No Respect

By Hubie and Bertie

Yes, there was a hit job on Vice President Kamala Harris in The Washington Post yesterday. Take it from us, any story with "some Democrats" in the headline is an instant signal that selected lamebrains in the lefty pundit class have been pitching a negative story for weeks, and the Post finally bit — for clicks and retweets, we can only assume. Such is the state of journalism in 2023 (not good).

Which means that when it came to the Harris "story," we took to heart Charles III's sage advice to son Harry about negative articles in the British tabloids: "Don't read them, darling boy." Still, how the media treat Harris overall burns us.

They lament that she "hasn't done anything" as Vice President — but have they covered her trips, her speeches, her foreign policy chops, her work on Biden's domestic agenda, at all? Nope. And then they complain that she — well, you get the idea. It's a vicious, self-fulfilling circle. And they get to feel superior. But it rightly infuriates the Black women who worked their hearts and guts out for Biden-Harris in 2020.

Now, it's been announced that the Veep will attend Tyre Nichols's funeral tomorrow, at the invitation of Nichols's family. Here's a question for you: Which Vice President prior to Kamala Harris would have been invited? Mike Pence? Dick Cheney? Dan Quayle? (Those guys? Absolutely not. But Joe Biden? Yep.) We cats HISS.

America Should Invade Canada?

 

Making excellent jokes about them is the only way to respond to the idiots at Fox "News." We cats PURR.

As Plain As The Nose On His Face

By Miss Kubelik

Where has this New York Times guest op-ed writer been for the last two years? This drives us bananas.

James Sasso, senior investigative counsel for the January 6 Committee and one of the drafters of its final report, took an entire column in the NYT — not cheap journalistic real estate — to lament MAGAts' distrust of government (something we've already known from endless conversations with white guys in diners), and what the US should do to restore trust. Never mind that African-Americans have been treated miserably for 400 years and yet still turn out — despite suppression, gerrymandering and intimidation — to declare and reinforce their faith in American democracy at the ballot box.

So, okay — let's be blunt: Sasso is talking about white people here. But let's also get to the nut of his argument. In addition to campaign finance reform, which is obviously huge (hello, Roberts Supreme Court), he, astoundingly, says this:

"Our leaders need to build trust broadly by tackling economic inequality and reinvesting in communities devastated by globalization and technological changes. At the most basic level, politicians should refocus locally on building roads, lowering crime and revitalizing small business districts..."

Can it be true? This dude has never heard of the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law? Instead of wringing his hands, Sasso should go from diner to diner, explain the law to the clueless MAGAts over their coffee and pancakes, and tell them to dial back their outrage. Problem is, we think Sasso may be clueless himself. We cats HISS.

Franciszek Michalik, Catholic Priest, Died In Auschwitz 1941

By Zamboni

We cats follow the Auschwitz Memorial Museum on Twitter, for many reasons. But most important, because we all must remember.

Every time the museum posts a tweet about a Holocaust victim — when and where he or she was born, when he or she went to the camps, and whether or not he or she died or survived the war — we take a few minutes in our busy day and focus on that person. We think about what his or her experience must have been like.

Too often, the final report is that the person "was murdered in the gas chamber after the selection." But not always. Some survive.

We do this because it's the right thing — but also because anti-Semitism seems to be on the rise again. As Americans, we know that it's because Benedict Donald gave us permission to be our own worst selves. This has to stop. We cats HISS.

Blue Lives, White Lives, Black Lives

By Baxter

Today, the nation is rightly being consumed with the issue of police brutality. There's also a little ray of sunshine when it comes to MAGA brutality against police.

One of the Trumpy insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on January 6 has just been sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. It's not just any rioter — it's the guy who assaulted Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day. Good — haul him off to the hoosegow.

There's a lot of injustice and inequality when it comes to law enforcement in this country. Most of it is on one side. We cats have seen bits and pieces of the Tyre Nichols video that the City of Memphis released tonight, and it's sickening. We can't watch all of it. It gives us the same feelings when we see the MAGAts storming the Capitol — outrage, disgust, violation, revulsion. Many Democratic voices, from President Biden down, have spoken out in protest.

But there's been nothing but crickets from Republicans, about either Memphis or January 6. They have precious little to say about how much "blue lives matter" when it comes to the insurrectionists. They've also been silent on the five Memphis officers who killed Tyre Nichols. Is it because the officers are Black? We cats HISS.

(UPDATE: We're not in the habit of quoting former Republicans, but ex-Congressman Joe Walsh has pretty much summed up the Tyre Nichols video: "No one tried to help him. No one. He was dying. He was literally dying. And no one tried to help him. No one." We cats HISS.)

Ronna v. Rhonda

By Sniffles

Well, team, it looks like Chairperson Ronna (Don't You Dare Say "Romney") McDaniel has fended off a revolt within the Republican National Committee, and squeaked her way to victory today at the RNC meeting at a luxury resort in Dana Point, California.

Okay, it wasn't necessarily a "squeak" — but Ronna lost about 35 percent of her committee members to Harmeet Dhillon, an outlier Trumpster who was interestingly endorsed by Ron "Rhonda" DeSantis just a few days ago. "I think we need to get some new blood in the RNC," Rhonda said. "I think we need a change." Whoops. 

(And if you're wondering, the pillow guy only got four votes. Ouch.)

Still and all, despite dragging herself over the finish line with 111 votes, Ronna's victory is not a resounding endorsement. Cracks, fissures, crevices characterize the current state of the Republican elite. And the base is restive. It all means that you're left with a fractured party, a weakened chair, and — although the media will ignore this — Republicans, not Democrats, in disarray.

The most compelling aspect of this whole circus is that the Florida Fascist waded into this fight and appears to have been trounced — despite his party's lackluster performance in the 2022 midterms. And while one would have to view this as a win for Benedict Donald, it also shows that he doesn't have the control over the party he once had.

In short, all good for us! We cats PURR.

Trying To Erase American History (And Americans)

 

Republicans like Ron DeSantis will never get over The 1619 Project, will they? Since its publication, the death of George Floyd, and the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement, the GOP and right wingers have gone off-the-charts paranoid and nuts. We cats remember a Q&A at The Carter Center with the 39th President, who was asked, what's America's biggest problem? Jimmy Carter instantly said, "Racism." He was right.

(IMAGE: Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Song For A Fool's Spring Night

They say there are 11 seasons in Canada: Winter, fool's spring, second winter, spring of deception, third winter, mud season, actual spring, summer, false fall, second summer (one week) and actual fall.

Here's Gordon Lightfoot 23 years ago, singing about what is about to be outside our windows (we think). It's snowing in Toronto right now but hasn't quite gotten to Montreal yet. We cats PURR.

Snowed Under

By Hubie and Bertie

Yes, we know — we cats were complaining about a lack of snow a couple of weeks ago, and now the situation has been somewhat rectified. A storm hit this past Sunday-Monday, and now here comes another one tomorrow night. Red screens on the weather channel mean business! We could get six to 10 inches in Montreal.

Similarly, a blizzard of convictions appears to be descending on the January 6 insurrectionists.

The four Oath Keepers found guilty of seditious conspiracy have been joined by Richard Barnett, the Arkansas fool who helped trash Nancy Pelosi's office and was famously photographed with his foot propped up on her desk. This verdict is particularly satisfying. We cats have been known to put our feet on things where they don't belong, so that's not the biggest reason we found Barnett repulsive. But he deserves to be hauled off to the hoosegow because:

• He entered the Capitol with a stun gun in his belt. This was not a guy who was there for innocent reasons, however much he might protest that he was just looking for a bathroom.
• He left a vulgar note calling the greatest Speaker of the House in our lifetimes a "bitch."
  
• He said he couldn't get a fair trial in the District of Columbia because... well, he might as well have said outright that it was because so many people there are Black.

His whining is just more MAGA victimhood, and we're sick of it. When you tally up all his offenses — disorderly conduct, obstructing an official proceeding, entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon, theft of government property — he could get up to 47 years in jail. Oh, heck, let's round it up to 50, shall we? We cats HISS.

Everyone's Miserable

Every time Randy Rainbow releases a video, we say, "OMG, it's his best yet!" So how does he keep doing this? We're particularly impressed with his internal rhyming of "Nancy" and "Can't see" — plus the "15 times" clip of Trump. Well done, RR. We cats PURR.