Beatty Rips Trump Down

By Sniffles

We cats admit that we're not necessarily up to snuff on the arts. We became vaguely aware of some kerfuffle involving Robert Kraft (whom we, ugh, know), Ed Sheeran (haven't got a clue), and someone named Macklemore (ditto). Since Kraft was involved, we figured the other two guys were... football players? Boy, were we wrong. (Cats are only occasionally wrong, mind you, but honest when we are.)

Turns out Sheeran and Macklemore are a British singer/songwriter and an American rapper, respectively. But okay, the arts encompass all sorts of disciplines, so we can work with this. Whatever their current troubles, Sheeran and Macklemore are being messed with by a billionaire Trumpster who got off the hook for paying for sex at a massage parlor and whose name appears in the Epstein files.

In short, MAGA world doesn't have a lot of respect for the arts. Especially Benedict Donald, who was photographed through a window on Bribe Force One last night reading a document with the headline "Kennedy Center Demolished." The New York Times figured that was a stunt — Trump trolling the commie liberals and bleeding hearts. But when you recall his rush to tear down the East Wing nearly a year ago, you know with dread that with him, anything is possible.

Especially now that he's suffered multiple humiliations in one week — on Iran, voting by mail, Canada, the EU, and the Federal Reserve Board. But did any of those top the fact that he was also taken to the verbal woodshed by a Black woman? Trump is a racist, so the answer is no.

Trump "went into a tantrum" at this week's Kennedy Center board meeting on Zoom, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty said. "I mean, let me just make it simple. It was the most unprofessional thing that I've ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name-calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, 'I think you're incompetent.' And I said, 'I know you're incompetent.'

"I reminded him that he had more bankruptcies than anybody in the room," Beatty said. "I mean, it really went there, because I was not going to let him bully me, intimidate me."

So, it appears Tantrum Trump has sent his goons to put fencing around the Kennedy Center and is moving in heavy equipment, even though Judge Christopher Cooper has forbidden any demolition or construction work without 30 days' notice. (Trump doesn't care.) It's amazing that he would risk such bad optics seven weeks before the midterms, but in his current cognitive decline, he's ruled by his emotions and cravings, not logic. The President of the United States, folks. We cats HISS.

A Message From Maria Shriver

"And so here we are. This statement from Trump blows my mind. That a sitting President would not let any renovations to a public building go on unless he gets to first put his name in the said building...What a sad state of affairs. What a tragedy.

"Actually, how small-minded, how narcissistic.

"Actually great men, devoted to public service and the public good, do not act like this. It seems that this man will not rest until his name is permanently connected to the name of a great President, whose memory this building was dedicated to. Imagine spending your time and your days focused on this, as everyday Americans struggle with healthcare, gas prices, rent, and food. Imagine spending your days focused on this, while a war rages under your leadership.

"Enough said. Thank you for your attention to this matter."

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

By Hubie and Bertie

Well, whew, everybody. The Supreme Court just blocked Benedict Donald and his anti-democracy storm troopers from messing with mail-in voting this year. (This year, mind you. Stay vigilant.)

However, this is a big win, and a load off our furry minds. Not that there aren't still crazy possibilities out there — ICE at the polls, voting machines swiped, Mikey Johnson refusing to seat new members, to name a few — but this SCOTUS decision was the big enchilada for us. Because a third of the electorate votes by mail, it was the scariest threat to the election prediction that Larry Sabato made earlier today.

"Fifty days til November 3," Sabato wrote. "Keep in mind that most of what happens now doesn’t matter a whit. Operatives and media whose jobs are to exaggerate every jot and tittle will insist otherwise. Yet the path is basically set." 

Except for GOP money, though? Could it make a difference?

"In very tight races, sure," Sabato replied. "We can disagree about how many there are, but it's clear there are far fewer even vaguely competitive districts than there used to be. No way does money move masses of people late." (And you could credibly argue that Trump won't spend a dime of his war chest to help his party, anyway.)

A blue wave, Sabato concluded, is "the path we're on." Updates as they develop. Meanwhile, we cats PURR.

"The Response To Darkness Is To Reach Out"

Because America didn't have a national leader who was capable of expressing how we're all feeling on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we have decided to look elsewhere for inspiration. We cats salute Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and we PURR.

Going Viral

  

By Miss Kubelik

Trump didn't seem to be in a very good mood after his two-day emotional support rally in Dallas. Here he is yelling at (yep) another female reporter, Rachel Scott of ABC News, who dared to ask him about why he was pledging (illegal) $5,000 payouts to voters when the national debt is already at $40 trillion. Or, the photo of him emerging from a meeting with Ireland's president, Catherine Connolly, which didn't appear to go too well.

Trump always seems to be the focus of viral photos that one would think would damn him to universal condemnation and/or electoral defeat. But they never seem to do it. He falls asleep at 9/11 ceremonies, stands immobile in the Oval while someone suffers a medical emergency, or returns from a Tulsa rally looking like he's been through the wringer — and none of it appears to make any difference.

We'd give him credit for surviving all these slings and arrows, except for the fact that we know the corporate media is responsible. As Michelle Wolf told the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2018, "You love him." Because all the clicks and likes and outrage pay their bills.

Observers have theorized that Trumpism will outlast Trump. We're hoping that it doesn't, for the mere fact that we can't imagine the press giving JD Vance or Ron DeSantis or even Donald Jr. the pass Donald does — they just won't generate the traffic that Trump Senior will.

Well, to be honest, we don't know. The so-called legacy media have bent the knee so much that we have to search for a silver lining to this particular cloud. We can only hope that the media landscape will have changed enough by the next one or two Presidential elections that it won't matter. Which would make us cats PURR.

Who's Missing?

We all know who. The person who must not be named was at the Pentagon, dozing off, with his face drooping and Moose & Squirrel looking morose beside him. (Guess he paid her extra to be there.) We'll never understand why the press gives a free ride to a clan that refuses to behave like a First Family of the United States. We cats HISS.

The Shawinigan Handshake, Part Deux

 

By Zamboni

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien spoke today at the 9/11 commemoration in Gander, Newfoundland, and at the end of his remarks, he had a special message for the US. Watch and enjoy.

(He went on to say, "Never, never mistake our tolerance for lack of determination. And never, never mistake our kindness for softness." Make a note — you don't want to meet this guy in a dark alley.)

After all the controversy about Trump's obnoxious ambassador to Canada attending today, it's pretty nifty that he had to sit there and take it — from a tough 92-year-old, no less. We cats PURR.

Return Of The Towers / The Faces Of United 93

 

These are both excellent ideas. We cats PURR.

Clearing The Air

By Baxter

Has Grindr crashed in Dallas yet?

Maybe not, because from what we can tell, there are a lot of empty seats at the Trumpy "mini-convention" that kicked off tonight. Which means that a smattering of the MAGA faithful will revel in an anodyne video from Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, leaving the rest of us to fulminate on social media.

We cats choose not to engage. Fetterman clearly has suffered some major damage from his 2022 stroke, and we hope that he reassesses his life choices, steps away from the Senate, and gets further help. Maybe he could even resign his seat now and let Josh Shapiro appoint a successor. But that's all we have to say about that.

Meanwhile, we are just back in the country from two weeks away, and from the headlines we've been scanning, the most despicable development has been the manufactured brouhaha over Mayor Zohran Mamdani's attendance at Friday's 9/11 memorial event. What ridiculous performative bullshit this is.

Mamdani is the duly elected mayor of New York City. He will be at the memorial, and the bigots can just suck it up.

But Rudy Giuliani? Maybe he should take a pass. It seems pretty clear that Rudy, the MAGAts, and Trumpsters are pissed that Mamdani released all those documents that showed how New Yorkers were misled about their air quality after the attacks. Surely that's the reason the Republicans have all gone big-time Islamaphobe these last few days. But whatever their motivation, it is despicable. Let's toss all these awful people out of office, shall we? We cats PURR.

Embrace Me, My Sweet Embraceable You

By Sniffles

Speaking of feeling worried about the upcoming midterms, we cats ran across a possible solution: Go to a Democratic rally and ask the candidate or featured speaker for a hug.

"At stop after stop on his latest Southern swing over Labor Day weekend, Governor Gavin Newsom leaned into the anxiety and exhaustion Democrats have been carrying through the Trump era," POLITICO reports. "In North Charleston, a young woman in the front row held up a sign reading HOLD ME! Newsom walked over mid-speech and obliged."

An interesting approach to mental distress. We'd particularly like to try this at a Jon Ossoff event. We cats PURR.