Smirking Chimp

Home
Smirking Chimp

News and Commentary from the Vast, Left-Wing Conspiracy. updated daily since Dec 2001

01/09/2026

Amanda Marcotte in Tuesday's Chimp: "What changed? NPR’s Mara Liasson argued in July that Trump’s corruption has grown so catastrophic in its size — he’s made billions in shady ways in the past year and a half, on top of being gifted a luxury private jet from the Qatari royal family — that it’s no longer so easy to rationalize with 'everyone does it.' The economic stress caused by inflation isn’t helping matters, either. Voters are struggling to buy gas and groceries, so watching Trump handsomely line his pockets with money he’d never have but for the office is even more painful to watch. Especially since his go-to move when asked about consumer prices is to whine that 'affordability' is a made-up issue."

It’s easy to see why Ken Paxton thought he could waltz right into the role of senator from Texas. Sure, the state’s Republican nominee and current attorney general is widely seen as one of the most corrupt men in politics, a man with so many scandals that even his fellow Republicans impeached hi...

01/09/2026

Robert Reich in Tuesday's Chimp: "A widely watched measure of consumer confidence slipped in August as consumers fretted about future economic conditions, the Conference Board said this past week. Why the widening gap between how well big corporations are doing and how poorly average Americans are doing? Three reasons."

The earnings of America’s largest corporations — the S&P 500 — surged by an astounding 53 percent over the past year.

01/09/2026

Sarah K. Burris in Tuesday's Chimp: "Donald Trump may not appear on the ballot in the 2026 midterms, but he is clearly on voters’ minds. In conversations with NBC News’ Jonathan Allen across part of the U.S., Americans across the political spectrum delivered a striking mix of praise, outrage, pleas for accountability — and, in one case, an offer to finally fix the president’s hair."

Donald Trump may not appear on the ballot in the 2026 midterms, but he is clearly on voters’ minds. In conversations with NBC News’ Jonathan Allen across part of the U.S., Americans across the political spectrum delivered a striking mix of praise, outrage, pleas for accountability — and, in on...

01/09/2026

Thom Hartmann in Tuesday's Chimp: "Personalist rulers invariably — always, really — leave the countries they’ve ruled worse off than when they started and their damage typically long outlives them. Social scientist Max Weber called this patrimonialism: it’s when a ruler treats the nation, its commons, and its collective wealth as his own personal property to loot and share with his closest relatives and cronies."

Last Thursday, a federal judge in Massachusetts put her foot down and stopped Trump’s Republican toadies on the Postal Board of Governors from seizing control of your mail-in ballot this fall. She noted that neither the Constitution nor Congress gives him or them that power and, besides that, ther...

01/09/2026

Laura Flanders in Tuesday's Chimp: "Q served 28 years in prison and was released just five months before I spoke to him in 2023. His art depicts life inside prison and evokes the physical and emotional pain that system-involved people endure every day. 'Beat Down By Time' shows four inmates being physically punished by a guard, and a man holding a whip with clocks on it. This is Q’s story for all to see: beaten down by the years of his sentence and forced into a system of labor exploitation."

According to a report from the Prison Policy Initiative, U.S. taxpayers and families of system-involved people pay at least $445 billion every year to keep people incarcerated. Which is to say, we in the U.S. spend an astronomical amount of money to lock people up.

01/09/2026

Bill McKibben in Tuesday's Chimp: "It’s been harder than usual for me to write these past few days, and that’s because the glacier collapse and subsequent calamity along the Tibet-Nepal border hit very hard. As it happens, I’ve stood in that border crossing where you’ve watched the giant wave obliterate… everything in a split second. I’d spent weeks in the high, dry, cold of Buddhist Tibet, and then crossed into the lush humid chaos of Hindu Nepal, and so I can summon up some sense of what it must have been like, and of the people who died almost before panic could grip them."

It’s been harder than usual for me to write these past few days, and that’s because the glacier collapse and subsequent calamity along the Tibet-Nepal border hit very hard. As it happens, I’ve stood in that border crossing where you’ve watched the giant wave obliterate… everything in a spl...

01/09/2026

Les Leopold in Tuesday's Chimp: "I have yet to encounter a DSA candidate who discusses truly socialist reforms, like the elimination of large private enterprises and workers’ control of the corporations that employ them. Then why does DSA use the word 'socialist' if it does not involve their day-to-day political debates? And why use it when it is sure to turn off many of the very working people DSA claims to represent?"

Members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are proud to wear their socialism on their sleeves (and on their hats.) It lets everyone know they are serious about changing capitalism into something far more humane, transforming the system into one in which working people rather than plutocra...

01/09/2026

The Daily Chimp for Tuesday, 1 September 2026: links to all of today's front page posts.

Amanda Marcotte | Texas and Georgia Races Show Voters Are Finally Sick of MAGA Corruption It’s easy to see why Ken Paxton thought he could waltz right into the role of senator from Texas. Sure, the state’s Republican nominee and current attorney general is widely seen as one of the most corrupt ...

31/08/2026

Robert Reich in Monday's Chimp: "Let me be clear: Trump is out of his gourd. He’s losing all connection to reality. His lies are becoming more brazen. His statements about Canada, his war in Iran, the economy, and immigrants, all increasingly bizarre. But his MAGA movement is just about over. His polls are in the cellar. Many of his followers now see through his lies. 'It is in the moment of defeat that the inherent weakness of totalitarian propaganda becomes visible,' Arendt wrote. At such point, the followers of tyrants 'quietly give up the movement as a bad bet.'"

I still come across people who believe Trump won the 2020 election, that the attack on the U.S Capitol on January 6, 2021, was an act of patriotism, that Trump’s subsequent indictments and felonies were Biden’s work, that most immigrants are criminals, that Democrats are evil, that Jews are tryi...

31/08/2026

Thomas Kika in Monday's Chimp: "Examining the situation, Rothkopf suggested that Trump's well-documented and increasing 'paranoia' means that he now only trusts a small handful of people, including the likes of Harp. He also connected this trend of 'weird work wives' to Karoline Leavitt, who recently departed the position of White House Press Secretary, and the glaring recent absence of his actual wife, First Lady Melania Trump, and his family."

President Donald Trump has become increasingly dependent on his growing cadre of "weird work wives," and a top political analyst revealed why during an interview with The Daily Beast.

Address

Website

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/, http://twitter.com/SmirkingChimp

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Smirking Chimp posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Want your business to be the top-listed Media Company?

Country:

City:

Smirking Chimp

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

01/09/2026

31/08/2026

31/08/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Listing takedown request