North Atlantic Right Whales Die Decades Earlier Than Antarctic Cousins

A North Atlantic right whale trails a length of line from fishing gear (NOAA file image)

Published Dec 29, 2024 6:24 PM by The Conversation

 

 

[By Greg Breed and Peter Corkerton]

Southern right whales have lifespans that reach well past 100 years, and 10% may live past 130 years, according to our new research published in the journal Science Advances. Some of these whales may live to 150. This lifespan is almost double the 70-80 years they are conventionally believed to live.

North Atlantic right whales were also thought to have a maximum lifespan of about 70 years. We found, however, that this critically endangered species’ current average lifespan is only 22 years, and they rarely live past 50.

These two species are very closely related – only 25 years ago they were considered to be one species – so we’d expect them to have similarly long lifespans. We attribute the stark difference in longevity in North Atlantic right whales to human-caused mortality, mostly from entanglements in fishing gear and ship strikes.

Survivorship curves show female right whales can live to very old ages, but humans are causing North Atlantic right whales to die well short of their potential. Plotted for comparison is the U.S. survivorship curve for women as estimated by the Social Security Adminstration. Greg Breed

We made these new age estimates using photo identification of individual female whales over several decades. Individual whales can be recognized year after year from photographs. When they die, they stop being photographically “resighted” and disappear. Using these photos, we developed what scientists call “survivorship curves” by estimating the probability whales would disappear from the photographic record as they aged. From these survivorship curves, we could estimate maximum potential lifespans.

Twenty-five years ago, scientists working with Indigenous whale hunters in the Arctic showed that bowhead whales could live up to and even over 200 years. Their evidence included finding stone harpoon points that hadn’t been used since the mid-1800s embedded in the blubber of whales recently killed by traditional whalers. Analysis of proteins from the eyes of hunted whales provided further evidence of their long lifespan. Like right whales, before that analysis, researchers thought bowhead whales lived to about 80 years, and that humans were the mammals that lived the longest.

In the years following that report, scientists tried to figure out what was unique about bowhead whales that allowed them to live so long. But our new analysis of the longevity of two close relatives of bowheads shows that other whale species also have potentially extremely long lives.

Why it matters

Understanding how long wild animals live has major implications for how to best protect them. Animals that have very long lifespans usually reproduce extremely slowly and can go many years between births. Baleen whales’ life history – particularly the age when females start breeding and the interval between calves – is strongly influenced by their potential lifespan. Conservation and management strategies that do not plan accordingly will have a higher chance of failure. This is especially important given the expected impacts of climate disruption.

What still isn’t known

There are many other large whales, including blue, fin, sei, humpback, gray and sperm whales. Like bowhead and right whales, these were also almost wiped out by whaling. Scientists currently assume they live about 80 or 90 years, but that’s what we believed about bowhead and right whales until data proved they can live much longer.

How long can these other whale species live? Industrial whaling, which ended only in the 1960s, removed old whales from the world’s whale populations. Though many whale populations are recovering in number, there hasn’t been enough time for whales born after the end of industrial whaling to become old.

It’s possible, even likely, that many other whale species will also prove to have long lifespans.

What other research is being done

Other research finds the loss of older individuals from populations is a phenomenon occurring across most large animal species. It diminishes the reproductive potential of many species. Researchers also argue this represents a real loss of culture and wisdom in animals that degrades their potential for survival in the face of changing conditions.

What’s next

We want to better understand how whaling affected the number of old individuals in current whale populations and predict when the number of old individuals will recover to prewhaling levels. Preliminary results suggest it may be another 100 years before whale populations truly recover, even for species whose populations now number as many as there were before whaling.

For North Atlantic right whales, our research shows that even when the population was increasing, the management actions taken were insufficient to prevent these whales from dying far too young.

Greg Breed Associate Professor of Quantitative Ecology at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Peter Corkeron is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, Griffith University.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here. 

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

Ocalan: PKK chief held in solitary on Turkish prison island

Istanbul (AFP) –
Issued on: 31/12/2024 - 

Abdullah Ocalan, seen here in 1993, set up the Marxist-inspired Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the late 1970s © JOSEPH BARRAK / AFP/File

The move came two months after the leader of the far-right MHP, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, offered Ocalan an unprecedented olive branch if he would publicly renounce terror.

In a message sent back with his visitors, two lawmakers from the pro-Kurd opposition DEM party, Ocalan -- the man who embodies the decades-long Kurdish rebellion against the Turkish government -- said he was "ready" to embrace efforts to end the conflict.

"I am ready to take the necessary positive steps and make the call," said the 75-year-old former guerrilla, who also received his first family visit in four years on October 23.

During that visit, Ocalan said he had the necessary clout to shift the Kurdish question "from an arena of conflict and violence to one of law and politics".

Ankara's tentative bid to reopen dialogue nearly a decade after peace efforts collapsed comes amid a major regional adjustment following the ouster of Syria's Bashar al-Assad.
PKK: a Marxist-inspired group

Ocalan founded the PKK -- the Kurdistan Workers' Party -- in 1978. It spearheaded a brutal insurgency that has killed tens of thousands in its fight for independence and, more recently, broader autonomy in Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast.

A Marxist-inspired group, the PKK is considered a terror organisation by Turkey, the United States, the European Union and most of Turkey's Western allies.

After years on the run, Ocalan was arrested on February 15, 1999 in Kenya following a Hollywood-style operation by Turkish security forces.

He was sentenced to death, but escaped the gallows when Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004. He has since been held in an isolation cell on Imrali island in the Sea of Marmara.

For many Kurds, he is hero they call "Apo" (uncle). But Turks often call him "bebek katili" (baby killer) for his ruthless tactics, including the bombing of civilian targets.
Involvement in peace talks

Tentative moves to resolve Turkey's "Kurdish problem" began in 2008. Several years later, Ocalan got involved in the first unofficial peace talks, approved when Erdogan was premier.

Ocalan led indirect peace talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government from jail until 2015 © YASIN AKGUL / AFP

Seen as the world's largest stateless people, Kurds were left without a country when the Ottoman Empire collapsed after World War I.

Although most live in Turkey, where they make up around a fifth of the population, the Kurds are also spread across Syria, Iraq and Iran.

For hardline nationalists who support the post-Ottoman idea of "Turkishness", the Kurds simply do not exist.

And not all Kurds back the ideas, let alone the methods, of the PKK.

Led by Hakan Fidan, Erdogan's spy chief turned foreign minister, the talks raised hopes of ending the insurgency in favour of an equitable solution for Kurdish rights within Turkey's borders.

But they collapsed in July 2015, reigniting one of the deadliest chapters in the conflict.

After a suicide attack on pro-Kurdish demonstrators attributed to Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in October 2015, the PKK accused Ankara of collaborating with IS and resumed its violence with a vengeance.

Turkey's campaign against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq has caused diplomatic strains with Western allies © Delil SOULEIMAN / AFP

Turkey's widescale use of combat drones has pushed most Kurdish fighters into Iraq and Syria, where Ankara has continued raids.

The government has defended its de facto silencing of Ocalan by saying he failed to convince the PKK of the need for peace, raising doubts about how much sway he has over the group.
Captured in exile

Ocalan was born on April 4, 1948, one of six siblings in a mixed Turkish-Kurdish peasant family in Omerli village, in Turkey's southeast. His mother tongue is Turkish.

Ocalan's capture in exile 25 years ago shocked his supporters © THOMAS COEX / AFP

He became a left-wing activist while studying politics at university in Ankara, and did his first stint in prison in 1972.

He set up the PKK six years later, then spent years on the run, launching the movement's armed struggle in 1984.

Taking refuge in Syria, he led the fight from there, causing friction between Damascus and Ankara.

Forced out in 1998 and with the net closing in, Ocalan raced from Russia to Italy to Greece in search of a haven, ending up at the Greek consulate in Kenya, where US agents got wind of his presence and tipped off ally Ankara.

Lured into a vehicle and told he would be flown to the Netherlands, Ocalan was instead handed over to Turkish military commandos and flown home on a private plane to face trial.

© 2024 AFP

Sunspots and solar flares, created by the sun’s magnetism, can affect the Earth’s surface

The Conversation
December 30, 2024 

Sun and Earth (Shutterstock)


Since ancient times, the sun has been known as a giver of light and heat, a source of life. Plants are coaxed from the Earth by its rays, bringing spring, followed by bountiful harvests.

The Earth itself was found to have mystical properties when lore from China spread the use of compass magnets to find the north direction. In 1600, after centuries of western compass use, William Gilbert, Queen Elizabeth I’s personal physician, produced a book about magnets that also described the whole Earth as one.

American astrophysicist George Ellery Hale gained fame by building the largest telescope in the world in the mid-20th century. Hale started his career studying the sun, and using polarized light, he showed that certain areas of the sun were highly magnetic, with fields thousands of times stronger than Earth’s. This magnetism was strongest in dark regions called sunspots.



A close-up of a sunspot captured in March 2014. (NASA Goddard)

In the 17th century, Galileo used the newly developed telescope to reveal that the sun was blemished with spots. He observed many of their properties, including that they showed the sun to rotate each month, and that their size changed over time. Although Galileo conducted some experiments with magnets in the form of lodestones used as crude compasses, he certainly did not make a connection to sunspots.

Observed changes

Sunspots captured astronomers’ interest, and with the expanding availability and quality of telescopes, were closely tracked until 1645. Despite huge interest in them, astronomers could find no sunspots for a 70-year period known as the Maunder minimum.

Then, in 1715, they mysteriously started to appear again. In the period since, sunspots have come and gone on a cycle that appears to be about 11 years long, referred to as the solar cycle, with the number of sunspots varying between zero and hundreds. Until 1859, attempts to explain solar cycles by linking them with other cyclical phenomena would have been classed as astrological, envisaging a connection between the heavens and Earth that is not real.

In 1859, Richard Carrington, a wealthy brewery owner and amateur astronomer, was sketching sunspots when, to his amazement, one turned abruptly from darkness to light.

This explosive “solar flare” lasted only a few minutes, but within two days was followed by a huge auroral and magnetic storm referred to as the Carrington Event. Auroras, normally restricted to near-polar latitudes, were seen worldwide. The technology of the day was affected, with telegraph systems running without their batteries or bursting into flames.

It is debated what the effects of a similar event would be on our modern technology, since there haven’t been any of that magnitude since. However, it was not immediately clear in 1859 that the sun and Earth really could be linked, and many thought that the solar flare and later storm were only coincidentally related.



George Ellery Hale developed imaging allowing him to see vortex flow in the sun that reminded him of the magnetic field of a bar magnet. (G. E. Hale)
Effects of solar magnetism


Hale’s discovery of solar magnetism about 50 years after the Carrington event, along with records showing that auroras had an 11-year cycle similar to that of the sun, formed the basis of our modern understanding of the “solar-terrestrial relationship.”

That relationship is fundamentally based on magnetism. Sunspots themselves store magnetic energy; its pressure allows sunspots to be cooler than the adjacent areas of the sun’s light-emitting surface or photosphere, and thus darker.

Under the right conditions, the magnetic energy can be released in various forms. White light flares like Carrington saw are very rare — more often the magnetic energy is converted to X-rays.


Gravity near the solar surface is about 30 times stronger than that on Earth, so any motion generated by flares rarely escapes from there. Instead, regions above the sunspots can succeed in shooting huge clouds of gas into space called “coronal mass ejections.” If, by chance, one is shot in the direction of our planet, it may cause auroral storms.



The last solar cycle (24) was weak but this one (25, prediction in red) is coming on much stronger than anticipated. Purple lines are averages, spiky black lines are counts. Current count is almost twice the prediction. The 11-year cycle is obvious; in 2020, for example, virtually no sunspots were seen. (Space Weather Prediction Center, NOAA)


If the magnetism of the active region around the sunspot creates a gas cloud that reaches Earth with a magnetic direction opposite to that discovered by Gilbert in 1600, energy can pour into the near-Earth region. This energy is stored on the nightside, not on the side facing the sun that it came from, and causes auroras.

If the magnetic direction does not align, there may be some compression due to the hot, fast gas cloud, but little else. Right now, we are at or near an unexpectedly large peak in the sunspot number and chances are we will continue to get large magnetic storms like that of May 2024 for possibly as much as a couple of years.

Beauty and danger combine in these events, but they are sure to fascinate.

Martin Connors, Professor of Astronomy, Mathematics, and Physics, Athabasca University


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Polluting shipwrecks are the ticking time-bomb at the bottom of our oceans

The Conversation
December 30, 2024 

Diver and Shipwreck (Sergemi / Shutterstock)

At the bottom of the oceans and seas lie more than 8,500 shipwrecks from two world wars. These wrecks have been estimated to contain as much as 6 billion gallons of oil, as well as munitions, toxic heavy metals and even chemical weapons.

For decades, these wrecks have largely lain out of sight and out of mind. But all this time, their structures have been degrading, inexorably increasing the chances of sudden releases of toxic substances into the marine environment.

In parts of the globe, climate change is exacerbating this risk. Rising ocean temperatures, acidification and increasing storminess accelerate the breakdown of these wrecks.


Of course, wrecks from the world wars are far from the only ones to be found at the bottom of the sea, with many others adding to the problem. The cost of addressing this global issue has been estimated at US$340 billion (£261 billion).

How many of these wrecks pose a threat to people’s safety, to coastal communities and to the environment? What can be done – and why haven’t we done it sooner?
Mapping the problem


The raw figures in dollars and the numbers of wrecks on the map rightly cause concern. Work by researchers such as Paul Heersink have drawn together different datasets to help visualize the scale of the challenge. Yet these figures, and the position of dots on maps, may also give a false sense of certainty.

It remains the case that the world’s oceans and seas are not as well mapped as we would like, with about 23% having been described and mapped in detail. Even that level of detail often falls short of what we need to positively identify a wreck, let alone determine the risk it might pose.

There is an ongoing global push to improve our mapping of ocean space under the auspices of the Seabed 2030 project, which is looking to reach a universal resolution of 100x100m. That means one “pixel” of information would be equivalent to about two football pitches. This will be transformative for our understanding of the ocean floor, but will not reveal the detail of all those things that you could hide within those two football pitches (which includes quite a few wrecks).


Many of the wrecks that may pose the greatest problems are found in shallower coastal waters, where government mapping initiatives and work by industry provide much higher resolutions, yet still the challenge of identification remains.

What about archival records? Historical records, such as those held by Lloyd’s Register Foundation in London, are fundamental to bringing greater certainty to the scale and nature of the challenge. They contain the details of ship structures, cargos carried and last known positions prior to loss.

The accuracy of those positions, however, is variable, meaning that knowing exactly where on the seabed a wreck might be, and so how to survey it and assess its risk, is not straightforward. This is placed in stark relief by the work of British maritime archaeologist Innes McCartney and oceanographer Mike Roberts, whose detailed geophysical and archival investigations in the Irish Sea demonstrated that historic wrecks have been frequently misattributed and mislocated. This means that the dots on the map are often in the wrong places, and up to 60% can be sitting in unknown locations on the sea floor.

A race against time

Most of the wrecks causing greatest concern are of metal, or metal and wood construction. The steel in these wrecks is slowly degrading, increasing the chance of cargos being spilt, and components breaking down. However, this is only part of the risk.

The sea is becoming an ever busier place, as we carry out more intensive fishing and ramp up the construction of offshore wind farms and other energy installations to meet net zero commitments. These all affect the seabed and can physically disturb or change the dynamics of wreck sites.

There is increasing global recognition of the need to address this problem. It has remained unresolved to date because of the complex international and interdisciplinary challenge it poses.

Many of the wrecks lie in waters off countries that have nothing to do with the original owner of the ship. How then, do we determine who is responsible? And who pays for the clean-up – especially when the original owner benefits from the legal loophole of sovereign immunity? Under this concept, the flag State (the country where the ship is registered) cannot be held responsible under international law and therefore is not legally obliged to pay up.

Beyond these fundamental questions of responsibility, there are technical challenges. It’s difficult to know exactly how many wrecks of concern there are, and how to locate them. So how do we assess their condition and determine if intervention is needed? And if so, how do we intervene?

Each of these questions is a complex challenge, and solving them requires the contributions of historians, archaeologists, engineers, biologists, geophysicists, geochemists, hydrographic surveyors, geospatial data analysts and engineers.


This has already been happening, with regional projects making critical headway and demonstrating what can be achieved. However, the immense scale of the problem outweighs the amount of work done to date.

New technologies are clearly critical, as are new attitudes. At the heart of the problem is an issue of knowledge and certainty – is this the wreck we think it is, does it pose a problem and if so, over what time scale?

Advances in subsea drones known as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), which are fitted with an array of sensors to measure the seabed and detect pollutants, could help enhance our knowledge about the locations of wrecks, what they’re carrying and their state of deterioration. AUVs can provide relatively cheap, high resolution data that produces fewer emissions than a comparable survey campaign conducted from a large research vessel.

But we also need to share that information, and compare it with data from archives to help generate knowledge and higher levels of certainty. Too often, underwater surveys and investigations occur in silos, with data held by individual agencies or companies, preventing a rapid and cumulative increase in understanding.

The severity of the environmental and safety risk posed by wrecks on the ocean floor, and how it changes over time, is not fully known. But this is a problem we can solve.

Action is needed now, driven by a robust regulatory and funding framework, and technical standards for remediation. A global partnership – codenamed Project Tangaroa – has been convened to stimulate that framework – but political will and financing is required to make it a reality.

Through targeted archival and survey work, and by sharing data and ideas, we can chart a course to a future where the sea is not a place where we ignore things today that will threaten us tomorrow.


Fraser Sturt, Professor of Archaeology, University of Southampton

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Panama marks canal handover anniversary in shadow of Trump threat

Agence France-Presse
December 31, 2024 

The Panama Canal generates six percent of Panama's national economic output and 20 percent of its fiscal revenues (ARNULFO FRANCO/AFP)

by Juan Jose Rodriguez

Panama on Tuesday will mark the 25th anniversary of the United States' handover of its interoceanic canal, a milestone overshadowed by Donald Trump's threat to demand control be returned to Washington.

The anniversary comes two days after the death of former US president Jimmy Carter, at age 100, who signed the canal treaties that led to the vital waterway's transfer on December 31, 1999.

Trump, who will return to the White House on January 20, sparked anger among Panamanians by recently saying that Washington would demand the canal "be returned to us" if Panama could not ensure its "secure, efficient and reliable operation."

The US president-elect slammed what he called "ridiculous" fees for US ships passing through the canal and even alleged, without evidence, that Chinese soldiers were "lovingly, but illegally, operating" the channel.

"There's nothing that unites Panamanians more than the defense of the canal," political scientist Sabrina Bacal said.

"But having a tense relationship with the superpower, the main trading partner and main user of the canal, is a very disadvantageous situation for a country like Panama," she told AFP.

Francisco Cedeno, a 51-year-old graphic designer, described Trump's threats as "completely nonsensical."

"He should first try to resolve his country's many problems and forget about the canal," Cedeno said.

- 'The people don't benefit' -

AFP U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has demanded Panama return control of the canal to the United States

An estimated five percent of global maritime traffic passes through the Panama Canal, which was inaugurated in 1914 and allows ships to avoid the long, hazardous route around the southern tip of South America.

The United States is its main user, accounting for 74 percent of cargo, followed by China with 21 percent.

The canal generates six percent of Panama's national economic output and 20 percent of its fiscal revenues.

Since 2000 it has pumped around $28 billion into state coffers.


However, many Panamanians say they have not felt the benefits.

"We Panamanians should not be as poor as we are because the canal brings in a lot of money," said Clotilde Sanchez, a 55-year-old cleaner in Panama City's banking district.

"The people don't benefit from the canal, only politicians do," said her colleague Nadili Perez, 40.

According to Bacal, the political scientist, "this feeling of not benefiting from the canal has existed for years, but the reality is that the canal is the main source of wealth for Panamanians."

The anniversary will be celebrated with a ceremony led by Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino and canal administrator Ricaurte Vasquez.

A march is planned in honor of around 20 Panamanians killed in 1964 after students tried to raise a Panamanian flag in the former "Canal Zone," a US enclave that had its own military bases, police and justice system.

The canal handover came after Carter went back on a campaign promise during his first year in office and decided to cede management of the waterway.

The treaties he signed with Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos on September 7, 1977 "put an end to an era of subjugation and began a period of independence and dignity," former president Martin Torrijos, the nationalist leader's son, told AFP.

"Any attempt to reverse or violate our sovereignty will be condemned and rejected by all Panamanians," he added.

Mulino has ruled out negotiations with Trump over control of the canal, and denied that China had any influence over it.


"There are no Chinese soldiers in the canal, for the love of God," he said.

© Agence France-Presse

MAGA Civil War Erupts Between Musk, Critics Over H-1B Visas

A war between High Tech Corporate leaders and the anti-immigrant MAGA base.

By Emily Brooks

December 29, 2024

Source: The Hill

A Trump World civil war has erupted over visas for highly skilled workers, with the president-elect’s new tech industry allies like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on one side and the anti-immigration MAGA base on the other.

The clash is a preview of the challenges in holding the Trump coalition together as his administration executes his immigration policy, an issue that drove his 2024 victory.

But while President-elect Trump has promised to shut down illegal immigration at the southern border and start a mass deportation effort, the latest debate concerns immigrants here legally — exposing a larger, sometimes racist, anti-immigrant sentiment on the right.

The debate was sparked by Trump on Sunday when he announced he was appointing Sriram Krishnan to be a White House policy adviser on artificial intelligence. Krishnan quickly came under fire for a November post suggesting immigration changes: “Anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.”

Far-right provocateur Laura Loomer called the comments “alarming,” accusing Krishnan of supporting foreigners being able to “come to the US and take jobs that should be given to American STEM students.”

The bulk of the discussion began to center on the H-1B visa program, an employer-sponsored visa intended for high-skilled professionals that is used mostly for computer-related and tech jobs. Congress has capped that program at 65,000 per year plus an additional 20,000 for foreign professionals who graduate with a master’s degree or doctorate from a U.S. college or university.

Those in the MAGA base argue that the visa program is used to undercut American workers.

Some of the online reaction was overtly racist against Indians. By law, no more than 7 percent of green cards issued per year may be given to applicants from any one country. The vast majority of pending applicants are from India. And Indian workers make up the bulk of H-1B recipients, accounting for 72 percent of those approved in fiscal 2023.

A wave of Trump supporters in the tech industry, meanwhile, voiced support for bringing in high-skilled foreign workers.

Musk, who has become a close ally of Trump since the election, argued in a post on his social platform X that Silicon Valley often turns to immigrants because there are too few U.S.-born engineers. The tech billionaire, who was born in South Africa, once held an H-1B visa himself.

“OF COURSE my companies and 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,” the Tesla and SpaceX head said. “HOWEVER, there is a dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America.”

Ramaswamy, co-chair of Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) alongside Musk, previously called to “gut” the H-1B visa program during his own presidential campaign. But he chimed in on the debate by blaming the lack of U.S.-born engineers on American culture, suggesting that it has “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long,” pointing to pop culture examples like the sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and characters Zach and Slater being “venerated” over the school nerd Screech.

His comments were not received well by fellow conservatives. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley slammed Ramaswamy, arguing that there is “nothing wrong with American workers or American culture.”

“All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have,” she wrote on X. “We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Other Silicon Valley conservatives, such as venture capitalists David Sacks and Joe Lonsdale, also weighed in on the debate, arguing in favor of greater high-skilled immigration.

Sacks, who is set to serve as White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency, came to Krishnan’s defense and emphasized that he was calling for the elimination of per-country caps on green cards, not all limitations on green cards.

“Supporting a limited number of highly skilled immigrants is still a prevalent view on the right. Sriram is definitely not a ‘career leftist’!” Sacks said, responding to Loomer’s comments about Krishnan.

Lonsdale, who has reportedly been involved in DOGE planning efforts alongside Musk and Ramaswamy, said he is “against more low-end H1B immigrants” but argued the U.S. should “win at the talent game.”

Another type of foreign worker visa, the O-1 visa, is designed for “individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement” and has no caps, but it is awarded to far fewer individuals every year than H-1B visas.

The main players aimed to smooth things over. Musk agreed with a post on X that said the H-1B visa system is used to bring in “brilliant engineers” but is also “poorly implemented and abused like crazy,” with Musk responding: “Exactly.”

Sacks also seemed keen to bridge the growing divide, emphasizing that he “completely” trusts incoming White House Deputy chief for policy Stephen Miller to handle immigration policy.

“What I oppose is a baseless witch hunt against a highly qualified American for a role as A.I. adviser,” he added.

Musk, Ramaswamy and Sacks are part of a growing contingent of Silicon Valley conservatives who are headed to Washington to join the incoming Trump administration after supporting the president-elect during the campaign.

While Silicon Valley has long been considered a liberal bastion, divisions emerged within the industry earlier this year as more tech executives, including former Democratic donors, backed Trump.

Musk, who poured at least $250 million into the race to boost Trump, has become a key figure in the president-elect’s inner circle, beyond his formal position as DOGE co-chair. The tech billionaire played a central role in tanking a bipartisan deal for year-end funding in Congress earlier this month, with some jokingly referring to him as “President Musk.”

The new prominence of Musk in Republican circles adds a layer of complication to those who oppose him on immigration policy.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who is set to co-chair a DOGE subcommittee in the next Congress, echoed parts of Ramaswamy’s call for a stronger culture aimed at work while also criticizing the H-1B program.

“Put down the selfie light, and go apply for a job and replace the H1-B visa holders and all the other skilled labor jobs that foreign workers are taking and American companies are desperately trying to hire,” Greene posted on X.

Still, the relatively new alignment between MAGA World and Silicon Valley conservatives is already showing signs of fraying.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whom Trump tapped to serve as his attorney general before bowing out due to an ethics scandal, argued that conservatives did not ask tech executives to get involved in immigration policy.

“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,” Gaetz wrote on X. “We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy.”

In a likely subtle response to the division, Miller — an architect of Trump’s immigration policy in his first term — posted an excerpt from Trump’s 2020 Independence Day eve speech from Mt. Rushmore that said “only America, no other place” could have produced icons like the Wright brothers, the Tuskegee Airmen, Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali.

Ramaswamy sought to find common ground with Miller, arguing in a repost that this is “exactly the American spirit we need to revive.”

Trump himself, meanwhile, has been quiet on the issue as the debate has raged on X, posting on Friday instead about the death of attorney David Rivkin and the engagement of Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Ainsley Earhardt.

But Trump in 2016 had criticized the H-1B program, saying it imported foreign workers “for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay.” His first term administration aimed to raise wage requirements for H-1B visas, but the rule was ultimately blocked.

Laura Loomer escalates MAGA feud: Elon Musk using Trump to 'establish a monarchy'

David Edwards
RAW STORY
December 30, 2024

Laura Loomer (Real America's Voice/screen grab)

Right-wing agitator Laura Loomer warned her MAGA followers that billionaire Elon Musk was using President-elect Donald Trump to "establish a monarchy" in the United States.

During a Monday interview on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast, Loomer complained she had been demonetized on the X social media platform after criticizing Musk's use of H-1B immigrant visas.

"He is the richest man in the world, and so he kind of orbits President Trump. As I called him out the other day, I said he's a stage five clinger," she opined. "I've been demonetized now, I've had my check mark taken away, [Trump advisers] realize that, well, their input to President Trump is now being overshadowed by the richest man in the world who has these ulterior motives."

"Does he really support MAGA and the America First agenda, or is he trying to push this neo-reactionary political movement so that we can establish a monarchy and have multi-polarity?" she continued. "So I think that he doesn't like the fact that somebody who has direct access to President Trump, as I do, and that's very well known, challenged him in a very public manner."

Loomer argued that it was unacceptable for billionaires like Musk "to have this much power and this much access so that not only are they gonna have government access to our money and government influence, as we saw over the spending bill, by threatening primaries against people who don't comply with his wishes."

"But this is a guy who gets government subsidies for defense contracts and now wants to silence people who challenge him online," she complained.

Bannon praised Loomer for escalating the public spat with Musk.

"It's unfortunate that things have escalated, it's unfortunate that the MAGA base has had to sustain abuse from the richest man in the world, being called re---ds and saying F you in the face, okay?" Loomer replied. "I do believe that this tech infiltration is the greatest threat to our country and humanity as a whole."

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

Bannon demands reparations from 'sociopathic' Elon Musk: 'Not going to have a group hug!'

David Edwards
December 30, 2024 

Real America's Voice/screen grab

Right-wing influencer Steve Bannon doubled down on his battle against billionaire Elon Musk over the use of immigrant visas that Bannon claims take jobs away from Americans.

After Musk defended H-1B visas last week, Bannon returned to his War Room podcast on Monday to attack the billionaire on behalf of his MAGA followers.

"Elon Musk has already surrendered," he insisted. "The H-1B visa program is a total and complete scam to destroy the American worker. Because naturally, capitalists always wanna, they always wanna go to the lowest-cost production."

"This is just about a compensation in indentured servants, basically quasi-slave labor in our own country by the enlightened oligarchs of Silicon Valley," he continued. "This is like the Borgias or the Medici's from Renaissance Italy, kind of these nation-states where Silicon Valley and these oligarchs are the feudal lords or the, as Ben Harnwell says, sociopathic overlords."

"No, we're not gonna get together and have a group hug!"

Bannon argued that H-1B visas were why corporate America enjoyed high-profit margins.

"They bring indentured servants over here," he said. "So you're gonna be an indentured servant, just like many of our great, great grandparents did coming in the 19th century, before we broke indentured servitude. And we're gonna break it here."

"There need to be massive reparations from the sociopathic overlords," he added.

Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.

'Doesn’t understand what makes America great': Conservative columnist shreds Ramaswamy

Erik De La Garza
December 30, 2024 

Vivek Ramaswamy (Photo by Marco Bello for Reuters)

The recent dust-up in MAGA world created by Vivek Ramaswamy’s throwing blame on America’s supposed cultural problem is a glaring misunderstanding of the sources of American success, according to conservative columnist David Brooks.

Perhaps Ramaswamy, the tech billionaire tapped by the incoming president to slash government spending, “doesn’t understand what makes America great,” Brooks wrote Monday in a stinging takedown of Ramaswamy for the Atlantic.

He also isn’t quite right about everything he preached, the columnist added.

“For example, he describes a nation awash in lazy mediocrity, yet America has the strongest economy in the world,” Brooks told readers. “American workers are among the most productive, and over the past few years American productivity has been surging.”

Brooks continued to make the case against Ramaswamy’s theory by suggesting that American culture isn’t as hostile to “nerdy kids” as he implies.

“This is a culture that puts The Big Bang Theory on our TV screens and The Social Network in the movie theaters,” Brooks said. “Haven’t we spent many years lionizing Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Sam Altman?”

Brooks also questioned whether Ramaswamy understands “what thinking is.”

“He seems to believe that the only kind of thinking that matters is solving math problem sets. But one of the reasons we evolved these big brains of ours is so we can live in groups and navigate social landscapes,” he wrote.

Brooks added that the COVID-19 pandemic showed that the country may not be a master of compliance and rule-following, "but we have a flair for dynamism, creativity, and innovation."

He concluded his piece by reminding Ramaswamy that Donald Trump was propelled back into office in large part by “non–college graduates whose highest abilities manifest in largely nonacademic ways.”

He also thinks Ramaswamy is on the wrong side of how to fix American culture, and opined that the entrepreneur used Trump's reelection "as an occasion to tiger-mom the hell out of us."

Nearly half of Republicans support military sending illegal immigrants to internment camps

Erik De La Garza
December 30, 2024 


Nearly half of Republicans support President-elect Donald Trump deploying U.S. military forces to detain undocumented immigrants in internment camps until they can be deported, according to a new poll.

The findings suggest that Trump’s controversial mass deportation program – which he has acknowledged includes plans to declare a national emergency and use “military assets” to support operations – has the backing of his base even as the program is still unpopular with most Americans.

The survey from the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute found that 46 percent of Republicans support using the military to lock up immigrants in internment camps before their deportations. Nearly a fifth of independents said the same, while just 8 percent of Democrats responded positively to the proposal touted by the incoming president.

Other findings included 82 percent of “voters who score very high or high on the Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (RWAS) report strongly supporting Trump,” while “voters who score very low or low overwhelmingly supported Harris (79%).”

The survey’s results seemed to come as a surprise to PRRI president and founder Robert Jones.

“There have been questions in the Trump era where I’ve thought … I can’t believe that we need to know the answer to this question,” Jones told Axios. “I guess the good news is that three-quarters of the country rejects this idea that we should be putting immigrants in the country illegally into internment camps guarded by the military.”

Other notable poll findings include 63% of Republican voters expressing the most confidence "that Trump will not use government power to exact political revenge, compared with 34% of independent voters, and just 6% of Democratic voters.”

Brennancenter.orgwww.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/posse-comitatus-act-explained

The Posse Comitatus Act Explained | Brennan Center for Justice

Oct 14, 2021 ... The Posse Comitatus Act Explained ... The law generally prevents the president from using the military as a domestic police force. ... The Posse ...

Trump stirs pot as he appears to support letting Shark Tank star spearhead Canada merger

Sarah K. Burris
December 30, 2024 

President-elect Donald Trump took to his social media site to stir speculation that he intends to merge Canada with the United States.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump reshared a screenshot of a report that Shark Tank co-

host and Canadian Kevin O'Leary — not Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or any other Canadian leaders — would discuss the merger of the two countries.

Trump shared the report after O'Leary told Fox News that he was headed to Mar-a-Lago to "start the narrative" about merging the two countries because "We don't want Trudeau negotiating this deal."

"Think about the power of combining the two economies," O'Leary said.

Other than a hostile takeover of the country, his ideas include a European Union-style passport that would allow Americans and Canadians to move in and out of Canada for housing or work, an open trade agreement, and the use of the same currency, presumably the U.S. dollar.

Canada has a population of just over 41 million citizens in its 10 provinces and three territories. But it is a country with a land mass slightly more expansive than the U.S.
LAND MASS IS EQUIVALENT TO RUSSIA

Trump has threatened Canada with a massive tariff war. He announced that, through an executive order, he would impose a 25% tax increase on imports from Canada on Jan. 20. Now he appears to be indicating that if Canada joins with the U.S. he would allow completely free trade between the two countries.

In his holiday message, Trump sent a "Merry Christmas" to “Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, whose Citizens’ Taxes are far too high, but if Canada was to become our 51st State, their Taxes would be cut by more than 60%, their businesses would immediately double in size, and they would be militarily protected like no other Country anywhere in the World. Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the U.S. to be there, and we will!...”

It's unclear whether Trump would allow Canadians to vote in the U.S. elections as a "state" or let them have representation in the U.S. House and Senate.