Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

“woke” is the new caravan.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Our messy unity will be our strength.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

We will not go back.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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Saturday Night Fights Open Thread: Something Unpredictable, But in the End, It’s Right

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anntelnaes.substack.com/p/the-mark-o…

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— Ann Telnaes (@anntelnaes.bsky.social) June 7, 2025 at 11:59 AM

Albert Burneko, at Defector — “Donald Trump And Elon Musk Throw Day-Long Tantrums At Each Other”:

Other than every interaction either of them has had with another living being in their entire lives, as well as every single thing that is true about either of their personalities, and everything that either of them believes about themselves and each other and all others and life and the world, and their being the absolute two worst people presently alive, there was no reason to think, or even to fear, that Donald Trump and Elon Musk would not remain loyal allies and strategic partners forever. Alas, the dream of lifelong friendship died on Thursday, in a cascade of insults and threats posted to their respective embarrassing social media platforms. I don’t know about you, but I’ll never trust again…

Listen. Recounting the, like, political or financial reasons why Donald Trump and Elon Musk fell out is among the more absurd things I can imagine doing; for one thing it grants a conceivable alternative reality in which they were not always going to become enemies at some point. The ultimate and most salient reason Donald Trump and Elon Musk fell out is that they are, respectively, Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Sure, yes: There may be proximate triggers for their having fallen out on Thursday, June 5, 2025, as opposed to some other time; there inevitably would be specific triggers whenever they eventually turned on each other. But they never were not going to turn on each other, because they are Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Anyway they did! At a Thursday Oval Office press availability pegged to his meeting with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump sniped when a reporter asked him about Musk’s criticism of the bill. First he referred to their “great relationship” in the past tense, then blithely suggested Musk is upset about the loss of EV subsidies his company depends on. Then he did the classic Trump thing where he insults someone by listing the favors they did for him—in Trump’s view, you are by definition a sucker from the very moment you do anything for him that he didn’t pay for in advance, and he is 100-percent right about that—while simultaneously dismissing those favors as worthless…

That set off Musk. Soon after, on Twitter, he derided the bill as containing a “MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK” and made a classic Elon Musk Fake-Smart History Gibberish claim that “in the entire history of civilization, there has never been legislation that [is] both big and beautiful. Everyone knows this!”

Typically, if someone said That’s hitting him where it hurts about remarks as dumb and toothless as these, that would be an example of sarcasm. Not in this case! Calling his bill ugly and disgusting is exactly the kind of thing that actually would bother Donald Trump, much more than some sober analysis of its probably disastrous effects on American society, about which he does not and will never give a frig…

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Late Night Open Thread: #TSLA Troubles

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The anti-Tesla movement is one of the most successful cases of social coordination in American history. In the span of six months the Tesla brand has been made radioactive.
This isn’t a subjective view. You can see it in the data.

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) May 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM

From the Bulwark, “Death of a Cybertruck Salesman: How Trump Killed Tesla”:

… Why should we care about the depreciation on a Tesla?

Because it’s part of a counterrevolution.

When Elon Musk allied with Donald Trump, he transformed his companies into explicitly political projects. Musk leveraged his wealth into political power. In turn, he used that power to carry out a revolution inside the federal government.

If you listen to the MAGAs, their revolution sounds Maoist. They want to depose the elites (researchers, academics, professionals) and create a New Man. This New MAGA Man will eschew decadent knowledge work and instead labor in glorious factories, putting tiny screws into iPhones…

How do you stop such a man? You need a counterrevolution that attacks his power structure. Which in Musk’s case is: Tesla, the company.

The anti-Tesla movement is one of the most successful cases of social coordination in American history. In the span of six months the Tesla brand has been made radioactive.

This isn’t a subjective view. You can see it in the data.

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Schadenfreude Open Thread: GOP Knives Sporks Out for Elon

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The GOP has no time for luzers, Elon!

Charlie Warzel, at the Atlantic – Elon Musk Lost His Big Bet:

…Given Musk’s heavy involvement—the centibillionaire not only campaigned in the state but also brazenly attempted to buy the election by offering to pay voters $100 for signing a petition from his America PAC opposing “activist judges”—the election was billed as a referendum of sorts on Musk’s own popularity. In that sense, it was a resounding defeat. Musk, normally a frenetic poster, had very little to say about politics last night, pecking out just a handful of terse messages to his 218.5 million followers. “The long con of the left is corruption of the judiciary,” he posted at 1:23 a.m. eastern time.

In the light of defeat, the SpaceX post feels like a glimpse into what could have been for Musk—a timeline where the world’s richest man wasn’t algorithmically radicalized by his own social-media platform. It’s possible that Musk’s temperament and personal politics would have always led him down this path. But it’s also easy to imagine a version where he mostly stayed out of politics, instead leaning into his companies and continuing to bolster his carefully cultivated brand of Elon Musk, King of Nerd Geniuses.

Unfortunately, he surrendered fully to grievance politics. Like so many other prolific posters, he became the person his most vocal followers wanted him to be and, in the process, appears to have committed reputational suicide. Since joining President Donald Trump’s administration as DOGE’s figurehead—presiding over the quasi-legal gutting of the federal government—Musk has become not just polarizing but also genuinely unpopular in America. Now his political influence is waning, Tesla is the object of mass protest, and sales of his vehicles are cratering. This morning, only hours after his candidate lost, Trump reportedly told his inner circle and Cabinet members that Musk will be “stepping back” from his perch in the administration for a more “supporting role.” In Trumpworld, nothing’s over until it’s over, but Elon Musk seems to have overstayed his welcome. (Musk did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the White House referred me to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s post calling the report that Musk is stepping back “garbage”; Musk posted on X that the reporting is “fake news.”)

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Late Night Open Thread: New Metric – Robert’s Rules of Rudeness

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In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts called judicial impeachment "not an appropriate response" to disagreeing with a judge's decision.
He made the comments after Trump called for the impeachment of a federal judge who blocked the administration's deportation flights. to.pbs.org/43RBatE

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— PBS News (@pbsnews.org) March 18, 2025 at 2:10 PM

Roberts goes to extraordinary lengths to shepherd his unruly fellow revanchists into producing the most exquisitely crafted artisan cut-glass excuses for Our Unitary Executive to do exactly as he wishes. And in return the Vulgar Talking Yam and his subliterate minions write LOL BCUZ WE CAN on the Constitution in… well, it’s yellow, let’s say they used a gold Sharpie. To the fainting couches!…

getting increasingly irate as these judges say i can’t do the illegal things i want to do
i don’t think they understand that i really, really want to do them tho

— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 8:46 PM

The stock-photo pickers got to enjoy themselves, at least.

BREAKING: Chief Justice John Roberts rebukes President Trump's call for a judge to be impeached for ruling against the administration.
www.nbcnews.com/politics/sup…

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— MSNBC (@msnbc.com) March 18, 2025 at 1:21 PM

Gettin' so hyped on huffing my own farts that I'm going to alienate my pet justices to the point where even they rule against me.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 12:05 PM

Maybe a bit of pushback from Roberts. Maybe he is worried about his legacy. Hint sir, too late there but we appreciate this effort.

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— Tony Negron (@tnite02.bsky.social) March 18, 2025 at 8:52 PM

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Schadenfreude Open Thread: Who Are These Leopards, And Why Are They Eyeing My Face?

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Now this is some unambiguously funny stove touching

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— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock.bsky.social) February 28, 2025 at 11:11 AM

That’s from Ben Smith’s execrably right-wing Semafor — “American business leaders are turning on Trump — fast”:

… CEO optimism is fading as Trump pushes ahead with trade restrictions, while business-friendly deregulation has yet to materialize. US consumer confidence in January recorded its biggest one-month decline since November 2023. The US stock market, long Trump’s preferred proxy for economic might, is lower than it was before his inauguration, trailing major indexes in Europe, China, Mexico, and Canada — all targets of the president’s planned tariffs…

Schadenfreude Open Thread: <em>Who Are These Leopards, And Why Are They Eyeing My Face?</em>

… The business community is having its own leopard-eating-faces moment. The stock market has not been the curb on Trump’s policy agenda that many hoped it would be, and so far they are getting a lot of the bad chaos they feared with little of the good chaos they wanted…

There’s a type of guy who should have known better but supported Trump entirely in hopes of weaker antitrust enforcement and seeing them immediately owned brings a smile to my face

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— James Medlock (@jdcmedlock.bsky.social) February 28, 2025 at 11:14 AM

that would be Ken "$100 million to Republicans in 2024" Griffin

— large language marge (@mcdonalds.help) February 28, 2025 at 11:17 AM

If only the Great Men stewarding our economy had been able to accomplish the incredible feat of reading what their preferred candidate said he would do & believing that he would do it

— Various Threnodies (@various-threnodies.bsky.social) February 28, 2025 at 11:13 AM

Or looked at a single business decision he'd made in his decades as a swindler who can't run a casino

— Erica Henderson (@ericafails.bsky.social) February 28, 2025 at 11:14 AM

Schadenfreude Open Thread: <em>Who Are These Leopards, And Why Are They Eyeing My Face?</em>Post + Comments (235)

Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Watching the GOP Electeds…

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I’m getting the sense that town halls are not going well for Republicans. Trump booed today. Duffy booed today. This is good.

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— David Waldman (@kagrox.bsky.social) February 20, 2025 at 9:21 PM

… who are discovering, as my Nana would’ve said, that they’ve made a rod for their own backs.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN0z…

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— David Waldman (@kagrox.bsky.social) February 22, 2025 at 12:59 AM

Leopards, faces, things of that nature:

Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) told constituents that there was nothing he could do to stop DOGE layoffs affecting people in his state. Says said he found out about budget cuts impacting Alaska "on Twitter" and "had no idea these things were going on" in advance.
popular.info/p/freshman-c…

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— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) February 23, 2025 at 1:53 PM

As someone who sat through more than one hostile town hall in WI where tea party activists berated my then-boss about Obamacare, and I occasionally feared for my physical safety, I find these video clips so cathartic to watch.

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— Melissa Ryan (@melissaryan.bsky.social) February 22, 2025 at 12:53 AM

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Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Too Little, Too Late, Sen. McConnell

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SHOT: Mitch McConnell votes against RFK Jr. to be HHS Secretary.
CHASER: Trump expresses doubt that McConnell ever had polio and then questions McConnell's mental faculties.
"He's not equipped mentally. He wasn't equipped. 10 years ago, mentally, in my opinion."

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 3:40 PM

Ed Kilgore, at NYMag — “McConnell Finally Defies Trump, Now That He’s Irrelevant”:

… [D]espite McConnell’s disdainful attitude toward Donald Trump, he delivered the president’s beloved tax cuts and a steady flow of easy confirmation votes on executive-branch and judicial appointments. The Kentuckian gave Trump the priceless gift of a third Supreme Court appointment in his first term after his audacious and unprecedented refusal to give so much as a hearing to Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. McConnell also defended Trump from conviction on two rounds of impeachment articles passed by the House. Though McConnell clearly disliked Trump (who more than reciprocated his contempt), the president was the party boss and McConnell was above all a party foot soldier.

I say “was,” because in the sad dénouement of his career after he gave up the Senate leadership, McConnell is finally showing a few signs of real independence from Trump. As the Senate’s Republican majority has rubber-stamped even the least qualified and most questionable of the 47th president’s nominees, McConnell has voted against three of them: Defense secretary Pete Hegseth, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Viewed without context, the first two votes reflect McConnell’s old-school Cold War views on defense and foreign policy, which made the empty MAGA suit Hegseth and the anti-interventionist former Democrat Gabbard repellent. And anyone who cannot find a reason for fears about Kennedy isn’t looking very hard. But plenty of other Republican senators undoubtedly suppressed similar misgivings and voted to give Trump what he wanted. Not the man who spent so many years whipping his troops into partisan uniformity.

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