As Close To An Obama Moment You Can Get To These Days

Last night, I attended New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s “New York Is Not For Sale” rally in Forest Hills, Queens. It was the last big rally before the election here next week. Most polls predict Mamdani will win, but as speakers Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders warned last night, Mamdani has powerful enemies in both Washington and Silicon Valley.

And, yes, if Mamdani wins next week, it will be a huge blow to the Trump admin — House Republicans are already brainstorming ways to deport him — but it’ll be a bigger “loss,” in a sense, for the Democratic establishment. Mamdani hasn’t been shy about pitching his campaign as a referendum on the future of the Democratic party. Something Sen. Julia Salazar, on stage last night, leaned into as well. “After we secure this election day victory,” she told the crowd, the “we” there referring to the Democratic Socialists of America. “You can continue to build with us by joining DSA.”

It seems clear that last night was meant to be the DSA’s big display of force: Look at this stadium we can pack. Get in line with a more socialist Democratic Party or get out of the way. And, once again, if the polls are correct, the first big casualty of the Democrat vibe shift is Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo, who is now running against Mamdani as an independent after losing the primary over the summer, has spent the final days of the campaign turning a big dial that says "Racism" on it and constantly looking back at the audience for approval like a contestant on The Price Is Right. There are rumors, which he denies, that he called Trump to ask for him for help with the election. His X account over the weekend posted and then deleted an AI-generated video full of racist stereotypes about Mamdani (and almost every other ethnicity). He also laughed in agreement with a conservative radio host who claimed that Mamdani wanted another 9/11. Not content with his legacy being the deaths thousands of old people during COVID, Cuomo’s predicted loss to Mamdani will have certainly killed his political career and, quite possibly, killed a very specific kind of Democratic candidate, as well. Masterful gambit.

“I really hope Mamdani absolutely crushes in this election. Not because I think he’ll be able to do much differently as mayor,” journalist Lex Roman wrote on Bluesky this morning. “But because it shows the massive popularity of a radical left platform AND the people’s ability to toss out the establishment.”

But it’s still not clear if the Democratic establishment understands this. Mamdani’s rally was largely focused on the kind of feel good vibes that I, personally, haven’t seen since 2008, complete with music, a “resistance” choir, SNL’s Sarah Sherman as emcee, and a press area full of liberal influencers excitedly clipping moments for social. But the veneer of cheeky, squeaky clean fun completely broke down when New York Gov. Kathy Hochul took the stage. Hochul endorsed Mamdani a month ago, well before Democrat bigwigs like Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did, of course. But Mamdani’s supporters completely turned on Hochul before she could even get a word out, much to her apparent surprise.

As Hochul ran through a list of Trump overreach in New York, describing recent ICE arrests and the government shutdown affecting SNAP benefits and healthcare for New Yorkers, the crowd started shouting, “do something,” and “you’re the governor!” They also started interrupting her with loud chants of “tax the rich,” to the point where she finally had to break character and say, “I can hear you.” Things got even worse when Hochul pronounced Mamdani’s name wrong. It was so contentious that Mamdani, almost two hours before he was supposed to take the stage, had to come out and personally walk her off stage.

And it was this mini showdown with Hochul last night that made it clear, for me, that whether Mamdani wins or loses, the outcome, at least for the Democrats, will be the same. As Axios wrote this spring, the Democrat Tea Party is here. It is socialist, populist, very online, and extremely angry. And it hates Trump, but it really fucking hates the Democrats that let him back into office.

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Trump Definitely Wants A Third Term

On Friday, I wrote about Steve Bannon’s continued Trump 2028 media tour, telling anyone who will listen that Trump is eyeing a third term. I warned that you should take Bannon seriously, but you should also not mistake him for an official mouthpiece of Trump World. His main role in the right-wing ecosystem since President Donald Trump pardoned him in 2021 has effectively been as a tea leaves reader. He sits on his War Room podcast pontificating about what the Trump administration could do, hoping some of it bubbles up to the top layer where the president lives.

That said, Trump refuses to deny he’s going to run again. He told reporters on Air Force One this week that he wouldn’t run as a vice presidential candidate in 2028, which would technically be legal, because it’s “too cute.” Not the word I’d use for it!

All that said, if you saw the “leaked memo” from Conservative Political Action Conference circulating on social media over the weekend demanding a constitutional amendment to let Trump run again that is actually not official. It was handed out back in February by the Third Term Project, which is run by the right-wing nonprofit Republicans for National Renewal.

So basically, yes, a lot of conservatives want a third (or permanent) Trump term, but they haven’t figured out how to do it yet. Which is crucial. There is still time, but that window is definitely closing.

Video Footage Emerges Of ICE Officers Using The Palantir App

A TikTok user posted a video of Immigration and Customs Enforcement stopping two teenagers and using an app to scan their faces and identify them. The app being used is likely ImmigrationOS, a Palantir platform also known as Immigration Lifecycle Operating System.

Palantir was paid $30 million to build the app. According to documents obtained by The Guardian, ICE agents can access multiple federal biometric databases in the field and can also add whoever they stop and scan to their database. Worth noting that earlier this month, Apple took down apps that people were using to track ICE movements.

As X user @loomdoop wrote, sharing the video, “The 2025 collapse of the United States, in one frame.”

Some Good Ol’ Fashioned Cringe

The Free Press’ Olivia Reingold posted and then deleted an impossibly embarrassing video where she dressed up as John Oliver as a way to hit back at him over his critical coverage of The Free Press and its founder Bari Weiss. Don’t worry, though, you can watch the video over on Bluesky if you feel like you can handle the radioactive levels of cringe.

Clearly someone in Reingold’s life pointed out that video was extremely embarrassing and convinced her to take it down, but, unfortunately, amid all the hoopla, users have noticed that her Wikipedia page has been nominated for deletion. Ouch! Maybe if her terrible Oliver impression goes viral enough they’ll let her keep it.

Albania’s AI Minister Is Pregnant

Last month, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama announced that he was adding an AI bot called Diella to his cabinet. Her name means “sun” in Albanian. She’s meant to make reduce corruption around public contracts.

Well, Rama told the country’s parliament this week that Diella was “pregnant” and that she’ll be giving birth to 83 AI agents that will function as virtual assistants to other politicians in the country. Apparently, Rama is known for being a bit theatrical. So it’s likely he doesn’t actually think the AI is giving birth.

Constitutionality aside, this has got to be the least upsetting thing anyone’s done with AI and pregnancy.

A Fascinating Hypothetical

Some Stray Links

P.S. here’s a truly cursed text message.

***Any typos in this email are on purpose actually***