Something very interesting and openly obvious is happening amid the backlash that Elon Musk and the Silicon Valley network are facing to their H1B position.

Effective December 26, Elon Musk changed the Twitter algorithm to diminish those voices who would openly confront his network of supporters within Silicon Valley and beyond.  If large follower Twitter accounts, like those of Musk himself, David Sacks, Vivek Ramaswamy and Musks’ promoted network of influencers begin blocking accounts on the platform, then the voices of those accounts get purposefully diminished by the algorithm.

Much like having a VIP section that can remove people from the audience, Musk is pushing opposing viewpoints into the background of the public square.

[SOURCE]

The timing of this is not accidental.  The allies of Musk have been getting blasted by some rather large MAGA accounts over the H1B visa position of the Silicon Valley team.  In response, Musk is pushing those opposition voices out of the conversation.  This is another way for the newly aligned tech group to maintain influence over the policy of President-elect Donald Trump. In fact, I have been informed this is exactly the purpose.

President Trump previously announced that David Sacks would lead the tech, crypto and AI policy group.  The team being assembled by Sacks all support extended use of H1B visas to bring in “high skilled” foreign workers.  The Musk team do not want publicly visible opposition to impede their agenda.

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Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) appears on Fox News to discuss H1B visas and the inherent fraudulent use of the system by companies trying to cut costs and avoid hiring American workers.

Schmitt says H1-B visas are being “abused” in the U.S. and argues that many American workers are being forced to “train their replacements.” WATCH:

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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced the U.S. debt ceiling is likely to be reached mid-January, while Joe Biden is still in office.  President Trump tells congress to deal with the issue now.

First, here’s Secretary Yellen:

WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department may need to take “extraordinary measures” by as early as Jan. 14 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers in a letter on Friday.

Yellen urged lawmakers in the U.S. Congress to act “to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”

U.S. debt is expected to decrease by about $54 billion on Jan. 2 “due to a scheduled redemption of nonmarketable securities held by a federal trust fund associated with Medicare payments,” she added.

She said: “Treasury currently expects to reach the new limit between January 14 and January 23, at which time it will be necessary for Treasury to start taking extraordinary measures.”

Under a 2023 budget deal, Congress suspended the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025. The U.S. Treasury will be able to pay its bills for several more months, but Congress will have to address the issue at some point next year. (more)

The Biden spending is already baked into the proverbial cake. Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling limit and President Trump is urging them to do it now, before he takes office.

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When I read the New York Post article proclaiming that President Trump supports the fraudulent system known as H1B visa hiring, I knew something was amiss because we previously looked at Trump’s various business hires and use of the visa process.

Apparently, the NY Post called President Trump to get him to weigh in on the controversial subject that has been triggered by Elon Musk saying he would “go to war on this issue” to maintain the H1B visa system -and subsequent foreign employment for tech skilled workers- his various companies depend upon.

Here’s the topline takeaway from the article that has triggered many:

(NY POST) President-elect Trump told The Post Saturday he supports immigration visas for highly skilled workers, appearing to side with Elon Musk in the roiling intra-MAGA debate on the issue.

“I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump said by phone, referring to the H-1B program, which permits companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations.  

“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,” added Trump, who restricted access to foreign worker visas in his first administration and has been critical of the program in the past. (more)

However, if you go to the Dept of Labor website, search or download the database of H1B employment, specifically filtering to Trump’s various companies, what you will discover is that Trump Inc doesn’t use the H1B visa system at all. [Check for Yourself Here]

How does this reconcile? Well, having previously looked at the visa use by President Trump in his various companies {SEE HERE}, I can confidently assert (Occam’s Razor) that within the interview President Trump conflated H2B temporary worker visas, which he does use in his service industry, with H1B visas which he does not use.

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Newsmax Rob Schmitt gives a good summary of the H1B immigration debate that has caught fire amid the Trump support base.

The initial issue surfaced with the appointment of Sriram Krishnan to serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. [Source] Krishnan has previously advocated for removing all limits on Indian immigrant use of H1B.

Vivek Ramaswamy, David Sacks and Elon Musk came to the immediate defense of their friend and colleague Sriram Krishan, while MAGA Americans started to look very closely at the use of H1B visas.  Things rapidly escalated from there.

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The central argument is this. “Whether the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (“the Act”), as applied to petitioners, violates the First Amendment.”

Congress enacted a law that effectively bans the social media app TikTok, or at the very least, forces the sale of the company to a non-foreign owned entity. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the First Amendment aspect. Biden signed the law that requires TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to divest from the app or face a ban on U.S. networks and app stores.

Mitch McConnell [SEE HERE] and Mike Pence [See Here] are asking the Supreme Court to support the law and support the forced sale or ban. However, President Trump is urging the Supreme Court to be very careful.  [SEE HERE]

John Sauer, President Trump’s nominee to be solicitor general, has penned an amicus brief saying, “The power of a Western government to ban an entire social-media platform with more than 100 million users, at the very least, should be considered and exercised with the most extreme care—not reviewed on a ‘highly expedited basis.”

After initially supporting the ban on Tik Tok in 2020, President Trump changed his opinion and now contemplates whether a ban against the popular platform is in America’s best interest.

“Consistent with his commanding presence in this area, President Trump currently has 14.7 million followers on TikTok with whom he actively communicates, allowing him to evaluate TikTok’s importance as a unique medium for freedom of expression, including core political speech. Indeed, President Trump and his rival both used TikTok to connect with voters during the recent Presidential election campaign, with President Trump doing so much more effectively. As this Court instructs, the First Amendment’s ‘constitutional guarantee has its fullest and most urgent application precisely to the conduct of campaigns for political office.’” (source)

Many people have wondered what changed President Trump’s mind, with some pointing to President Trump’s meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month.   Additionally, Elon Musk and the Silicon Valley tech team, including JD Vance, are opposed to Tik Tok.  However, the shift in Trump’s thinking since 2020 makes sense if you look at the timeline.

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The Silicon Valley immigration priority was not the topic I thought would explode and fracture the tenuous MAGA alignment with the New Big Tech group represented by Elon Musk and his billionaire network. However, we learn more every day.

This is a jaw-dropping moment to watch unfold as a very influential sector of the political discourse begins a full-frontal attack against those who are pointing out how the tech community abuse H1B visas to replace American workers. In the background, of course, is the context of widespread immigration policy fraud being one of the priorities for the average Trump supporter.

The Silicon Valley team do not seem to review discussion of the H1B manipulation/fraud within the larger American economy as a problem, as long as the discussion of the visa fraud does not impact their business models. However, as soon as the H1B abuse started to be framed around Silicon Valley’s participation therein, the New Big Tech group take a nuclear war approach to defending their interests.

[SOURCE]

Having followed the immigration issue for a long time, yet specifically only having a big picture review of the H1B visa issues, it has been astounding to watch how Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, David Sacks and the Silicon Valley supporters and influencers are responding to having the H1B visa fraud confronted.  The self-interest in their defense is just astronomical to watch unfold.

Empowered by what can only be reasonably defined as their perceived influence over President Trump, the new-era Tech team are quite forcefully telling the MAGA base of Trump-supporting American workers that their concerns, views and perspectives are irrelevant.

It appears that most of the explosive sentiments revolve around H1B visas in the tech sector issued to Indian workers specifically.  Apparently, the friendships, networks and teams attached to the sector of computer engineering carry with them an emotional component.  I guess that should not be a surprise considering this is essentially a peer-to-peer wagon circling, in defense of the H1B visa problems in the tech sector.

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In the larger background of geopolitical conflict, the eyes of the world are concerned about increased military conflict within Ukraine.  Most reasonable people in the ‘west’ are concerned about the potential for escalation, as NATO and the Biden administration push more weapons into Ukraine in advance of their exit from the White House.

The larger group of ordinary observers are hopeful that President Trump can bring the war in Ukraine to a negotiated conclusion.

Yesterday, President Trump used his Truth Social account to share a story about Russian President Vladimir Putin being open and ready for talks with the new administration. Here is the article from December 19th that President Trump posted:

(via CNN) Russian President Vladimir Putin put a positive spin on a spate of recent setbacks Thursday, insisting in a marathon news conference that Russia had accomplished its mission in Syria and was winning the war in Ukraine.

And he nodded to the sea change expected in Washington, saying he had not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, but was “ready” for potential talks with him, amid expectation that the new administration in Washington will push for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine.

Thursday’s event – an annual display of Putin’s mastery of the minutiae of domestic policy as well as of geopolitics – consists of a public Q&A session combined with a public phone-in.

Russia’s war on Ukraine was a major topic, with Putin keen to emphasize Russia’s recent gains in grinding war of attrition.

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On December 19th we noted, “Apple CEO Tim Cook and META CEO Mark Zuckerberg were previous guests at Mar-a-Lago for tech meetings before Bezos. Heck, all that’s needed now is for Bill Gates to show up and a wormhole revealing a parallel universe is likely to open.”…

Well apparently, the universe is folding upon itself. President Trump has indicated that Bill Gates is scheduled to appear in Mar-a-Lago for a meeting with President Trump.

[Source]

The last arrival to the southern White House was Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (AWS), who hedged his bets too long and was late in supporting President Trump before the election.  This has put Bezos in a position of riding his bicycle in slow circles at the end of the driveway while Musk (xAI), Ellison (Oracle) and Thiel (Palantir) have full access ‘insider’ passes along with their ally Vice-President Elect JD Vance.

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram has ruled that Atlanta District Attorney Fani Willis, will have to comply with a state senate inquiry into her conduct over the prosecution of Donald Trump.

It will be interesting to see if the Georgia Senate can extract details of contacts between Fani Willis and people in Washington DC (Mary McCord). It is almost a guarantee at this point, that somewhere in the early planning stages of the Georgia Lawfare operation, Mary McCord had contact with Willis or her office.

(Via LA Times) – A judge has ruled that the Georgia state Senate can subpoena Fulton County Dist. Atty. Fani Willis as part of a inquiry into whether she has engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump but is giving Willis the chance to contest whether lawmakers’ demands are overly broad.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shukura Ingram filed the order Monday, telling Willis she has until Jan. 13 to submit arguments over whether the subpoenas seek legally shielded or confidential information. Ingram wrote that she would issue a final order later saying what Willis had to respond to.

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