the majority of those serving substantial prison time committed violent crimes, including assaulting law enforcement officers, the president-elect has referred to them as “peaceful January 6 protesters” and “hostages” who were unfairly prosecuted.
He’s also made threatening comments about former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), warning that she “could be in a lot of trouble” for serving on the House panel that investigated the attack. He’s said that he believes members of the panel “should go to jail.”
Trump has a penchant for revisionist history, with a pattern of walking back promises, deflecting blame for his failures and dubiously taking credit for successes. He pledged during his 2024 campaign to reduce the prices of “everything,” but has already admitted since his victory that it’s “hard to bring things down once they’re up.”
If we’re being honest, no year has been a great year for human decency since whatever it is that evolved into us emerged from the primordial ooze. Humans aren’t great at basic decency, and I assume it didn’t take long for the earliest iteration of a human being to do something obnoxious.
Still, 2024 was suboptimal.
2024 marked by Trump, hateful rhetoric, loony conspiracy theories
A nutball who thinks vaccines, one of the greatest achievements in medical history, are bad and we should all fight diseases by drinking bacteria-laden raw milk got hoisted up as a person who should oversee the nation’s health.
President-elect Donald Trump addresses the conservative AmericaFest conference on Dec. 22, 2024, in Phoenix.
School shootings continue unabated ‒ and don’t forget the wars
School shootings kept happening and politicians continued to do quite literally nothing to stop them. Wars continued war-ing, with little global regard for the loss of innocents, a fact that should shock the collective human conscience, assuming it has one.
I’m not so sure it does. As already stated above, decency isn’t really our thing.
But here at home, you’ll note, much of the indecency stemmed from one particularly indecent character. A man who has managed to melt brains preheated by reality television and, for the past decade, make himself the center of our political universe.
Trump is irredeemable, and he brings out the worst Americans have to offer
Protesters against former President Donald Trump rally on the National Mall on Oct. 2, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Trump is a golden calf and an amalgam of the worst in all of us. His prevalence in American life and his pending return to the presidency have normalized those worst tendencies. He has given comfort to white nationalists and insurrectionists and antisemites, and embraced cruel dictators. The basic things any parent would teach their child not to do ‒ lie, bully, brag ‒ are Trump’s calling cards.
I don’t want or need to hear another argument about him being a tough leader or the best choice for president or someone who appeals to “regular Americans,” whatever that means. Nothing justifies him. Nothing.
He is now and will forever be a stain on American history, a man whose narcissism and lust for power and money led him to sacrifice American decency at an altar he built to honor himself.
How the country does under his upcoming leadership is irrelevant. The moral cost of getting there has already been too steep.
If you thought 2024 was bad for American decency, just wait
Trump is certainly not to blame for all the ills in America ‒ not even close. We’ve been a flawed nation, replete with scoundrels, for some time.
But Trump has, singlehandedly and without question, made this country more cruel, more dishonest and more willing to believe immoral behavior can take you places.
He erodes our decency by example.
2024 was a bad year for America’s sense of right and wrong.
