"One afternoon he brings matzo ball soup from Max’s deli, my favorite. Another time, a mixtape."

"One afternoon I am eating a salad at my desk when he walks in and sits down across from me. I look up and meet his eyes—large, brown, steady—and something shifts. I see him differently. Or perhaps I allow myself to see what was there all along. He carries himself with an effortless assurance. There is gravity to him. On New Year’s Eve, as time clicks to 2000, we kiss for the first time on a friend’s back porch. We are pressed against the wall as midnight erupts across the city. Fireworks, car horns, the collective exhale of a century ending. It feels like a beginning. After that night, I play the mixtape on repeat...."

Writes Ruby Rippey, in "How I Blew Up—Then Rebuilt—My Life/When news of her affair with Gavin Newsom exploded into the public eye, it was only the outward mark of a long-rippling private implosion. In the wreckage of the scandal, Ruby Rippey faced her demons but lost her voice. Twenty years later, she is ready to share her story" (Vanity Fair).

And here's the NYT article about that: "Aide Who Had Affair With Newsom 20 Years Ago Details Her Experience/Ruby Rippey had stayed mostly quiet since her relationship with the San Francisco mayor rocked the city" (gift link). Excerpt: "She seems to blame herself for betraying her husband and says that her life spiraled as she drank heavily and used cocaine. She indicates that she was not coerced, but she also held Mr. Newsom responsible for holding power and proceeding with the affair anyway. 'Power does not need to coerce,' she writes. 'It only needs to exist. The responsibility to hold the line belongs to the one who holds it. That didn’t happen.'"

I like Rippey's info-packed, present-tense prose: "I always go to him — his penthouse in Russian Hill, a private back room at a North Beach bar, the W Hotel in Los Angeles." And the breathless wisdomizing: "We meet and we drink. There is sex, but it isn’t the point. The point is proximity — to power, to being chosen."

"[T]he dominant mode in Democratic politics right now. It’s not the rebellion or radicalism manifest in, say..."

"Hasan Piker’s Twitch-streamer Marxism or Zohran Mamdani’s telegenic democratic socialism. Notable as those tendencies may be, the Democrats’ fundamental condition is a late-Trumpian stasis — in which the president’s stark unpopularity encourages his opponents to imagine that they can keep everything basically as it was in the Biden era, with the same broad priorities and deference to activists and interest groups, and float back to power automatically. The continuing appeal of Harris is a useful indicator of this stasis. Yes, she is unlikely to be the 2028 nominee, and part of her support is name recognition...."

Writes Ross Douthat, in "Slouching Toward Kamala Harris" (NYT).

Harris is ahead in the polls for the Democratic nomination in 2028. The Real Clear Politics average has her up by 9.3 percentage points. The most recent poll, from Harvard-Harris — has her up by 28 percentage points. Here's her closest competition:

This is about as bad as I’ve seen him. pic.twitter.com/xksNZfG0BE

— Kira (@Kiradavis) May 3, 2026

"If that’s what 'woke' means, it explains why most Americans don’t want to be woke."

"Transgender adults should have the freedom to live as they see fit and that includes the option to pursue elective medical procedures. But why should that choice come at taxpayer expense, especially for noncitizens? If the fiscal well-being of California isn’t incentive enough to crack down on such wasteful mismanagement of tax dollars, then maybe Newsom’s political future is. The outgoing governor seems determined not to learn from the failure of another California Democrat. The most devastating attack ad against Kamala Harris in 2024 featured her saying during her previous presidential campaign that she supported taxpayers picking up the tab for federal prisoners to receive gender transition care...."

Writes the Editorial Board of The Washington Post, in "Gavin Newsom chooses the wrong side of gender politics again/Sex changes for illegal immigrants might sound like a Republican ad, but it’s California policy."

This reminds me of the way her husband, Gavin Newsom, told black people "I’m like you. I’m no better than you. You know, I’m a 960 SAT guy."

Holy shit. Gavin Newsom’s Wife Jennifer ran over and killed her own sister with a golf cart…then tells San Quentin Prisoners for Life, “Yours were probably accidents too…”

What TF is wrong with her? pic.twitter.com/rbOk6gcYMu

— Liz Churchill (@liz_churchill10) April 7, 2026

"Most striking, Mr. Newsom has drawn on the idiom of the manosphere and online right, communities noted for their unembarrassed racism and misogyny."

"In July, he called Mr. Trump’s adviser Stephen Miller a 'fascist cuck,' the latter being a term used to fault men for lacking sexual power and racial pride. In March, his press account shared a video of Mr. Newsom with the caption 'mog or get mogged.' This term describes a man who shows himself to be physically superior to other men and thus the 'alpha male of the group,' or AMOG, who 'mogs' lesser men.The most startling example of Mr. Newsom’s strategy came last week when he posted an image on social media comparing his looks to those of the immaculately groomed fictional villain Patrick Bateman, as played by Christian Bale in the 2000 film 'American Psycho.' The Bateman character, a serial killer whose hatred of women is rivaled only by his contempt for Black people, has become an object of fascination for the manosphere and online right, with memes coursing across X and TikTok.... The point is not that Mr. Newsom secretly desires the subjugation of women or minorities.... The point is that he is responding to a political and cultural energy that has shifted away from the celebration of feminism and diversity and toward the concerns of alienated, and especially white, men...."

Writes Matthew Schmitz, in "For Democrats, the Era of the Girl Dad and Male Ally Is Over" (NYT).

"A federal judge ordered on Tuesday that construction be halted on President Trump’s proposed White House ballroom... saying work must come to a stop until the project receives a go-ahead from Congress."

The NYT reports.

In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon wrote that Mr. Trump likely did not have the authority to act without consulting Congress to replace entire sections of the White House — changes that could endure for generations.

We're told there are 19 exclamation points in the opinion.

From Trump's response at Truth Social:

[A]ll I am doing is fixing, cleaning, running, and “sprucing up” a terribly maintained, for many years, Building, but a Building of potentially great importance. Yet, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Radical Left Group of Lunatics whose funding was stopped by Congress in 2005, is not suing the Federal Reserve for a Building which has been decimated and destroyed, inside and out, by an incompetent and possibly corrupt Fed Chairman.

Have you heard from Newsom's wife?

In 2023 Gavin Newsom did what he called a "Red State" tour and visited Alabama, Florida and a few other red states.

Newsom's wife said she brought her children to the red states so they could learn about racism, sexism, and bullying first hand. pic.twitter.com/CBx8gfUBc9

— MAZE (@mazemoore) March 29, 2026

Trump starts tearing into Talarico, pivots to "Newscum," and ends with "Kamala is back!"

A new Truth Social post from Trump (boldface mine):

The Democrat running in Texas, James Talarico, turns out to be a FRAUD! It showed after the Election when he beat Low IQ Candidate Jasmine Crockett (No relation to Davy Crockett!). He’s got six Genders, insults to Jesus, only vegan food, was wearing a mask in 2023 and 2024, and is a weak, ineffective guy who we “allowed” to win prior to releasing the avalanche of information we had on him because, as bad as Crockett was as a Candidate, this guy is worse! I believe that any human being running against him, sick, incompetent, close to death or, even a child, would win. He may be the Worst Candidate I have ever seen, other than, of course, Gavin Newscum who admitted that he suffers from mental incapacity, is unable to read a speech, and is dumb but, in saying “the dumb comment,” referred to his audience, and therefore became, in the eyes of African Americans, A TOTAL RACIST — which is probably true! Gavin admits that he’s a Low IQ individual, which typically is not good for winning the Presidency. His interview may have been the worst ever given by a “professional” politician. I believe, it takes him OUT OF THE RACE. Kamala is back! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Also, Trump has a Truth post with a video from the new "Saturday Night Live UK," the same clip I discussed and passed along in my first post of the morning, here. So we're already discussing that clip in the comments over there, where Rabel wrote: "Unflattering representation of Starmer. Shows him living up to the 'coward' claim. Minimal bashing of Trump. It wasn't especially funny but I agree with the message in the attempted humour."

"Dad, are you running for President?... You can't... I'm too young. You need to spend more time with us."

Gavin Newsom quotes his son:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by CNN (@cnn)

"How do you deal with that one?" Newsom asks. "I'm asking you," he says to Dana Bash, who says "I'm not running." Then Newsom switches to inane verbiage: "That's the point. And the point is the point. And so what matters is what matters. Like, what matters is what matters."

That poor boy!

That video is from last month, but I'm looking at it now because it came up in this new NY Post article, "Huge wake-up call for Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris as dire poll released."

Does Gavin Newsom have a Zoolander problem?

That question was asked and answered a few days ago.

The answer is yes. And I think people know what that means. A man is so under the spell of the notion that he's good looking that he has absurd confidence in himself.

It's causing him to blabber inanely, with ridiculous confidence:

This is actually really wild

Gavin Newsom is asked to define what he wants to do politically, what’s his goal

He rambles and doesn’t have an answer

He’s asked again

He doesn’t have an answer

He’s asked again

Newsom tells the person interviewing him to answer it for him… pic.twitter.com/Ig3SU2LKw4

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) March 7, 2026

Trump and "good looking men."

PRESIDENT TRUMP jokes as he hosts the 2025 Major League Soccer Cup champions Inter Miami CF at the White House: “These are good looking people. Marco, I don't like good looking men.” pic.twitter.com/k6wsrvK9SD

— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 5, 2026

And speaking of good looking men, Katie Couric asks Gavin Newsom if he's "just ridiculously good looking" and whether he has "a Zoolander problem":

Couric: Do you have a Zoolander problem? Are you just ridiculously good looking as Vogue said? What do you do about that?

Newsom: You don’t do anything about it…It’s just who I am.

Good. Lord. pic.twitter.com/aFmvpDLlaa

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) March 5, 2026

Is this the way we're going to talk now?

Donald Trump is a piece of shit. pic.twitter.com/UfWS89baVQ

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 5, 2026

"In the before times, I was very wary of candidates whose quest for the presidency seemed too insistent and all-consuming..."

"... who had been nursing the dream for too long and clinging to it too tightly. I worried that such single-mindedness erased any space for subtlety, for introspection, for ambivalence, for the crucially instructive mess of an unscripted life. And would voters relate to it? Part of what drew many Democrats I know to Barack Obama was that he seemed to be working through decidedly mixed feelings about his quest for the presidency — as most well-adjusted people would be. Part of what drew many Republicans I know to George W. Bush was that he seemed less comfortable on the campaign trail than on his ranch.... Newsom seems entirely unrestrained and wholly immodest, his confession of a 960 on his SAT notwithstanding.... But Newsom’s strut is working for him.... [I]f the Newsom way is looking like the surest path to a post-Trump future, I’m happy to head in that direction."

Writes Frank Bruni, in "Will a Peacock Like Gavin Newsom Fly?" (NYT).

There's no sure "path to a post-Trump future." To pose the problem in those terms frames the real problem: Democrats have made hatred of Trump their central issue. Get some substance of your own! You still have to be something that the people want. That was true in "the before times," and it's true now.

A classic clip from "the before times":

"The first duty in life is that we all strike a pose... I struck a pose, I put a mask on, and at times my face grew into it, becoming someone I couldn't even recognize.""

Two-faced California Governor Gavin Newsom says that he's been wearing a "mask" for years.

NEWSOM: "I put a mask on, and at times my face grew into it…"

What a strange, little man. pic.twitter.com/HawZxCDqk6

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 25, 2026

Newsom attributes the line —"The first duty in life is that we all strike a pose, and the second duty no one's really figured out" — to Oscar Wilde.  

Did Oscar Wilde say that? In "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young." he said, "The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered." 

"Strike a pose" is Madonna:

But who doesn't mix up Oscar Wilde and Madonna?

Gavin Newsom requests that we spare him our fake fucking outrage.

You didn’t give a shit about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President Obama or calling African nations shitholes — but you’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?

Spare me your fake fucking outrage,… https://t.co/ABNZJQJLcj

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 23, 2026

So Gavin's playing a major role in the normalization of "fuck." That's one of the ways he's like Trump. I'm starting a "Newsom is like Trump" tag. You'll see.

But I need to call attention to his use of the word "spare," which we were just talking about, here, 3 days ago, after the father of the gold-medal-winning figure skater said "I spared no money, no time." Compare that to Newsom's "Spare me your fake fucking outrage." "I spared no money" means I held no money back. And "Spare me your fake fucking outrage" means don't give me any of your FFO — hold it all back.

I've thought about it a lot, and "spare" is not a contronym (AKA a Janus word). It does not belong with the notorious "cleave" and the king of confusion "sanction."

"I'm not trying to impress you. I'm just trying to impress upon you: I'm like you."

The rare double self-own

— DataRepublican (small r) (@DataRepublican) February 23, 2026

Let's look at the 2 obvious problems:

1. He's calling attention to his struggle with a serious disability, dyslexia. We talked about that here, a few weeks ago. He seems to be confessing something that is true, making himself vulnerable and relatable. Of course, he's also exposing his limitations. But his antagonists may screw up trying to take advantage of this. 

2. In saying "I'm like you" to what seems to be an audience of black people, he's taking a risk. You can hear warm laughter, as, perhaps, many people relate to him, because they've struggled with exams, for whatever reason. But he seems to be unwittingly expressing the old stereotype about black people — the one right-wing people love to bring up. So, again, his antagonists will screw up trying to exploit what is, from him, only a slight innuendo. I'll bet some of you do it right here in the comments.

ADDED: Nicki Minaj responds to that Newsom clip:

His way of bonding with black ppl is to tell them how stupid he is & that he can’t read. 

This means my first read on him was correct. He’s been handed so many things & put in high positions he never earned or deserved. 

Do you wanna know the craziest part of this footage that will haunt him forever? He’s literally slowing his speech down & talking in a sporadic cadence. 

He’s not just TELLING them that they’re all probably stupid & probably can’t read, he’s LITERALLY SLOW-ING-DOWN-HIS-SPEECH to make them understand the words that are coming out of his mouth!!!! As if they’re children!!!! That means he REALLY BELIEVES they’re slow. He’s not just saying it—he didn’t misspeak!!!! He BELIEVES it!!!!

Do ya love it?!?!! 

Do ya just love it, black ppl?!????

It reminds me of Jesse Jackson's criticism of Obama: "He is talking down to black people." Obama survived. Obama thrived. 

Gavin Newsom and the 7 Women.

From the London Times.

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, a fellow with the measurements of a Disney prince who once behaved, by his own admission, “as a single guy who happened to be mayor” of San Francisco rather than the other way around.

"... Clavicular said he would vote for Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, over Vice President JD Vance because he preferred Mr. Newsom’s looks to Mr. Vance’s. "

"'It wasn’t, like, a political statement at all,' Clavicular said later of his criticism of Mr. Vance. 'I was just saying he’s fat.' Of late, Clavicular has begun to refer to all politics as 'jester' — an insult in the looksmaxxing community that refers to a foolish waste of time.... Back in the van, [his female admirer] asked Clavicular if he thought looksmaxxing was 'inherently right-wing.' 'No,” he said. 'At the end of the day, I have such an influence over the movement that I could bring it in any direction I want.'"

From "Handsome at Any Cost Braden Peters, known as Clavicular, has emerged as a beacon for a group of narcissistic, status-obsessed young men. He wants to take his fixation with 'looksmaxxing' mainstream" (NYT).

"I can't believe the bespoke NY magazine biz hasn't yet realized that an Annie Leibovitz puff piece photoshoot is a political death sentence."

I can't believe the bespoke NY magazine biz hasn't yet realized that an Annie Leibovitz puff piece photoshoot is a political death sentence pic.twitter.com/INL4dWe7Hb

— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) February 2, 2026

"The weekly gatherings of knitters at Needle & Skein, a yarn store in Minneapolis, are typically filled with giggles and storytelling."

"But, earlier this month, a heaviness hung in the air. 'It was just collective exhaustion,' said Paul Neary, a shop employee. 'Minnesotans — we're not going to say the big thing, but we often know what the big thing is just by looking at each other.'... They pulled out their knitting needles and got to work. Neary created the pattern that has now become the well-known 'Melt the ICE' hat, a red beanie-shaped cap topped with a braided tassel.... As a history buff, Neary chose the pattern based on a Norwegian hat used to protest the Nazi occupation of Norway in the 1940s. The hats were called 'nisselue,' which roughly translates to Santa hat...."

From "A red hat, inspired by a symbol of resistance to Nazi occupation, gains traction in Minnesota" (NPR).

"Peter Fritzsche, a history professor at the University of Illinois, said the Nazis were operating on 'obviously a very, very different scale,' but with ICE's presence in Minnesota, people can still feel 'occupied.'... Wendy Woloson, a history professor at Rutgers University at Camden and fellow knitter, said the red hats are a classic response of the crafting world. When knitters want to help in their community, they put their hands to work, she said.... She recalled the pink 'pussy hats' from the 2017 Women's March...."

It's poignant, this urge to do something that finds its release in knitting. It's something very calm indoor people can do when they want to feel they too are engaging in activism. 

ADDED: Speaking of hats in Minnesota, I just ran across this fascinating passage in a NYT article from April 2025: