It was unseasonably warm in New Orleans for No Kings Day. It was the longest I’ve spent on my feet in the heat since my major illness. I was sweaty but happy. We only arranged to meet up with one friend but since we stayed at the edge of the crowd, we ran into a bunch of people. That’s how we roll in New Orleans.
The rally was well attended; the speeches weren’t great but what mattered was being there. I wore my San Francisco Giants Hawaiian shirt in protest of the Dodgers winning the National League pennant. Holy sub-protest, Batman.
Repeat after me: This is a nation founded on protest.
The Frampton Glow: As always, Peter Frampton was great. I was moved by his closing remarks: He discussed his health, urged the crowd to attend a No Kings protest and, above all else, be kind to one another. My post-Frampton glow persists. How could it not after he played three songs from his Humble Pie days including this one, which serves as this post’s theme song:
In addition to being big on theme songs, I am old enough to have seen Peter Frampton with Humble Pie. I am officially older than the fucking hills.
Faking Frampton: One more Frampton note before moving on. Check out this video allegedly about the show I saw:
A true oddity. The name of the theatre is misspelled and instead of Peter Frampton playing guitar, the video shows Roger Waters playing bass. They’ve never looked anything alike. Oy, just oy.
JD Vance: Professional Asshole: The Veep was at Camp Pendleton on Saturday. The Marines were ordered to fire across the freeway as a way to distract attention from how hated the Trump-Vance regime is in Southern California. It was the first time in the base’s 83 year history that this happened. The freeway was closed on the orders of Gov Newsome, not Vance or the Marines.
Who the hell does Vance think he is? Gomer Pyle, USMC? That show was set at Camp Pendleton, after all.
Apologies for the slur against Gomer Pyle. He was a sweet simpleton and beloved bumpkin. JD Vance is just a professional asshole, unrepentant for causing this:
MAGA Canary In A Coalmine? Marge Taylor-Greene continues to surprise with her critiques of the Kaiser of Chaos and Speaker Yellowbelly. She wants the Epstein files released, and the government reopened. She’s called male GOPers weak, which confirms that this display of dissidence is because she’s a woman and MAGA is all about performative dick waving.
Is Marge a MAGA canary in a coalmine?
Mamdani Takes Manhattan: On Saturday, I wrote about how the losing candidates misread the voters’ mood in the New Orleans Mayor’s race. The same thing has happened in the New York mayoral campaign. The best thing I’ve read about this is by Frank Rich in NY Magazine, The Power Breaker. A great title evoking the Robert Caro classic, The Power Broker.
Rich’s closing is to die for:
But Mamdani’s secret power, I’d argue, is that he can never be president. As the U.S. Constitution states in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, “No person except a natural born Citizen” is eligible for that high office. (I dare say that Americans of all political persuasions agree this may be the one constitutional clause Trump will not try to overturn.) Mamdani is not angling to go to Washington or be anointed the “savior” of the Democratic Party, does not want to broker the Middle East, and does not want to flee to Florida. An immigrant who fell in love with his family’s adopted city and country, he is a politician who actually wants to do the job he is running for. That is a truly radical idea.”
It looks like Mira Nair’s kid will take Manhattan, after all:
Repeat after me: Andrew Cuomo can go fuck himself.
When Andrew Met Jack: Finally, I somehow missed the first wave of reporting about Andrew Weissmann’s interview of Jack Smith. It was my first extended look at the former Special Counsel. I liked what I saw so much that it evoked the title of the classic romcom, When Harry Met Sally. There were, however, no fake orgasms during the interview.
The last word goes to Andrew Weissmann and Jack Smith: