Work Of Art

 

Njideka Akunyili Crosby's official portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama was unveiled at the Obama Presidential Center yesterday, and — coming on the same day as that tacky event at the White House — it was a cleansing bit of good news. We cats like the painting very much. It's especially interesting to us that its dominant figure is not the President but the First Lady — a brilliant, accomplished, commanding, gorgeous Black woman. Take that, Josh Hokit. We cats PURR.

Oh, Lordy, As They Say

By Hubie and Bertie

How many individual scandals can you roll into one big, fat, ugly, stinky, scary scandal? By our count, it's three.

The "Somebody In The White House Gave Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan Recordings from the Situation Room" Scandal — It was bad enough that Regime Change authors Haberman and Swan had a blow-by-blow of the Sit Room Epstein confab in the first place. But tapes? OMG. "Such a taped leak would be a shocking breach of one of the most secure settings on Earth," Axios reports. "Independent recording devices in the Situation Room are forbidden."

The "Republicans Will Excuse Serious Breaches in National Security As Long As They're the Ones Doing It" Scandal — That scrambling sound you hear is Lindsey Graham frantically trying to concoct a defense of the indefensible that he can then parrot on TV and social media.

The "My Book Is More Important Than Your Right to Know" Scandal — Reporters like Haberman and Swan sitting on alarmingly massive scoops just so they can write and sell books months later is everything (well, nearly everything) that's wrong with journalism today.

Finally, not a scandal, but a haunting refrain: Can you imagine the reaction if something like this happened under Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, or Joe Biden? Every one if them would be impeached, tarred and feathered, drawn and quartered, and then shot. But Donald and the Trumpsters? Don't hold your breath. We cats HISS.

Return To Normalcy

 

We realize that to erase the stain of Donald going forward, we will have to endure all sorts of last-minute, emergency-stay, please-don't shenanigans — but, if we persevere, we will succeed. We cats PURR.

(UPDATE, June 14: Looks like the curtain has not fallen. In fact, it looks pretty permanent. Apparently Donald doesn't want anyone to see that his name is no longer there. What a child. We cats HISS.)

No Kings, Just Presidents

This is just a reminder that tomorrow, if you're on social media, you need to post something complimentary about this man, accompanied by a stunning photo (like this one). Because it will drive You-Know-Who crazy. Thank you for your attention to this matter! We cats PURR.

Oy!

By Miss Kubelik

We cats don't make it there very often because it's so popular (and crowded), but we enjoy breakfast at Arthur's Nosh Bar in the historic St.-Henri neighborhood of Montréal. It's got great comfort food — the kind your bubbe would serve with love. But now Arthurs in the crosshairs of the Quebec language police.

If you look closely at the photo above, you'll see "Nosh Bar" stenciled on its window. Big no-no and a grave threat to the French language, apparently. This is a pain in the ass for the owners, who have been in business for 10 years and who have taken the trouble to trademark the name. They're trying to figure out a work-around.

There's no solving the idiocy of the current provincial government and the majority party, the Coalition Avenir du Quebec, but we have a possible solution for Arthurs. The French word for "nosh" (at least, according to our iPad translator, LOL) is "bouffe." If they just stencil in "Bouffe Bar" on the window below "Nosh Bar," they can maybe satisfy the gendarmes and enjoy some alliteration at the same time.

It's all so ridiculous. We look forward to the CAQ getting booted out of power in this fall's election. Meanwhile, we cats HISS.

Randy Rainbow, Very Able (And Yes, A Genius)

 

Randy Rainbow has updated one of his best song parodies, and for the first time, we feel like we could enjoy all of the 250th birthday nonsense. This is the spirit of America! We cats PURR.

De Adder Du Jour (And Some Observations)

By Zamboni

It's primary day in Maine, which means it's time for us cats to finally weigh in on the Graham Platner kerfuffle (*sigh*). Cartoonist Michael de Adder pretty much says it all, in our opinion.

It's rare for us to back a Bernie Bro. (Sanders endorsed Platner way back on Labor Day 2025.) We choose not to slam them online for a lot of very good reasons, but when it comes to deciding on a primary candidate, we generally choose someone else. However, this Maine situation is different: Governor Janet Mills dropped out of the race amid fundraising difficulties (and questions about her age). While she's still on the ballot, if we cats were voting in Maine today, we'd vote for Platner.

He's popular with Mainers, and poised to win tonight, and — most important — we must get the Senate back. We're in a national emergency, after all. "A Republic, if you can keep it," as Ben Franklin famously said. Unseating Susan Collins will help us do that.

A word of warning: Collins will not be easy to beat, despite the polls we're seeing today. Last time around, she had a Democratic opponent who enjoyed the backing of her party's establishment, and Collins looked to be in danger of getting shown the door. She ended up winning by nearly nine points. She won't go easily this year, either, whether we run Platner or someone else against her. So let's let Mainers sort out this primary, and then in November we can get behind our nominee and help save the country. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder, deadder.net)

Battered.

By Baxter

Are we the only ones who thought that Benedict Donald went into the Meet the Press interview intending to walk out from the get-go? Trump has been playing the press for 10 years — more than that if you count his years as a C-list New York mobster — and journalists from the Beltway and beyond have still not figured that out.

That's why you have Kristen Welker sputtering nonsense like "I traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview." That's why you have NBC decorating the set like it was something out of Green Acres. (Tractors? Bales of hay? Please.) That's why we all saw Welker kissing up to Donald afterward, claiming that "We had a substantial conversation on issues from the war in Iran to the economy, blah blah blah." 

What crap. If that was a "substantial conversation," we cats are eating Alpo for breakfast tomorrow.

There might not be anything more painful than witnessing someone give respect to someone who doesn't deserve it (and who dishes out only contempt in return). The dizzying cross-talk between Trump and Welker was Exhibit A on that, and it was torturous to watch.

The press is in an abusive relationship with Benedict Donald. Until one journalist truly stands up for his colleagues — yep, it has to be a man — and calls out all the bullshit, the abuse will continue. And the corporate media overlords will keep raking in the cash from eyeballs, clicks, and likes. As Joe Biden would say, "C'mon, man!" We cats HISS.

Citizen Trump Is Very Unhappy

By Sniffles

Here we go again. Not only did Benedict Donald shovel his "rigged election" nonsense at Kristen Welker this weekend, Preacher of the House Mikey Johnson and other Trumpy minions are taking up the call, mostly complaining about California.

They're doing it for a couple of reasons.

First, their preferred candidates (particularly Spencer Pratt) are faltering in Tuesday's jungle primary. Second, it's preparation for the November midterms, of course — they're laying the groundwork to cast doubt on everything. Why does it take soooooooo loooooooonnnnnnggg to count the votes in California? There must be fraud!

Nope, nope, nopity nope. Here's a quick explainer, courtesy of Marc Elias and Democracy Docket:

California is huge: It has 40 million people. Estimates are that 23 million voters cast ballots in the primary. Trump, whose math skills aren't much above the sixth-grade level, should try counting 23 million votes and see how long it takes. 

California is a universal vote-by-mail state. It sends mail-in ballots to every registered voter. Lots of people use them.

California counts all ballots that people mailed on time, even if they're received after Election Day.

California verifies all ballots before they're counted. (Which means, guess what — there's no fraud!)

California allows voters to fix any mistakes — like adding missing signatures —so their votes can count.

In short, California is one of the most voter-friendly states in the nation. No wonder Trump and his henchmen constantly attack it. We cats HISS.

(IMAGE: From Citizen Kane, 1940. Authoritarians screaming about rigged elections is nothing new.)

Endangered Profession

 

Quite a weekend for American journalism. From Scott Pelley's revelations about the 60 Minutes trainwreck to Benedict Donald's hissy fit on Meet the Press, it was one for the ages. We cats were not thrilled with any of it. The tattered state of CBS is alarming, and Kristen Welker managed to get played even as Trump threw his mic on the ground, stomped on it, and waddled out. But at least it managed to generate a headline like this one. More later. We cats HISS.