Workin’ for the (Post-)Weekend #60: Moynihan’s Trump Rally, Hamish in the Palisades, Tune into Friday’s Maher

Also: Solo on Megyn Kelly, plus L.A. Examiner reunions!

You know, sometimes California just makes plain sense. Like, I dunno, when you’re in a stunning Pacific Palisades manse, talking about Substack w/ our pal Hamish McKenzie (#369) for a delightful Reason event, featuring such local luminaries as Virginia Postrel (#14), Meghan Daum (#157), Amy Alkon, Tony Pierce, Chaya Leah Sufrin, and more. There’s never enough time in Cali, but there’s always that beautiful light, and an open-air conspiracy to do more and better work. Onward!

* There was a GOP presidential primary debate Wednesday, didja hear? As is tradition but not yet #RuleOfThree, The Fifth Column was represented on the same-day pre-game episode of The Megyn Kelly Show, this time by just my third of the Fif’. Along with The Federalist’s Emily Jashinsky, we talked about Donald Trump’s polling dominance, Andrew Cuomo’s (and Trump’s) Covid revisionism, Joe Biden’s feebleness, the president’s use of the word “boy,” Marty Baron’s odd essay about the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan, and (of course!) trans athletes in high school sports. Whole thing, including multiple occasions of Megyn calling me “Matt Walsh,” here:

* As you will soon hear at least a little about, Moynihan spent the debate in Detroit on behalf of The Free Press, watching the actual GOP frontrunner work the UAW strike-adjacent crowds, and talking to a whole bunch of his supporters (only one of whom did the anti-Semitism). The results can be heard in the second half of this next-day Honestly podcast.

* Apparently at the end of last week’s first-time-back-from-the-strike episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, it was mentioned that this week’s guests would be Advisory Opinions co-host Sarah Isgur and … me! Can confirm, etc. Please tune in! Also, here’s Maher talking with Ron DeSantis:

* Thanks to Christopher Yale in the Chat, I see that Fif’ fave YouTube comic (though not yet a guest!) Kyle Dunnigan just appeared on Noam Dworman’s Live From the Table podcast, talking about his disastrous Saturday Night Live tryout, Maya Angelou’s rudeness, and possibly moving back to New York:

* Two great Fifdom tastes that taste great together: Ethan Strauss (#185, #333, #383, Members Only #151, #408) had on Nancy Rommelmann (#79, Special Dispatch #27, S.D. #30, #198, #203, S.D. #34, S.D. #50, S.D. #64 & S.D. #111) for Thursday’s House of Strauss. “In this pod, we discussed Portland expert Nancy’s live reaction to the Damian Lillard trade, her take on WaPo vs. Portnoy, and that ‘Has the Sexual Revolution Failed’ debate down in Los Angeles,” etc. And over at the Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em page, not only can you read about Nancy’s famous Marriage Pie recipe, you can watch live video of Josh Szeps and I scarfing it down on her couch while Moynihan narrates. And yes, you can consider that a content tease.

* For those who enjoyed my Members Only #179 tale of almost starting a newspaper with former L.A. mayor Richard Riordan and a couple of local miscreants, well, here’s some proof-of-life photos of me w/ said miscreants, beginning with Tim DeRoche….

… and ending with the inimitable Ken Layne of Desert Oracle fame:

* Driving to and from the desert and the sea and the mountains (granted, of the Santa Monica variety), I took a good listening stab to the first draft of a now-second-draft Spotify playlist that kinda traces the origins and offshoots of Americana, chronologically, by way of The Band, folkies in Nashville, Outlaw Country, L.A. Country Rock, and so forth, all basically through the prism of Bob Dylan’s marriage. Has some more addition and subtraction to come, and certainly showcases my ignorance, but I’m ready for other people to enjoy it.

* Upcoming Reason-flavored events: Oct. 10 Reason Speakeasy in NYC, with Nick Gillespie (S.D. #72, #379) interviewing Alexandra Hudson about her new book, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves. Oct. 11 NYC screening of and discussion about Reason’s new documentary, Welcome To the Psychedelic Renaissance, with Gillespie yakking with Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelics Studies (MAPS), which advocates for MDMA legalization. In the spankin’ new Reason D.C. HQ, an Oct. 16 conversation about “Anticipating the Future” with the aforementioned ex-Reason editor Virginia Postrel and American Enterprise Institute scholar James Pethokoukis, moderated by Editrix Katherine Mangu-Ward (#75, #395).

Walkoff music goes to the big reveal on my Spotify spelunking, Mr. Waylon Jennings: