Axios: Silicon Valley Is Coming To Washington, DC

I have three lovely headlines for you this morning.

Axios:

“Venture capitalists spent much of last year blaming government for their dearth of distributions. Those excuses wore pretty thin, but will evaporate come Jan. 20.

The big picture: Silicon Valley is about to influence D.C. like Wall Street once did. …

Behind the scenes: Trump’s implicit endorsement of Musk’s position on H1-B visas, in opposition to longtime MAGA, suggests that the ties run deeper than electoral expediency. And that the red carpet is even more ingrained for “Little Tech” than it was during the Obama years.

The bottom line: Trump 2.0 is shaping up to be an access administration for Silicon Valley. …”

Yesterday, I compared the incoming Trump administration and Silicon Valley to the time the railroads took over the federal government after the Civil War. The liberal establishment essentially lost Civil War 2. We kept expecting the culture war to turn violent, but the liberals gave up and surrendered to “fascism” without a fight. They didn’t try to organize a violent rebellion like the old Slave Power. They are now a defeated establishment like the Southern Bourbons in the late 19th century.

The Wrap:

“The year 2024 will be the year media fell apart

The ecosystem of news media has been cracking for two decades, but in 2024 it fully fell apart. While we’ve become accustomed to the bloodletting of constant layoffs in legacy newsrooms (and that’s still happening), now we’re seeing premium talent ditching their jobs to start independent news organizations like Bari Weiss’s Free Press, Oliver Darcy’s Status, Kara Swisher’s podcasts or — like Don Lemon and Megyn Kelly — thriving YouTube channels. …

The year antisemitism found a home on the left

Don’t tell me this has nothing to do with anything because it does. The shocking rise of antisemitism (not “anti-Zionism” or “anti-Israel sentiment”) in mainstream institutions, whether that’s the BBC, Columbia University or Irish and Canadian government offices, augurs badly for good people everywhere. It doesn’t take a trained student of history to know that when societies start demonizing Jews, catastrophe usually ensues for both the Jews and those societies. …

The year DEI hit the wall

It was bound to happen. Pendulums swing, and this pendulum is swinging pretty hard. After a peak national surge to combat racism in the wake of George Floyd’s horrific murder by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020, DEI programs — adopted at C-suite levels at media and entertainment companies — are in retreat across the board. Some executives quit in frustration after concluding there was no real support for prioritizing diversity, while other companies cut departments and positions as part of their broader layoffs. …“

Antisemitism became cool again because the Jewish elite and their legacy media institutions are long in the tooth like 82-year-old Nelson Peltz. Their whole world is crumbling. Many of the people out there on college campuses leading the anti-Israel protests are their anti-Zionist Jewish grandchildren.

Axios:

“Elon Musk hijacked British politics this week with a stream of at least 60 X posts since Tuesday attacking Prime Minister Keir Starmer, defending an anti-Islam campaigner and endorsing the far-right Reform Party.

Why it matters: The right-hand man to America’s next president has gone after the leaders of several of its closest allies in recent months. But his fight with the British government is turning into the nastiest yet.

While Musk’s X microphone was enough to send Westminster into a frenzy, there’s been intense speculation he’ll also open his checkbook for Reform and its Trump-aligned leader, Nigel Farage. …”

Then there is Elon.

Elon’s has pivoted to UK politics since he set off the H-1B visas debate. He has fired off about 60-80 new tweets about the rape of White girls by Muslim gangs in the UK.

Jewish donors like Michael Bloomberg, Nelson Peltz, Sheldon Adelson, Bernie Marcus, Paul Singer and so forth used to be like the sun at the center of American politics. The whole world revolved around their concerns. Elon has replaced them at the center of the political universe.