The people, yes?

 "Don't follow leaders, watch the parking meters," wrote Bob Dylan cryptically.  It's starting to dawn on people that leaders are worse than useless and we need to bypass them in our numbers.

In Mexico City more than five thousand people gathered in the Zocalo in the rain, using colorful umbrellas to form the world's largest human Pride flag.  Mayor Clara Brugada joined them and proclaimed Mexico City "the capital of pride, diversity, peace and transformation."  

Moving from pride to anger:  the people of Venice are tired of having their city clogged with enormous cruise ships which block the sun, but the Bezos-Sanchez nuptials pushed them over the limit.  Jeff Bezos gave up his first marriage and billions of dollars in settlement to MacKenzie Scott to be with Lauren Sanchez, so he decided to give her the wedding of the century by inviting all his superrich superfriends and renting out the city.  Venetians are fighting back.

No Space for Bezos is affiliated with Laboratorio Occupato Morion, which describes itself as "anti-fascist, anti-capitalist, anti-racist and trans-feminist political space," and it wants the world to know that this is not all right, that seemingly limitless wealth should not mean limitless power to disrupt people's lives.  Why do they need to take over an entire city for 200 guests?  Because they can.

The No Space campaigners are claiming victory today because Bezos was forced to move the reception from the 16th century Scuola Grande della Misericordia after activists threatened to keep guests out by filling the canals with inflatable crocodiles.  (A lot of places are accessible only by gondola.)  The first of 95 private planes are expected to arrive today, which should do wonders for air quality.  (Leonardo DiCaprio can now shut up about global warming.)  Even Emirates pasha class isn't good enough for the likes of Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian.  

While the Republicans argue about how much their Big Brutal Billionaire Bauble of a bill will screw the masses, it's fun to watch them in panic mode.  Win or lose, Zohran Mamdani has already frightened the fertilizer out of what was once called The 400, New York City's ownership class.  The prospect of a democratic socialist mayor who promises free public childcare, free city buses (not the subway?), city-owned grocery stores and a rent freeze for stabilized (formerly rent-controlled) housing has the Masters of the Universe hearing what S.J. Perelman called "the muffled tread of the Jacquerie in the streets."  Can the tumbrils be far behind?  His chief opponent, handsy ex-governor Andrew Cuomo, is reaping millions from Mike Bloomberg, Palantir's Alex Karp, financiers Dan Ackman and Bill Loeb and various Wall Street types.  The two percent are fortunate in being able to call on good old-fashioned bigotry, too, since Mamdani is a Muslim born in Uganda to Indian parents.  The NYPD is kept busy running down all the death threats.  You just knew that a Muslim would be mayor of New York before a woman.

Bill Clinton, though not Hillary, has endorsed Cuomo, determined to keep the Democratic Party in the middle of the road with the dead armadillos, while Mamdani is supported by AOC, Bernie Sanders, the Working Families Party and Clinton's labor secretary Robert Reich.  Somewhere Vito Marcantonio is smiling.  He was the last socialist to serve New York in Congress, representing East Harlem between 1935 and 1950.  Tragically, the causes he espoused are still there to be fought for, from public housing to statehood for Puerto Rico.  Maybe the long march will begin again.

July 17 is the anniversary of John Lewis's death and he will be remembered with Good Trouble Lives On:  A Day of Action.  This one is virtual, so no excuses will be accepted.  Hosted in Boston by People Power United.  

And should you need an inflatable crocodile, don't go to Amazon.