The Weird New Political Age
I’m starting the New Year thinking about, among other things, all of the truly insane stuff that has happened in the past few months of American politics. This is in preparation for what is probably going to be a pretty shitty year, politically speaking. Climate change isn’t going away, but it’s certainly going to be purged from federal discussion, unless we can all collectively grow the reproductive organs to stand up against whatever this bizarre new regime is going to be in Washington.
My head has been spinning since the election, whose outcome I found pretty shocking. But since then, it seems to have just gotten worse– between Trump’s demands for revanchist blood, his selection of child rapists and drunks for a new administration, and, particularly troublingly, his cozy relationship with a drug addict half-trillionaire who has a dozen kids with a dozen different women. Family values, right!? Absolutely nuts. However, that whole situation has gotten, well, a bit weird, too!
When apartheid aficionado Elon Musk bought the American election, I was originally giving it 3-6 months before the romance would fizzle. But owing to a post-Christmas spat between Musk and the anti-immigration hardliners over the H1B visa program, that timeline may have been a bit too generous! Musk has been a proponent of the popular visa program, which allows US companies to hire foreign workers. Proponents of the program argue that it’s important to be able to help American companies attract skilled workers, while critics point out that it allows non-citizens to essentially be exploited by being paid far less than a naturalized citizen would normally be paid. Wage theft seems to be rampant in the program.
Trump, of course, sided with co-president Musk, but seems to have pissed off a number of his less compromising supporters, who demand nothing less than a complete shutdown of all immigration. The most interesting fracture came in the format of self-described free speech champion Musk actually temporarily suspending a number of hard-right accounts that criticized him on X a.k.a. Twitter, including that of Laura Loomer, a perennial Trump darling who has famously been banned from Lyft, Uber, Venmo, PayPal, Venmo, and GoFundMe for her repeated Islamophobic slurs (among other hideous accolades)
Loomer called Musk a “welfare queen” and convicted felon Steve Bannon even joined the chorus of anti-Musk voices. It’s not clear what this is going to mean for the new regime, but one thing’s for sure– the once-and-future president is being very, very careful around the world’s wealthiest man. Not clear what all Musk has on these people beyond having bought the election, but his apparent affinity for Vladimir Putin is troubling to not only sane humans but also to the American military security apparatus.
All seems a bit weird, right?
Well, probably going to get weirder, so, I guess we’ll just buckle up!
