Smirking Chimp

1 day ago | smirkingchimp.com | Heather Digby Parton

— from Salon It seems like only a couple of days ago that I was writing about President Trump and his former BFF Elon Musk's apparent falling out. Actually, it was a couple of days ago, but even though I was pretty sure that the famous bromance was on the rocks, due to all the vicious, anonymous back-stabbing by administration figures, I had no idea it was going to blow up as spectacularly as it did on Thursday. I won't go into the details because I'm sure you've heard all about it.

2 days ago | smirkingchimp.com | Amanda Marcotte

— from Salon Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, certainly has absorbed the first rule of MAGA: You're never in the wrong as long as you're "triggering" the liberals. On Friday, she drew outrage from her constituents at a town hall in Butler County, Iowa, with her bizarre defense of taking away people's medical care to pay for tax cuts for billionaires: "Well, we’re all going to die." The crowd, furious about her plans to vote for drastic cuts to Medicaid that will deprive millions of health care, booed her.

2 days ago | smirkingchimp.com | Jeff Tiedrich

The Daily Chimp for Friday, 6 June 2025 The 25 most-recent front page postsRobert Reich | Musk vs. Trump: A Big Beautiful BrawlFriends, I’m trying not to be too delighted about the new reality TV show starring Elon and Donald, but the dialogue is truly extraordinary (I’m quoting them verbatim but putting their volley in what appears to be its intended order).

3 days ago | smirkingchimp.com | Thom Hartmann

— from The Hartmann Report It wasn’t all at once (although sometimes the last three months seem that way). Authoritarianism never is. It happens drip by drip, crisis by crisis, until people forget what normal even felt like. This is how fascism seduces a nation: not by storming the gates, but by wearing down our ability to be outraged. And Donald Trump, more than any political figure in modern American history, has weaponized this steady march into moral and civic numbness.

3 days ago | smirkingchimp.com | Heather Digby Parton

— from Salon I had the weird experience last evening of watching the new film "Mountainhead," written and directed by Jesse Armstrong, the creator of the iconic HBO series "Succession," while simultaneously doom-scrolling social media.