Also Seen In Davos This Week

Benedict Donald arrived in Switzerland for the Economic Forum, and nobody was there to greet him. Then he gave a speech that stunk up the room. And finally, the star of the meeting, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, left without so much as crossing Trump's path. All that was before Donald caved on the tariffs. Sad! We cats PURR.

Seen In Davos This Week

 

"As President Trump began his news conference stateside...in Davos, we spotted the words NO KINGS — in all caps — glowing on the mountainside overlooking the World Economic Forum site."

—Peter Alexander, NBC News

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Foreign Policy Mishegoss Edition

By Hubie and Bertie

The world's attention is on Davos, Switzerland, this week, as Benedict Donald continues to threaten Greenland and French prez Macron and others push back. But what everybody really wants to know is, what's with the lunettes de soleil? Is Macron channeling his inner Dark Brandon? (LOL — apparently it's some minor eye infection. Or he figured out a nifty way to steal the spotlight from certain hoggers of same.)

Whatever the reason, here are some of our initial impressions from Davos Day Two:

The forum's star today was definitely Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Yep, we know we're prejudiced when it comes to our Neighbor to the North, but jeez — it was so smart of Canada to put a hardheaded economist in charge just as Trump started rampaging about tariffs and takeovers. Carney's speech, which quoted Václav Havel's Power of the Powerless essay, brilliantly placed Havel's theory of "living the lie" squarely into the international conundrums of 2026:

"The system's power comes not from its truth but from everyone's willingness to perform as if it were true. And its fragility comes from the same source: When even one person stops performing...the illusion begins to crack." In short, Western powers, stop assuming Trump's behavior is normal, and act accordingly.

We cats don't know about you, but any major economic speech that quotes Václav Havel is a-okay by us.

Meanwhile, back in Berlin Washington, Donald spent two hours at the White House lectern rambling on about — well, about what, exactly? All we know is that at some point this afternoon, thought leaders we follow on social media began posting things like "Every network in America should be carrying this right now. People need to see the condition their President is in." Gosh, what's going to happen when he speaks in Davos? And will Jake Tapper write a book about it? (Nah.)

So, lots and lots going on. But a thought occurred to us: Is Donald acting like a maniac because Jack Smith is testifying to Congress in public on Thursday? We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

MLK Day: More Relevant Than Ever

Martin Luther King's principles of nonviolence against injustice can be tough to follow — especially these days. But Minnesotans (and the rest of us) must follow them. We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Things Are Bad, But Could Be Worse, Edition

By Miss Kubelik

So much going on in the news these days — the usual firehose, actually. But here are the stories that got our attention today.

Larry the Cat, feline guardsman of No. 10 Downing Street, has turned 19. That's an advanced age for our species, so we hope that the Labour government has prepared a succession plan for when (God forbid) Larry crosses the Rainbow Bridge. In the meantime, Nico Carney, "Purr Minister" of Canada, has convened a birthday celebration at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa. (They're probably also saluting PM Mark Carney's end run around Benedict Donald with his trade trip to China. Ha!)

The Trumpsters are trying to intimidate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey with "criminal investigations" against them. If only they would put half the effort into defending the Constitution, right? It seems that Walz and Frey are undeterred — as they should be. Why do we think that the only people benefiting from all this nonsense are lawyers?

Abigail Spanberger has been sworn in as Virginia's first woman Governor. This is a great day — not just because it's the end of the era of fleecy-vest asshole Glenn Youngkin, but because Spanberger sprang immediately out of the gate by: 1) telling multiple Trumpy members of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors to resign, and 2) presiding over the redistricting of the Commonwealth CDs to cut Republicans down to one seat. Spanberger is a centrist, national-security Democrat, but she will brook no GOP bullshit. Love it!

Finally, did you know that Denmark's sovereignty over Greenland was reaffirmed in a post-9/11 agreement back in 2004?

Yes! The Igaliku Agreement recognized Greenland's Home Rule government as a partner in matters of defense, solidifying Danish control while also granting Greenlanders more say in US military activities. You know who was President then? Yep, it was George W. "Smirky" Bush — and it would be nice if he would step out and say something about Benedict Donald today. But since Bush was the Worst Person Who's Ever Lived before Trump was, perhaps we can't expect him to behave like a statesman? We cats HISS.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like The VP?

By Zamboni

Back in the day (and not too long ago), right-wing American Catholics used to call for the church to deny the sacrament to Democratic politicians who supported abortion rights. President Joe Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Senator John Kerry were all in their crosshairs — and, most recently, so was Senator Dick Durbin. So this is not exactly a thing of the distant past. 

In Durbin's case, his hometown bishop objected to an award that he was set to receive from the Archdiocese of Chicago. And so Durbin took the higher road and said, you know what? Skip the award, I'm good.

However, you can't help but wonder if contretemps like these might become less frequent under the papacy of Leo XIV. The former Robert Prevost, born in that Toddlin' Town and holder of both US and Peruvian citizenships, has begun to chart his course — and because his mentor, Pope Francis, stacked the College of Cardinals like Biden did US judgeships, Leo might actually be able to make some incremental progress on a more progressive direction.

We say "might," "incremental," and "more" progressive, because this is the Catholic Church we're talking about. But it seems like Leo's staking out a global position against autocracy, intolerance, and hatred of migrants. Sooner or later, he may come smack up against Benedict Donald and his ICE-y minions. At least, he's considering an invitation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to visit his old Cook County stomping grounds — so we'll keep you posted on that.

Meanwhile, we definitely expect that the "deny the sacrament to Democratic office holders" crazies will have the wind taken out of their sails. But if not, here's a thought: Why not do the same to Catholic convert JD Vance? He's defended the killing of an unarmed Minneapolis woman at the hands of ICE — an outright murder of someone whose last words were "That's okay, dude, I'm not mad at you." And it's on video.

Is there anything worse than that these days? In fact, should we blow right past denying the sacrament to Vance, and move straight to excommunication? We cats wonder, and we HISS.

Just Posting This For No Reason At All

 We cats PURR.

The GOP Is "Cooked"

"Okay, Trump wants to 'cancel the midterms.'

"How does he get the Virginia state board of elections to cancel the midterms? How does he get the Georgia board of elections to do it? How does he convince Republican House members to quit their jobs and give up their paychecks?

"What does he do about the fact that in most states, midterms and statewide elections are on the same cycle, so 'canceling the elections' might mean that Tennessee doesn't have a governor next year? How does he convince Tennessee Republicans to give up power in their own states?

"ICE can't even deal with irate, middle-aged Midwesterners. How does he occupy hundreds, if not thousands, of polling cites and precincts? Trump v. Illinois clarified that he has no legal authority to unilaterally commandeer National Guards. How does he move forward from there?

"Now, of course, when you point out the practical obstacles to 'canceling the elections,' people move the goal posts to 'voter suppression and various shenanigans.' Yeah, those things exist and they always have. But the other thing is that those things work at the margins.

"You can't actually suppress away a wave of discontent. (Relatedly, I think a lot of you have no idea how large this country is and how small its various military and security forces are relative to its population).

"A lot of you are responding with 'You think guardrails and institutions will hold!' And that is a sign you aren't actually engaging with the words you're reading.

"If I want water from the sink, I have to turn on the faucet. If I want to ride my bike, I have to pedal and engage the gears. There is a mechanism. My point is that there is no mechanism by which elections can be canceled. It's not about norms, it is about how things work."

—New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie, on Bluesky

"Mr. Adams, Damn You, Mr. Adams"

By Baxter

Scott Adams died today, and we cats have a few thoughts.

His obits have correctly led not just with the creation of Dilbert but also Adams's spectacular crash and burn after he spewed racist comments on his podcast a couple of years ago. (Did you know that our country's 50 million Black people were a "hate group"? Neither did we.)

Not content with stopping there, Adams also questioned whether six million Jews really, truly died in the Holocaust (or was this a number that "someone pulled out of his ass?"), and he said that "women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. Its just easier this way for everyone."

Scott, not to mince words or anything, but fuck you and good riddance.

Hundreds of newspapers dropped Dilbert like a hot potato, as did the publisher Penguin Random House. "My reputation is destroyed," Adams whined. "You can't come back from this, am I right?" Right.

Adams was, unsurprisingly, a big Trump admirer. He remained steadfast even through all of Benedict Donald's outrages, and despite the damage it did to his career. (He even begged Trump on Twitter to help get him access to the cancer drug Pluvicto. In the end, it had to be postponed due to radiation treatments. Well, now it's permanently postponed.)

It seems to us that, as he's done with so many, Donald Trump gave Scott Adams — who had previously been rich, admired, and successful — permission to be his worst self. Adams behaved accordingly, and look what it got him. "I sacrificed everything. I sacrificed my social life. I sacrificed my career. I sacrificed my reputation. I may have sacrificed my health. And I did that because I believed it was worth it."

All righty, then. We'll close by noting that President Joe Biden, who is also battling stage IV prostate cancer — and whom Adams dragged for allegedly "not admitting" to having it earlier — has managed to outlive him. Nice work, Joe. We cats PURR.

ICE On The Rampage: Cameras Out, Americans

"Get it all on record now. Get the films, Get the witnesses, because somewhere down the road of history, some bastard will get up and say that this never happened."

—Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Forces

(IMAGE: The 45th Infantry liberates Dachau, April 1945)