Trump threatens federal takeover of NYC if socialist nut job wins
Current polling shows Mamdani leading with 35% support ahead of the November 4 general election, followed by Andrew Cuomo at 29%...
President Donald Trump threatened to use federal power to seize control of New York City if "communist" Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor, saying "we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to" and promising to "straighten out New York" from Washington.
Trump called Mamdani "a disaster" and "not very capable", criticizing the 33-year-old democratic socialist's platform including plans to take over grocery stores, while noting that businessman John Catsimatidis called him concerned about his stores being seized.
The president also threatened a federal takeover of Washington D.C., saying "we could run DC" and are "thinking about doing it" to ensure the capital is "run flawlessly" without crime, despite the city being self-governing since 1973.
Vice President JD Vance analyzed Mamdani's coalition as the "inverse" of Trump's, noting the socialist won high-income, college-educated voters but was weakest among Black voters and those without college degrees, questioning whether such a coalition works nationally.
Current polling shows Mamdani leading with 35% support ahead of the November 4 general election, followed by Andrew Cuomo at 29%, Curtis Sliwa at 16%, and incumbent Eric Adams at 14%, while Trump declined to endorse any candidate despite praising Adams.
Betting markets, which have historically been very accurate indicators, show a strong lead for Mamdani as well:
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Trump threatens 35% tariff hike on Canada
The U.S. will impose a 35% tariff on Canadian imports starting August 1, up from the previous 25% rate, though goods complying with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would remain exempt for now, according to President Trump's announcement, Friday.
Trump tied the tariff increase to fentanyl concerns, telling Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that tariffs could be adjusted "upward or downward" depending on Canada's cooperation in stopping fentanyl flow, despite Canadian officials arguing very little fentanyl enters the U.S. from Canada.
The announcement follows the collapse of trade talks after Trump terminated negotiations over what he called an "egregious" Canadian tax targeting U.S. tech companies, though talks resumed after Carney agreed to rescind the tax.
Canada's economy is suffering from trade uncertainty, with unemployment hitting a roughly nine-year high and domestic demand weakening, while trade analysts warn that securing a completely tariff-free relationship with Trump is "unlikely" given trade accounts for one-fifth of Canada's economic output.
Will Trump really deport America’s biggest taxpayer?
President Donald Trump suggested deporting Elon Musk during their public feud, telling reporters "I don't know. We'll have to take a look" when asked if he was threatening to deport his former ally, while also musing that Musk might have to "head back home to South Africa" without EV subsidies.
What grounds would he have to do so?
Musk may have worked illegally in the U.S. in the mid-1990s when founding Zip2 with his brother, potentially providing grounds for denaturalization if he lied about his immigration status, though Musk denies the allegations.
A Washington Post investigation concluded Musk was working illegally while on a student visa, reporting that he never enrolled at Stanford despite coming for graduate school and admitted in a 2005 email that he had "no legal right to stay in the country" when he founded Zip2.
Musk's brother Kimbal previously said "we were illegal immigrants" in a 2013 interview, while Elon called it a "gray area," though Musk later claimed he had proper J-1 and H1-B visas after President Biden accused him of hypocrisy on immigration issues.
Public Speaking and exuding value
Whether you’re pitching to investors, managing a team of employees, or addressing an industry conference, public speaking is an essential skill for then productive and industrious people of the world.
Here’s a framework to improve your public speaking skills today (credit: Sahil Bloom)
1. Study the Best
Find 3–5 speakers you admire. Watch them on YouTube. Pay attention to their structure, pacing, gestures, and audience engagement.
2. Create Clear Structure
Great speakers don’t just talk—they take you on a journey. Build a clear arc and state it upfront so your audience can follow.
3. Build Your Lego Blocks
Practice your key moments—the opening, transitions, punchlines. Perfect these blocks instead of memorizing word-for-word.
4. Address the Spotlight
Overcome the Spotlight Effect by asking “So what?” about your worst fears. The worst-case scenario is rarely as bad as you think.
5. Get Into Character
Create a confident version of yourself. Flip the switch to step into that character before you hit the stage.
6. Eliminate Stress
Use the “physiological sigh”: double-inhale through your nose, long exhale through your mouth. Repeat 2–3 times to calm your nerves.
7. Cut the Tension
Break the ice early with a joke or light moment. It instantly lowers anxiety for you and your audience.
8. Play the Lava Game
Treat your pockets and torso as lava—avoid touching them. This forces big, confident gestures.
9. Move Purposefully
No frantic pacing. Take slow, deliberate steps. Move with intention to command the room.
America’s garbage problem is heating up…
A section of California's Chiquita Canyon Landfill began overheating in early 2022, reaching temperatures above 200°F and releasing toxic gases including hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, and benzene, while creating "leachate geysers" that shot contaminated liquid into the air.
Nearby residents in Val Verde are experiencing serious health problems, including a potential cancer cluster, with resident Brandi Howse developing Stage 3 breast cancer and her family suffering chronic headaches, sinus problems, and nosebleeds from toxic exposure.
The waste industry disputes calling it a "fire," with Waste Connections preferring the term "elevated temperature landfill" (ETLF) and claiming it's not combustion, while regulators and residents believe garbage is smoldering underground due to poor management practices.
This is part of a larger national problem, with at least 10 other U.S. landfills experiencing similar overheating since 2006, affecting over 2 million Americans living within a mile of landfills who face potential exposure to these underground chemical reactions with little warning or protection.
Trump pushes African nations to take deported illegal immigrants
The Trump administration pressed five African presidents (from Liberia, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Gabon) during a White House meeting to accept migrants from other countries who are being deported by the U.S., as part of Trump's effort to speed up deportations through third-country agreements.
The plan involves sending migrants to these African nations while their U.S. asylum cases are still pending, with governments agreeing not to send them back to their home countries until final asylum decisions are made, according to an internal State Department document.
This follows Trump's broader "safe third country" strategy, which has already seen eight migrants from various countries sent to South Sudan after losing a legal battle, while Trump told the African leaders he was shifting U.S. policy from aid to trade partnerships.
Almost no one noticed — which, in this case, says more about the media than about politics: the mere speculation that Elon Musk might launch a new political movement in the U.S. has silently raised alarms behind the scenes of New York’s municipal contest. Not that Musk is a statesman — he’s more of a performative plutocrat with a digital Caesar complex — but the timing of the move reveals something bigger: the American party system, especially in the major progressive metropolises, has suffered a multi-organ failure.
In New York, the leading candidate in the Democratic primaries is Zohran Mamdani — an incendiary leftist activist of identity politics who honors Hamas leaders in teenage rap songs, advocates defunding the police in neighborhoods he himself doesn’t enter, and positions himself as a liberator. The Republicans, meanwhile, in NY, remain anesthetized, lacking leadership, urban base, or language.
In this vacuum, the idea of a third way — well-funded, well-connected, aesthetically moderate but rhetorically aggressive — is not just possible. It’s inevitable. Michael Bloomberg built his career along these lines. And perhaps that’s why Musk is moving. Not because he has civic virtues — but because he senses opportunity where ideological collapse has opened space.
Creating an alternative movement might be the lifeline for a city whose cultural elite has already normalized absurdity, offense censorship, banditry as cultural expression, and racial blackmail as a public policy criterion. New York’s left has reached the point of resembling what they claimed to oppose: intolerant, authoritarian, paranoid, and full of social resentment wrapped in academic vocabulary.
If Musk’s — or whoever embraces this project’s — plan succeeds, it won’t be due to brilliance. It will be due to lack of competition. New York is so mired in slogans and identity fanaticism that any rational alternative, even if wrapped in self-promotion, will seem sensible by comparison.
The question isn’t whether a third way can change the election.
It’s why no one tried sooner.