US Political News and Trump’s China visit

[Davey Crockett]

That's surprising to hear. What pushed you and others to reconsider Trump? Is it a deeper shift, or more of a reaction to recent events?

Do a search for Fred Trump and look at my posts.

See it in the clothes people wear. I work at a truck stop and meet over a hundred people from all over. MAGA wear went way down starting with the Iran strikes.

Going on three weeks not noticing any MAGA wear.

 

[Davey Crockett]

By election season, TikTok wasn’t just an app. It was a battleground, a real-time arena for shaping public opinion, swaying young minds, and tracking political sentiment faster than any pollster could.
And that’s where my concern comes in. The current frontrunners to buy TikTok, Kevin O’Leary (a Canadian businessman), Steve Mnuchin, and Larry Ellison, are all openly supportive of Trump. That’s their right, of course. But what worries me is what happens when a politically powerful algorithm lands in the hands of people who have an interest in shaping the narrative. We’ve seen what happened when Elon Musk took over Twitter, mainstream content moderation gave way to fringe voices, conspiracy theories, and coordinated disinformation. If TikTok is steered, even subtly to amplify one side, that could warp the political landscape for millions of young voters who rely on the app as a news source.

Nearly twenty years ago I was warning dissidents the future of the resistance will be face to face.

By dissidents, I mean people who want to opt out of Crazy Town and the Police State, work together to rebuild small communities.

Longtime Democratic Speaker of the US House was known for the maxim, "All politics is local."

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I hear where you're coming from on mixed-income housing. It often sounds promising on paper, but the way it plays out can be deeply frustrating. Still, I think the idea has real merit, if done right. Creating economically diverse communities could help prevent the concentrated poverty dynamics we’ve seen in older public housing models.

But without strong rules and real accountability, it doesn’t just fall short, it can backfire. When middle-income residents are expected to tolerate repeated issues without meaningful recourse, and the unspoken “solution” is for them to quietly leave, the entire model becomes unsustainable.

Massachusetts has been a testing ground for many of these initiatives, so I understand the skepticism. Even the best funding structures or design principles won't mean much if you can’t maintain basic safety and order. That’s the missing piece. Without it, a promising concept risks becoming a cautionary tale.

Washington has also been experimenting with mixed-income housing. A few developments exist in my own city, and I’m following how they evolve.

Massachusetts liberals have a knack for ruining things by force feeding the worst parameters.

For instance the city of Quincy spent a lot of money building a state of the art facility for the elderly and physically handicapped. A big ribbon cutting ceremony and everything.

Then Liberal Boston decided it was too expensive to take care of gang members who were shooting each other causing them to end up in wheelchairs or worse. They then asked the State to have them dumped into this new Quincy facility and of course the state strong-armed Quincy into accepting them. Of course being in a wheelchair didn’t stop them from conducting business on-site. The whole place ended up living in fear with seedy characters roaming the hallways of the most vulnerable in our population.

But of course Boston Liberals solved their problems in the usual way by dumping it on somebody else.

As I have noted before Boston now has a shortage of low incoming housing with all these sanctuary city asylum seekers being bused in by Texas.

Towns are now on $100M+ new school building sprees to intentionally overload their budgets so they won’t be forced to fund low income apartment buildings.

Waltham High School welcomes students after most expensive public school project in state - Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News

WALTHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Students were back in class Tuesday for their first day of school in the brand new, state-of-the-art Waltham High School.The $374<a class="excerpt-read-more"...

whdh.com

$374Million!

 

[FuturePAF]

MAGA comes for all. So for those like Vivek that think they can win over through their views should see the limits of the latitude they are allowed.

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[FuturePAF]

The longer the Israeli Genocide in Gaza goes on, the image of Israel will keep sinking amongst MOST Americans under 50, and many over 50.

For Americans it comes down to why do we have to care about Israel.

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[Davey Crockett]

NYC mayoral election poll (Gotham Polling & Analytics, 6/30-7/2, 1000 voters): Mamdani (D) 41%, Cuomo (I) 26%, Adams (I) 16%, Sliwa (R) 9%. 51% of voters say they would never vote for incumbent mayor Eric Adams; 46% say the same about Zohran Mamdani, and 39% say the same about Andrew Cuomo.​

 

[FuturePAF]

@RabzonKhan

The Democratic Party needs to mail each and everyone of the most likely to be effected people that once voted democrat (as well as likely to switch to vote independents and republicans) how badly this bill will screw them over and point to how the 2017 Trump tax cuts screwed them mover in 2021 to 2025 as proof that Trump is doing this to them again.

Then list their representatives in the house and senate that screwed them over so they know who to blame.

This has to be a key part of the messaging.

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[FuturePAF]

Latest NYC mayoral poll. For Mamdani to win, he will have to increase his efforts in the African American community, Asian American community, and lower middle class New Yorkers. Trying to win over Adams voters, as well as reluctant Cuomo voters. Sliwa’s voters seem solidly with him. Walden voters will probably break for Cuomo or Sliwa. Mamdani will have to try to convince those looking to vote “other” or are undecided to come his way. Also this will probably come down to a get out the vote effort. So everyone inside New York that wants Mamdani will have to be convinced to vote, preferably early to lock to make sure no weather event prevents voters from voting. This election can’t be taken for granted.

From the Asian American voters I have talked to, beyond the common concerns like every other voter, there is also the heightened fear of public disorder, the rent freezes hurting businesses many own or work at, and the fear of socialism/communism in general.

Many African American voters fear increased alienation, that seemed to have subsided with the Adams administration and its outreach efforts in the community.

Many working and middle class people also fear their jobs won’t give them pay raises as part of union collective bargaining.

A lot of issues Mamdani will have to come up with a way to address.

ONLY 120 days till Election Day. Only 4 months to go.

American Pulse Research & Polling:

Mamdani 35.2%
Cuomo 29.0%
Sliwa 16.1%
Adams 13.8%
Walden 1.4%
Other 1.2%
Not Sure: 3.3%

 

[sambody]

MAGA comes for all. So for those like Vivek that think they can win over through their views should see the limits of the latitude they are allowed.

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That is very disingenuous. That interview of Vivek with Kim Reynolds is about 2 years old, long before he signed on to MAGA.

 

[sambody]

Latest NYC mayoral poll. For Mamdani to win, he will have to increase his efforts in the African American community,

That should be easy enough. He had described himself as African American in his rejected Columbia application, even though he was not yet an American citizen at that time.

 

[FuturePAF]

That is very disingenuous. That interview of Vivek with Kim Reynolds is about 2 years old, long before he signed on to MAGA.

The pattern is not how old the original video being quoted is, it’s about the traction prominent members of MAGA are getting referencing these videos when the anti-immigrant sentiment (Trump’s denaturalization memo; a tool that is used to remove only dozens per year that is being spoken about like it will be used to take out so many more people on trumped up charges) is being fanned at the moment. It’s a purity test based on birth. It’s an old nativist urge that has come time and time again, during periods of high immigration, in American history.

 

[sambody]

The pattern is not how old the original video being quoted is, it’s about the traction prominent members of MAGA are getting referencing these videos when the anti-immigrant sentiment is being fanned at the moment. It’s a purity test based on birth. It’s an old nativist urge that has come time and time again, during periods of high immigration, in American history.

That may or not be true, but it doesn't change the fact that the guy who made the video is disingenuously trying to use an interview from when Vivek was against Trump to make the point that MAGA targets even those who have converted.

 

[FuturePAF]

That may or not be true, but it doesn't change the fact that the guy who made the video is disingenuously trying to use an interview from when Vivek was against Trump to make the point that MAGA targets even those who have converted.

He is commenting on the MAGA efforts being directed at Vivek, considering he is trying to run for governor in Ohio soon. There is a recent uptick and specifically directed at Vivek. It’s wrong as Vivek is a legal citizen.

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[sambody]

He is commenting on the MAGA efforts being directed at Vivek, considering he is trying to run for governor in Ohio soon. There is a recent uptick and specifically directed at Vivek. It’s wrong as Vivek is a legal citizen.

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There is a huge difference between what was discussed in that old interview and what nutjobs on social media are saying. The video is falsely conflating the two.

 

[j_hungary]

Even though I’ve never used TikTok, haven’t even visited the site, it’s very much on my radar. I follow its developments closely, because whether we like it or not, TikTok has become one of the most politically influential platforms in America. In fact, young voters, women, Latino, and Black Americans are overrepresented on TikTok compared to their share of the general population. That’s why both the Trump and Biden campaigns couldn’t afford to ignore it in 2024, even though both had previously supported banning it.

By election season, TikTok wasn’t just an app. It was a battleground, a real-time arena for shaping public opinion, swaying young minds, and tracking political sentiment faster than any pollster could.

And that’s where my concern comes in. The current frontrunners to buy TikTok, Kevin O’Leary (a Canadian businessman), Steve Mnuchin, and Larry Ellison, are all openly supportive of Trump. That’s their right, of course. But what worries me is what happens when a politically powerful algorithm lands in the hands of people who have an interest in shaping the narrative. We’ve seen what happened when Elon Musk took over Twitter, mainstream content moderation gave way to fringe voices, conspiracy theories, and coordinated disinformation. If TikTok is steered, even subtly to amplify one side, that could warp the political landscape for millions of young voters who rely on the app as a news source.

Trump’s tariff war is already hitting small businesses harder than anyone seems willing to admit. I completely understand the business challenges you’ve been facing, three of my close friends have also experienced serious consequences. Two used to import Chinese-made products and sell them on Amazon, but their inventories dried up and they’ve stopped restocking because of unpredictable tariffs ranging from 30% to 55%. Another had a supply deal through a major U.S. franchise that’s now collapsing, he’ll be out of business in a few weeks if things don’t change. These aren’t theoretical impacts. This is real loss, in real time.

And now, with Trump threatening a 70% tariff on countries without a finalized deal by July 9th, the climate of fear and paralysis is only deepening. And for entrepreneurs, uncertainty is a slow, corrosive poison. You can’t plan for chaos. You can’t invest in limbo. And as both of us agree, the damage here isn’t just economic, it’s systemic. The rules keep changing, and in business, that’s the one thing you simply can’t afford.

That's the issue here, China will never sell TikTok, they share the same algorithm with Bytedance owned Douyin, giving them Tiktok is the same as asking Bytedance to give their algorithm to the US, that's a very productive counter-intelligence tool which I would imagine they won't be sharing to anyone that close to Trump, if there were ever a deal, it would be just the Business is bought off with the right (So basically transfer all assets to the US and Bytedance keep everything digital)

But Tiktok is just one corner of the battlefield Trump don't want us to see, the thing is, we are 3 days from July 9, and if there are any deal to be done, it's not going to matter for 3 days, which mean if there are suitable deal indeed, we would have know already. Which mean either Trump is going to go in gun blazing or extend the deadline (Which I highly suggest it would be latter rather than former) which mean the logistic issue is not going to be taken care of in the next 90 days, by then we will already been in Christmas/Black Friday shopping time, it's not going to be able to sustain, because it take around 40 days for anything to travel from China to the US by ship. You need another month or so to make those product, so if this is not settled by July/August, we are looking at a full blown products crisis. The fun part is, this is not the issue, the issue here is if there are anything to be sold in the US, you are looking at around 10-25% more across the board, because that's what the Tariff is coming to, even if that settle in Trump favor.

Between this and the Big Beautiful Bill, I don't see how GOP can hold the house in 2026 mid-term, they probably will also lose Senate seat, as long as the Dem present themselves as the more votable solution.