Cat Fight! Brittlestar v. Boebert

 

Spoiler alert: Brittlestar wins. (Not that Lauren Boebert will get any of this. She knows nothing about Canada — except that it's north of us). We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.

Sure, The Nuclear Threat's Elevated, But At Least The GOP Is Falling Apart

By Zamboni

As Ukraine fights for its life, we cats were wondering how Republicans who dared to venture onto the Sunday shows today would handle the delicate question of Benedict Donald. (Or, as Steve Schmidt calls him, "the obese imbecile from Queens.")

When asked about Fox "News" idiots and Republicans who've supported Trump (and Putin), Willard "Mitt" Romney didn't pussy-foot around. "How anybody in this country, which loves freedom, can side with Vladimir Putin, who is an oppressor, a dictator, he kills people, he imprisons his political opponents, he has been an adversary of America at every chance he’s had, it’s unthinkable to me," Romney said on CNN today. "It’s almost treasonous."

As always, we have quibbles with Willard. What's with the "almost"? Also, if he's so disgusted by his party, he should become an Independent and caucus with Senate Democrats. But that'll never happen — Willard always disappoints. (And here we were all set to give him kudos for screaming about Putin in 2012. Oh, well.)

Meanwhile, George Stephanopoulos gave the execrable Tom Cotton of Arkansas four chances to condemn Trump's Vlad-fluffing today, and four times Cotton greasily refused. "I don't speak on behalf of other politicians," he burbled. Stephanopoulos's response was perfect: "I simply don’t understand why you can’t condemn his praise of Putin."

What we're still waiting for: Cable hosts who dredge up Republicans' Reagan-loving quotes from years ago and then ask how they feel about Ronnie and his policies now. Don't hold your breath. We cats HISS.

Pure Gold

This is a great video from Meidas Touch. It makes you wonder how anyone launches a successful Blitzkrieg in an era of the Interwebs, social media, video and smartphones. We cats PURR.

Silver Linings, Part 2

By Baxter

Although he invaded Ukraine, there's nothing Vladimir Putin can do about the march of good news — which, we're happy to report, continued today. Here's some.

Putin and the oligarchs, feeling pain — Vlad the Invader and his enablers now have to deal with a ton of crap. Personal sanctions, Germany and Italy maybe changing their minds on SWIFT, Kazakhstan saying "nyet," Ukrainians not welcoming Russians as liberators, and reports of Russian soldiers fighting half-heartedly. Vlad needed a quick resolution to his invasion. He may not get it.

Chef José Andrés to the rescue — He and his team are on the Polish-Ukrainian border, delivering meals. Hey, Nobel Committee, give this guy the Peace Prize already.

"Anonymous" strikes back — Wow, we never thought the hackers behind Anonymous might be good guys. But they've taken down RT and leaked the database of the Russian ministry of defense. As "Casablanca's" Victor Laszlo said, "Welcome to the fight."

Biden's SCOTUS nomination — Ketanji Brown Jackson really impressed at her White House appearance today. Her resume is so solid, and her demeanor is so nonthreatening, that Republican Senators are boxed in. The only reason they'd have to vote against her is her race. HAHAHAHAHAHA

Pat King stays in the hoosegow — The racist Canadian "Freedom Convoy" leader was denied bail today, and won't appear in court again until March 18. Enjoy the Big House, big guy! We cats PURR.

Ponto Stands With Ukraine

By Sniffles

We cats are in Montreal right now, a world world away from Kyiv. So we're not feeling the immediate effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But as former President (and Nobel laureate) Jimmy Carter pointed out, human rights transcend the nation-state — even as they depend upon the latter for their realization. Let us rely on the world's democracies to stop Russia's suppression of a democratic people. We cats PURR.

Solidarity

Tonight, the CN Tower in Toronto is lit blue and yellow in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. The whole world is against Vladimir Putin and his invasion. We cats PURR.

Guts

By Hubie and Bertie

It's kind of interesting how the Canadian convoy "protesters" trundled into a G7 capital and entrenched themselves for three weeks without thinking that there would be hell to pay. They were able to rely on the disorganization of the Ottawa police in the beginning, yes — but when push came to shove, and the Emergencies Act was enforced, by and large, they packed up and left.

Which makes them the latest entry in the "Trumpsters Are Cowards" ledger. Maybe the so-called truckers who are driving from California to Washington, DC, for the State of the Union Address will join that less-than-august roll call. (Although they're saying they won't try to enter the District, so who knows?) Meanwhile, it's striking from the latest news stories who has moxie and who doesn't. And on the "who doesn't" side, it's definitely the Trumpster truckers.

The ones who do? Citizens of Ukraine who are arming themselves to fight the Russian aggressors. The more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers who have already died turning back the invasion. And most especially, the thousands of Russian citizens who have turned out to demonstrate against Vladimir Putin and the worst European attack since World War II.

Unlike the Trumpy demonstrators in Canada and the US, Russians who show up at demonstrations literally put their lives at risk. This is something that the "Fuck Trudeau/Biden" crowd can't possibly understand. Let's hope they come to realize the difference. And may the fates favor the people of Ukraine (and the Russians who sympathize with them). We cats PURR.

Silver Linings

By Miss Kubelik

The news from Ukraine is universally upsetting. To distract ourselves, we cats decided to focus on stories that have been shelved thanks to the Putin invasion. Here's what we came up with.

The Baseball Lockout — This would have mattered in another universe. But even though we cats love baseball and used to go to spring training games in Florida, we have to say: WHO CARES?

CPAC — Goodness gracious, you'd think that Putin would have checked with Ronna Romney and the other Republican cretins about whether an invasion of Ukraine would push them into obscurity. Guess he didn't, and the right-wing jackasses are simply shouting into the wind. Too bad.

Pennsylvania and North Carolina Maps — The courts have accepted House maps for more than 30 Congressional districts favorable to Democrats. Totally unnoticed in a week of political upheaval and hand-wringing, folks, but worth celebrating.

Excellent Legal Decisions — Yes, two prosecutors resigned from the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation of Benedict Donald this week. But we don't know yet what happened there. And there were some really good legal decisions that came down at the same time: Canadian insurrectionist Tamara Lich was denied bail. (Will white supremacist Pat King be close behind her? Film at eleven.) The three assholes who murdered Ahmaud Arbery were convicted of federal hate crimes. And the other officers involved in the George Floyd murder were found guilty. Things could be worse. We cats PURR.

Perfect.

 

This brilliant cartoon could use a couple more panels — for Mike Pompeo and, particularly, Tucker Carlson (or "Tuckyo Rose," as Alexander Vindman calls him). We cats PURR.

Positively Piffly

By Zamboni

Vladimir Putin is about to invade Ukraine, and the GOP and Fox "News" are supporting him. Incredible, isn't it? Republicans clearly think that with his threats driving up gas prices and driving down the stock market, Vlad is sticking a pin in the Democrats for 2022 and 2024. Nothing — not US national security, NATO, defending democracy, or, heck, world peace — is more important to them than getting and keeping power.

The word "traitors" has been tossed around, and it's difficult to argue with it. With their love of Putin, their knee-bending to Vlad lackey Benedict Donald, their Big Lie, and the insurrection of January 6, the Republican Party has now become officially anti-democratic.

But don't take it from us — take it instead from Republicans themselves. There are still some who are aghast and appalled and willing to say so. Former RNC chairman Marc Racicot, for example, recently wrote a blistering open letter to current party chair Ronna Romney McDaniel, which he submitted to his hometown paper, the Billings Gazette.

Racicot takes Romney to task for the GOP's resolution censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — but then he says so much more. Here are some excerpts (including the wonderful word "piffle"). We cats PURR.

Dear Chairwoman McDaniel,

Based on my decades of engagement in Republican politics, my intuition tells me that you and the other members of the RNC will come to regret, if you don’t already, the passage of the RNC Resolution.

I believe you, and the members of the Committee, have substantially underestimated the Great Middle of America and what’s happening with all of those good and decent people from sea to shining sea. Made up of Democrats, Republicans and independents, the Great Middle is in the process of organizing itself with a higher goal, quietly but surely, not by express agreement or party affiliation, but by standards of decency, integrity, honor and faithfulness to the best interests of the Republic.

More important than ephemeral political calculations, in the political life of the United States there is no greater or higher loyalty as a citizen or an officeholder than a shared loyalty to the nation and the Constitution. Every citizen agrees to that premise as a condition of the social contract between the people and their government. Hence, loyalty to a political party or candidate never trumps allegiance to the Republic.

Although it is ever so neat and tidy to blame the defeat of the former president on the existence of decisive and widespread fraud, there is not even a scintilla of evidence, anywhere, to support such piffle. The former president didn’t experience defeat in 2020 because of fraud. The truth is quite the opposite.

My suggestion and request is that you lead the Committee through the process of withdrawing and dismissing the RNC Resolution. I urge the pursuit of this remedy with the understanding that we’re human, that politics is a competitive enterprise and that sometimes we make mistakes. But I also believe in such a situation the final measure of our character is whether we have the insight and courage to humbly and honestly correct them.

Lest We Furr-get: Seeing Red

By Baxter

Things in Canada seem to be under control for now, so let's return at last to the United States — where an unsuspecting time traveler beaming in from the mid-to-late 20th century would be astonished at what the Republican Party is saying and doing.

Vladimir Putin has stormed into Ukraine, President Biden and a solid NATO are cranking up economic sanctions, and the GOP in its Trumpy state has decided that Vlad is the bee's knees. Goodness gracious, do they all have to be lackeys? Why? Does Putin have pee tapes on everybody? Mike Pompeo and Benedict Donald have taken the lead on this — Putin, they say, is "savvy" and a "genius" — but don't hold your breath waiting for Republicans to condemn them for it.

How things change. The number of now-dead Republicans who proudly waved anti-Communist banners in decades past must be spinning in their graves so fast that it's amazing the Earth hasn't veered off its axis and is hurtling into the sun. 

Just think of the GOP luminaries who, if they weren't pushing up daisies, would be shocked and appalled: Bob Taft, Barry Goldwater (!), Richard Nixon (!!), Ronald Reagan (!!!), Bob Dole, Jesse Helms, John Tower, George H.W. Bush, Jim Baker, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Lugar and John McCain, to name a few.

Most of all, what would the Red-baiter supreme, Joseph R. McCarthy, have to say about all this? He's been silent for 65 years — but if our grave-spinning theory is correct, the citizens of Appleton, Wisconsin, must be feeling the Earth move. We cats HISS.

Bottom Of The Barrel

By Sniffles

Pretty amazing that the cops in Canada were able to clear thousands of protesters and tow away dozens of big rigs in Ottawa — not to mention bust up the Ambassador Bridge and Coutts blockades — without any fatalities or injuries. (Especially since they seized a huge cache of weapons at Coutts and some long guns in Ottawa.)

Tonight, the House of Commons will vote on the government's use of the Emergencies Act, which made all the successes of last week and the weekend possible. PMJT is styling it as a confidence vote, which, if he loses it, could trigger an election. Film at eleven.

This was a canny move by Trudeau. It effectively puts the brakes on any doubting Liberal who might not be in love with the EA but, on the other hand, doesn't want the government to fall. (Even though two-thirds of Canadians polled said they were sick of the protesters and supported use of the Act.) And the Conservative Party is not ready for an election. They don't even have a leader right now — all they have is interim-nutcase-and-convoy-supporter Candice Bergen from Manitoba, aka Murphy Brownshirt. Whatever happens, we'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, right wingers are behaving despicably, as always. A Conservative senator from Nova Scotia is apologizing today for squiffy videoed comments he made on Parliament Hill last week, in which he said he was sick of Ottawans with their "six-figure salaries and 20-hour workweeks." (For the record, Canadian senators make $160,000+ a year and meet for fewer than 100 days.) He also called his own wife a "Karen" for wanting the occupation to end. Whoa.

Worse, though, is Randy Hillier, a member of the Ontario provincial government who used to be a Conservative but now sits as an Independent, because even the Tories couldn't take him any more. Hillier's been calling for the Trumpy truckers to swamp 911 in Ottawa with bogus calls. How soon can they arrest him?

And then of course there are reports of convoy protesters surrounding, harassing and spitting on journalists reporting on the occupation.

Just awful. It's astounding that, like the Republicans in the US, Canadian Conservatives are willing to align themselves with terrible people. Surely, giving folks permission to be their absolute worst selves won't win in the end — will it? We cats HISS.

(UPDATE: The House has approved the Emergencies Act invocation, 185 to 151. We cats PURR.)

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Thoughts So Far

By Hubie and Bertie

We cats have some observations about the end of the Ottawa occupation. Mind you, we'll have more — because the fallout from this nightmare is just beginning. But here's what we're thinking tonight.

In case you're seeing alarming reports, relax. The Trumpsters were spreading disinformation yesterday that a protester had been trampled by a police horse. Fox "News" even said that the person had died in hospital. All false. No one was trampled, no one died.

There's a disturbing similarity between the Ottawa occupiers and the January 6 crowd. Today, Ottawa police confiscated flagpoles (i.e., weapons), and the insurrectionists were screaming about "hanging" Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And in case you were doubting the US connection, Rafael "Ted" Cruz, born in Canada, tweeted, outraged, about the alleged horse-murdered protester. Sorry, Ted. Didn't happen.

Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the Ottawa occupation, is in jail right now — and her bail won't be ruled upon until Tuesday, since this is a holiday weekend. Good! Let's hope the woman who wore a "I Love Oil & Gas" sweatshirt to court today stays hauled off in the hoosegow not just this weekend, but forever.

By the way, it's super-fab that Lich's bank account, and the bank accounts and credit cards of the other insurrectionist organizers, have been frozen by the Emergencies Act. We hear that a lot of them are crying in jail. That's probably why. Next step is for their wealthy right-wing shadow financiers to abandon them. You know it will happen.

Meanwhile, in Quebec: We cats have been interested to see how the province would react, since the last time a national emergency was declared (by PM Pierre Trudeau, under the War Measures Act in 1970), things got dicey there. But this time around, la Nouvelle France seems just fine with what's going down in Ottawa. As Josh Freed in the Montreal Gazette reports:

"Premier Legault quickly faced down the first convoy of truckers [in Quebec City], warning no disorder would be tolerated or trucks parked illegally. He knows he doesn’t need emergency measures, since Quebec and especially Montreal have a secret army of troops that are the most ferocious in the country.

"Ottawa’s problems were made worse by foreign intervention: US extremists, crackpots and funds pouring across the border. Far right-wing and religious American groups latched onto the 'freedom convoy' and magnified it into another culture war.

"America’s far right wing is obsessed with so-called 'liberty' — and the 'freedom' to bring down democratically elected leaders like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (and US President Joe Biden)."

We agree. Is the US prepared? We certainly hope so. We cats PURR.

Return To Normalcy

You know the occupation of Ottawa is over when you can throw on your Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and take your bird out for a walk. Hurray for the Emergencies Act! We cats PURR.

End Of The Line

By Miss Kubelik

Big day in Ottawa today. (Wow, who'd have thought we'd ever write that sentence? Ottawa is a sleepy, pleasant G7 world capital. Ottawans almost never have big days.)

Anyway, the cops are moving on the occupiers and shutting the whole Trumpy trucker sh*tshow down. It may take them the weekend, but so far they've arrested 100 people and towed a couple dozen vehicles. It's been generally peaceful so far. The imported Sûreté du Québec cops in their riot gear and face shields have not been needed — yet.

Our favorite part of today's events: Occupiers who have finally decided to remove their illegally parked cars are being stopped on their way out of town at about 100 police checkpoints, where cops are demanding their licenses and registration. You can only assume they'll be hit with billions of loonies in tickets. (Tweeps are saying that Balcony Man should help work the checkpoints, LOL.)

One of our least-favorite parts: An occupier threw a bicycle at a police horse this afternoon. The idiot has been arrested for intentionally harming a police service animal. Lock him up!

These occupations, in Ottawa and at the border, have been traumatic for Canadians, who care about their reputation abroad. Two-thirds of them support the Emergencies Act and oppose the occupiers. And none of this would be happening if the Ottawa Police chief, the city government and the Conservative Premier of Ontario had done their jobs three weeks ago. But Doug Ford was too caught up in joining Candice (not Murphy Brown) Bergen and other Tories in trying to pin this whole thing on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Ford tried to forget that Ottawa is in Ontario, and it didn't work. We cats HISS.

"Actual Malice"

By Zamboni

Arrests are starting in Ottawa, with a promise from the city police that this weekend will look far different from the last three. We'll see. Meanwhile, there have been a ton of breaking political news stories in the United States, and maybe we should mention two or three.

Benedict Donald and two of his spawn have been ordered to comply with subpoenas to testify in New York Attorney General Letitia James's investigation of the Trump Organization. They'll appeal, probably, but it's a safe bet they won't be able to dodge this. So they'll have to take the Fifth. Remember how Trump always said only guilty people do that?

It hasn't been a good week for Donald, what with his accounting firm dumping him and all. Just for the record, we never for a moment believed that Trump was ever, ever a billionaire. And it's pretty clear he's in dire financial straits right now, if not flat broke. Why is Moose & Squirrel hawking hats and NFTs — to herself?

The farcical outcome of the women's figure skating competition at the dreadful Beijing Olympic Games (excuse the redundancy — all Olympics are dreadful) perfectly encapsulates why the IOC and the games should be discontinued forever. We have no idea why they weren't stopped after Munich in 1972.

Finally, you can tell the heat is cranking up on Trump and the GOP — by Tish James, by Georgia DA Fani Willis, and by the January 6 committee — because they, and Fox "News," are cranking out old Hillary scandal tropes. Secretary Clinton had a lot of fun with it in an address to the New York State Democratic Convention tonight — and she included a warning. (Pay attention, folks. She's a lawyer.) We cats PURR.

Counter-Protests Get "Wild"

It's good that the people (and the woodland creatures) of Ottawa have maintained their sense of humor/humour over the Trumpy "Freedom Convoy." But what's a "rat lab"? We cats PURR.

Freeland Follows The Money

By Baxter

The Trumpy trucker border demonstration at the Manitoba-US line is about to collapse, but we expect that the end of the Ottawa occupation will come with a whimper.

That said, today's resignation of the Ottawa chief of police was a small bang. And a necessary one. He was the wrong man for the moment, and never should have allowed the insurrectionists' to entrench themselves. The damn thing should have been over the minute a Trumpster climbed up and stood on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

But what's really going to end all this is the tight stranglehold of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is also Minister of Finance. Thanks to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, Freeland is:

• Freezing the corporate accounts of truckers participating in the Ottawa occupation
  
• Suspending their insurance
• Allowing banks to freeze their personal accounts and requiring them to share information on suspicious transfers with the RCMP and Canadian intelligence services
  
• Requiring all crowdfunding platforms to register with the anti-money-laundering Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), to track and halt funding of illegal blockades

Already on social media last night, there was evidence that Freeland's financial squeezing was having an effect. It's not going to be sudden and dramatic, but soon, this long national nightmare will be over. Which will make us cats PURR.

Time Is Running Out! (We Hope)

Since PMJT and the federal government have just invoked the never-before-used Emergencies Act, we assume that this is indeed a very limited offer. At least, it damn well better be. We cats PURR.

Doing Their Jobs

By Sniffles

Cops in Windsor, Ontario, have finally done what the Ottawa police are incapable of (or unwilling to do): arrest Trumpy truckers who were blocking the Ambassador Bridge to Detroit. The bridge and the border crossing are allegedly getting set to reopen.

Meanwhile, it's disheartening to hear that the Mayor of Ottawa has come to an agreement with the protesters insurrectionists there that will remove them from residential neighborhoods but allow them to stay on Parliament Hill. This makes no sense. And the people of Ottawa agree.

In 2020, millions of American voters, particularly women and people of color, turned out at the ballot box to defeat Benedict Donald. Today, Ukrainian grandmothers are training with AK-47s to fight a Russian invasion, and in Canada, ordinary citizens are coming out in droves to block and turn away the Trumpy truckers. Looks like they're going to be the ones to take their streets back — not the police. We cats HISS.

Joe & Justin

 

By Hubie & Bertie

Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden go back. Maybe not "way" back, but back. Suffice to say that PMJT and JRB have been in contact lately, and the result is, we're sure, that the Trumpster minority that's been snarling the borders will not be sustained.

People want their governments to maintain order. The Trumpy truckers threatening that order means that they will alienate the very people they hope to persuade. We cats PURR.

Tidbits And Cat Treats: Friday Before Valentine's Day Edition

By Miss Kubelik

About this time in 1964, the Beatles were storming America. All you need is love, right? These days, it seems like there's precious little love around. Here are some people we cats are feeling crabby about.

Journalists who hold on to important information for their books — Disgusting. Woodward & Bernstein reported in real time, but Woodward & Costa kept details back so they could climb the New York Times bestseller list. Maggie Haberman is the most recent and offensive example. The good news: She's feeling the heat.

"Truckers" who make Canadians and Americans lose paychecks and jobs — The protests in Ottawa have closed the Rideau Centre mall and countless downtown businesses for two weeks now. Which means that retail workers have missed pay (or "paycheques," in Canadian parlance). Do the truckers care? Nope. Now, auto manufacturers have had to shut down due to lack of parts. The good news: Canadians are repelled, and may never vote Conservative again.

Journalists who screamed bloody murder over Hillary's emails but not Benedict Donald's destruction of documents — Our paper copy of The New York Times this morning did not, shall we say, have a banner headline about Trump eating Top Secret documents and flushing them down the toilet. Why not? The good news: More fodder for the January 6 committee and everyone else investigating Trump.

Canadians who support the truckers but haven't a clue — The Ontario Provincial Police is visiting the homes of people who have sympathized with insurrectionists on the Face Thing to make sure they understand what rights they have in a peaceful protest, and — most important — what they don't. Here's a video of one such visit. Hilariously, the Ontarian in this clip cites the Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms, which she apparently doesn't know the current Prime Minister's father, Pierre Trudeau, made happen. The good news: Hypocrisy exposed.

Finally, we're rolling into Stupid Bowl weekend, folks. Which means those of us who don't care about football have to dodge all the hype. But because of that, we're happy to graciously give the Puppy Bowl some plugs. Be sure to watch (there are kittens, too). We cats PURR.

If You Know The Story Behind This Image, You've Been Laughing All Afternoon

And if you don't know, click here. We cats PURR.

"They Are Not The Story Of This Pandemic"

 

Good speech to the House of Commons by PMJT last night. Not that this is the most important point of the day, but if we can't have his pandemic beard back, we'll take the longer hair. We cats PURR.

(P.S. We pulled this off YouTube, because Canada's Cable Public Affairs Channel only had the full hour of Question Period available, which would have driven you nuts. So we have no control over the "Trudeau comes out of hiding" label, which was affixed by the right-wing organization that uploaded the video. Ironically, this speech is one of Trudeau's best, so the joke's on them. We cats PURR again.)

Illuminating.

By Zamboni

The occupation of Ottawa continues, although there's some small progress: A judge has issued an injunction against horn-blaring (a win for the birds, the elderly, babies, and pretty much everybody else), and the Ottawa police have started dismantling the Trumpy truckers' makeshift fuel-supply operation.

But many questions remain about why the Ottawa cops' response has been so anemic compared with the actions of police in places like Toronto, Quebec City, and Nova Scotia. Now, it's been explained:

"The MAIN job of the cops is maintaining the social order...It’s straight, white, able-bodied cis men at the top, and everyone else — women, queer folks, Asians, Black people, disabled folks, and First Nations — below. Truckers aren’t trying to CHANGE the social order, they’re trying to preserve it.

"For the last 100 years, the monopoly that straight white men have held on power — social, political, and economic — has been slowly eroding as everyone else has fought for equal footing. And a lot of men hate this. What we’re seeing now is the backlash from those angry men...This is why the trucker movement, ostensibly about vaccines and restrictions, is targeting women, minorities, and queer folk. Straight white men are using the tools that groups in power have always used when that power is threatened: fear, intimidation, and violence. 

"This is partly why so many of the truckers hold such visceral hate for Trudeau — with his carefully stage-managed image as a feminist, many of these men see him as a traitor to their efforts of regaining their social status.

"And this is why the Ottawa police respond so differently to the truckers, laughing and joking with them, bringing them coffee and taking selfies. They know these angry men aren’t a threat to the social order, they’re fighting to restore it. We’re asking the cops to do their job, but the horrible truth is that they ARE doing it. We’re just not ready to be honest with ourselves about what that job actually is."

 

(IMAGE: Counter-protesters and their amusing signs. The two on the left make us cats PURR.)

Tide, Turned?

By Baxter

Canadians who have been driven mad by the "Freedom Convoy" horn-blaring at all hours have finally figured it out. At least, this guy has.

And if this doesn't work, there's the Quebec City police crackdown and the Indigenous counter-protesters in Vancouver who have shown the Ottawa police how it's done.

We can't believe that the antics of the truckers and sentiments like "Pray that Justin Trudeau gets terminal cancer" will appeal to suburban voters across Ontario and Quebec — or, indeed, in all of Canada. Which probably is why select members of the Conservative caucus are frantically attempting to distance themselves now. We cats think that the Liberals and PMJT have handled this perfectly so far, and we PURR.

The True North, Strong And — Starting To Get Really Upset

By Sniffles

Population-wise — although not land-wise, obviously — Nunavut is the smallest and most remote of Canadian provinces. But their Senator may have just had an outsized effect on the Canadian Conservative Party.

Nunavut Senator Dennis Patterson, a longtime Tory, just quit the party's Senate caucus over the Conservatives' support of the Trumpy truckers, who have wreaked havoc in Ottawa for a week now.

"This is the Conservative Party, which has been known as the party of law and order," Patterson said, "and I’m very upset with the lawlessness and the desecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the hateful, repugnant symbols (like the Nazi swastikas) being used and I’m disappointed that this has not been called out." He went on to decry the Trumpy elements of the party that have backed the lawless truckers.

"This is no longer a caucus I want to belong to," he declared. "I do not support this approach, and I hope it will change."

Interesting that this breakaway occurred on the same day that Mike Pence stood against Benedict Donald for the first time since — well, since ever. Are the continent's traditional conservatives starting to realize how outrageous and fringe-y their parties have become? Not many, for sure — but cracks are starting to show. We cats PURR.

The "Fun" They Didn't Expect

By Hubie and Bertie

It's amazing how Republicans root against America when Democrats are in charge. This brilliant tweet was vomited out of Sean Spicer's keyboard yesterday, and you know the old saying: It hasn't aged well.

What's been "fun" has been watching FOX "News" and FOX "Business News" and other right wingers gape, gasp, and then try to grapple with what actually happened this morning: 467,000 jobs added in January, plus significant upward revisions to November's and December's numbers. All in all, Team Biden has added 7 million jobs to the economy in 12 months. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Maybe it's time for cable TV talking heads to stop glooming and dooming about everything in order to goose up conflict and anxiety and raise their dismal ratings. Maybe it's time for them to leave their cozy studios and go out and speak with voters who aren't upper-middle-aged white males sitting in diners. Maybe it's also time for them to stop treating the Republican Party like an entity that's interested in promoting democracy. Because they aren't. We cats HISS.

"Legitimate Political Discourse"

 

We cats have lived so many lives, we remember when the GOP styled itself as the party of "law and order." Now, Republicans are just a bunch of clowns and autocrat-wannabes. Which makes us HISS.

Trumpy Tories

By Miss Kubelik

We cats realize that we haven't written about American politics in some time now. Mostly because what's going on up in Canada is beyond wild. But make no mistake: It's also about as American as apple pie. That is, if you equate Americanism with Trumpism.

It's not just that the so-called "Freedom Convoy" in Ottawa (and maybe in Toronto and Quebec City this weekend) is Trumpy to its core. It is, says Omer Aziz of The Globe & Mail, "an attempt to alter government policy by force — while masquerading as a rally for freedom. More dangerously, it [is] a movement insidiously co-opted by white nationalists and their far-right allies." As if that weren't bad enough, check out what's going on in the Conservative Party.

Yesterday, they dumped their hapless leader, Erin O'Toole, after only 17 months (and a defeat by Justin Trudeau's Liberals last fall). This is on the heels of ousting Andrew Scheer in 2020. Now, the party is fractured over the Trumpy truckers and trying to figure out what's next. In the meantime, their interim leader is a Crazy Town MP from Manitoba named Candice Bergen. Yep — but the only thing she has in common with America's Candice Bergen is the name. This Candice Bergen has posed in a "Make America Great Again" hat. Need we say more?

Back in 2015, the Tories ran a wildly stupid attack ad against Justin Trudeau. "He's just not ready," they claimed. Hm! It's 2022, and PMJT — the dude who wasn't ready — has now seen the back of three Conservative Party leaders. Seems like it's the Tories who haven't been ready — or in sync with Canadians — for a long time. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Michael de Adder, cartoonist extraordinaire)

Well Played, Ottawa

People in Canada's capital haven't been able to sleep much since the horn-blaring Trumpy truckers arrived. So we're hoping this might work. Even if it doesn't, it's plucky and clever, eh? We cats PURR.

Just Watch Him?

By Zamboni

A crazy fringe group in Canada disturbs the peace, threatening (and in some cases, committing) violence. Daily life is upended. Things get so bad that Prime Minister Trudeau invokes the War Measures Act for the first time in peacetime.

Fooled you! The year was 1970, the PM was Pierre, not Justin, and the fringe idiots at the time were the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ). They kidnapped two government officials (and murdered one), blew up mailboxes, and basically wreaked havoc until Trudeau clamped down with what amounted to martial law. It was a bold move on his part — but since Trudeau was a social liberal and civil libertarian, kind of an Only Nixon Could Go to China thing. Asked what else he was capable of, Trudeau replied with a dare: "Just watch me."

Now, in 2022, the question is: Will Justin Trudeau follow in his father's footsteps? The possibility has dawned on us.

Today's Trumpy truckers — who fly Nazi and Confederate flags, attack the homeless, terrorize their fellow Canadians, and call for the hanging of the current Trudeau (sound familiar?) — actually have beefs with the provinces, not the federal government. COVID restrictions have been imposed — and lifted, and reimposed — by provincial premiers. But since the truckers have been blockading and trashing the national capital for the last five days now, sterner measures in Ottawa might be called for. Especially because city government seems overwhelmed, and the repugnant Premier of Ontario, where Ottawa is located, is AWOL.

(Coincidentally, right-wing Premier Jason Kenney is facing a similar dilemma in Alberta, with Trumpy truckers blockading the port of entry to the US at Coutts-Sweet Grass, on the border with Montana. Which could devastate Alberta's economy. Is this was "freedom" is all about?)

When PMJT gets over his COVID, he could have some serious decisions to make. The occupation of downtown Ottawa, a place we're quite fond of, is upsetting, and nightmarish for its residents. But its echoes of January 6 are even worse. It has to end. Prime Minister, in the kind of-sort of words of your dad, we cats are watching.

(UPDATE, February 14: Today, PMJT invoked the Emergencies Act, which was passed by the Conservative Mulroney government in 1988 to replace the War Measures Act. You learn something new every day!)